Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Martin Luther King on War

This is what Dr. Martin Luther King had to say about the war in Vietnam. The country is irrelevant, it could just as well be Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else the War Machine parks.

"Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam."

Let me say finally that I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against this war, not in anger, but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and, above all, with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as the moral example of the world. I speak out against this war because I am disappointed with America. And there can be no great disappointment where there is not great love. I am disappointed with our failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. We are presently moving down a dead-end road that can lead to national disaster. America has strayed to the far country of racism and militarism.

"Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

-MLK

1 comment:

  1. Croft:

    The cost of war that has been approved by Congress is $830.2 billion with $657.3 billion to Iraq and $172.9 billion to Afghanistan. The $77.1 billion from the supplemental request brings total war spending to $907.3 billion dollars since 2001.

    The sad irony is the impact this has had on our economy and the choice of offensive wars over national health care. And now Congress will pick the scab off the health care debate by the introduction of the so-called "repeal the job-killing health care bill." How sad that so many die because of the lack of adequate health care while billions of dollars go to war.

    Bill in NE

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