45th Annual Letter to the Internal Revenue Service
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, as only one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.” General Dwight Eisenhower
45th Annual Letter to the Internal Revenue Service
Dear IRS Friends
My father helped separate the isotopes of uranium that were dropped on Hiroshima. Now our American leadership has cancelled two treaties designed to reduce the likelihood of nuclear war – banning intermediate-range missiles, and banning Iranian enrichment of uranium, and has now resumed our nuclear arms race against Russia. The famine following even a very small nuclear war (less than 1% of our nuclear firepower) with perfect anti-missile defense and zero retaliatory strikes will still result in death by starvation of 60 or 70 million Americans (“Nuclear Famine: Two Billion People at Risk?” International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War). So I have spent two days a week since last June vigilling at my local rapid transit station with many different banners asking whether nuclear deterrence theory is still viable. Can American and Russian leadership still be trusted to not initiate a nuclear war?
I was not born or raised this way. But when I received a death threat, at age 25, and was planning a gunfight, Jesus of Nazareth appeared in a dream and suggested I put my life into the hands of the man who wanted to kill me.
I know now that Jesus’ “love your enemy” actually works better than violence. St Francis of Assisi tried it during the 5th Crusade, and his enemy, Sultan al-Malik of Egypt, saved the Crusader army from starvation, and eventually gave Jerusalem back to the Christian world. Gandhi tried it with the British colonial government, which eventually freed all its colonies. The Danish people tried it during WWII, and effectively neutralized the Nazis.
Eventually I became a Conscientious Objector. I object also to our political leaders abusing our soldiers, using them to impose our economic empire instead of to defend our country. I personally have been witnessing this abuse since Vietnam. The “moral injury” to our own soldiers of killing other human beings is still the primary cause of our 4,000 extra veteran suicides, year after year (“Veterans Administration 2012 Suicide Data Report”).
None of our politicians (with the possible exception of Senator Sanders) will admit that we actually function as an empire. Our own military leaders admit that our military presence in Iraq has been a failure, yet our troops are still there. Our sanctions on Iran, and our assassination of their General Suleimani, appear to be designed to provoke a war with them. We supported an attempted coup against President Maduro of Venezuela, based on unfounded accusations of election tampering. But our empire has recently been humbled by an enemy so tiny that it can be seen only under a powerful microscope (the coronavirus-19). I wonder if it was not sent by God to remind us that empires are notoriously vulnerable. “All who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Gospel of Matthew, 26:52).
I have been teaching Gandhian nonviolence since Vietnam. I object specifically to paying someone else to kill in my name. My tax, as you can see, is 1654$. According to the War Resisters League, 47% of this (ie, 777$) goes to our military. So I paid this 777$ so-called “defense” tax to the International Institute of Peace Studies in 2019 to teach nonviolence and peace-building to young professionals, mostly Muslim, from all over Asia and Africa. My non-military balance, 877$, is enclosed with my tax return.
Pace e bene (St Francis of Assisi’s greeting to Sultan al-Malik)
Lorin Peters
“Blessed are the meek, the gentle, the nonviolent, for they shall inherit the earth.” Jesus of Nazareth