Peace and War
It’s difficult to choose the most pressing challenge we face from the MAGA Revolution. We get lost in the manufactured crisis of the day, and the media responses that range from justifying atrocity to despairing nihilism. We’d like to step back a little in this blog and look at the bigger picture. You can find detailed analysis from trusted sources (see our follow list for recommendations.) How does this whole situation look from Indiana?
We have a growing risk of World War III, and that seems like a top priority out of the landscape of serious threats we face. Let’s talk about how that looks to us.
First of all, we do not want war. We especially do not want a war with our former allies such as Canada, France, Denmark, and Germany. We don’t want war with Latin American nations, with whom we have a long history of colonial military intervention. We don’t want a war in which the United States of America is the aggressor, with no significant reason to invade, bomb, and kill people. We are a nation that has (usually) fought wars only when we had to, in defense of democracy and freedom from tyranny.
In just its first year, the current administration has conducted military operations in Venezuela, Syria, Nigeria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Yemen, the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. They have continued to support Israel’s war with Palestine and other Arab states, and have waffled on support for Ukraine against Russian aggression in the first European land war since World War II. Donald Trump has personally threatened Canada, Mexico, and every nation in Central and South America with military force and economic retribution. He has actively threatened a war of aggression against Denmark in Greenland, which would bring us into military conflict with every other member of NATO. These actions flout the international rules-based order and embolden our enemies in China and Russia to launch their own aggressive military actions.
We may look back at this moment in history as the beginning of World War III.
The United States has a responsibility to protect and defend our nation and the cause of freedom and democracy around the world. We have done so for most of our history, with some significant failures along the way.
But the current path of this administration is extremely dangerous to the United States, and is destructive to world peace. The Trump administration is turning the entire world against the United States, both economically and militarily. Other nations will have no choice but to oppose us on economic and military battlefields. We should not forget that many of these adversaries have nuclear weapons and the ability to deploy them against us. No territory of the United States is safe from such a threat, including Indiana.
It is important to listen to what these people are actually saying, without filtering through media and propaganda channels. Listen to the language used by Stephen Miller or Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem or Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth. These are people with great power to direct the course of our nation’s policies. We hear what they say to be encouraging war and violence, from a philosophy of jungle law in which might makes right and raw power to dominate is the only language of political discourse.
This philosophy of tyranny is un-American, against the very founding principles of our nation and its Constitution. This same zeal for violence and domination is at work both inside and outside our borders. ICE raids in Minneapolis and Portland stem from the same philosophy as our military aggression in Venezuela and Greenland. This is the MAGA vision of our future, a constant war of domination over enemies within and without.
This is not what most MAGA voters expected. Trump campaigned on ending wars, and continues to claim he is a peace President. The actions of his administration prove the opposite: Trump is a war President, declaring false emergencies, inventing crises, engaging our military in illegal attacks, and building an unaccountable internal military force to silence all opposition from Americans.
What can we do about it? Speak up for peace. Let your elected representatives at every level of government know how you feel. Call Senators Young and Banks and tell them to oppose Trump’s aggression in Greenland. Call Victoria Spartz. Call Governor Braun. Tell them to end their support for ICE as a paramilitary force attacking Americans. Join local rallies sponsored by Fishers Resists and other organizations. Talk to people at your work and social groups and get them to join you. We the people hold the power, and these leaders will not get far without our support.
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