Kennebunkport, Maine – 700 Peace Activists March

President Bush was in Kennebunkport, Maine on Saturday to attend a wedding. He was staying at his family’s retreat.

The AP reported in the Boston Globe yesterday that that a peace march also took place in Kennebunkport on Saturday. Police Chief Joseph Bruno said some 700 people were involved, chanting and marching.

“The demonstrators sang, chanted, waved signs and even engaged in some fiddle playing to protest the war in Iraq.”

One Navy veteran at the event was quoted as saying “Silence is complicity. I don’t want to be complicit.”

Same here.

“Shock and Awe” Remember the words. “We had to destroy the village to save it.” Remember the words. The Israelis seemed to do the same thing in Lebanon.

When will we learn that total destruction that provides employment for companies like Halliburton does not win hearts and minds and is not the answer to finding peace. Military tactics using both discriminate and indiscriminate bombing that kills and maims the civilian population does not work to provide a stable base upon which to build trust and democracy.

As our experience in Iraq shows, and Lebanon shows, mass destruction and death can actually be counterproductive by increasing hatred and anger and increasing support for terrorists. There is no surer way to create a new terrorist, than by killing someone’s family.

There are no easy answers to finding peace in the Middle East. But America’s experience in Iraq points to a failed policy by Bush. New tactics are needed, not a rehash of failed Viet Nam era tactics. Just using more powerful or precise weapons of mass destruction ignores the social and political realities necessary to create a stable government and country.

It’s time for a change. Bush has failed.