It is time for the anti-war movement to pick up the pace and demonstrate that Americans want the current wars ended and out-of-control military spending reversed.
Our allies in the peace-veterans community are taking the lead and we are joining them. Veterans for Peace has announced a rally and civil resistance action in Washington, DC on Wednesday, December 16th. This will be the largest veteran-led civil resistance to U.S. wars in recent history.
Every day the horrors of the U.S. war-occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan continue deaths of civilians, deaths and casualties of U.S. soldiers, incarceration of local people without charges, abusive searches of their homes at night and, too often, their torture. The long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have already drained our national treasury of $1.1 trillion and will cost Americans trillions more even if they ended today, primarily due to the need to treat U.S. soldiers; casualties now exceed 100,000 victims.
Real hope and real change will come from neither the White House nor Congress, but will come instead from us, taking action and getting independently organized into a movement that the government cannot ignore. As noted author and war correspondent Chris Hedges writes:
Hope knows that unless we physically defy government control we are complicit in the violence of the state. All who resist keep hope alive. All who succumb to fear, despair, and apathy become enemies of hope. They become, in their passivity, agents of injustice.
You do not have to risk arrest at the White House to participate with us on December 16th. You can be there in support. You can take photographs and videos. You can write about the event to spread the word that Americans are saying no to war. If you cannot be there in support, you can phone Congress and the media and demand the defunding of the ongoing wars.
Opposition to these wars is the majority view of the American people. The government is not representing us. It is time for Americans to demand that they do so.
Join us in Washington, DC on December 16, 2010.
Sincerely,
Kevin Zeese
Executive Director
P.S. This is a good time of the year to make a year-end donation to Voters for Peace. Please click here to make a donation now. Thank you for your support.
The Afghanistan War is currently costing the United States $8 billion in borrowed dollars every month.
The Obama administration is now talking about a four year exit plan, for what is already Americas longest war.
Four years! That is as long as the Civil War. That is longer than World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.
U.S. military occupation forces in the Afghanistan theater suffered 140 combat casualties during the week ending November 16. Civilian casualties are on the rise as are civilians fleeing their homes.
If the cost remains constant, and that is unlikely as wars tend to demand more resources, the U.S. will spend $400 billion on the Afghanistan War over the next four years.
Can the U.S. afford this?
What is the war accomplishing? It is not preventing al-Qaeda attacks, since they have virtually left the country. Is the U.S. merely fighting for its reputation as the worlds top warrior nation? Continued fighting in Afghanistan is creating more enemies for the United States, every day.
Donate to Voters for Peace!The media is not covering the Afghanistan War even as the U.S. is in the midst of a critical battle in Kandahar. The war has become invisible and despite the U.S. economic collapse to which war spending is a major contributor, it was not discussed in the mid-term elections by either party.
Indications are the Kandahar campaign is not going well. Casualties of American soldiers and NATO allies are increasing. Afghanis are being pushed out of their homes and farmers away from their crops. Anger at the United States is increasing to such an extent that Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Sunday for American troops to scale back their military operations and stop the night raids on peoples homes. Karzai would not be in power without the U.S. military presence. He is in many respects our president. Yet, Karzai is in open conflict with General David Petraeus who says Karzai is ensuring defeat and making Petraeus position "untenable."
Finally, regarding that other war on which the media reports so little Iraq the one on which the president said we should "turn the page," it was reported that a special envoy from President Barack Obama raised the possibility in a secret meeting with senior Iraqi military and civilian officials that his administration would leave more than 15,000 combat troops in Iraq after the 2011 deadline for U.S. withdrawal. The troops would have to be re-labeled as working for the State Departments security force to be consistent with the presidents pledge to remove all troops by 2011.
President Obama and your elected officials in Congress need to be told the American people are watching and want these wars ended. They need to be told that taxpayers do not want to see $100 billion borrowed every year to fight a war that is unaffordable, unwinnable, and unnecessary. Please join us in writing the president and other elected officials by clicking here.
They need to hear from you so they know that if this war continues, in 2012 their jobs will be on the line. The Democrats should have learned that ignoring their voting base means electoral disaster. Most Americans oppose the Afghan War. Seventy-five percent of Democrats and 55 percent of Independents want a timetable for withdrawal, not a four-year war extension.
Thank you for taking action on this request. Your voice is important. If you speak out, it makes a difference.
After World War I ended there was a re-consideration of the decision to enter that war. This led to cuts in military spending, reductions in the size of the military, and an era of anti-war opposition. The war was costly with horrific injuries to soldiers and seemed to serve no national interest. Even in victory, the war was questioned.
Now the U.S. is engaged in multiple wars Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now, it seems, Yemen is next. For what purpose? At what cost? What can we do to make sure these wars are followed by an era of opposition to war and shrinking military budgets?
Today's wars will not end in clear victory, unlike World War I. That alone gives us an advantage over the anti-war advocates of the last century.
In addition, these wars are more costly. Recently two leading economists put out a report estimating the cost of the Iraq War. They measured not only the cost of fighting in Iraq, but the real costs, especially the cost of treating returning vets. Their estimate: the war could cost the United States up to $6 trillion dollars. This is an astounding figure that is 100 times more than the Bush administration's initial estimate of up to $60 billion. Click here to read an article they wrote about the cost of the Iraq War.
The authors, Joseph Stiglitz, a former Chief Economist for the World Bank and the winner of the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001; and Linda J. Bilmes, a professor at Harvard University, point out that war spending helped undermine the economy. The borrowed dollars for war could have produced many more jobs and economic activity at home if those dollars had been spent on more economy-boosting programs. And, they point out how the wars continue to be a drag on the economy, making it more difficult for the government to take appropriate action. They write:
"Increased indebtedness meant that the government had far less room to maneuver than it otherwise would have had. More specifically, worries about the (war-inflated) debt and deficit constrained the size of the stimulus, and they continue to hamper our ability to respond to the recession. With the unemployment rate remaining stubbornly high, the country needs a second stimulus. But mounting government debt means support for this is low. The result is that the recession will be longer, output lower, unemployment higher and deficits larger than they would have been absent the war."
The economy was the driving force in the midterm elections. If the weak economy continues, it will be the leading issue in 2012 as well. Please join me in warning the White House and elected officials in Congress that continued war spending jeopardizes the economy and their political careers. It is time for tax dollars to be focused on rebuilding the economy at home. We need to stop borrowing money to fight wars abroad. Click here to write the president and members of Congress.
Thank you for your support throughout the year. I know the frustration of seeing these senseless wars continuing and even expanding. It is no easy task to end a war, but I'm convinced that Americans will see these wars as major blunders and politicians will have to change their view if they want to remain in office if we work together to make sure all Americans see the folly of war.
Sincerely,
Kevin Zeese
Executive Director
P.S. This is a great time to make an end of the year donation. The economy is still in the doldrums so I know how difficult it is to donate, but it is equally difficult on our side to continue our work without financial support. So, if you can donate, please do so today by clicking here now.
There has been more abuse of prisoners, including beatings, burnings, electrocution, and rape.
There has been more torture and a U.S. military order not to investigate torture.
There have likely been war crimes committed by the United States.
The United States remain cannot silent as these truths become known. If the people who committed crimes are not held accountable is that not the de facto approval of those crimes? If the leaders who violated U.S. law and allowed the mistreatment of civilians are not held accountable, why will future leaders obey the law?
Manfred Nowak, the chief U.N. investigator on torture, says that under international law the United States is obliged to examine claims that our military handed over Iraqi detainees knowing they might be killed, tortured, or abused.
As bad as the facts are, Americans do not even know the worst of it. Early in his presidency, President Obama reversed course and decided not to release photographs and videos showing U.S. soldiers' abuse of prisoners. The evidence contained in this material is even worse than what we have already seen and read about Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, Bagram, and other U.S. prison sites.
Join us in calling for truth and accountability. We cannot become a more perfect union, we cannot achieve the best hopes we have for ourselves as a nation, if we allow the truth to be hidden and potential war crimes to remain uninvestigated and unprosecuted. Without truth and accountability the United States will continue in a direction of abuse, war, and occupation.
Wikileaks' publication is an opportunity to tell our elected leaders to act against abusive militarism. It is a chance to tell them to investigate, hold public hearings, bring out the truth, and hold people who committed crimes accountable. Please take action now and write your elected officials, President Obama and Attorney General Holder. Click here to write them now.
Thank you for continuing to speak out. Silence in the face of the ugly reality of American militarism only ensures it continues.
Today, the 10th year of the Afghanistan War begins.
This counterproductive, unnecessary, and damaging war is destroying one of the most impoverished countries in the world, killing Afghan civilians at very high rates and undermining the United States.
The war pushes the U.S. further into debt. Our country spends $1.5 billion per month in borrowed money on this war.
It undermines the rule of law; the U.S. holds thousands of Afghans in prisons without charges. Torture is reported. And robotic drones result in deaths. Legal experts have described these actions as war crimes.
It undermines democracy by propping up a corrupt leader put in office by a low-voter-turnout election rife with fraud.
And it undermines national security by creating more enemies every day--enemies that will hate the United States for a generation or more.
Now the war is expanding into an Af-Pak war. Since coming to office, President Obama escalated attacks in Pakistan with drone after drone killing civilians and local insurgent leaders. Pakistanis are no longer sitting back but are responding by exploding oil tankers and blocking key border routes. Cutting off U.S. supply lines and burning the oil used to keep tanks rolling and planes flying may end up being the nail in a coffin of a war that cannot be won and should not have been fought. Even before this, it cost $1 million per year to keep a soldier in Afghanistan. With supply routes cut and oil burning, that cost will escalate.
With the mid-term elections soon to be behind us, the Obama administration is shaping up its re-election strategy. One lesson Obama and the Democrats should have learned in the mid-terms is that they cannot take their base for granted. Obama, Biden, and other administration officials have been criticizing their voting base for not coming out for the mid-term elections. Dont they get it? The Democrats turned off antiwar and progressive voters with their policies.
We need to make sure that Obama and team get the message from this: they cannot take our vote for granted. Many of us did not support Obama in the last election because of his proposals to expand war, others voted for him with the hope that he would end the wars. Now the Democrats must excite antiwar voters by ending the wars. Denouncing us because we oppose war and therefore do not support candidates who expand war is a recipe for defeat in 2012.
Since 2006 the Democratic base has been saying, "End the wars." The message has been clear with votes in 2006 that gave the Democrats back control of Congress because of the unpopular war policy of Bush and the Republicans. It was clear in the presidential election when Obamas opposition to the Iraq War and pledge to end the war propelled him through the primaries. And, it is clear in polls today: Americans oppose the Afghanistan War.
But now, as the longest war enters its 10th year, words are not enough. Lets make sure President Obama gets the message. Tell him, "If the wars continue, you will not get the peace vote. If the wars continue, there will be no peace activists working for you in the primaries or general election." Remind him that war is not the answer and it is time for America to come home and focus on the serious domestic problems the country faces.
As we approach the final months of the year, I want to thank you all for taking action and supporting our efforts throughout the last year as tens of thousands of you have done. We need to do more, but I appreciate what you already do. Lets work to end the wars in 2011 and begin to get the United States to turn its back on weapons, war, and militarism.
As the United States enters into the 10th year of the War in Afghanistan, the longest war in U.S. history, there are many horrors and injustices to remember: the widespread killing and terrorizing of Afghan civilians, the arrest and torture of thousands of Afghans, U.S. support for the corrupt Afghan government, the death of American soldiers, the redeployment of injured soldiers, the incredible waste of resources and on and on the list continues.
We are joining with our allies at Iraq Veterans Against the War to support Operation Recovery an effort to stop the deployment of traumatized troops. The U.S. military is spread thin on illegal wars Iraq, Afghanistan and now, Pakistan the deployment of injured soldiers is essential to continuing these wars. It is time to put an end to this practice.
Please review the message below from our colleagues at IVAW and join their campaign to stop the deployment of traumatized troops. Forward this message to others you think might be interested
Voters for Peace opposes the current wars of aggression, wants to see the wars ended immediately and all U.S. troops brought home.
Sincerely,
Kevin Zeese
Executive Director
On October 7, the 9th anniversary of the Afghanistan invasion, Iraq Veterans Against the War will announce our first-ever strategic campaign, Operation Recovery: Stop the Deployment of Traumatized Troops. We recognize that we must stop the deployment of all soldiers in order to end the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, we see the deployment of soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injuries, and Military Sexual Trauma as particularly cruel, inhumane, and dangerous. Furthermore, we know that without the repeated use of traumatized soldiers on the battlefield, the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan could not continue. This is how we will end these wars, by winning our Right to Heal
We are reaching out to you, our loyal supporters, before we make the campaign announcement public. In building up to the announcement we need you to help us inform others about this issue and get them to pledge their support for the campaign. Sign the Pledge of Support today.
Ethan McCord's Story: Help inform your community
Ethan McCord seen in the WikiLeak Collateral Murder video
US Army specialist Ethan McCord was one of the first on the scene when a group of suspected insurgents was blown up on a Baghdad street in 2007, hit by 30-mm bursts from an Apache Helicopter. "The top of one guy's head was completely off," he recalls. "Another guy was ripped open from groin to neck. A third had lost a leg... Their insides were out and exposed. I'd never seen anything like this before." Then McCord heard a child crying from a black minivan caught in the barrage. Inside, he found a frightened and wounded girl, perhaps 4. Next to her was a boy of 7 or so, soaked in blood. Their father, McCord says, "was slumped over on his side, like he was trying to protect the children, but he was just destroyed. McCord couldn't look away from the kids. "I started seeing images of my own two children back home in Kansas."
After this tragic incident Ethan sought out help and was denied. Mr. Thompson continues, That night, he told his staff sergeant he needed help. "Get the sand out of your vagina," McCord says his sergeant responded. "He told me I was being a homo and needed to suck it up." This was a violation of Ethan's Right to Heal: a right that he and other IVAW members are fighting for. October 7th Ethan will be bring his testimony to DC along with other Veterans and GIs to announce Operation Recovery: A Campaign to Stop the Deployment of Traumatized Troops.
Sign the Pledge of Support for Operation Recovery
Reminder to sign the Pledge
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are continuing through the use of exhausted troops who have been on multiple tours of duty and suffer deeply from the trauma of war. It is cruel and inhumane to deploy soldiers who are medically unfit for combat. In a 2008 TIME article America's Medicated Army, Mark Thompson writes, Data contained in the Army's fifth Mental Health Advisory Team report indicated that, according to an anonymous survey of US troops taken last fall, 12% of combat troops in Iraq and 17% of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope. By winning our Right to Heal we will be withdrawing this 12 to 17 percent from the fighting force, crippling the military's ability to continue the occupations.
Join our campaign now by making a Pledge of Support.
Help spread the word
If you have already made a pledge, please spread the word to your friends, family, and colleagues who may want to join you in pledging to support this campaign. Spread the word about the campaign: http://www.ivaw.org/operation-recovery
Operation Recovery Announcement
October 7th in Washington DC, IVAW members will assemble at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where we will conduct outreach to soldiers affirming their Right to Heal. After which we will begin a six mile symbolic march from Walter Reed to Capital Hill. With each step of this march we will bring the traumas of war from the failing military health institutions into plain view of generals and lawmakers.
When we arrive at the Capital we will hold a press conference to announce our new National Campaign, Operation Recovery. Ethan McCord and others will give testimony to their experiences of being denied health services and being retained in a traumatic environment or redeployed with ongoing health issues. We will then walk to the offices of each member of the Senate Armed Services Committee to deliver a Notice that the sector responsible for the deployment of traumatized Troops is now on watch and that we are going to find out who is responsible for this inhumane practice and stop them.
We are asking that you prepare to take action with us on October 7th. In the coming weeks we will be asking you to;
o Help us tell the story of the announcement by spreading the word about this campaign to your friends, co-workers, and family;
o Write letters-to-the-editor of your local paper about the issues affecting troops who suffer from military trauma;
o Help identify those responsible for deploying traumatized troops in your local area;
We need you to help make this happen. Make a pledge of support now.
Two days ago the FBI raided six homes of eight peace activists in Minneapolis and Chicago as well as a Minneapolis office of an antiwar group. Agents kicked down doors of homes with guns drawn, smashed furniture, and seized computers, documents, phones, and other materials without making any arrests. These groups do not use guns and bombs. They are not terrorists. Their "weapons" are leaflets, newsletters, and nonviolent demonstrations.
The FBI searches highlight a dangerous trend that has been building for nearly a decade: domestic surveillance of peace activists. We are writing you to put these raids in context and to urge you to take action.
The raids took place just a few days after a report of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice examined 8,000 pages of documents from 2001 to 2006. The report blasted the Federal Bureau of Investigation for spying on anti-war activists, animal-rights groups, and environmentalists, calling the improper "terror" investigations "unreasonable and inconsistent with FBI policy." Among those targeted were the anti-war Thomas Merton Center, the Quakers, the Catholic Worker, Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and an individual Quaker peace activist. According to the Inspector General, there was "little or no basis" for the investigations.
Another report found that the Federal Bureau of Investigation used lies and trickery to illegally obtain thousands of records, then issued after-the-fact approvals in an attempt to cover it up. Released in January, this report was the result of another Justice Department investigation which built on a 2007 report covering similar matters. The Inspector General focused on the FBI's unlawful misuse of the already-unconstitutional informal requests known as "exigent letters" to demand information which they knew was illegal. The DOJ report described a "complete breakdown" of procedures within the FBI. According to the report, the "FBI broke law for years in phone record searches." Agents repeatedly and knowingly violated the law by invoking nonexistent "terror emergencies" to get access to information they were not authorized to have.
Nor do these reports cover all the incidences of domestic surveillance of peace advocates. Former FBI special agent and whistleblower, Colleen Rowley, reports that "in 2008, we found out through a Freedom of Information request that there are 300 pages of--I think it was four or five, six agents trailing a group of students in Iowa City to parks, libraries, bars, restaurants. They even went through their trash."
Just today, another Inspector General report found that hundreds of FBI employees cheated on exams related to domestic surveillance. The report described how they consulted with others while taking the exam even though that was forbidden. Others used or distributed answer sheets or study guides that provided test answers. Still others exploited a computer flaw that revealed answers. The agents were being tested on 2008 guidelines that FBI employees must follow when conducting domestic investigations.
There has been a constant battle between the constitution and domestic surveillance of political activists, especially peace advocates, for decades. The FBI has a long history of abusing its authority. If we do not act to curtail these actions we are all in danger of being spied on and added to terrorist watch lists for doing nothing more than attending a rally, signing a petition or holding a sign.
Steps are urgently needed to protect the basic constitutional rights of peace activists and others. These include:
President Obama needs to speak out against the surveillance of Americans who are merely exercising their constitutional rights. As a former law professor he knows the long history of such abuse and how important it is to contain enforcement.
Removal of FBI director Robert Mueller. His tenure since 2001 has been littered with abuses of domestic spying. The Inspector General has concluded Director Mueller provided "inaccurate and misleading information" to Congress. Mueller also failed to put in place adequate procedures to ensure the law is obeyed and to ensure agents are aware of the laws regarding domestic surveillance.
Congress needs to hold hearings to investigate the extent of domestic spying on Americans who are merely exercising the rights to free speech, to assembly, and to petition the government. These fundamental political rights need to be protected by tightening up the laws regarding domestic surveillance which were loosened by the PATRIOT Act.
The escalation of wars abroad by the Obama administration is moving forward alongside an escalation against antiwar activists at home. The groups targeted in these raids, while Marxist in ideology, endorsed and supported the election of President Obama. Their Political Report noted, "Obama's election represents a rejection of the Bush administration policies and a desire amongst the people for a progressive agenda from the government." Now we know that the Obama administration is moving forward with Bush-era policies that target anti-war political dissent at the same time that more Americans oppose Obama's wars. Please act today to stop this from continuing.
If you are able to donate to our efforts, please click here to donate now.
Another sad milestone was reached in Afghanistan this week. Even though it is only September, 2010 is already the deadliest year for our troops. More troops have been killed so far this year than in any previous year of this war, the longest war in American history.
Nine US troops were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan, making 2010 the deadliest year for international forces since the war began in 2001. The cause of the crash is unknown, but the incident brings to 529 the number of foreign troops killed this year, surpassing the previous record of 521 deaths in 2009.
The violence is likely to get worse for U.S. troops as allies leave the country. Last week, the British transferred responsibility for one of the most violent Afghan districts to the U.S. One-third of all Britain's casualties were in this district. Now the Marines will face that violence.
In addition, Afghan insurgents are expanding their fighting. Violence has risen sharply in recent months; the insurgency spread from its heartland in the south and east into once relatively calm areas in the north and west.
There has been an uptick in violence as Afghans went to the polls in what can only be described as another failed election. Only 4.3 million votes were cast, the lowest number of voters in any of the four elections held since the Taliban was ousted in 2001. In addition to the low turnout, the country's Electoral Complaints Commission said it had received almost 3,000 formal complaints about the weekend voting.
When President Obama announced the massive increase in U.S. troops in Afghanistan he also announced a review of the war scheduled to occur in December of this year. Since then, the importance of the review has been toned down, as has the likelihood of the U.S. beginning to leave Afghanistan July 2011. Recent events indicate that a review is urgently needed and needs to be much broader than one conducted by pro-war Pentagon generals.
Please urge President Obama to emphasize the importance of the year-end review in light of the increasingly obvious failure of the Afghan War. Further, the generals should not dominate the process as the decision is more than a military one. More and more Americans are saying the war is a mistake and do not see any goals worth pursuing in Afghanistan. It is time for the president to listen to Americans and really examine whether the war should be continued. Click here to take action.
If you can make a contribution to Voters For Peace, please do so now by clicking here. We need your support.
On September 19, 2010, citizens gather in support of Private Bradley Manning in Quantico, Virginia, one quarter mile from the brig where he is held for allegedly releasing a video of an Army helicopter killing a dozen or more civilians in Iraq to Wikileaks.
VotersForPeace is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose candidates for office.
It is time for the anti-war movement to pick up the pace and demonstrate that Americans want the current wars ended and out-of-control military spending reversed.
