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WHY WE DO IT
Military spending today swallows up nearly two-thirds of discretionary government spending in the United States. Human beings here and abroad suffer while war profiteers and dictators grow rich.
America commands a larger military than the world’s next 8 largest militaries combined, and 5 of them are our allies.
In 2025, Congress will alloacte $850 billion for defense. Roughly half of this money goes to private weapons contractors such as Raytheon, Boeing, and General Dynamic. The CEOs of our five largest weapons manufacturers make over $9 million a year, mostly funded through taxpayer dollars.
Our defense budget provides the Pentagon with the resources to garrison the entire planet, with 800 bases in over 150 countries, at a cost of $150 billion per year.
We are also spending $1.7 trillion over the next 3 decades on our nuclear weapons modernization program. Since 9/11, America has spent $5.9 trillion and over a million lives, on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone have devastated a region, resulting in the violent deaths of over a million people and the displacement of 21 million people.
We give military assistance to 73% of the world’s dictatorships.
There are roughly 40,000 veterans living homeless on the streets of America. After serving in wars overseas, service members can often suffer from both physical and psychological wounds.
This is unconscionable and nonsensical in a nation that is also experiencing homelessness, infant mortality, skyrocketing health care and higher education costs, and crumbling infrastructure.
OUR CAMPAIGNS
We seek to educate and advocate on behalf of Palestinian civil and human rights. The current situation in Gaza is horrific and untenable. We are advocating for an immediate, permanent ceasefire and for humanitarian aid to freely flow into Gaza.
As the only country to use nuclear weapons in conflict, the United States has a moral obligation to lead the world in ending this threat and to remember all those who were harmed in their detonation, testing and development.
CAPA aims to end the war economy by mobilizing Chicago Area activists to convince lawmakers to prioritize people and planet over greed and violence.
We can secure the nation’s safety with a reduced military budget while also upholding human rights.
CAPA believes that the U.S. needs to stop waging needless wars, including proxy wars such as its support for the Saudi war in Yemen.
It is long past time to eliminate excess Pentagon spending and invest the savings in urgent domestic and human needs priorities – environmental protection, education, infrastructure, health care and more – that will make the U.S. stronger and more just.
Email the CAPA Foreign Policy Working Group chair Marcia Bernsten at Marcia@ChiPeaceAction.org or our team email CAPA@ChiPeaceAction.org if you’d like to participate in our monthly call (the last Monday of each month) or be added to our distribution list.
CONTACT US
If you would like more information about CAPA, or would like to volunteer or intern for CAPA, please contact us by email or phone.