Which Side Are You On?

by Peter Deccy

Yesterday’s New York Times had a troubling story of a 52 minute battle between a company of US troops and two Afghan soldiers who had lived and fought alongside the Americans. The account made clear these were two extremely well trained Afghan soldiers. Two Americans and the two Afghan soldiers were killed in yet another so-called ‘green on blue’ attack.

This year, 22 US, NATO and other coalition troops have been killed by men in Afghan uniform.

It’s worth noting that contrary to the common myth that these attacks are conducted by Taliban infiltrators, it appears that many of the attacks are actually caused by the intense and growing hatred many Afghan soldiers have for the foreign occupation of their country.

It’s a reminder how post traumatic stress inflicts the people of Afghanistan, a country that has endured over 30 years of war, to a far larger degree than we are perhaps aware. At what point is the cost of unending US and NATO military operations too high?

It also begs the question, will the insurgency ever end as long as foreign troops occupy Afghanistan? What have the best efforts and tremendous sacrifices made by our troops, and the hundreds of billions of dollars spent, actually accomplished in the longest war in America’s history?

“I think we’d both say that what we found is that the Taliban is stronger,” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein told CNN having just returned from a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan with Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan.

The insurgency grows stronger, along with the ill-will and mistrust of our Afghan allies, fueled by images of US military personnel urinating on dead Taliban fighters, the murder of 16 Afghan civilians by a US soldier and Koran burnings.

The US and NATO strategy in Afghanistan is failing, and will continue to fail, as long as foreign troops occupy the country. How can the Obama administration justify keeping 20,000 to 30,000 troops in Afghanistan for another 12 years while many of our allies are preparing an earlier than planned exit?

At the NATO summit in Chicago, Peace Action and our allies in the peace and justice movement will press the question and demand our troops return home.

Musings on the President’s “Twelve More Years!” Speech from Afghanistan

–Executive Director Kevin Martin

(Field Director Judith Le Blanc will also post her observations)

The president spoke of the strength of the Afghan security forces. Yet he had to make this surprise trip to Kabul under cover of darkness because of security fears. Doesn’t this speak volumes as to how little we’ve accomplished after eleven years (our country’s longest war).

Three hundred seventy eight U.S. troops have died since Obama’s killing. For what? And the UN reported 2011 as the worst year for Afghan civilian deaths with 3,021 people killed. Again, this is the level of “security” we’ve attained after eleven years of war?

The best way this “stay until 2024 plan” can be described is “Quagmire Light.” Surely the president and the military establishment recognize the U.S. public won’t stand for another 12 years of full-scale war, so this seems to be there stab at calibrating the most they can get away with in terms of an enduring presence in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is ranked the third most corrupt nation on the planet after North Korea and Somalia by Transparency International. That would have been very inconvenient for the president to acknowledge, but does that sorry fact justify staying another dozen years?

What agreement? It has not been made public. This is the allegedly (or at least the self-proclaimed) most transparent administration in U.S. history. What are they afraid of? And why does President Karzai think he needs to get approval from his Parliament but President Obama evidently does not? Is this not in reality a treaty, requiring the advice and consent (usually called “ratification”) of the U.S. Senate (the very body the president and vice president served in until very recently)?

The president tried to paint this as the end, or at least the beginning of the end, of the war, but there’s no peace treaty, which is the way wars usually end, yes?

Instead of this agreement, and follow-up plans to be hashed out at the NATO Summit in Chicago in three weeks, the president should be announcing the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces as soon as possible, and a massive reinvestment of our tax dollars now wasted on war and militarism repurposed to job creation and human and environmental needs spending. This would be a political winner for him, as his base and swing voters solidly support a swift end to the war, and even Romney voters, by a slim majority, favor this as well.

John King on CNN noted 2024 is six presidential terms since the 9-11-01 attack. Think about that for a minute – six presidential terms. Anderson Cooper noted that the Taliban doesn’t need any training, why does it cost us so much to train Afghan forces? Journalism!

Moving to a Culture of Peace

New Jersey Peace Action Executive Director Madelyn Hoffman had a terrific op-ed in the Bloomfield Life last week, titled Moving to a Culture of Peace linking local gun violence, military spending and how it is robbing our communities of needed investments in human needs, at the federal, state and local levels, and the endless war in Afghanistan. Madelyn cites recent polls showing public support for that war at an all-time low, yet the Obama Administration announced over the weekend an agreement to keep U.S. forces in Afghanistan until at least 2024 (more on that agreement, and what we can do to prevent its implementation, will be coming soon).

And speaking of a culture of peace, our National Field Director, Judith Le Blanc, is currently in Chicago representing Peace Action at an international conference of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates (no, Judith didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize – not that she isn’t deserving! – she was invited to attend as Peace Action is the largest U.S. member of the International Peace Bureau, which won the peace prize in 1910, yes, over a hundred years ago!). IPB was also the coordinator for the Global Day of Action on Military Spending, which many Peace Action affiliates around the country participated in last week with Tax Day actions.

Watch this space soon for posts from Judith from Chicago. In the meantime, the Chicago Tribune had an interesting story yesterday about the Nobel Peace Laureates conference, it’s worth a read.

Only a Month Away, Won’t You Please Come to Chicago…for Peace, Justice and a NATO-Free Future!

–Executive Director Kevin Martin

In just over a month, peace activists and allies from other social justice movements from around the country and around the world will gather in Chicago (where I lived and worked for ten terrific years) to call for peace, economic justice and the end of NATO when that alliance convenes for its annual meeting. Please plan to join us May 18-20 for what will be an illuminating, action oriented Counter-Summit conference, and a march of veterans of the Afghanistan war returning their medals to U.S. officials to call for an end to our country’s longest war and just treatment for returning veterans and the people of Afghanistan who have suffered immeasurably over the last several decades of nearly endless wars.

More information, including registration and speakers can be found on the NATO-Free Future website (Peace Action is a founding member of the national and international coalitions on this issue). I’ll be there and hope you will join us!

Also, WBEZ-FM, Chicago’s public radio station, hosted a thought-provoking live public town meeting on NATO and the upcoming summit, featuring Kathy Kelly, co-founder of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, a longtime friend and ally and a principle speaker at our conference in May. It’s long, and hour and a half, but worthwhile. Kathy, who has traveled many timed to Afghanistan in solidarity with the people of that war-weary country, is excellent as always on the show, and the audience Q and A session with host Jerome McDonnell (the last 30-45 minutes or so) is very interesting, great questions and comments from the attendees.

2012: Out Now

by Peter Deccy, Peace Action

U.S. military leaders are still pressing to keep the bulk of US troops in Afghanistan until 2014, removing only the remaining 22,000 “surge” forces President Obama promised would be withdrawn this summer. That will leave over 68,000 US troops in Afghanistan. For what? Is there any reason to believe that two more years of fighting will make us safer? Will we look back and declare another two years of war was worth the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and the horrific loss of life? Not likely.

Peace Action is working to recruit co-sponsors for H.R. 780 – the Responsible End to the War in Afghanistan Act, introduced by Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA). You can help build the demand by calling your Representative today at 202-224-3121 and asking her or him to co-sponsor the Lee bill.

After meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Panetta earlier this month, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai said, “Afghanistan is ready right now to take all security responsibilities completely.” A bold assertion to be sure, and one that should be put to the test as an alternative to a war strategy that is costing too many civilian lives, poisoning future relations with Afghanistan (and Pakistan as well) and one our Afghan allies vehemently oppose. What is the President waiting for?

Most Americans are fed up with the war and want the same thing. A new Rasmussen poll shows 53% of likely voters support the immediate and complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. As support for the present military strategy continues to erode and the justifications for continuing the US investment in blood and treasure wear thin, now is the time for peace advocates to raise their voices.

Call 202-224-3121 today and tell your Representative to support H.R. 780 – the Responsible End to the War in Afghanistan Act.

In the wake of the horrific murders of 16 Afghan civilians, nine of them children, the U.S. should revisit its timeline for transfer of security to Afghan forces and accelerate the departure of all foreign troops. It’s time our troops came home.

More Prolific Peace Actionistas Published on Prospects of War on Iran

Whew! Hard to keep up with all the great articles being published by grassroots leaders in the Peace Action network. Here are two for you today, both on the lunacy of a war with Iran:

National Peace Action Board Co-Chair Jean Athey and Peace Action Montgomery (in Maryland, just outside the nation’s capital) Steering Committee member Alex Welsch had an op-ed in yesterday’s Baltimore Sun titled “Overstated Iranian ”threat’ puts U.S. on path to war”

New Jersey Peace Action Executive Director, on Op-Ed News, asks “Can the U.S. Afford Another War?” (Of course we can’t, but her article is full of facts, figures, links and news you can use!)

Peace Action of New York State: Press Release on “New” Pentagon Strategy Announced by President Obama and Secretary of Defense Panetta Today

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                  CONTACT: Alicia Godsberg

(646) 723-1749

alicia@panys.org

 

New Defense Strategy: Not Sounding That New

 

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. (January 5, 2012) — Today the President, Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff outlined a new strategy for the Department of Defense. This new direction focused on reorienting the U.S. military toward the Asia-Pacific region and decreasing the number of active duty service members. President Obama proudly reminded the crowd that the Pentagon’s budget will continue to grow, even if it does so at a slower rate, and will remain higher than at the end of President Bush’s last term. Secretary Panetta and Chairman Dempsey stated that the U.S. will retain the ability to fight more than one war at a time, and the U.S. will retain a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear deterrent. This broadly outlined “new” strategy does not sound all that different than the one we have now, which is contributing to our country’s economic decline by maintaining expensive and useless nuclear weapons and projecting U.S. power needlessly around the world.

Nuclear weapons were only hinted at in the press conference, with President Obama stating:

We’ll continue to get rid of outdated Cold War-era systems so that we can invest in the capabilities we need for the future…

The Pentagon’s report on this new strategy was also released today, stating:

It is possible that our deterrence goals can be achieved with a smaller nuclear force, which would reduce the number of nuclear weapons in our inventory as well as their role in U.S. national security strategy. 

 

The U.S. has a stockpile of 8,500 nuclear weapons. Approximately $700 billion of tax payer money will be spent on nuclear weapons programs in the next decade. Billions can be saved by:

-          Cutting the Navy’s procurement of new nuclear-capable submarines from 12 to 8. Savings = $27 billion over 10 years and $120 billion over the life of the program.

-          Delaying work on a new long-range nuclear-capable bomber. Savings = at least $18 billion over the next decade.

-          Cancelling the Mixed Oxide Fuel Plant. Savings = $4 billion.

-          Cancelling the construction of a new plutonium pit/nuclear weapon core factory (CMRR-NF). Savings = at least $3 – $5 billion.

Additional savings can come from eliminating the approximately 1,000 U.S. military bases overseas, starting with the European bases left over from the Cold War that ended over 20 years ago. Closing 300 bases alone would save at least $12 billion.

Specific budget cuts will be outlined in the weeks to come, leading up to the new budget that will be released in February. Peace Action New York State will continue to work to cut unnecessary nuclear weapons programs and close overseas bases, and redirect that money to help our communities and fund human needs.

 

 

About Peace Action New York State

PANYS is dedicated to promoting the non-violent resolution of conflict, the abolition of nuclear weapons, and changing federal spending priorities away from the military and toward human needs. We believe that war is not the suitable response to conflict, that every person has the right to live without the threat of nuclear weapons, and that America has the resources and responsibility to both protect and provide for its citizens. Peace Action New York State is part of the national organization Peace Action, which is the largest grassroots peace organization in the country. Peace Action recognizes that real change comes from the bottom up and is committed to educating and organizing at the grassroots level in over 30 states across the country.

 

http://www.panys.org

https://twitter.com/PeaceActionNY

tiny.cc/PANYSfacebook

Move the Money! From Endless Wars to a More Sustainable, Flowering Republic!

The following is excerpted from recent speeches I gave at the Nebraskans for Peace annual conference in Lincoln, NE and the Chicago Area Peace Action annual dinner in Wilmette, IL.

Move the Money! From Endless War to a More Sustainable, Flowering Republic!

-by Kevin Martin

Peace Action’s Move the Money campaign is our most exciting work at this time.  In my opinion, we have the best chance in a generation for serious cuts in the  military budget. Our Move the Money campaign, at the national and local level, is a serious coalition and alliance building project, creating strong relationships with  unions, human needs and economic and racial justice advocates,environmental and consumer groups, and local elected officials, who deal with the harm our out of control war spending has done to the national economy and to state and local budgets, among other constituencies.

Veteran peace activist Tom Hayden has a very good analytical tool he calls the Pillars of War, looking at constituencies or sectors of society that have perpetuated U.S. wars in the last decade. The news media, general public opinion, Republicans, Democrats (which need to be further divided into the party elite, those in Congress, and the party’s base) and corporate interests are key pillars to examine, especially in terms of leverage the peace movement may have in moving or, better yet, removing some of these pillars.

I would argue we have made significant headway pushing on some of these pillars (certainly public opinion and the Democratic base are now solidly anti-war, and we’ve made progress with Congressional Democrats and even the media to lesser degrees), but that perhaps the biggest impediment to ending the wars is corporate power, or the good old military-industrial-congrressional complex.

A recent example is the reaction of Lockheed Martin, the planet’s largest weapons contractor, to a proposed non-binding resolution in the Montgomery County, Maryland Council (just outside Washington, D.C., where both Lockheed and Peace Action’s national office are located). The resolution, pushed by our local Peace Action chapter, is simple, calling for an end to the wars and cutting military spending in order to fund jobs and human, community and environmental needs – a position supported by an overwhelming majority of the U.S. public.

Lockheed felt so threatened (evidently) by this non-binding county resolution that it called the governor, congressman (Chris van Hollen, to whom it had contributed $10,000 in the last campaign cycle) and county council president to scuttle the resolution. They succeeded in getting the resolution withdrawn, temporarily, but got a black-eye in the local media, including the usually reliably war-mongering Washington Post.

Frankly, Lockheed did us a favor in exposing the lengths to which it will go to stifle democracy (if the resolution had passed, we would have celebrated, but it would not have gotten an iota of the media coverage LM’s strong-arm tactics generated).

In this exciting year of the Arab Spring, Wisconsin and other state budget showdowns and Occupy Wall Street (and Omaha and Lincoln and Kansas City and Chicago and everywhere!) opportunities abound for peace activists to make common cause with allies demanding a more peaceful, just, democratic society.

In addition to the ongoing (such staying power!) Occupy movement, there is still time to demand the congressional “Super Committee” protect Social Security, Medicare and human needs programs and find their budget savings in the gargantuan ($1.2 trillion per year!) national security budget (there’s a link to the Super Committee on our home page at http://www.peace-action.org/).

Two important opportunities next year will be the NATO/G-8 Summit in Chicago, where they are linking the wars and the economy for us! Peace Action, along with local, national and international allies, will organize an educational conference and street actions demanding an end to NATO and U.S. war-making and a more just, equitable U.S. and global economy.

Finally, next year’s elections will present us an opportunity to press candidates for all levels of government to Move the Money from war and militarism to jobs, human and environmental needs. Our Peace Voter campaign will help give activists the tools to do that, from candidate briefings and endorsments, bird-dogging, voter guides, voter registration, education and Get out the Vote (GOTV) efforts.  President Obama’s and the Democratic Party’s vulnerability (over 80% of registered Democrats want to end the wars) matches up very well with our strength in the peace movement’s grassroots base (not that we are all Democrats, we certainly are not, but we have many connections with grassroots Democratic activists and structures).

Ending the wars, cutting military spending, abolishing nuclear weapons and creating a more just society are all central to Peace Action’s mission, but so is recognizing and framing a larger vision of the historic moment we inhabit, and the opportunities it provides. I like the framework Norwegian peace studies expert Johann Galtung uses – the Decline of the U.S. Empire, and the Flowering of the U.S. Republic.

All empires have ended, all of them. It’s our job to help end the U.S. Empire as quickly and nonviolently as possible, and to use the resources freed up (a “peace dividend” if you will) to help empower people to create the flowering Republic – peaceful, equitable, sustainable and just — that comes following the Empire’s demise.

A few years ago a dinner table conversation with my children, now aged 17 and 13, revealed that they thought the United States is always at war. And why wouldn’t they think that, as it has certainly been the case for nearly all their lives (and frankly for the majority of our country’s history)? It’s unacceptable to me that children in this country, or in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Congo, Somalia or anywhere should have to live with that expectation, or even worse, that daily reality. For their futures, we cannot continue on the unsustainable path we are currently on. As the great pacifist A.J. Muste taught us, “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.”

Kevin Martin is executive director of Peace Action, the country’s largest peace and disarmament organization with 100,000 members and nearly 100 affiliates and chapters around the U.S.

Interview on Chicago Public Radio from Monday

This program, Worldview, with host Jerome McDonnell, is one of the best on public radio. It’s on five days a week, focusing on international affairs. I’ve known Jerome for over 20 years, he’s a good egg, very sharp, asks good questions, good politics. Not a bad segment I don’t think, we covered a lot of issues of import to the peace movement. Feel free to give me feedback on my “performance” if you like!

KC peace activists stand up for democracy in (nonviolent) fight to stop new Bomb factory

Peace Action’s affiliate in the Kansas City area, PeaceWorks Kansas City, is one of the leaders of the struggle to prevent a new factory to build the non-nuclear components for U.S. nuclear weapons. I plan to visit Kansas City in mid-October and hope to be able to learn more and support the cause.

National Peace Action board member Larry Wittner has an article on this struggle on History News Network, and Mother Jones also had a piece on this by Adam Weinstein as well.

Finally, a short video of KC Councilman Ed Ford arguing in favor of the ballot initiative organized by KC Peace Planters.

More soon about how we can all support the KC Peace Planters!