Dear John,

How is it that our nation’s dysfunctional government can only seem to arrive at bipartisanship for funding wars and increasing military budgets at the expense of poor and working-class people struggling to make ends meet and pull themselves out of poverty?

The answer is greed.

I call on world leaders, especially those from Western colonial nations, to be conscious of their rhetoric and actions to not add fuel to a violent fire that has been raging for decades. President Biden’s baleful, one-sided comments to the nation and the world on the terrible violence in Palestine and Israel were the direct antithesis of the requisite leadership to engender an immediate cessation of crimes against humanity and a pathway to lasting peace.

After ordering a naval battle group into a region already trapped in a cauldron of war and senseless suffering, President Biden upped the ante by committing the United States and the people’s hard-earned money to another war of attrition. Worse yet, Congress, still without a Speaker of the House, is working to pass a resolution that will send even more military aid to Israel for operations that will result in greater bloodshed. And Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary just confirmed that more of your hard-earned money will be sent to increase military operations in Israel and Ukraine.

The war machine of the deadly duopoly must be stopped, defunded, and deracinated before we find ourselves in a calamitous third world war.

That’s why, as part of my Pillars for Truth, Justice, and Love, I committed to slashing the U.S. military budget and ceasing military spending in the Eastern European and Middle Eastern theaters. But the truth is, we can’t wait until I become president to stop the duopoly’s bellicose initiatives – we must act now and prevent more slaughter of innocent people, many of them children and elders. “Ordering” one million people living in an open-air prison to simply move somewhere else is unacceptable.

I urge you to call, write, tweet, and otherwise message President Biden and your elected lawmakers by clicking here and demand they stop paving the road to war and start building bridges to peace.

This is no time for placing party loyalty over people and the planet. We need independent voices speaking out and coming together for a collective call for immediate and lasting peace. The truth is until we achieve justice for the precious Palestinian people, there will never be peace for precious Jewish people, nor the opportunity for both to live together with love through truth, reconciliation, and deep healing.

We need fewer weapons, less vindictive rhetoric, and more truth, more love, and more justice. Together, we can send our lawmakers and the world a message that we not only choose peace, we demand it.

May all those suffering find immediate solace and safety,

Dr. Cornel West