Peace Messenger

Time to End the Counterproductive, Military-first Strategy

From a statement by Congresswoman Barbara Lee:

In response to reports that an additional 1,400 US troops will be deployed to Afghanistan in the coming weeks, I must state that I categorically oppose a further escalation of the US troop presence in Afghanistan.

In 2001, I placed the lone vote against the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Afghanistan because I believed that it might pave the way to open-ended war.

Unfortunately, each week brings additional news that my worst fears have been realized.

This action will further entrench the United States Armed Forces in Afghanistan on the false premise of a military-first strategy that has consistently proven itself ineffective and counterproductive....

As we enter the 112th Congress, we must make it a top priority to end this war.

Commissioned for Peacemaking

"Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King?" "Why are you joining the voices of dissent?" "Peace and civil rights don't mix," they say. "Aren't you hurting the cause of your people," they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission -- a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for "the brotherhood of man." This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I'm speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that

Occupation of Iraq Rebranded and Privatized

The widely-noted withdrawal of the last U.S. combat brigade from Iraq is indeed a major development, but it marks a new phase of the U.S. occupation, not its end, wrote Semuas Milne earlier this month in the Guardian:

...The US isn't withdrawing from Iraq at all – it's rebranding the occupation. Just as George Bush's war on terror was retitled "overseas contingency operations" when Obama became president, US "combat operations" will be rebadged from next month as "stability operations".

But as Major General Stephen Lanza, the US military spokesman in Iraq, told the New York Times: "In practical terms, nothing will change". After this month's withdrawal, there will still be 50,000 US troops in 94 military bases, "advising" and training the Iraqi army, "providing security" and carrying out "counter-terrorism" missions. In US military speak, that covers pretty well everything they might want to do....

Cluster Bomb Ban Goes Into Effect Without U.S.

The U.N. Convention on Cluster Munitions ratified by thirty-eight nations went into effect August 1.  The remaining nations in the total of 107 who have signed on are working towards ratification.  The U.S., however, hasn't gotten that far -- the Obama administration is still thinking it over.  Excerpts from Esther Banales, "Long-Awaited Cluster Bomb Ban Enters Into Force; US Straggles Behind," Inter Press Service, 31 July 2010, posted at truthout:

"This new instrument is a major advance for the global disarmament and humanitarian agendas, and will help us to counter the widespread insecurity and suffering caused by these terrible weapons, particularly among civilians and children," noted U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Cluster munitions explode in mid-air to release dozens - sometimes hundreds - of smaller "bomblets" across large areas. Because the final location of these scattered smaller bombs is difficult to control, they can cause large numbers of civilian casualties.

America's Path to Permanent War

Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War
by Andrew J. Bacevich
Metropolitan Books / 2010

Tom Englehardt calls Andrew Bacevich's new book "the single best source for understanding how Washington came to garrison the planet, intervene regularly in distant lands, and turn war-making -- and not even successful war-making at that -- into an American norm."