Doing Without Killing:
The Peace Party is not advocating "just standing idly by". This is another War Party myth.
There is a pattern here. Any plan that doesn't involve killing people, looks to you like "doing nothing". I can't recall an instance, where you have advocated any non-violent solution to any problem. The only times you don't want to kill Them to solve problems, is if They unilaterally disarm and unconditionally surrender. Which isn't a realistic scenario. What really happens, if we continue following the Control Freaks and their AllWarAllTheTime Plan, is the Others get the tools of mass killing, and start doing it back to us (and I mean Hiroshima-scale, not WTC-scale).
Doing Without Killing:
Stopping the spread of nuclear weapons:
1. Respect every nation's sovereignty, so they don't have a need for nukes.
2. Don't sell them the materials and technology (duh, but nobody does this obvious method).
3. Don't arm their enemies. U.S. complicity in arming Israel with nukes and the means to deliver them, is a big reason why the surrounding States want nukes.
4. A strict No First Use policy by all nuclear powers.
5. Embargoes, sanctions, blockades, to punish proliferators.
6. gradual disarmament by nuclear powers, turning control of their nukes over to the (reformed) UN, with universal intrusive inspections to verify compliance.
7. a global Marshall Plan, as a carrot for compliance. $150B/Y (what we're now spending to turn Iraq into "flypaper for terrorists"), to eradicate malnutrition, preventable disease, and illeracy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Israeli-Arab peace:
1. Israel builds a Wall on the 1967 border. If defense from suicide bombers (rather than further colonization) is the reason for the Wall, this shorter and more defensible Wall is better.
2. Israel withdraws from all the tiny indefensible settlements, all the settlements built between and inside Arab populations, holding on to just the few large settlements (which contain most of the total settler population) adjacent to the 1967 borders. This conforms with the Taba and Geneva plans.
3. The Palestinians create whatever State they want, with whatever government they want, on the land that today has a majority Arab population. Neither Israel nor the U.S. get to dictate what form of government, or what leaders, the Palestinians have.
4. The Palestinians give up the Right of Return, and the 1.2M of them in Israel now, can move to the Palestinian State if they want to (or be moved, if they show disloyalty to Israel).
5. The Palestinian State can now negotiate as an equal with the Jewish State. The U.S. will be a truly fair and neutral referee, brokering a peace treaty, and many other issues, such as sharing scarce water resources.
6. Once peace treaties are signed with all neighbors, then Israel's security can be guaranteed, in the only permanent way possible, by becoming the 51st State in the U.S. This is the carrot Israel gets at the end of all the compromises and land-giving: permanent guarantee by the U.S. military, of the Jewish State. By themselves, 5 million Jews in Israel can never be secure. They need a Patron, they need to be part of a larger unit, to survive. But they'll never get that security, if they try to hold on to Ariel.
7. To conform to the U.S. Constitution, the State of Israel would have to make some changes: separation of Church and State, guarantees of minority rights, no religious tests for government subsidies, ending control of family law by the Jewish Orthodox fundamentalists.
Restructure U.S. military and guidelines for Use of Force:
1. Increase total full-time military to 2 million (force level of 1975-1991)
2. Retrain our military, to fight the kind of war we are fighting, not to re-fight WW2. That means: less Artillery, Air Force, Heavy Armor; more light infantry, Special Forces, Intel (from people, not satellites). Every soldier capable of being an infantry combat soldier, every unit trained for Civil Affairs.
3. Measure success in this war, not by the ground we hold, or the body count, but by our success in convincing the civilian population on the battleground, not to support the Islamist militants.
4. Powell Doctrine: military action should be used only as a last resort and only if there is a clear risk to national security by the intended target; the force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy; there must be strong support for the campaign by the general public; and there must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged.
5. Renounce the doctrine of Preventive War. Return to containment, deterrence, and self-defense. Use our military only to: defend U.S. territory, honor mutual defense treaties with other liberal democracies, keep the Global Commons (oceans and air, ships and planes) safe. Humanitarian military interventions only with UN approval, as part of a broad coalition, and only as a last resort for universally condemned atrocities.
6. Strict Reciprocity, and Intermittent Forgiveness:
Message 18639444
Blueprint for Victory:
Message 18801778
Additions/Changes:
13. Reform the UN, rather than dissing it. The UN should have an organization in place, ready to do Nation Building wherever needed. The US can't do it; we aren't very good at it; we are seen as acting Imperially when we try. This will require a thorough reform of the UN, putting it under the effective control of the nations that pay the bills (that means the rich world, the functioning nations).
17. The U.S. needs to renounce first use of nuclear weapons, under any circumstances. Our current doctrine of First Strike, and our development of specialized small "useable" nukes, creates a huge incentive for every other nation on earth to get Equalizers. We should give a few Trident submarines to form a UN Deterrence Fleet. The use of this fleet, would be under the joint command of nuclear-capable nations that have renounced first use of nuclear weapons. The weapons would be used (and only used), to retaliate against any nation that used nuclear weapons for any reason. It should be structured so the US has effective veto on their use. Gradually, weapons controlled by nation-states would be decreased, put under more and more oversight and safeguards, and eventually eliminated.
18. We need to use non-violent methods, to enforce a minimum standard of civilized behavior, on every government on earth. If we are going to give up war except in self-defense, we need some other effective enforcement method. "Minimum Standard" is things like: respect other nation's sovereignty; don't gas your minorities; don't overgraze or pollute the Commons. Just the basics. Most nations have some crucial raw material they have to import. Or some export on which their entire economy depends. The reason embargoes and sanctions have usually failed in the past, is a lack of discipline and patience. Too many cheaters. We need to create treaties with the other major economies of the world, agreeing to all take specific steps, to punish specific misdeeds. |
