Op-Ed
The Nobel Prize given to Barack Obama must now be earned by a grassroots movement dedicated to peace. The award was given to an American president now ignobly intent on waging war.
So the task of actually earning this honor falls to us.
Thousands of anti-war activists took to the streets in at least 100 US cities within hours after Obama officially escalated the war on Afghanistan on December 1.
With them came a least one new global internet campaign (The Peace, Justice & Environment Network, http://pjep.org/resources/detail.php?rid=2275) devoted to reversing this ghastly attack as well as to saving the environment and winning social justice.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced legislation to deny the funding for this war.
All around the world a sane citizenry has made it clear that war is not peace.
So the task of actually earning this honor falls to us.
Thousands of anti-war activists took to the streets in at least 100 US cities within hours after Obama officially escalated the war on Afghanistan on December 1.
With them came a least one new global internet campaign (The Peace, Justice & Environment Network, http://pjep.org/resources/detail.php?rid=2275) devoted to reversing this ghastly attack as well as to saving the environment and winning social justice.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced legislation to deny the funding for this war.
All around the world a sane citizenry has made it clear that war is not peace.
Washington D.C. (December 9, 2009) – Following a speech on the floor of
the House of Representatives, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today
released the following statement:
"Today, I will begin circulating two privileged resolutions which will trigger debate and votes on a timely withdrawal of U.S troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States makes it Congress' responsibility to determine whether or not we go to war or stay at war. Consistent with Article 1, Section 8, the privileged resolutions will invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973. I ask for your support of these resolutions, which will be introduced in the House in January.
"Yesterday, with the US Secretary of Defense at his side, the President of Afghanistan declared that his country's security forces will need financial and training assistance from the United States for the next 15-20 years.
"We cannot afford these wars. We cannot afford the loss of lives. We cannot afford the cost to taxpayers. We cannot afford to fail to exercise our constitutional right to end the wars.
"Today, I will begin circulating two privileged resolutions which will trigger debate and votes on a timely withdrawal of U.S troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States makes it Congress' responsibility to determine whether or not we go to war or stay at war. Consistent with Article 1, Section 8, the privileged resolutions will invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973. I ask for your support of these resolutions, which will be introduced in the House in January.
"Yesterday, with the US Secretary of Defense at his side, the President of Afghanistan declared that his country's security forces will need financial and training assistance from the United States for the next 15-20 years.
"We cannot afford these wars. We cannot afford the loss of lives. We cannot afford the cost to taxpayers. We cannot afford to fail to exercise our constitutional right to end the wars.
“Why are we in Afghanistan? It is for the oil to the north in the former Soviet republics…We are in Afghanistan because President Barry Obama did not have enough guts to say no to the military industrial complex and to the big oil companies…” ---Bob Fitrakis View Video
“ What Barack Obama has done tonight is certify the power of the corporations and the military in this country. This war is a huge diversion--once again--from the Great Society, from the New Deal, from the New Frontier, from all the opportunities we’ve had to remake this country.” ---Harvey Wasserman View Video
“ What Barack Obama has done tonight is certify the power of the corporations and the military in this country. This war is a huge diversion--once again--from the Great Society, from the New Deal, from the New Frontier, from all the opportunities we’ve had to remake this country.” ---Harvey Wasserman View Video
Deficit reduction:
Our new approach in Afghanistan is likely to cost us roughly 30 billion dollars for the military this year, and I will work closely with Congress to address these costs as we work to bring down our deficit.
Why we must save some crumbs for domestic needs:
But as we end the war in Iraq and transition to Afghan responsibility, we must rebuild our strength here at home. Our prosperity provides a foundation for our power. It pays for our military.
The other really good reason to invest in peace:
We have to invest in our homeland security, because we cannot capture or kill every violent extremist abroad.
Testifying to the character of our men and women:
We will remove our combat brigades from Iraq by the end of next summer, and all of our troops by the end of 2011. That we are doing so is a testament to the character of our men and women in uniform.
Risking a line that any non-military audience would cheer inappropriately for (while claiming Taliban-Al Qaeda links and threats the White House had previously rejected):
Our new approach in Afghanistan is likely to cost us roughly 30 billion dollars for the military this year, and I will work closely with Congress to address these costs as we work to bring down our deficit.
Why we must save some crumbs for domestic needs:
But as we end the war in Iraq and transition to Afghan responsibility, we must rebuild our strength here at home. Our prosperity provides a foundation for our power. It pays for our military.
The other really good reason to invest in peace:
We have to invest in our homeland security, because we cannot capture or kill every violent extremist abroad.
Testifying to the character of our men and women:
We will remove our combat brigades from Iraq by the end of next summer, and all of our troops by the end of 2011. That we are doing so is a testament to the character of our men and women in uniform.
Risking a line that any non-military audience would cheer inappropriately for (while claiming Taliban-Al Qaeda links and threats the White House had previously rejected):
There can be no greater gift that you can give your loved ones, or the world, this holiday season than Robert Greenwald's documentary "Rethink Afghanistan."
While President Barry Obama was busy resuscitating Lyndon Johnson's "bright and shiny" Vietnam lies in his national address Tuesday night, the American people should instead have been given a more sober assessment by Greenwald as we forge into the valley of fallen empires.
Obama is President primarily because, as a state senator in Illinois, he made a speech opposing the folly of occupying Iraq after 9/11. During his presidential campaign, famed Afghan hawk Zbignew Brzezinski emerged as a key advisor on central Asia. In his book, The Grand Chessboard (1997), Jimmy Carter's former national security advisor makes it clear that controlling the oil and gas fields of central Asia and the pipeline that runs through Afghanistan and Pakistan are the keys to dominating the 21st century.
While President Barry Obama was busy resuscitating Lyndon Johnson's "bright and shiny" Vietnam lies in his national address Tuesday night, the American people should instead have been given a more sober assessment by Greenwald as we forge into the valley of fallen empires.
Obama is President primarily because, as a state senator in Illinois, he made a speech opposing the folly of occupying Iraq after 9/11. During his presidential campaign, famed Afghan hawk Zbignew Brzezinski emerged as a key advisor on central Asia. In his book, The Grand Chessboard (1997), Jimmy Carter's former national security advisor makes it clear that controlling the oil and gas fields of central Asia and the pipeline that runs through Afghanistan and Pakistan are the keys to dominating the 21st century.
During a televised football game on Sunday, an announcer welcomed the members of the U.S. military viewing the game in 177 nations around the world. When the news came on, the topic was the same one it's been for weeks, speculation as to whether and how much a single individual will escalate war by sending tens of thousands of additional troops to nation number 177, Afghanistan.
Somehow it remains eternally controversial to mention the imperial presidency. Yet the positions on Afghanistan in the United States are limited to "The President should escalate the war," "The President should not escalate the war," and "The President should do whatever he wants." Some people have other things to say on the topic, but almost nobody refuses to hold one of those three positions.
Somehow it remains eternally controversial to mention the imperial presidency. Yet the positions on Afghanistan in the United States are limited to "The President should escalate the war," "The President should not escalate the war," and "The President should do whatever he wants." Some people have other things to say on the topic, but almost nobody refuses to hold one of those three positions.
An underlying conceit of the new spin about benchmarks and timetables for Afghanistan is the notion that pivotal events there can be choreographed from Washington. So, a day ahead of the president’s Dec. 1 speech at West Point, the New York Times quoted an unnamed top administration official saying: “He wants to give a clear sense of both the time frame for action and how the war will eventually wind down.”
But “eventually” is a long way off. In the meantime, the result of Washington’s hollow politics is more carnage.
The next days and weeks will bring an avalanche of hype about insisting on measurable progress and shifting burdens onto the Afghan army -- while the U.S. military expands the war. In the groove, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed, told CNN viewers on Nov. 29: “The key element here is not just more troops. The key element is shifting the operations to the Afghanis [sic]. And if that can be done, then I would support the president.”
But “eventually” is a long way off. In the meantime, the result of Washington’s hollow politics is more carnage.
The next days and weeks will bring an avalanche of hype about insisting on measurable progress and shifting burdens onto the Afghan army -- while the U.S. military expands the war. In the groove, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed, told CNN viewers on Nov. 29: “The key element here is not just more troops. The key element is shifting the operations to the Afghanis [sic]. And if that can be done, then I would support the president.”
Tonight at 8pm EST President Barack Obama is set to announce his commitment to the worst blunder in US policy since Lyndon Johnson escalated the Vietnam War.
That was in March, 1965. Johnson's escalation was generally unnoticed and went largely unopposed---for a while. The nation was still reeling from the 1963 murder of President John F. Kennedy, and still cruising on LBJ's commitment to a Great Society that was to bring advances in Civil Rights, Medicare, a War on Poverty and much more.
Few imagined at the time that LBJ's tragic mistake would surround those programs with poisonous wreckage. The Vietnam disaster stabbed deep into the soul of what was then the richest and most powerful nation the world had ever seen. In many ways we have never recovered.
But hopefully we've learned a thing or two.
There were, to be sure, draft card burnings by a prescient few. There were rumblings in the Congress. There were those who knew the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” on which LBJ's war powers had been based was a complete deception.
That was in March, 1965. Johnson's escalation was generally unnoticed and went largely unopposed---for a while. The nation was still reeling from the 1963 murder of President John F. Kennedy, and still cruising on LBJ's commitment to a Great Society that was to bring advances in Civil Rights, Medicare, a War on Poverty and much more.
Few imagined at the time that LBJ's tragic mistake would surround those programs with poisonous wreckage. The Vietnam disaster stabbed deep into the soul of what was then the richest and most powerful nation the world had ever seen. In many ways we have never recovered.
But hopefully we've learned a thing or two.
There were, to be sure, draft card burnings by a prescient few. There were rumblings in the Congress. There were those who knew the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” on which LBJ's war powers had been based was a complete deception.
In the spirit of Buy Nothing Day--Nov. 27 in North America and Nov. 28 in other parts of the world--the Columbus Free Press talks with Bill Talen, in the wake of his Green Party run for Mayor of New York City. Most people know him as Reverend Billy, the televangelist-styled street preacher fighting for more than 10 years now to help us cast off the demons of hyper-consumerism !
With his blond pompadour and bullhorn, he has led protests against Starbucks, and the Disney Store, while also flamboyantly opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the gentrification of neighborhoods, and the eviction of families from their homes during the recent foreclosure crisis.
In 2006 Rev. Billy came to Columbus Ohio with his Stop Shopping Gospel Choir to help with the successful campaign to get the lingerie company Victoria’s Secret to use more environmentally and socially responsible ways for making their catalogues. He is the subject of producer Morgan Spurlock’s 2007 film What Would Jesus Buy?
Columbus Free Press: What are your ideas about Buy Nothing Day. You got a lot of experience with it.
With his blond pompadour and bullhorn, he has led protests against Starbucks, and the Disney Store, while also flamboyantly opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the gentrification of neighborhoods, and the eviction of families from their homes during the recent foreclosure crisis.
In 2006 Rev. Billy came to Columbus Ohio with his Stop Shopping Gospel Choir to help with the successful campaign to get the lingerie company Victoria’s Secret to use more environmentally and socially responsible ways for making their catalogues. He is the subject of producer Morgan Spurlock’s 2007 film What Would Jesus Buy?
Columbus Free Press: What are your ideas about Buy Nothing Day. You got a lot of experience with it.
Colonel Muammar al-Gathafi lives in a really big air-conditioned tent with cushy rugs and incredible chandeliers. How do I know? I visited the tent on the 40th anniversary of the Libyan revolution, when a 27-year-old al-Gathafi overthrew the Libya government, Che Guavera-style (his hero).
The controversial Libyan leader, who helped train and fund insurgent groups all over the world, now wants to compete in the marketplace of ideas -- and he and his supporters think his Green Book may offer a new perspective. One Green Book idea: every citizen is entitled to one mortgage-free house, or tent. That's the way it is for 5.5 million Libyan citizens.
Following al-Gathafi's recent trip to the United States, where he spoke for an hour and a half at the United Nations -- questioning the assassinations of Kennedy and King -- former U.S. Congresswoman organized a delegation to visit Libya and attend the First International Conference of the Green Book Supporters Society.
The controversial Libyan leader, who helped train and fund insurgent groups all over the world, now wants to compete in the marketplace of ideas -- and he and his supporters think his Green Book may offer a new perspective. One Green Book idea: every citizen is entitled to one mortgage-free house, or tent. That's the way it is for 5.5 million Libyan citizens.
Following al-Gathafi's recent trip to the United States, where he spoke for an hour and a half at the United Nations -- questioning the assassinations of Kennedy and King -- former U.S. Congresswoman organized a delegation to visit Libya and attend the First International Conference of the Green Book Supporters Society.