"Why did Congress cut funds for peace in a time of war?"

Wesley Kanne Clark published a good opinion piece in the Christian Science Monitor on March 21, 2011. He wrote:

It was with disbelief and dismay that the military and international security community learned that the US House of Representatives voted recently to eliminate funding for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) – the government’s only institution created to focus exclusively on international peacebuilding.

Eliminating USIP funding is a jaw-dropping, backward step. Although other national security contributors can perform some of USIP’s functions, none can perform them all in unity or has such convening power. More important, none can perform them as effectively. This is why Congress created USIP in the first place and should ensure continued funding.

I want to both commend General Clark for his public statement and express my deep anger at the potential loss of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Colman McCarthy writes in the Washington Post:

At the current $43 million, it (the Institute of Peace budget) is one-hundredth of 1 percent of the Pentagon’s budget and less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the State Department’s. The current military and security budget, ever rising, is about $2.4 billion a day, a sum 10 times greater than the institute’s total budget for 27 years. In that time, the institute has yet to earn even a line in a State of the Union address.

It is time to write you Senators and demand that the Senate restore funding for the United States Institute of Peace!