VFPeNews: End this Endless War! Veterans For Peace

VFPeNews: End this Endless War!

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	Friday, October 5th End this Endless War Veterans For Peace was is in front of the White House this week demanding an end to the Afghanistan War. This year marks 17 years since the U.S. has been waging war on Afghanistan. Members of VFP joined with CodePink and World Beyond War for a demonstration at the White House.  VFP members also Matt Hoh and Ann Wright joined a panel discussion on #Afghanistan with David Swanson, Liz Remmerswaal, Brian Terrell and Hoor Arifi.  Click here to see video Check out this recent piece from Advisory Board member David Swanson: 17 Years of Getting Afghanistan Completely Wrong Back to Top Presidio 27 "Mutiny at the Stockade" 50 Year Anniversary Commemoration The Presidio 27 "Mutiny", a pivotal moment in the GI Movement against the Viet Nam War, occurred 50 years this October 14th. On Saturday Oct. 13 and Sunday Oct. 14, there will be a conference to mark this historic event, and, hopefully, put it in both its historical context and its lessons for today. The Saturday, October 13 Forum will be from 7 to 9:30 pm at the Presidio Officers' Club, 50 Moraga Avenue, The Presidio, San Francisco On October 14, 1968, 50 years ago, 27 inmates in the Presidio Stockade staged a peaceful sit-down protest to call attention to the treatment of fellow prisoners and the conditions inside, and for that action were tried for mutiny. A panel discussion followed by audience Q&A, will dive deeper into the history of the Presidio 27 and their contemporary relevance. Find out more, including some history! Back to Top BAP Calls on U.S. Government to Shut Down U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) has launched U.S. Out of Africa!: Shut Down AFRICOM, a campaign designed to end the U.S. invasion and occupation of Africa. October 1st marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of AFRICOM, short for U.S. Africa Command. Sign the Petition: "Therefore, we, the Undersigned, join Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) in its demand that AFRICOM be immediately dismantled. We say that AFRICOM is an integral part of the military industrial complex, that we oppose an embodiment of U.S. imperialism, and it is therefore a great danger to the people of Africa and the world." Sign the Petition Back to Top Armistice Day T-Shirts! Veterans For Peace has created a special commemorative t-shirt for the 100th Anniversary of Amristice Day! T-Shirt is a crew neck style shirt, available in the following colors choices: White or Asphalt Gray.  The front of the shirt has the "Reclaim Armistice Day" image.  The back of the shirt has the saying:  "IF YOU WANT TO THANK ME FOR MY SERVICE, WORK FOR PEACE.  100th Anniversary  VETERANSFORPEACE.ORG" Order Now! Back to Top VFP Documentary Will Air at Witness Palestine Film Festival Chris Smiley accompanied the Veteran Peace Team to Palestine and created a documentary on VFP's time in Palestine.  "This film follows a number of U.S. Veterans who spend time with Ahed Tamimi and experience the ruthless brutality Palestinians endure and the steadfastness of the Palestinians in the face of guns, tear gas, racism, and their refusal to be drawn into it. They continue to strive for non-violent resistance." The festival, Witness Palestine, will air "Veterans For Peace in Palestine" in Rochester, New York on October 29th. To see a "First Look" Version that Chris released a year ago, click here! Back to Top The Sanctuary: Brian Trautman VFP Board Member, Brian Trautman was a guest this week on The Sanctuary for Independent Media's Peace Bucket program (Hudson Mohawk Magazine - WOOC 105.3 FM). He discussed the mission & work of Veterans For Peace as well as his role with VFP -- as a board member & new president of the VFP Tom Paine Chapter (Albany, NY). Click here to Listen! Back to Top Dismantling Colonialism in the U.S. Veterans Peace/Anti-War Movement Thursday,  October 11th 5 P.M. PST/7 P.M. CST/ 8 P.M EST Colonialism shows up in all our movements.  Confused about what it is?  How it shows up? Join VFP Board member Monisha Rios as she examines the relationship between militarism and colonialism and critically looks how it manifests itself in the U.S. Peace movement and ways it shows up within Veterans For Peace. This will be a conversation style, interactive workshop with some presentation.  Veterans For Peace sees this work as consistent and ongoing so join us as we continue to learn together.  The conversation will be held on Zoom, so you must have a computer with video, audio capability and internet. Due to space requirements, only VFP members will be accepted.  To join VFP, click here! Fill out this form to RSVP and call in information will be emailed to you! Back to Top Definition of Political Incest by Mike Hastie When a government uses its own military troops as sacrificial pawns in a time of war for the sole purpose of reaping the spoils of economic expansion. This deceit is always cloaked in the frenzy of patriotism and moral high ground. It is the ultimate form of betrayal by one's own government for the cause of nationalistic war profiteering and global dominance. It has absolutely nothing to do with freedom and democracy. Soldiers are emotionally raped for the cause of profit for the Corporate Fatherland. Read more		In This Issue: End this Endless War Indigenous People's Day Presidio 27 "Mutiny at the Stockade" 50 Year Anniversary Commemoration Reclaiming Armistice Day: A Day to Perpetuate Peace Golden Rule: Bon Voyage Party! BAP Calls on U.S. Government to Shut Down U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) Monisha Rios on Military Sexual Trauma Armistice Day T-Shirts! Ann Wright Confronts General Petraeus VFP Documentary Will Air at Witness Palestine Film Festival Save Our VA Action Team Outreach at Manhattan VA The Sanctuary: Brian Trautman Keep Space for Peace Week Dismantling Colonialism in the U.S. Veterans Peace/Anti-War Movement Upcoming Events Indigenous People's Day Monday is Indigenous People's Day. "Veterans For Peace believes that the federal holiday commemorating the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the “New World” is an affront to Indigenous peoples everywhere and particularly to native peoples of the Americas. We denounce the celebration of a person who carried out mass killings and genocidal acts against Indigenous peoples and paved the way for European colonization of native lands and enslavement of native peoples. We recognize that the annual observance of Columbus Day here at home and our continued wars and occupations abroad are rooted in racism, xenophobia and militarism. Our mission of Peace at Home, Peace Abroad includes the commitment to seek justice for all victims of violence and war. Accordingly, we urge our government to no longer honor a person who committed atrocities." Read the Entire Statement Back to Top Reclaiming Armistice Day: A Day to Perpetuate Peace Camillo Mac Bica writes of Armistice Day, "As a veteran, I will not be misled and victimized once more by the militarists and war profiteers." A brief excerpt: "Tragically, not only has Eisenhower’s warnings been ignored, but changing the designation of Armistice Day to Veterans Day, has provided the militarists and war profiteers the means and the opportunity, not to “reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace” as was originally intended in his Proclamation, but to celebrate and promote militarism and war, fabricate and perpetuate its mythology of honor and nobility, misrepresent members of the military and veterans as heroes, and encourage the enlistment of the cannon fodder for future wars for profit." Read more Back to Top Golden Rule: Bon Voyage Party! The Veterans For Peace Golden Rule Anti-Nuclear Sailboat will leave San Diego on Monday, October 15 (weather permitting), for a 3-year voyage around the Pacific! Please come to the Bon Voyage party on October 14 from 2 to 4 pm at Grassroots Oasis, 3130 Moore Street, San Diego (off of Rosecrans near Old Town). If you are unable to attend, please consider a gift! Thanks to all of you for your fantastic support, and for becoming part of the Golden Rule family! "Making Waves: the Rebirth of the Golden Rule" is the recipient of the 2018 Guam International Film Festival Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Short! Congratulations to the VFP Golden Rule Project and Seamus Knight, the film maker, and Wendy Rogan, the producer! Back to Top Monisha Rios on Military Sexual Trauma Board Member Monisha Rios has a long history of organizing around MST and some of the work she's done is still incredibly relevant today.  Here's an interview from 2015 where she delves in the problems within the VA. "Two whistleblowers speak out about sexual assault and harassment in Veterans Administration hospitals, saying these offenses are pervasive in the VA system. And a Human Rights Watch investigator provides an update about forthcoming HRW reports on the problem. Monisha Rios is a social worker and veterans’ advocate; “Lisa” is a current VA patient who requested anonymity. Both are Army veterans. Sara Dareshori is a researcher at Human Rights Watch." Listen Here Back to Top Ann Wright Confronts General Petraeus VFP member COL Ann Wright was recentIy in Washington D.C.  While there she spotted retired US Army General Petraeus!  So she immediately seized the opportunity! "I spotted retired US Army General Petraeus as he walked through the atrium of the Hart Senate building I stopped him saying I’m a retired Army colonel. He said, oh thank you for your service. (1st photo) Check out Ann's Full Interaction Back to Top Save Our VA Action Team Outreach at Manhattan VA Skip Delano sent in this note about the New York City Save Our VA Action Team: "After months of educating ourselves about the VA and privatization, we finally decided to sponsor a Save Our VA Town Hall on November 29 with Suzanne Gordon as our featured speaker. We printed up a thousand flyers and had a successful tabling activity at the Manhattan VA Thursday from 12-5 PM. We distributed around 700 flyers, with most of the veterans taking flyers and maybe 25% of the staff. Many commented that they too opposed privatization. We collected $65 in donations and more than 40 people signed up for future SOVA emailings. We plan to table again at the Manhattan VA next week and will continue reaching out there to build for the Town Hall in November." Read more about the upcoming Town Hall! Back to Top Keep Space for Peace Week Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space is planning their International Week of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space for Oct. 6-13th. They now have a list of actions up and encourage you to take action in your local community!  Check out this list of actions, resources and contact information Back to Top Save the Dates: Upcoming Event Oct 6-13 - Keep Space For Peace Week Oct 13-14 - Presidio 27 "Mutiny at the Stockade" 50 Year Anniversary Commemoration Oct 20-21 - Women's March on the Pentagon Nov 11 - Armistice Day Nov 16-18 - 2018 SOA Watch Encuentro Nov 16-18 - International Conference Against U.S./NATO Military Bases in Dublin, Ireland Nov 27-29 - International Youth Conference: Reaching High for a Nuclear Weapon Free World, Prague, Czech Republic Back to Top

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A View From The Left -WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

 

Today, Friday, October 5

EMERGENCY PROTEST:

BOSTON SAYS STOP KAVANAUGH!

Massachusetts State House

The Senate is closing in on a final vote for Kavanaugh's appointment. The only thing that can stop him is mass action and demonstrations across the country saying loud and clear WE WON'T STAND FOR THIS!  We will rally at the State House downtown and then march to the Boston Courthouse for a final rally. Tell all your friends, coworkers, and family!
Let's show the Senate that #MeToo and the women's movement is a force to be reckoned with.

 

Presumption of Innocence Is for Privileged Men Like Brett Kavanaugh, Not for Young Men of Color

Since the hearings, Republicans have rushed to explain and defend Kavanaugh’s furious testimony, framing his rage as the rational response of an innocent man falsely accused. Some conservatives have even abdicated the pretense of Kavanaugh’s innocence, writing articles arguing that “Kavanaugh should be confirmed to the Supreme Court even if he’s guilty.” The standard by which we should judge Kavanaugh, they seem to say, is beyond guilt or innocence. It’s something more. It’s beyond credibility. He’s literally beyond a reasonable doubt…  How horrible is it for one extremely powerful man to be barred from ascending to an even higher, more influential position — at least while a credible claim of assault is investigated? Is it more horrible than condemning five minors to death without due process, 11 days after their arrest? A concern for “due process” was no bar against Trump’s public ire then…  Trump finds it unconscionable that Kavanaugh — raised in a wealthy family, sent to a prestigious prep school, admitted to Yale as a legacy student, plucked to sit on the second most powerful court in the land (without ever having spent a day as a judge), and now nominated to the Supreme Court — might not get exactly what he wants.   More

 

BRETT KAVANAUGH AS A SYMBOL OF WHITE GRIEVANCE

The political fight over whether to seat Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court -- a man who has been accused of sexual assault and was nominated by a man who has bragged about sexual assault -- seems, to most people anyway, to be a fight primarily about gender. But if you flip on Fox News these days, you would think this battle is largely about race, and that white men are being subject to false rape allegations to perpetuate some kind of anti-white oppression — an inverse of the way false rape accusations were used as pretext for lynching black men in the late 19th and early 20th centuries…  To be clear, there's no doubt that race — as well as class, education, wealth and family connections — has always been a part of this story. Many commentators have written and discussed the way that Kavanaugh's life growing up surrounded by immense privilege shielded him from all sorts of consequences for misbehavior. But that makes the race angle Fox is peddling even harder to swallow, since the kind of privilege that Kavanaugh enjoyed is rare even among white men, only a handful of whom are positioned to attend fancy prep schools and gain legacy admission to an Ivy League college.   More

 

Judge blocks Trump’s efforts to end Temporary Protected Status for 300,000 immigrants

On Wednesday night, a federal judge in California put a hold on the administration’s plans to stop renewing the legal status of 300,000 people living in the US from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.  All four countries were set to lose Temporary Protected Status over the next year — meaning that immigrants who’d lived in the US for years and often decades would be forced to leave or risk deportation. The more than 1,000 Sudanese living in the US with TPS, for example, were set to lose their legal status on November 5, 2019 — barely a month from the ruling granting them a reprieve…  At some point, it’s likely that the TPS case will make its way to the Supreme Court, where the administration will likely prevail — if it has appointed a conservative justice by then. In the meantime, the TPS holders who were forced to make plans to leave the country or slink into the shadows after decades in the US now have some hope they’ll be able to stay — but even less certainty about how long that will be.   More

 

 

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NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong

 

As Isis is defeated, the Trump administration targets Iran

The exaggeration of “the Iranian threat” by the Trump administration this week at the UN General Assembly in New York was very like what was being said about Iraq fifteen years earlier. The National Security Advisor John Bolton threatened that “the murderous regime and its supporters will face significant consequences if they do not change their behaviour. We are watching, and we will come after you.” The US military intervention in Syria, previously targeting Isis, will in future be directed against Iranian influence. US policy in Syria and Iraq has been likened to playing chess while mistaking the knight for the bishop and thinking that castles move diagonally. The US has decided to retain a military force in northeast Syria in order to thwart Iranian ambitions, but the country most affected by this is not Iran but Turkey. The US can only stay in this part of Syria in alliance with the Syrian Kurds, whose de facto state, which they call Rojava, Turkey is pledged to eliminate.   More

 

TRUMP’S MARCH TO WAR WITH IRAN

There is a very real possibility that Donald Trump will start a new war in the Middle East. If that’s not his intention, then his administration is doing a damn good job of faking it…  War would not in any conceivable scenario lead to the establishment of a popular, democratic, and pro-Western government in Iran. With war would come chaos…  On October 3, Bolton commandeered the White House podium to announce that the administration is cutting diplomatic ties even further. The United States has terminated, he said, the 1955 Treaty of Amity—a basic diplomatic accord that regulates economic and consular ties between America and Iran…  The day Trump abandoned the Iran anti-nuclear accord, Bolton signaled that “what comes next” would be “a much broader resolution of the malign behavior that we see from Iran.” He quickly established an Iran Action Group to coordinate activities across agencies. The operation appears modeled on the White House Iraq Group created by the Bush administration to sell the public on the invasion of Iraq.   More

 

How the Tentacles of the U.S. Military Are Strangling the Planet

The United States military has a staggering 883 military bases in 183 countries. In contrast, Russia has 10 such bases—8 of them in the former USSR. China has one overseas military base. There is no country with a military footprint that replicates that of the United States. The U.S. bases in Japan are only a small part of the massive infrastructure that allows the U.S. military to be hours away from armed action against any part of the planet.  There is no proposal to downsize the U.S. military footprint. In fact, there are only plans to increase it. The United States has long sought to build a base in Poland, whose government now courts the White House with the proposal that it be named Fort Trump. Currently, there are U.S.-NATO military bases in Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria with U.S.-NATO troops deployments in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania…  In mid-November, in Dublin, Ireland, a coalition of organizations from around the world will hold the First International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases. This conference is part of the newly formed Global Campaign Against US/NATO Military Bases.   More

 

Erik Prince, in Kabul, pushes privatization of the Afghan war

More than a year after his plan to privatize the Afghan war was first shot down by the Trump ­administration, Erik Prince returned late last month to Kabul to push the proposal on the beleaguered government in Afghanistan, where many believe he has the ear — and the potential backing — of the U.S. president.  Prince swept through the capital, meeting with influential political figures within and outside the administration of President Ashraf Ghani. “He’s winning Afghans over with the assumption that he’s close to Trump,” said one well-informed Afghan, adding that many of Prince’s ideas feed into frustration with and within the Afghan military, particularly given its high casualty rate. But Prince also sparked what Ghani, in a statement Thursday, condemned as “a debate” within the country over “adding new foreign and unaccountable elements to our fight.”  “Under no circumstances,” the statement said, will Afghanistan “allow the counterterrorism fight to become a private, for-profit business.”   More

 

THE SAUDI LOBBY JUGGERNAUT AND THE US WAR IN YEMEN

It was May 2017. The Saudis were growing increasingly nervous. For more than two years they had been relying heavily on U.S. military support and bombs to defeat Houthi rebels in Yemen. Now, the Senate was considering a bipartisan resolution to cut off military aid and halt a big sale of American-made bombs to Saudi Arabia. Fortunately for them, despite mounting evidence that the U.S.-backed, supplied, and fueled air campaign in Yemen was targeting civilians, the Saudi government turned out to have just the weapon needed to keep those bombs and other kinds of aid coming their way: an army of lobbyists.  That year, their forces in Washington included members of more than two dozen lobbying and public relations firms…   Fast forward to late 2018 and that very same lobby is now fighting vigorously to defeat a House measure that would end U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen. They’re flooding congressional offices with their requests, in effect asking Congress to ignore the more than 10,000 civilians who have died in Yemen, the U.S. bombs that have been the cause of many of those deaths, and a civil war that has led to a resurgence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.   More

Call on Congress to take action today to end the U.S. supported attack on Yemen and prevent war with Iran.