Nonviolent Resistance Acts

Overcoming Our Afghan Non-Existence

Gerald — Sat, 19 May 2012 11:36:36 -0500

Short Information Teaser

A message from the Afghan Peace Volunteers

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The global system of concentrated wealth and power has successfully made us strangers to one another while it steals from all of us and kills some of us without notice… …Since no power ever dismantles itself, especially when it is us who consent to their power, we require worldwide dissent. In this age of dying hearts and minds, dissent is love. It is in such dissent that we’ll find our way.

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Dear friends, we ordinary Afghans are practically non-existent to the rest of the world.

But then, 99% of the world’s people are also practically non-existent to one another.

The global system of concentrated wealth and power has successfully made us strangers to one another while it steals from all of us and kills some of us without notice.

Until we get organized enough to reach critical and beautiful masses everywhere, many of the 99% would still buy the maxim of governments and mainstream media that ‘protesters are ignorant and cause unrest’. However, there is a visible global awakening eager to change this status quo of the 1% dominating every aspect of our lives, through actions like those you’re having in Chicago.

To overcome our ‘non-existence’ in Afghanistan, the U.S./NATO/Afghan Multi-National Corporation needs to be dismantled, along with the Taliban/Al Qaeda ‘jihad’ and regional power-games. None of these powers represent the interests of the people of Afghanistan. None of them genuinely respect our right to exist and live.

Since no power ever dismantles itself, especially when it is us who consent to their power, we require worldwide dissent. In this age of dying hearts and minds, dissent is love. It is in such dissent that we’ll find our way.

In 2003, Gen. Tommy Franks, then commander of the Afghan war, had declared, “You know we don’t do body counts.”

In Chicago this week, President Obama and the NATO Summit participants won’t be doing body counts either. But they will surely count their euros and dollars.

They will do their usual business over us as their ‘commodities’ and ‘targets’.

Even Afghan mothers and children are considered ‘necessary’ ‘collateral damage’.

We say to the U.S./NATO war summit :

We are neither ‘targets’ nor ‘collateral damage’. We refuse this imposed inhumanity.

You cannot take away our human dignity, even after you’ve put your bullets and bombs through us.

We are not ghosts. Our flesh will return to the earth to remind you of our mortality.

We are not ‘targets’ to raid bullets on, especially in the dead of Hindu Kush nights.

We are not ‘targets’ to have total surveillance on, invasive surveillance meant only for your protection, ‘eyes’ that can never see the invisible anger your policies incite.

We are not ‘targets’ to ‘finish off ’on ‘drone’ screens.

We are not ‘targets’ for you to isolate from the laws of conscience.

We exist.

And we are no longer alone.

To Suraia and all of you at the NATO Counter Summit, we thank you for giving company to our non-existence. We’re grateful that your assemblies and actions on the streets energize our thirst for a better world.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Afghanistan Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement was sealed in the pre-dawn darkness of May Day, when instead of addressing unemployment in America and Afghanistan, President Obama and President Karzai signed a military business agreement for continued counter-terrorism till 2024 and beyond. This agreement will establish what we lament as Afghan Okinawa military bases, unhelpful to Afghanistan’s status as the second most corrupt country in the world, and her tragic distinction as the second worst place on earth for mothers, our mothers.

Before the signing, President Karzai had demanded that the U.S. government clarify the amount of money that they would provide. Karzai said: “Give us less, but mention it in the agreement. Give us less, but write it down.”

If they could, Afghan mothers would tell Obama and Karzai, “Keep the money. We are not commodities. We are not ‘targets’.”

In the next 12 months, the U.S. government and the Afghan partners will attempt to quietly establish legal immunity for the twenty to thirty thousand U.S. ‘war trainers’ and Special Ops troops that will be in Afghanistan for at least another 10 years beyond 2014, through what is called the Bilateral Security Agreement.

Fortunately, the Iraqi public and parliament were able to end the Iraq Status of Forces agreement last year because they refused to grant legal immunity to the U.S. military, setting an important precedent.

Those concerned about Afghanistan should also make the issue of legal immunity for the U.S./NATO forces a viral issue.

Watch the usual opponents of public opinion. The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker already projected victory, just like when he presided over disastrous Iraq, saying, “Without wanting to sound wildly optimistic, we do have a year to work our way through this issue.”

And Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Fazl said that ‘in private discussions, Karzai has made it clear that he might be willing to accept legal immunities for troops….’

But Afghans, being human beings, don’t want legal immunity for U.S. soldiers urinating on corpses, cutting off fingers as trophies, and going on killing sprees. All armies repeatedly mimic the detestable crimes of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Afghan warlords still in government.

We also appeal to U.S. Congress Representatives or UN officials to propose a Bill or Convention to Ban Collateral Damage. How can we endure any more killing? This December, we wish to find a friend for every one of the 2 million Afghan victims of war. We will campaign for ‘2 Million Friends’.

Friends we can stand with, just as you’re standing with us now. Love is an irrepressible spring that will outlast the U.S./NATO coalition, so love is how we’ll make our stand.

President Karzai had called for a special meeting with the elders from Panjwai village after Sergeant Bale’s killing spree. One of the elders questioned President Karzai and his team persistently. The elder was not at all violent. He was hurt, and grieving the loneliness of many deaths.

Following the civil example of this Afghan elder, we wish for the chance to stand before every President, and to say without spite, “Mr President, I want an answer.” We wish to overcome our non-existence.

From Afghanistan, with a world of thanks,

The Afghan Peace Volunteers

http://ourjourneytosmile.com
http://globaldaysoflistening.org

For You, A Thousand Times Over

Buddy — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:28:07 -0500

Short Information Teaser

Kites and Balloons Soar Over Drone Base

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At the start of The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini later adapted for film, a brave and selflessly loyal Afghan boy runs to help his much wealthier friend, singing out his love for him “For you, a thousand times over …” They have been flying a fighting kite, (these are kites with edges sharp enough to cut the strings of another kite), and the singing boy has gone to fetch an enemy kite they have won. A dreadful betrayal ensues, its effects exacerbated horribly by the start of the U.S.-Soviet proxy war. Several decades pass before any small sort of atonement can be achieved by the book’s protagonist.

We sang that song this weekend. I was privileged to attend several actions organized by Kansas and Missouri activists (press release), beginning at Fort Leavenworth prison, to which Bradley Manning will likely return after his current ordeal in a New Jersey military courtroom.

Pictures, courtesy of Robin Haas.

Manning faces a life sentence and potentially a death sentence for the crime of informing U.S. voters and people around the world how our troops and our client governments behave when we are not meant to be looking. One partial consequence seems to have been the democracy uprising of the Arab Spring. Later, at Whiteman Air Force Base, we presented an indictment for the international war crimes that are implicit in remote-controlled killing using the kind of aerial drones that are piloted from the base. As three of our friends walked forwards with the indictment to be arrested by riot-shielded base police, we flew kites to remind ourselves that the blue sky above our heads should not be a source of fear, and we sang, “For you, a thousand times over, for you, a thousand times over…”

Quite a day. I awoke to a clock radio announcing that deadly tornadoes had again ravaged the plains of the Midwest. Before I could think of the people I knew in their path, the next news item announced Taliban attacks in several locations of Kabul. It was a relief, a few minutes after logging in to my account, to receive a reassuring message from the Afghan Peace Volunteers, in whose apartment in Kabul I’ve several times had the privilege to stay. There were 12 of them together in the house in Kabul, and they were all okay. When I phoned them, my young friend Abdulai answered and told me, in English, “Kathy, there is war in Kabul today. Many bombs!” They had been staying in a rear storage room as far from the street as they could, they had adequate food and no need (and no intention!) to go outside, and Bamiyan, the town many of them call home, had had phone service during the morning so they could reassure their families of their safety.

In Kabul, they’re safe from the drone attacks, which shatter so many families, suspected of any contact with the Taliban, and from the worst excesses of the small-scale local warlords we’ve armed against them. But no-one is safe in a country ravaged by four continuous decades of war making.

Today we were at Whiteman AFB, singing our kite runner song to pace ourselves and remain calm in the face of a line of advancing soldiers, I imagine all Air Force cadets, which had swallowed the forms of our three brave friends (Brian Terrell, Mark Kenney, and Ron Faust) and was backing us toward a border around the base into which we had crossed. We had crossed into the base flying kites and bio-degradable balloons all bearing our message calling for an end to drone warfare, to indiscriminate death from above flown like toys, video-game style, through grainy cameras from the safety of bases like this.

We’d prepared a litany of sorts announcing our intention to release ourselves from domination by war and the U.S. war machine, and reading the names of children killed by our country’s war in Afghanistan. The Air Force security, decked out in camouflage-pattern riot gear with shields, helmets, batons, and of course guns, chanted one-two-three-four as they marched deliberately forward, intending of course, to seem as menacing as possible. From a distance they did, but when they were close enough that we could see their faces, through the riot shields…young, dutiful, far from fearsome…..what to say?

Some two dozen of us had planned to head back off the base when officially warned, and as this seemed quite official, we were now backing deliberately, slowly away. I had the mike, and assured them we meant no harm. They were chanting one-two-three-four so I told them I wished I had their discipline, I had been trying to learn Dari and had only learned the numbers up to ten, but I counted with them yek, do, seh, chahar, and it quickly became clear that, between songs and assurances, there was nothing, simply nothing, for anyone present to fear in this particular face-off, except for the men facing imprisonment for declining to retreat with us.

Looking through the clear plastic of the shields into these young soldiers’ faces, I couldn’t fail to think of Bradley Manning, outside whose prison (though he has been, and will likely be, in many prisons) we had stood vigil the previous day. Such an act of unbearable, unbelievable courage, repaid so terrifyingly by my government – by the greatest military power my world has ever, and may, perhaps, ever come to know. For how much of his life, over the past few years, for how many hours has he even seen the sky? Not discounting the discipline of these young men before me, could I think of a greater hero, making at such great risk such sensible and visionary choices, as Bradley Manning? I wondered how many decades of suffering lay before him, not merely because of his near-unfathomable courage, but because he was so alone in his courage. None of us have faced what he is facing, and if more of us had, would his sacrifice have even been needed?

There were other actions this weekend - many people came together in Kansas City, MO, for a well-organized session of community building and planning. Lu Mountenay, Mark Kenney, Henry Stoever, and Midge Potts were arrested for crossing the line at a Kansas City factory that manufactures “non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons” and is the size of 13 football fields! And the momentum here ensures that there are more actions to come. We all felt very proud of and moved by the people who committed civil resistance, —and we were grateful for all the many people who helped the weekend activity happen. Honestly too numerous to name.

But I’m brought back to that story I read, in which the young boy, so full of service and love, runs off into danger, facing it honorably and with passionate courage, singing “For you, a thousand times over.” I think of my brave friends organizing for peace and sectarian healing in blast-ravaged Kabul, and I think of Pfc. Manning, and his mad, wise, selfless act of love, and I wonder how many decades it will be, how many thousands of these vigils we will attend, before we can achieve some kind of atonement.

VCNV Author

Kathy Kelly

Trifecta Resista

Buddy — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:14:36 -0500

Short Information Teaser

An Account of the Protests Against Drones, Nukes, and Imprisonment of Whistleblowers

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by Jane Stoever

Many of us followed the three across the line of demarcation for the base, walking maybe 40 yards before officers approached us. Brian held up our indictment (attached) of President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Whiteman AFB’s Brigadier General Scott Vander Hamm, and every drone crew for “extrajudicial targeted killings” by reaper drones. Brian told the officers, “We want to go to the commander” to present the indictment. An officer answered, “We can’t allow you to do that.” Brian replied, “Our consciences won’t allow us not to.”

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by Jane Stoever

Dear CW Friends, Here’s a report on our Midwest Trifecta Resista 4/13-15, sponsored by groups listed below, from KC & beyond. Thanks to all of you for sending prayers/words of support! We rallied at three sites—exhausting, wondrous. Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, based in Chicago, inspired us! See Robyn Haas’s photos.

Some 28 of us held Bradley Manning support signs 4/14 a.m. at Fort Leavenworth in Leavenworth, Kan. and offered flyers to drivers. One sign demanded, “Free the truth teller!” Bradley, charged with releasing documents and video to Wikileaks, has been imprisoned there. He is now in Fort Meade, Md. for pretrial hearings with a possible court-martial trial in August, but he is expected to return to Fort Leavenworth later.

Midge Potts of Springfield, Mo., said, “Bradley Manning has been accused of releasing a video of civilians being gunned down by our military—the military has been suppressing these crimes. And the media have apparently made it a crime that Bradley Manning was trying to find out about his sexuality; the media treat gender identity as a crime.” Midge shared her memories of being in the Navy in Bahrain in 1991 and bicycling around.

“All I could see were oil wells,” said Midge. “I thought, ‘Oh, I know why we’re here.’” She biked from gold stores and tapestry shops to where ‘the real people’ lived in huts and children wore clothes as thin as paper. “I’ve heard so many stories from Iraq Vets Against the War, over the decades, about innocent people being killed,” she added, asking Trifecta participants to keep hitting the streets on behalf of Bradley.

Kathy Kelly reflected, “The two main causes of insolvable problems today are the military-industrial complex and the prison-industrial complex. Bradley Manning’s courage is something we can catch. The people who are poor are our first priority.” Urging us to follow our convictions, she said, “Bradley Manning has been incredibly inconvenienced. We should never let inconvenience stop us from acting in accord with our deepest beliefs.”

Moving to the next part of the Trifecta, about 35 of us gathered 4/14 at the entry to the new nuke-parts production plant in southern Kansas City.

Midge; Lu Mountenay of Independence, Mo.; Mark Kenney of Omaha; and Henry Stoever of Overland Park, Kan. were arrested for crossing the line between public and private property. Strategizing with Pace e Bene leaders Regina Rust and Jerica Arents of Chicago, our community of supporters walked side-by-side with our resisters across the line. We gradually stepped back after being warned—heartening accompaniment!

The four were released on $100 bonds within a few hours and have Municipal Court hearings for trespass at 1:30 p.m. May 15. Some of the four may request a trial setting to be able to testify; stay tuned.

In a 4/11 letter to Kansas City’s chief prosecutor and chief of police, Henry said he would risk arrest, adding, “The plant’s end-products become weapons of mass destruction, ready for our ‘first strike’ threat. The Kansas City Plant haunts us or should haunt us.”

Video

For the third part of the Trifecta, about 35 of us resisted drone operations on 4/15 at Whiteman AFB in Knob Noster, Mo. We released black balloons commemorating the children killed by drones and flew kites for peace on earth, peace in the sky. Three brave ones were arrested: Mark Kenney; Brian Terrell of Maloy, Iowa; and Ron Faust of Kansas City.

Video

The three were led to a gym for processing. Earlier, Brian had told us the indictment was adapted from one presented last year at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in New York.

At the time of the arrest, perhaps 50 very young Air Force MPs-in-training poured out of a bus in full riot gear and formed a three-rows-deep line across the wide entry road. They moved slowly toward us, sometimes beating their long batons against their plastic body-shields in a precision drill. Tamara Severns of Kansas City, a Trifecta coordinator, took the megaphone, telling the young officers, “As I look around, you’re the same age as all the kids out here. We want peace, and you guys want peace. You don’t want to go kill people.”

Kathy Kelly called to them, “We assuredly mean you no harm.” Referring to the shields covering their faces and bodies, she said, “I think of the Good Witch Glenda in The Wizard of Oz.” Kathy sang, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” She added, “You’re very good—you don’t frighten us. But the U.S. owns half of the world’s weapons. We could change this … together. We look forward to being in the front line with you” to ban war’s weapons.

Video 1
Video 2
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Within 75 minutes, Brian, Mark, and Ron rejoined us with federal statements charging them with trespass and saying they’d be notified of a court date. Their sentences may be as high as $1,000 and/or 6 months in jail—we hope not!

Our Trifecta was proposed in February by Col. Ann Wright; the weekend had earlier been intended for only the nuke-parts plant protest. Ann, now at home in Hawaii for physical therapy, joined our Trifecta on 4/15 by phone, saying, “Thank you for supporting Bradley Manning and/or whoever released documents to Wikileaks. … (At the nuke-parts plant) you are protesting the hypocrisy of U.S. policy in saying Iran and North Korea cannot have nuclear weapons. … As drones fly over Somalia, Pakistan, and the U.S., right here in Hawaii we have drones practicing flying between two sacred islands. And today, for the first time, drones are being protested at Whiteman AFB. Blessings to the beautiful kites and balloons as they fly over Whiteman Air Force Base, hopefully changing the views of the men and women who operate the drones.”

The Trifecta collective displayed signs such as “Exposing war crimes is not a crime,” “War is not a video game,” and “Assassination drones—the killing business is booming.” Some people joined in the whole weekend; some joined us for only one action; maybe 50 people participated in total.

Kansas City’s Holy Family Catholic Worker House and Cherith Brook Catholic Worker House fed the Trifecta activists, provided lodging, and joined in the events. Almost all the Trifecta participants noted above belong to Catholic Worker communities, volunteer there, or have long-term friendships with the communities.

The weekend was cosponsored by Kansas City Peace Planters, PeaceWorks-KC, Physicians for Social Responsibility-KC, local Catholic Worker houses, Vets for Peace, Mid-MO Peace Coalition, Occupy KC, Loretto Peace & Justice Network, Benedictines for Peace, and Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Social Justice Office.

TRIFECTA RESISTA by Ron Faust

The bullies try to gag whistleblowers,

The CIA sneaks drones into our private lives

And KC builds a nuclear weapons plant

All in the sacred name of National Defense,

As if middle America will never notice

And ask what these jobs are producing

And who is profiting from this industry,

Business as usual while flirting with disaster.

From Bradley Manning who exposed the truth

To Col. Wright and the deadly work of drones,

And Kathy Kelly who led us in civil resistance,

We go from Fort Leavenworth to KC to Whiteman,

As others promote an evil industry of destruction.

So many follow blindly down the road, saluting

The Military Industrial Complex

And naively dabble in the trifecta evils of

racism, capitalism, and militarism,

Yet we would be free to ban weapons of death

and save the human race for life,

not only sparing ourselves from a quick death

but also from living a slow death. Free us from both,

Knowing that we belong to the peace community.

(On occasion of the April 13-15, 2012, Trifesta Resista, with demonstrations for Bradley Manning and against drones and nuclear weapons)

Gandhi, King and 99% Spring

Buddy — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:52:34 -0500

Short Information Teaser

Can U.S. Movements Achieve Economic Justice Without Addressing War?

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If it was true in 1967, as Dr. King noted then, that “America can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of (people) the world over,” is it possible that 45 bloody years later, America can destroy the deepest hopes of the people of Afghanistan and yet be saved? Has something fundamental changed, so that unlike in Dr. King’s time, a movement can now be concerned for the integrity and life of America and yet ignore the present war?

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‘99% Spring’ has been declared. “This spring, we will … rise up in the tradition of our forefathers and foremothers. We will not be complicit with the suffering in our families for another year. We will prepare ourselves for sustained non-violent direct action.” The organizers of this effort list the many economic injustices and perils faced by America today and propose to train 100,000 activists “to join together in the work of reclaiming our country” with methods of nonviolent direct action. “We will take non-violent action in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi to forge a new destiny one block, one neighborhood, one city, one state at a time.”

99% Spring will address such crucial issues as shrinking pension funds, skyrocketing student loans, foreclosures, budget cuts to schools, a poisoned environment, diminished collective bargaining rights, all “a result of rampant greed—the deliberate manipulation of our democracy and our economy by a tiny minority in the 1%, by those who amass ever more wealth and power at our expense.” Some other critical matters, however, will not be addressed by 99% Spring.

The organizers of 99% Spring do not find room in their list of our country’s problems to include the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, spiraling spending military spending, new nuclear weapons built, or the role of militarism and colonialism on the economy and the toll it exacts on America’s working people in general. They pledge that they “will not be complicit with the suffering in our families,” but do not express the same refusal to be complicit in the suffering of families in Afghanistan, Colombia, Palestine or the many other nations blighted, threatened and murdered by the same forces that 99% Spring decries here at home. Not to give the war as much as footnote is a startling omission, especially as recent polls show that a growing majority of Americans are against it. This omission may define 99% Spring more clearly than the proclamations surrounding it.

I know that neglecting to mention militarism might be justified to the satisfaction of many as a deliberate strategic choice. Of course, no one can do everything and no one can address every injustice. I accept, too, that in building a coalition that includes some labor unions that promote armaments contracts and organizations like MoveOn.org that regularly support candidates for office with decidedly pro-war agendas, silence on the threat of the military industrial congressional complex is required for the sake of unity. However prudent it may seem, though, this omission raises serious questions.

What is all the more disconcerting is that 99% Spring claims the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi. Neither of these teachers held that justice at home was possible in a country engaged in murder and thievery abroad.

Gandhi’s life work was to free his country from British colonialism and he warned his English opponents and friends that they would never enjoy peace and prosperity at home while holding and tormenting India and their other foreign colonies. Is it conceivable that in this country today a movement can take action in Gandhi’s spirit without using the most decisive and clear language and action against US imperialism?

In 1967, Dr. King was asked why he, a civil rights leader, criticized the Vietnam War, a move that threatened to polarize the civil rights movement. “Now it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war,” King said from the pulpit of Riverside Church in New York. He had come to realize that it was not possible to condemn the violence and oppression suffered by America’s poor without “first speaking clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today- my own government.”

Along with the spirits of Gandhi and King, 99% Spring invokes the example of Occupy Wall Street, a movement in which in many ways the words and work of these two prophets do resonate. In their ‘Declaration of Occupation of New York City,’ adopted by General Assemblies around the world, OWS lists these among the crimes of corporatism: “They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas. They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.”

“The time comes when silence is betrayal,” and Dr. King confessed that he was “moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart.” Condemning the destruction of Vietnam and the wasting of fortunes and lives for an arms race in the face of poverty at home and abroad was not a strategic choice he could make or not, nor is it for us. Dr. King recognized that he and others would find that “the calling to speak is often a calling of agony.”

Despite this, he insisted, “we must speak.” No one, Dr. King said, was exempt from the responsibility to protest the war in Vietnam. No one today is exempt from the responsibility to protest the war in Afghanistan- our credibility in all matters and our humanity depend upon this. Silence is betrayal.

I hope and pray that 99% Spring is more than successful in its goals, which are certainly worthy ones, even if limited. I fear, though, that its silence on the root of the problem, the military industrial congressional complex, will prove fatal to its ends. A movement that engages in “non-violent action in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi to forge a new destiny” is desperately needed in America in 2012. That movement will necessarily be one that demands economic justice at home and that clearly and unequivocally condemns the war in Afghanistan, nuclear weapons, militarism and imperialism in general. 99% Spring, unfortunately, is not that movement.

VCNV Author

Brian Terrell

Why Do We Protest the NATO Summit?

Mary — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:54:17 -0500

Short Information Teaser

Each Day the War Continues Means Continuing Disaster for Afghan People

Excerpt

by Buddy Bell

…Instead of pursuing a partnership agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which would authorize the war up until the year 2024 or beyond, the powerful nations of the world should be meeting to discuss ending drone strikes immediately, pulling combat forces out Afghanistan, and ending their manipulation of Afghan democracy, which they do, in part, by propping up Hamid Karzai and the warlords in the National Assembly. Second, they must take responsibility for their past criminality by providing reparations…

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by Buddy Bell

After the end of World War II, a group of nations in the north Atlantic established NATO to impede Russian influence over the reconstruction of Europe and to facilitate their own. The economic blueprint begun under the Marshall Plan and continued with NATO saw European member countries shift their energy dependency from coal to oil at a time when the U.S. was the world’s leading oil producer, supplying more than a third of worldwide production from within its own (today, greatly oil-depleted) borders. A couple of decades earlier, the U.S. had already wrested from Britain effective control over vast petroleum reserves in Venezuela. This arrangement ensured that U.S. oil companies stood to make a fortune, setting a high price to fulfill Western Europe’s manufactured demand.

After the Cold War ended, the U.S. rebranded NATO and extended its mandate as a defender of liberty in regions beyond the north Atlantic. Seeing military action as a suitable solution to various global conflicts, it has had the effect of sowing discord and violence instead of alleviating these problems.

In Kosovo, NATO claimed that bombing the countryside would stop Yugoslav forces from invading homes and practicing summary executions of the Kosovars. Instead, Belgrade’s atrocities at ground level “kicked into high gear,” as was widely predicted by international aid workers, described in the Washington Post as “the only remaining brake on Yugoslav troops” and who were forced to leave their host villages when NATO commenced aerial bombing. Two years later, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia would issue an indictment against Slobodan Milosevic on 17 Kosovo-related war crimes, 16 of which happened after NATO’s entry into the conflict.

In Libya, the scene following the NATO-enabled civil war has been a chaotic mix of factional battles with various anti-Gaddafi militias who refuse to disband. On Jan 21, 2012, Libyan veterans were attacked with tear gas while protesting outside the Benghazi headquarters of the ruling NTC party, the site of a near-attack on the country’s Vice President days earlier. They charged into the building and seized it while party officials fled. Widespread torture of alleged Gaddafi loyalists has caused a vicious humanitarian catastrophe, prompting the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders to pull out of Misrata because “detainees were brought for care only to make them fit for further interrogation.” NATO continues to insist that its actions have prevented political repression and have promoted freedom and democratic change, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

In Afghanistan, NATO has been the overseer, since 2003, of the criminal bombardment and invasion of a small nation, one which has not initiated hostilities, by a vast superpower employing devastating and overwhelming weaponry. This war began to exceed the death toll of 9-11, civilian life for civilian life, in only the first few months, and over the last decade, the death toll has continued to mount. A report pdf released in February by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) noted a sharp rise in the proportion of civilians killed that were women and children. The negligence of NATO was especially glaring from July-December of 2011, during which time aerial strikes killed triple the number of women and children who were killed over the corresponding period of the previous year.

Chillingly, NATO has looked at the Colombian government’s devastating and prolonged war against the FARC as a model for staying the course in Afghanistan. The scandals and crimes carried out by NATO troops and the detestable official apologies devoid of real solutions illustrate that each day the war continues will mean a continuing humanitarian disaster for Afghan people.

Those who participate in the May actions to shed light on this deranged historical trend will not just be protesting NATO, but will also be proposing a different agenda for the nations who convene under NATO’s banner. Instead of pursuing a partnership agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which would authorize the war up until the year 2024 or beyond, the powerful nations of the world should be meeting to discuss ending drone strikes immediately, pulling combat forces out Afghanistan, and ending their manipulation of Afghan democracy, which they do, in part, by propping up Hamid Karzai and the warlords in the National Assembly. Secondly, they must take responsibility for their past criminality by providing reparations, to be dispersed by an independent body such as the UN general assembly. Reparations would fund projects decided on by local communities and might take the form of food aid, water filtration, housing construction, soil renewal, sanitation, mine disarmament medical brigades, etc. It is crucial that we walk, march, picket, and speak out to demand these real solutions.

Buddy Bell () is a Voices co-coordinator.

Dear President Obama

Gerald — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:00:26 -0600

Short Information Teaser

Bradford Lyttle Reminds President Obama That "Great Reformers" are Important

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March 5, 2012
by Bradford Lyttle

Dear President Obama

I am glad that you recognize the importance of America’s “great reformers,” including Dorothy Day, to our culture. Also, I am glad that you recognize the need for “zero nuclear weapons.” Are you aware that several members of Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker movement are now in Federal prisons, or on house arrest, and other forms of probation, for protesting nuclear weapons? Fr. Steve Kelly, a Jesuit priest, probably is suffering the most. He is in solitary confinement, on a 15 month sentence, at Seatac Penitentiary in Seattle. Fr. William Bischel is on home confinement, wearing an electronic ankle bracelet. He is more than 80 years old. Sr. Anne Montgomery, who is suffering from terminal cancer, and also is more than 80, is on probation. Please pardon these people. They are just trying to express the values and carry out the policies that you recommend.

Sincerely,

Bradford Lyttle

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March 5, 2012
by Bradford Lyttle

Dear President Obama

Sincerely,

Bradford Lyttle

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in Karte Seh, Kabul Speak

Buddy — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:53:01 -0600

Short Information Teaser

Transcript of Skype Call to the Hancock 38 Drone Resisters

Excerpt

Ali is repeating the feeling of or asking for the feeling of empathy from the judge. What would the judge feel and do if a drone was hovering over his house at night? What would he feel, think and do?

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Art Rage Gallery
Syracuse, NY

On February 28th, Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in Karte Seh, Kabul, talked to us by cellphone after we reached them through Skype. We asked for their input on several subjects including the Sentencing Hearing for the remaining members of the Hancock 38.

Kathleen Rumpf began by asking the youths to tell us what message they would like to send to the judge.

Hakim: Kathleen and everyone there, that was Raz Mohammad. He lives in a province near Kabul that has seen many drone attacks. In one of the drone attacks in 2007, four years ago, Raz lost his brother-in-law. His brother-in-law was with four other friends in his village. Raz says that none of them was a Talib, as the NATO forces claimed they were. Raz wants to give this message to the judge: killing is not a solution, far less killing by the use of drones, the killing of innocent people. He added that some material has been used in the bombs that has made life impossible for the survivors. He observes that the land on which the bombs fall subsequently becomes land on which crops cannot be cultivated, and this has been going on since the incident of his brother-in-law (when his brother- in- law was killed.)

Kathy: Thank you Raz Mohammad, thank you very much.

Hakim: Raz describes the surviving wife, widowed now, and the little son, his nephew. He says that his nephew has been left without a breadwinner and a father, and the same has happened to the other four friends that his brother-in-law was with, and the same has happened for many others who have been killed by such drone attacks. The surviving widow who is Raz’s sister has spoken to Kathy and ourselves here in Kabul on the phone and she pleaded for the drone attacks to stop.

Raz says that his sister has often said that these drone attacks are a severe cruelty. Stop!

Faiz has another message. Drone attacks in different parts of Afghanistan need to end, if only because killing does not solve any problem. Faiz says that the solution is to meet ( ) with one another for conversations, not bombs from the air.

Abdulai says that he feels, as many Afghans do, (it is a saying of theirs) that blood cannot wash away blood. Abdulai regrets that human beings have become so detestable that we now use machinery to kill one another, including using a human being to sit behind a computer console .

Ghulamai would like to tell the judge that the people of Afghanistan are very, very tired of the war. Stop these drone attacks.

Faiz asks a question. Why have human beings become so creative in the methods of killing, inventing so many machines to attack one another? Why haven’t human beings been creative about speaking with one another and dealing with the root causes of conflict? Why?

Ali would like to ask the judge and those operating the drones to consider Afghans as human beings. These drones and all of war do not treat any Afghans as human beings. It does not see us this way. Ali says, “We are human beings.”

Abdulai would like to add to tell the judge to please be our friend. Speak to us. Get to know us. He will realize that Afghans are people who understand love. We are human beings.

Raz is describing another fear that grips the women and children especially when the drones fly by. Raz would like to tell the judge that he perhaps has never heard the sound of drones over his head or over his house. His family members may not have heard the sound of drones, but Raz says that sound terrifies the people and keeps them awake at night. It keeps them awake at night because they fear death from those machines in the air.

Ghulamai has a question. Ghulamai is 15 years old. He asks, till when will we kill one another? Till when will the drones keep killing us?

Abdulai recalls meeting an old man who spent more than 20 years of his life working with various aid and humanitarian groups in Afghanistan. He is an Afghan, so these views are not the views only of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.

This old man with a white beard had told us that the people in the province where he lives which is near where Raz Mohammad lives,are living so desperately, not knowing when they sleep at night if they will wake up alive. This is not a tolerable situation.

I think that Abdulai is describing a situation that Douglas and a few other international friends had heard of as well as we met this gracious elderly man together.

Thank you so much for hearing all these views and giving us the chance to speak with you and through you to the judge and to people who operate the drones.

The youth would like to take any questions which you may have.

Kathy: Hakim, Ali, Ghulamai, Faiz, Raz Mohammad, Abdulai, thank you. We are very moved by your questions and we’ll work hard to try and bring your questions to the judge tomorrow.

Applause.

Some of your friends are here in the room: Ann Wright, Martha Hennessy, Brian Terrell, Ed Kinane, and there are others who have questions now.

One of the first people with a question is Nick who has made facsimiles of drones so that people get somewhat of a better idea of what a drone looks like, although we can’t know what it does in your towns and villages. This is Nick with a question:

Nick: I wanted to ask if you believe that drones are making the war go on longer or will using them make the war stop sooner. People are asking that over here.

Hakim: Thank you, Nick, for that question. Raz Mohammad clearly answered, along with two other youths, that drones make this war continue. It prolongs the war. It does not end it. Faiz describes why this is so. These drone attacks that are supposed to be killing insurgent targets kill civilians too and this causes survivors and fellow villagers to rise up in revenge, in anger. Even if we followed the logic of the militarists that surgical targeting of people whom they consider insurgents or terrorists…. with every surgically targeted insurgent killed, there will be 10 other civilians that will rise up in revenge. These ten others will be the multiplying force that continues the war.

Abdulai says that it is clear to us, the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, that it is the plan of President Obama and the Pentagon to continue this war through use of drones. The plan is not to end the war.

Nick: Yes, thank you very much. I would like to ask why you think President Obama wants to continue the war. Thank you.

Hakim: Two reasons they have given in reply to why the Obama administration wants to continue this war. The first reason which Faiz gave is economic. It’s for the money, the resources that are in Afghanistan and the surrounding countries. Projects like The New Silk Road are one driving force. The drones themselves are a multi-billion dollar business. In selling drones to the world… The US is the top seller of drones or arms to all of the world. The money is too good to end this war.

Raz Mohammad gives the second reason along with Ghulamai:

The Obama administration wants to continue this war for control and power. They intend to control this region and not only this region but, as in many parts of the world, to use the same policy for power and control, like what has been spoken about by President Obama, like a swinging pivot to the Asia Pacific region.

Nick: Thank you very much.

Vicky: I just wanted to say Hi, and so many of your friends known and unknown, people who’ve seen you or people who’ve been blessed enough to see you and hear you, — we’re so glad to hear you right now.

Thank you Vicki.

Vicky: Ta shakur our peace jammers.

Ann: Hello Hakim and Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers. It’s Ann Wright and I’m here with so many wonderful people who are challenging the drones, and we’re also going to be with you for 2 million candles on December 10th.

Hakim: Thank you, Ann.

Ann, the boys are saying “Welcome, welcome, welcome to Afghanistan” and are so happy that you will be able to join us here together with our friends in other places who may be lighting candles in solidarity with us.

Raz Mohammad who comes from that area where drone attacks are frequent would like to invite you and everyone there to come Afghanistan and have tea with us.

Ann: Thank you. We look forward to having tea with you in December.

Kathy: And someday we want to see those apple trees and orange groves in Raz Mohammad’s home in Wardak. Some of the people here tonight have to travel long distances to go to their homes and prepare for a court time tomorrow. We’ll go feeling challenged and stronger because of your words.

Hope you’ll have bread and jam, and use up that coffee I left. I miss you very much, each one of you, and look forward to seeing you again.

Hakim: Abdulai has quickly answered that we have finished the coffee. We are all smiles, and it is already light in the morning, the day, and we will try to get a little fire going so that we can keep warm while we have some breakfast

Thank you all so much for calling us and doing all that you do. Each and every one of you is a strength and a great goodness for us.

We can tell our friends in Afghanistan that people in the United States understand and are working hard to end this war and to end the use of drones.

Thank you all so much.

Martha: Thank you, Hakim. This is Martha. We love you. We miss you. And we are very happy to go before this judge for you too. Thank you.

Hakim: Martha and everyone there, we leave you to return to your home with this phrase that we heard in the film, “The Kite Runner.” In the same way in which you have been doing this for the people of Afghanistan and the world, we also want to repeat the phrase from “The Kite Runner:” For you a thousand times over.

2 Million Candles to End the Afghan War

Buddy — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:43:11 -0600

Short Information Teaser

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers Encourage International Participation in New Campaign

Excerpt

We are human beings who are tired of the past and present situations in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has suffered from over thirty years of continuous war and foreign intervention. We organized ourselves as the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in order to share the suffering of fellow human beings in our land and to express our longing for friendship, peace and non-violence to the world.

The political and war powers, both Afghan and foreign, have killed countless, nameless Afghans, Afghans who are human beings, all 2 million of them.

Lighting 2 million candles for the victims of war is a way of getting the people of Afghanistan and the world to pay attention to the catastrophic events in Afghanistan, which are largely ignored and forgotten. We wish to share the pain of the victims of war and their survivors and by doing so to develop a loathing for war and violence. Through peaceful living, we wish to nurture a culture of non-violence.

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Actions in 2012

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers have been working steadily in Kabul on some action plans for 2012 :

1. Caravan of Non-Violence Visiting youth in the provinces of Jalalabd, Parwan and Kapisa to raise awareness on non-violence (using the Manual 50 Crucial Points of Non-violent Struggle by C.A.N.V.A.S. and showing short video clips on non-violence from ‘A Force More Powerful’)

2. Community of Shared Pain A 3-month program to encourage 5 street kids in Kabul to return to school

3. Walk of Unity 25 to 100 multi-ethnic youth will walk from Kabul to Parwan to make a visible statement of ethnic unity.

4. 2 Million Candles to End the Afghan War The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (AYPV) call on the world community to join the people of Afghanistan in lighting 2 million candles, symbolizing our collective grief for the 2 million victims of war in Afghanistan and our determination to work together for peace in Afghanistan and a life without wars. This event on the 10th of December 2012, the International Day of Human Rights, is supported by Dr Sima Simar, Chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, and will be attended by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire and former US Army Colonel, Ann Wright. We will request the United Nations and all armed groups involved in the conflict to negotiate for a multilateral ceasefire, and to redirect their war funds to reconstructing the socio-economic, humanitarian and educational services in Afghanistan.

“2 Million Candles to End the Afghan War”

Candlelight vigils and processions in Afghanistan and around the world

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (AYPV) call on the world community to join the people of Afghanistan in lighting 2 million candles, symbolizing our collective grief for the 2 miilion victims of war in Afghanistan and our determination to work together for peace in Afghanistan and a life without wars.

Date of candle lighting actions: 10th December 2012, The International Day of Human Rights

Brief introduction to campaign

This campaign remembers the 2 million victims of war in Afghanistan and reaffirms our commitment to nonviolence. In accord with o the 1948 UN Charter to ‘remove the scourge of war from future generations’, we request the United Nations and all armed groups involved in the conflict to negotiate for a multilateral ceasefire, and to redirect their war funds to reconstructing the socio-economic, humanitarian and educational services in Afghanistan.

It is clear that Afghanistan has become a playground of world powers, and in the absence of an independent, unified and just government, economic and political greed in Afghanistan is increasing.

As AYPV, Khamad Jan, says, “All the actors in this war have their own reasons for being here. And there is absolutely no benefit to innocent, impoverished Afghans from the wars being fought.”

The political and war powers, both Afghan and foreign, have killed countless, nameless Afghans, Afghans who are human beings, all 2 million of them.

Action plan for campaign

International participation: The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers will be asking the people of the world to join the people of Afghanistan in lighting 2 million candles, so that we can work together for a life without wars. The success of this campaign depends on the efforts of local peace activists to organize candle-lighting events in their respective communities.

Coordinating workgroups: Coordinating workgroups will be formed in Afghanistan and in countries across the world to plan and implement this event.

Candle-lighting: Various appropriate locations will be chosen in Afghanistan and the world for the lighting of candles. An effort will be made to involve ordinary citizens of Afghanistan, as well as representatives from the 49 NATO coalition countries and from regional countries..

Inviting local and international peace builders: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire and former US Army Colonel, Ann Wright, have kindly agreed to attend events in Kabul. Other locals and international peace builders will also be invited to Afghanistan. Outreach: We will be using various media to seek the voluntary involvement of ordinary people in Afghanistan and the world, through radio, television, print and online media, as well as online tools like candle apps and social media.

Media: Various media will be invited to cover the event, as well as the preparation and run-up to it.

Preliminary meetings with Dr Sima Simar for the campaign

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers were privileged to meet with Dr Sima Simar, Chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, on the 20th of February 2012 (1st of Hut 1390 in the Afghan calendar). It was our second meeting with Dr Sima Simar regarding this event. The following points were raised at the meeting on the 20th of February 2012 :

-Dr Sima Simar agreed that the people of Afghanistan are tired of the war and should request all groups involved in the conflict to end the war.

-A few places in Kabul were suggested as possible sites of the candle lighting : Quriq Hill, Afshar Hill and Television Hill

-All relevant security as well as local representatives and religious leaders of the event sites will be consulted for the event

-Dr Sima Simar, in support of the event, agreed to undertake the printing of brochures for the event.

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers would like to thank Dr Sima Simar for pledging her presence, guidance and support.

After-note: A working group will soon be formed to organize all matters related to the campaign. This working group will consist of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, members of the Transitional Justice Group and other civil society and social justice groups in Afghanistan.

This version of the campaign brief is specifically translated for internationals, keeping as close to the meaning of the original Dari script.

Resilience a Bulldozer Cannot Destroy

Buddy — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:09:03 -0600

Short Information Teaser

A Report from Lis Lis, Honduras

Excerpt

by Buddy Bell
Several brave families returned to Lis Lis to pick up the pieces of their lives in order to rebuild. When I arrived there, I saw that the bulldozer did not leave them with very much. Implosions of sticks, twine, and tin panels sat baking in twisted piles. “We also lost many animals,” said Luisa, who stood with her 4-year-old daughter in front of the littered patch of ground that used to be their home. “Chickens, dogs, cats, pigs—most of them were killed.”

Demolished Home

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by Buddy Bell

The names of all people quoted in this article have been changed in concern for their safety.

Most of what is found in the news regarding Honduras tends to converge on a single resounding theme—the deepening corruption of the state. Officials resign over scandals of embezzlement, police officers moonlight as armed robbers, entire state arsenals are found empty, supposedly the work of drug cartels. Carolina, one of many strong and energetic matriarchs who helps run—along with many other women and men—the June 10th Women’s Movement Farming Cooperative, has a different theory about the stolen arsenals. When a delegation I was a part of visited the farm last week, she told us:

The government only wants the United States to buy them more weapons, while they hoard the others. All those weapons are a direct threat against farmers. The government knows where they are hidden, and they will try to use them against us.

Communities like Carolina’s have good reason to suspect cynical motives. A week earlier, in the early morning of February 8, armed private guards of the Standard Fruit Company (Dole) invaded the campesino farming co-op of Salado Lis Lis and forced close to 500 families off the land. They had only enough time to grab their children and a few belongings before a Caterpillar bulldozer ripped through about 600 meager houses and tore wide, barren stripes through their crops.

Demolished House: Home demolitions are a common practice for large landowners in Honduras. If a family is not residing on the land at the time when their land dispute comes to a hearing, they no longer have a case. Photo by La Voz de Los de Abajo

On February 12, several brave families returned to Lis Lis to pick up the pieces of their lives in order to rebuild. When I arrived there on February 16, I saw that the bulldozer did not leave them with very much. Implosions of sticks, twine, and tin panels sat baking in twisted piles. “We also lost many animals,” said Luisa, who stood with her 4-year-old daughter in front of the littered patch of ground that used to be their home. “Chickens, dogs, cats, pigs—most of them were killed.” The loss of livestock and food crops is sure to worsen the problem of hunger in the community, where many are afraid of running out of food.

Demolished House: Photo by La Voz de Los de Abajo

The history of Salado Lis Lis goes back at least to 1992, when a 100-year lease granted to Standard Fruit should have expired. Instead, the company remained illegally, then abandoned the land after much of their operation was destroyed by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Shortly thereafter, the families who now live there had come to clear the destruction of Mitch and to cultivate rice, corn, yuca, beans, coconuts and plantains.

An agrarian reform that was passed by the National Congress in 2008 started the process of granting title to the families who were using and improving the land for citizens’ benefit, but the military coup in 2009 and the repeal of the reform in 2010 made it easier for a foreign fruit company with a questionable title to evict small-scale farmers. Indeed, the case of Lis Lis is only one of about 50 evictions that armed agents have carried out within the last year and a half. As Luisa explained, “Honduras does not live in peace. It’s a country full of risks for us, the poor ones.”

Those risks hang like a cloud over Lis Lis. Even though the campesinos are back on the land, they know that the guards could return at any time. If we don’t take back our community, if we don’t put all our efforts into keeping it, the government will never simply give it to us,” said Pablo Alberto, another associate of the co-op. In order to sustain this presence, the families have begun to rebuild and replant. The bulldozer left them with nothing more to eat than coconuts, so they have been hunting wild game until other crops can be harvested. Children are the first to be fed, then the women, then the men. They have pooled their resources in order to buy crucial items like vegetables and milk from the town about 2 miles away. The campesinos showed us two intact buildings which used to be their school, and which they are now using for mothers and small children to sleep in, away from the threat of crocodiles.

The fact that the families are doing what it takes to remain living on their land, and reaching out to tell their story to outsiders, is all they can do right now to deter another violent eviction. They are showing the power of their resilience to the well-connected company that wants them off the land. As Pablo explained, “we feel fear, but also we feel the pride and the warmth of defending our community.”

You can call Dole Fruit Company toll-free at 800-356-3111 to object to the way it is treating small-scale farmers in Honduras.

Buddy Bell traveled to Honduras on a delegation organized by La Voz de Los de Abajo.

NATO/G8 in Chicago - At A Global Crossroads: Turn Against War

Buddy — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:21:52 -0600

Short Information Teaser

by Brian Terrell

Excerpt

“If you want to be a global city, you’ve got to act like a global city and do what global cities do,” says Lori Healey who heads the host committee and who previously led the city’s unsuccessful bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

All indications, unfortunately, are that Chicago…appears to want to follow the lead of other “global cities” in dealing with mass demonstrations threatening to “steal the stage;” think Tehran, Beijing, Cairo, Moscow and Seattle, to name a few.

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On January 25, the host committee for the G8/NATO summit in Chicago in May unveiled a new slogan for the event, “The Global Crossroads.” The mood of the organizers is upbeat and positive. This is a grand opportunity to market Chicago with an eye for the tourist dollar and the city is ready, the committee assures us, to deal with any “potential problems.”

One of the potential problems that the committee is confident that it can overcome, according to a report by WLS-TV in Chicago, is “the prospect of large-scale protests stealing the stage as the world watches.” The new slogan stresses the international character of the event and the prestige and economic benefit that hosting world economic and political leaders is expected to bring to Chicago. “We’re a world class city with world class potential,” declares Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “If you want to be a global city, you’ve got to act like a global city and do what global cities do,” says Lori Healey who heads the host committee and who previously led the city’s unsuccessful bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

All indications, unfortunately, are that Chicago is preparing to “act like a global city and do what global cities do” and it appears to want to follow the lead of other “global cities” in dealing with mass demonstrations threatening to “steal the stage;” think Tehran, Beijing, Cairo, Moscow and Seattle, to name a few.

One of the chilling developments the hosting committee announced was that the Illinois State Crime Commission is “urgently seeking Iraq-Afghanistan combat veterans to work security positions for the G8 summit.” The commission’s chairman clarifies that is for “private security” and not to work with the Chicago police. As in other “global cities,” these veterans will be used as private mercenaries without the legal protections and benefits of public employees. The Veterans Administration reports treating about 16% of the 1.3 million of veterans of these two wars for post-traumatic stress disorder and many more do not seek help. In answer to a potentially volatile situation in the streets of Chicago, the commission is not seeking workers trained in conflict resolution, but it has an urgent need for ex-soldiers trained in the violent chaos of Iraq and Afghanistan. These veterans urgently need treatment and meaningful employment, but at the “global crossroads,” they are offered only temp jobs as rent-a-cops protecting the interests of their exploiters.

Beyond touting the overblown promise of money that the summit is expected to bring (“To penetrate international markets takes time and money,” said Don Welsh, Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau) the city and its welcoming committee do not encourage education or reflection on what NATO and the G8 are and what they do. Despite its claims, NATO was never a defensive alliance. It is structured to wage “out of area” wars in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as to “contain” China. NATO’s creed is aggressive, expansionist, militarist and undemocratic. The G8 represents the economic interests of its member states. It is not a legal international entity established by treaty but acts outside the law, with NATO as its enforcer. Chicago law enforcement might better spend its resources on preparing to arrest and prosecute the war criminals, terrorists, torturers, and racketeers coming as invited constituents of G8 and NATO rather than getting ready for mass arrests of citizens coming to Chicago to exercise their right to protest these crimes.

The morning after the host committee unveiled its new slogan, some of us with the Chicago-based Voices for Creative Nonviolence met to discuss our part in the response to the city of Chicago “bringing the war home” by welcoming NATO and G8.

We at Voices found ourselves in agreement with the host committee that Chicago is indeed a global crossroads. This is true not for the world’s financial elite, war profiteers, military brass and heads of state officially welcomed there in May, but for those who come to Chicago from the all over the continent and around the globe to visit or to make their lives there without the criminal intent of NATO and the G8. In May, especially, Chicago will be a global crossroads for the thousands of good people who will gather in the city to lend a hand and take to the streets for justice and peace.

Chicago in May is also a crossroads in that it is a critical place and time for us all to take stock of where we have been and where we are going. We are at a crossroads- do we continue on the road of war and economic exploitation of the planet that NATO and the G8 are committed to, or do we abandon that road and turn a corner toward economic justice and a world at peace. We are at a crossroads and our choices are stark: global domination and the economic and ecological devastation that it makes inevitable or global community.

With this in mind, Voices for Creative Nonviolence decided to call our efforts leading up to the NATO and G8 summit, “At A Global Crossroads: Turn Against War.” We are starting the ground work for a walk starting on May 1 from Madison, Wisconsin, to arrive in Chicago in time for the summit on May 19.

Brian Terrell is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence

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Brian Terrell

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At A Global Crossroads: Turn Against War