declaration of a peace emergency
Draft Declaration of a National Peace Emergency
We, the undersigned peace activists, declare that the international conduct of the current United States government has created a Peace Emergency in which active military hostilities, threats of war, and economic warfare have caused an unparalleled level of dangerous international instability.
The following points support this state of emergency.
One
The United States is fighting a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, steadily escalating its participation in a conflict that is devastating that country. The U.S. is refusing to engage diplomatically with Russia to achieve a negotiated settlement.
Two
The United States is deliberately provoking China by repeated actions intended to violate the One China policy. These steps include high-level diplomatic visits and steadily increasing arms sales to Taiwan, implicitly encouraging independence from China.
Three
The United States is refusing to renew the nuclear arms agreement preventing Iran’s enrichment of Uranium to a level sufficient to build nuclear weapons. At the same time, the U.S. is supporting Israel’s plans to attack Iran covertly and overtly.
Four
The United States continues to increase its already enormous defense budget, pressing ahead with destabilizing military programs, such as space weaponry, cyber warfare, new ICBMs, medium range nuclear missiles, and tactical nuclear weapons.
Five
The United States is steadily widening the scope of economic sanctions applied to nations it considers hostile. The latest sanctions on Russia have contributed to deteriorating economic conditions worldwide. The U.S. is threatening economic sanctions against China that would have a devastating impact on the world economy.
We believe that this emergency is the consequence of U.S. militarism growing out of control. Like an addict experiencing a drug tolerance effect, the militarist establishment needs a growing international threat to sustain the steady increase in funding for the war machine. This threat is created by overt and covert actions of a U.S. foreign policy establishment that has turned its back on diplomacy and actively seeks to inflame conflicts worldwide. The problem for the world’s people is that nuclear war is the fatal overdose of the addiction of militarism. Any of the points cited above could become the start of military escalation to a global nuclear war, and this is the basis of our declaration of a Peace Emergency.
We call upon all peace activists to set aside their routine activities and join in an urgent effort to inform the public of the grave present danger and to alert our elected officials to the serious consequences of unchecked U.S. militarism.
We call for the replacement of the current U.S. diplomatic and military leadership and the return of U.S. foreign policy to sound diplomacy serving the interests of the American people.
We call for a drastic reduction of the enormous U.S. defense budget to a level that precludes foreign military adventurism.
Above all, we call on the people of the United States to turn away from militarism, a toxic ideology that has led many great nations to ruin.
~Green Party Peace Action Committee
August, 2022
“Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”
