Articles, Guides & Statistics
Organizations, academics, journalists, and activists around the world are speaking out about the inflated Pentagon Budget, expressing that it should be invested in the people, planet, peace and a future!
The People!
The Pentagon budget swallows up billons of dollars that could be spent to improve systems of education, employment, housing and healthcare. Systems that are vital in combatting the rampant social, economic and racial inequities across the United States...
- Militarism Fact Sheet- The Poor People's Campaign
- Poor People's Moral Budget- The Poor People's Campaign
- Peace and Freedom Magazine, WILF U.S.
- THE HYPOCRISY OF THE FEDERAL SPENDING DEBATE, Sister Karen M. Donahue, Othwerwords
- “Fiscal Conservatives” Have No Problem With Astronomical Military Spending, Stephen Semler, Jacobin
- "The Feminist Case for Cutting the Pentagon Budget", Carley Towne, Common Dreams
- Poor People’s Moral Budget, Poor People's Campaign
- "Ten Better Uses for Ten Percent of the Pentagon Budget", Lindsay Koshgarian & Ashik Siddique, Institute for Policy Studies
- "Weapons that Protect White Privilege Prevent Sustainable Community Change", Kathy Kelly, Common Dreams
- "House Approves $740 Billion Pentagon Budget While Millions Can’t Afford Rent", Eoin Higgens, Truthout
- “Take This Job and Shove It”, Inkstick Media
- Militarization and police violence: The case of the 1033 program, Sage Journals
The Planet!
The U.S. military is the largest consumer of oil, and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. Not to mention their displacement of Indigenous peoples to build U.S. military bases and to extract fossil fuels around the world. It is obvious that War is Not Green!
- No Warming, No War: How Militarism Fuels the Climate Crisis — and Vice Versa
- To Save The Planet, Cut The Pentagon- Ashik Siddique, Buzzfeed
- We Can’t Confront Climate Change While Lavishly Funding the Pentagon, JP Sottile, Truthout
- Oil fuels war and terrorists like Isis. The climate movement can bring peace, Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian
- 10 Ways Climate Change and Militarism are Intertwined, Medea Benjamin, Foreign Policy in Focus
- "The Pentagon is Killing Us", Marcy Winograd, LA Progressive
- "The U.S. Military Is Driving Environmental Collapse Across the Planet", Sam Carliner, Left Voice
- "Earth Warming Faster Than Previously Thought; US Military Largest Emitter of Greenhouse Gas", Garland Nixon & Wilmer Leon, Sputnik News
- "The Ecological Impact of Militarism", John Scales Avery, Counter Punch
- "The Soft Climate Denialism of Our Routine, Unexamined, Massive Military Budgets", Sarah Lazare, The Column
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"The Toxic Relationship between Oil and the Military", Katya Forsyth & Frederick Kerr, Global Center for Climate Justice
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"U.S. Militarism's Toxic, Planet-Killing Impact on Climate Policy", Common Dreams, Medea Benjamin & Nicolas Davies
Peace!
We continue to pump more money into the Pentagon, investing billions in destructive U.S. militarism. This causes damage to people around the world because not only is war expensive, it is immoral. The over 800 U.S. military bases around the world are sites of extreme oppression and extraction, meaning that even in places where the United States has not officially "declared war", we are a violent and oppressive force.
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War is Immoral:
- War is Immoral- World Beyond War Fact Sheet
- Reasons to Bury War - World Beyond War Infographic
- The War in Afghanistan Is Over, It's Time to Face the Truth- Mary Hladky, Common Dreams
- Martin Luther King Jr. Explains His Opposition to Militarism-Youtube
- Stephen Canty: Once a Marine- Talk Nation Radio
- The Human Costs of War- Costs of War Project at Brown University
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China is Not our Enemy:
- The Pentagon's China Syndrome, POGO
- "Biden Promised Diplomacy, But He's Overseeing Military Build Up in China", Ann Wright, Truthout
- "The U.S. is Set on a Path to War with China. What Is to be Done?", KJ Noh, Qiao Collective
- "How to Prevent a New Cold War with China", Madison Tang, Jodie Evans & RJ Thomsen, Counter Punch
- "Enough is Enough: Stop Tempting Nuclear Catastrophe", RJ Thomsen, CODEPINK
- "CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin: Joe Biden must end 'delusional' China rivalry", Amy Goodman, AlterNet
- "Why We Must Prevent the U.S. From Launching a Hybrid War Against China", Madison Tang & Jodie Evans, LA Progressive
- "U.S. Geopolitics: Afghanistan and the Containment of China", Joseph E. Fallon, Small Wars Journal
- "The China Threat is Being Inflated to Justify More Spending", Dan Grazier, Defense News
- "More of the Same: Biden’s Hybrid War Against China", Madison Tang & Jodie Evans, Asia Times
- "Countering the "China Threat" - at What Price?", Koohan Paik-Mander, Foreign Policy in Focus
- "'Anti-China' Military Pact 'Threatens Peace and Stability' in Pacific, Groups Warn'", Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams
- "White House Advisor UnderminesBiden to Ratchet up Conflict with China", Koohan Paik-Mander, CODEPINK
- "End the Pentagon's New Anti-China Slush Fund & Reinvest in Our Communities Instead", RJ Thomsen, CODEPINK
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Latin America:
- Why Cuban Doctors Deserve the Nobel Peace Prize- Vijay Prashad
- "Ending Regime Change — in Bolivia and the World", Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK
- "CODEPINK signs letter to President Biden on Central America Policy", CODEPINK Press Release
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The Middle East:
- The Costs of War Project just latest findings of the true human and budgetary costs of the post-9/11 wars.
- The Costs of War Project released updated findings on the costs of the Afghanistan War
- “America's Price Tag for Two Decades of War: $5.8 Trillion”, Rachel Layne, CBS News
- “Over Two Decades, U.S.'s Global War on Terror Has Taken Nearly 1 Million Lives and Cost $8 Trillion”, Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept
- “The Costs of Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq Could Be Trillions More Than People Think”, Vivienne Walt, Fortune
- "One Year of Afghanistan War Spending Could Fund Resettlement of 1.2 Million Refugees", Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
- "Ass-Kicking in Afghanistan Offers Opportunity to Reorient U.S. Foreign Policy—Or Will it Just Be Another Groundhog Day?", Ed Rampell, CovertAction Magazine
- "Learn from the Afghan War - or Repeat It", Maj. Danny Sjursen, Sheerpost
- "The U.S. War in Afghanistan is Over — But the War on Terror Continues", Chris Megerian, LA Times
- “Afghanistan Was a Ponzi Scheme Sold to the American Public”, Steven Simon, Quincy Institute
- The Top 5 Military Contractors Ate $2 Trillion During the Afghanistan War, Stephen Semler, Security Policy Reform Institute
- “The Long-Term Costs of United States Care for Veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars”, Linda Bilmes, The Cost of War Project
- "Lessons for the Evacuation of Afghanistan", Ann Wright, Consortium News
- "Peace Activist Kathy Kelly on Reparations for Afghanistan & What the U.S. Owes After Decades of War", Kathy Kelly, Democracy Now
The Future!
Biden is funneling hundreds of billions into "nuclear modernization", and lawmakers continue to tack on billions more to his $753 billion Pentagon budget. If we continue at this rate, our future is grim...
- "The Feminist Case for Cutting the Pentagon Budget", Carley Towne, Common Dreams
- "Meet the Senate nuke caucus, busting the budget and making the world less safe", Marcy Winograd & Medea Benjamin, Responsible Statecraft
- "Arundhati Roy on America’s fiery, brutal impotence", Arundhati Roy, The Economist
- "'The Status Quo Is Failing': 36 Progressive Groups Demand Pentagon Cuts", Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams
- "Democrats Who Joined Republicans to Increase Military Budget Have Strong Ties", Sara Sirota, The Intercept
- "The Economic Case for Shrinking the Pentagon", Charles Kenny,Responsible Statecraft
- "'A $753,000,000,000 Defense Budget Is a Failure': Biden Pentagon Request Rebuked", Jake Johnson,Common Dreams
- "Congressman Brown: Reducing the Pentagon Budget is not ‘irresponsible'", CODEPINK
- "History Is Clear. America's Military Is Way Too Big", Jeremi Suri, The New York Times
- "From Space Force to F-35s, Congress Given Specific Path to Cut Pentagon Budget by $80 Billion", Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams
- "Here's how to force Biden to cut the Pentagon's budget", Marcy Winograd & Medea Benjamin, Alternet.org
- "America’s Military is Too Big for America’s Good", Jeremi Suri, New York Times
- "STATE OF INSECURITY: The Cost of Militarization Since 9/11", Lindsay Koshgarian, Ashik Siddique & Lorah Steichen, Institute for Policy Studies