The only reaction that I received from the last post was via a
Facebook response from a friend of a friend - remarking that we cannot talk about the 9/11 attacks - or sabotage- or false flag operation - as that is too polarizing an issue.
So let us look for a moment at the results of the 9-11 attacks.
Let us simply look at the financial result. The United States accounts for one half of the world's military spending.
Since 9/11 the US military budget has increased at the rate of 10% a year.
The US military spending has doubled since 9/11. This rise has not only been for war related costs but for expansion of the Defense Department.
See graph here.
The new budget includes even grater increases.
When discussing the Federal Budget, many include both Social Security and Medicare in the total federal pie, as seen in the link above.
However, Social Security and Medicare are both funded independently, from their own particular taxes. Those funds do not come from general tax revenue.
A more honest portrayal of the Federal Budget, one which shows the military spending as a percentage of the federal budget is shown here.
In order to move the political discussion forward, peacemakers would be well advised to educate the populace on the percentage of the their tax dollars which are being absorbed by the military.
This is the money that would otherwise be available to be spent on infrastructure, education, research, and all other federal programs which are not war related.
We must take time to engage in thoughtful and peaceful engagement with those Americans who are angry and frightened.
It would help if we were informed and mindful of the facts at hand.
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2 comments:
I attended a peace protest at Congressman Perriello's office recently. Several peace activists told his secretary that they would "work against him" in the next election if he voted for the 33 billion in appropriations for the military that was coming up in Congress. Unfortunately, that kind of threat rings hollow. His opponent would only be less susceptible by influence from peace activists. There's no point in working against him.
The difficulty in trying to raise consciousness any other way is that the big media outlets are controlled from remote distances by the war machine. You can't air this kind of protest in a way that reaches people outside the far left. This particular protest in the congressman's office was simply mocked by the local media in an unrelated article about the tea party. The actual protest wasn't covered at all.
Rosemary
Thank you for this enlightening post! I passed the link along.
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