Resist war ‘policy of madness’ ─ McGovern ‘67 forward

Excerpts, editing for Today's Insight News by Carolyn Bennett  

We seem bent upon saving the Vietnamese from Ho Chi Minh, even if we have to kill them and demolish their country to do it… I do not intend to remain silent in the face of what I regard as a policy of madness which, sooner or later, will envelop my son and American youth by the millions for years to come.

Former Senator George Stanley McGovern was speaking in the Senate of the United States, April 25, 1967.

George McGovern was born in Avon, South Dakota (July 19, 1922), the son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister. In his lifetime, he has been a World War II pilot, a University of South Dakota professor of history and government, a member (D-SD) of both the U.S. House of Representatives (1956-61) and the Senate (1963-81). He was a candidate for the U.S. presidency in 1972 and in the 1960s a stalwart opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

In 1968, he wrote A Time of War, A Time of Peace; in 2006, he wrote Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now. In 2000, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. McGovern is a prolific author and lecturer lauded for his “respect for the common man and his work on behalf of American farmers and hungry children throughout the world.” 

History keeps retreating, begging for progressive protest against a policy of madness. This week’s war news from Washington reports “‘Peace Prize’ President” Barack Obama has sent to Congress “the largest war budget ever published.” The administration unmasked its brazen embrace of military industries raising the heat in a murderous policy of madness:

Increasing defense spending to $708 billion
Further hemorrhaging war and occupation within and beyond Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan
Instead of dialoguing, paying resisters not to resist
Further militarizing, traumatizing, and destabilizing the Middle East/South-Central Asia with missiles and sea threats within and around Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait
Stronger arming Absolute Monarchy Saudi Arabia
Boosting U.S. nuclear threat, proliferating $5 billion, backing Iran farther into a corner while claiming global defense of the world “against Iran.”

 

Sources
McGovern Center for leadership and public service, http://www.mcgoverncenter.com/george.htm
American Quotations, Carruth and Ehrlich, Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography
News wires and Peoples' Voice, Democracy Now, Common Dreams, February 1, 2010