Tag: peace

Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace

Thanks to Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, we now know that the progress that has justified the war during the Obama years is largely illusory.

Amy, the lovely singer/poet from Sharp Little Pencil, asked a few questions, only one of which I will address presently:

Do you think we should pull out of Afghanistan immediately to avoid engaging Iran if/when Israel sends the bombs flying?

Here’s the conundrum: one can appreciate the sacrifice that US military personnel make every day, and still have no idea what we’re fighting for in Afghanistan.

Joe Conason explains:
What keeps the United States engaged is a plausible concern that our departure will permit the Taliban to claim victory, and that our troops are making progress, slow but measurable, in recapturing territory from the enemy. There is no longer any illusion among Pentagon leaders or in the White House that foreign forces can permanently extirpate the Taliban, desirable as that would be. Instead, the real policy for the past few years, whether troops levels rise or fall, is to establish a basis for reconciliation between Kabul and its armed opponents, and to leave the Afghans prepared to defend themselves from extremism.

Thanks to Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, however, we now know that the progress that has justified the war during the Obama years is largely illusory. Generals like David Petraeus told the president and Congress that things are going well, but after spending a year on the ground, Davis discovered the opposite — and with great courage revealed his findings. (Watch this interview with Davis on PBS.)

I’m just not seeing a way out. After the Marines urinating on dead enemy combatants, then the Koran burning, which led to six American soldiers being killed, and then the massacre of 16 civilians – all revealed in the first ten weeks of 2012, no less – and I just find the situation all rather hopeless.

Moreover, as Ed Koch (!) points out, “Why do we remain when doing so causes the Afghan people to hate us more with the passing of each day, calling us occupiers, infidels, and murderers? The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is thought to be corrupt by many American observers.”

Can’t we declare victory and go home?

As for Iran, we can get sucked into a war there whether or not we are still engaged in Afghanistan. We’ll still have plenty of force in the region. I pray, literally, that we find a non-military way to deal with Iran. BTW, there is plenty of opposition in the Israeli Knesset to their country’s sabre rattling. I don’t think that it is inevitable, at least in the near term, that Israel will bomb Iran when it seems to have selective assassination in its arsenal.

Cartoon from The Bad Chemicals.com. Used by permission.

@15Feb2003 – We Are Many

There seems to be this revisionist history that the American people were fully behind military action in Iraq, when this was hardly the case.

Last year, I came across this Kickstarter project, We Are Many – a feature-length documentary film “about the never-before-told story of the biggest protest in history, on 15 February 2003, and its legacy, through the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement. The day that saw an estimated 30 million people in over 700 cities around the world, gave birth to a new global social movement.”

I was compelled to participate because I was there (pictured with my friend Dave). A bunch of folks from the Albany, NY-area took buses down to New York City to protest the threat of war in Iraq, which nevertheless started the following month.

But I also contributed because there seems to be this revisionist history that the American people were fully behind that military action when this was hardly the case. Personally, I participated in at least 20 vigils, and at least one large rally in Albany before 15 February 2003 in protest against the warmongering talk.

The documentary, scheduled for the 10th anniversary of the rally, “will tell the real story.” You are invited to “share your own reflection and invite people you know who marched/were against the Iraq war to tell their stories too” at this site. Or go to the Facebook event page.

Oh, the most unlikely thing about 15 Feb 2003 is that, among that throng of thousands of people walking down the streets of NYC, I ran into my old college friend Uthaclena, his wife, and their daughter (who was celebrating her birthday that very day) who had come from an hour south of Albany to protest as well.

Tidying Up My Office for Peace

Initially, I thought to offer them gratis to whomever wanted them, but the postage and packaging for them could get quite costly.

I was trying to figure out how to BlogBlastForPeace when I realized I had a more pressing issue. I need to tidy up my office while passing the peace without spending a fortune. Here’s my situation.

Back in late 2002, I was attending weekly vigils in front of the NYS Capitol in Albany, against the buildup that would, in March 2003, become the Iraq war. Somebody had made up a bunch of these nifty green buttons with white lettering that said, Choose Peace. Rather like the buttons being sported by my friend Dave and me at a massive antiwar rally in New York City in mid-February 2003.

At some point, the informal group started running out of these buttons. Somehow, I ended up ordering (and paying for) more of them. And you know it’s cheaper to buy in bulk, so I ordered 500 or 1000 of them; I don’t recall. I gave away a LOT of them.

Anyway, the war began, and I stopped going to peace rallies a couple of months later. So I have several dozen buttons left, in a bag in my office, which I would like to give away.

Initially, I thought to offer them gratis to whomever wanted them, but the postage and packaging for them could get quite costly, and time-consuming to boot.

Now, if you can use a number of them, and promise to distribute them to others, or just want one or two, I’ll send them to you. If you want to help me out on postage and packaging – and this is not required – I can send you some PayPal bill for some nominal amount – say, $1 for one or two buttons, $2 for a bulk order in the US; $2/$3 to Canada or Mexico; $3/$5 to the rest of the world; or you can mail me a check or international money order. Just e-mail me with the contact info. And if you’re local and want one or some, let me know, and I’ll give them to you as well.

My officemates will thank you.

Peace, Peace, There Is No Peace

Obama’s not a yahoo, he’s a Constitutional scholar, and his defense of his actions is disingenous.

My great disappointment with the Obama administration is not merely the fact that he has maintained indefinite detention of terrorists, rendition, and [so-called] Patriot Act surveillance. It is that, by his previous statements, the public had reason to believe that his actions would end those practices. Except for waterboarding, I’m not seeing the CHANGE I expected.

While the Iraq war is seemingly winding down, the Afghanistan war is ramping up. I must say, I’m not sure to what end.

But I’m most disappointed about our war in Libya. There is this peculiar thing in the Constitution that says that Congress declares war. The War Powers Act gives the President 90 days to submit a request to Congress after fighting begins. Yet he claims it’s not a “real” war, even though we have a “real” military there, and we’re spending “real” money to stay there.

I’m not saying one couldn’t make the case for going into Libya. I AM saying that if another President acted that way, and he was, say, a US Senator, he might complain about the incursion without Congressional authority; wait, wait, he DID do that, and rightly so, re GWB’s war in Iraq. Obama’s not a yahoo, he’s a Constitutional scholar, and the defense of his actions is disingenuous.

Is there any way he can give BACK his Nobel Peace Prize?
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Find out about BlogBlast For Peace aka The Peace Globe movement, launched in 2006, a movement built by bloggers, and perhaps become a peace blogger yourself, by reading the group’s Facebook page.

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