No More Drilling on Public Lands

President Bush and the McCain campaign are beating a dead horse these days and it is called the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. They want you to believe that we must squeeze the last bits of oil out of the earth, wherever we can find it, and we need to start right here at home by destroying our last remaining wild refuge and devastating our coastal wetlands in the name of boosting corporate oil profits. The right wing echo chamber has taken up the cause celeb, and candidates across the country can be heard ringing the bells of freedom for the global oil market.

Developing our remaining public lands for oil and natural gas is a waste of time and resources. The industry already leases 44 million acres of land for oil and gas development, and to date they have not used almost 30 million acres of public land. In addition, drilling in our most fragile wild spaces is a slap in the face to the environment and future generations who will judge us on the basis of how we cared for and exercised responsible stewardship of the natural resources of the planet.

The time will come when there will be no more oil to drill and we have already reached far beyond the point where we must begin to invest in sustainable alternatives to oil, such as biofuels, solar and wind power as our primary sources of energy production. Drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge is like using a garden hose to put out the forest fire. Clearly we need to develop new strategies and begin to invest in a sustainable energy infrastructure not dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. The scientific evidence has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that global warming is real and we are the source of the problem. It is time to become part of the solution.

The oil and gas industry already has plenty of access to public lands in the United States. It is up to us to protect our coastal beaches and marshlands from environmental devastation. It is up to us to lock up ecologically sensitive regions in Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico and Colorado before they are destroyed forever. There is no clear evidence that drilling on our remaining public lands will lead to a decrease in oil prices. In fact, oil prices are going to continue to rise regardless because global demand is far outstripping supply. The only real solution is to begin to invest in our alternative energy infrastructure and develop green solutions to the global energy crisis. We face a real challenge in the years ahead, but we can begin to make the right choices now by saying no to continued drilling in environmentally sensitive regions.



for more information on this issue please visit: http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/oildrill/

Living in a World Without Fear

This week marks the 63rd anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 9th, 1945 at 11:01am the United States of America dropped a nuclear bomb on a pre-designated city in Japan killing 80,000 people in the second of two nuclear attacks. This attack was the only time that nuclear weapons have been used as an instrument of war, and it could be the last, if we generate the political will to dismantle our weapons of mass destruction, abide by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and create a federal level department of peace. At the time of the bombing the United States only had two nuclear weapons in its arsenal but since that time our stockpile of nuclear weapons has mushroomed to nearly six thousand weapons. Fortunately we have not used these weapons since then, but the only guarantee that they will never be used is if they do not exist. As tempting as it is to believe that we are a moral nation that would never use such terrible instruments of destruction, the fact is that we have used them and we can use them again if our military or elected leaders believe the situation justifies it. That is why it is more important than ever to dismantle weapons of mass destruction.

Nuclear weapons are dirty, dangerous, immoral weapons that continue to do damage long after the bombs have been used. In addition to the nearly 200,000 people who died as a result of the nuclear attacks, many more victims continue to suffer to this day as a result of the radiation released that day. Birth defects and mutations continue to affect the children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to this day. With literally thousands of nuclear weapons in the possession of nearly two dozen nations, the risk of one of these bombs being used in a conflict has increased exponentially since it was first used in 1945. In the past six decades the United States alone has gone to critical levels of preparedness for nuclear attack on more than thirty occasions in response to international conflicts. Having initiated a first use policy, we cannot claim to have the higher ground on the issue of nuclear proliferation and possession. By using the bomb first and then building the biggest arsenal, our national policy makers have set a precedent and sent a clear message to the world that we are not a country which is truly interested in peace and international security.

There is nothing more threatening to global peace than our own nuclear weapons stockpiles. These weapons are also a threat to the environment both short term and long term. Uranium mining involves milling, production and environmental and ecological devastation. After the uranium ore is extracted and processed no one seems to want the nuclear waste, which is left like an orphan without a home. There is no comprehensive plan for the long term storage of radioactive nuclear waste which stays radioactive for up to 250,000 years and scientists haven't figured out how to safely contain such materials. For the people of the world to even begin to have a chance at peace and a healthy environment we need to begin to dismantle our nuclear weapons stockpiles now and clean up the mess we have made. In Tennessee there is enough work for all of the hundreds of employees of the Oak Ridge nuclear complex just cleaning up the contaminated facilities and the environment to keep them employed for many years to come. The same is true of all of our nuclear weapons production and storage facilities. Additionally we need more investment in research and development to study how to more safely contain the nuclear waste that has already been produced.

It has become clear to the people of this world that the future does not include nuclear war or proliferation of nuclear weapons. After the cold war the United States and the former Soviet Union took a big step back from the precipice by dismantling some warheads. Since that time international will has resolved and grown stronger to continue the progress that was made nearly twenty years ago. Right now, while our world is at relative peace regarding global threats to security is a good time to dismantle our weapons of mass destruction. It is up to the people of the United States to develop the will and the leadership to live up to the vision of a nation which is dedicated to peace and social justice rather than violence and warfare. We can live in a world of peace, if we take concrete steps now by abiding by dismantling our weapons of mass destruction, abide by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and support a federal level department of peace. It is possible to resolve international conflicts without threatening to completely destroy other cultures. We have the collective intelligence to create a more meaningful future for ourselves and the generations to come.

No Permanent Military Bases in Iraq

The Iraqi Parliament wants the US out of Iraq, and they have made it clear in a recent letter which called for US troops to be removed. The United States doesn't seem quite so inclined to oblige. Recently we learned that the Bush administration was engaged in secret negotiations to establish fifty military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors for an indefinite period of time. The congress must remain engaged and not give in to pressure from the military industrial complex or current administration officials from both sides of the aisle. If we are ever to step out of this quagmire there must be broad resolve by the American people to bring the troops home and close down the military bases.

As part of long term security negotiations in Iraq, Massoud Barzani, the head of northern Iraq's regional Kurdish administration suggested that military forces be permanently redeployed to northern Iraq. Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has indicated that he believes it would be appropriate to deploy troops there in the near future. Permanent military bases of any sort will act as an anchor to keep us locked into Iraq for decades to come. The United States clearly intends to remain in Iraq and Afghanistan into the indefinite future. Pentagon officials have indicated as much in their long term and short term planning for the region.

The Iraqis have a different idea about what we should do. There is consensus in the Iraqi parliament that the United States needs to leave now and take our military bases with us. As a candidate for federal office, I do not support the permanent establishment of any military bases in Iraq or Afghanistan. I believe that it is essential that the anti-war movement in this country continue to pressure elected officials and run candidates who will remove the military presence from the Middle East. It is clear that political instability in the region is being fueled by a continued US military presence in the region. This in turn is creating uncertainty on the global oil markets and pushing up prices, weakening the US dollar and contributing to a global recession.

The current thinking on the part of military strategists and international policy experts is that the situation in Iraq is analogous to Korea or Germany, and that permanent military bases are a fundamental aspect of Iraqi and Afghan reconstruction. The problem is that the Iraqi people do not agree. The people of Iraq consider us to be agents of occupation, and fundamentally anti-democratic. They do not see the invasion of Iraq as being worth the hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed or injured. They do not like the long term economic, infrastructure and environmental devastation which was been visited upon their country.



The Iraqi people have spoken and it is time to honor our agreements. In a recent statement to the press, Nouri al-Maliki said that the US was making demands that would lead to the colonization of Iraq. If the US remains in the region, we will eventually use our presence in Iraq as a base for further military exploits in the region, especially into Iran. That is why it is time to withdraw all of our military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, to close down our military bases and to bring our troops home now.

In Support of a UN Arms Embargo of Sudan

It is widely known in the international community that the United Nations ban on weapons to Darfur is ineffective. The various factions are still receiving shipments of heavy weapons, small arms, ammunition, and other military equipment into Sudan, where they are transported to Darfur. That is why it is essential that the Congress act now to extend the embargo to all of Sudan. It is essential that we exercise our strength as a country to do everything we can to stop the genocide.

A recent report by Amnesty International stated that a total arms embargo on Darfur will add diplomatic pressure for the embargo to be applied to Sudan as a whole. At the moment there is a limited ban which is intended to stop the supply of weapons from reaching various factions in Darfur, but this ban has been considered ineffective. After four years of warfare, the people of Sudan are suffering terribly from the affects of widespread civilian dislocation, famine and genocide. If the United States redirected even a small percentage of budgetary allocation they are spending on the war in Iraq, we could unilaterally prevent genocide.

As a world leader, the Congress of the United States and the Executive Branch have a responsibility to do their part to help prevent genocide. As signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the US has promised to respond with a concerted will to ensure that our planet never again witnesses the horror of genocide and that people everywhere have basic rights including the right to food, housing, clean water, an education and the right to live free of violence and intimidation.

Clearly the people of Sudan have been abandoned for the most part by the current administration. While Sudan is not considered to be important in terms of military strategy for empire building and control of global oil resources, the USA does claim to engage in military adventures overseas for the purpose of building democracy and ensuring the people living in the bondage of fear and terror deserve the opportunity to be free and make choices about their government. Sudan is clearly an international crisis, more so than Iraq but perhaps equal to the gravitas given to Afghanistan.

As a country which preaches democracy and human rights, it is time for the United States to take positive actions to ensure that genocide does not continue in Sudan. We have a responsibility to support international peace keeping efforts to end the war in Sudan and feed, clothe and house the hundreds of thousands of refugees which have been created by the ongoing crisis the region. The first step is to support a total embargo of Sudan to ensure that arms do not continue to fuel the ongoing violence between various factions in the region.