On April 17, as late filers trailed in to the Post Office to send the IRS their tax returns, Peaceworks volunteers were out distributing thousands of leaflets and talking with fellow citizens about our national priorities. Below is the text of the leaflet we've distributed.

Where Do YOU Want Your Taxes Spent?

Unfortunately, most of us never get asked this question, let alone get to answer it.

Powerful corporations, on the other hand, speak loudly, and Congress listens. Since the year 2000, arms merchants and military contractors have contributed nearly $63 million to federal election campaigns, and, during this same period, have spent more than $500 million on lobbying.+ Is it any wonder that their voice is heard, loud and clear?

Perhaps it’s time for all of us to demand an end to the best government money can buy and insist that our elected officials serve us, the voting citizenry, not powerful special interests.

Consider: What Are Your Priorities?

Our nation is made more secure when we invest in its people. When we provide quality educational opportunities, healthcare and a clean environment for all, we are stronger, smarter and happier.

Since its inception, the Iraq War has cost Missouri taxpayers approximately $7 billion. Huge numbers like this are often meaningless, until we put them in context. For this same amount we could provide for one year all of the following*:

** 1,011,796 Missouri homes provided with electricity from 100 percent clean, renewable sources,

** 431,365 Missourians provided with 100 percent of their healthcare expenses,

** 137 Missouri communities provided with brand new elementary schools,

** 24,744 additional Missouri elementary school teacher salaries provided,

** 116,514 full scholarships provided for Missouri students to attend our state’s public universities,

** 85,211 Missouri youngsters provided with Head Start AND

** 14,569 salaries provided for additional Missouri public safety officers.

If we abandon imperial ambitions, we will free up trillions of dollars in the decades ahead to address our real problems. If we adopt a fair, progressive tax system, we can have the resources to fund our common needs without piling up massive debt.

We are a rich nation, and there is no reason we cannot have a decent quality of life for all our citizens and a clean, sustainable environment. We need to rethink our assumptions and engage in the democratic process. The future is determined by those who show up. Be a citizen, not a couch potato. You owe it to your grandkids.


Had Enough?

Iraq War & Bloated Military Budget are Bleeding Our Pocketbooks.

Not only are wars of aggression and militarism wrong; not only are they deadly and destructive; they are also very expensive.
For Fiscal Year 2006, U.S. military spending totaled an enormous $558 billion. While our nation has only four and one half percent of the world’s people, we are spending fully 48 percent of all the world’s military expenditures. What’s wrong with this picture?

This is not about defending our nation. The Pentagon has troops based in more than 130 nations. There are 737 U.S. bases around the world with more than half a million personnel, not counting those in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our taxes are going to geopolitical dominance, not our national security.

The costs of this bloated military spending, if apportioned equally among all Americans, would average $7,455 for every family of four.

Our NATO allies, by comparison have a combined population of 573 million, nearly twice that of the United States, but spend in aggregate less than half as much on their militaries as we do. On a per person basis, these affluent countries are spending only one-quarter of what we Americans do. The result is that our economy is weakened and made less competitive. Others make productive investments, while we squander economic resources, as well as precious lives.

Paying for the Iraq War

The cost of the Iraq War through the end of this fiscal year is expected to top $458 billion. And this is the tip of the iceberg. Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has estimated that the overall costs of the war will significantly top two trillion dollars.

Not only are we sacrificing the lives our young men and women, who’ve been sent to fight an unjustifiable and unwinnable war, but we’re also leaving our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt that will take decades to pay off.

It’s high time we, the citizens of this nation, insist that our government—Congress and the White House—end the Iraq War now and enact a budget that will redirect funds to ensuring real security for our people and the protection of our environment.

Rather than using our military to control oil supplies in the Persian Gulf, we should be using our ingenuity to achieve energy independence and a sustainable, clean future through energy efficiency and renewable sources, like wind and solar power.

+ See Center for Responsive Politics

* These examples taken from a report by the National Priorities Project.



BACKGROUND: For more than a year our government has been quietly moving toward an attack on Iran. Voices in the know have sounded a warning, but this has gone largely unattended to. We're talking about credible people, including award-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, who first exposed the My Lai massacre and also broke the news on torture at Abu Ghraib. Just like they did nearly five years ago, when they attempted to justify launching a war of aggression on Iraq, the U.S government is focusing on the supposed threat of weapons of mass destruction.

The hypocrisy here is rank. Of course, Iran has no nuclear weapons, while the U.S. and several of our major allies, including regional powerhouse Israel, do. Moreover, our nation is the only country to ever use nuclear weapons in war, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Further, the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that the U.S. signed and ratified close to forty years ago, commits the U.S. and all nuclear weapons states to eliminate our arsenals, while it provides assurances that non-nuclear weapons states have the right to develop and utilize fuel cycle technology, including uranium enrichment, provided they agree to inspections. So, the U.S., which has absolutely no intention of ever living up to its NPT obligation by eliminating its vast arsenal of n-weapons, is vilifying Iran for doing something it is actually permitted to do under the NPT.

Our government has been alleged by several credible sources, to be funding, arming and training armed groups--Kurds and other ethnic minorities--to destabilize Iran. These sources also maintain that U.S. covert ops forces are already on the ground in Iran. Meanwhile, the Bushies are making allegations regarding Iran's role in Iraq, which, even if they were all true, which is highly dubious, pale in comparison to the scope and scale of the U.S.'s illegal invasion/occupation/virtual economic annexation of Iraq. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

It really appears that they are looking for some provocation to justify launching an attack. And the Pentagon has moved at least two naval carrier groups into the Persian Gulf, so they are ready to devastate Iran from the skies, if the order comes.

While many of us hoped that a new Congress would put the brakes on Bush's push for a wider war, this, unfortunately, has not been the case. As the Democratic-majority House debated the war funding resolution, Speaker Nancy Pelosi removed a provision that would have required Bush to come to Congress for approval before attacking Iran. The Dems have, it appears, in addition to fully funding the ongoing Iraq War, have given the administration a blank check to go to war with Iran.

The consequences of this course of action would be disastrous. If the U.S. bombs Iran's nuclear facilities, there will be massive "collateral damage." Moreover, the Iranians are unlikely to let the U.S. bomb their nation without responding. The resulting war could lead to a far greater bloodbath in Iraq, where Iran has influential allies. to the blocking of oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf, and possibly to a regional war that would bring in other powers. The Bushies have miscalculated before, but this is a mistake waiting to happen that would make their attack on Iraq look like a stroke of brilliance.

WE MUST STOP THIS: While many of us are dead-set against an attack on Iran, our government either doesn't seem to recognize this, or doesn't seem to care. And after the massive groundswell of public opposition to an attack on Iraq four years ago failed to stop Bush and Co., many are dispirited and think nothing we do will make an difference anyway, so why bother.

This is exactly what they want us to feel. And we can't afford to let our past frustrations stop us from taking action now. While there is no guarantee that our actions will succeed, if those in power think they can launch another war of aggression and pay no political price, they almost surely will.

SPECIFIC STEPS:

** Make your voice heard through writing letters to the editor and calling your Congressional delegation. You can find links to letters columns of Missouri daily papers at www.mosafeenergy.org/papers and find contact info for elected officials at www.mosafeenergy.org/officials

** Join in visible demonstrations. We strongly urge you to come out any Wednesday for any time between 4:15-5:45 p.m. to the Rush Hour Peace Demonstration at B'way & Providence. We also support the weekly peace vigil at the Columbia Post Office each Saturday, 10-11 a.m. and Women in Black each Tuesday, noon-1 p.m. at MU's Speakers' Circle.

** Urge others to join in speaking out. Talk this up at your house of worship, at you workplace or school, with your family and/or neighbors, etc. Urge all to be as outspoken as possible on this matter. This is no time to be shy or to hesitate.

** Become better informed. There are lots of excellent resources on the Iran situation. On the web check out:

United for Peace & Justice Iran resources

Council for a Livable World Iran resources

Hands off Iran

Seymour Hersh's most recent article on Iran

Important Hersh article from April 2006

Also, check out Scott Ritter's new book: "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change"

SOME ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE ISSUE:

Nuclear Power: The technology for nuclear power is inexorably linked to nuclear weapons. If the U.S. and its allies continue to promote and proliferate nuclear power for civilian purposes, we will continue to spread the know-how and wherewithal for developing nuclear weapons. The Bush regime has implicitly acknowledged this by refusing to allow Iran to develop enrichment technology for civilian purposes as is allowed under the NPT.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty should be amended so that it no longer encourages the development of civilian n-power. Only by giving up nuclear power ourselves, and stopping the marketing of nuclear technology, can we make any attempt to develop nuclear weapons capacity unambiguous. Moreover, as n-power it more expensive than getting needed energy by investing in efficiency and renewables, we will be better off all around if we eschew this dangerous, dirty and weapons-connected technology.

Ahmadinejad: Iran's president is in many ways a horrible reactionary, and arguably an anti-Semite and holocaust denier. This is unfortunate, but it is no reason to start a war. It is important to understand that under Iran's system the president is more of a figurehead than an actual ruler. Much of the real power is in the hands of the mullahs. Moreover, there are many countries around the world whose rulers are bigots or people with strange and unfortunate ideas. This, again, is not a legitimate ground for making war on a nation and taking the lives of tens of thousands of innocent people.

IN SUMMARY:

The time for action to prevent a war with Iran is now. Unlike the 1991 Gulf War or the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, what is contemplated for Iran is not a ground invasion, but an aerial assault. There is not the need, therefore, to build up a large force on the ground. The forces needed for an air attack are already in place. It could come at any time, so please don't put off making your voice heard.


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