"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."

- Howard Zinn

Since the war in Vietnam, LEPOCO members have opposed US military intervention in many countries, including El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. We have also supported those working nonviolently for change, often in opposition to US government policy, in countries like South Africa, Colombia, Israel and Palestine, and Haiti.

Our country's face in the world is too often a military one. US troops are present in 120 of the 191 nations of the world. The real threats in our world are poverty, disease, violence, pollution, hatred, and ignorance. Compassion and cooperation are more effective than guns and missiles in addressing these threats. We seek a US foreign committed to the well-being of and self-determination for all the world's peoples. We seek non-exploitative economic agreements, an end to US arms sales, forgiveness of debt for poor countries, an end to alliances with repressive governments, and international engagements based on mutual respect. Citizen-to-citizen efforts play an important role in building peace. LEPOCO members have participated in accompaniment, delegations providing a buffer from war and violence, and the delivery of humanitarian aid in symbolic protest of embargoes.

"A nation that continues to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

-Reverend Martin Luther King

Our nation's wealth is increasingly used to feed the military adventures described above; to build more fantastical weapons like the Star Wars systems; and to create a fortress "homeland security". This leaaves our cities and communities, states and federal agencies, and those needing assistance world-wide competing for the remaining shrinking resources. Interestingly, at the beginning of the 21st Century our country is the largest debtor nation.

This cannot continue. The greatest profiteers are the weapons makers like Lockheed Martin and military contractors like Halliburton. Peace conversion on a massive scale in specific industries and in our larger economy is long overdue. Nuclear disarmament is also long overdue. As the country that invented, first used nuclear bombs (and now depleted uranium weapons), and still has the largest nuclear weapons arsenal, the United States should take the lead in the nuclear disarmament race. Their inherent danger and the threat of "loose nukes" make this a priority. US compliance with existing international treaties would be an important step toward nuclear and general disarmament.

"Terrorism is only the privatization of war. Terrorists are the free marketers of war."

-Arundhati Roy

While September 11, 2001, brought the horrible reality of terror to our shores, many parts of the world have all too much experience with terror - the terror of the atomic bomb, the terror of the suicide bomber, the terror of landmines, the terror of landmines, the terror of disease and starvation. We honor September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and believe that wars, preemptive violence, and the bluster of empire will not diminish terror, but indeed perpetuate it. An international legal framework seeking prevention and justice (not vengeance) should be used against all those who act to terrorize - whether it be Pinochet, al Qaida, or the Janjaweed in Sudan. We need to move beyond the fear of communism that so warped our country's actions for decades, not to a new paralyzing fear of terrorism, but to a place of openness, compassion and sharing with the world.

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