Do you think there should be a "Department of Peace"?

[Stop_the_War]

http://www.dopcampaign.org/

This was thought of by Dennis Kucinich, I think it's a great idea.

[clydefrand]

1. I would vote yes, but then someone would want a dept. of war

other than the military.

[cestpaspossible]

2. The State Department

[Osamasux]

15. At least it used to be....

[FromTheLeft]

3. I am already seeing to many similarities to "1984"...

I think Orwell may have been Nostradamis in a previous life.

[cestpaspossible]

10. Yeah the Bushies will probably change the Defense Dept to this.

Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Peace. :puke:

[Grey Ranks]

4. Isn't that the DoS?

Common sense not withstanding, wouldn't "peace" fall under the purview of the Department of State. Since they are the ones responsible for forgien relations. If that isn't about "peace", I don't know what is.

[FloridaPat]

5. how about Peace Memorials, Peace History, and Peace of Mind.

History is about wars. The military is looked on and the height of a civilized country. We need to rethink all this.

[sadiesworld]

6. In theory, yes...

but in reality it would be used to paint dems as soft on terra.

[whistle]

7. Does the U.S. army still use the motto: "Peace is our Mission"???

...I believe that was what they used to have on their recruiting posters, what a crock that was!

[Grey Ranks]

8. Not its not

People, particularly hawks abuse that sentiment. But, for many it is not a lie. Haven't you watched Hero?

[whistle]

13. Hero???? What is that? I'm not a TV watcher.....

[intheflow]

9. The bill and a citizen effort to lobby for support of Dept. of Peace

Here's a link to Bill H.R.2459, the establishment of a Department of Peace: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.R.2459:

Interesting to see who supported this bill since its introduction in July 2001 - Kucinich, Conyers, Lee, Waters... all our favorites!

Here's a link to a website devoted to citizen lobby effort to establish a Dept. of Peace: http://www.thepeacealliance.org/main.htm

[G_j]

11. WALTER CRONKITE is in favor of it

http://www.yankton.net/stories/081204/opE_20040812035.shtml


A Department Of Peace?
BY WALTER CRONKITE
King Features Syndicate

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."

..more..

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. Can it be rife with corruption, special interest, nobid contracts, make

laws for other peoples' with regards to how they will run their economy, rig elections, plant "journalists", crash governments who are unresponsive to the dept. of peace, and just generally continue to do all the things that have brought the world to the brink of WWIII?

If so, then yes, "bring it on".

[AG78]

14. Why?

It would just be twisted into whatever people of power would want it to be. Ahhhh, humanity.