AMERICA PROGRAMMED FOR WAR

[political_invader]

What Every American Should Know
by Brian Bogart

Sept 25,2005

09/01/05 -- For instruction in times of confusion, it is often best to look at the beginning. There is no more instructive a place for today's condition than the start of the Cold War. This story contains within it the cause and solution: the weakest point in United States foreign policy, and a legal basis for the strongest push toward a peaceful change of priorities by the most dedicated people in America -- you.

"In the counsels of Government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."



-- President Dwight Eisenhower, upon leaving office; January 1961



1) The Long War: From NSC-68 to 2005
As University of Oregon's first graduate student in the transdisciplinary field of Peace Studies, it is my responsibility to explore the role of the military in society and those conditions that most promote peace and human welfare. Unfortunately, this task puts me in direct conflict with school administrators, including President Dave Frohnmayer, whose signature appears on my Bachelor's degree.



There is nothing personal about this conflict, and President Frohnmayer has done nothing out of the ordinary. Like the presidents of more than 350 other universities that help develop weapons for the Department of Defense (DoD), he is simply leading my school into an evermore intimate partnership with America's military industrial complex.


Rest of article at :

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=51&ItemID=8819

[buzzsaw_23]

1. Hope more will read this

too true.

nominated

[progressoid]

2. Thanks!!

This will be a good read for tomorrow morning.

[Gregorian]

3. Because that's where the money is.

Let me say something that cuts to the heart of this. The other day I asked someone why they thought my neighbor was cutting down the forest on his property. She said, probably to make his mortgage payments. Well, I thought, maybe he shouldn't own a house. Now I know military plays a role, in some people's minds, in our society's safety. But maybe people should get jobs that aren't used as the ingredients of death.

Maybe if we subsidized education like we do petroleum, college presidents could focus on more productive things.

I'll also say this- my father and I ran an electronics company in Silicon Valley. We tore up every single order that came from a military contractor. And we still made a lot of money.

This culture of gasoline and guns must stop.

[bear425]

4. This is a must read. Thanks for posting it. n/t

[paineinthearse]

5. Brian Bogart requests your assistance with new website (ref to DU post)

by email

All friends and members of IntelligentFuture and the CampU.S. Campaign, please go to this link and support the post by adding a comment within the first day or so to give it a "top-nomination" status.

Thanks and good luck to all of us. We are a force for peace, and we have just begun to strike.

Courage and unity!

Brian Bogart

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4886844

How will we ever learn peace while making war in our schools?
strikeforpeace.org!

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p.s. I'm at a loss to understand how some posts get greatest noms and others by same author / same topic get completely ignored!!! Maybe because it is posted in the fast-moving GEN forum?

Sheesh, it's like hurding cats.

:shrug:

[Uncle Joe]

6. My favorite qoute of Ike's was when he warned us agianst

stupid Texas Oilmen.