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!

Tomorrow, we will honor the other 1%: our service members and veterans.

Less than 1% of the nation serves in our Armed Forces, and like many of you mentioned in your comments on the Iraq War, we are deeply gratified that many of them are returning home this winter. However, it has not escaped our attention that for many, this is not a homecoming, but rather a redeployment to Kuwait, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

At Peace Action, we will continue to work hard until each and every service member comes home.

Amidst unemployment, a 12-18 month backlog at the VA, and a rising suicide epidemic, returning veterans are marching with the 99%. Source: Veterans News Now.

But what are they coming home to?

Crisis of employment: With a record high average number of deployments under their belts, our veterans are returning home to face a higher rate of unemployment than their civilian counterparts.

Crisis of care: An alarming suicide epidemic is pervading the military, with active-duty memberstaking their own lives at the rate of one every 36 hours. After a decade of continuous war, PTSD rates are as high as 50% among deployed troops. Despite this alarming epidemic, the average new claim processing time at the VA appears to be an astounding 12 to 18 months!

Meanwhile, both the House and Senate Veterans Committees are willing to cut funding to Veterans Affairs.

Peace Action says: Move the Money!

By cutting wasteful Pentagon spending, we could save billions of dollars from our federal budget. Billions of dollars that could be used for critical human needs, such as care for our returning veterans.

Your generous contribution to Peace Action will help build the movement to Move the Money from wars and weapons to human needs. Honor our troops this Veterans Day by helping build a more peaceful and just world.

Peace Action on C-SPAN

Thanks to the hard work of national Peace Action board member (and University of Hawai’i Human Rights Law Center founder) Joshua Cooper, Peace Action got some serious airtime (an hour and a quarter) on C-SPAN. Joshua has organized Human Rights on the Hill conferences in DC for law students and the public for a decade now, and he and I were filmed at this year’s event at the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke Law School.

Four More Years of War? Not On Our Watch!

I made notes on President Obama’s “war lite” speech the other night, intending to rebut many of his points, but it’s too easy, and also not really what I want to convey. However, here are a few points:

-The mainstream media frame that Obama is withdrawing more troops than the military wanted, so this will help his anti-war base, if way, well, off-base. While the 10,000 troops coming home this year and additional 23,000 by next September is too small, it’s larger than it would have been without our tireless grassroots and congressional organizing. So we recognize our power, and will re-double our efforts; we are not in the least appeased by the president’s half-measures, and neither is Congress. A bi-partisan letter to Obama is already in circulation calling for a bigger, faster troop withdrawal.

-The president said violence is declining, but that’s not at all true. This year has been the deadliest both for Afghan civilians and for our troops (and violence is on the rise in Baghdad, too, now one of our “other wars”).

-The president talked about devoting resources to rebuilding our country, but he has just committed us to another $300-400 billion of war over the next four years in Afghanistan.  The U.S. Conference of Mayors didn’t buy it; last weekend in Baltimore, they passed a strong anti-war resolution (their first since 1971 during the Vietnam War). 

-Nobody in the Administration will admit this, but these (too small) withdrawals do indeed change the strategy, at least looking past a year. As my colleague Bill Goodfellow from the Center for International Policy points out, 68,000 troops is too small a force to continue a counterinsurgency strategy, so our pressure has forced a strategic shift.

Peace Action got some good media hits after the president’s speech, here are a few of them:

John Nichols on The Nation, NPR and CBS websites (quotes our tireless Organizing and Policy Director Paul Kawika Martin)

Augusta Free Press

 

Long Island Newsday

 

Peace Action also got a “tip of the hat” in Tom Hayden’s article in The Nation

For some terrific analysis of the president’s speech and the way forward, try these:

Rebecca Griffin of Peace Action West

Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies on AlterNet

Former Peace Action Executive Director (back in the day when we were Sane and Sane/Freeze) David Cortight on CNN.com

And finally, my article which draws a bit of a broader frame, and will be in our next Action Report newsletter:

When I first heard a report of President Obama’s decision to remove only 5,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan this year (which turned out to be only half what he announced June 22, with another 23,000 troops to leave by September, 2012), my first thought was “did he forget a zero?” The decision was disappointing but not surprising. Remember, candidate Obama promised to escalate the Afghanistan war (which he did, twice), and as president, he has committed himself to “winning” it (whatever that means, I’m reminded of the pacifist Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin’s quote, “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake”).

Moreover, the military has consistently and effectively influenced the president’s decisions on the war, with former Secretary of War Robert Gates, Generals David Petraeus, Stanley McChrystal and others constantly speaking in public and to the media “setting policy,” which the president has enabled (Truman or Eisenhower would doubtless have fired them for that).

The President’s decision to prolong the war despite escalating public and congressional pressure surely reflects the malign influence of the Military-Industrial Complex (though I don’t mean to give the president a pass here, he is accountable for his decisions). The MIC won’t be taken down quickly or easily, perhaps not in our lifetimes.

But it will be taken down. The U.S. Empire is on the decline. Let’s replace it with a flowering U.S. Republic (in the phrase of the philosopher Johan Galtung). Protesting the wars and scourges of the Empire is only half our job. Empowering people to envision and decide what comes after, or along with, that decline is even more important. Even some in the military realize the U.S. needs a new foreign policy, one based less on belligerence and military might and more on peaceful diplomacy and international cooperation, as the recent “Mr. Y” article showed.

At reception near the United Nations at which I was humbled to be honored by non-governmental organizations that work at the UN, I asked attendees to close their eyes and envision that more peaceful, just world we will help build as the Empire declines. I asked folks to shout out what they envisioned. “A peaceful future for our children,” “meaningful jobs for all,” “an environment restored, with green energy technology and good public transit,” “health care for everyone” and “the end of nuclear power” were just some of the inspiring visions shared that night. It was beautiful!

So this is not a time to despair. Yes, we at Peace Action are sick of all wars, whether a Republican or Democrat is in the White House. But signs of our successes at shaping that new world abound:

-Public opinion is now solidly against the Afghanistan war – that’s our doing!

-The House and Senate finally sent strong messages to Obama of their opposition to the war, mostly because of our hard work.

-Congress is pushing the administration on the illegality of the Libya war.

-(Now former) Secretary of War Gates on the defensive in his last Senate hearing, reduced to declaring about Afghanistan “it’s not a war without end.”

-The recent U.S. Conference of Mayors resolutions calling for redirecting war spending to human needs and advocating the global elimination of nuclear weapons.

- The military budget is still gargantuan, but the organizing and political climate for working on this issue is the best we’ve seen decades – our Move the Money campaign is growing every day!

-Next year’s Peace Voter 2012 campaign could be one of our most important yet, as citizen-activists take control of the debate over wars, military spending and nuclear weapons and force House, Senate and Presidential candidates to address our issues on our terms!

-The Peace Action affiliate and chapter network is growing, very impressively, into new states and regions (please see the “Affiliates in Action” article and photo of Nebraskans for Peace, our new affiliate, in this issue!)

Peace and justice work is hard, there’s no question about it. That’s why we call it “the struggle,” not “the picnic.” But we have momentum, and the power of the people, on our side, let’s never forget that, and most importantly, let’s organize that power!

Let’s Give Congress Something to Talk About

By Judith Le Blanc

The Congress is debating the federal budget It is time to tell Congress what we want. The Senate is writing next year’s budget now. To cast your vote take the Peace Action New Priorities Budget Preference Poll.

The media makes it sound like there are only 2 ways to deal with the economic crisis: The President’s budget or the GOP’s, when polling shows that people want a budget that moves the money from military spending, tax cuts for the rich and subsidies to Big Business to fund human needs. The Congressional Progressive Caucus proposed a budget to do just that: the People’s Budget.

“Not a single hard news story on the proposal (the People’s Budget) ran in the New York Times, Washington Post or USA Today.” according to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). Unfortunately, the mainstream media is not informing the grassroots that there is an alternative to slashing human services.

That’s why we are launching a campaign to bring our voices into the debate.

Take the Peace Action New Priorities Budget Preference Poll. Cast your vote for the President’s, Ryan’s or the People’s Budget. We want to know what you think, and we will share it with your Congressional representative.

Please join Peace Action in a campaign that will
*bring tens of thousands of people into the public debate on the budget
*pressure Congress to cut military spending by hundreds of billions of dollars a year
*call for shifting funds to our communities and people in need
*put military spending on the map for the media and the 2012 elections
*Strengthen working relationships between the economic justice and peace movements

Cast your vote: take the Peace Action New Priorities Budget Preference Poll.

If you’re an individual, you can publicize the online poll by email, Facebook, and Twitter; help organize a Town Hall Meeting in your city; and pull in organizations you know. Just put this link in your emails and on Facebook: https://PeaceActionFederalBudgetPoll.questionpro.com

The campaign offers two ways to bring the debate into our communities:

1. An online poll where people can choose between the GOP budget, President Obama’s budget, and the “People’s Budget”.

The online poll https://PeaceActionFederalBudgetPoll.questionpro.com is available and it can be installed on the website of any organization that agrees to promote it. If you would like to put it on a website, contact Judith Le Blanc at (917) 806-8775. Poll results by state and congressional district will go to Members of Congress, Senators, and the media. It comes with a toolkit, an email message you can send to your list, a press advisory, fact sheet, and sample op-ed. There is also a toolkit for Town Hall Meetings.

2. Town Hall Meetings on jobs, taxes, democracy – and the People’s Budget. Get groups together to sponsor a town hall meeting and invite local elected officials to hear the testimony.

If you need more information about participating, contact Peace Action at jleblanc@peace-action.org.

Afghanistan Exit

“Nobody wants to give up the gains that have been won at such hard cost. And nobody wants to give our allies an excuse to run for the exits.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates

The image of our NATO allies breaking for the exit at the first sign the US begins withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan pretty much says it all. A bottomless quagmire, an unpopular, unwinnable war our allies can’t wait to be free of.

In the coming weeks, President Obama will announce his plan for fulfilling his promise that the 30,000 ‘surge’ troops he sent to Afghanistan would begin coming home this July. Americans no longer view the war as worth the cost. Opposition in Congress is growing, and members of his own administration, including Vice President Biden have expressed doubts about the efficacy of an all-in military campaign.

On the other side of the debate, Gates and the Pentagon Brass aren’t leading with the ‘allies running for the exit’ argument, but rather are pressing for a continuation of a strategy they say is protecting “gains that have been won at such a hard cost.” This is an argument that resonates with those predisposed to the military option.

Having toppled the Taliban, driven al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan and killed bin Laden, the US has achieved what it set out to do, albeit “at such a hard cost.” What’s left – preventing the return of the Taliban to power and al-Qaeda to its Afghanistan havens and the corresponding requirement of building a functional government to prevent that outcome, is purely a case of Gates and the Brass gambling with house money.

Let’s start with the foundation needed to achieve these objectives – building a functional government in Afghanistan that can prevent the return of the Taliban to power and al-Qaeda to its Afghanistan havens. Success hinges on the Karzai government, rigger of elections and overseer of the kleptocracy which controls only a small portion of the country. President Karzai is a harsh critic of US military strategy who even threatened to join the Taliban. A succession of US ambassadors and envoys have – at best – expressed serious misgivings as to his potential as a partner in US efforts to build a stable government.

Afghanistan’s economy is a shambles. Its two billion dollar budget will not be able to sustain the projected eight billion dollar annual cost for the security forces the US will spend some $30 billion to recruit and train.

The bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, created by Congress in 2008 to find waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement of contracts, has warned that tens of billions of dollars will be wasted on projects Afghanistan cannot sustain while tens of billions of dollars more will be eaten by old-fashion waste and fraud. The Commission concluded in its June 3 report:

“In Afghanistan, the United States has contracted for: schools and clinics that lack adequate personnel, supplies, and security; a large power plant that the host country cannot maintain or operate unassisted; roads that will need substantial and continuing maintenance; and security-force training and support whose costs exceed Afghan funding capabilities.”

While the Obama administration executes its warplan in Afghanistan at a cost of $2 billion a week, al-Qaeda’s presence in Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere is growing. In Pakistan, where Taliban elements find safe haven along a porous border, the US war, drone strikes and the killing of bin Laden fuels public anger and resentment at our government and Pakistan’s as well. This not only threatens the vital supply line to landlocked Afghanistan, but the stability of our nuclear armed and increasingly disenchanted ally.

So, with our own economy at risk as well, what are the alternatives to continuing the administration’s Afghanistan gamble?

• Draw down our force levels. The President promised to begin withdrawing surge forces in July and he must stick to his commitment. The argument that the Taliban will simply ‘wait us out” fails to recognize the war has gone on for 10 years now, and the Taliban will “wait us out” another 10 years if it has to, adapting its tactics, recruiting new fighters and inflicting maximum damage as long as foreign troops occupy Afghanistan.

• End offensive military actions. Stop the night raids and drone strikes that are causing civilian casualties. Challenge the insurgency to work for a political settlement.

• Accelerate negotiations. Seek a cease fire and set the stage for fair elections in 2014 that will allow the people of Afghanistan to determine their own future.

• Reach a political settlement. Our own military leaders acknowledge this is the only way the war will end. But trying to beat the Taliban into submission so they will be more compliant to our conditions for a settlement gambles our blood and treasure with no guarantee of a successful outcome.

Peace Action and twenty of our colleague organizations launched a week of action in May to build support in the House of Representatives for an amendment to the Pentagon spending bill calling on the President to provide an exit plan that would bring our troops home well ahead of the 2014 date favored by the administration. While the amendment failed 204-214, the vote was much closer than expected and represents growing congressional opposition to the war in Afghanistan. Last year, the same bill was defeated 162-260. Our work is paying off.

We have it on good authority that the President has heard the message from the House loud and clear. Our next step is to organize a bipartisan letter from the Senate to President Obama urging a substantial and responsible redeployment of our forces this summer.

Call the Senate switchboard – (202) 224-3121 and strongly urge your Senators to sign the Merkley-Lee-Udall letter to President Obama urging a “sizeable and sustained” reduction in forces from Afghanistan beginning in July.

We will soon see if it’s enough to make July a turning point in this terrible war. Come what may, we will not let up until the last of our troops come home.

Post-New START Prospects for Nuclear Disarmament Progress

The indefatigable Larry Wittner, national Peace Action board member, professor and author, has an essay on History News Network today with incisive analysis of the New START Senate vote, and on possible paths for further progress on nuclear disarmament. The Obama Administration has mentioned negotiating the elimination of tactical (short-range) nukes with Russia, further cuts in long-range strategic nukes and re-submitting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to the Senate for ratification as possible next steps.

One other possible avenue is executive action to reduce nuclear weapons dangers by the president, possibly combined with congressional legislation requiring only a simple majority in each House of Congress, rather than the difficult 2/3 Senate majority vote required for treaty ratification.  We should know within the next few months which paths we should pursue.

Senate Ratifies New START pact 71-26!

Peace Action Statement on Senate Passage of New START pact

December 22, 2010
For Immediate Release, Contact Kevin Martin kmartin@peace-action.org or 301-537-8244
Silver Spring, Maryland — Peace Action, the country’s largest grassroots peace and disarmament organization with 100,000 members around the country, welcomes today’s U.S. Senate vote to ratify the New START nuclear arms reduction pact, which will reduce U.S. and Russian deployed, strategic nuclear weapons by up to 30%, to 1,550 warheads each.

“While a modest step on the path toward a nuclear-weapons free world, today’s Senate vote to ratify the New START pact is cause for celebration in this season of ‘Peace on Earth,’” noted Peace Action’s Executive Director, Kevin Martin. “While the process of Senate ratification was difficult, and the political price paid for the treaty was high, everyone concerned with reducing the danger posed by nuclear weapons should see this as significant progress.” Martin referred not only to the bruising, partisan politics employed by some senators, but also the Obama Administration’s promise of $184 billion in funding for “modernizing” the nuclear weapons production complex and delivery systems over the next decade.

Peace Action’s members, and especially grassroots activists with our affiliates and chapters across the country, worked very hard to educate the public and pressure senators to support the treaty. Lobby visits with senators and their staff members, email alerts to hundreds of thousands of supporters, letters to the editor and other media work and generating tens of thousands of calls to senate offices were hallmarks of the START ratification campaign over the last few months.

Martin added, “As we celebrate this important victory in the Senate, we also rededicate ourselves to the struggle for further steps toward nuclear disarmament, which we will engage Congress, the Obama Administration, the American public, and the international community on early next year. New START must truly be a new start toward wiping the scourge of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth. We who believe in peace and disarmament cannot rest until it comes!”

Wash Post – New START Ratification Vote Likely Today!

According to the Washington Post, NPR and other sources, it looks like we have the 67 Senate votes needed to ratify New START, but calling your Senators this morning is still worthwhile. FCNL’s toll free number makes it easy. Dial 888-475-8162 and ask for your Senators’ offices by name.

Getting Close on New START Ratification, Keep Up Calls to Senate Offices

A front-page article in this morning’s Washington Post paints a pretty good picture of the prospects for ratifying the New START nuclear arms reduction pact this week, but it’s not a done deal yet. Please call your Senators, using the Friends Committee on National Legislation’s toll-free number if you like. Dial 888-475-8162 and ask for your Senators’ offices by name.

The conservative National Review appears to have thrown in the towel on defeating START, but again nobody should count the chickens before they hatch!