9 Steps to Peace for Obama in the New Year
2 January 2009

by Deepak Chopra, Tikkun, 1 Jan 2009.


The following is a memo to Barack Obama from Deepak Chopra:

Deepak Chopra
PEACE

You have been elected by the first anti-war constituency since 1952, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected after promising to end the Korean War. But ending a war isn’t the same as bringing peace. America has been on a war footing since the day after Pearl Harbor, 67 years ago. We spend more on our military than the next 16 countries combined. If you have a vision of change that goes to the heart of this country’s deep problems, ending our dependence on war is far more important than ending our dependency on foreign oil.

The most immediate changes are economic. Unless it can make as much money as war, peace doesn’t stand a chance. Since aerospace and military technologies remain the United States’ most destructive export, fostering wars around the world, what steps can we take to reverse that trend and build a peace-based economy?

1. Scale out arms dealing and make it illegal by the year 2020.

2. Write into every defense contract a requirement for a peacetime project.

3. Subsidize conversion of military companies to peaceful uses with tax incentives and direct funding.

4. Convert military bases to housing for the poor.

5. Phase out all foreign military bases.

6. Require military personnel to devote part of their time to rebuilding infrastructure.

7. Call a moratorium on future weapons technologies.

8. Reduce armaments like destroyers and submarines that have no use against terrorism and were intended to defend against a superpower enemy that no longer exists.

9. Fully fund social services and take the balance out of the defense and homeland security budgets.

These are just the beginning. We don’t lack creativity in coping with change. Without a conversion of our present war economy to a peace economy, the high profits of the military-industrial complex ensures that it will never end.

Do these nine steps seem unrealistic or fanciful? In various ways, other countries have adopted similar measures. The former Soviet army is occupied with farming and other peaceful work, for example. But comparisons are rather pointless, since only the United States is burdened with such a massive reliance on defense spending. Ultimately, empire follows the dollar. As a society, we want peace, and we want to be seen as a nation that promotes peace. For either ideal to come true, you as president must back up your vision of change with economic reality. So far, that hasn’t happened under any of your predecessors. All hopes are pinned on you.


Deepak Chopra is acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest leaders in the field of mind-body medicine. He is the author of over 50 books, including Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment and Ageless Body, Timeless Mind.

Source: IMAGINEPEACE.com

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Thanks Deepak

You're shining a light into a dark hole
On the road to peace there are places where we have to stop and catch our breath and look up, slightly up and far into the peaceful future... to try to see the goal. If we're on the right path at all, then looking ahead, which is one of many things our brains are so good at, will help to show us the way.

Nobody in all the history and prehistory of humanity has been as farsighted as this post here shows that Deepak Chopra is.

Things that are "normal" and necessary" and "honorable" and have to do with the life of an average human, like economic issues are so stuck right now. The economy is feeding the war machine, polluting as it goes, taking what it wants and needs, and it doesn't care about human life, or the planet. It must be changed.

I like the tai-chi of it. It can't be stopped... it all has to be redirected. This post show us some more of where to push it all towards,,,

individuals have all the power, the power to not shoot the gun, not train with the gun, not teach the gun, not buy or sell the gun, not make the gun... if only everybody could just stop, all at once, right now... but they can't, so we re-direct, they need a new livelihood, like Deepak said: farming, helping, making other things, living.

we're pushing humanity towards peace... that way. I feel the hope.

we have to keep the children safe, and far far far away from violence. Some kinds of violence are a part of nature, and we can show them those things, at the right age. People, kids, need the truth, but we shouldn't have children out there getting scarred by growing up with war all around. Violence towards humans becomes the norm for them and that's terrible for them, us, and the world.

Can't we help them get away?

I hope the money and economies that feed the war machine and the war mongers all get redirected to peacebuilding.

we're so smart and we keep learning. we're so connected, we're so so stuck on this little tiny marble rolling through a space so vast, and we're stuck together. I hope we can make it last, and enjoy the ride and each others' company.....

it's sad really, there should be (there is) money enough for us all to live and pursue our dreams and happiness, to live as greatly as possible... with love and in the light of love,

with peace and in the light and love of it -e

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