NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong
THE FOREVER WAR’S CHEERLEADERS
We are living in an ominous moment when it is Democrats who are the most inclined to charge those who disagree with them on the Russia media narrative of treason, and when it is Democrats who are the most inclined to accept declarations or demands made by a defense establishment that apparently can do no wrong… There is something surreal about watching so many Democrats and liberal or progressive pundits adopt the ugliest rhetorical tics of the very post-9/11 chauvinism I once found myself immersed in, from seeing anyone or anything inconvenient to the presiding account as fifth-columnist to treating the utterances of spies and other military-industrial propagandists as gospel. Most of all, there is the ostensible disregard for the consequences of their newfound animus toward the national-security state’s latest bogeyman… What is needed now is a clear alternative to the present course. More
How grassroots activists made peace with North Korea possible
Korea Peace Network, or KPN, is one of the key U.S.-based coalitions promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula. Spearheaded by the American Friends Service Committee, Peace Action and Korean-American peace activist Christine Ahn, KPN works to educate and organize Korean peace activists around the country, from birddogging congressional candidates to hosting webinars and strategizing sessions. In June, the network organized an action called KPN Advocacy Days, which saw a group of advocates from KPN visit Capitol Hill to meet with key legislators, like members of the Armed Services Committee, to promote negotiations with North Korea… The re-centering of Koreans’ role and voices in the peace process could create friction between South Korea and the United States, as exemplified by Moon’s Liberation Day speech. Delivered last month, the speech laid out a plan for greater economic integration between North and South Korea, declaring, “We are the protagonists in Korean Peninsula-related issues.” More
THE SAUDI-AMERICAN WAR IN YEMEN
It’s the war from hell, the savage one that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, along with seven other Middle Eastern and North African states, have been waging in Yemen since March 2015, with fulsome support from the Pentagon and American weapons galore. It’s got everything. Dead children in the dozens, a never-ending air campaign that pays scant heed to civilians, famine, cholera, you name it. No wonder it’s facing mounting criticism in Congress and from human rights groups. Still, ever since President Donald Trump (like Barack Obama before him) embraced the Saudi-led coalition as this country’s righteous knight errant in the Middle East, the fight against impoverished Yemen’s Houthi rebels -- who have, in turn, been typecast as Iran’s cats-paw -- has only grown fiercer. Meanwhile, the al-Qaeda affiliate there continues to expand. More
Shrapnel ties US bombs to civilian deaths
Last month, a CNN investigation found remnants of a US-made bomb at the scene of an airstrike that left dozens of schoolboys dead. Now, an independent Yemen-based human rights group called Mwatana has given CNN exclusive access to a trove of documents that show fragments of US-manufactured bombs at the scene of a string of other incidents since 2015, when the civil war began. In each of those cases, civilians were either killed or put at risk… The incidents give a snapshot of US involvement in Yemen’s conflict through its support for the Saudi-led coalition that is battling a Houthi-led rebel insurgency. The United States says it does not make targeting decisions for the coalition. But it does support its operations through billions of dollars in arms sales, the refueling of Saudi combat aircraft and some sharing of intelligence. More
How Congress Can End the War in Yemen
In November of last year, members of Congress, led by Representatives Ro Khanna (Democrat of California) and Mark Pocan (Democrat of Wisconsin), with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and joined by Walter Jones (Republican of North Carolina), and Thomas Massie (Republican of Kentucky), used the statute to try to force a vote on the war in Yemen. They didn’t get an up-or-down vote on the war, because of procedural manipulation by House leadership; but by a margin of 366 to 30, the House voted in an amended, compromise bill to recognize for the first time that the US was engaging in the war through its mid-air refueling and targeting assistance, and that this military participation was unauthorized. Then, in February of this year, Senators Bernie Sanders (Independent of Vermont), Mike Lee (Republican of Utah), and Chris Murphy (Democrat of Connecticut) used the War Powers Resolution for the first time to force a vote in the Senate. It lost by a margin of 55–44, but it was clear that Congress was closing in on the war. More
Code Pink issued a withering report on the Military-Industrial Complex and violence, especially in the Middle East:
WAR PROFITEERS: The U.S. War Machine and the Arming of Repressive Regimes
The current regime of U.S. arms exports is part of a deliberate strategy to outsource U.S. war- making, projecting military power through alliances with U.S.-armed client states as a substitute for direct U.S. military action. This minimizes both domestic opposition from a war-weary U.S. public and growing international resistance to the catastrophic results of U.S. wars, while U.S. military-industrial interests are well served by ever-growing arms sales to allied governments… For over a century, the U.S. has installed and supported dictators and absolute 
monarchs on every continent, trained their torturers and secret police, and made enemies of their downtrodden people. The harvest of these catastrophic U.S. policies still fills endless graveyards, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Central America to Korea and Vietnam… Saudi Arabia has the third largest military budget in the world, after only the U.S. and China, and is now using its “Made in the U.S.A.” war machine to bomb its neighbor, Yemen, into a humanitarian abyss that threatens millions of people with starvation, disease and death. More
Thursday, September 27: MEDEA BENJAMIN: Taking on the Military Industrial Complex, 7 PM – 9 PM, Cambridge Friends Center, 5 Longfellow Part (off Brattle St) Cambridge. Come hear one of the U.S.’ most prominent war analysts, anti-war speakers, and activists give us insight into ongoing U.S. wars and what we can do about them. Medea will focus in CODEPINK’s new strategy for stopping these wars focused on divestment from war contractors and the financial institutions that back them. This will also be the official “Launch” of the Massachusetts Raytheon anti-war campaign. Hear about our new strategy to oppose the Saudi-U.S. war in Yemen and U.S./Saudi/Israeli sanctions and threats of war against Iran.
Can the United States take yes for an answer?
Inter-Korean peace summit, Sept. 19, 2018, PyongyangOn September 19, the presidents of South Korea and North Korea adopted a military agreement to make the Korean peninsula nuclear-free. The North agreed to shut down a missile engine testing facility and launch pad, and if the US takes reciprocal measures, to permanently shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facility, where the North creates its plutonium, witnessed by international nuclear experts.The two leaders call for US-SK-NK declaration to end the Korean war by the end of the year, moving towards a permanent peace treaty. North Korea expects an action-for-action approach and it is now time for the US to step up and take the opportunity.President Trump will speak to the United Nations on September 25, followed by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the North Korean foreign minister later in the week. A South Korean peace delegation will hold a press conference at the UN on Sept. 25 at noon, followed by a panel discussion in New York in the evening.We will rally to call for the US to take the following steps:
Hyun LeeDon’t miss “Korea Reportback: Peace Talks Update by Hyun Lee“, Saturday, Oct. 13, 1pm, First Parish UU of Bedford
