5. We must become an Active Non-Violent Presence in the Midst of the Conflict. “Waging Peace” in a violent society, means joining with local peace groups to protest injustice while supporting projects aimed at building trust and good will among the local people.
Small projects, once accepted, lead to larger projects, and larger projects expand further as local trust is established. It means repairing water and power systems that are vulnerable to bombing and destruction. It means operating health centers that we evacuate when attacked. 
Each time a nation or insurgency destroys something good, Peace Makers must remain calm and peacefully witnesses the event by helping local peace groups rebuild while non-violently protesting and expressing their anger at the loss, destruction, and injustice they experience. As the United States is a wealthy superpower with great influence, protests must address injustices created by our own policies.
When we retaliate with violence, the call for extremism grows stronger: the leaders of violence know this and welcome our violent responce. In Iraq, Gaza, and in the West Bank, the insurgents believe that we are an army of occupation, and their strategy is to use our military occupation against us. 
And so every time a civilian dies from an American or Israeli air strike, the local people grow more angry with us, and the insurgents win support for violent Islamic Extremism. Whenever “collateral damage” from an American attack involves an Iraqi child, the urge toward war grows stronger. Every Palestinian home invaded without a warrant, every Iraqi tortured, every arrest without charge, every relative killed, jailed, or “disappeared”, every store accidentally destroyed, and every family
frightened by the “Shock and Awe” of the American or Israeli Super Power, gives inspiration to those who choose war. They attack us precisely so that we will counter attack, so that a civilian dies, a shattered family cries: retribution is sought, oaths are sworn, new recruits recruited, the cycle is completed, and the hatred for America grows stronger.
“Two Hundred Billion Dollar Army of the Occupation”, to “The Brave Builders, Teachers, Scholars, and Doctors of the United States of America, Europe, Asia, Israel, the Middle East, and the entire world.” In this manner we will spend our money and our blood winning the hearts of the Iraqi nation, even as we remain true to the heart of our Nation. This is battle tested technology. It works. It also takes great courage, patience, and maturity. Write letters to congress and to the editor of local papers about Waging Peace.
