Armageddon En Route to Making the World Safe for Democracy

What do Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and the Vietnam War have in common? At one time, the United States funded them all to make the world safe for Democracy. Osama bin Laden got help resisting the Soviets in Afghanistan. Saddam Hussein benefited from America's upset with Iran. We all know the rationale for the Vietnam War. The Bush administration's eagerness for war against Iraq feeds a vicious cycle making the world less safe with escalating consequences.

America's so called defense budget represents 30% of global military spending. The $400 billion dollars America plans to spend in 2003 equals the combined military spending of the Russia, China, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Italy, India, South Korea, Brazil, Israel, Spain, Australia, and Canada. The Bush administration's 2003 budget allocates more than 50% of discretionary government spending to the military even without considering the cost of war in Iraq.

America's use of military force seems better correlated to the loss of personal freedoms and the emergence of terrorism than progress in making the world safe for Democracy. The responsibility for this growing debacle lies not with President Bush as the Commander-In-Chief or with Vice-President Cheney as supposed mastermind. President Bush could accomplish nothing without the acquiescence of the American people. The citizens of America can't escape accountability for iniquity carried out in their name.

The Bush administration will increasingly foreclose on Constitutional freedoms and the Internet in the name of security, because they fear only the collective voice of the people. It takes some courage to overcome the Bush administration's transparent use of fear to suppress opposition, but there exist a growing number of opportunities (http://www.internationalanswer.org) for citizen action. The complacency of mainstream media does not leave us without alternative sources of information (http://www.commondreams.org).

Uneven wealth makes Democracy unsafe in the world, and, in fact, in America now as it has from the beginning of time. The survival-of-the-fittest model transferring wealth upward as espoused by President Bush makes the world less safe not more. The suffering associated with increasing wealth differentials means ever expanding security costs. The polar opposite strategy of pursuing universal wealth seems much more likely to make the world safe. The promise of economic gain won the Cold War not spending on the arms race.

Making the world safe for Democracy means eliminating poverty not threatening Iraq with the death and mayhem of 3000 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Peace will remain elusive as long as we accept the suffering of others as the price of American Democracy. Global unrest mirrors discontent in American well before September 11, 2001. Americans fear each other. Self-interest not altruism offers sufficient motivation for America to spend $400 billion dollars on peace making starting with efforts to achieve universal prosperity at home.

War in Iraq represents the continuation of a strategy leading to Armageddon not Democracy. Understand silence means endorsement. Join the movement toward peace and help save the world.

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Daniel Berninger
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