This article in The Star detailing the post-9/11, war-related disability claims to the Department of Veterans Affairs was troubling, especially since current research indicates that non-violent, active resistance has been twice as successful as war at causing regime change.
Sound unbelievable? Google “Erica Chenoweth,” a former ROTC college student, now an assistant professor at the University of Denver, and discover what she did when comparing violence to non-violence at effecting carefully matched, large-scale political changes over the last 100 years. I recently heard her speak, and her results are startling.
Nonviolent, active resistance has brought about regime change twice as often, with far less loss of life and more chance of creating lasting democracies, than has armed resistance. If true, we have a new way to “support our troops” — namely, don’t deploy them when other means to instill democracy cause less destruction and are more successful. Save them to guard home.
Scott W. Beckett
Jacksonville
