82 WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS,

82 WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, July 13, 2022

Chris Hedges.   “No Way Out but War.”   May 22, 2022.

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/no-way-out-but-war

Permanent war has cannibalized the country. It has created a social, political, and economic morass. Each new military debacle is another nail in the coffin of Pax Americana.

 I could not copy the graphic “No Guts No Glory” by Mr. Fish

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The United States, as the near unanimous vote to provide nearly $40 billion in aid to Ukraine illustrates, is trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism. No high speed trains. No universal health care. No viable Covid relief program. No respite from 8.3 percent inflation. No infrastructure programs to repair decaying roads and bridges, which require $41.8 billion to fix the 43,586 structurally deficient bridges, on average 68 years old. No forgiveness of $1.7 trillion in student debt. No addressing income inequality. No program to feed the 17 million children who go to bed each night hungry. No rational gun control or curbing of the epidemic of nihilistic violence and mass shootings. No help for the 100,000 Americans who die each year of drug overdoses. No minimum wage of $15 an hour to counter 44 years of wage stagnation. No respite from gas prices that are projected to hit $6 a gallon.

The permanent war economy, implanted since the end of World War II, has destroyed the private economy, bankrupted the nation, and squandered trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. The monopolization of capital by the military has driven the US debt to $30 trillion, $ 6 trillion more than the US GDP of $ 24 trillion. Servicing this debt costs $300 billion a year. We spent more on the military, $ 813 billion for fiscal year 2023, than the next nine countries, including China and Russia, combined.

We are paying a heavy social, political, and economic cost for our militarism.   MORE  https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/no-way-out-but-war

The Quest for Peace in Islamic Tradition by Abbas Aroua, with aforeword by Johan Galtung.  2013.  Publisher’s description:
This contribution from an insider Muslim author provides peace workers with a few resources from Islamic tradition that could be used when addressing a conflict rooted in an Islamic context. It presents briefly a number of basic Islamic concepts that are often misunderstood and misused. It addresses the issues of peace and war, conflict and conflict transformation, the requirements for decent work, the concept of «work of goodness» as well as other issues related to Islam/West relations, the tensions that may arise between Muslims and Westerners and the way to deal with them.  About the Author: Medical and health physicist, Abbas Aroua is adjunct professor at the Lausanne Faculty of Biology and Medicine. He is also the founder in 2002 and director of the Cordoba Foundation of Geneva (CFG) for peace studies. Involved in research, training and mediation the CFG focuses on conflicts in or involving the Muslim world.   https://www.transcend.org/tms/2022/06/please-pitch-in-to-avoid-tms-bankruptcy/comment-page-1/#comment-95915

John Paul Lederach.    Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies.‎ United States Institute of Peace (February 1, 1998).  

A major work from a seminal figure in the field of conflict resolution, Building Peace is John Paul Lederach's definitive statement on peacebuilding. Marrying wisdom, insight, and passion, Lederach explains why we need to move beyond "traditional" diplomacy, which often emphasizes top-level leaders and short-term objectives, toward a holistic approach that stresses the multiplicity of peacemakers, long-term perspectives, and the need to create an infrastructure that empowers resources within a society and maximizes contributions from outside.

Sophisticated yet pragmatic, the volume explores the dynamics of contemporary conflict and presents an integrated framework for peacebuilding in which structure, process, resources, training, and evaluation are coordinated in an attempt to transform the conflict and effect reconciliation.

Building Peace is a substantive reworking and expansion of a work developed for the United Nations University in 1994. In addition, this volume includes a chapter by practitioner John Prendergast that applies Lederach's conceptual framework to ongoing conflicts in the Horn of Africa.

NEEDED: A GLOBAL MOVEMENT FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

Dear Friends,
I have just posted my culture of peace blog for July, entitled :
"NEEDED: A GLOBAL MOVEMENT FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT"
You will find it at https://decade-culture-of-peace.org/blog/?p=1457

In case you have not already received it, this month'sCPNN bulletin is
entitled "TWO THEMES OF PEACE: COLOMBIA AND NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT" You may
find at https://cpnn-world.org/new/?p=27587

If you wish to make a comment on the blog or bulletin, you may write to
me at coordinator@cpnn-world.org and I will put your comment on line. 
Because of the flood of spam, I have discontinued the direct application
of comments.
Thank you for your interest in the culture of peace.
David Adams