An Outbreak of Peace

Published online January 28, 2017

Pray for peace! Peace is the answer!

Peace is the fervent mantra of like-minded people in America. Peace, peace, peace! If only we could have an outbreak of peace, everything would be better in the world socially, economically and culturally. But is that really what would happen? Would it actually be all better in the world? An old saying, admonishes us “Beware of what you pray for, because you might get it.” Let's look at what might happen should we be inflicted with an all-out peace.

(https://www.peacedirect.org/us/landing-page/world-peace/?gclid=CJyXrfDT5tECFYdrfgodRqsOJg).

If we look at California for a clue, we see there are approximately 95,000 uniformed military

Personnel assigned to a variety of commands in the San Diego area, alone. The Navy and Marines operate seven bases in San Diego County. For the sake of argument, let's pretend that next Monday all these service folks will be unemployed and no longer necessary because the “peace” we all prayed for is now upon us. Can we now picture 95,000 men and women in the unemployment line? In the whole of California 190,000 people are employed by the military. They will all be in the unemployment line on Monday too. (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/San_Diegos_Military_Presence.html)

Try to get a visual of seeing 95,000 people in an unemployment line in San Diego. Scary, huh? I suspect that number of people would create a line stretching from downtown San Diego to Tijuana Mexico and back. This mental picture would extend to the rest of California, with the other 95,000 in other unemployment lines throughout the state, such as the extensive military in San Francisco, and let's not forget the Marines at 29 Palms. If this situation actually occurred, can we see disaster yet? We need to keep in the back of our minds that California already borrows from the federal government about $40 million dollars a day just to meet existing benefit payments. (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/San_Diegos_Military_Presence.html).

Let's look north to Washington State. How big an employer is the military in the Evergreen state? Joint Base Lewis-McChord—Ft. Lewis, McChord airbase—employs more than 66,000 military and civilian workers. The military is Pierce County's largest employer. (http://www.ofm.wa.gov/economy/military/military.pdf)

The Naval base at Kitsap includes the submarine base at Bangor and the naval station in Bremerton home to the aircraft carrier John C Stennis and about eight ballistic-missile submarines.

The carrier USS Nimitz as well as other guided missile destroyers and frigates home port at Naval station Everett. Naval air power including the P-3 Orion, the EA-6B Prowler and the EA 18G Growler is stationed at Naval Air Station Whidby Island, a huge air command facility.

Boeing manufactures the KC-767 refueling tanker in Everett, WA. The state of Washington's own figures tell us that in 2012, the military industry was responsible for 136,000 jobs equaling $15.7 billion in economic activity. Of course with our outbreak of peace, all these folks would be in an unemployment line on Monday in Seattle too. (http://www.ofm.wa.gov/economy/military/military.pdf)

Pundits would say, of the argument for peace, “Well, it wouldn't happen all at once, it would be phased in a little at a time.” Does it really make any difference, when the end result would be the same, eventual mass unemployment of Americans? I have visions of the soup lines of the depression era, and the homeless camps we have now, which dot our towns, becoming entire cities of their own. We have been warned about the military-industrial complex before, mainly by President Dwight Eisenhower. But now, while the military-industrial complex may not be the employer of choice, it has become the employer of necessity. Picture, if you will, all the people making Hummer vehicles, now suddenly out of work—all the people that make airplanes out of work. And all those making military rifles, pistols and shotguns, out of work. All the people making military uniforms, and shoes and socks and backpacks suddenly unemployed.

Not only here in America would disaster ensue, but think of our impact on other countries. How long have we had a military presence in Japan? How long have we been in Korea? What would be the economic impact on these countries if peace forced us to abandon these various markets?

I was stationed in Germany when I was in the US Navy in the late 1950s. What if the military facilities in Bremerhaven were abandoned, and the Army base at Todendorf? We have a huge airbase facility at Rhine-Main, Germany. This base has hundreds of German civilians working there. When our military comes to another country, we become an irreplaceable part or their economy. If peace made all this expense unnecessary, what would be the impact on their economies? How long would their unemployment lines extend? http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-us-military-idUSTRE80Q1A620120127

Pragmatically, an outbreak of peace, which we all long for, would be an economic disaster not only for America, but for other countries as well. As time passes, people unable to buy food would riot. The housing and rental business would collapse. Those unemployed would no longer be making mortgage or rental payments. With mass unemployment no one would be able to pay taxes. The government would collapse for lack of funds. There would be no money to pay police or firemen. They too would be on the dole.

If I awakened one morning and found this “peace” scenario to be merely a bad dream I would heave a big sigh of relief. Fortunately there are enough wars to go around, for without war we'd be, proverbially speaking—fucked.

I have always suspected that a large part of the reason the 1930s depression ended was not so much the New Deal employment and social assistance programs instituted by FDR, but the outbreak of WWII. There is at least one history text that agrees with me on this point. (The Struggle For Freedom, A History of African Americans)

WWII put everyone to work. Everyone knew Hitler as well as the Japanese had to be stopped. It galvanized the country. Celebrities were selling war bonds. Kids were saving their money and buying war stamps that could be turned in a real war bond. We cut the ends out of tin cans and smashed them flat because “the war effort” needed metal of all kinds. We put up with rationing and hoarded our little ration stamps. We obeyed the OPA (Office of Price Administration) when the prices of goods were frozen, and we learned the meaning of what a “black market “really was. My point here, is that a war galvanized country was employed. The disastrous peace I dreamed about and describe fleetingly in this essay, would in itself create wars. The haves and the have nots would kill each other, but it would happen in our own country. (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=office+of+price+administration).

War is the employment gift that keeps on giving. The Veterans Administration employs about 318,000 people who take care of thousands of worn-out warriors needing medical care every day. They all have a job because of the after-effects of glorious war. For a glimpse of the true cost of war walk into a VA hospital and see the old veterans lined up in their wheelchairs and walkers waiting for care, pain relief or someone to talk to. (https://www.cato.org/blog/number-va-employees).

Is war the answer?

By Don DuPay