Opinion/op-ed « peacecast.us

The Bush–Putin agenda in Kennebunkport, Maine this weekend should include critical unfinished business of the post-Cold-War era: immediate steps to outlaw nuclear weapons. However, the US is pursuing a different path.

“… [The United States] [b]ehaving as a superpower that seeks perpetual dominance, … that considers itself and its allies as exempt from international law, will not make us more secure. It will only provoke proliferation, just as our invasion of Iraq has not reduced terrorism but has instead created new grievances and new bands of terrorists. By trying to reap maximum benefit from our temporary role as sole superpower, our government is acting like the terrorist we fear, and in the process is making more likely the very things we fear the most: nuclear terror and a new arms race.”

The excerpt above is from an op-ed published in the Saturday/Sunday June 30–July 1, 2007 edition of the Bangor Daily News. My friend Mike Howard and I co-wrote the piece. The full text (as submitted) of the op-ed is below the fold. The piece does not yet appear on line at the newspaper’s site. If it does, I will post an update.

Update: Posted at Bangor Daily News, HERE.
Continue reading ‘Nuclear primacy is not security’

The PEACE AND JUSTICE CENTER 9/11 FORUM took place at the wonderful Bangor, Maine Public Library. Library staff invited the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine to lead this discussion of the real issues involving our security post 9/11.

Are we more secure after Bush’s post-9/11 wars? The answer is no, and the main reasons rarely appear in the usual brand of 5-yr 9/11 assessments blanketing the corporate media over the last couple of weeks.

Panelists included (in order of appearance):

Doug Allen, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maine and Education Committee Coordinator for the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine
Ron Warner, member of Veterans for Peace
Mary Horrigan, Gold Star mother
Connie Jenkins, member of Pax Christi

Thanks to Ilze Petersons of the Peace & Justice Center for moderating. And thanks to the Bangor Public Library for sponsoring and providing space for this community event. Special thanks to Mary Horrigan for her courage to speak about her son and the war.

“People flying planes into the World Trade Center, or suicide bombers, those are real concerns. But what I’d like to suggest is these are less than one percent of the real concerns about insecurity in the world that’re not being addressed.”

-â€“Doug Allen