If the question is “How can we preserve the practice of drafting child soldiers?” then war is the answer.

If the question is “How can we blow 4 trillion dollars in a decade?” then war is the answer.

If the question is “How can we enrich unaccountable corporations?” then war is the answer.

War is the answer, all right. It’s the answer to a series of insane questions.

Enough. Stop killing the farmers who grow food for a nation hungry for peace. Stop killing innocent children. It is time to ban cluster bombs now.

Out of 435 possible supporters, only three members of the U.S. House of Representatives have added their support for H.R. 996, a bill to stop the unrestricted sale and use of cluster bombs by the United States. Those three members are James McGovern of Massachusetts, Charles Boustany of Louisiana and Darrell Issa of California. Please, would you consider finding the phone number of your member of Congress today and calling him or her to recommend H.R. 996? If we work together, we can end the scourge of cluster bombs.

They’re asking for Americans not to be sent off into foreign countries to shoot guns at people who live there, and to be shot at by people with guns who live there. That’s not really radical at all.

Peace is normal. It’s war that’s abnormal. Peace is the mainstream of successful human life. It’s war that’s radical.

The policies of war have had a decade to do their work, and they’ve failed. Peace has been put off long enough. It’s time for peace now.

The bumper sticker you see here is for the liberal side of the equation. When it comes to a choice between war and words, we choose words. We choose knowledge. We choose enlightenment.

That’s why we liberals will choose the Books Not Bombs bumper sticker. We’ll work hard for education, but we’re not going to fight for war.

Take a look at what’s going on over in Afghanistan. Ten years now, and still none of the objectives of the war have been met. There’s no secular democracy in the Afghan government. Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden are still walking free.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich understands this fundamental truth. He sees that the war in Afghanistan is bleeding America dry for no good purpose. That’s why he’s introduced House Concurrent Resolution 28, a bipartisan bill that would require the end of the war in Afghanistan by the end of this year.

Dennis Kucinich is authentically anti-war, and for that reason, to put it in a retro way, Kucinich is a real hep cat. Express that idea with the unique bumper sticker you see here: Hep Cats for Kucinich.

These words reflect the delicate position that progressives take when it comes to Islam, Muslims, and peace. Progressives, if they are intellectually consistent, are skeptical, not just of political leaders but of religious leaders as well. They’re not in any sort of mood to accept Islam, with its absolutist positions.

However, when the hard right advocates American war against Islam, alarm bells go off for us progressives as well. We value the separation of church and state, for one thing, and aren’t inclined to go along with wars against entire religions.

Besides that, progressives recognize diversity within cultural groups as well as between cultural groups. For that reason, we just don’t buy the warmongers’ propaganda that Muslims are all foaming at the mouth for war. We recognize the reality of Muslims for Peace.

The bumper sticker you see here recognizes that reality as well. Word to you Muslims out there: It’s a great tool for countering the stereotype of Muslims as nasty, universally violent people.

It features the Islamic symbol of the crescent and star, but with another symbol behind it: The peace sign. Together, they make the sign of Muslims for Peace.

We’ve sat down and inked-out a win-win agreement with the U.S. Marine Corps and can now host officially licensed USMC merchandise (be sure to tag your designs with USMCFP). Also, please be sure to follow the new Marine Corps design guidelines – violating products will be shot down – Ooh-Rah!

Those guidelines read as follows:

• No use of an artist's signature or URL (i.e., website address)
• No advertising of any businesses, products, or services of a third party
• No profanity, vulgar language, graphically violent images, or hate language
• No skull imagery
• No blood imagery
• No sexual innuendo, explicit sexual language, images, or graphics
• No reference to drugs, medication, or alcohol
• No derogatory reference to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, mental handicap, obesity or physical impairment
• No political party associations (e.g. Republican, Democratic)
• No Undergarments (you cannot create Marine Corps thongs, boxer shorts, boxer briefs, etc)

It is interesting to note the trademarking of a logo of a branch of the United States government. As a test of political speech (where “political” refers to issues of policy and not partisan electioneering), we’ve designed the following bumper sticker that meets all the above conditions:

If you click on the bumper sticker’s image here and find that the sticker is available for sale, you’ll know that the Marine Corps can handle a little critique. But if the sticker is no longer for sale, you’ll know that there’s an additional rule in play: no bumper stickers that air criticism of the Marine Corps. That would be government suppression of political speech.

Stay tuned to see what happens.

Update: As of July 17, the bumper sticker has not been removed from the Cafepress marketplace. Meanwhile, shirts like the one below that violate the design guidelines in multiple ways are also being allowed:

It will be interesting to see how winnowing proceeds.

But peace? Do horses stand for peace?

Horses have often been used as tools of war. The cavalry would ride their horses to hunt down other human beings. Knights covered their horses in armor as thick as their own.

Today, riding a horse is something different for most people. To ride a horse is to know tranquility, and to build a close, respectful relationship with another being, in spite of its difference. Isn’t that at heart what peace is all about?

It’s this idea that’s captured in the Equestrians for Peace bumper sticker – and in the Peace Horse tshirt as well. In both, the design shows a horse leaving behind a small cloud of peace symbols with every step.

What happened to the clarity of the anti-war movement? Did the fierce urgency of NOW die off with the departure of George W. Bush? Was the anti-war movement really more of an anti-Bush movement? Have we fallen under the spell of a new president who seems to promise us change without specifying exactly what change means or when change will happen? Or is there a difference between a movement to stop a war from commencing and a movement to deal with a war that is already under way?

Regardless of the reason, the anti-war movement in America seems lost in a quagmire of words that end in ish.

However, this Animists for Peace bumper sticker links in quite well with the message of Avatar without infringing on any sort of copyright. In fact, its existence precedes the movie by at least a couple of years.

If, after leaving that 3D theater, you’re grooving with the idea of a peaceful coexistence with the rest of the world through an interconnected web of being, then perhaps you’re among the many animists for peace.