Do you believe:
· Building stable, peaceful, productive nations
takes generations?
· Warring generally reverses peaceful nation building?
·
· Or a civilian national service corps more closely
aligned with what this administration seems to define as military service “to
serve in the defining struggle of our time”?
State of
“One of the
first steps we can take together is to add to the ranks of our military so that
the American Armed Forces are ready for all the challenges ahead. Tonight I ask the Congress to authorize an increase in the
size of our active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in the next 5 years. A second task we can take on together is to design and
establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a
corps would function much like our military reserve. It
would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with
critical skills to serve on missions abroad when
In past years, the
President’s administration often talked of “nation building.” Even a cursory worldview makes many question whether we are building or destroying nations.
To many, the
President’s Civilian Reserve Corps does not sound like nation builders. It sounds more like, perhaps, a government
financed Black Hawk Security Program.
Peoples Lobby’s cost-effective, citizen-initiated American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional
Proposals builds a volunteer civilian corps that nation builds and enhances
world stability. www.WorldServiceCorps.us
Bush also said:
“This war is more
than a clash of arms it is a decisive ideological struggle, and the security of
our Nation is in the balance. To prevail, we must
remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred, and drove 19 men to get onto
airplanes and come to kill us. What every terrorist
fears most is human freedom societies where men and women make their own
choices, answer to their own conscience, and live by their hopes instead of
their resentments. Free people are not drawn to
violent and malignant ideologies and most will choose a better way when they
are given a chance. So we advance our own security
interests by helping moderates, reformers, and brave voices for democracy. The great question of our day is whether
In short, the
President was saying that 21st century warfare and competition revolves
around winning hearts and minds to support the ideals of democracy rather than
myopic ideologies.
The American World
Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals recognize that winning hearts and
minds and nation building does not happen via Six Year Wars. Open societies and peaceful, productive
nations are built over generations via increasing
literacy, health, understanding, small and micro businesses, etc.
Introducing,
passing, and implementing the AWSC Congressional Proposals will inspire a million
volunteer American nurses, teachers, appropriate technology workers, small
businessmen, etc., to immerse themselves into winning hearts and minds that
will create stable nations and a more peaceful and productive world.
It may have helped the world more if instead of
reading Albert Camus’ The Stranger, the President would have read Four
Star Marine General Anthony Zinni’s The Battle for Peace.
The Stranger may have been searching for order and
meaning in the world. The General was
doing the same, as he searched for world stability that would make life safer
for his troops. Zinni, a supporter (http://worldservicecorps.us/zinni%20to%20aucone%2011-06.htm)
of the American World Service Corps, stated why we need this peaceful,
productive, volunteer AWSC:
“The military may bring emergency capacities at scales
and speeds that NGOs can’t begin to approach; the NGOs bring a depth of understanding
of the needs, requirements, and capacities for long-term recovery that we don’t
have.
“The NGOs complain that the military, with its
monolithic and structured perspective, misses the subtleties of humanitarian
aid and its aftermath. In their view, we set up
systems that are not transferable, and we make the people we’re trying to help
too dependent on the aid we provide. The NGOs have a
different approach. They start with humanitarian aid:
you have to save lives at risk. But then you have to
move to what they call “sustainment” as quickly as possible.
The idea is to leave behind systems that the people themselves can
operate. “Don’t give them fish;’ the saying goes,
“Teach them •how to fish.’ ”
If you believe the American
World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals are a smarter way to build
world stability contact your Congressional reps and ask them to introduce, cosponsor,
and implement. To connect to your rep,
call 866-220-0044.
Also at Indy Bay
News http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/01/24/18351229.php
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