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Taxes Fuel U.S. War Machine

“If a thousand [people] were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.”
–Henry David Thoreau during the Mexican-American War of 1846-4
By Vickie Aldrich
Once again it is tax time in America. On April 15th the U.S. government will collect taxes, a large portion of which will go to pay for wars past, present and future. Each of us must decide how we respond to this. Some choose to live below taxable income; others enclose a letter of protest to the use of the taxes for war; others choose not to pay willingly and set funds aside in an account where they can be collected (levied) by the government. I took this action with my 2004 taxes after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. I was rather surprised that what I withheld was not levied until this fall, but then I am a New Mexican educator, so my share of the war taxes was not a large amount.  In th aggregate, though as the numbers below show, what all of us has paid is a staggering amount.
•    $607,300,000,000 (and counting) — the amount spent on the Iraq war so far. Source: www.wartaxboycott.org
•    $1,997,131,763 — the amount paid by N.M. taxpayers to support the war in Iraq. Source: The Friends Committee on National Legislation (www.fcnl.org).
This year I will again withhold a portion of my taxes (28 percent). I have also decided that I will give an equal amount of money to organizations that are working to build the peace, especially in the Middle East. I am calling this Parity for Peace. This can be done by anyone, even if you pay taxes, figure out the portion that goes toward wars – use the WRL site (www.warresisters.org) and their pie chart. Then give the same amount toward peace. If we all did this, we could begin to work to create a different world.
In Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age Arthur Herman recounted both successful and failed nonviolence campaigns of Gandhi – one was an individual ‘Satyagraha’ campaign, where each person found his/her own  non-violent actions to take. As I take my action this month to withhold some tax dollars and to practice Parity for Peace, I feel as if I am participating in an individual Satyagraha or Truthforce. The government can demand my money and take it out of my paycheck or the bank account; they can not stop me from naming the account ‘war taxes’ which lets the bank clerks and the IRS know, that I do not pretend this money is building a new railroad. The IRS can take my money and use it for war, but they cannot stop me from sending an equal amount to be used for peace.
I believe this ‘naming’ is an important action. The war machine exists and creates and perpetuates wars as long as people continue to participate in the tax and war process. Perpetual war is not a separate issue. It is a peace issue, an economic issue, an environmental issue and a social issue. The problems created by the U.S. wars of invasion will be with those who served in the U.S. military and those who were attacked by the U.S. for many years.
Many groups have information on war taxes. Two of these are: National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) at www.nwtrcc.org and War Resisters League at www.warresisters.org.

Vickie Aldrich teaches math at Doña Ana Community College.

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