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Newsletters
The Journey of 1000 miles begins with...
By Andrew Heaslet
4/24/2008
One of the most compelling presentations that I witnessed while attending the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space conference in mid-April came from Baltazar Pinguel, a Filipino who was granted political asylum in the US in the early 1990’s.
While the theme of the panel was generally focused on US military bases abroad, Mr. Pinguel was fired up and ready to speak about the Iraq war and the legacy of US militarism and imperialism.
As Filipinos were fighting for their independence from Spain in the late 1800’s, the US supported their revolution and then promptly swept in to control the Island nation as a colonial buffer in the Pacific. The island residents were not willing to settle for being ruled by a new colonial power and what ensued was a US war and occupation of a nation we had no business in. Sound familiar? Pingeul thought so.
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Economic conversion would boost the St. Louis region
St Louis Post-Dispatch
By Andrew Heaslet
04/20/2008
Two of Boeing Co.'s most high-profile contract bids recently were turned down — first, the contract for the newest fleet of Air Force tankers was given to a team headed by Northrop Grumman Corp. and the European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. [Note this was published on 4/20/08. Even with the re-opening of bidding on the Tanker contract, the Peace Economy Project still feels that Boeing's defense production is vulnerable as illustrated in the rest of this article]
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King, 40, and 41, Years Later
My sister and niece were talking with a friend the other day and the friend asked my niece what she would want if she could have three wishes. The first two answers were common 9-year-old responses, but the third was unexpected:
“I wish that Dr Martin Luther King was still alive.”
My sister was a bit taken aback by this response and her daughter noticed the look on her face and said, “I don’t know if you know this mom, Dr King did a lot of great things, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
My sister, still surprised, was tickled when her friend responded, “Yes, honey, Dr King was a terrific man, but who’s to say that you can’t pick up where he left off?”
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An Open Door?
Boeing and Economic Conversion in St Louis
The door to economic conversion in St Louis creaked open a bit in February 2008. Two of Boeing’s most high-profile contract bids were turned down -- the now four-year-long fight for the newest fleet of Air Force tankers was given to a team of Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), and Boeing’s work on the “Virtual Fence” along the Mexican border, riddled with software problems, was pushed back at least three years. These announcements also follow the recent scaling back of work on the F-15, C-17 and the Delta IV rocket. More...
Going Bankrupt
Why the Debt Crisis Is Now the Greatest Threat to the American Republic
By Chalmers Johnson
Originally published online at www.tomdispatch.com - reprinted with permission.
The military adventurers of the Bush administration have much in common with the corporate leaders of the defunct energy company Enron. Both groups of men thought that they were the "smartest guys in the room," the title of Alex Gibney's prize-winning film on what went wrong at Enron. The neoconservatives in the White House and the Pentagon outsmarted themselves. They failed even to address the problem of how to finance their schemes of imperialist wars and global domination.
As a result, going into 2008, the United States finds itself in the anomalous position of being unable to pay for its own elevated living standards or its wasteful, overly large military establishment. Its government no longer even attempts to reduce the ruinous expenses of maintaining huge standing armies, replacing the equipment that seven years of wars have destroyed or worn out, or preparing for a war in outer space against unknown adversaries. Instead, the Bush administration puts off these costs for future generations to pay -- or repudiate. This utter fiscal irresponsibility has been disguised through many manipulative financial schemes (such as causing poorer countries to lend us unprecedented sums of money), but the time of reckoning is fast approaching.
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An Attack on Iran?
by Andrew Wimmer
In an interview on March 3, Stephen Kinzer, author of All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, was asked by Amy Goodman about the likelihood of an attack on Iran by the United States. “The fact that the possibility is fading a little bit off the public agenda…increases the danger, because there doesn’t seem to be any public outcry or any outcry in Congress.” He said that precisely because the National Intelligence Estimate released in December was making it more difficult for the United States to rally European support for stringent sanctions against Iran, the possibility of a military attack was, ironically, increased. Others watching the situation closely share his concern. In late February Phyllis Bennis and her colleagues at the Institute for Policy Studies issued a new report, “Iran in the Crosshairs: How to Prevent Washington’s Next War.” Among the actions they urge is that citizens continue to pressure Congress to pass legislation cutting off all spending for military force against Iran. Kinzer and the IPS both worry that there are forces within the administration that are determined to “take care of Iran” before leaving office in January 2009.
The reality is that if an aerial assault against Iran were ordered this afternoon, the United States military already has “the tools to get the job done.” What are those tools? The Massive Ordnance Penetrator and the B2 Stealth Bomber. And the state of Missouri plays a crucial role in both.
Boeing has developed a new 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator or MOP in St. Louis. The bomb has been tested in New Mexico and will soon be delivered to the Pentagon for use. The intended target are Iran’s supposed underground bunkers.
Included in the last supplemental military appropriations bill was nearly $88 million to retrofit the fleet of B-2 Stealth Bombers housed at Whiteman Air Force Base near Kansas City to enable them to carry and drop the MOPs.
We should all ask our two Missouri senators, Kit Bond and Claire McCaskill, these direct questions:
WILL YOU PUBLICLY TAKE AN UNPROVOKED MILITARY STRIKE AGAINST IRAN OFF THE TABLE?
AND WILL YOU FURTHER PUT A HOLD ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF THE NEW MOP ON B2 BOMBERS BY WITHHOLDING FUNDING FOR THESE PROJECTS?
Threatening unprovoked war violates universal principles of human rights that have formed the foundation of international law since World War II. See, e.g., United Nations Charter art. 2, §4, Oct. 24, 1945. According to the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression is “the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”
As Missouri citizens we denounce the preparations that are being made in our name and announce a new campaign of citizen direct action to undermine the pillars that provide support and cover for this most outrageous crime against world peace.
Here's to a Peaceful 2008
January, to me, is highlighted by three celebrations: the New Year, the story of the magi, and Dr Martin Luther King Jr. day. These three events represent hope, gifts, and dedication to justice.
The New Year is a time for reflection and hopeful dreaming of better days to come and resolving to make changes as individuals to see that this hope becomes a reality. I am hoping that this year we see and end to aggressive violence throughout the world, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan – not forgetting Israel/Palestine, Colombia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Kenya, US city streets, schools and shopping centers and the countless other places where, unfortunately, fear and violence have become the norm. I also hope that, as a nation, we might realize how violence and militarism permeate our society and seek to shift away from such mantras and move towards a more peaceful future.
The story of the magi, of course, comes from the Christian tradition. I don’t consider myself to be especially religious, but I can embrace what stories from all different faiths represent. The most basic breakdown of the story of the magi presents the idea of sharing gifts, based on faith. In my life, I find myself confused on what religious faith journey I should take, but I know I can have faith in Peace and Justice and in the potential for humanity to achieve these great things. Reflecting on the gifts of the magi, I ponder how my gifts might support and praise Peace and Justice.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr, assassinated 40 years ago this year, remains the face of Peace and Justice throughout the United States. This year, we, in St Louis, will be seeking to revive Dr King’s messages of Peace and Social justice in addition to the long-standing tradition of remembering his dream of racial equality. www.Reclaimthedream.org addresses some of the themes we are hoping to address as we gather before the MLK day parade on Jan. 21st.
In Dr King’s 1967 “Beyond Vietnam” speech, he spoke directly to the message of The Peace Economy Project; “When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” He also notes, that “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” These powerful words must not be lost among mattress and car sales on the day designed to remember The Dream(s) of this great man.
Before we know it, we will have stopped scratching out “2007’s” and replacing them with “2008’s” in our checkbooks and life will have returned the hustle and bustle of daily living. But, for now, as we dwell on our resolutions-to-be for 2008, let us reflect on how we all can use our individual gifts to make our hope for Peace and Justice a reality in 2008 and beyond.
Here’s to a Peaceful 2008!
Andy Heaslet
PEP Coordinator
Complex 2030, An Investment in Disaster
August 5, 2007
by Andy Heaslet
This is an adaptation of an address given at the August 5 Hiroshima memorial event sponsored by the St Louis chapter of WILPF. Thanks to Amanda Jokerst for her editing help.
I want to speak appropriately. You who have gathered here have taken the time to come together to remember the death wrought upon hundreds of thousands of people in the flash of an eye, to reflect upon the following decades plagued by the atrocities associated with radiation. This is a somber affair, and, unfortunately, the threat of another nuclear weapon being developed looms dangerously close to us.
Complex 2030, the proposed nuclear revitalization plan, is being discussed in congress and I can’t help but wonder who else is remembering? Who else is reflecting? Have we forgotten our past? As a people, as a county? And if so, how can we rediscover our, at times, shameful history in order to set a new trajectory for who we are and where we are going as a nation?
The Complex 2030 plan is what the National Nuclear Security Administration describes as an “infrastructure planning scenario for a nuclear weapons complex able to meet the threats of the 21st century." Frida Berrigan, an esteemed arms and security researcher describes Complex 2030, in much darker tones, as “a costly, illegal, and dangerous program aimed at rebuilding the 50-year-old nuclear facilities where the weapons are both assembled and disassembled.”
The plan ambiguously claims to centralize our nuclear weapons development infrastructure but makes no plans to close any of the 8 currently open facilities across the country. Its proposed budget of $155 billion dollars between now and the year 2030 is $20 billion less than it the estimated maintenance cost of the current facilities. But defense contracts and spending are consistently under-budgeted and I, personally, find it hard to fathom how creating and expanding this nuclear infrastructure could be less costly than maintaining what currently exists.
The key component to the Complex 2030 plans are Reliable Replacement Warheads which would be a part of what one National Security senior advisor describes as “a new more diverse arsenal of smaller weapons,” which “would lend more credibility to the nuclear portion of deterrence.”
“Nuclear Deterrence.” Does that give anyone else the hee-bee-gee-bees? On one hand, it is completely hypocritical – like hitting a child for getting in a fight at school. It simply sends the wrong message. One the other hand what it quietly says is that if you use one bomb, we’ll use two – or more. It’s really quite revolting. If you want to horrify yourself, you need only think about the use of nuclear weapons and the domino effect sure to follow. uhheehehhhhh. The willies!
We’ll leave Complex 2030 at that. I just wanted to draw your attention to what is happening on Capitol Hill. So, in summary: Complex 2030. Vial, bad, wasteful, potentially illegal (based on non-proliferation treaties), and dangerous because it exposes the hypocrisy of our nuclear policies. A sure indicator that the past isn’t always informing the present and, if passed, a clear sign to the rest of the world about our priorities and character as a nation. Look into it; call a congressperson to make sure they know how you feel about it.
Shifting focus a bit, let us ask ourselves: “Who are we?” As a country? How have we come to feel that we need “Nuclear Deterrence?”
There are three elements that describe an individual, a family, a community, or even a country: the physical self, their possessions, and their way of life. These characteristics are certainly worth protecting, but they also need to be invested in. What has happened, though, is that we are now investing more in the name of defense and protection than we do in the development of all of these elements combined!
As a result of this misguided investment, the growth and development of that which should be nurtured and maintained has suffered. We have pipes exploding in New York, levees breaking in New Orleans, bridges falling in Minnesota –the nation’s infrastructure is undeniably crumbling. Not to mention suffering schools, perpetual poverty, and broken healthcare system. Truly vital priorities are lagging while “defense” contractors real in dollars! At this rate of investment, our great armaments will have little left to protect or defend.
But perhaps what is more disturbing is that we have allowed this so-called “defense” of our way of life to define America as a whole. Two of the St Louis region’s largest employers are the Scott Air Force Base and the Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Unit. National news is inundated with war reports. Politicians are spending more time in Iraq than in New Orleans. And we spend half of our federal discretionary spending dollars on the current war and planning for future ones!
What does this say about us as a nation? We have become a country that lives off of preparing for and engaging in war! And in doing so, we have neglected ourselves. Even now, almost 20 years after our main nuclear rival collapsed and ended the cold war, we are spending “one-third more than the Cold War average on nuclear weapons, in inflation-adjusted, constant dollars.” What’s happening to us? Where are we going with this?
As I ask and dwell on these questions, I crease my eyebrows, and I sit in silence. And I feel it. Can you? Can you hear it? It’s there. It’s certainly there. A rumbling. A rumbling of dissatisfaction. A rumbling of dissent. A rumbling of great desire for something better!
We are truly blessed in this country. Great centers of education, volumes of capital, strong communities, passionate people, creativity, art, access to communication and transportation, a base of physical infrastructure and countless other terrific things. But amidst these blessings, we have needless poverty, not-so-natural natural disasters, senseless wars and killings, threats of global warming, unimpeded spending on and development of new unnecessary weapons, and general decay of existing infrastructure systems.
What’s most frustrating is that all these negatives have a resolvable human element to them. We have all these blessing – all these resources to support and improve ourselves and our country and our world. And all we have to do is put these resources to work in the right direction. It’s right there! We may not be able to change the course of the past, but we must recognize that things can most certainly be better than they are. A better world is attainable! The resources we have at our disposable paired with our disregard for clear and present development needs form the roots of the rumbling. Rumble rumble, rumble rumble.
I hope you feel this rumbling. And I hope you do something with it. Nuclear weapons should be the first things to go to make room for countless improvements our nation needs. And so when we ask ourselves “Who are we?” We can be proud of the answer. We are a people who learned and grew from the past. We are a people who invested in our neighbors and ourselves. And we are a peaceful people.
FALL 2007
The Following Pieces Appeared in the Peace Economy News
published in November 2007
The Peace Community
by Andy Heaslet
Mary Beth Sullivan and Frida Berrigan stood together at the podium in Tegeler Hall on October 13 and were smiling at one another and the crowd of roughly 100 who had gathered to hear them speak on “Defining Security: Peace, Justice, and the Economy.” If you are reading this, there is a good chance that you’ve been to a presentation like this one, one where very intelligent and lettered individuals explain in clear detail that our government is squandering our tax money on weapons programs that do little to nothing to defend our nation and provide significantly less jobs and benefits to local communities than would a plethora of other spending programs. But why were these women smiling? Because they had been made aware of the peace COMMUNITY that exists here in St Louis. They told the audience that the first step anyone can take to make a difference regarding this governmental waste is to join together in community; to talk with friends and neighbors about these difficult and sometimes divisive topics; and to simply share themselves with others. Within a month of their presentation, PEP would be organizing, endorsing, and actively participating in 5 separate community events – more than one a week. And that is why Mary Beth and Frida were smiling.
Community comes in a variety of forms; When I lived in Paraguay, Community was often found around a traditional tea called Mate – a drink shared in one cup, with one special straw among all members of all groups of all sizes. In the US, perhaps a potluck is more common. Schools and churches are bastions of Community building. And, of course, there’s the great American neighborhood – perhaps the most famous example of a physical community and, perhaps, one of the least communal examples of Community around.
We spend much of our time in the Peace movement discussing all the negatives that surround us – and there are certainly a lot of them. But there is much we can do to live out our vision of Peace and share it. By living simply, supporting local producers and businesses, and by creating and participating in various forms of community, we can all bring Peace a little closer to home.
So I challenge you to, within the next week, participate in you local community: talk to a neighbor, organize a potluck, cook brownies for the newest resident on the block, sit and share a cup of coffee or tea. And, within the next month, join in an action or activity within the local Peace Community.
To adapt Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant”: If one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and not pay attention. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re just a couple of crazy old birds and not pay attention either. And if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people getting’ out and participating in and creating Community. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day getting’ out there and participating in and creating Community. And friends, they may thinks it's a movement.
A Peace Economy must be nestled in a peaceful Community. Let’s create that Community. And, hopefully, the economy will follow.
Mr Heaslet is the Coordinator for the Peace Economy Project
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