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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:black;font-weight:bold'>Excellent, Ed. Thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:black;font-weight:bold'>Kris<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> Ed O'Rourke
[mailto:eorourke@pdq.net] <br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Thursday, December 29, 2011
11:17 AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> discuss@paa-tx.org<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> [PAA-Discuss] Occupy the
Pentagon</span></font><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Occupy
the Pentagon <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Yes magazine is looking to serve a think
tank for the Occupy Wall Street movement. See many articles here:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'><a
href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/occupywallstreet">http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/occupywallstreet</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Many other institutions deserve
occupying. Untouched to this moment is the self-serving defense
establishment. When the <st1:place w:st="on">Soviet Union</st1:place> fell, the
defense establishment invented a new villain, Saddam Hussein. When he invaded <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region>, the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> cheered him on. When he
invaded <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kuwait</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
he became evil overnight. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Humans must end war or war will end us
and all life on our planet. This is not just an idea from hippies and
Quakers. See this plea from General Douglas MacArthur when he spoke to
the US Congress on April 19, 1951:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>“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... <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>"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." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Since the Pentagon is a welfare state for
defense contractors, I propose the following actions to protect national
security from the only threat that counts, global warming:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>1) reduce the bloated <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> military
budget by 90%, <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>2) tax
international arms sales,<br>
3) begin a moratorium on weapons research,<br>
4) start a world-wide anti-poverty program,<br>
5) train our armed forces for disaster relief,<br>
6) establishing a cabinet level Department of Peace,<br>
7) reduce nuclear weapons to zero, and,<br>
8) negotiate to take all the world’s nuclear weapons off hair trigger
alert. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Note that each proposal can become a
bumper sticker. I invite progressives to copy the excellent communication
skills demonstrated by right-wingers, who have done well with simple slogans.
People can instantly understand what right-wingers want. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Environmentalists as a group have been
indifferent to military spending. I hope they wake up for two reasons: 1)
a nuclear war will end our civilization in an afternoon and 2) the resources
devoted to the military means crumbs off the table for everything else.
We all want cleaner energy and reverse global warming but all this achieves
little as long as the military goes full speed ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Progressives must recognize the awesome
sales job made by government propaganda that war is necessary and glorious,
like a football game. The war sport is like mountain climbing or deep sea
diving, far more dangerous than everyday life. As in a football game, we
root for our side to win because a defeat would bring catastrophic
consequences. In World War Two, a victory by the Axis Powers would have
brought slavery for all and extermination for many.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>As a teenager (born in 1944), I saw war
as a great adventure. Of course, a fellow could get killed. In the
comic books, movies and documentaries, I did not see burn victims nor injured
soldiers who lost limbs. Dead soldiers looked like they were asleep.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>The best war propaganda ever made was the
1952 NBC series Victory at Sea. The editors reviewed 11,000 miles of
film, prepared a stirring musical score and narrative making 26 episodes
lasting about 26 minutes each. Television reviewers wondered who would
want to watch war documentaries on a Sunday afternoon. By the second
week, they got their answer: just about everybody.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>On YouTube see the finale for the
episode, Beneath the Southern Cross, which described the successful efforts by
the American and Brazilian navies to protect convoys in the <st1:place w:st="on">South
Atlantic</st1:place>. This is the ending narrative:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>And the convoys come through,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Bearing the wealth of the Southern
Hemisphere, <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Refusing to pay one cent for tribute but
willing to spend millions for defense,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>The American republics have swept from
the ocean highways of the <st1:place w:st="on">South Atlantic</st1:place> their
common foe.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Spread wide across the sea<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Guarded by the might of nations that can
fight side by side because they have learned to live side by side.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>The ships stream toward their goal Allied
victory.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'><a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku-uLV7Qups&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku-uLV7Qups&feature=related</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Progressives must offer a peace vision
through songs, poems, short stories, movies and plays. Offer contests
with some prize money and much recognition. My favorite peace vision comes from
the 1967 hit, Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondells:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'><a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXz4gZQSfYQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXz4gZQSfYQ</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>With courage and vision, humans can
follow Isaiah by turning swords into plowshares saving ourselves and life on
our planet.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:Verdana'>Ed O’Rourke<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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