HThe Braeswood Declaration: A Call for the Abolition of War

by

Ed O’Rourke

Hopefully all environmental groups will join the peace movement. If humankind is to save itself from global warming and environmental degradation, many habits will have to change. Since the armed forces consume plenty of resources even when people are not getting killed, war is a habit that humankind will have to throw overboard.

Remember the old Pogo cartoon, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Some people like me feel the frustration of specific war protesting. In the 1960s, there was a movie, If This Is Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. If this is 1967, we must be protesting the Vietnam War. If this is 2007, we must be protesting the war in Iraq. It is time to abolish all war before war abolishes us. This is not just a feeling among hippies, Quakers and left wing college professors. Douglas MacArthur and other famous warriors have called for the abolition of war. See these excerpts from General MacArthur’s 1951 speech to the US Congress:
“I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.”….
"Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence, an improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh."

On February 11, 2007, the Braeswood Democrats, an activist group in Houston, passed a resolution (the Braeswood Declaration) calling for the abolition of war saying that the road to peace can begin by:

1) starting a world wide anti-poverty program,
2) taxing international arms sales,
3) beginning a moratorium on weapons research,
4) reducing the bloated US military budget by 50%,
5) training our armed forces for disaster relief,
6) establishing a cabinet level Department of Peace,
7) reducing nuclear weapons to zero or nearly zero, and,
8) negotiating for all the world’s nuclear weapons to go off hair trigger alert.

Note that there is no mention of unilateral disarmament by Douglas MacArthur or the Braeswood Democrats resolution. There is a call for leadership from our government and our society. What is needed is courage not to let hardliners veto any progress. Thanks to Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, humankind eliminated an entire class of missiles. Serious efforts will take cooperation and transparency. In Ronald Reagan’s terms, “Trust but verify.”

Some are concerned that when news of the Braeswood Declaration hits the newspapers that the Braeswood Democrats may be labeled as extremists. This is possible. Any white American who wanted civic rights for all Americans was an extremist in Southern society and many parts of the country until the 1960s. Politicians like Dennis Kucinich and Jesse Jackson who take a position before it is popular are rare. The Solidarity Movement was not a fringe movement but pundits considered their efforts to be utopian. There was virtually no one who predicted that the Soviet Union would end the way it did. Sometimes in life, you have to stand up for what you believe and not just follow the crowd. After a while, the crowd will be following you.

Sixty-two countries signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, which called for the renunciation of war. The Pact had no goals or means of getting there. It is important that groups or organizations endorsing the renunciation of war ask for specific steps.

The more likely path will be that different groups will add ideas to the Braeswood Declaration and take out others. Many groups and those seeking electoral office may wish to seen as non-extremist and call for a demilitarization of American policy rather than the abolition of war. The Braeswood Democrats are looking to refine the resolution. For example, a continuation of the weapons research moratorium is contingent upon enough other countries (mainly China and Russia) joining in. The moratorium would feature a type of welfare payment to defense contractors to keep them around if the moratorium does not endure. A worldwide anti-poverty program is contingent of on more oversight and better results than current foreign aid programs. There are other terms and conditions would expand the sparse statement. The Green Party will certainly have its own terms to offer.

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has not had a peace dividend. Some of our soldiers’ families are on food stamps. Something is wrong. The United States spends as much as the defense budget as the next 25 countries in line. Who are we afraid of?

Hopefully the national discussion will revolve around this and other important issues and not the superficial coverage of the glitter, polls and contributions of the presidential campaign. Hopefully environmental groups will be unafraid to take a wider scope.

Give peace a chance.

The Village News/Southwest News, a neighborhood newspaper in Houston ran the original version of this article.

Ed O’Rourke is an environmental accountant in Houston, Texas.
eorourke@pdq.net
713-664-4343