AWG Conference Call Notes on April 8, 2010
Participants: Cole Harrison, David Swanson, Michael Kerrigan, Siri Margerin, Sandra Schwartz, Frank Brodhead, Janet Weil Ron Fisher, Elsa Rassbach
Facilitator: Cole. Notes: Janet Weil.
Tasks taken on are in bold in these notes.
Websites discussed during this call:
http://defundwar.org (Whip list – recommended by David Swanson)
http://unitedforpeace.org/ (our website)
www.nationalpriorities.org/taxday2010 (for possible use on Tax Day)
http://www.warresisters.org/ (for possible use on Tax Day)
http://www.nwtrcc.org/taxday2010.htm (post Tax Day events here)
http://www.codepink.org (NOTE: new URL for Code Pink)
http://www.wethepeoplenow.org (Ron Fisher’s website)
http://www.ussocialforum.org/
AGENDA included: 1. Check-in, general comments, introduction; 2. Legislative update; 3. Plans for Tax Day Actions 4/15 and for member call-in week; 4. Brown Bag Lunch Vigils 4/21; 5. Website; 6. Literature
Legislative matters:
McGovern/Feingold bills (no numbers yet) are to be introduced (around the same time) in the House and Senate later this spring.
David Swanson: objects “meaningless bills” intro’d by McGovern (and possibly others) calling for an exit from Afghanistan when the real issue is to cut funding.
Janet: I like the idea of focusing on one thing at a time.
Cole: Hayden advocates for exit strategy legislation.
David: That doesn’t do anything – it’s good rhetoric and I’m not against it except that it distracts from the battle on the war supplemental funding vote.
Frank: Much easier when doing public education, flyering, etc to urge a no vote on funding than explain about an exit strategy bill.
Some discussion of timing of war supplemental – may be as late as early June. Focus for now.
Two actions next week:
April 12-16: Call Congress Week to vote NO on war funding supplemental.
April 15: Tax Day. Siri has done a compilation of resources on 25% cut in “defense” funding ; AFSC, War Resisters League, National War Tax Coordinating Committee and National Priorities Project all have great downloadable materials on their websites. (Note: See list above.)
Cole: Post links to website and possibly use some of the info in an alert.
David: Defundwar.org (vote list) is good resource, and PDA will put out a podcast of Kucinich urging a no vote on war funding supplemental. (Note: These are POST-Tax Day resources.)
Siri: What is missing from these resources? Discussion between Cole and Siri on specific points of downloadable resources. Email blast should “point back to” the unitedforpeace.org website.
Cole: AFSC and War Resisters League are the best in his opinion. Email blast: write tomorrow, then send out on Tuesday, April 13 with info on Call in to Congress Week. Cole and Michael will work on the text of the blast.
April 21: Brown Bag Vigil at Congressional Offices (Reps or Senators), done in conjunction with PDA. Overall message: Health Care Not Warfare, but local groups are free to do any messaging that they wish. How to do: Go to office, if friendly, thank for support and encourage; if neutral or hostile, let them know that we are watching.
Michael: Doing it in Eugene with Vets for Peace, maybe on April 22.
Janet: April 21 in California is the date for an important state rally in Sacramento protesting cuts to education: http://www.fight4cafuture.com/ Will be in contact with my local PDA guy about the scheduling of the Brown Bag Vigil (maybe another day?). Also urged that the vote on Kucinich’s bill be brought up in any visits to House reps; let’s keep our messaging updated.
Siri: Look at updated Afghanistan page: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=4019
Frank’s “Good/Useful Reading” link is not on the page. Our web helper Rebecca Gordon created a new page (JW - please contact Siri directly to get the link.)
Cole: We need to figure out the prompt posting of Frank’s new weekly updates to the website.
Janet: I will rewrite intro two paragraphs to Afghanistan section and send to Siri. Frank will send image(s) to Siri to update the not very compelling image on that webpage.
Siri requested that there be a date on each article AND a date for the weekly compilation of “good/useful reading.” These compilations will be archived.
Rebecca Gordon will be leaving as webmistress in May. ? will be taking over as webmaster; we need a backup person. (Sorry, missed the name that Cole said.)
Janet Larson’s article: Cole is still editing, will produce a new draft by tomorrow; will post to list for last comments. Cole and Janet L to discuss on the phone.
Frank: Will do my best on my article – needs to be updated. It will be done right away.
Sandra to give Stephen McNeil a reminder about the article he’s working on.
Cole: We have been talking about this for about 3 months now, so let’s get ‘em out. We now have 4 unfinished pieces.
Siri: Let’s look at what others have written and published.
Janet: Medea’s article suggested (posted below the call notes, and here’s the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/medea-benjamin/will-we-fund-the-evil-we_b_528934.html)
Siri will review and (probably) get it posted to www.unitedforpeace.org.
Cole: Siri and Janet L are the editors of material to be posted to Afghanistan page, thinks they can just go ahead and post.
Siri: Sounds fine.
US Social Forum: http://www.ussocialforum.org/ June 22 – 26, in Detroit. Cole floated an idea of an Afghanistan workshop on last call. No other group has yet submitted a workshop on that topic. Cole can organize; urged people to attend if possible. Would be good to have co-sponsoring groups for the workshop. Ann Wright is a possible speaker on this workshop.
Janet: Code Pink has submitted a proposal for a workshop on drones which will of course cover issues of attack on Afghanistan and Pakistan. I’d like to see a focus on the corruption of “aid”; happy to work on prep leading up the USSF.
Who’s going: Siri, Cole, maybe others later.
Ron Fisher: Thursday, April 29, Forum on Capitol Hill (Kucinich involved) on exiting wars from Iraq and elsewhere. Ron has worked hard on prosecuting war criminals; he has prosecuted cases in the Navy during his career there.
Next call: Thursday, April 22, 5 PM/2 PM, same number and access code: 702-473-3463, conference id 769943#.
Will We Fund the Evil We Deplore?
By Medea Benjamin
“Let us not become the evil we deplore”, warned Cong. Barbara Lee when she cast the lone vote against going to war in Afghanistan in September 2001. Well, it’s time to look in the mirror—and it’s not a pretty picture.
Just contemplate these two incidents, one that took place in Iraq in 2007 and has now gone viral on the internet, the other that took place in Gardaz, Afghanistan in February 2010.
Baghdad: U.S. aerial shooters chuckle as they let loose a torrent of bullets, killing over a dozen people, including two Reuters staff. Then they unleash another round on an Iraqi who—passing by in his van—tries to help the wounded. When the American soldiers discover they have hit two children in the van, they can be heard snorting, “It's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle.”
No one—from those who pulled the triggers to those who gave the okay—has been punished for the murder of these innocents. That’s because this blatant disregard for human life falls within the rules of engagement. And the only reason the incident came to light is thanks to Reuters for its persistence and to Wikileaks for procuring the footage and putting on their site.
Gardez, Afghanistan: US Special Operations forces surround a home where a party is taking place for the birth of a grandson. Two men come out to see why they are being surrounded. They are shot dead. The US soldiers later report they found three women inside the house, gagged and murdered by their own relatives.
The Times of London later reports that the women were killed by the American soldiers. Not only that. To hide the murder, the soldiers dug bullets out of the women’s bodies and washed the wounds with alcohol to hide the evidence. One of the women was a pregnant mother of 10; another was a pregnant mother of six; the third was a teenage girl.
No one has been punished in this incident either. General McChrystal was briefed on the case in March but said nothing about it. The murders only came to light because the Times reporter Jerome Starkey visited the family and talked to Afghan investigators.
While McChrystal issued a new directive in July 2009 restricting activities likely to result in civilian casualties and urged troops to act with greater sensitivity to Afghan cultural and religious concerns, the killing of innocents continues. According to the UN, at least 98 Afghan civilians were killed in night raids in 2009.
The same is true at checkpoints. In a rare moment of honesty, while addressing a virtual townhall with troops in Afghanistan, General McChrystal admitted, "We really ask a lot of our young service people out on the checkpoints because there's danger, they're asked to make very rapid decisions in often very unclear situations. However, to my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it…We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."
Our killing of civilians has spread to Pakistan, where the most deadly attacks come from unmanned drones. A report by the New America Foundation speculates that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have killed somewhere around 700 to 1,000 people, one-third of them civilians.
As Americans of conscience, we can’t stand by and allow these killings to continue. Here are some actions we should we be calling for:
--stop the air wars, including the deadly drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan;
--stop the night raids that sow terror and abuse;
--hold the soldiers and higher ups accountable for their actions, including General McChrystal;
--pressure Congress to hold hearings on these atrocities;
--organize teach-ins that educate the public and help build the anti-war movement.
These are all critical actions to engage in. But there is really only one way to stop the collateral murder by our military: stop the wars and bring our troops home. The Obama administration is now asking Congress for another $33 billion of our tax dollars for war. Enough is enough. These are wars we can’t afford, we can’t win, and we can’t condone on moral grounds. Call your representatives—202-224-3121—and tell them “No more money for war.” It’s time we stop being and funding the evil we deplore.
Medea Benjamin () is the cofounder of CODEPINK (www.codepinkalert.org) and Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org).