WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD THIS CAN BE: Solution for a Planet in Crisis

By Bertha Stoller-Fields

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Quotes

"Nations spend more than half their revenues to kill each other's citizens".

Bertrand Russell, 1957.

“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the press of the human mind. As that becomes more developed more enlightened and new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinion change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors".

Thomas Jefferson

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing".

Edmond Burke

"The world needs open hearts and open minds, and it is not through rigid systems, whether old or new, that these can be derived."

Bertrand Russell 1957, Why I am not a Christian.

We must create who we want to be rather than merely imitate whowe have recently been"....."We must fundamentally change the way we think"...."We need a nonviolent assumption of the power of the soul to heal the pain of a world that has forgotten it has one."

Marianne Williamson 1997
The Healing of America

PREFACE

The purpose of this book is to persuade the people of the world to take the action needed to save the human race from the destruction that is inevitable if current demagogues continue to govern. An overview of the incredible violence caused by the lust for power and greed throughout the ages must motivate THINKing individuals to develop an intelligent, equitable and nonviolent system of global behavior if life on this planet is to survive.

In this 21st century, human beings in developed countries, despite having access to the best education and freedom of thought, tolerate corruption by career politicians, bureaucrats, corporate criminals, and pretentious religious leaders who are unwilling to make permanent changes that might interfere with their control. Others in under-developed countries are ruled by power-hungry dictators, terrorists and fanatics who, under the guise of religion, make fear their weapon of mass destruction.

Having produced technology that has made it possible to communicate with each other throughout the world in a matter of seconds, it is astonishing that peaceful existence has been a monumental failure as humans continue to bring misery and death to each other. Without a complete change in global attitude our young are destined to witness the destruction of planet earth.

There is not one single aspect of life as we currently live it that can be pronounced as successful, or functioning with truth, honesty, compassion, fairness, equality, tolerance, spirituality, generosity and love. Despite thousands of years of established religion, and national and international political institutions which were to provide life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all citizens, we are not any closer to co-existing. Instead, we are victims of the very institutions that were designated to act on our behalf.

Many authors and speech-makers have told us what needs to be healed, but not how to find and implement a cure. It is analogous to doctors of medicine who provide few cures, but are satisfied with prescribing outrageously expensive drugs whose side effects can be more serious than the original illness.

Cave drawings dated as early as 13,000 BCE depict war. All there is to show for the history of aggression is an incredible waste of lives, property and the lost opportunity to live in an endless age of PEACE, knowledge, love, and achievements beyond imagination. THINKing people must come to the realization that it is necessary to remove all of the current forms of government, educational and financial institutions, military, established religions, and replace them with a completely different way of life that reflects human spirituality, with a deep desire for peaceful existence.

THINK of the stupendous amount of planetary revenue that could be amassed if we no longer needed rulers, elected or self-appointed government and religious leaders, their seats of government and symbols of power, massive cathedrals, secret police and intelligence agencies, tax collectors, penal institutions, endless court procedures that affect neither truth nor justice and duplication of bureaucracies benefiting national, state, county, and local officials. The public pays their salaries and lifetime pensions which they allocated to themselves.

THINK of how that wealth could be used instead, for all of the basic needs for all of the people, with colossal amounts remaining for superb education, careers, health and medical research, family enjoyment, safety and comfort, even luxuries.

It is too late to expect governments to repair the current system with its destructive actions. There is no time for political committees to pretend to study solutions but have no desire to change. Everyone knows of man's inhumanity to man, but make no protest or efforts to initiate practical ideas. Everyone knows what is wrong and what we ought to be, but no one has envisioned a new world completely different from what we are currently experiencing.

Despite opinions of disheartened naysayers, the worst of whom strongly believe that changes are impossible, not only do nothing themselves, but encourage others to join them. Moreover, changes are not only possible, they have been occurring constantly through the ages. The difference is that they change for worse, not for better.

There is a solution and it must begin now, while current and potential wars, self-dealing, natural disasters and global warming are on the brink of obliterating human life on earth. We must open our minds and imagine how life could be more humane and equitable with an entirely new way of self-government, economic opportunity, education, spiritual and social needs, truth in a new justice system, health care and PEACE ON EARTH. We need to "throw the baby out with the bath water," and start with new babies worldwide who will be educable by age four, to become the new humanity. In that four year period, we must rebuild the base from which their lives will evolve.

The fundamental plan for global change must be derived from changing our system of education throughout the world, so that it becomes the base for the most effective, affordable and acceptable structure that will be the ultimate guide for all global activity. Fortunately, this plan is underway as nations are coming together to study each other’s methods.

The entire concept depends on awareness and understanding that tyrants who were given or seized power throughout the ages, have manipulated, deceived and violated the people. To overcome the defects we will need to accept a unique method by not electing, but selecting and employing qualified people who will be thoroughly educated and trained to perform their public duties, and who will be unable to wield power and privilege beyond what the people allow.

The first step is to persuade those who say that the earth's problems are "too complex to be solved," that with daily practice to be generous, compassionate and loving to each other, we can change the world. Cynics may scoff, but people throughout the world have come together in every major disaster; earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunami, forest fires and the September 11, 2001 attack on the U.S., to bring emergency supplies and medical help, which has generated global brotherhood, respect and gratitude.

The next step is to remove current, fanatic nationalism that is responsible for war and tremendous waste of lives and the planet’s resources. A realistic, nonviolent plan must be designed to remove those who will refuse to relinquish the power and privilege they have guarded for themselves for centuries, and replace them with a new system of self-government.

A precise plan as to how to fund the new system and maintain a responsible global, fiscal policy will be described in detail.
This book will concentrate on how rulers, governments, political and religious institutions have misused power; how world-trade methods, and modern corporate practice and greed have influenced the global economy which directly affect how we support our families. We must etch deeply into our minds how greed and lust for power resulted in the extremely inequitable distribution of global wealth through the ages.

Those who do not think changes are possible only need to remember that all of the changes to improve our society have been brought because a single individual refused to accept the worst violations of human rights.

Abraham Lincoln emancipated more than a million slaves; Mohandas (Mahatma)* Ghandi’s doctrine of nonviolence brought freedom to India; a seamstress, Rosa Parks and an obscure minister Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated their lives to obtaining civil rights in the United States; Betty Friedan helped women liberate themselves; a worker Lech Walesa of Gdansk, Poland resisted the Soviet Union and Mikail Gorbechev recognized that it was impossible to sustain the enormous cost of the Cold War against a new military build-up by the Reagan administration, and the people tore down the Berlin wall to free their countries from communism. Jimmy Carter rose from the presidency of the United States to a higher calling and recently was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Individuals in spiritual congregation and affluent celebrities devoted to wiping out disease and poverty in Africa and elsewhere in the world are making differences with courageous and rational solutions.

If Americans were able to free themselves from British rule, if colonies freed themselves from European powers, if the Soviet Union collapsed and became separate nations, if China now embraces capitalism, and if new democracies and republics can emerge within a lifetime, there is reason to believe that necessary profound changes can be accomplished within the lifetime of a new generation.

This work is undertaken with the firm belief that our progeny will live a “good life” in synthesis with the true spirituality that resides in the hearts of mankind.

Bertha Stoller Fields, 2007

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE - POPULATION/CONTINENTS

CHAPTER TWO - NATURAL RESOURCES

CHAPTER THREE - THE COST OF THE MADNESS OF WAR

CHAPTER FOUR - THE FAILURE OF GOVERNMENTS

CHAPTER FIVE - RELIGION

CHAPTER SIX - EDUCATION

CHAPTER SEVEN - HEALTH/MEDICINE

CHAPTER EIGHT - ECONOMY/CORPORATE BEHAVIOR

CHAPTER NINE - JUDICIAL SYSTEM

CHAPTER TEN - MILITARY

CHAPTER ELEVEN - PEACE MOVEMENT

CHAPTER TWELVE - TERRORISM-THE DILEMMA OF THE MIDDLE EAST

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - NOVEMBER 6, 2006 ELECTIONS - IRAQ STUDY

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - PLAN TO CHANGE TO PLANETARY AND CONTINENTAL PANELS FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT

AFTER WORD

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND RESOURCES

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

After the first four years of the George W. Bush administration it became apparent that the chilling mind-set of mesmerized members of congress, his right-wing and conservative supporters, caused a shut down in logical thinking. The silence is deafening in America's acceptance of how far respect for the United States has descended around the world.

Seventy percent of the nation does not approve of George W. Bush and despite a slight majority of the new Democratic Congress in the 2007 election, significant changes are not in sight. The grievous flaw in our Constitution is not being able to discharge an acting president who is destroying the country.

After September 11, 2001, nations were sincerely sympathetic about the disaster of the terrorist attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. In 2006, the United States is despised throughout the world.

Judging from the hesitancy of the U.S. media to ask pertinent questions, there is little doubt that some rights have already been lost. Using the fear tactic, the Bush administration has made nefarious changes in the Homeland Security Act that rob Americans of privacy rights and the accepted rule of law.

July 30, 2006, Americans learned from the CBS program 60 Minutes, that the Bush administration has prohibited scientists from speaking freely about the threat to the planet through global warming. They have been ordered to submit press releases for approval from the White House. Whole sentences, paragraphs and pages have been deleted to minimize the warnings of the approaching disaster. Jim Hanson, a scientist working for the government, told us only ten years remain to restrict the use of fossil fuels or there will be no chance to save the planet from coastal flooding, loss of water supply as snow no longer falls in the northwest, unbearable climate and environmental changes.

The following morning no one in the U.S. seemed to be alarmed. There were no news reports about this loss of right to free speech, people did not gather to seek action, no phone calls, no e-mail, so it is obvious that people do not believe the scientists, and are putting their trust in the "steadfast" president (description by Senator McCain (R) of Arizona).

How does one apologize to our progeny for the destruction we have allowed to be brought to the planet we inherited, but failed to safeguard and improve? They are destined to an abysmal quality of life if they survive.

AUTHOR'S BLOGS ON THE INTERNET
(Edited to conserve space)

Blog site: www.livejournal.com/users/bert_fields

The purpose of the following blog entered August 21, 2004 was to alert everyone to the dangers of four more years of George W. Bush.

1. DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA

Since casting my first vote in 1948, no election has been as crucial to the immediate and future needs of our country. In 2000, the United State Supreme Court's ruling allowed Mr. Bush to become what should be considered, "acting" president. Republicans apparently agree with this assumption, as only once in this campaign has the word "re-elect" been used in connection with this president.

Only days away from the Republican convention, it is amazing that supporters of Mr. Bush, media pundits, well-educated, former leaders and experienced members who have been in Congress too long, have not understood how badly our country has been damaged these past four years.

None have had the courage to question Mr. Bush's mental ability or analytical skills needed to make the monumental decisions that will be needed to bring about changes so carefully detailed in the 9/11 Commission Report. Anyone who has read or even scanned the contents should know that this "acting" president will not be able to safeguard this or any other country, or repair the harm he has done to domestic conditions.

Mr. Bush has dumbed-down America to his intellectual level measured by his inarticulate speeches, accepted as "gaffes," and in his apparent inability to 'think on his feet.' He has been unable to communicate or explain his own positions when responding to his opponent's ideas, not even in defense of his dogmatic and failed war in Iraq. He only repeats that he will stay the course, and that opponent Senator Kerry will not.

His gaffes are fodder for late-night show comedians. In his use of the word "feces" when he surely meant fetuses" in an anti-abortion speech, and his response to Senator Kerry's reference to a possible draft, pounding the lectern, "there will be a draft" which was opposite to what he meant to say. There was an embarrassed silence while someone told him he misspoke.

In a television debate he said he wasn't concerned and didn't think about Osama bin Laden then later denied he made that statement. What other gaffes has he made during meetings, perhaps with his own staff and military officers which might have led to misunderstandings of what he was ordering them to do?

We are accustomed to reports of a candidate's physical health. Are we not entitled to hear the opinion of psychologists as to what Mr. Bush's body language and facial expressions signify, and how they evaluate his mental health?

This "acting" president inherited excellent financial conditions which he squandered during this four year term. Former President Clinton's writes in his book, "My Life [page 891]; "My last State of the Union address was a joy to deliver. We had more than twenty million new jobs, the lowest unemployment rate and smallest welfare rolls in thirty years, the lowest crime rate in two years, the lowest poverty rate in twenty years, the smallest federal work-force in forty years, the first increase in adoptions and 150,000 young people who had served in AmeriCorps. Within a month we would have the longest economic expansion in American history and by the end of the year we would have the three consecutive surpluses for the first time in fifty years."

The billion dollar surplus left to Mr. Bush was depleted, and defense spending increased by 50 percent, from $354 billion to about $547 billion according to the 9/11 Commission Report, [p.361], creating a record deficit. What did Bush say when he took office? "I inherited a recession." Democrats did not challenge Bush's statement.

Former President Clinton wrote [p.935], "after Mr. Bush's election, he came to the White House for the same meeting I had with his father eight years earlier. He was putting together an experienced team from past Republican administrations who believed that the biggest security issues were the need for national missile defense and Iraq. I told him that based on the last 8 years, I thought his biggest security problems in order, would be Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda; the absence of peace in the Middle East; the standoff between nuclear powers India and Pakistan, and the ties of the Pakistanis to the Taliban and al Qaeda, North Korea; and then Iraq. He listened to what I had to say without much comment, then changed the subject to how I did the job."

Can it be more clear that Mr. Bush decided to invade Iraq before he was even inaugurated and before the 9/11 attack? There are many questions that voters need answered before they step into the booth to make their choice for president on November 2, 2004.

Who is really running this administration? Mr. Bush appointed his father's staff, including Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney to name a few. Do these Republicans have more loyalty to their party than to their country?

Why when we were so close to finding Osama bin Laden and ending his reign of terror did Mr. Bush leave this task to other forces, reduced our participation, and instead used our military resources to invade Iraq? Would a few more weeks of U.N. inspection reveal what we now know to be a lie regarding weapons of mass destruction controlled by Saddam Hussein? Are Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen and Egypt among the coalition countries and how many of their troops are fighting this threat of mass destruction in their own neighborhood?
Why would Mr. Bush put our troops in harm's way, causing the death of more than a thousand, injury to thousands more and unreported number of casualties and suffering of the Iraqi people, as well as the destruction of public utilities and infrastructure?
This 'acting' president created a war and then with enthusiasm proclaimed himself to be a "war president" as though it were a badge of honor. The 9/11 Commission reports that "polls in 2002 show the support in our fight against terrorism plummeted. Fifty percent of our friends in Egypt decreased to fifteen percent, and in Saudi-Arabia to twelve percent, and two-thirds of the countries from Indonesia to Turkey were fearful that the United States would attack them. Favorable ratings for the U.S. have fallen from sixty-one percent to fifteen percent in Indonesia, and from seventy-one percent to thirty-eight percent among Muslins in Nigeria. Does this indicate that Mr. Bush is correct in claiming, "we are safer now."
Has Mr. Bush read the U.S. Constitution, specifically in relation to the powers of the presidency? Does it say anywhere that his job is to bring democracy to the rest of the world, whether they ask for it or not?
Does our Constitution give Mr. Bush the power to decide the areas of research scientists are allowed to conduct based on his religious beliefs, especially limiting discovery of stem-cell applications that might cure many diseases and afflictions?
Does our Constitution give Mr. Bush the power to decide personal relationships such as same-sex marriage?
Does our Constitution give Mr. Bush or Congress the power to impose their views as to what a woman is allowed to do with her own body. Does Bush's pro-life view coincide with the number of lives lost due to his mistakes in not learning more about terrorist activity, and by launching a war against one man. It took two weeks to capture Saddam Hussein who was executed after a lengthy trial. During the preparation time he received better medical care than many children and elderly people in the United States.
Can anyone really believe that the tax cuts for the rich who make global investments, were better than middle and lower-income families who would increase daily expenditures to improve their local economies? Does this decision reflect his MBA degree?
Does Mr. Bush understand that the Constitution specifically separates Church and State and that whether or not he is a God-fearing man has nothing to do with the power of his presidency? Is his morality on a higher level in waging a catastrophic war than that of President Clinton's personal behavior? Was the break-in at Democratic headquarters for which President Nixon took responsibility and resigned, as horrible as the huge numbers killed and maimed due to Mr. Bush’s war?
Is Mr. Bush accountable for motivating the increase of gasoline consumption by granting tax incentives to buy SUVs, notwithstanding record-setting prices, and increased environmental problems.
Suburbia's "Security Moms," formerly called "Soccer Moms," said on television that they intend to switch their vote to Mr. Bush because he will better protect them from terrorists than his opponent Senator Kerry... Duh moms....who will protect your children from the enormously influential National Rifle Association lobby which refuses to ban automatic weapons. Deranged adults can bring weapons to your schools and kill your children; or help people to buy handguns that their children bring to school and randomly kill and injure other children or accidentally kill themselves or friends while playing at home? Is this not the realty of what is currently occurring on streets, at workplaces and in schools?
To repossess our democracy, we must elect a president who will understand and follow the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, that it be the responsibility of the presidency to completely reorganize all of our security agencies, at the same time preserving our civil liberties.
When you vote ask yourself whether or not you and our country are better off today than four years ago? It was a question I asked in the Grass Roots Public Opinion Poll which I conducted for a national newspaper chain all during the Reagan administration. (Signed) Bfields747@aol.com

BLOG, APRIL, 2006 (Edited)
SEND TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS IF YOU AGREE

This is the most troubled time in U.S. history. It seems to be the government vs. the people. More than ever, Republicans are exhibiting a much greater loyalty to their party than to the country. Democrats are leaderless, exhibit no backbone, no plan or direction, no voice but to "support" the president, notwithstanding that seventy percent of U.S. citizens do not approve of his actions. Democrats "go along" and seem to be more fearful of being accused of not supporting the president than to come up with solutions germane to issues of concern to the people.

One can only conclude that you have failed in your duty to your constituents and thereby have lost your legitimacy. Did you know or forget that your job is to balance the power of the executive branch? You, not the president are the lawmakers. It is not your job to blindly support the president, especially when he has led us on the path to destruction.

Did you know as reported in April 3, 2006 edition of U.S. News & World Report, "that after he decided to invade he told Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon to carry out the mission as they saw fit?" The report said he then timidly followed Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney's recommendations. Where was the Congress to monitor their senseless and ill-planned war?

If you know anything about our Constitution, there is no provision for the president to "bring democracy to the world." The president is charged with the duty to defend our country. If you agree that this was a preventive war and continue to believe that he really thought that Iraq had the capability to attack us and had the intelligence data to prove it, you are on the same intelligence level as the president. When George W. Bush declared war on Osama Bin Laden and his terrorists, he gave him legitimacy as the head of a government. bin Laden and his organization should have been dealt with as international criminals.

Even with a supposedly huge turn-out for elections, and training to develop their own security force in Iraq, there is no functioning government. Are you prepared to approve funds requested by Iraq's new leaders at the January, 2006 World Economic Forum in Davo, Switzerland, for a program similar to the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II?

Senators McCain and Biden's solutions to end the war in Iraq as reported in the Readers' Digest were thoughtless and an embarrassment. Did it occur to any one of you, that the only way to end this war and the historic conflict among and between the Sunnis, Shi’as and Kurds is to separate them into three countries and divide the profits from oil production according to the population in each country?

We have seen in our lifetimes the division of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and others, into individual nations.

It is obvious that none of you bothered to learn the history of Islam. Do you know that Muhammad did not leave instructions as to his successor which is why the Sunnis and Shi'a have been enemies since his death. Did you know that the seat of Islam was once in Damascus and moved to Baghdad because of this conflict? These groups have lived apart in different parts of Iraq for centuries, with limited integration in some city neighborhoods. Many have already fled to Syria since the U.S. invasion, leaving behind their homes and possessions.

George W. Bush says Iraq is not engaged in a civil war while their newly elected prime minister said a civil war is in progress. Which one is to be believed?

More people seem to be resigned to the dumbing-down of America to the president's level, providing fodder for comedians, while none of you legislators seem to have the fortitude to turn things around. Your committee hearings as seen on C-Span are lackluster with partisan questioning and acceptance of refusals to answer, that it seems you are all merely going through the motions.

If you do not carefully regulate the influence and practices of lobbyists, especially to enrich their weapons-manufacturer clients, you are war criminals and we will never achieve global peace. Along with global warming which you and the president have ignored, this planet will not survive a nuclear, or even another conventional weapon world war.

Shame on all of you for allowing September 11 to make you so fearful that you are willing to trade our freedom for "security" while innocent civilians and young soldiers are dying every day in Iraq. Our airport security system is absurd and inefficient and an example of what a police state looks like, while public utilities are not secure.

Have any of you investigated who at our embassies are screening people's applications for visas to enter the United States? Who carefully checks their visas before they board a plane or ship? Who checks their visas when they arrive at our air or sea ports? Does anyone know where these people stay when they enter? Are they tracked down if they overstay their visa date? How many of these people are unaccounted for in the United States who might actually be a security risk?
How does it help the U.S. economy to pay $6.5 billion to Dubai and a British corporation to manage our ports? How could contracts have been awarded without bids from American companies? Or, in learning of the Dubai contract, did anyone have an intuitive, if not educated awareness of "hali burton tosis"? How did the president and his vice president Dick Cheney keep this secret? Why was the sub-government bureaucracy, permitted to make this momentous decision? George W. Bush defended the transaction, and Senator First, without knowing the facts, said he thought the president is "probably right." What was right about it? Did it have anything to do with the president's family dealings with Middle East oil interests?
As for erosion of our rights, where is "equal under the law" in giving tax cuts to the wealthiest? Would not middle-class taxpayers immediately put the money back into our economy right here in the U.S. paying huge gas-heating bills and automobile fuel, credit card debt, mortgages, property taxes, medicines, utilities, clothing, food, school supplies, children's needs, perhaps a movie?.
How are the rich spending their windfall? Perhaps large amounts are in safety deposit boxes, if not in Swiss bank accounts. Has it occurred to any one of you to initiate national sales tax for luxury items so that wealthy loop-hole users would pay an equitable share?
When will you become aware of markets that are growing in China, India and Korea, throughout Asia and Russia? Many nations are ahead of us in education, specifically math and science. We will wonder how and why we became the fourth wealthiest country in the world. if not fifth or sixth. What happened to the funds Representative Henry Hyde was supposed to use to reform the judicial system? Has our current system anything to do with truth and justice? Other than lawyers, who are the beneficiaries of final judgments? All lawyers are familiar with the courthouse statement, "the worst settlement is better than a trial." It is beyond understanding that representatives of a civilized people accept the building of more and more prisons without any significant rehabilitation and treatment programs.
Only Senator Feingold (D) Wisconsin had the courage to seek censure of a president who has broken the law with secret wire-tapping, violating our right to privacy. Who knows what else is being kept secret? Changes to the Homeland Security Act are equally insidious.
If you don't have the courage to seek censure, than at least demand this president's resignation with the clear understanding that he must take with him all of his father's cronies who designed and carried out his orders. According to the article in U.S. News and World Report, April 3, 2006 it appears that they have actually been running the government, with the president as a figurehead. It describes his hands-off style, quoting him, "I put a lot of faith and trust in my staff...I look for people who are smart and loyal and who share my conservative philosophy. My job is to set the agenda...and then delegate much of the process to them. The final decision often rests with me, but their judgment has a big influence..... I am loyal to my friends, so it is sometimes hard to say no." How does that statement stand up to his loyalty and duty to his country and its citizens?
The president's plan to relieve the burden of the cost of medicine for the elderly is becoming a tremendous windfall for pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Americans have been very generous in contributing to medical research for many years, and if universities are working on cures, how does the industry attribute its outrageous prices for drugs to the "cost of research" while Europe and Canada can provide them at one-third or one half the price in the U.S.? The president can't explain the plan, and I doubt any one of you can.
It is impossible to respect your positions as representatives of the people when not one of you speaks out to contradict the president's statement that he "inherited a recession" from the Clinton administration. Not one Senator came forward to support the House bill challenging the Supreme Court's decision that put George W. Bush in office.
And, on this third anniversary of our invasion of Iraq, the president speaks out on the White House lawn upon returning from a weekend at Camp David, bragging how we freed the Iraqis and helped them achieve a democracy with the election of a new government. At the same time, the elected prime minister in Iraq clearly states that a civil war is being waged there now. Despite the elections, a government has yet to be formed and American troops are still casualties. .
Last and perhaps most important, is the silence these many years regarding the enactment of a limited term for the presidency, but not the legislature. Obviously you have been able to stay in office for many years past your effectiveness, if you ever were even mildly effective.. Most of your terms are spent fund-raising to remain in office. The necessity to raise millions of dollars to campaign to serve one's country is in itself a travesty in a democracy. You have allowed this democracy to erode incrementally, with your own purposes in mind.
If you truly loved our country you should seek resignations from those who blindly followed the party line, rather than represent their constituencies.

I would very much appreciate if you respond with answers to the following questions.

1. What was your schedule this past week that was of benefit to your constituency?_____________________________________________

2. Since you have been a U.S. Senator which bill(s) did you author and which was your most significant contribution and when did that occur?

3. How much money do you have in your next election campaign funds?_____________________

4. How much time do you expect you will spend from now to November for fund-raising and campaigning? _________________________________

Any comments would be appreciated. BFields747@aol.com

(No response was received from any member of congress.)

CHAPTER ONE

POPULATION/CONTINENTS

As of January 18, 2006 the world population was 6,492,233,251, .an increase of 100,000,000 since July 1, 2005. The land surface per continent as seen below, must house these billions, as well as future generations. In addition to housing, space must be provided for supporting facilities such as, schools, work places, agriculture, hospitals, trade centers, and a myriad of services.

Fig.1 POPULATION AND AREA OF THE SEVEN CONTINENTS

Location----------2005/pop. ------- 2000/Pop.-------1950/Pop.-----------% of World

Asia ------------3,913,842,171 ------3,686,061.632 -------1,436,893,576 ------60.7
Africa ----------891,437,541 --------803,234,623 ---------227,332,997 --------13.8
Europe ---------729,341,014 --------72,934,730 -----------546,415,793 --------11.3
N. America -----512,422,558 -------487,223.694 ----------220,857,588 --------7.9
S. America -----371,271,037 --------348,336,602 ----------111,384,890 --------5.8
Australia -------32,744.469 ---------30,744,658 -----------12,476,128 ---------0.5
Antarctica -----------Scientific research - no permanent population-----------------
World population -6,451,058,790 ----6,085,527,778 ---------2,555,360.972

Location-------------Area (sq.mi.) ---------------Area (Km) -----------% of World

Asia ---------------32,027,230 ------------------11,979,676 --------------21.4
Africa --------------29,805,045 -----------------11,507,789 ---------------20.6
Europe ------------22,825,905 -----------------8,813,128 ----------------15.7
N. America ---------21,393,762 ------------------8,260,174 ---------------14.8
S. America ---------17,522,371 -------------------6,765,422 ---------------12.1
Australia & Oceania- 8,428,702 -----------------3,254,338 -----------------5.8
Antarctica ---------14,000,000
World ------------145,003,018 ----------------55,985,956

A cursory analysis of Fig.1 provides a valuable comparison of populations per continent and the disparity in available space. For example, Asia’s population of 60.7 percent lives on 21.4 percent of the land. Africa with 13.8 percent of the population has more space per capita at 20.6 percent of the land. Therefore, if we hope to save the planet, we would need to motivate people who are living on over-populated continents to seek opportunities on a continent with more space. This is not a new idea that would cause monumental problems. It has been going on for centuries, as people moved across the sea when economic conditions were thought to be better, which continues to this day.

Fig. 2. THE UNITED NATIONS POPULATION DIVISION ESTIMATED THE FOLLOWING:

1 A.D. 300 million
1804 1 billion
1927 2 billion
1950 3 billion
1964 4 billion
1973 5 billion
1999 6 billion

Population grew from 50 million in 1000 BC to 300 million in 1 A.D., to 700,000,000 by 1804. The most rapid growth occurred in the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries. Currently 40 percent of the land mass is used for crops and livestock, compared to 25 percent a century ago. Continued growth will require brilliant engineering and innovative construction for residential and commercial use.
Perhaps it was a Divine Plan for the creation of 28 oceans and thousands of lakes and rivers on the planet as a natural resource for equitable use by all its inhabitants. The Atlantic, Pacific, the Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Bering Sea, Labrador Sea, Beaufort Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Adriatic, Aegean Sea, Red Sea, Amundsen Sea, Sea of Ohotsk, Sea of Japan, Timor Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea, Andaman Sea, Arafura Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Ross Sea, Davis Sea, Weddell Sea, Caribbean Sea, Hudson Bay, Persian Gulf, Gulf of California and nearby islands might be sites for developments to re-populate the poorest of each continent’s inhabitants.
The planet’s water supply is diminishing as this new housing is built without protection for the environment. Global warming, largely due to consumption of fossil fuel is no longer speculation, but scientific fact. The Pacific Northwest can no longer depend on melting snow-caps for its water supply, as less snow falls in the Cascade Mountains. Weather conditions are changing due to higher temperatures so that droughts occur where there has been plenty of water. Coastal floods are inevitable as ocean ice sheets melt.
Rain forests are also disappearing and air quality has been deteriorating for decades, which U.S. President George W. Bush, along with other national leaders choose to ignore. Former U.S. Vice President, Al Gore, produced a documentary released in 2006, "An Inconvenient Truth" providing a most profound report of global-warming which citizens of the planet must not allow world leaders to ignore.
What have global leaders been doing to prepare for such disasters? They have learned nothing from the terrible lack of preparation and mobilization of so-called Home Security Agencies and FEMA in the Katrina hurricane of 2005. U.S. President George W. Bush along with other national leaders choose to ignore attempts by responsible nations to acknowledge the danger to the planet. A method of removal of these governments for the survival of the planet is detailed in the following chapters.
. In this age of new technology, it should be possible to turn man-made islands, (i.e. off-shore oil rigs) and thousands of large and small lakes and major rivers into habitable space.
China has been introducing a new existence to its population. Construction of high-rises in all major cities is providing housing for people moving from ancient sections now being demolished in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games. In Beijing which will be the major venue, architecturally imaginative new stadiums and other facilities will remain to serve the population for many years. This will be instrumental in launching a continental re-birth in Asia.
At the same time, China has constructed the world’s largest and costliest dam across the Yangtze River to control devastating floods that have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and erosion of land. Even before the western world protested that farmers along the river would lose their land, space was left between buildings to cultivate crops as they have done for centuries. Now they have modern living accommodations, with indoor plumbing, heating, and amenities that rural farmers had never experienced. Moreover, construction of the dam will provide electricity for a population the size of New York, Washington, D.C and much of the U.S. eastern seaboard.
How is it financially possible for such a massive building boom for a country under communism? One of the most likely answers is that since they have not been at war for more than thirty years, they can fund universities to graduate over 350,000 engineers each year, and instead of losing a generation to war, have an unending labor force to manufacture goods sold all over the world. China has embraced capitalism so that there are countless new millionaires.
However, China is facing problems that have relatively simple solutions if they act with alacrity. In the courageous event in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1985, which has been erased from Chinese historic studies, students in China were protesting corruption in the communist party and demanding a voice in the government. Corruption remains and is likely to affect the skyrocketing economy.
Peasants in rural China have almost no part in the new wealth and no educational opportunities. To avoid unrest, the government must increase the low peasant wage for a more equitable share of the new wealth, and provide education for rural children. Farmers have come into the cities and with self-funding programs not actually approved by the government, have grown and function throughout China. The government has held tight rein over its people, but as long as their businesses do not employ more than five people, they do not interfere. They realistically reason that peasants must come into the economy to prevent protests, but even more important to continue growth of the economy.
As they continue to prosper the new wealth will enable the people to purchase their own output now sold throughout the world, but which is now too expensive locally. They will then become the largest market in the world. If this nation with over a billion people can change, there is hope that a new planetary system can be a reality.
Dialogue with Taiwan is imminent to prevent dissent from slowing the progress of their new economy. Another problem is China’s near fifty year occupation of Tibet which is damaging China’s world image. The exiled Dalai Lama now residing in India, has captured the affection of the western world by his nonviolent approach to freeing the Tibetan people. His efforts on behalf of human rights and world peace resulted in the Nobel Peace Prize.
Civilization has yet to experience a good life with peace and prosperity. Philosopher Bertrand Russell defined a good life as "one inspired by love and guided by knowledge," and, "the good life must be lived in a good society and is not fully possible otherwise." We will need to know with whom it will be shared, where it will take place and what goals and time schedules must be planned and met.
How is it possible with such enormous global wealth, much of the world population still does not have adequate food, shelter, clothing, medical care, education? For years we have seen atrocious pictures on television of starving and malnourished babies in Africa. Hospitals, as the western world knows them are not imagined in the poorest areas. Those who are barely able, must walk for days to reach medical care. Even if they make the journey, equipment and medicine are so woefully inadequate, with almost no resources to train staffs, that few survive.
Victims of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases suffer before our eyes yet there have been no extensive programs to build clinics and train local people to provide care. Few programs are in place to clear land, dig wells to grow crops and raise livestock. This shameful lack of global effort to erase such devastating poverty should weigh heavily on the consciences of all planetary inhabitants.
Formerly healthy African tribes lived in successful, smaller agricultural societies in higher, drier regions away from mosquito infested rivers. Under colonial rule they were forced into building the railroad, mining and other slave-labor in extremely crowded conditions, so that they, too, perished. Today, at least 500 children under the age of five die from malaria.
Even while the people of Africa starve, the cost of war in Sudan is somehow funded. Sporadic hostilities occur, subside and break out in neighboring nations. Where do warring parties find funds to obtain weapons and supplies to support troops?
Currently, Uganda's children sleep in shelters fearful of a cult-like insurgency who murder, rape and enslave them. Two-thousand people have died by violence and disease since 2000. Ninety-nine percent are afraid to leave crowded camps to return to their homes and land. This is three times deadlier than the situation in Darfur in Sudan. However, U.S. aid to Darfur is $150 million and in Uganda, $7 million.
The imbalance emanates from a flawed system of humanitarian aid which has no logical plan. Apparently, as in other disastrous undertakings, the U.S. does not have a system ready to act in accordance with events and emergency needs. Nor is there word from the United Nations as to how this body is solving another human disaster.
The modern world is on the brink of nuclear war; terrorism caused by religious fanatics is unimaginably brutal and violent, and world leaders continue to seek the same solutions that have neither resolved nor changed man’s inhumanity to man. The solution lies in a planetary mission for universal humanitarian aid to all people, administered by planetary and continental panels, not governments or elected officials who repeatedly prove that they are abysmally unfit to be in control.
Compassionate activists through the centuries have had to pull the majority of the affluent population into recognizing the basic needs of many. Were it not for not-for-profit local and international charities, conditions would be even more catastrophic. Unbelievably, a basic standard of living is still not met in under-developed countries. Even the powerful United States of America and the second, third and fourth wealthiest nations in Asia have pockets of poverty in many of their regions.
Nationalist, imperialist and totalitarian governments have utterly failed their people, and have brought death, destruction and misery to civilization. Republics and democracies have failed to adhere to their pledge of equality under the law, are depriving citizens of inalienable rights to free speech, practice of religion, non-discrimination of race or gender and protection of property rights, and instead condone fraudulent election processes, taking no action to reform the electoral process.
Over 70 percent of the population of the Republic of the United States are against the policies of the president and his party which is in control of Congress. They are more loyal to their party than to the country and their constituents. There is no way to remove them before their terms expire for they control the impeachment process, which is the only method for removal. Investigations of bribery and corruption, indictments, trials and sentencing of government officials are underway throughout the country, not only in Congress.
We can begin the process of change by thinking of ourselves as citizens of the planet, residing on the continents of our choice, with permanent or temporary exchanges of residences with other continental citizens. Hundreds of thousands are leaving the U.S. to return to Asia because economies are improving, while U.S. financial growth stagnates (but not for the wealthy).
Top priority should be given to the U.S. current chaos over the 11-13 million illegal immigrants who crossed the border from Mexico. They have come to find work to support their families and the work they find is menial labor that U.S. citizens refuse to do. The median wage in Mexico in 2004 was $1.86, compared to $9 per hour in the U.S. The Mexican government would rather receive the dollars sent back to their impoverished families than develop their own economy.
There are no true victims, but sanctimonious lawmakers many of whom place themselves above the law are dismayed that the border was crossed without permission and are labeling these hard workers as "criminals." At risk are their children who are not documented. Through no fault of their own, now as productive adults they have questionable status. Bills, amendments to bills to "protect" the border are currently being debated in Congress, as each party seeks favor with voters in the November 2006 election, desperate to keep their jobs in the Senate and the House.
The proposal is to build a 2,000-mile fence costing millions of dollars. Note that these are the people who decried Israel's attempt to build a fence to keep out suicide bombers. There can be no assurance that this will be an effective way to stop illegal immigration. Another plan is to fine those who are in the U.S. illegally $2,000, and then give them guest worker status, or send them back to wait their turn for permission to emigrate. Another plan is to punish the people who employ them, which puts small businessmen in the position of enforcing the law, which is not their right, duty or inclination.
While the president and congress are in a mad race to keep hard working Mexicans out, they have completely failed homeland security. Their plan to prevent another terrorist attack is to spy on communications of millions of U.S. Citizens, while those who entered from the mid-east are nowhere to be found or identified. Apparently U.S. embassies in foreign lands have failed in their duty to control visas granted to visitors.
The first nation that required immigrants to seek permission to cross its border, should have been a warning as to how far the lust for power would encroach on the freedom of movement anywhere on the planet.

NEW DEMOGRAPHICS
As seen at the beginning of this chapter, world population grew from 1000 BCE's 50 million to 1999's six billion. World population has not grown as much as it has shifted. That is why the change to self-government in a planetary system is more timely now, and as other manifest destinies, is almost a coincidence that a change could well save the planet in crisis. Where western Europe's birth rate is decreasing, new populations of immigrant Muslims are emerging. This is already causing problems in the capitals of France, Spain and Germany. Japan's population is shrinking, too. With their high cost of living, immigration would be much slower. (U.S. News and World Report (October 2, 2006).
China is having a problem they should have anticipated when they limited couples to one child. Sons were preferred, so that girls were given up for adoption. I returned from a trip to China in 2003 in a planeload of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen, accompanied by their adoptive American families. They were from one year to 18 months old, healthy and delightfully smiling and reaching out for attention. According to the pediatrician who supervised the trip, this was an immense improvement over their condition only a few months before.
Since the edict of one child per family, the boy-children have grown into teens and young adults, but there are few girlfriends, or girls of marriageable age. China is looking to their own provinces to bring potential brides to the cities, before they start to look to other countries. ((U.S. News & World Report). The mingling of cultures could start the process of change and would be a good omen for peaceful co-existence.
From the first census in 1790 the population of the U.S. was 4 million, by 1930 it gained 100 million, another 100 million by 1967, and by the first of October, 2006 will reach 300,000,000.* The phenomenal growth was 20 million added since 2000. What is interesting is that the U.S. has become a true melting pot, which for almost 200 years was made up of descendants of European immigrants.
The trends are new migration and immigration. Immigration to the U.S. has more than doubled since 1980. Illegal entry has more than tripled and they are 30 percent of the foreign-born population.*
It is common practice to move from state-to-state in the U.S. depending upon opportunities for new jobs, retirement choices, cost of living, education and family requirements. If an area loses population, it is forced to lower its cost of living and can be replaced with new immigrants and people from across the country, who might be experiencing financial instability, or escaping disasters such as hurricane Katrina, in 2005.
Migration from the mid-west and northeast to the south and west, has seen a significant shift in the population. Boise, Idaho has grown seventy-nine percent since 1990. Hewlett Packard, computer equipment and Micron, a manufacturer of superconductors, provide employment. Boise enjoys an affordable cost of living, and unemployment is a low three percent.
Immigrants from Mexico and Latin America are changing the ethnic composition throughout the country. Fort Wayne, Indiana is now thirteen percent Hispanic, about 16,500, along with immigrants from Rwanda, Portugal and Honduras. The current problem concerning some 12 million illegals from Mexico has been brewing for months, with debates between Democrats and Republicans as to how to absorb or deport them and build costly fences to keep them out.
There has been no word from incumbent members of Congress who when they awaken, will be made very uncomfortable as they recognize the need to expect redistricting. A new president, other than a white-Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) is also possible in the near future, perhaps 2008.
The shifting population includes 12.4 percent of the elderly, and a whole new generation of baby-boomers (77 million) who prefer warmer climates. The median age is 36.5 and could be 39 by 2030. Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Idaho are the fastest growing states. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas were the fastest growing between 2004-2005.
With this aging comes increased funding for Medicare and Social Security which will become even larger entitlement programs. Republicans can't wait to be reelected so that they can cut these entitlements. However, if nation-states are abolished and there are no longer wars, the United States would have $450 billion dollars this year alone. Total world savings for weapons, along with income from natural resources, would guarantee everyone on the planet a truly financially secure lifestyle and old-age existence.
The logical solution to relentless violence is in the recognition of the seven continents as” our land.” We should begin by removing all national borders on each continent so that we become accustomed to THINKing not as nationals, but as continental and planetary citizens. This should not be a monumental problem because it is already a reality on several continents. For example, North America with its individual states, need only remove the border between Mexico, Canada and Central America to be continental citizens. To begin, these governments could come together to coordinate programs to ease global warming, or initiate equitable trade opportunities.
Europe has already united in its common market and currency, and the former Soviet Union changed to individual nations and only need to remove their national borders to become one continent with Europe.
Population increases are not new to the U.S. The flow of Europeans from colonial times, some 50 million after Napoleonic Wars, post-wars I and II, continues in the current largest wave of immigration in history. Each nation’s system of granting citizenship to immigrants can be vastly different. In the U.S. it is easier, compared to Europe's more stringent requirements. As Europe's population continues to decline due to aging and lower birth rates, they will need to review their immigration policies.
THINK how we could advance civilization if there were only six languages, one for each continent, except Antartica, with one global language for the purpose of official communication. In a new system of global education, primary grades would include mandatory language courses so that we will be able to understand each other without translators. Children in Africa now can speak at least four different languages of nearby tribes. There would be continental agreements to retain and celebrate cultural differences as we travel throughout the planet, the same as we do today.
The cost of duplication of national governments and bureaucracies can be greatly reduced under the administration of high level employees guided by separate contracts with each continent. Funding for this new concept can be even more simple than all of the bureaucratic tax agencies, regulatory departments in all of the nations, principalities, states, provinces, cities, counties, townships, suburbs, and villages.
THINK, if 6.5 billion people had a per capita income of $10,000 annually, the total would be $650 trillion. This is realistic in the current vast revenue of a global economy.
The implementation of the new concept will be seen in the Chapter Plan for Planetary and Continental Self Government, which will describe development of an overall concept of global changes.
The mission would be to establish on each continent, equal opportunities and facilities to live with dignity in peace and nonviolence in a new world.
We have already seen these types of panels in action, in social and cultural organizations. Primarily they are the fund-raisers for not-for-profit corporations who have enriched our lives with museums, orchestras, hospitals, medical research, services for the elderly, as well as organizers of children's sports and entertainment, and those working for PEACE in the world, among them volunteers of the Peace Corps. We should honor them above all elected officials.

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

NATURAL RESOURCES

A new plan must begin with planetary ownership of all of the earth’s natural resources including oil, gas, water, forests, precious stones, coal, minerals, solar and wind power, and any natural materials found in soil or water. There are no monopolies or cartels controlling the use of the sun, sky and oceans. The earth was not created for a few dynasties, hostile nations and corporations to enjoy immeasurable wealth, while the rest of the world remains silent in this inequitable ownership.

The collected wealth of current holders of the world’s resources is so vast that their descendants could live for centuries in the same extreme luxury that one sees when the royal families of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other oil producing nations take over several floors of the most exclusive hotels in New York, Paris and Beijing. The hundreds of palaces for all members of the royal families and enormous mansions of corporate executives and world leaders are symbols of insatiable greed. Prices rise, profits rise, avarice knows no limits, so that world-wide consumers experience financial hardship or extreme poverty.

There should be no question that wealth is deserved by those who start their own businesses, patent inventions, provide services, work hard, take risks and provide jobs to sustain the global economy.

However, it could not have been a Divine Plan for the taking of natural resources by so few to receive tremendous profits from materials they did not produce themselves, whether it is oil, diamonds, coal, or any substances that are part of the natural world. It is time to place profits from natural resources in a planetary bank to fund a global rebirth of whole new methods and procedures to assure a “good life” of peace and prosperity for all.

This plan clearly is not a welfare or socialist form of living or welfare for those who can work. It is to provide basic needs for the poor, and equitable education to level the playing fields so that everyone who has the ability and stamina can meet their goals.

This is not the taking of production of food and livestock that owners of farmland, or those who are in the process of developing and creating products such as ethanol and alternative fuel, through their own efforts. It is not a natural resource if the owner of land plants the seed and harvests the crop that produces the product, just as the manufacture of automobiles, clothing and other goods emanate from physical and mental labor.

Those most likely to oppose planetary ownership, would repeatedly invoke the “c” word (communism) to place fear in the hearts of the gullible. Public ownership of natural resources is already a reality. We pay water bills directly to cities and villages because they initiate, supervise building and maintenance of treatment plants and pipelines with tax revenue. Communism has not resulted.

Of course an outcry would emanate from global corporations if the people prevail in the right to own natural resources. These organizations have already earned profits far beyond what stockholders ever imagined. Exxon-Mobile reported a staggering $36 billion profit in 2005, and is far ahead of that in the first quarter of 2006. Their CEO Lee Raymond, received a $400 million retirement package as the prices of oil increases everyday.

June 18, 2006, a CBS program on PBS disclosed that the government leased public property for private companies to produce oil and gas for a 12 percent royalty. No payment has been received.

In 1995 when oil was $20 per barrel, deep water drilling was booming. The Clinton administration allowed companies to drill on public property for oil and natural gas. Their profits went up 400 percent in five years. Total royalties should have been $34 billion, but “loopholes” helped them to avoid making payment. At that time someone forgot (writer’s italics) to include the royalty term in the renewed leases which cost taxpayers $10 billion.

George W. Bush said in his campaign that oil companies did not need tax breaks. In 2004, he gave a company rights to drill in shallow water, but no royalties have been paid. Then on May 11, 2006, he and Congress awarded the industry a huge $7 billion permanent tax break.

Representative George Miller (D California) said "it was the train robbery of all time." The House recently passed a bill to renegotiate the royalty to "get a better deal" and have passed it on to the Senate, but was not yet on the agenda at this writing.

A government employee has been trying for seven years to collect royalties on behalf of U.S. taxpayers. He states there are currently problems with audits of oil companies’ records, but the government has actually reduced the number of audits by half. He clearly states that cheating and lying are occurring, but he has been pressured into curtailing his investigation.*

The Kerr-McGee Corporation in their current suit against the government says they should not have to pay any royalties. This would be a loss to taxpayers of some $60 billion. If they win, other oil companies will sue and their record-breaking profits will be astounding.

How much and for how long should planetary citizens accept the inequity of ownership of our natural resources by a relatively few families or corporations?

It will be interesting to see if petroleum corporations will obtain the support of the current Bush administration to gain control of the ethanol or any alternative fuel industry in the United States. Will the people remain silent?

There has been little or no thought of the public good in all of the years since discovery of the planet’s natural resources. There are Rhodes scholars awarded by the early wealth of Britain’s Cecil Rhodes, owner of diamond mines in Africa. Unless a new plan is conceived, there is no chance that conditions in the world will change from poverty and war, to equal opportunity and peace.

With the discovery of oil fields, national governments are turning their new-found wealth into political power. In South America Bolivia’s new president Evo Morales, called out the troops on May Day, 2006 and nationalized the country’s gas industry.*

Venezuela’s President Chavez increased government control of oil production which is 80 percent of its revenue. The opposition party did not participate in the election. They fear his contacts with Cuba’s dictator Fidel Castro and that he wants to create a modern socialistic society. He intends to use the revenue for political purposes, that is to influence other South American countries towards socialism. This threatens the stability of the western hemisphere and the potential for future war. IT DOES NOT HELP THE PEOPLE NOW.

Russia provides nearly half of Europe’s natural gas and a third of its oil.* U.S News & World Report writes, “when the new Gazprom pipeline under the Baltic Sea is ready, Europe will depend on Russia for up to 80 percent of its gas, giving it enormous leverage over the Continent.” The conclusion can only be that Russia will be reborn as a super-power.

The U.S. is behind a $4 billion, 1,000-mile pipeline for Caspian Sea oil in Azerbaijian which borders on Iran. The president of Azerbaijan since 2003, succeeded his father in what is thought to have been a questionable election. Its poor human rights methods are overlooked because of their strategic location.

Iraq has already told the United States that to be a viable nation they would need to share in the profits of their oil production. On June 14, 2006, President Bush said oil in Iraq “belonged to the Iraqi people.” Now we should demand that he declare the same for Americans that the oil produced in the U.S. and off-shores be owned by the American people. The oil field recently found five miles below the surface of the Mexican gulf could be the most lucrative of all oil fields. One tremendous advantage would be not having to purchase any more oil from the middle-east. The disadvantage is that instead of reducing fossil fuel consumption, it will undoubtedly increase, especially if supply results in reduced prices of gasoline.

There have been no reports as to what has happened to the profits during the many years of Saddam Hussein’s regime. A short time after the invasion, $6 million dollars in cash was found in one of his palaces. Are we to believe that was his entire estate, or is it more likely the rest is in numbered accounts in Swiss and other global banks?

Nigeria owns its oil production but only a few enjoy the profits while the rest of the population suffers poverty. In the background, rebel agitation threatens production which could cause an increase in the already record-breaking price of crude oil. The U.S. receives 1 million barrels daily and China is courting Nigeria as a source for its increasing consumption.

The developments of new regimes whether or not they arise from democratic elections, does not assure equitable distribution of profits from natural resources within their own countries. Therefore, it is even more urgent to change control of natural resources into a planetary and continental system.

In the U.S and Canada new frontiers are opening to remove oil from sand and shale, heretofore thought to be too costly a process. A coal mining family enterprise first received a $100 million energy grant, and $47 million in state tax credits, and almost a year ago received $490 million federal loan guaranties to develop the process of liquid fuel from coal, equivalent to about 10 percent of current U.S. oil production. A fair repayment of expenditures incurred by the owners for this development, subtracting the government handout, would be the responsibility of the new planetary system of ownership.

Meanwhile government alliances change, oil prices rise, politicians blame each other and the turmoil becomes more disturbing. It is mandatory that the system change in order to prevent the violence that will certainly come as nations exhaust patience to diplomatically prevent war.

Corporate owners of natural resources will use whatever tactics and amounts of money necessary to prevent planetary ownership. Even with the promise of fair and reasonable compensation this will be the biggest obstacle for planetary change. However, it is all the more reason that an equitable share be realized, and time for multi-national corporations to stop running governments.

We should keep in mind that consumption of oil is increasing due to heavier vehicles on the road; that eventually supply will diminish and the cost of available oil will be so high that only the wealthy will be able to afford it. What will 200 million vehicles owners in the U.S. use for fuel?

Early in his administration, Congress supported George Bush's decision to give a seven percent tax break to those who purchased SUVs. This was without regard to warnings of global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions. Auto manufacturers apparently are convinced that bigger and heavier vehicles are more marketable than the 200,000 new hybrid models they produced in 2005. They are not producing enough new mechanisms to adapt current autos to accept alternate fuel.

China’s five percent ownership of automobiles has increased to 25 percent in three years. Buick has become the major manufacturer of autos in China. Do American and other foreign auto-makers believe that China will continue to depend on them as ownership increases? They have the capability to immediately establish factories to produce any product they know will add to their remarkable economy.

Even if the supply of petroleum decreases, revenues will remain the same as prices rise. In the meantime, consumption must be greatly reduced until new fuel and methods of transportation replace current vehicles. As more nations use oil revenue for political purposes, their power will increase the potential for war in the near future.
An entirely new system of mass transportation must be undertaken. Banning automobiles from the business centers of major cities throughout the world can work. In some places such as New York City and Chicago, taxis are the mode of travel. Chicagoans and visitors are riding free trollies to all sections of the city. High parking fees, new bicycle paths and improved mass transit in the downtown area encourage less use of autos. The best effects are reductions in dependency on oil, in pollution and as important, healthy exercise for desk-bound workers.

The emphasis here on the oil industry is due to the extreme impact of rising prices and violence associated with the need for oil. This is not to diminish the immense value of other natural resources; water, wind and solar power, coal, copper, steel, precious metals, nonmetallic minerals such as sulfur, quartz, mica, asbestos, calcium phosphate, fertilizer minerals, as well as strategic materials of uranium, rubber, timber.

The end of corporate, individual and national ownership of natural resources is absolutely necessary to bring equitability to the world economy. These resources will become the property of the entire planet, with the share of ownership equal to its percentage of the world’s population. For example, Asia with 21.4 percent of the world population would receive 21.4 percent of the profit from natural resources. Periodically, based on the planetary census, this distribution of ownership would be reviewed and adjusted accordingly.

In administering a new system of ownership of natural resources, each tier of new planetary and continental panels could be established by experienced production personnel. They would be responsible for training managers who would replace them as needed. They would be required to submit resumes of their experience, undergo investigation of their backgrounds and commitment to planetary ownership, and adhere to guidelines set down by these panels.

Another panel of continental citizens holding college degrees in each enterprise would become overseers, which would rotate from time to time, so that no person or department could gain power over another. If the people hired do not perform in accordance with the terms of their contract which would be made public, they would be discharged and the next qualified persons would take their places. Proven misconduct would be punishable according to revised judicial and criminal justice systems.

All of the planning sessions would be seen on global television, so that all planetary citizens will be informed of all of the activity. There would be no closed sessions of any decision-making meetings.

Salaries and payments made to all planetary and continental panel personnel, corporations and other suppliers will be deposited in planetary bank accounts, and would be made public in certified annual financial reports by professional accountants and economists.

The system of new ownership of natural resources would be reflected in a new way of life. Global citizens would have peace of mind instead of the daily worries of being able to afford necessities. Bad behavior resulting from hardship in making a living would certainly change when stress is removed. There would be more focused on creative projects, on being good students and parents, as well as simply being better neighbors. In other words, if there is nothing to be angry about, there would be no reason for crime and violence. The most important goal would be no corruption.

At the end of the fiscal year, if there are deficit expenditures, each continent would levy taxes on gross income from whatever source derived, starting on a scale above average income to replace the deficit, (no loopholes or special interest deductions). There would be no filing of tax returns. Planetary banks would be authorized to automatically deduct payment from personal accounts if needed. Surpluses in the planetary budget would be retained for a planetary referendum as to how these funds could be spent or credited to the people.

Each person would have the right to retain their private business operations and personal holdings, except for inordinate amounts of real estate that might be needed for agriculture, schools and public facilities. The planetary bank would purchase the property for resale subject to flawless public domain laws.

There is no question that it is time for natural resources to belong to the people. Revenues would supply basic needs so that poverty on the planet would be erased. Individuals would decide their own futures.

CHAPTER THREE

THE COST OF THE MADNESS OF WAR

How do we try to make sense of man’s idea that war solves problems among nations? History shows repeatedly that ending a war is only a temporary cease-fire. Alliances change within a lifetime, enemies become friends, friends become enemies, and the violence continues. There have been only a few times when there was peace on earth. In fact, “peace” is a word that is rarely heard, but when used, it is a pejorative, such as “peace- nik.” However, supporters of wars are recognized as honored “patriots.”

The origin of war, is thought to have emerged from groups of nomadic hunters who at first relied upon each other for hunting and gathering, and then might have changed to aggression as climate, open land and prey changed. By the Paleolithic Age, about two million years ago, until about 13,000 B.C.E groups were hunting with spears and by the Neolithic period between 8,000 - 4,000 BCE. were using the bow and arrow.

The first recorded defensive fortifications were in Jericho in the Jordan Valley in 7,000 B.C.E. Between 3,500-3200 B.C.E Mesopotamia (Iraq) built walls around its cities. During 3,000 to 2000 BCE, farmers built ditches and walls around their cities in China and India to protect their land, and city-states were protecting their trade routes to the Arabian Gulf and the Mediterranean.

Weapons evolved to cross bows, battering rams, chariots, elephants, horses and body armor, daggers, rifles, machine guns, sailing ships, motorized vehicles, tanks and, aircraft, then nuclear weapons. Gas was used in WW 1 leaving veterans with permanent disability. In the late 1930s and early ‘40s, Hitler used gas to engineer the most atrocious genocide in history in the murder of 6,000,000 Jews and an additional 7,000,000 that he considered to be imperfect for his Aryan race. The Russian dictator Stalin murdered even more. Saddam Hussein used gas against the Kurds in Iraq in the recent past, and it is thought that many nations maintain reserves.

The history of constant war shows there were few permanent benefits for the population. For a limited time individual rulers gained more power, slaves and treasures, before they were retaken in ensuing wars. Everyone on both sides suffered the ravages of war. The killing and maiming not only of soldiers, but entire cities and villages were destroyed along with crops and livestock, causing disease and famine to continue for many years.

To contemplate the madness of war, a deep awareness of the history and outcome of war should be studied. Only then would enough people be activated to dedicate their lives to prevent this perpetual violence, no matter what degree of intelligence or abilities they can contribute.

The United Nations organization which was created for this purpose is instead the body whose wheels turn so slowly as to exacerbate the conflict. The strength of super-powers, national greed and accumulation of personal wealth of the leaders, rulers and politicians who are its members are perpetuated.

Where are the thinkers in these governmental bodies, or in academia to provide innovative concepts that will produce true peace-keepers?

Many looked on as anti-war demonstrators during the Vietnam War in 1960-70s were treated as unpatriotic, rabble-rousers by law enforcement agencies and National Guards throughout the United States. The song, “Give Peace a Chance” became a standard for the younger generation who no longer trusted anyone over 30, and especially governments. Adults finally caught on that they were right to demand peace and nonviolence which was achieved in 1973.

The following is an alphabetical list of the “famous” wars. Repetitive wars to take and retake ancient lands and empires are too numerous to report here. There were only a few times in history that there were brief periods of peace which will be seen in the final chapters.

Fig.3
Anglo-Boer War Indian Wars Russo-Turkish War
Arab-Israeli War* Iraq-Iran War* Seven Weeks War
Chinese-Japanese War Korean War* Spanish-American War
Civil War-America Mexican War Spanish Civil War
Cold War* Peasants' War Succession War
Crimean War Pelopennesian War Thirty Years War
Crusades Persian Gulf War 1991* Vietnam*
Franco-Prussian War Punic Wars War of 1812
French & Indian War Revolutionary War War of the Roses
Hundred Years War Russo-Japanese War World Wars I & !!
Fig.4 EARLIER WARS AND CAMPAIGNS

B.C.E.
2770-1700 Ionians invade Greek mainland and integrated with the population. Invasion of desert people in Egypt -Standisin, Elamite, Akkadian, Sumeria, Amorites,Hittites, Hykos, Sea People, Persia under Xerxes invaded Greece.

1490-1400 The Cretan supremacy ended. Tuthmosis III fought 17 campaigns against Syria and Palestine.

1365-1330 Assyrian rulers control Babylon

1309-1291 Sethos1 Fought the Hittites and left conclusion to his son Ramses II-1279

1213 Ramses ll spends the first ten years of his reign to conclude that war.

1200 Trojan War. Power falls to Phoenician traders.

1115 Greece and the Achaeans fall to uncivilized conquering hordes.

1077 Tilgath-Pileser l extends his rule through northern Syria to the trading lands of the Mediterranean and successors rule to 627 BC.

850-600 Sicily, Southern Italy, Black Sea dotted with Greek cities. Democracy places political power in the people. It survives in a few smaller cantons of Switzerland today. It is the Homeric period - the Iliad and the Odyssey about 800 B.C., religion is almost absent, hospitality is strong, with rare occurrences of human sacrifice of prisoners.

550-525 Cyrus the Great, Persia’s first great ruler invaded Egypt

539- 326 Wars continue. Xerxes invades Greece. Alexander the Great rules; Chandra Gupta of China has 600,000 infantrymen, 10,000 calvary, 9,000 elephants

A.D.
1000-1500 Chinese Predominance - establishing professional armies.

1453 - Siege of Constantinople

1588 - England and the Spanish Armada

1631 - Battle of Breitenfeld

1665-1700 Britain and other powers prevent Louis IV from placing Philip
of Argon on the Spanish throne.

1727 -Spanish forces attack Gibraltar

1730 Hapsburgs surrender control of Naples and Sicily to Don Carlos of Spain who later became king of Spain.

1735 France and Savoy against Italy

1739 - Britain declares war on Spain

1761 - Spain declares war on Britain

1762- Britain’s amphibious attack led to the occupation of Havana, “Key to the Caribbean”

1813 Napoleon - .Battle of Leipzig, 460,000 soldiers

And so it continued from 13,000 BCE with battles that have names, such as the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of the Bulge, Battle of Mulvern Hill, Battle of Gallipoli, Battle of Dien Bien Phu, Battle of Stalingrad, a total of some 170. Then there were some 35 sieges, among them, the Siege of Delhi, the Siege of Jerusalem, the Siege of Hsiang-yang. The Siege of Luxembourg, the Siege of Syracuse, the Siege of Tyre. The devastation of war in ancient times, pales in comparison to war from 1812 to the present time.

Fig.5 UNITED STATES AT WAR IN THE 19TH CENTURY
1812- Britain seized U.S. merchant ships off France. U.S. thought British in Canada were inciting Indian attacks on pioneers.
Outcome: Essentially a draw, No territorial gains by either side.
Cost:$90 million - $2.2 billion in 2002 currency.**
Start of War: June 18, 1812
End of War: Dec. 24, 1814
Troops deployed: 286,730
Casualties: 6,785

Mexican War - U.S. declared war to defend U.S. Annexation of Texas and establish the Rio Grande as its border. U.S. saw a chance to acquire California, Arizona, New Mexico, parts of Colorado, Utah, Nevada,
Outcome: Mexico surrendered. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Rio Grande border and ceded 1.2 million square miles to the U.S. Cost: $70 million - $1.1 billion in 2002 currency.**
Start of War: May 13, 1846
End of War: February 2, 1848
Troops deployed: 78,435
Casualties: 17,435

American Civil War - Issue of slavery polarized the country along section lines. When Republican Party objected to slavery, 11 southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy.

Outcome: The end of hostilities and rebuilding of the south. Slavery ends. Not until 1963 did civil rights movements result in some legal rights for descendants of emancipated slaves. Many now serve in national, state and local governments, hold executive jobs in large corporations and the military, but poverty and racial discrimination continues.
Cost: $5.2 billion combined - $62 billion in 2002 currency**
Start of War: April 12, 1861
End of War: April 9, 1865
Union Troops deployed: 2,213,263
Casualties: 646,392
Confederate Troops deployed: 1,064,200
Casualties: 335,524

Spanish American War - Cuban rebels started fighting for their independence from Spain. The USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor killing 260 men on board. The US declared war on Spain.
Outcome: US and Spain signed a peace treaty granting Cuba its independence, surrendering Puerto Rico and Guam to America and allowing the US to purchase the Philippine Islands. America paid $20 million. Cost:$400 million - Over $9.6 billion in 2002 currency **
Start of war: April 19, 1898
End of War: December 10, 1898
Troops deployed: 306,760
Casualties: 4,108


Fig.6 UNITED STATES AT WAR IN THE 20th CENTURY

WORLD WAR 1 - England and France were at war with Germany since 1914. The U.S. did not intervene until German submarine attacked U.S. merchant ships. President Wilson concluded that a German victory would crush his dream of a peaceful international order.***
Outcome: Germany and its allies surrendered, signing the Treaty of Versailles. New nations were formed in Europe.
Cost: $16.8 billion. - $190.6 billion in 2002 currency**
Start of War: April 6, 1917
End of war: June 28, 1919
Troops deployed: 4,734,991
Casualties: 320,518

WORLD WAR II - Germany and Japanese aggression against their neighbors in Europe and Asia seen as a threat to United States security. US provided materials to Britain, but did not otherwise intervene until Japan attacked the US fleet in Pearl Harbor Hawaii.

Outcome: Russian army entered Berlin which was later divided into separate zones for America, Britain, France and Soviet Union. Hitler committed suicide. Japan surrendered days after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Political events led to the Russians blocking Berlin from U.S. Aid. President Truman ordered an airlift to provide food for Berliners. Marshall Plan - U.S. rebuilds Europe.
More people were killed in this war between 1937 and 1945 than ever before, and in all of the wars combined throughout the ages. The method of killing was the most atrocious, brutal and cruel ever devised by man. The appalling statistics reveal: most victims were civilians, at six million Jews in Hitler’s “final solution,” twenty million Russians (about half murdered by Stalin), 3 million Poles, 1.5 million Yugoslavians, 350,000 British, 200,000 Americans, missing and unidentified, for a total of some 40 million human beings.
Cost: $185.4 billion -$2.8 trillion in 2002 currency.*
Start of War: December 8, 1942
End of War: August 14, 1945
Troops deployed: 16,112,566
Casualties: 1,077,245
Non-violent Cold War U.S. and Western Europe against the spread of communism by the Soviet Union and in Asia. The Cold war ends in 1989 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, without armed conflict. Soviet Union divided into separate nations.

KOREAN WAR - Communist North Korea encouraged by the Soviet Union and China invaded democratic South Korea. United States persuaded the United Nations to send an international army.
Outcome: Cease fire brought a status quo - the demilitarized zone still follows the 38th parallel.
Cost:$54 billion - $335.9 billion in 2002 currency.**
Start of war: June 25, 1950.
End of war: July 27, 1963
Troops deployed: 5,720, 000
Casualties: 139,858

VIETNAM WAR -: U.S. believed in the so-called “domino theory” that if Vietnam came under the control of a communist government, communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia. Advisors were sent to help the South Vietnamese against the North in the late 50s-early 60s.
Outcome: College Students start protest, later joined by public against the war divided the country. Guerilla warfare was unfamiliar to American military. Paris Peace Accords signed and the U.S. withdrew, but continued to provide financial and military aid to South Vietnam. The North engulfed the South and remains in control to this day.
Cost: $111 billion - $494.3 billion in 2002 currency..**
Start of War: Mid-1960s in actual battle
End of War: January 27, 1973
Troops deployed: 8,744,000
Casualties: 211,512:

PERSIAN GULF WAR - Iraq invaded Kuwait and President George H.W. Bush relied on advisors Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to minimize the number of troops needed to force Iraq to withdraw.
Outcome: Iraq withdraws, regime does not change..
Cost: $61 billion ($53 billion pledged by allies)
Start of War: January 17, 1991
End of War: February 28, 1991
Troops deployed: 697,000
Battlefield casualties: 148
Non-battlefield casualties: 145

TOTAL COST OF U.S. WARS IN 20TH CENTURY: $420.2 billion.
TOTAL COST OF U.S. WARS IN 2002 CURRENCY: $4.5 trillion (does not include Persian Gulf war or invasion of Iraq)


Fig.7 UNITED STATES AT WAR IN THE 21st CENTURY

IRAQ WAR - 2003 United States invades Iraq. Americans were lied to by the Bush administration, charging Iraq with hiding weapons of mass destruction. George W. Bush declared victory on May 3, 2003. However hostilities continue to this writing. Reasons given were changed to “bringing democracy to the Iraqi people” by the reasons for the action Commander-in-Chief. He admits “mistakes were made.”

Hostilities continue. American and coalition troops remain deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sunni and Shi’a insurgents attack each other in Iraq.
Start of war: March 18, 2003,
Today is the fourth year anniversary of the war. No End of War is in sight despite new Democratic Party’s weak efforts to end the war. “New strategy” declared by George W. Bush increases number of U.S. Troops currently in Iraq by some 40,000.
Cost: $176 billion:
Cost to date (Spring, 2006): additional $310 billion; Bush requests additional $4 billion to continue.
Troops deployed: 160,000
Casualties: over 3,000 of March, 2007.
No figures available for civilian deaths and injuries. Commander-in-Chief Bush, thinks 30,000 "more or less."

If future historians are able to correctly determine the truth regarding the reasons the U.S. invaded Iraq, it will be more than U.S. citizens and the world who witnessed the event were allowed to learn from the Bush administration.

George W. Bush took office in January, 2001 as president, in accordance with the United States Supreme Court ruling* which did not permit a recount of votes in Florida. There were ballot errors and other election irregularities in the state where the president's brother is governor. Democratic candidate, former Vice President Al Gore received more votes. The damage done to the U.S. during the George W. Bush administration will be visible for many years to come when all of the facts come to light.

On September 11, 2001, nine months after Bush’s inauguration, al Qaeda terrorists using four hijacked commercial aircraft, attacked the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., two brought down the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York, as stunned American watched on television. A fourth aircraft destined for the White House or the Capitol, crashed in the woods in Pennsylvania by heroic action of the passengers. They heard of the attacks on their cell phones while on the doomed plane, and knowing they would not survive in any case, rushed the hijackers, caused the plane to crash in a field in Shanksville, PA, and saved the nation’s capitol from further destruction. The cost in human lives was over 3,000.

George W. Bush sent forces to Afghanistan to find al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, declared “war on terrorism” to “bring him to justice.” Concentrated bombing of caves and other possible hideouts failed to capture or kill bin Laden. It is not clear as to when or if George W. Bush stopped seeking bin Laden, or how it came to pass that the Afghans and other coalition troops, including Iran, took over the task of seeking out and fighting the terrorists. There is no confirmation whether bin Laden is alive. As of July 24, 2006, the U.S. and British forces agreed to send 900 more troops to reinforce the 3,600 NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The Taliban who had supported bin Laden were supposedly defeated, and Afghanistan has become a democracy. The latest news is that the Taliban again started hostilities in southwest Afghanistan and is also moving into Pakistan which is not cooperating in seeking them out.

In a strange repetition of history, almost all of the staff in the administration of George H.W. Bush (referred to in the press as “41”) who declared war against Iraq in the Persian Gulf in 1991, are now in the Bush ‘43’ administration. Dick Cheney former Secretary of Defense, became Vice President in the current administration; Donald Rumsfeld became Secretary of Defense and both now conduct this current war. General Colin Powell, head of the military for Bush-41, became Secretary of State and Condoleeza Rice was appointed National Security Advisor under the younger Bush. She was promoted to Secretary of State upon Colin Powell’s resignation. After the November 6, 2006 election disastrous to Republicans, Donald Rumsfeld was asked to step down. He has been replaced by Robert Gates, former CIA boss also in the Bush-41 administration.

Among many questions; why was National Security Advisor, Ms. Rice rewarded for her failure to know conditions leading up to the September 11 attack? Why was she not aware of the truth about weapons of mass destruction? She was briefed about the Osama bin Laden threat, but claimed the Clinton administration did not leave plans as to how to deal with it. This was untrue, as reported in Richard Clarke’s book Against All Enemies. According to a documentary on ABC-TV September 11, 2006 she restructured security advisor Richard Clarke's job when he was zeroing in on the location of bin Laden. The film raised many questions and suspicions as to the handling of the investigation of Osama bin Laden which could have prevented the tragedy of 9/11/01.

Instead of focusing on destroying al Qaeda, President Bush decided to invade Iraq. It was the first time in American history that the United States was the aggressor against a foreign nation. Americans and the world ask why was Bush in such a hurry to wage war, and why he disdained diplomacy and the United Nations efforts to do its job in keeping the peace?

The reason for the attack has become so convoluted that the American public, Congress and possibly the president and his staff do not understand or cannot explain it. At first we were told that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction despite the United Nations report that concluded there were none.

After Bush declared victory in Iraq, the Central Intelligence Agency admitted that the information regarding weapons of mass destruction was wrong. It is not clear if that was when the president changed the reason for invading Iraq was because Saddam Hussein supported Osama bin Laden's attack on the U.S. When there was no proof of that action and the truth emerged, the president decided the real reason for the invasion was to "bring democracy to the Iraqi people and to the middle east."

However, Americans should be questioning the legality of his action. The Constitution clearly states that the president must defend the United States, but there is no provision that the president or Congress has the power or duty to bring democracy to the world.

Hussein was deposed, escaped the United States army and coalition troops. He was found cowering in a hole near his home, and was taken prisoner. After two years of preparation, his trial was underway, fraught with his bizarre behavior in disrespecting the judicial process He still believes he is the legitimate leader of Iraq. Lawyers have been murdered, judges threatened and Hussein shouts out his displeasure in the courtroom. He was sentenced to death by hanging in early November 2006.

Elections were held in early in 2006. Iraqis voted for a democratic government, then decided the prime minister wasn’t acceptable and a new prime minister was appointed to serve until 2010. On May 20, 2006, several key positions were filled to complete the governing body.

In the meantime, the U.S. has been training Iraqis to handle their own security. When they are ready to take over, the U.S. will withdraw its troops. With its own democratic government, there does not yet seem to be any improvement in the possibility that peace will 'break out.' Every day, insurgents kill American troops and Iraqis with home-made explosives strapped to the bodies of suicide bombers or hidden along roads to detonate when military convoys pass, at Mosques, markets, and police stations. The question as to whether or not a civil war is in progress has two answers. An Iraqi spokesman says the Sunnis and Shi’as, long-time enemies are at war, while George W. Bush says there is no civil war.

In a World Economic Forum in Savo, Switzerland on January 26, 2006, newly elected Iraqi leaders said they would “negotiate with the U.S to withdraw coalition forces, when their government is in place and when they have built their own security.” They also said they would need support with a financial program similar to the Marshall-Plan after WWII to repair infrastructure destroyed by U.S. bombing.
President Bush often reminds us that Iraqis are grateful for their freedom. Has there been a declaration by the new Iraqi government that verifies this assumption? There is no mention as to the status of women who do not seem to be included in the government. We know little about how the country is being rebuilt after relentless bombing at the start of the war, nor is there any information as to oil production and whether profits will contribute to the cost of restructuring Iraq. There is little reporting as to how to resolve the age-old enmity between Sunnis and Shi’as will be seen in Chapter - Religion.

The startling disclosure in former President Bill Clinton’s book, My Life, revealed that before his inauguration and before the September 11, 2001 attack, Bush told Clinton in the traditional visit of the president elect (in this case appointed) with a sitting president, that his second priority was Iraq (the first was missile defense). Clinton did not tell the American public that his response was that Iraq should be the last of some ten priorities. He apparently did not tell his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton either, for if he did, why would she have voted along with other Democrats to declare the war that Bush wanted?

If it was because of a sense of tradition that Clinton did not divulge their conversation, it is a deplorable, misguided decision for a nonessential custom which has caused death and injury to thousands of troops and Iraqi civilians.

Moreover, it is evident that it was not “weapons of mass destruction” or “to bring the terrorists to justice,” but for some unknown purpose. Americans and people in other nations have guessed the real reason was to enrich the Bush family’s connection with oil producing middle-east regimes. As evidence, on May 11, 2006, a bill was passed in the Senate that gave $7 billion in permanent tax cuts to the oil companies. President Bush had warned he would veto a tax bill if it did not contain the cut for oil companies.* This is astonishing as gas prices have soared in the past few months. Exxon-Mobil had a $36 billion record-high profit in 2005, which is even higher in the first quarter of 2006, while Exxon’s CEO received a bonus-retirement package of $400 million.

It is unforgivable that members of Congress have failed in their oath and duty to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Nowhere in the Constitution of the United States, does it give the duty and the power to the president or Congress to bring democracy to the world. They should not have declared war, nor should they have neglected their duty as the law-making branch to balance the power of the Executive branch, in this case to curb the senseless decisions of the Bush presidency.

It would be interesting if someone would bring a case against both the Executive and Legislative branches for unlawfully declaring war against a nation that did not have the capability of attacking the United States, and for causing a war to change their government to a democracy. However, with the recent partisan Supreme Court appointments by the Bush administration, it is unlikely that justice would be done.

After the September 11 attack, the world expressed sympathy for the devastation suffered by the U.S. Unfortunately, this support has turned to hatred. In Bush's 2002 State of the Union speech he mentioned Saddam Hussein eleven times and bin Laden not at all. The arrogance of "shock and awe" in war and America's plan to transform the entire Middle East caused fear among our friends. The seventy-five percent favorable attitude towards the U.S was eighty-three percent negative in 2003. Pakistan's backing for the U.S. war dropped to sixteen percent, twelve percent in Jordan, seventeen percent in Turkey and thirty-two percent in Lebanon. It is reported that al Qaeda has moved its headquarters to Pakistan from Afghanistan.

Another unresolved conflict is whether or not Iraq and Iran who share a 100,000 kilometer border, and were at war at the end of the 20th century can form an alliance. On September 12, 2006, Iraq and Iran leaders met. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice expects Iraq will express support of the U.S. Iran urged the need to join forces for the future as they will be in the region longer than the U.S. Another meeting is scheduled November 26, 2006.

Therefore, everything that can be done, must be tried to remove the leaders who are threatening the survival of the planet.
The total cost of wars for the United States from the war of 1812 to the current Iraq war is 3 trillion, three-hundred and twenty seven billion, 600 million dollars. ($3,327,600,000,000.)

The total cost of all other wars, battles and sieges cannot be calculated without records. Under-reported wars, such as the 14-year civil war in Liberia ended in 2003, with no reports of the cost of loss of property, crops, homes, schools, buildings, infrastructure that have always been destroyed in war. It is far beyond cogent reason that war has been tolerated these thousands of years.

Nor can we measure the suffering of soldiers through the ages not only from combat wounds, but from malnutrition, contaminated food and water, infectious diseases, filthy hospitals, fatal insect bites, dysentery, lack of medicine, sleep deprivation, traumatic disorders, every discomfort that can be brought to battlefields, and atrocities suffered as prisoners of war.

It is governments that make the decision to go to war, sometimes with little provocation, and without the consent of the people. The solution to permanently end violence depends on removal of governments as we know them. We must have a new system of education and renewal of principles and behavior, so that mankind will no longer need to be represented by politicians, or divided by religions in support of “Just” Wars and who mandate rituals that have little to do with the spirituality within us.

President Bush declared victory with a huge banner “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” unfurled on the fo’castle of an aircraft carrier in May, 2003, 8 weeks after the invasion. The fighting has not stopped, and in fact has been increased by Muslim insurgents. Everyday, American troops and an untold number of civilians are killed by home-made bombs. Americans are calling for all troops to return home.

The president’s approval rating is down to thirty percent, and his own party, who so solidly supported all of his disastrous decisions, are backing away now, in order to save their jobs. The November, 2006 elections was a strong statement by the people that they no longer support the war in Iraq. Americans express the same concern for loss of freedoms in the security measures he has pushed through Congress in his “war on terrorism.”

If funds applied to war in the 19th, 20th and 21st century, had instead been applied to peace, all of the basic needs of all of the people on the planet could have been met. Interrupt your reading here and THINK about the awesome possibility of just such a goal.

The following chapter questions the necessity for governments as we know them, that spread hatred, violence and distrust throughout the world and how vacillating alliances support violence. Recently, Iran was in the U.S. coalition in its "war on terrorism." There is a logical and organized way to replace them with wiser, more efficient, honest, productive and creative management by global peace-makers.