War in the Middle East could be curtailed if the United States chose to do so. Already last November, the Jewish News Syndicate reported that retired Israeli Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Brick said, “All of our missiles, the ammunition, the precision-guided bombs, all the airplanes and bombs, it’s all from the U.S. . . . Everyone understands that we can’t fight this war without the United States.”

For wars to cease, must U.S. taxpayers turn off the tap to military spending? Apparently so, since it was recently reported that the U.S. was sending a guided-missile submarine and aircraft carrier to defend Israel and approved $20 billion in new arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets, advanced air-to-air missiles, tank ammunition, high explosive mortars and tactical vehicles. 

Let’s consider abandoning warmaking, including the battlefield that is Gaza, and disobeying IRS orders by refusing to pay for the criminal undertaking of militarism. Such conscientious action would be in accordance with Nuremberg Charter Principle IV, which indicates that it is not an acceptable excuse to say, “I was just following orders.”

Might our moral choice be one of redirecting our federal tax dollars that underwrite warmaking toward endeavors of peacemaking, which support a nuclear- free, ecologically sustainable planet? The Mennonite Church USA Peace Tax Fund provides that opportunity.

Harold A. Penner, Akron, Pa.