Let's take two topics that are both oft-discussed in the world of mainstream politics: climate change & taxes. Today we're going to tackle these things from an angle that most haven't considered; we're going to look at the intersection of war & pollution, and what we can do about it!
There are many, many reasons not to pay taxes. From the immorality and illegitimacy of any "government" based on the use & threat of force... Even for those that believe in the religion of the state, there's the fact the 16th amendment wasn't ratified by 3/4 of the states, or that there is no law requiring American laborers to pay an income tax, to the fact that by paying taxes you are voluntarily supporting genocide, kidnapping, eugenics, slavery, and a host of other horrible things.
Today, this last piece is what we're going to focus on. By paying taxes, one is funding the American Empire's military-industrial complex. About 54% of government spending in the US is on the military. That means for every dollar in taxes you are paying, that's $0.54 you're giving directly to help drone strike and carpet bomb innocents around the world.
Now, the moral argument against "war" is pretty rock-solid, but for today, let's focus in a little bit more. Today, let's just look at how the US military machine is THE leading cause of environmental damage to Planet Earth.
The Imperial War Machine
By just about any measurement, the US Department of Defense is one of, if not the, largest polluter on planet Earth. From depleted uranium and nuclear weapons testing, to regular spills into waters and the use of chemical weapons like Agent Orange. According to Newsweek, almost 75% of "superfund" sites (places with Federal grants for cleanup because they are SO contaminated) are military facilities or owned by private military-support companies. In an interview for the same article, Maureen Sullivan, who heads the Pentagon’s environmental programmes, says her office contends with 39,000 contaminated sites.
The following image was taken from ProPublica's Bombs in our Backyards series, and is a screenshot from an interactive map of military pollution with which you can see what's around you.
Let's just run through some stories of specific examples of the war machine's pollution:
- Many of the Marshall Islands are still unlivable after the US military tested 66 nuclear weapons on them. (source)
- Navajo reservations' water supplies have been contaminated by abandoned uranium mines (source)
- The US Navy, just 2 years ago, dumped 20,000 tonnes of "environmental "stressors," including heavy metals and explosives" into the Pacific Ocean. (source)
- Use of depleted uranium in Iraq has led to desertification of 90% of its territory, and practically eliminated agriculture. (source)
- Over 5 million have suffered health effects from the US military's use of Agent Orange in Vietnam (source)
- There are hundreds of millions of dollars put into the repair & rebuilding of places that the US military has invaded & ravaged. That means even more oil, labor, and all sorts of other wasted resources... to rebuild what was there before the US wasted resources blowing it up.
Remember, these are just a tiny drop in the vast ocean of blood & toxic chemicals that the war machine is working to drown the world in. Please notice as well that these are only the US military's pollution... and they are far from the only band of well-armed thugs destroying the planet. To be fair, the US military budget is about that of the next 12 countries combined, so let's just assume that whatever damage they've done, the rest of the world's militaries have probably done the same amount jointly. The first step towards a cleaner, healthier, and more peaceful world is to stop paying taxes and outsourcing responsibility for your actions to an organized crime syndicate.
Stop Paying Taxes = Save The World
As I stated at the beginning of this article, we're just looking at one part of why it's important to not pay taxes: because funding the military is guaranteeing that the environment keeps getting raped.
Besides this simple facet of the harm done by government, there are of course hundreds of other reasons: government "schooling", subsidizing the worst foods for human health, kidnapping people and keeping them in cages, keeping the usury & debt-based money system going, and otherwise doing everything they can possibly do to limit human freedom, expand the wealth of the top couple hundred people, and to self-aggrandize.
If you haven't noticed by now, there is a key element that is oft-overlooked in our current situation, and that is the level to which the state and it's corporate management are the leading causes of just about every major issue on the planet... Ever wonder why asking the state to solve a problem always makes it worse?
If you enjoyed this, you may enjoy some of these highlights of my blog:
"Greatest Hits/Table of Contents" of my first 2 years on Steemit
