Peace activists shouldn’t get caught up in any debates about what weapons and weapon systems are “obsolete.”
I find it ironic Trump likes to bash Obama for weakening the U.S. military but Trump continues to implement Obama’s (and Bush’s, and Clinton’s and Bush’s and Reagan’s and Carter’s and Ford’s and Nixon’s and Johnson’s, and Kennedy’s and Eisenhower’s and Truman’s) military build up... all at the expense of world peace and financing human needs.
I don’t think it helps to get involved in arguments concerning what weapons/weapon systems are “obsolete.”
We need to focus on ending militarism and wars along with demanding a sane foreign policy based on getting along with the rest of the world.
We should be pushing for a huge “Peace Dividend” as the way to properly and adequately finance health care, housing, infrastructure and public education, etc.
Capitalism in its “advanced” barbaric stage of imperialism is what is “obsolete” especially given the consequences of nuclear war/nuclear winter.
Marx pointed out long ago that when a Nation uses its wealth to finance militarism and wars that Nation might just as well take the wealth and dump it into the deepest depths of the oceans for all the good it does.
Talking about which weapons systems are obsolete is a trap.
Our concern as socialists should be with mobilizing the people against militarism and wars not trying to determine what weapons are obsolete.
Every single weapon in the arsenal of the imperialists is a weapon that is not needed.
Capitalism is the system of the warmongers who profit from militarism and wars while saddling the people with the horrible costs of militarism and wars.
Socialism is a system of peace, social and economic justice. Socialism requires an end to militarism and wars.
Capitalism breeds wars.
Socialism flourishes with peace.
Just compare the foreign policy objectives and goals of the United States and China to understand this. Jimmy Carter understands the problem; why don’t the rest of the politicians?
Read for yourself what Jimmy Carter has to say:
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/15/713495558/president-trump-called-former-president-jimmy-carter-to-talk-about-china
All of this China bashing has now turned into Trump’s provocations that could very likely lead to nuclear war as he sends out three aircraft carrier strike groups as Trump continues with Obama’s plan to build ten more thirty-billion dollar plus aircraft carriers to try to dominate the world and bring an end to China’s peaceful progress.
Joe Biden is also bashing China.
More than ever, we need a huge anti-imperialist peace movement determined to find a new foreign policy which will enable us to live in peace and cooperation with the rest of the world while reordering the priorities of our country away from militarism and wars and towards meeting the needs of the people.
From the socialist Karl Marx to the liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith... there is unanimous agreement among economists that you can’t have “guns and butter.” Any economists saying otherwise are nothing but frauds and scam artists- apologists for the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction.
Bob Herbert who worked as a columnist for the New York Times finally got it right (and when he did they canned his ass):
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html
The issue of war and peace will be decided in the streets of this country when the American people finally decide once and for all to shut down this horrible and terribly costly war machine.
We obviously can’t rely on the politicians in this country to promote peace because they are being bribed by the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction who profit from militarism and wars.
Long ago, as World War II was ending and the United States government began developing a thoroughly reactionary foreign policy in relation to the Soviet Union, the emerging new socialist China and those peoples struggling to free themselves from colonialism and imperialism, far-sighted thinkers and politicians like the progressive Henry Wallace and his liberal friend Democratic Senator Claude Pepper formulated an alternative agenda with the thinking that if the United States government would focus on creating a better life for our own people it would not have the will, nor the capacity, to wage wars and meddle and intervene in the affairs of other countries... thus, the United States would become a voice for peace and mutual cooperation with the rest of the world.
This was good advice back then and such thinking is what we need in this country now more than ever before.
It is with this in mind that I have joined with others in bringing forward this very minimal and basic set of four urgently required demands intended to help working class families through this capitalist economic collapse exacerbated by this coronavirus pandemic:
Members of the Socialist Connection Action Network (Socialist C.A.N.) propose an emergency action agenda for all people’s unity around these very minimal and basic demands; we seek to work with all individuals and organizations to attain these goals:
1. A Basic Income Guarantee of $2000.00 a month for every adult over 18 and $200.00 for each child in the family.
2. A $650.00 increase for everyone receiving Social Security.
3. Cancel ALL student debt.
4. Increase the Federal Minimum Wage to $16.00.
The money can come from a hefty tax on the rich and a Peace Dividend along with a tax on all Wall Street transactions.
We intend to launch a campaign involving petitioning and letter writing to get this movement underway and to put pressure on Congress and the President to enact this as legislation.
We need your help.
Please share, copy, post and distribute.
Contact:
Alan Maki
512-517-2708
red_finn@live.com
For twelve years Democrats and Republicans have been using the financial resources and levers of government to assist and bailout Wall Street from this mess we as working people have had no voice in, nor part in creating.
Now it’s time to bailout working class families.
We are not asking for a handout; we create the wealth.