Anti-War
It’s hard for me, an ordinary citizen of Singapore, a medical doctor engaged in social enterprise work in Afghanistan and a human being wishing for a better world, to write this from Kabul.
But people are dying.
And children and women are feeling hopeless.
“What’s the point in telling you our stories?” asked Freba, one of the seamstresses working with the Afghan Peace Volunteers to set up a tailoring co-operative for Afghan women. “Does anyone hear? Does anyone believe us?” Silently within, I answered Freba with shame,” You’re right. No one is listening.”
So, I write this in protest against my government’s presence in the humanitarian and war tragedy of Afghanistan, as a way to lend my voice to Freba and all my Afghan friends.
I do so in dissent, against the global security of imprisoned minds. I thought, “If no one listens as humans should, we should at least speak like free men and women.”
But people are dying.
And children and women are feeling hopeless.
“What’s the point in telling you our stories?” asked Freba, one of the seamstresses working with the Afghan Peace Volunteers to set up a tailoring co-operative for Afghan women. “Does anyone hear? Does anyone believe us?” Silently within, I answered Freba with shame,” You’re right. No one is listening.”
So, I write this in protest against my government’s presence in the humanitarian and war tragedy of Afghanistan, as a way to lend my voice to Freba and all my Afghan friends.
I do so in dissent, against the global security of imprisoned minds. I thought, “If no one listens as humans should, we should at least speak like free men and women.”
On a plane circling Baghdad in gray dawn light, a little Iraqi girl quietly sang to herself in the next row. “When I start to wonder why I’m making this trip,” Sean Penn murmured to me, “I see that child and I remember what it’s about.”
After the plane landed at Saddam International Airport, we waited in a small entry room until an Iraqi official showed up and ushered us through customs. Soon we checked into the Al-Rashid Hotel. Back in Washington the sponsor of our trip, the Institute for Public Accuracy, put out a news release announcing the three-day visit and quoting Sean: “As a father, an actor, a filmmaker and a patriot, my visit to Iraq is for me a natural extension of my obligation (at least attempt) to find my own voice on matters of conscience.”
With U.S. war drums at feverish pitch, Sean Penn’s sudden appearance in Baghdad set off a firestorm of vilification in American media. Headlines called him “Baghdad Sean”; pundits on cable news channels called him a stooge for Saddam.
After the plane landed at Saddam International Airport, we waited in a small entry room until an Iraqi official showed up and ushered us through customs. Soon we checked into the Al-Rashid Hotel. Back in Washington the sponsor of our trip, the Institute for Public Accuracy, put out a news release announcing the three-day visit and quoting Sean: “As a father, an actor, a filmmaker and a patriot, my visit to Iraq is for me a natural extension of my obligation (at least attempt) to find my own voice on matters of conscience.”
With U.S. war drums at feverish pitch, Sean Penn’s sudden appearance in Baghdad set off a firestorm of vilification in American media. Headlines called him “Baghdad Sean”; pundits on cable news channels called him a stooge for Saddam.
An estimated one hundred people assembled outside the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters on Saturday expressing their opposition to the US presidential assassination lists, killer drone death squads, illegal rendition, torture, and the continued confinement of prisoners at the Guantanamo prison camp in US-occupied Cuba.
Anti-killer-drone activists were joined by participants of Witness Against Torture who were on the last day of their week-long fast and work calling for the closing of Guantanamo, justice for the prisoners there, and an end to torture everywhere.
Saturday's vigil was the third monthly vigil organized by Pax Christi Metro DC, Northern Virginians for Peace & Justice and supported by several organizations including Peace Action (Montgomery County, MD), Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Code Pink, Episcopal Peace Fellowship, Langley Hill Friends (Quaker) Peace & International Outreach Committee, and other peace groups.
Anti-killer-drone activists were joined by participants of Witness Against Torture who were on the last day of their week-long fast and work calling for the closing of Guantanamo, justice for the prisoners there, and an end to torture everywhere.
Saturday's vigil was the third monthly vigil organized by Pax Christi Metro DC, Northern Virginians for Peace & Justice and supported by several organizations including Peace Action (Montgomery County, MD), Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Code Pink, Episcopal Peace Fellowship, Langley Hill Friends (Quaker) Peace & International Outreach Committee, and other peace groups.
Editor's Note: The Know Drones Tour will be at the Free Press Second Saturday Salon on July 14.
The purpose of the 2012 Know Drones Tour is to do sidewalk public education, working with other groups to help generate a citizens movement to stop US drone attacks and to stop further development and sale of killer drones and spy drones.
The first phase of the tour was conducted between April 12 and May 27, when the tour team visited the home districts of five members of Congress who are on the Congressional Unmanned Systems (Drone) Caucus.
Here are observations based on street corner conversations with hundreds of people over the last month and a half in Brooklyn, southern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore and northern Maryland as well as at a national convention of the Islamic Circle of North America held in Hartford last weekend.
The purpose of the 2012 Know Drones Tour is to do sidewalk public education, working with other groups to help generate a citizens movement to stop US drone attacks and to stop further development and sale of killer drones and spy drones.
The first phase of the tour was conducted between April 12 and May 27, when the tour team visited the home districts of five members of Congress who are on the Congressional Unmanned Systems (Drone) Caucus.
Here are observations based on street corner conversations with hundreds of people over the last month and a half in Brooklyn, southern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore and northern Maryland as well as at a national convention of the Islamic Circle of North America held in Hartford last weekend.
The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers question the presumption that the U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan is necessary for American or Afghan peace. Tragedies like the Kandahar killing spree which massacred 16 Afghan civilians in their sleep ( including 6 children and 3 women ) are tragedies repeated in any war, including the U.S. war in Afghanistan. This failed military strategy that is designed for U.S. power and economic interests is being sold to the U.S. electorate through the mainstream media doublespeak of ‘withdrawal’ and ‘negotiations’, but is quietly being pursued in what President Obama and President Karzai called ’progress’ towards the signing of the U.S Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement.
The Agreement will entrench U.S. military presence in Afghanistan till 2024 and beyond and is based on the same militarism that has resulted in the pathological urinating on Afghan corpses by U.S. soldiers, the morbid keeping of severed finger-trophies by the Kill Team, the accidental burning of the Quran and many other ‘unforgiveable’ tragedies.
The Agreement will entrench U.S. military presence in Afghanistan till 2024 and beyond and is based on the same militarism that has resulted in the pathological urinating on Afghan corpses by U.S. soldiers, the morbid keeping of severed finger-trophies by the Kill Team, the accidental burning of the Quran and many other ‘unforgiveable’ tragedies.
Most people know about being "Sleepless in Seattle." Well, I am "snowed in in Seattle!" But even six inches of snow in Seattle don't keep me from becoming steamed when I read the latest news reports on the activities of the U.S. war machine:
DC Occupation Marks the 11th Year of Afghan War, Austerity Budgets and Builds on Arab Spring, European Summer, Madison and Occupation of Wall Street
The People’s Uprisings seen around the world and in the United States come to Washington, DC’s Freedom Plaza beginning on Thursday, October 6 when thousands will converge to begin a prolonged people's occupation of Freedom Plaza. The October2011 Movement involves thousands of people and 150 organizations who have already signed. The DC occupation comes at a pivotal time: the beginning of the 11th year of war in Afghanistan and a new federal fiscal year that promises austerity of everything except weapons and war.
The Freedom Plaza occupation occurs as activists in New York are occupying Wall Street and follows major protests across the Midwest against austerity budgets, the environmental protest of the Tar Sands Pipeline where more than 1,200 were arrested and protests throughout the United States on a wide range of issues.
The People’s Uprisings seen around the world and in the United States come to Washington, DC’s Freedom Plaza beginning on Thursday, October 6 when thousands will converge to begin a prolonged people's occupation of Freedom Plaza. The October2011 Movement involves thousands of people and 150 organizations who have already signed. The DC occupation comes at a pivotal time: the beginning of the 11th year of war in Afghanistan and a new federal fiscal year that promises austerity of everything except weapons and war.
The Freedom Plaza occupation occurs as activists in New York are occupying Wall Street and follows major protests across the Midwest against austerity budgets, the environmental protest of the Tar Sands Pipeline where more than 1,200 were arrested and protests throughout the United States on a wide range of issues.
Here’s breaking News from a confidential source inside Tripoli. And it’s nothing like what CNN is broadcasting… Pay attention to live reports from Zawia.
First, today the power went out in all of Tripoli today. As a gift to the Muslim community for their 17th day of Ramadan, NATO bombed a power plant and six high voltage sub stations. Apparently they believed the Libyans would have no ability to repair this, and so, in their “humanitarian effort to protect civilians,” they tried to cut power to 2 million innocent people during the holy month of Ramadan and the hottest month of the year in this desert country. Well, NATO sorely underestimated these resilient people. They had the power back in 6 hours! You know, there is NO fighting in Tripoli, never has been, no fighting on the outskirts never has been. So, NATO has been continually bombing a peaceful city, destroying the infrastructure, killing and constantly terrorizing civilians.
First, today the power went out in all of Tripoli today. As a gift to the Muslim community for their 17th day of Ramadan, NATO bombed a power plant and six high voltage sub stations. Apparently they believed the Libyans would have no ability to repair this, and so, in their “humanitarian effort to protect civilians,” they tried to cut power to 2 million innocent people during the holy month of Ramadan and the hottest month of the year in this desert country. Well, NATO sorely underestimated these resilient people. They had the power back in 6 hours! You know, there is NO fighting in Tripoli, never has been, no fighting on the outskirts never has been. So, NATO has been continually bombing a peaceful city, destroying the infrastructure, killing and constantly terrorizing civilians.
Wayne Madsen describes this in an excerpt from his blog at Wayne Madsen Report
TRIPOLI - Tonight we are seeing the heaviest NATO strikes in three days of being in Tripoli. Although military targets are being hit, it is a matter of time before we see the takeout of infrastructure targets as was done in Belgrade and later, in Baghdad. Libyan state TV is still on the air (I did an interview there last night that has resulted in strangers coming up to me and thanking me for reporting the truth about what is happening in Libya). Internet still works and the lights are still on. However, AT&T, T Mobile, and Verizon have severed all cell phone links with Libya. The world must know that the real criminals in Libya are the rebel leaders who are handing over their country to the Western powers, western oil companies, and the global bankers who have been chewing on the carcasses of Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland and other nations and are now baring their fangs for a big feast on Libya.
Also from Wayne's blog, a little historical context for US/NATO operations under the last Democratic president:
TRIPOLI - Tonight we are seeing the heaviest NATO strikes in three days of being in Tripoli. Although military targets are being hit, it is a matter of time before we see the takeout of infrastructure targets as was done in Belgrade and later, in Baghdad. Libyan state TV is still on the air (I did an interview there last night that has resulted in strangers coming up to me and thanking me for reporting the truth about what is happening in Libya). Internet still works and the lights are still on. However, AT&T, T Mobile, and Verizon have severed all cell phone links with Libya. The world must know that the real criminals in Libya are the rebel leaders who are handing over their country to the Western powers, western oil companies, and the global bankers who have been chewing on the carcasses of Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland and other nations and are now baring their fangs for a big feast on Libya.
Also from Wayne's blog, a little historical context for US/NATO operations under the last Democratic president:
It is now 1:10 in the afternoon and as the daily life in Tripoli unfolds that includes teachers, staff, and children at school, shopkeepers working in their businesses, streetsweepers sweeping the streets, people moving to and fro in the cars, on bicycles, and on foot, Tripoli has thus far since around 11:00 up to now, received at least 29 bombs.
Interestingly, the efforts of the Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, and others to portray Libya claims on the bombings as "absurd" are patently false and are merely efforts to defend in the court of public opinion, the indefensible bombing of civilians going about their lives in a heavily populated area. The Washington Post headlined "Libya government fails to prove claims of NATO casualties" and the Los Angeles Times headline blared, "Libya officials put a spin on a conflict." These bombs and missiles are not falling in empty spaces: people are all over Tripoli going about their lives just as in any other major metropolitan city of about two million people.
Interestingly, the efforts of the Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, and others to portray Libya claims on the bombings as "absurd" are patently false and are merely efforts to defend in the court of public opinion, the indefensible bombing of civilians going about their lives in a heavily populated area. The Washington Post headlined "Libya government fails to prove claims of NATO casualties" and the Los Angeles Times headline blared, "Libya officials put a spin on a conflict." These bombs and missiles are not falling in empty spaces: people are all over Tripoli going about their lives just as in any other major metropolitan city of about two million people.