Folks, because of our common interests in working together to save the world from radical republicanism, I have joined forces with Otoño Johnston to publish her War and Peace Watch email newsletter in this blog.  You can read it regularly by clicking on the War & Peace Watch category under the Navigation bar.

Raison d'être for the War and Peace Watch

Dear Craig:

This isn't the personal blurb I spoke of earlier today, but the much longer raison d'être for the War and Peace Watch that I carry on my web site and that I send to new subscribers, etc. I thought you'd be interested.

 "Who We Are The War and Peace Watch emerged in reaction to the attitudes and behavior of the George W. Bush administration. We are not by nature or inclination political activists, but people who are deeply attached to certain core values, among them civility, integrity, and what was known to the founders of this country as a respect for the rights of mankind. Politics is not a gentle pursuit, and we are not so naïve as to expect either complete candor or uniformly irreproachable behavior from our public servants.

We are accustomed to a certain pragmatic ruthlessness from these people, and we have not seen it necessary since the end of the American war in Vietnam to publicly speak out in opposition to the bending of what we believe to be the basic rules of civil and democratic behavior. Now, however, the rules are not bent, but broken. The current administration conducts itself at a level of deceit, lawlessness, and irresponsibility unprecedented in our experience-an experience that extends back to the worst periods of the 1960s.

 Abroad, the administration conducts its foreign policy-toward friend and foe alike-through force of arms and economic blackmail. At home, it governs through secrecy, propaganda, fear-mongering, and (both directly, and through media monopolies beholden to it) the suppression of dissent. Everywhere, it communicates primarily through lies and intimidation. We cannot sit by and observe this in silence.

 The United States of America belongs to its citizens, and the people who govern it do so temporarily and provisionally, subject to the informed consent of the governed. To the extent they do otherwise, they govern illegitimately. What is being done in our name will outlast the Bush administration; the damage that is being done to relationships, to institutions, and to the public life of the world will take many years to heal. Meanwhile, we are dedicated to gathering and making available as much of the truth as we possibly can." Best, Otoño

4:16:35 PM