Green Party on Homeland Security Party Platform

Abolish nuclear weapons, WMDs, and land mines

Our government should establish a policy to abolish nuclear weapons:
• Declare a no-first-strike policy.
• Declare a no-pre-emptive strike policy.
• Declare that the U.S. will never threaten or use a nuclear weapon on a non-nuclear nation.
• Sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
• Reverse our withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
• End the research, testing and stockpiling of all nuclear weapons of any size.
• Dismantle all nuclear warheads from their missiles.
• We urge our government to sign the Toronto treaty banning the production, stockpiling, use and sale of land mines, and assist other nations in unearthing and disabling land mines buried in their lands.
• We urge our government to end all stockpiling of chemical and biological weapons and all research, use, and sale of such weapons.
• The U.S. must allow foreign teams to visit the U.S. for verification purposes at least annually.

Better care & support services for veterans

Burden of fighting is borne by families of lesser means

Promise to close Guantanamo has no real plan to achieve it

President Obama began painting a rosy picture of the economy on the rebound, unemployment dropping and healthcare on the mend, based on narrow, selective examples. By failing to paint the full picture, he paints a false one.

On issue after issue we see the same false description of reality followed by proposals that do not solve the real problems: the green light to environmentally damaging fracking that will worsen the climate crisis, the promise to close Guantanamo--a promise repeated several times in previous years--again with no real plan to achieve it, the promise that the healthcare law is working, already saving money when in fact it is resulting in people getting worse healthcare coverage and not going to the doctor when they need to because out-of-pocket costs are so high.

Bulk of military budget is indirect subsidy for oil & gas

End all research, use, and sale of bio-chemical weapons

Repeal the Patriot Act

End research, testing and stockpiling of all nuclear weapons

• Declare a no-first-strike policy.
• Declare a no-pre-emptive strike policy.
• Declare that the U.S. will never threaten or use a nuclear weapon, regardless of size, on a non-nuclear nation.
• Sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Our pledge to end testing will open the way for non-nuclear states to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which has been held up by our refusal to sign the CTBT. Honor the conditions set in the NPT for nuclear nations.
• Reverse our withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and honor its stipulations.
• End the research, testing and stockpiling of all nuclear weapons of any size.
• Dismantle all nuclear warheads from their missiles.

Onerous Patriot Act assaults civil liberties

The use of Homeland Defense monies to spy on citizens exercising First Amendment rights is particularly onerous, as are “sneak and peek” provisions of the Patriot Act that allows surveillance of libraries, readers, the Internet, and computer users. Basic rights ensuring individual privacy are under attack. The US government’s use of high tech tools, including intrusive monitoring, data mining and analysis to identify and disrupt citizen activists, should be seen as an attack on fundamental rights of an engaged, active citizenry.

Demilitarize our society and eliminate our WMDs

It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to our current patterns of violence at all levels, from the family and the streets, to nations and the world. We will work to demilitarize our society and eliminate weapons of mass destruction, without being naive about the intentions of other governments. We recognize the need for self-defense; nonviolent methods will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace.

SDI doesn’t work; money better spent elsewhere

A: Well, it doesn’t work, even according to the physics community. Gen. MacArthur warned against looking for enemies. [An enemy] could bring a nuclear bomb in a suitcase -- so what are we gonna do, have a $500 billion suitcase defense system? We have far more serious needs -- with billions spent on arms instead of spending pennies to protect children’s health.

Abolish nuclear weapons

Cut defense budget by 50%

With half of all discretionary spending now going to the military, the president requesting spending even the Pentagon thinks is wasteful, and the Congress proposing even more than the president requests, Greens believe the more than $300 billion DEFENSE BUDGET MUST BE CUT. The Green Party calls for military spending to be cut by 50% over the next 10 years, with increases in spending for social programs.

Preventive diplomacy, a strong economy and humane trade relations are our best defense. We must maintain a viable American military force, prudent foreign policy doctrines, and readiness strategies that take into account real, not hollow or imagined threats to our people, our democratic institutions and U.S. interests. Even so, Greens seek strength through peace.