Tag: War

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Do Members of Congress and candidates know what you think???

RJ Walters

Source: Recent email from FCNL (Friends Conference on National Legislation – Quaker) Do your members of Congress and candidates know what you think about Pentagon spending cuts? What they hear from you now could influence their decisions this December and into next year. Urge them to support Pentagon cuts of $1 trillion over the next 10 years, as recommended by experts from across the political spectrum.1 39 cents out of every one of your federal income tax dollars is going to feed the Pentagon and its contractors, and the Pentagon budget has nearly doubled in the past decade. This is a bad investment for our … Continue reading Do Members of Congress and candidates know what you think???

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Historic battleship USS Iowa to become museum in Los Angeles

RJ Walters

Source: U.S. News – Historic battleship USS Iowa to become museum in Los Angeles. “There’s no more ships like this in existence in the active navies anywhere in the world,” said Robert Kent, president of the Pacific Battleship Center. Thank the Lord there are no more ships like this in existence.  When you take a massive explosive shell and launch it from up to twenty miles away there was little chance that it will hit exactly where you intended. It could just as easily hit a small town of 800 as it would a military complex. Anyone who has read much … Continue reading Historic battleship USS Iowa to become museum in Los Angeles

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Military Expenditures by Country…

RJ Walters

Here is a rather straight forward graph showing military spending by country. Are you like me and see a very basic problem here? If we look at is per citizen it is even more skewed. No wonder our budgets are in so much trouble. No wonder the world always comes to us to solve their problems. We are taking on massive debt to be the policemen of the world. When will it end???? Continue reading Military Expenditures by Country…

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War and Peace….

RJ Walters

‎[War] won’t stop till there is as much brains and scientific study put to aid peace as there is to promote war. – May 31, 1928  Will Rogers Here we are one world war and dozens of other wars later and still we can’t understand what Will was saying almost one hundred years ago.  Except for a brief period during the Clinton years we have been in constant wars throughout my sixty-some years on this earth. Our soldiers are getting way beyond weary as evidenced by the recent massacre in Afghanistan by a four tour American soldier. Our national debt … Continue reading War and Peace….

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The Uncounted Deaths of War…..

RJ Walters

Source:  NYT: Risks of Afghan war shift to contractors – World news – The New York Times – msnbc.com. This is a war where traditional military jobs, from mess hall cooks to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector. Many American generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war. American employers here are under no obligation to publicly report the deaths … Continue reading The Uncounted Deaths of War…..

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Early Christians and War….

RJ Walters

During my extensive three-year study of Christianity one of the things I learned was that during the early years of Christianity when a Roman soldier wanted to be a Christian the first thing he had to do was to find a new occupation. Early Christians believed that the collected words of Jesus, their founder, and being a warrior were not compatible. There are many places in the Bible where Jesus commented about soldiers. The most prevalent one was “Those who live by the sword die by the sword”. Jesus just did not condone violence in those around him. I know there are … Continue reading Early Christians and War….

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Stopping wars….

RJ Walters

I have a scheme for stopping war. It’s this – no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one. Will Rogers This goes in line with a previous post about paying for wars. We seem to always be ready to point out other countries problems to them and part of our solution is to teach them how to do it right. Bullets seem to be our most frequent teaching aid. It is widely acknowledged that we have spent over $1 trillion on our latest wars.  The way Mr. Bush funded them was to … Continue reading Stopping wars….

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If we are a nation devoted to peace, why are so many of our resources devoted to war and militarism?

RJ Walters

We spend 40 time more per citizen on our military than any other nation and hundreds of times more than most other nations.  How can we say we are devoted to peace with this gross disparity?? Something just doesn’t seem right here? Where are all the peacemakers? Title quote from American Friends Service Committee http://www.afsc.org Continue reading If we are a nation devoted to peace, why are so many of our resources devoted to war and militarism?

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One Minute for Peace…..

RJ Walters

If Only we in the U.S. spent even a minuscule amount of  what we spend for our wars to promote peace… I want to direct you to a website promoting peace instead of war.  OneMinuteForPeace.org from the American Friends Service Committee. As the site states in the previous year the United States has spent over $1 trillion of military spending. That comes out to almost $2,000,000 every minute! It is sad to say but we spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined and many many times more to fund our wars than we do to promote peace.   The … Continue reading One Minute for Peace…..

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War is not the answer for ANY question….

RJ Walters

  I recently read an article that proudly made the point that the U.S. military is the largest minority employer in the country. It went on to argue that if our military complex were proportioned like the rest of the world there would be many more people without jobs. The United States which makes up four percent of the world’s population maintains over 60% of the worlds military complex! Another way of saying this is that each U.S. taxpayer pays more taxes for military expenses than thirty people in just about any other country in the world. Is it any … Continue reading War is not the answer for ANY question….

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Nonviolence

RJ Walters

I was eight years old when I gave my best friend a black eye over some dispute that I can’t even remember. Immediately after that incident I was totally devastated over the violence I had done. I promised myself that I would never strike or injure another person in that manner. I have lived up to that promise in the fifty odd years since then. Along these same lines I have always felt that the various wars we have been involved in were totally against God’s will. The Quaker belief that God is in each of us and therefore if … Continue reading Nonviolence

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Sanctity of Life??

RJ Walters

I am going to take on a hard one here. The big “A”.  I have been in a conversation with some Christian friends of mine about the current healthcare reform now being debated in congress and around the country.  Some of my friends said the following: “I can’t support this reform as it might allow some to have abortions funded”!  I, certainly am also against abortion. It is killing an innocent life and definitely against Jesus’ teachings. But how do Christian who make abortion a litmus test for everything else answer these typical questions by some:  You Christians only believe … Continue reading Sanctity of Life??