Dear John,
In 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his final speech as President of the United States. In his address, Eisenhower warned us about something he called the “military-industrial complex” – the industries that, if we’re not careful, could acquire unwarranted influence to corrupt our democratic processes and bring us into unnecessary wars.
In 2024, it has long been clear that Eisenhower’s worst fears have come to pass. In my lifetime, the United States has unjustly invaded and intervened in too many countries to count. So many lives have been lost to wars that don’t have anything to do with making us safer – they only have to do with making corporations richer.
The United States has an outrageously high military budget that rises every year, with support from both Republicans and Democrats. At the same time, we are told we don’t have the money to give the American people healthcare, childcare, and public college, but the warmongers in Washington are never asked how they’re going to pay for the next war.
Let me be clear: there is no horror greater than the horror of war. The horror inflicted by bombs and bullets is unimaginable to those of us lucky enough to not have experienced it.
I view the military like I view a surgeon. Sometimes you might need surgery, and at such times of course you’d want the best surgeon. But a reasonable person tries to avoid surgery if possible. Our country should have that great surgeon on hand at all times, but we should try to avoid war if possible. The American President must be deeply sober about the application of military force, and I will be.
That is why I would create a Department of Peace. Such a department will help prevent wars by dealing with their root causes. We will have a Peace Academy as well as a Military Academy. We will play peace games as well as war games. We will be as serious and sophisticated about waging peace as we must be when we are waging war. We will imagine a world without war in 100 years and reverse engineer from there.
As President, I would understand that war is no joke. Death is no joke. PTSD is no joke. As President, I would keep the warmongers in Washington and the military-industrial complex in check. As President, I would wage peace.
Please chip in right now to make this possibility a reality.
