By Elea Mihou Fox

In December, President Obama announced plans to deploy 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan. There has been little public outcry in response to this decision. The enormous human, economic, and social costs of continuing and escalating war efforts have largely been ignored.

While many people are vocal about their concerns over the state of the economy, the lack of employment opportunities, and the need for greater healthcare access and reform, few have made the connection between military spending

and social programs. Right now the military gets 57% of the Federal Budget, which means that more than half of our taxes are devoted to war – not the public good.

As unfortunate as this is, our national spending and priorities are not going to change until we build a strong social movement that is capable of forcing reform. The WNY Peace Center is one of the largest locally autonomous peace organizations in the country. If we can develop the right strategies in WNY, we could also serve as a model for a national movement that our country desperately needs. To do this, we must change our approach to antiwar activism, and get back to community organizing.

Public opinion has consistently been against the war in Iraq and escalation in Afghanistan for years, yet the peace movement is faced with shrinking numbers and insufficient support. In part, this is because the peace movement has been largely using the same tactics since the Vietnam era and has not fully recognized the nation’s changing social conditions or appealed to the next generation of activists.

We put most of our efforts into public events and demonstrations, and place little emphasis on expanding our organizational capacity or developing new ways to build a strong base of informed and active citizens. The Peace, Justice, and Antiwar Coalition (PJAW), of which the WNY Peace Center is a founding member, has decided to change our tactics. Instead of only promoting and collaborating on demonstrations and public events, we are going to launch a grassroots campaign around Afghanistan.

Our first step in this process is going to be small group screenings of the film Rethink Afghanistan. We are reaching out to religious groups and other progressive organizations to ask them to host a screening of the film. Our hope is that we will begin to engage people of conscience who are not already in the peace movement.

If you would like to host a screening for your organization, family, neighbors or friends, please let us know at 716/332-3904 or elea@wnypeace.org. With your help, we can begin to build a powerful peace movement and shape public policy for the good.

The surge will cost $30 billion additional dollars, in a war that has already cost taxpayers over $228 billion. During the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, it will divert additional resources that should go to healthcare, education, infrastructure and jobs. It will take the lives of more American soldiers and kill and injure countless Afghani civilians.

We can no longer remain on the political sidelines—it’s time for us to speak out and end this war. The invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost this country our international standing, the lives of more than 5,000 American soldiers, countless civilians and more than $960 Billion in taxes, more than $2 billion from Erie County alone—how much more will we pay?