Iuly 16. 2008
Page A4
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O pinio
Running our Nation
into the. Ground
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because
the black
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the affairs o f 50 nations and has
violated the laws o f G od and hu
manity by designing, deploying,
using, and threatening to use atomic-
w eapons.”
Carroll sees it in much the same
light: "The Pentagon is now the
dead center o f an open-ended m ar
tial enterprise that no longer pre
tends to be d efen se... the Penta
gon has, more than ever, becom e a
place to fear.”
"W hat the Bush adm inistration
has done,” Carroll writes, “is to lay
bare the real character o f the ‘disas
trous rise’ o f Pentagon pow er of
which Eisenhow er warned in 1961.
In Iraq, despite A m erica's over
whelm ing military might, there will
be no w inning ever.”
Carrol I ' s words sound more pro
phet ic each time another general
testifies the Pentagon is “making
progress" but the situation remains
“fragile” and so we must stay on
and on.
Tw o years ago Carroll literally
predicted Sen. John M cC ain’s com
m ent about staying in Iraq fo ra 100
y ears i f need be, wri ti ng, "there will
be no winning ever. W hether the
U .S. o c c u p atio n is term in ated
abruptly or is m aintained for years,
violence and m ayhem will define
Iraq indefinitely, w hile the rest of
the M iddle East copes with Iraqi-
spaw ned waves o f chaos.”
M cCain says, if elected, he will
The bloated
military-
industrial
complex
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O ne issue the A merican people
likely are not going to hear about in
this presidential cam paign is argu
ments for slashing a bloated Penta
gon down to size.
No m atter that each passing day
brings some new revelation o f gross
m ism anagem ent, crony ism, waste,
and extra-legal activity, it is a topic-
no candidate for the W hite House
dares to broach lest he or she be
deem ed “naive” or “soft” on the
subject o f defense.
Yet, the m ilitary-industrial com
plex is here and it is running this
nation into the ground, sucking
trillions o f dollars out o f taxpayers’
w allets and, by starving other hu
man services, laying w aste to civil
ian sectors in urgent need o f repair
and regeneration.
W hen the Pentagon was under
c o n s tru c tio n , m em b ers o f the
Roosevelt cabinet questioned the
w isdom o f bringing together under
one roof the num erous m ilitary of-
fices scattered around W ashing-
by
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People all over the World Starving to Death
Globalized
economy is
not helping
trition.
Bringing it closer to home, the
U.S. D epartm ent o f Agriculture es
timates that in 2(X)6,35 million people
in the U.S. lived in food-
insecure households. In
some countries w here the
- problem has reached criti
cal p ro p o rtio n s , rio ts
have occurred as people
W ally R yan K i koiwa
Since the beginning of
2008, there have been d ra
m atic in creases in food
shortages globally. A c
cording to one estim ate, ap p ro x i
m ately one billion people are liv
ing w ith and dying from chronic-
hunger.
In more stark terms, they are
starving to death.
This crisis is just the most recent
m anifestation o f an ongoing crisis,
brought on in great part because of desperately seek food.
These statistics indicate at least
a sharp increase in global food
three
important realities. First, this
prices.
Fred M ag d o ff o f the U n iv er is not a problem that just cam e upon
sity o f V erm ont estim ates that us. It has been with us for a while.
the num ber o f food insecure and Second, it is not a problem that
m alnourished people in the w orld existsexclusi vely in heavily impov
ap proaches 3 billion people, with erished countries. Third, this is not
18,000 ch ild ren dying daily as a a problem caused by the lack of
direct or indirect result o f m alnu- food. The U.S. alone could provide
bv
a
enough food to feed the world.
Certain factors have accelerated
the most recent intensification of
hunger and malnutrition. The re
cent spate o f natural disasters in
food-producing regions of the U.S..
such as the floods in Iowa, has
d rastically reduced production.
O ther factors are a result o f human
decisions, such as the decision to
In the globalized economy, food is
simply treated as another commodity,
like cars, shoes, and other things to
be purchased. No money: no food.
diversity
use corn and oth er g rain s for
biofuels.
M ore fundam entally, how ever,
the lo n g -te rm c risis has been
brought on by the present global
food pro d u ctio n and trad in g sy s
tem.
O ver the past three decad es or
so, co u n tries that d ep en d ed on
su b sisten ce-lev el farm ers to pro-
‘"Print
P a rtic ip a te in D e m o c ra c y V o te
Return your ballot by mail or drop i f o ff at any designated voter
drop site. Call I 866-673 8693 to find a location near you.
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Wally Ryan Kurtnwa is a m in
ister amt learn leader with Justice
and Witness M inistries in the
United Church of Christ.
The hush regime is in Iraq to steal oil,
to swindle taxpayers, and to give lucrative
defense contracts to its friends.
be out o f Iraq by 2013, but as Sen.
Joseph Biden pointed out in a re
cent talk carried on C-Span, McCain
gave no specifics. And so one be
gins to suspect the goal in Iraq is
not necessarily to win a war but to
make w ar again and again, forever
and a day. so the m ilitary-industrial
com plex can prosper while non
d efen se sectors starv e, so that
governm ent contractors can erect
a m onster em bassy in Baghdad and
huge, perm anent m ilitary bases
nearby to dom inate the oil-rich
M iddle East.
Carroll w rites the U.S. under
President Bush has "norm alized"
war: “Not noted by most A m eri
cans, a new archipelago o f U.S.
m ilitary bases stretched across the
M iddle East into the heart o f the
former SovietU nion.. .Suchforward
basing o f forces was designed to
co n tro l, by m ean s o f ‘reg im e
ch an g e’ and ‘prevention.’ em erg
ing political trends around the
globe, with the unabashed goal of
guaranteeing U.S. dom inance ev
e ry w h e re ." (A m e ric a o p era tes
about I .(XX) m ilitary bases at home
and more than 700 overseas.)
“Such a strategy," Carroll goes
on to write, “assum es not only the
possession o f unparalleled military
pow er but the display o f it and the
ready use o f it. U nder G eorge W.
ton. D.C. They feared the im pend
ing consolidation o f aw esom e m ar
tial pow ers into one o f the greatest
structures on earth; they w orried,
too, that the w ar m achine might
take on a life o f its own. Tragically,
their fears have been realized.
Today, the military is a beast
without a heart, without com pas
sion. It will w age w ar anyw here in
the w orld, on any lie or pretext,
sending thousands or m illions to
their deaths. It is devoid of m oral
ity; it has learned nothing from re
ligious teachings except lip-service;
and its civilian em ployees go to
their jobs each day m anufacturing
nuclear w eapons and aircraft carri
ers as though they w ere planting
apple orchards or raising flowers.
As Ja m es C a rro ll w rites in
"H ouse o f W ar." by 1965 nearly 6
million Am ericans were em ployed
in Pentagon-run enterprises. After
all. in the 2()years following World
W ar II. "the Pentagon spent nearly
& 100 billion. It) times the federal
expenditures devoted to all aspects
o f health, education, and welfare in
the same period.”
By 1997. Father Philip Berrigan,
hum anitarian and anti-w ar activist,
could tell the judge who would
shortly sentence him to two years
in prison for spilling blood on a U.S.
warship: "The United States has
spent S14 tri 11 ion on arms si nee 1946.
O ur governm ent has intervened in
Have you seen me?
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d u ce food locally w ere en c o u r
aged and som etim es coerced into
an ex p o rt-b ased ag ricu ltu re. As
a co n seq u en ce, th ese co u n tries
becam e m ore v u ln erab le to the
volatility o f the global food tra d
ing system .
The right to nourishing food
has long been accepted univer
sally as a human right. In contrast,
in the globalized econom y, food is
simply treated as another co m
modity, like cars, shoes, and other
things to be purchased. No money:
no food.
In such an understanding, poor
people are shut out and denied.
As food prices soar, those living
in poverty becom e more and more
vulnerable to hunger.
For people o f faith and good
will, such a system ic problem is
m orally unacceptable. In the
A braham ic faith traditions, soci
ety has an obligation to provide
for the basic needs o f the poor. For
exam ple, farm ers are com m anded
in the M osaic code to leave the
outer boundaries o f their farms
unharvested, so that the poor and
aliens may use that food for their
needs.
In light o f the catastrophic-
n atu re o f the food crisis today,
people o f faith are urged to call
atten tio n to this hum an problem
and to urge m ajo r shifts in the
w ay w e co n sid er food. For m ore
inform ation on this m obilization
and how y o u r faith gro u p can
p a rtic ip a te ,
go
to
w w w .trad ew eek .o rg.
Food is a human right!
continued ' y f on page A9
Endangered Missing
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Tanya Chivas
Joshua Bland
Age: 14
Missing: J u n e 2, 2008
From: Dolton, IE
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Robert Johnson
Age: 15
Age: 14
‘Missing: J u n e 16. 2008 Missing: J u n e 4, 2008
Front: A lex an d ria, VA
From: L akeland, EE
Josh was last seen at his Last seen wearing blue Raheim amt Robert are brothers; they were last seen
jeans and a t-shirt.
home.
at their home.
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Raheim Johnson
Age: 14
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To c o n ta c t 11,1 ^Llnrtlauh
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Call 503-288-0033
or email ads@ porti andob servcr.com
1-8O0-THE-LOST
I f you have any inform ation please contact:
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
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this public service announcement provided by the Portland Observer Newspaper.
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