Come the swearing in of members of the new United States Congress on January 3, Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN), who is one of the longest-serving Republican members of the House of Representatives and among the House’s strongest peace advocates, will be beginning his retirement from political office. Duncan spoke on the House floor in a short December 21 speech focused on the importance of ending US military intervention abroad. Quoting the Bible, Duncan concludes his final House floor speech with this advice: “seek peace and pursue it.”
Watch Duncan’s speech here.
Read Duncan’s speech, as printed in the Congressional Record, here:
Mr. Speaker, too many of our leaders today seem to want to be modern-day Winston Churchills and think of themselves as great war leaders. They are far too eager to go to war and far too willing to stay in a war after it has started. But the American people do not want permanent, forever wars, and especially do not need such wars.
I salute President Trump’s decision to bring our troops home from Syria. With a $21 trillion national debt, we simply cannot afford to be the policeman of the world.
Our very unnecessary wars in the Middle East have now cost us several trillion dollars that we have had to borrow and have resulted in the deaths or horrible injuries to thousands of young Americans and many more thousands of innocent women and children. They have created more enemies for our country around the world.
The Bible tells us in both the Old Testament and New to ‘seek peace and pursue it.’
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
So sad to see this good man go. God bless him for speaking out.
All we are fighting over comes down to money, power, and prestige.
“The world’s richest 1 percent, those with more than $1 million, own 45
percent of the world’s wealth. Adults with less than $10,000 in wealth
make up 64 percent of the world’s population but hold less than 2
percent of global wealth. The world’s wealthiest individuals, those
owning over $100,000 in assets, total less than 10 percent of the global
population but own 84 percent of global wealth. Credit Suisse defines
“wealth” as the value of a household’s financial assets plus real assets
(principally housing), minus their debts.”
https://inequality.org/facts/global-inequality/
“Those with extreme wealth have often accumulated their fortunes on the
backs of people around the world who work for poor wages and under
dangerous conditions. According to Oxfam, the wealth divide between the
global billionaires and the bottom half of humanity is steadily growing.
Between 2009 and 2017, the number of billionaires it took to equal the
wealth of the world’s poorest 50 percent fell from 380 to 42.”
The dirty little secret of capitalism is that it absolutely HATES competition.
“I salute President Trump’s decision to bring our troops home from Syria. With a $21 trillion national debt, we simply cannot afford to be the policeman of the world.” This is hardly a Christian reason for reducing the damage done by the USA to others.