Resisting US Bases & Military Empire

• I am at the airport in Portland, Maine waiting for my flight to DC.  This evening several of us from Veterans for Peace (VFP) will meet with one of the mayors from Okinawa to discuss their growing opposition to US base expansion plans.  Then on Sunday afternoon we'll meet with the new governor of Okinawa, Takashi Onaga, and we will present him with the VFP letter of solidarity and opposition to US bases on their island. Following that there will be a large dinner where we will further socialize with one another.

• The Okinawa Perfectural Government has reportedly requested that Onaga would have talks with bureau chief-level U.S. foreign affairs and defense officials while in Washington. Okinawa is setting up a permanent lobby office in Washington in order to continue to represent the voice of their people inside the capital of the US military empire.

• It is very exciting to see the growing non-violent resistance to US military bases happening all over the world.  In Okinawa, Japan, South Korea, Guam, Italy, Sicily, Philippines, Australia, Bahrain, and many other places people have had enough of the military toxic legacy, noise, war making, and bad behavior from American GI's.  There can be no doubt that the US empire is in a period of declining influence.  People around the world understand that the Pentagon is not in their country to bring real security - it is a forward-deployed resource extraction service operating on behalf of corporate capitalism.  It's exciting to be part of that global movement in motion.

• The American people have a vital role to play in all of this.  In order for the Pentagon's program of "Full Spectrum Dominance" to be successful the military must first have unlimited access to the federal budget.  That means that all social spending must be severely reduced or completely eliminated in order to transfer those taxpayer dollars to the military industrial complex.  It is thus imperative that people campaigning to save social spending in the US actively point to the cancerous US military budget as the 'pot of gold' that must be cut in order for social progress to survive across our nation.
• PressTV interviewed me the other day about US attempts to militarily control China as Obama's 'pivot' of 60% of US forces into the Asia-Pacific dramatically escalates tensions in that region.  You can listen to the interview here