Militarization for what noble cause?

Dear True,
I attended the town forum on Homeland Security, the discussion at Grand Marais City Council, and I have read all of the letters and articles and posts from Concerned Citizens for Cook County. This has been a great discussion in a great community and I find some small point, at least, to agree with in every point of view.
But nearly everyone has said that if the feds want a new military outpost here they will get it, meaning we can only make the best of it. I don’t agree.
This Homeland project is totally about the militarization of our peaceful village and the beautiful North Shore, as is the dangerous, polluting and scary live gunfire practice already going on in the lake. The people of the United States have been deceived by the government and their media puppets into believing that militarization is necessary for our security and will make us safe. Not so. “He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.”
I read today of the plight of Gaza refugees, living in fear and chaos and economic disaster after their country was destroyed by Israel. A father sleeps on a 20 square yard patch of garden to protect it from roving gangs. United Nations grants for school supplies are being spent on desperately needed food.
But what brought me to tears was the news that fishermen must use hand-thrown nets on the beach because the Israeli Navy patrols the sea, preventing them from catching more than a few sardines. Here, in another fishing village on another great body of water on the other side of the world, it feels like we are trying to pretend we are living in a war zone, and for what? What noble cause? (as Cindy Sheehan keeps asking George Bush, without an answer).
Maybe I can’t stop these crazies but I can at least speak out loudly against them, echoing the calls for peace coming increasingly from around the globe. I have been on a partial fast to support Cindy and her peace campers, reminding myself in a small way, by going hungry until evening every day, of the enormous death, destruction, grief and suffering caused by the militarization of the country in which I live, but where I no longer belong.
Nancye Belding