Military Spending – Page 15 – Glen's Parallax Perspectives

Substitute PEACE instead of our militaristic foreign policy

December 4, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The U.S.’s militaristic foreign policy does NOT work. It makes problems worse and causes more problems. It wastes money. The document linked here explains why we should replace our militaristic foreign policy with a commitment to peace, human rights, and other good things. Notes for Substituting Peace Instead of the U.S.’s Militaristic Foreign Policy Near the end of that document I explain the reasons why we should replace the U.S.’s militaristic “National Security” model with a NONVIOLENT model of “TRUE Security.” For a one-page summary distinguishing these two models, see this link: “TRUE Security TABLE” […]

PART 2 of “Choose a Better Worldview to Build a Better World”

November 30, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Our nation and world are in a horrible mess. The December 2018 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” TV series examines how to solve the problems. A person or an entire society has a “worldview” — a way of seeing reality — that strongly directs their behavior and public policy. The worldview that currently dominates the U.S. government and society has caused escalating greed, corruption, cruelty, oppression, war, and other bad things. Instead, we need to replace that worldview with its opposite — a worldview that is humane, compassionate, peaceful, fair to everyone, and environmentally sustainable. An unjust society seeks to […]

New “war game” scenarios show U.S. NOT winning wars against Russia and China. The real solution is to STOP PROMOTING WAR ALTOGETHER!

November 25, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The Pentagon spends a lot of time, effort and money using computer-simulated “war games” (as well as actual physical exercises using airplanes, ships, submarines, etc.). The latest Pentagon scandal is that — after spending vastly more money on the military than any other nation on earth (and more than many potential adversaries combined), the Pentagon says the U.S. would NOT win wars against Russia or China. The Establishment’s solution is to spend EVEN MORE money on the military, even though this strategy has failed. The REAL SOLUTION is to STOP PROMOTING WAR ALTOGETHER. We must work for REAL GLOBAL PEACE. […]

Outreach ideas for hard, scary issues

October 30, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

It is hard to inform and mobilize the public about hard, scary issues such as nuclear weapons, the climate crisis, and Trumpism’s escalating fascism. Typically, we throw facts at people, but people too fearful and powerless to open themselves up psychologically to hear those facts, let alone act upon them. The document I wrote and linked below can help the public empower themselves to work on serious issues, including the hardest and most frightening issues. In order to really engage the public on these hard and frightening issues, we must deliberately strategize how to address the public’s fears, feelings of […]

De-Militarize U.S. Foreign Policy

October 28, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

In 2016 I created a workshop to help people understand the U.S.’s violent foreign policy and see how we might de-militarize it. I created a handout for people to use during the workshop, and so people anywhere at any time can walk themselves through the process. Here is a link so you can do that: De-Militarize U.S. Foreign Policy — WORKSHOP Handout for Participants and Others

Trump provokes NEW NUCLEAR ARMS RACE AND WAR by pulling out of the 1987 INF treaty that Reagan + Gorbachev signed.

October 23, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Since 1987 the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty has reduced tensions between the U.S. and Russia and allowed both nations to reduce the danger of nuclear war. Trump pulled out of the INF treaty, so a NEW NUCLEAR ARMS RACE IS LIKELY — and Trump has INCREASED THE LIKELIHOOD OF NUCLEAR WAR. Both the U.S. and Russia want to build new, destabilizing nuclear weapons that are likely to make it more likely for a nuclear war to begin, either intentionally or by mistake or miscalculation or accident. Here are several good sources of information. We must push Congress hard to […]

U.S. govt’s “best and brightest” keep pushing us into unwinnable wars

September 22, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

For many decades U.S. foreign policy has been bi-partisan, reflecting the needs of U.S. business corporations around the world, and grounded in the myth of “entitlement” and “U.S. Exceptionalism,” the notions that the U.S. is unique in history in being the world’s ultimate savior, and therefore not bound by international law, and not subject to the constraints and realities that have confined other nations that were not the one Beacon of Liberty to save the world. The elite people who have shaped U.S. foreign policy for many decades share those assumptions, even if they have educations from elite universities and […]

Stop the government from wasting $1.7 TRILLION on new nuclear weapons

August 14, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

• Nuclear weapons are horribly expensive. The U.S. government is planning to spend $1.7 TRILLION over the next 30 years to replace all of our nuclear bombs, missiles, submarines, etc., with brand new ones, including some designed to be more “usable.” To pay for them, Congress will want to cut many billions of dollars from useful pro-grams that help people. • On October 31, 2017, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Obama Administration’s 2017 plans for nuclear forces would cost $1.2 trillion (in 2017 dollars) over the 2017–2046 period. Other expert sources have estimated even higher amounts. Trump […]

Democrats fail to satisfy their voters, but Republicans do.

August 9, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Democrats say nice things but almost none of them follow through if elected, so Democrats are not the answer. Republicans are more ignorant and more corrupt, but at least Republicans “deliver” to their “political base.” From that standpoint, Trump has been fantastically effective as a politician. He has vigorously delivered to racists, sexists, oil companies, big business, polluters, and right-wing religious extremists. For many years in the past several decades Democrats had held the Presidency and both houses of Congress. Just imagine if Democrats had acted as boldly as the Republicans are doing now. Just imagine if Democrats had really […]

Stop the Endless Wars. Repeal the 2001 AUMF.

July 27, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

For decades the Cold War allowed our nation’s militarists — and the weapons manufacturing corporations that fund them — to stampede the U.S. media and politicians and public into decades of recklessly wasteful military spending, including several wars and proxy wars and thousands of nuclear weapons. They said that this is Priority #1, so we could not afford bold efforts to end poverty, take care of the environment, or do other crucial work. When the Cold War ended, those same vested interests — our nation’s militarists and the weapons manufacturers — and conservative elements that opposed solving our nation’s social […]

U.S. govt’s official thinking about nuclear weapons: Utterly Bizarre and Bi-Partisan

July 21, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Do you remember “With enough shovels …”? President Reagan’s Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Strategic and Theater Nuclear Forces was T.K. Jones. He believed we could easily survive nuclear war. Here is what he said we should do if a nuclear attack was coming: “Dig a hole, cover it with a couple of doors and then throw three feet of dirt on top…. It’s the dirt that does it … if there are enough shovels to go around, everybody’s going to make it.” This is utterly preposterous on several grounds, including: If you are in the little hole you […]

9 Ways Authoritarianism Is Taking Hold Under Trump

May 31, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

As you know, I read a huge amount of information. Thom Hartmann’s article at the link below consolidates much solid information into CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT information that the American people need to understand. Trump and Trumpism are imposing horrible authoritarianism upon the U.S. This is an extremely serious — actually existential — danger to American freedom and constitutional democracy. Trump’s authoritarianism abuses many aspects of American society. The article below connects many of the issues we care about, including peace, social justice, environment/climate, economics, and so forth. The article ends with a call for nonviolent organizing to rise up against Trump’s […]

Since World War II ended, the U.S. President has gained nearly dictatorial control over foreign policy

May 26, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

It was bad enough when previous presidents were in power. But after 9-11-2001, it has gotten worse. Congress passed the “Authorization to Use Military Force” (AUMF) and keeps supporting it. This is virtually a blank check for a president to make wars or do virtually anything anywhere if it is about “fighting terrorism.” Now Trump makes the AUMF’s implications even worse. The problem is THOROUGHLY BI-PARTISAN. Senators Corker and Kaine have introduced a bill that they say would tend to solve the problem. The article at the link below says their bill would NOT solve the problem. The article also […]

How can we challenge this dominant but destructive economic assumption?

May 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Embedded very deeply in our American culture — and many other nations’ cultures too — is an assumption that is embedded so deeply that nobody recognizes it, let alone challenge it. The assumption is this: It is OK if what I do kills people, so long as I’m making money from what I do. At the surface level — the explicit level — if you were to ask people whether it is moral to kill other people, they would say “no.” But below the surface — at the implicit level — our society tolerates behaviors that knowingly kill people because […]

The U.S. Empire is BI-PARTISAN.

May 2, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

It’s easy to criticize the hawkish foreign policy that Trump and the Republicans are promoting. Their gross cruelty causes some people to overlook the fact that Obama, Bill Clinton, and the Democrats have done similar things when they were in the White House and Congress. A year ago Courage to Resist (www.couragetoresist.org) published in its May 2017 newsletter an article (“Empire War Status” written on April 6, 2017, by Bob Meola, a member of Courage to Resist. The information below includes some of his ideas and some of my own. He wrote: “A lot of people miss Barack Obama because […]