Article on Department
of Peace by Walter Cronkite
Thursday, August
12, 2004
A Department Of Peace?
BY WALTER CRONKITE
King Features Syndicate
http://www.yankton.net/stories/081204/opE_20040812035.shtml
With this nation
embroiled in what threatens to be an interminable "War
on Terrorism," an idea put forward last year by Ohio
Congressman Dennis Kucinich has, for me, considerable appeal.
Kucinich, who was the one candidate in the Democratic primaries
to unfailingly promote the party's traditional Franklin Roosevelt
liberalism, proposed the establishment of a Department of Peace.
Now he has introduced
in the House
HR 2459, a bill that would establish a Peace Department,
adding a new cabinet post to the executive branch of government.
The Department of Peace would "advise the Secretary of
Defense and the Secretary of State on all matters relating to
national security, including the protection of human rights
and the prevention of, amelioration of, and de-escalation of
unarmed and armed international conflict."
The secretary of
peace would serve as a delegate to the National Security Council
and also would "provide training of all United States personnel
who administer post-conflict reconstruction and demobilization
in war-torn societies." In other words, the Department
of Peace, with a highly trained and dedicated staff, would be
a constant, working counterpoint to the Defense Department and
its expenditure of billions of dollars to perfect the weapons
of war.
The department would
act not only in an international context, but also in those
areas of domestic policy that endanger the nation's well-being:
the proliferation of automatic weapons and the violence in our
schools, our homes and in our streets, where the intolerant
prey on those whose lifestyles they find offensive. It might
well come up with some new strategies for turning around our
losing war on drugs, and it might also lobby Congress to put
an end to the cruel and unusual punishment of small-time drug
offenders called "mandatory sentencing." It would
also advise the attorney general on matters of civil rights
and labor law. But its primary importance, it seems to me, would
be in international affairs, demonstrating to the rest of the
world, to borrow the old motto of the Strategic Air Command,
that "peace is our profession."
Now, to some, this
is going to sound terribly naive, given the current state of
things and the very real, hard-edged dangers that face us. But
the naiveté just might lie on the other side with those
who believe that military force and our policy of pre-emption
are alone sufficient to make us safe. The fact is that there
is nothing in this proposal that would weaken our military posture
or our ability to strike terrorists and their havens and to
do whatever is necessary for the defense of the United States.
But wouldn't it be
an advantage to have a peer of the secretaries of defense and
state whose primary responsibility it was to develop the methods
and means of peaceful conflict resolution and to offer peaceful
alternatives in the councils of war?
Wouldn't it have
been an advantage in the run-up to the Iraq War to have had
a cabinet officer whose department was responsible for training
U.S. personnel in human rights, conflict resolution, reconstruction
and the detailed planning necessary to restoring a durable peace;
in short, to do what was so disastrously absent when our forces
rolled into Baghdad?
Kucinich's bill is
more elaborate and specific than I can spell out here. Right
now it is a long way from realization, with only a few dozen
congressional sponsors. It needs a lot more to move another
step along the legislative process.
Actually, there is
an urgency to its adoption. In this dangerous world, where the
strength of the United States is needed to keep the peace, we
need a visible manifestation of our intention to play that role,
without the arrogance that cost us friends and allies among
the nations and peoples of the world.
But no matter how
far off it might be, it is an idea that deserves our attention.
We can hope that Kucinich and those who are pioneers in supporting
his bill stay the course and redouble their efforts.
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