The other “Afghanistan Report”

Whose stories are we telling about the war in Afghanistan?   On the day following the White House report on the war in Afghanistan that names the war as a qualified success and calls for the U.S. to “stay the course,” we must lift up the alternative stories and reports of this near-decade of occupation, including yesterday’s Veterans for Peace action at the White House. The other “Afghanistan Report”: The U.S.-led occupation has done nothing to improve the conditions for people in Afghanistan. Lives also continue to be lost in Pakistan largely as a result of unmanned aerial drone attacks in the undeclared U.S. war in the country. Hundreds of Afghan civilians continue to be killed by coalition forces each year under the occupation: According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the 2009 civilian death toll, close to 2,412 civilian deaths, was the highest of any year since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, and an increase of 24% from 2008. There has been a general increase in violence and civilian deaths because of occupation. The current Afghan government is implicated in widespread human rights abuses: A Human Rights Watch Press Alert in 2005 stated that up to 60% of law makers in the lower house of Afghanistan’s newly elected parliament are directly or indirectly connected to human rights abuses. The air-war in Afghanistan has more than tripled since General David Petraeus assumed command over U.S. and NATO troops last summer. Drones strikes in Pakistan have doubled since 2009, with over 100 this year, and lists of drone targets in Pakistan have been expanded. These strikes have killed close to 500 civilians since the rules identifying targets were loosened in 2008. Through the end of November 2010, 455 US troops have died in Afghanistan. The US is spending $120 billion per year on the war, money that is urgently needed at home in our communities and only being used to undermine Afghan democracy and usurp resources that belong to the people of Afghanistan. From the South Asia Solidarity Initiative: “The Afghan people are capable of creating their own democratic future. Progressive groups and democratic parties in Afghanistan are fighting to reconstruct the peace and safety of their country, and more often than not, are forced underground for fear of their safety…It is from these forces that a larger progressive movement will emerge that could play a role in bringing real democracy to Afghanistan. If the United States continues the occupation, the space for progressive forces becomes increasingly limited.” Veterans’ Action for Peace: At the same time that President Obama was announcing the qualified “success” of the war in Afghanistan, hundreds rallied with Veterans For Peace (VFP) at the White House calling on the  administration to “Stop These Wars.” 135 people were arrested, including five Board members from VFP, Daniel Ellsberg, Ray McGovern, Collen Rowley, and Chris Hedges. Check out stopthesewars.org and the VFP website for more information. “We have killed over a million innocent people in these wars and made millions more homeless,” said the former Navy hospital corpsman and VFP President Mike Ferner, adding “Millions of Americans are out of work and literally out in the cold. Clearly, our war economy values empire and death over jobs and real security. We are taking a stand for peace. The troops, mercenaries and drones must come home now!” To find out more about organizing with WRL, contact WRL Organizing Coordinator Kimber Heinz at kimber@warresisters.org.

One Year after Fort Hood: The Missing Story of Muslim Peacemaking

Today, November 5, 2010, marks the one-year anniversary of the Fort Hood shooting, in which former Army psychiatrist Major Nadal Halik Hasan shot and killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, wounding 42 others. As U.S. servicemembers and the families of the victims of this shooting grieved for those who were killed and Americans mourned the loss of life, reports on these crimes riveted the mainstream media. The shootings were certainly newsworthy. The problem is that almost the only time Muslims are featured in the U.S. news media is when a Muslim engages in an act of violence. A one-sided focus on violence committed by some Muslims fuels the racist narrative that “Islam is a religion of violence”—which underwrites the so-called “Global War on Terror.”

In spite of ongoing efforts by many in the Muslim religious community and Muslim-American organizations, the long and vital history of Muslim peacemaking has been lost in the avalanche of reports on Muslims where the mainstream media connects them only with violent extremism. The lack of acknowledgment and recognition in the U.S. of Muslim peacemakers continues to have grave effects on Muslims all over the world as well as those at home in the U.S. In addition, the ongoing hyper-focus by the U.S. state and mainstream media on Islamic militants to the exclusion of those Muslims whose peacemaking efforts oppose militarism of all kinds continues to prop up and justify ongoing U.S.-backed military occupations, including those of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine.

Private First Class Naser Abdo, a 20-year-old Muslim servicemember currently serving in the U.S. Army and seeking Conscientious Objector (C.O.) status on the grounds of Islam, is a Muslim peacemaker. He states, “As I studied Islam and Islam’s commitment to peace, I developed an entirely new perspective on war and conscience… That’s when I realized my conscience would not allow me to deploy.” Pfc. Abdo’s C.O. case still awaits an Army recommendation of discharge from the military based on moral, ethical, and religious objection to all wars. Abdo is facing possible deployment to Afghanistan in spite of his C.O. claim, though Army commanders decided to delay his deployment after he went public with his case. Speaking out as a Muslim, Abdo is against war and has been working with nonviolent antiwar organizations including the War Resisters League and Quaker House in Fayetteville, NC on building public support for his objection to war on the grounds of Islam.

Several Muslim-American organizations in the U.S., such as the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, have been key supporters of Pfc. Abdo’s claim for Conscientious Objector status based on the principles of Islam. In a statement released by this organization in support of Pfc. Abdo, long-time Muslim peacemaker and antimilitarist Ibrahim Ramey states, “We believe that his position is not a product of personal cowardice or disloyalty to his nation, but rather, a coherent expression of his faith and his personal belief in the tenets and laws of the religion of Islam.” In a separate statement, Ramey further underscores the U.S. government and mainstream media blackout of Muslim opposition to militarism: “Major Muslim efforts for peace-making in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other conflict spots are virtually unknown to U.S. news consumers, and even to policy makers. In my opinion, this phenomenon plays into the hands of institutions that seek to permanently militarize the U.S. economy by creating the illusion that Muslims are ‘the enemy’ and must therefore be controlled or eliminated for the sake of ‘democracy.’”

Many other Muslim organizations also attest to the importance of U.S. recognition of Muslim peacemaking efforts. In “An Open Letter to President Obama” sent on the eve of his visit to Egypt to address the Muslim World in May 2009, 1,600 American-Muslim and non-Muslim scholars on the Middle East called on the U.S. government to recognize nonviolent Muslim leaders: “For too long, American policy in the Middle East has been paralyzed by fear of Islamist parties coming to power…However, most mainstream Islamist groups in the region are nonviolent and respect the democratic process.” This letter further urges the U.S. to discontinue its support for violent political regimes in Central Asia and support democracy through peaceful policies: “The United States, for half a century, has frequently supported repressive regimes that routinely violate human rights, and that torture and imprison those who dare criticize them and prevent their citizens from participation in peaceful civic and political activities…There is no doubt that the people of the Middle East long for greater freedom and democracy…What they need from your administration is a commitment to encourage political reform not through wars, threats, or imposition, but through peaceful policies that reward governments that take active and measurable steps towards genuine democratic reforms.”

Despite the ongoing work of Muslim peacemakers and antimilitarists, Muslims living both inside and outside of the U.S. continue to feel the deeply negative effects of the dominant culture’s association of Muslims with terrorism and violence, often referred to as “Islamophobia.” In the U.S. military, Pfc. Abdo experienced a great deal of harassment and discrimination from his fellow servicemembers: “Early in basic training… one soldier repeatedly insulted me and Islam saying, ‘Go pray to your god that doesn’t exist or your pedophile prophet.’…During the training cycle I persistently reassured my comrades that my religion did not make me an enemy of theirs or an enemy of the state. The climax of this harassment occurred when my comrades all made a concerted effort to get me an unwanted discharge because I was not welcome in their ranks.”

These acts mirror the broader U.S. climate of discrimination against Muslims, as evidenced in the media craze surrounding the “Ground Zero Mosque,” otherwise known as the proposed construction of the Park 51 Muslim Community Center in Lower Manhattan. The association of Islam with terror also served to spark the “International Burn-a-Quran Day” controversy out of Gainesville, Florida, which made national headlines on the ninth anniversary of the September 11^th attacks. Just a few short weeks ago, a white New York City passenger named Michael Enright shouted, “Asalamualaykum, consider this a checkpoint!” prior to slashing the throat of Ahmad Sharif, the Muslim cab driver.

Furthermore, U.S.-backed war and occupation has been disastrous for Muslims living all over the world. The Iraq War Logs, which include close to 400,000 classified U.S. Army intelligence documents, were recently released by Wikileaks and include accounts of the violent deaths of 66,081 Iraqi civilians, along with reports by the military that confirm widespread killing and abuse of Iraqi civilians by U.S. military forces and U.S. contractors. The documents also reveal U.S. military instructions from high up the chain of command to ignore detainee abuse by Iraqi authorities. In the U.S.-led counter-insurgency war in Afghanistan, there has been 31% increase in Afghan civilian deaths and a staggering 55% increase in child casualties so far this year as a result of the war, according to the latest statistics from the United Nations. The U.S. is also conducting air strikes and Special Forces operations in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia and is slated to send $3 billion in military aid to Israel for FY2011 in support of its military occupation of Palestine.

The abuse and killing of Muslims isn’t an accidental byproduct of the U.S. military pursuit of a select group of Muslim extremists. It is the direct result and the intended effect of the U.S. government decision to go to war in pursuit of military-backed power in Central and South Asia. When the mainstream media in the US focuses solely on Muslims as violent extremists, it acts to provide a justification for these wars. The direct link made between Islam and terror also provides cover for waging war against a people, not simply targeting a few individuals, because according to this narrative, any Muslim could be a terrorist.

It is for this reason that we as people living in the U.S. must work to undo the deeply harmful effects of this narrative on the lives of Muslims living both in the U.S. and abroad and construct new narratives not premised on the logic of war and imperialism. We must lift up the stories and ongoing work of Muslim peacemakers like Naser Abdo. We must continue to make the connections between the over-amplification of violent acts committed by small groups of Islamic militants and the ongoing need for the U.S. government to attempt to justify unjust war and occupation. In a statement in a press conference earlier last month, Pfc. Abdo was clear in making this connection:

“In reference to ‘Islamophobia’ as it pertains to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan there is much that I have come to understand as a Muslim Conscientious Objector. As a Conscientious Objector, I am morally disinclined to associate terror with Islam as is often the case during routine training exercises…To a soldier, the association of terror and Islam serves the purpose of falsely justifying ones actions in combat by stripping Muslims of their humanity. The association of terror and Islam is what we now refer to as ‘Islamophobia.’…It is as if the U.S. public is just recently following a trend that has been rampant in the military for years. Only when the military and America can disassociate Muslims from terror can we move onto a brighter future of religious collaboration and dialogue that defines America and makes me proud to be an American.”

For more information on Naser Abdo’s case, go to www.freenasserabdo.org.

Also, check out this article that will appear in the Fall issue of Fellowship magazine by Ibrahim Ramey:

http://forusa.org/race-religion-reaction-islam-struggle-american-religious-freedom-equality

For more info on Muslim peacemaking, see also Rabia Harris’s piece “On Islamic Nonviolence” in Fellowship:

http://forusa.org/content/islamic-nonviolence

Gara’s “A Few Small Candles” published in Japan

Larry Gara a historian, teacher, activist, and WRL contact, is the author of the important memoir, A Few Small Candles, a collection of stories from ten World War II conscientious objectors. This book, highly influential in the  peace movement, was translated to Japanese and published in Japan this summer! To learn more about conscientious objectors, check out the new issue of WIN Magazine on Counter-Recruitment.

Antiwar Feeder March on June 22nd!

Local Detroit and national antiwar groups are planning a feeder march
and actions that will begin at the DTE Energy Plaza, move to the Federal
Building (where the office of Sen. Carl Levin, head of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, is stationed), and then join the main USSF marchers
prior to assembling at Cobo Hall for the opening ceremonies. Length of
march is not long and proximity to main march is nearby.

The tentative schedule for this march is: 3 pm. – Campaign against utility
shutoffs assembly at DTE Energy Plaza – One Energy Plaza, between Bagley and
Third Avenue in downtown Detroit – circling building – theme being “Shut Off
the Pentagon, Not People!” – “Power to the People!”

After fifteen minute DTE demonstration, folks march 1/4 mile south and to
the east along Michigan Avenue to demonstrate in front of the Federal
Building – 477 Michigan Avenue (corner of Michigan and Cass).

At 3:30, those who have already assembled at the Federal Building with
picketing will be joined by larger feeder march from DTE Energy Plaza:
Theme: “Money for Jobs, Not for War!” “Stop the Trillion Dollar Wars!”
“Redirect Funding to Human Needs!”

4:00 action/guerrilla theatre/die-in at Federal Building Plaza and picket
around Federal

4:15 march 1/4 mile east on Michigan to Washington, turn right heading south
for 1/2 mile to meet up with main march outside Cobo Hall where opening
ceremony is scheduled to take place inside at 5 pm.

For more information contact Fran Shor at franshor@yahoo.com, ph:
248-398-5284

Albuquerque Stands Up for Immigrants

Check out this article written by WRL organizer, Gloria Walker:

“Responding to community outrage, members of the Albuquerque City Council unanimously withdrew proposed anti-immigration Resolution 10-90.

The controversial resolution stated that “Illegal immigration negatively impacts the City of Albuquerque in many different ways.” Calling for the federal government to increase border security, it stated, “the citizens of the City of Albuquerque have been victimized by crime due to illegal immigration.”

Albuquerque citizens, however, disagreed and organized to let their representatives on the city council know that they support immigrants rights.”

Peace Protests at Vandenberg Air Force Base Tomorrow!

Vandenberg Space Command will fire a test ICBM Minuteman to Kwajalein on in June 5, 2010.

A peace protest will be held at the front gate of Vandenberg AFB in Santa Barbara County, CA on June 5 at 1pm during World Nuclear Weapons Abolition Day.

For more information, go to www.vandenbergwitness.org

Antiwar People’s Movement Assembly at the US Social Forum

Rebuilding the Anti-War/Peace Movement to End Wars and Occupations: Redirect Tax Dollars to Meet Human Needs

June 24^th, USSF Detroit, Cobo Hall: D3-28, 1-5pm

This four-hour People’s Movement Assembly will consist of two sessions, each including noted national and international speakers. The first session will address the current state of the wars and occupations and the enormous diversion of money from addressing domestic needs into funding the military. The second session will focus on what we need to do nationally and locally to build the power and influence of the antiwar movement. Both panels will allot plenty of time for questions and discussion. The goal of the Assembly is bring all the antiwar forces together and develop future unified actions to end US wars and occupations.

Speakers include:

Gilbert Achcar, Medea Benjamin, Elaine Brower, Marilyn Levin, Michael McPherson, Antonia Juhasz, a representative of ANSWER, Ahmed Shawki, Pete Shell, Colonel Ann Wright, Michael Zweig.

Sponsoring Organizations:

National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, US Labor Against the War (USLAW), Veterans for Peace, Code Pink, International Socialist Organization (ISO), Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), World Can’t Wait, ANSWER Coalition, the War Resisters League, Pittsburgh Thomas Merton Center, Peace and Freedom Party of California, Washington Peace Center, National Priorities Project, Columbus Campaign for Arms Control, Movement for a Democratic Society.

For more information:

http://organize.ussf2010.org/ws/rebuilding-anti-warpeace-movement-end-wars-and-occupations-redirect-tax-dollars-meet-human-needs

Israel’s Ruthless Criminality’ – WRI statement on attack on Free Gaza Flotilla

War Resisters’ International – an international pacifist network with more than 80 affiliates in more than 40 countries – condemns the murderous Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza and calls for an immediate lifting of the blockade on Gaza.

The Israeli state has been responsible for many outrages in its history, especially against the population of Gaza. To put it at its mildest, as reported last week by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, after a thousand days of the Israeli blockade, 61 per cent of the households of Gaza are “food insecure”.

The international nonviolent activists killed in the attack on the Free Gaza Flotilla did not regard their lives as more important than those of Palestinians – not more important, but nevertheless more visible. The ruthless criminality of this attack on an unarmed flotilla of nonviolent activists bearing humanitarian aid demonstrates for those who did not know before just to what extent the state of Israel regards itself as immune from international norms.

In view of the involvement of some of our own members in organising this, we also know full well that this flotilla is not a tool of Hamas, let alone of Al Qaeda or any other spectre the Israeli propaganda machine seeks to raise. Knowing the nonviolent preparations undertaken for this flotilla, and knowing a number of the activists involved and their principled commitment to nonviolent forms of action, we suggest that only those who want to excuse Israel can believe that Israeli commandos who boarded the ships were then attacked.

This is a state that has acquired nuclear weapons illicitly and offered them to at least one other racist state, apartheid South Africa. This is a state whose secret services have carried out acts of assassination, kidnapping, sabotage and espionage throughout the world. This is a state which day after day has committed violence against Palestinians, indeed whose own sense of security depends on subjection and expropriation of Palestinians.

War Resisters’ International works in support of those Israelis who speak out against or refuse to cooperate with the criminality of their government. Our affiliates pressure their own governments and also particular corporations to withdraw support from the Israeli government and its politics of paranoia and persecution. We work too alongside Palestinians to develop nonviolent strategies that offer hope for justice and ultimately peace – strategies including the nonviolent Free Gaza Flotilla.

War Resisters’ International now calls once more

* for disinvestment from companies supporting the state of Israel,

* for a boycott of products marketed by institutions identified with the Israeli state and support for the fair trade products of Palestinian cooperatives.

* for support for the war resisters in Israel itself

* for support for Palestinians in persevering with nonviolent strategies for justice and freedom

It is clear that the state of Israel is not the rightful inheritor of the millions of innocent Jews killed in the Nazi holocaust, but rather is based on violence, denial of human rights and the violation of international norms of human decency.

http://wri-irg.org/node/10274

“Down by the Riverside” Die-in at Grand Central

On today’s action and hope for the movement

Today in Grand Central, 2,000 flyers were distributed to hundreds of passersby who engaged with members of the War Resisters League and many other organizations, including Peace Action, South Asia Solidarity Initiative, Think Outside the Bomb, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, about nuclear disarmament.

At 8am sharp, anti-nuclear activists and people concerned about the direction of the U.S. government’s nuclear policies and ongoing militarism gathered in the center of the main hall of Grand Central to call for “Peace without Nuclear Weapons” and to start the global disarmament process here in the U.S., the only country to have used the bomb. Participants circled the center kiosk and talked with people rushing to start their days about the UN conference starting only a few blocks away from where we were, in which delegates representing the peoples of the world were beginning talks about nuclear nonproliferation.

The message of the War Resisters League to those delegates at the NPT review conference, and particularly those representing the people of the U.S., is that talk is not simply enough. We will continue to push our government towards complete unilateral disarmament and work to build and strengthen the anti-nuclear movement here at home. Through our signs, leaflets, banners, and discussions with the folks who talked with us, we communicated a clear message that nuclear weapons do not make us safe.

At 9am, this message was presented to commuters in Grand Central through a coordinated banner drop over the railings overlooking one side of the main hall. Our banners read “Talk Less, Disarm More” and “Nuclear Weapons = Terrorism.” 22 people were arrested in total during the banner drop and the die-in on the floor of the station that followed. Supporters of the die-in circled the group as the police stepped in to make arrests, many of us singing “Down by the Riverside.”

The official “nuclear posture” of the U.S. government under the Obama administration is one that maintains the option of “first strike” against any country that is deemed threatening to the U.S. (e.g. those harboring alleged terrorists) while insisting that it is other nations such as Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan who are to blame for the necessity of nuclear weapons.

Our action today made clear that the United States is a central global perpetrator of nuclear terrorism as, along with Russia, it maintains 95% of the world’s nuclear weapons, about half of which are deployed throughout the world. Nuclear terrorism in one central way in which the U.S. maintains its ongoing imperialist wars and occupations in West and South Asia and spends our taxpayer dollars to do so. The U.S. must be held accountable both internationally and by its own people.

Kathy Kelly from Voices for Creative Nonviolence, who received the WRL Peace Award at a special ceremony at Community Church yesterday evening, shared with us a special story during her acceptance speech. She spoke of a recent Skype conversation that she and a few others had with a group of young people in Afghanistan not too long ago. It was MLK day and Kathy and the others in their group thought it might be nice to share some information with them about Dr. King, a former leader of civil rights and antiwar struggles in the U.S. Kathy noted that not only did they already know about Dr. King, but this group of Afghan young people proceeded to tell them some of their favorite quotes from his speeches.

The people of the world know that there are people working for the end of U.S. militarism from within its own borders, and that the voice and leadership of this movement is growing. It is with the hope that comes with this knowledge and in the spirit of solidarity with the peoples most directly affected by U.S. imperialism and domination that WRL says: “No Nukes: Begin with U.S.”