Posted on 08/13/2004 3:25:03 PM PDT by DumpsterDiver
With this nation embroiled in what threatens to be an interminable "War on Terrorism," an idea put forward last year by Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich has considerable appeal. Kucinich, who was the one candidate in the Democratic primaries to unfailingly promote the party's traditional Franklin Roosevelt liberalism, proposed the establishment of a Department of Peace.
Now he has introduced in the House HR 2459, a bill that would establish a Peace Department, adding a new Cabinet post to the executive branch of government. The Department of Peace would "advise the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State on all matters relating to national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention of, amelioration of, and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict."
The secretary of peace would serve as a delegate to the National Security Council and also would "provide training of all United States personnel who administer post-conflict reconstruction and demobilization in war-torn societies." In other words, the Department of Peace, with a trained and dedicated staff, would be a constant, working counterpoint to the Defense Department and its expenditure of billions of dollars to perfect the weapons of war.
The department would act not only in an international context, but also in those areas of domestic policy that endanger the nation's well-being: the proliferation of automatic weapons and the violence in our schools, our homes and in our streets, where the intolerant prey on those whose lifestyles they find offensive. It might well come up with some new strategies for turning around our losing war on drugs, and it might also lobby Congress to put an end to the cruel and unusual punishment of small-time drug offenders called "mandatory sentencing." It would also advise the attorney general on matters of civil rights and labor law. But its primary importance, it seems to me, would be in international affairs, demonstrating to the rest of the world, to borrow the old motto of the Strategic Air Command, that "peace is our profession."
Now, to some, this is going to sound terribly naive, given the current state of things and the very real, hard-edged dangers that face us. But the naivete just might lie on the other side -- on the side of those who believe that military force and our policy of pre-emption are alone sufficient to make us safe. The fact is that there is nothing in this proposal that would weaken our military posture or our ability to strike terrorists and their havens and to do whatever is necessary for the defense of the United States.
But wouldn't it be an advantage to have a peer of the secretaries of defense and state whose primary responsibility it was to develop the methods and means of peaceful conflict resolution and to offer peaceful alternatives in the councils of war? Wouldn't it have been an advantage in the run-up to the Iraq War to have had a Cabinet officer whose department was responsible for training U.S. personnel in human rights, conflict resolution, reconstruction and the detailed planning necessary to restoring a durable peace; in short, to do what was so disastrously absent when our forces rolled into Baghdad?
Kucinich's bill is more elaborate and specific than I can spell out here. Right now it is a long way from realization, with only a few dozen congressional sponsors. It needs a lot more to move another step along the legislative process.
Actually, there is an urgency to its adoption. In this dangerous world, where the strength of the United States is needed to keep the peace, we need a visible manifestation of our intention to play that role, without the arrogance that cost us friends and allies among the nations and peoples of the world.
But no matter how far off it might be, it is an idea that deserves our attention. We can hope that Kucinich and those who are pioneers in supporting his bill stay the course and redouble their efforts.
Walter Cronkite's column appears every Friday on the Insight page. His e-mail address is mail@cronkitecolumn.com
That's strange, I thought most folks went to Amsterdam for the Cheech and Chong treatment. ;-)
I don't see "Kill terrorists before they kill you" on that poster.
Ditto. I've forgotten the Barf Alert tag before. This thread qualifies.
Memo to Chronicstupe, there already is this "wonderful" organization which constantly preaches appeasement, making it the de facto "Peace Department." It is called the "US Department of State!"
Ole Wally is a perfect example of why the university of Texas at Austin is overrated....in more than just sports.
Thank God that school is not an indicator of our state.
Did I hear someone say "meditate?" Cool, I love to meditate. From my FR Homepage: "Of note, I frequently meditate on the Republican Party Platform of 1900. This platform included balanced fair trade, a strong national defense, strong national sovereignty, responsible currency management, and a generally pro USA and pro Western Civlization stance. It is the essence of a rare time in our history where we were financially, geopolitically, and spiritually ascendent all at the same time. I think that we still don't fully comprehend the great harm done by Czolgolz' bullets. I urge all here to meditate on these things, and to consider how to move the GOP from a receding, reactive, increasingly liberal stance, to a stance of taking initiative and becoming the leader in both political and geopolitical development of the USA and Western Civilization. Some will label me a throw back to primitive ways, but as I see it, my ways are reflective of the true future and of the primacy of the greatest civilization ever to grace God's green Earth."
It would quickly grow to control the entire government, at which point we'd be about where we are now.
I am all for this department....we should also give the department around 100 nuclear warheads...a carrier battlegroup and a few wings from our airforce.....we can also put the Marine corp under the departments control and lets promote peace all over the middle east.
We have State Department already, that's enough, perhaps too much as a matter of fact. We don't need another agency full of bureaucrats sucking at the public teat and doing absolutely nothing for the country.
Stick a sock in it Wally.
I rethought the thought that peace is the interregnum. Peace is anomalous. In sports speak, the halftime.
War is the natural human condition and those who think differently are either gone or will be.
What Walter really wants to say is that the UN should rule us.
A waste of human skin.
2. Cry, (almost)
Once upon a time I respected this guy. But that was about four decades ago. Now he seems to be mentally trying to live up to his name, Krankheit. (Denke[?] ich, mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut jetzt...)
On the other hand, I might go along in a small way if we both rename and refocus the euphemistic "Defense Dept." back to its original, the "War Dept."
Can you feel the love?
"I thought most folks went to Amsterdam for the Cheech and Chong treatment."
Some go for the "window treatment."
Wally is a dork. I too prefer War Department rather than the wussified Department of Defense (though DoD has a tiny bit of an ominous sound).
Cronkhite is the Ellis Island version of Krankheit, or ... sickness in German. Well, the only thing to say is that a "Peace Department" WOULD bolster this nation's image, as a pathetic, head in the sand, ass in the air, politically correct giant version of Canada or New Zealand. Boy, would that scare away the terrorists.
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