Will Miller Green Mountain Veterans For Peace
Constitutional Costs of War
The oath of enlistment into the US Armed Forces requires that whoever so enlists in our military shall "support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
Though not without flaws, the US Constitution - and particularly the Bill of Rights - is the document upon which the freedoms that are synonymous with America are founded. It also provides us with a common ground upon which we can build a more perfect union.
Some would have us believe that our freedoms are what cause many peoples around the world to hate us and in some cases attack us. In response, we have waged countless wars - supposedly to protect and defend our freedoms. The question must also be raised, if we are waging wars to defend our freedoms, then why is our own government stripping those same freedoms away? And, perhaps more importantly, why are we letting that happen?
As Veterans For Peace, we are Veterans who have all sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution and the civil liberties that it was designed to protect. It is our position that the greatest threat to our liberty is endless war that has been pursued - NOT to protect us, our freedom or liberties - but rather to make a very few people wealthier while rendering We the People a more easily controlled lot.
Benjamin Franklin reflected in 1755, that "They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Or, perhaps, we shouldn't give up quite so easily.
"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." ~ Thomas Paine, 23 December 1976
Internal Threats to the United States Constitution and Rule of Law
from: Social and Political Costs of War
Watson Institute of International Studies
Brown University
Detention: A violation of Habeas Corpus, or the right to seek relief from unlawful imprisonment, first recogized in 1305 and guaranteed in the Suspension Clause of Article I of the US Constitution.
Torture: A violation of the 8th Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment."
Racial Profiling, Surveillance and Data Mining: Violations of the 4th Amendment, which guarantees that "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause."
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