A Proposal For Peace

Dear Mr. President,

Yesterday I read an article that described the newest hi-tech weapon in development, a self-contained fully automated robot that can roam, Terminator-like, and select and fire on targets without human intervention. Forget drones and satellite links, these robotic killers are straight out of the 1982 movie, Blade Runner. Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic have called on governments to preemptively ban these weapons because of the danger posed to civilians, but this strikes me as futile, for the military-industrial-government complex can and will develop new weapons faster than people can mobilize and respond to the threat. It also plays the game according to your rules—trying to stop new weapons and wars, new atrocities and crimes against humanity, one at a time—like that Dutch boy sticking his fingers in the dike, to hold back the waters. Rather, it seems the only effective approach is to change the consciousness of a society focused on war and move it to a consciousness focused on peace, thereby eliminating the necessity or incentive to develop new weapons or start new wars. I realize this a far-fetched idea, not likely to succeed in our lifetime, but imagine if a Nobel Prize winning leader such as yourself would take up the challenge and begin the process of demilitarizing not only our armies but our national consciousness, eliminating war, terrorists and enemies from speeches and news conferences, from legislation, indeed, from our lexicon and our dictionaries, and pursue alternatives like peace and respect for our fellow man and the planet we inhabit. I’m not suggesting we all join hands and sing Kumbaya, but that we stop the killing and violence, stop spending our treasure and energy on the illusion of “defense” and “national security” and start spending it on education and the betterment of all mankind, that we address the real threat—global warming—and stop the assault on the environment and our future. Imagine the legacy, Mr. President, if you did this, if you took that first step. Your legacy at this point is not something to be proud of, the man who sold his country to the Whores of War and lost democracy in America for the illusion of power and wealth. To even start the shift in thinking from war to peace would earn you a place in the pantheon of great leaders, not to mention that Nobel Peace Prize you received under false pretenses. Think about it, Mr. President. For all our sakes.