The U.S. Congress is proposing to increase military spending in the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), now being discussed and amended.
Click here to quickly email your Representative and Senators.
To phone them, and to be prompted first with what you might want to say, dial 833-599-1868.
The moment of ending a war widely viewed as a 20-year catastrophe, having spent $21 trillion
on militarism during those 20 years, and the moment when the biggest
Congressional question in the media is whether the United States can
afford $3.5 trillion over 10 years for things other than wars, is hardly
the moment to increase military spending, or even to maintain it at
remotely its current level.
Tiny fractions of U.S. military spending could do
a world of good in the United States and around the world, and the most
serious dangers facing us are exacerbated, not ameliorated, by it.
These include environmental collapse, nuclear disaster, disease
pandemics, and poverty. Even in morally dubious economic terms alone,
military spending is a drain, not a boost.
Militarism is often tied to "democracy," with the U.S.
government currently planning an international conference on democracy
even while arming
the majority of the world's most oppressive governments. But applying
democracy to the U.S. government would reduce military spending
according to poll after poll after poll after poll.
Last year 93 members of the U.S. Congress voted to reduce the
Pentagon's portion of U.S. military spending by 10%. Of the 85 of those
93 who stood for re-election, 85 were re-elected.
Our demand to members of the U.S. House and Senate is to
publicly commit to voting NO on the National Defense Authorization Act
if it funds anything more than 90% of what it funded last year. We want
to see those commitments made publicly and emphatically, with efforts to
rally colleagues to do the same. That no caucus of the U.S. Congress is
yet taking this action is disgraceful.
Click here to quickly email your Representative and Senators.
To phone them, and to be prompted first with what you might want to say, dial 833-599-1868.
That some members of Congress who say they want military spending reduced are accepting
an increase proposed by President Joe Biden while opposing only an
increase proposed by Congressional committees is reprehensible. Many more
people die in the world whose lives could have been saved by
redirecting a portion of military spending than are killed in the wars.
We would like to see House Members cosponsor H.Res.476, a
non-binding resolution that proposes to move $350 billion out of the
Pentagon's budget. But until it has a chance of passing both houses,
those endorsements will not impress us much. We would like to see them
vote for amendments to undo the Congressional increase of $25 billion,
and to reduce spending to 90% of last year's level. But until those
amendments stand a chance of passing, we will applaud quietly.
If Republicans oppose the NDAA in just one house of Congress
(for their own bizarre reasons), it would take only a handful of
Democrats insisting on reduced spending to halt or reshape the bill.
Hence our demand: commit now to voting against the NDAA until military
spending goes down by -- at a very minimum -- 10%. Make that simple
commitment. Then we'll thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Click here to quickly email your Representative and Senators.
To phone them, and to be prompted first with what you might want to say, dial 833-599-1868.
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World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, chapters, and affiliated organizations advocating for the abolition of the institution of war.
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