Approaching spiritual death, US needs new leadership 

by Mark Rolofson

In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. said: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on war than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

As a nation we will either wake up and choose a new path forward or we will plummet into the abyss towards the gates of hell. To save humanity requires a mass awakening, radical change, and radically different leadership.  Presidential candidates must understand the gravity of the situation and have strategies on how to navigate the difficult road ahead.

Humanity is now faced with the escalation of WWIII on two major fronts that could potentially trigger a nuclear war. Combine a world war with rising gas and food prices along with potential bank failures that could lead to an economic collapse and we have a recipe for disaster. We are teetering on a dangerous precipice.  U.S. leadership has shown its complete incompetence to use any discretion and diplomacy.  

With all the world bullying the U.S. empire has done, we have collected enough enemies in Russia, China, and Iran that in combination they are capable of inflicting a humiliating defeat on our military. However, faced with defeat, our leaders will likely choose the nuclear option. There are no winners in a nuclear war.

The refusal of the Biden Administration to halt weapons shipments to Israel has resulted in another major violation of international law with its bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria that has killed top Iranian generals. This comes on the same day that the IDF hit a three-vehicle convoy of World Central Kitchen aid workers, killing all seven of them. Also on the same day was the massacre at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.  

Israel is behaving this way because it realizes the U.S. government will never hold them accountable. Iran will likely respond at time of their choosing to the Israeli strike on their embassy. This has the potential to draw the U.S. into a war with Iran to protect Israel.  The U.S. is already complicit in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, but thanks to Biden’s reckless leadership, it has turned into a regional war. A U.S.-Israel war with Iran will likely draw in Russia and China, who will all be conducting joint naval exercises together. 

The Biden Administration is also intent on providing Ukraine with more weapons, even though it stands no chance of victory. The recent terrorist attack on the Crocus Concert Hall in Moscow points to backing from Ukraine, the CIA, and/or MI6. Russia has already escalated its attacks on Ukraine.  Any proof of U.S. involvement and all bets are off. Putin has demonstrated discretion to avoid a direct conflict with NATO, but French President Macron has threatened to put French troops inside Ukraine. Crossing Russia’s red lines any further will force Putin to act. 

What is happening on the global stage affects life in America, because our government prioritizes militarism over domestic programs.  We live in a country that has over 1,000 train derailments a year while China has bullet trains that go faster than some airplanes.

There are many other issues that revolve around U.S. foreign policy and warmongering, including:  

• Social media censorship ordered by government agencies, as the Twitter Files has exposed.  
• Numerous YouTube channels have been demonetized or banned that debunk U.S. NATO propaganda.  This is also true for YouTube channels that refute the official narrative on COVID vaccines, such as the virus’ link to DARPA.  
• The persecution of Julian Assange for exposing U.S. war crimes.  
• The bogus DOJ charges against the Uhuru 3, charged with acting as unregistered foreign agents of Russia.  
• The U.S. military is the #1 user of fossil fuel and the world’s greatest polluter.  
• We can’t address the climate crisis without stopping the war machine.

I am not optimistic about the future. This is a pivotal moment that requires a dramatic change in foreign policy and American leadership towards peace.  

Mark Rolofson is an anti-war activist who lives in Seaside, Oregon. He is currently working with Free Palestine activists on the coast and has been a member of the International Peace Coalition. 

He spent most of his life in Boulder, Colorado, where he is famous for rock climbing, having accomplished hundreds of first ascents and written over a dozen guidebooks. His career in activism began in 1985 at a protest to ban CIA recruitment on the Colorado University campus, where he was charged with trespassing for climbing in an open window. He was acquitted in 1987 around the time of the Iran-Contra Scandal during the Reagan Administration. 

He moved to Oregon in 2019 and became a facilitator and newsletter writer for the People’s Party of Oregon.  He is now a member of the Green Liberty Chapter of the Pacific Green Party of Oregon. 

Image of destruction in the Gaza Strip, October 2023, courtesy Fars Media Corporation, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.