Sunday, August 31, 2014

Reply To : peaceact@reply.salsalabs.com
Thu, Aug 28, 2014 01:58 PM
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Dear Al,
Moving from conflict to conflict in the Middle East, trying to keep up with the politics and players involved, the unrelenting violence, the rising death toll and refugee crisis, is as difficult as it is depressing. 
There is one common thread however – from Gaza to Syria to Iraq to Egypt to Libya to Afghanistan -- U.S. military intervention and an ever-ready supply of U.S weapons pouring into the region make matters worse.
U.S. weapons provided to the Iraqi Army are now in the hands of extremists who are close to tearing the country apart.  The success of the extremist offensive has led them to declare themselves the Islamic State, stretching into Syria where they have been fighting to overthrow the Assad government alongside other rebels being vetted by the U.S. to see who is worthy of receiving yet more U.S. weapons transfers, just what the region doesn’t need.
The U.S. leads the world in weapons sales. That includes the sale of weapons to undemocratic regimes and nations on the U.S. State Department's list of human rights abusers. Tell Congress and the President it's time to stop selling weapons to dictators and governments that turn U.S. weapons on civilian populations.
We need a new foreign policy, one that reflects America's values and goodwill, one that relies more on patient diplomacy and humanitarian assistance and far less on weapons and war.


Humbly for Peace,
Kevin Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action
P.S. - Now, faced with war raging in the Middle East, a region awash in U.S. weapons, it is time again to push Congress and the Obama administration to end the practice of arming dictators and human rights abusers.

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