"Department of Peace?"

WorldNet Daily ^ | 4/1/02 | Jon Dougherty

[thinkster]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ON CAPITOL HILL Department of Peace? Bill would establish federal 'conflict resolution' agency

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: April 1, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jon Dougherty © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

Before the Department of Defense was reorganized and renamed in 1947 it was known as the Department of War. Now, a bill in Congress seeks to establish a "Department of Peace," complete with a Cabinet-level secretary of peace.

The measure, known as H.R. 2459, seeks to create an agency that will "hold peace as an organizing principle" while it "endeavors to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights."

A Peace Department would "develop policies that promote national and international conflict prevention, nonviolent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict and structured mediation of conflict."

Also, the bill would create the Intergovernmental Advisory Council on Peace, a Peace Department agency that "shall provide assistance and make recommendations to the secretary and the president concerning intergovernmental policies relating to peace and nonviolent conflict resolution."

The bill was introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, July 11, 2001. The last major action on the bill occurred Sept. 28, when it was referred to the House Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness. It has 43 cosponsors.

"The time for peace is now," Kucinich said in a statement announcing the measure. "At the dawn of a new millennium, there is no better time to review age old challenges with new thinking that peace is not only the absence of violence, but the presence of a higher evolution of human awareness with respect, trust and integrity toward humankind.

"Our founding fathers recognized that peace was one of the highest duties of the newly organized free and independent states," said Kucinich, who is a member of the Government Reform and Education Committee and the Workforce Committee. "But too often, we have overlooked the long-term solution of peace for instant gratification of war. This … downward spiral of violence must stop to ensure that future generations will live in peace and harmony."

He described challenges to creating the department as "massive," but said the alternative is worse.

"Violence at home, in the schools, in the media and between nations has dragged down humanity. It's time to recognize that traditional militant objectives for peace are not working, and the only solution is to make peace the goal of a Cabinet-level agency," he said.

The bill would establish a "peace academy" – ironically modeled after U.S. military academies, according to a summary of the bill on Kucinich's website – where students would attend a four-year course of study.

"Graduates will be required to serve five years in public service in programs dedicated to domestic or international nonviolent conflict resolution," the summary said.

Besides a secretary of peace, the principal officers of the department will include the under secretary of peace; the assistant secretary for peace education and training; the assistant secretary for domestic peace activities; the assistant secretary for international peace activities; the assistant secretary for technology for peace; the assistant secretary for arms control and disarmament; the assistant secretary for peaceful coexistence and nonviolent conflict resolution; the assistant secretary for human and economic rights; and a general counsel.

The bill also designates Jan. 1 of each year as "Peace Day."

"All should be encouraged to observe and celebrate the blessings of peace and endeavor to create peace in the coming year," Kucinich said.

A subcommittee official said no hearings have been held on the bill, and "nothing is planned for the foreseeable future."

The measure has been handed down to a number of subcommittees since it was first introduced. "That usually means nothing is going to happen with it," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told WorldNetDaily.

Phone calls to Kucinich's office were not immediately returned.

[elephantlips]

Like so many of the left's ideas it sounds so good. Who would object to seeking peace? The play would go that anyone who would criticize any idea from such a department would naturally be against peace. This is another attempt of the "left-minded" to create a philosophical quagmire with no "right" answer. Imagine all the areas this department could get into!

[Lazamataz]

At the risk of this being an April Fools joke:

Before the Department of Defense was reorganized and renamed in 1947 it was known as the Department of War. Now, a bill in Congress seeks to establish a "Department of Peace," complete with a Cabinet-level secretary of peace.

WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

[APBaer]

The Honorable Rodney King,
Secretary,
Department of Peace "Why cant't we all just get along?"

[PsyOp]

Lets kill two birds with one stone. We'll simply rename the Defense Department, the Department of Peace. Their motto will be "Peace through superior firepower and target acquisition."

[jonascord]

With the number of open governmant posts, a whole new load of relatives can go on the federal teat.

I suppose this can be followed by a "Department of Life", (dedicated to the funeral industry), a "Ministry of Truth" that will incorporate PBS, and a Department of Indian Affairs, to supercede the old BIA, so that more billions can get "lost"...

Kusinich is SOOOO lame.

[Fred Mertz]

"Peace through Strength"

[Poohbah]

I thought we already had one. It's called the "State Department."

[jonascord]

After being so careful, all day, I STILL get suckered....

[waxhaw]

"And they shall cry 'Peace, Peace', but there shall be no peace." Spoken by the world's greatest living Man and Prophet. Kucinich apparently knows nothing of basic human nature and while I can certainly hope and desire for peace throughout the world - it ain't going to happen. Swords will be beaten into plowshares only with the return of the Messiah; until then the best way to keep the peace is the way the Romans did - total destruction of one's enemies.

[thinkster]

What comes to my mind is 2 Chronicles 7:14 "Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land." More and more each day I see how events spinning out of control (man's control) are "leading us down a pretty garden path to destruction." Is. 3:12. I see hope for America, and the world, only through a turning back to the old ways, God's ways. The darker this world gets, the brighter the Gospel light shines!

[Librarina]

Yes of *course* it's an April Fool's joke!

[Norman Conquest]

Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

[gitmo]

It's getting dang near impossible to tell the spoofs from the real libs. There is a page in the Thomas site (Legislative Information on the Internet). The downside is according to the properties on this page it was create 4/1/2002. If it is a joke, someone did a very elaborate job creating the "bill". http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:h.r.2459: