The will to say, "no more."

What does it take to close Guantanamo? Do we need a bomb? Do we need bulldozers? Do we need a team of demolition engineers?

No.

We need the will to do what it right. The same is true in Afghanistan. And while we are at it, in Korea, Okinawan, Germany, Belgium…the list goes on and on of huge military installations  that the U.S. keeps open – some in place since the end of the second world war. Why? Because the American Government feels it needs to police the world.

It does not.

In fact, if we stop acting like the bully copy around the globe, we might gain some respect from people who don’t trust us. But then again, maybe not. For what they truly are envious of, are our lavish lifestyles.  That’s right, even the poorest of our poor live better than any who find themselves in the squalor of worldwide poverty. But we can’t seem to find it in our budgets to help our own. Why.

No will.  No reason.

In America you have to have the will to help others. The will can and does produce the ways and means to make things happen. But it is hard when huge chunks of your national budget are spent to fight wars and police the world.

I am not advocating the dissolution of our armed forces. Far from it. I’d like to see them strengthened and made whole again, rather than stretched to precariously thin ranks due to multiple conflicts, which they are asked to cover. But the real truth is, America would rather back a war than go to war against poverty, out of wedlock mothers, obesity, healthcare issues, and the banking system, budget deficits, tax reform, and the list goes on and on.

Why?

Because in a war we get to send others in to do our dirty business.  In these other home-grown conflicts, we will have to join hands and fight them ourselves. The “blood” will be on our hands then, metaphorically speaking.

The President promised to close Gitmo. I want him to. He promised to end the wars. Let’s see him do it. But let us have the will as a people to take the tough stands and tell our government, we are tired of paying for the world’s policing force. We want that money spent at home, protecting our own borders and feeding and caring for our own people.

Do we have the will to stand up to the military-industrial complex and say, enough is enough?  I hope so. If we do not, it will wreck us financially and morally. Dwight Eisenhower warned us of this back in the 1950's.

I supported the President’s call to do these things. Now I want him to know the will of the people backs him. Do we?