21 years after 9/11 attacks, it’s time to ‘flip the script’ on militarism in America – Columbia Missourian

People in this country desperately need to flip the script on faux-patriotic militarism, ratcheted up all the more following the horrible 9/11 crimes committed 21 years ago. We must promote peace and diplomacy while protecting truth-tellers like Julian Assange, deemed as enemies by the U.S. empire and its war profiteers if we wish for democracy, and perhaps, humanity itself, to survive.

The U.S. was understandably traumatized in the September 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The contemptible crimes gave us a brief glimpse and opportunity to empathize with the suffering experienced by millions victimized by wars elsewhere.

The administration proceeded to provide yet more mega-reasons for anger abroad. The U.S. launched horrific wars of choice upon Afghanistan and Iraq, killing or injuring perhaps a million people, with millions more made refugees due to ensuing regional instability and the expansion of terrorist groups, which continues to this day.

Officials, including current Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, seem to be banking on the public already forgetting about those recent U.S. interventions. In trying to justify why taxpayers would be providing yet another $2 billion more in military aid to Ukraine, Austin said of his meeting with other Western allies, Were here because we refuse to live in a world where big powers trample borders by force. Unless apparently, that power happens to be the United States.

Our group condemns, without qualification, Russias invasion of Ukraine. The same with all U.S. interventions and those by other nations. We must cease the waging of all war, the killing of people from any country. Russian soldiers, most of them conscripted, are as much a part of our human family, as are all Ukrainians or Iraqis.

Congress has already approved more than $53 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russias Feb. 24 invasion, reports Chris Hedges. Pitifully, there were no Democrats in Congress, and just a few Libertarian-leaning Republicans, who voted against the $40 billion plus on authorization in May.

The U.S. spends more on our military, $813 billion for fiscal year 2023, than the next nine countries, including China and Russia, combined.

War-waging seems to be the go-to foreign policy action for our nation. Consider this: the U.S. has about 750 military bases in at least 80 countries, according to the Quincy Institute. Thats three times the number of overseas bases held by all other militaries combined, the Institute states.

U.S. military bases outnumber, nearly by threefold, our nations embassies, consulates and missions worldwide, which are theoretically at least, sites for diplomacy and respectful international relations. Its perhaps not surprising that U.K. and U.S. governments played decisive roles in torpedoing Ukrainian and Russian peace talks, brokered by Turkey a few weeks after the invasion, according to an article last week in the Scheerpost.

Austin and other U.S. officials have refrained in the past few months from speaking about peace negotiations and instead advocated for supporting the Ukrainian war as a means to weaken Russia. While no justification, there are reasons why Russia invaded, including the expansion of NATO possibly extending to Ukraine, as award-winning British journalist John Pilger noted in a recent talk.

The war against Russia, with the U.S. continuing to amp up military support, is creating a dangerous potential confrontation between the two nations possessing 95% of worlds nuclear weapons.

For democracy to survive, we must have accurate information, especially about war, which can be embarrassing to the government. Russia, the U.S. and other nations strive to keep such matters secret. Thats why WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange, currently being held in Great Britain, is facing up to 175 years in prison.

Perhaps the best known of WikiLeaks public releases, provided by Chelsea Manning, then an army soldier, was the Collateral Murder video, documenting the U.S. killing of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. To learn more, including details on how to contact the White House, the Justice Department and/or your congresspeople urging the U.S. government to drop charges and end efforts to extradite, please check out https://assangedefense.org/.

Please advocate for peace. All are also welcome to attend a candlelight vigil of remembrance for peace at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 11 in Peace Park on the north side of the MU campus.

Jeff Stack is coordinator of the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation and can be reached at 573-449-4585.

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21 years after 9/11 attacks, it's time to 'flip the script' on militarism in America - Columbia Missourian