Brian
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Post by Brian on Sept 5, 2009 17:17:34 GMT -8
Things change so slowly for the better. And at the speed of light for the worse, where we feel threatened or think we MUST be right...Afghanistan is so shameful. What is right about the murder of Afghan civilians? For gasoline? No, no and no. This is wrong, in any light. That's the lead story in Saturday's Los Angeles Times, in case you missed it. I also saw a poll on CNN that now 57 percent of Americans want U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, up from 49 percent three months ago. I rarely quote entire mass e-mails on this message board. But in case you didn't get this from Code Pink today, they're capitalizing on the growing public sentiment against our escalating military presence there next week -- and asking for your help: We have just entered the month that marks the 8th year since we invaded Afghanistan. This week we have seen the largest number of US soldiers killed in a month, as well as horrific bombing causality reports.
For the first time, the mainstream media has printed a photo of a dead US soldier, and the anti-war movement has gained national media attention; the New York Times published a clear story about our efforts at ending military engagement in Afghanistan, and George Will and Chuck Hagel wrote thoughtful pieces in the Washington Post about why we need to get out of Afghanistan.
We have planned a week of an activist media blitz around why we need to quit funding military engagement in Afghanistan for the week of Sept 14 to 18. The 14th is the 8th anniversary of Congresswoman Barbara Lee's courageous vote against military engagement in Afghanistan and the 18th, the day the law went into effect and the Pentagon began moving forward on their plans which began in force on October 7th.
You have been active on our list around this issue, we hope you will sign up to be part of our activist team that week. We will provide you with the tools to be engaged from your phone, computer, freeway over pass, the blogosphere, radio talk shows, letters to editors, etc...so our voices can be in unison and loud.salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/8834/signUp.jsp?key=4479
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Sept 7, 2009 11:24:31 GMT -8
Last week I went on a mission to clean out my email inbox, and made several calls and wrote a couple of letters to a bunch of elected/appointed officials, on health reform, union rights, civil liberties, torture, and other topics I've probably forgotten. I cleared up all pending requests for some sort of action, except for those on Afghanistan. So now almost everything in my inbox says "rethink Afghanistan" or similar, as the subject line. Almost everyday there is another well-supported article or column in a mainstream media outlet, carefully explaining why yet more U.S. or NATO troops in Afghanistan is a bad idea. In yesterday's New York Times, Nicholas D. Kristof's column was called The Afghanistan Abyss: www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/opinion/06kristof.html?scp=1&sq=kristof%20afghanistan%20abyss&st=cseBut rethinking or even thinking on Afghanistan doesn't seem to be reaching the highest policy levels yet. So this week that is going to be my focus, and Obama is my target. (Stuff takes awhile to get through the pipeline, so will be waiting for him later in the fall when whatever is going to happen has happened on health.) I appreciate Brian's culling of really good activist opportunities, and will add any unique ones I hear of.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Sept 13, 2009 0:07:11 GMT -8
Almost everyday there is another well-supported article or column in a mainstream media outlet, carefully explaining why yet more U.S. or NATO troops in Afghanistan is a bad idea. I'll always remember Chuck Hagel coming out against our occupation of Iraq in August 2005 -- right after Russ Feingold! -- as mirroring the shift in public opinion. This month, we've heard from Nicholas Kristof on the Pashtun tribe, as Roberta linked us, along with George Will -- and Chuck Hagel -- from what remains of the thinking right wing, along with Thomas Friedman from the pragmatic middle, in another New York Times op-ed published the same day as Kristof's, addressing the Afghan government: As the military expert Anthony Cordesman, who has advised the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, explained in The Washington Post recently, it requires “a significant number” of U.S. reinforcements and time to do what the Kabul government has failed to do, because it remains “a grossly overcentralized government that is corrupt, is often a tool of power brokers and narco-traffickers, and lacks basic capacity in virtually every ministry.”
To put it another way, we are not just adding more troops in Afghanistan. We are transforming our mission — from baby-sitting to adoption. We are going from a limited mission focused on baby-sitting Afghanistan — no matter how awful its government — in order to prevent an Al Qaeda return to adopting Afghanistan as our state-building project...
It may still be worth doing, but one thing I know for sure, it must be debated anew. This is a much bigger undertaking than we originally signed up for. Before we adopt a new baby — Afghanistan — we need to have a new national discussion about this project: what it will cost, how much time it could take, what U.S. interests make it compelling, and, most of all, who is going to oversee this policy?
I feel a vast and rising ambivalence about this in the American public today, and adopting a baby you are ambivalent about is a prescription for disaster.The entire Friedman column: www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/opinion/06friedman.htmlGeorge Will, in his column "Time to Get Out of Afghanistan," says that "genius...sometimes consists of k nowing when to stop:" www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/31/AR2009083102912.htmlAnd Chuck Hagel's piece, also in the Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/02/AR2009090202856.html
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Sept 14, 2009 23:34:32 GMT -8
Code Pink launched its National Media Week of Action to protest the war in Afghanistan on Monday with a video of Barbara Lee, the only member of Congress to vote against it on Sept. 18, 2001, and an online petition to President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid written by Tom Hayden and already signed by many familiar names: salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/8834/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2090Tuesday, which is Radio Call-In and Letter to the Editor Day, also features a conference call with Hayden at 6 p.m. our time. The rest of the schedule is even more impressive: www.womensaynotowar.org/article.php?id=4895
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Sept 16, 2009 10:19:02 GMT -8
" and an online petition to President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid written by Tom Hayden and already signed by many familiar names: salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/8834/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2090 Thanks Brian, now it has one more familiar name. Shall we consider Wed. Oct. 7, the invasion anniversary, for a curve-ball? Can talk at the corner and at 25th dinner ....
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Post by Roberta in Montana on Sept 18, 2009 15:49:20 GMT -8
Greetings! Wore my MPV tshirt all over Yellowstone today.
Never mind my suggestion of 10/7 for a curve-ball because after posting I realized I have another meeting already scheduled for that evening.
Hope you have a good and populous vigil tonight, will be thinking of you (from the hot tub).
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Sept 21, 2009 0:00:35 GMT -8
Man, I put the Peace Action West request to sign their online petition on hold for a few days and got two more e-mails from them about the Afghan Women Empowerment Act, now before the Senate. It's a positive proposal to help people help themselves, thereby addressing the roots of violence, but it has only 13 co-sponsors in our Greatest Deliberative Body so far. I've always appreciated Peace Action West's editable letter format. But this time there are two: one for co-sponsor Boxer and another for, you know, Feinstein: act.peaceactionwest.org/peaceactionwest/issues/alert/?alertid=14020526Wait! Code Pink sent me this link to the Crooks and Liars website and a clip of Dianne on CNN last week sounding reasonable about Afghanistan, except for her kudos to drones at the end. Part of the two-minute video is also transcribed: crooksandliars.com/dday/feinstein-afghanistan-cannot-sustain-democrac
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Nov 3, 2009 9:24:18 GMT -8
I sent a small donation to help the "Rethink" folks go lobby in DC, so got this update about Jake Diliberto on cable tonight:
Watch your support in action: don't miss Jake take on General Wesley Clark and Pete Headstaff of pro-war group Vets for Freedom tonight on CNN's Larry King Live, 9pm ET and 6pm PT
Thanks to your generosity, our team of vets are now in DC meeting with members of Congress. And, because of your extra support, we were able to extend our efforts to get national media coverage of these brave veterans who are daring to speak out. Just this morning, veteran Jake Diliberto was featured on CNN's American Morning show and he'll be on Larry King later tonight -- debating General Wesley Clark!
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Nov 12, 2009 0:03:25 GMT -8
Time to rant a little about all the mass e-mails I get with online petitions. Organizations use them repeatedly to expand their membership and find donors. Even if you're already on their list, when you sign another petition they immediately send you an e-mail asking you to enlist your friends. Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation has advanced the art of digital signature gathering to market his "Rethink Afghanistan" documentary both as a DVD and as an agent of change. The e-mails are blissfully succinct, the webpages beautifully designed and the portions I've seen of the film are excellent. I'm not happy about the tone at the end of their latest offering -- "you will be making the biggest mistake of your presidency" -- but what the hell. I will sign everything opposing our military engagement that comes my way. If you click on this link a few days from now, there might be different petition there: rethinkafghanistan.com/
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Nov 12, 2009 12:11:50 GMT -8
This could just as appropriately be posted as a reply to Jeanne's on the Street Performance thread. Just as she credited Brian and I for keeping her spirits going, I feel equally indebted to her, Anni, Nancy, Sharon, Brian, Susan, Paige and all our small band of peaceniks. Often when my enthusiasm is down, someone will say or do some small (or large) thing and I'm back up. Lately I've felt majorly out-organized on the local level by the war memorial backers. (Where is the line between honoring the fallen and glorifying war, I wonder?) Today I am at least a little cheered to read Obama's Veterans Day remarks, which could have come from Montrose Peace Vigil signs and leaflets -- honor troops with "the hard work of peace" and "hopes of a day when we no longer need to" fight. The latter is almost a direct quote from Jeanne's note on our Memorial Day flowers last May. I will press on because I know the rest of you will also. Let's envision --and work and plan toward -- a local Rethink Afghanistan showing and even longer term, a local space for peace. There's so many groups opposing more troops in Afghanistan, they now have a coalition website: noescalation.org/Looks like our own ambassador to Afghanistan has been checking it out!
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