As some of you may know there has been legislation floating around congress to institute a cabinet level Department of Peace for quite a few years. At the end of this CNN news video clip, Wendy Green representing the Peace Alliance, points out that Robert Gates may be already on line with the agenda of the Department of Peace and many in the alliance think he may be the best choice for Secretary of Defense. To bolster this thought is this speech Gates gave last year at Kansas State University. It is rather long but a good read. While recognizing winning the war in Afghanistan cannot been done my military alone he praises the work of non military people and organizations that have done remarkable work in making Afghanistan a more civilized, livable and less violent place. Here is a little thought toward the end of his address:
“I have been heartened by the works of individuals and groups like these. But I am concerned that we need even more civilians involved in the effort and that our efforts must be better integrated.
The way to institutionalize these capabilities is probably not to recreate or repopulate institutions of the past such as AID or USIA. On the other hand, just adding more people to existing government departments such as Agriculture, Treasury, Commerce, Justice and so on is not a sufficient answer either – even if they were to be more deployable overseas. New institutions are needed for the 21st century, new organizations with a 21st century mind-set.”
The Idaho Peace Coalition has been campaigning for the Department of Peace since the beginning and maybe now is the time that there will be a climate that it may have a chance to become a reality. We now also have a facebook page. Please join us and work for a more peaceful world and put an end to war.
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