EMERGENCY RALLY TO OPPOSE WAR IN KOREA
Friday, September 8
@ 5:15 pm - 6:15 pm - Park Street Station, Boston
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NO FIRE, NO FURY – CATASTROPHIC WAR IS NOT AN OPTION
Yes to Negotiations – No to Escalation
Join us to insist that the Trump administration begin direct negotiations with no preconditions in order to create the conditions that lead to a negotiated settlement based on the common security of all countries involved.
IN KOREA, WHO SHOULD REALY BE AFRAID?
Pyongyang, North Korea is 6000 miles from Los Angeles. But the US surrounds Korea with dozens of bases housing tens of thousands of US troop – never mind the much larger armed forces of US allies in the region. For decades the US maintained tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula, and today US naval and air forces around Korea deploy hundreds of nuclear weapons, with thousands more in the US which could hit North Korea. The US and South Korean armed forces regularly conductlarge joint military exercises which simulate, among other things, the invasion of North Korea. During the Korean War from 1951-53 US airpower nearly obliterated North Korea, killing an estimated 3 million people, mostly civilians; the US and South Korea were never willing to sign a peace agreement that left a North Korean government in power, so technically a state of war still exists.
Important historical background here: How History Explains the Korean Crisis and here: Ten Points on Korean History of Potential Current Relevance
Of course, it is always worrying when a new country achieves nuclear weapons capability. But the US has not threatened war against Israel, India or Pakistan. If the US were genuinely concerned about nuclear proliferation and the threat of a nuclear apocalypse, then it would have a better moral basis for opposing North Korean nuclear capabilities if it were willing, together with the other nuclear weapons powers, to support the UN Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty that has the overwhelming support of the world’s nations.
Who is Begging for War? The Poor Understanding of the American Conflict in North Korea
There is something unseemly about the fact that we – humans – have accepted the presence of thermonuclear bombs in the arsenals of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The hyperventilation of these five hydrogen bomb powers to the North Korean test would bewilder a normal person, a person who sees world affairs with an element of rationality. What makes it morally impossible for North Korea to have a dangerous weapon of this magnitude, while it is seen as perfectly acceptable for the quivering finger of Donald Trump to rest on the button of a US inter-continental ballistic missile that carries a hydrogen bomb? … You don’t need to understand Korean culture to see why the North Korean regime is obstinate to build up its nuclear shield. Unless the United States and its allies downgrade their threats against North Korea, there will be no possibility of peace in North-west Asia. Indeed, this no longer a regional struggle. The hydrogen bomb changes everything. This is a global catastrophe. It is necessary to demand the creation of a real process for peace, not belligerent talk from the UN chamber. More
Stepping Away from the Brink of Nuclear War
For Kim Yong Un to give up his nuclear weapons, while we keep ours and have announced that we intend to overthrow his regime, would be tantamount to his committing suicide. He may be evil, as many believe, but there is no reason to believe that he is a fool… Thus, there can be no “success,” as described in current policy statements by the Trump administration. But, arrangements can be created – by enlisting China and Russia as partners in negotiations and by renouncing threats and such damaging (and ineffective) policies as sanctions – to gradually create an atmosphere in which North Korea can be accepted as a partner in the nuclear “club.” …If the United States government should decide to try this option, I think the following steps will have to be taken to start negotiations: First, the U.S. government must accept the fact that North Korea is a nuclear power; Second, it must commit itself formally and irrevocably to a no-first-strike policy. That was the policy envisaged by the Founding Fathers when they denied the chief executive the power to initiate aggressive war; Third, it must remove sanctions on North Korea and begin to offer in a phased pattern aid to mitigate the current (and potentially future) famines caused by droughts and crop failures; helping North Korea to move toward prosperity, and reducing fear; and Fourth, stop issuing threats and drop the unproductive and provocative war games on the DMZ. More
When It Comes to the War in the Greater Middle East, Maybe We're the Bad Guys
Perhaps it’s time to ask whether the United States is really playing the role of the positive protagonist in a great global drama… Certainly, it’s not the side of the average Arab. That should be apparent. Take a good, hard look at the region and it’s obvious that Washington mainly supports the interests of Israel, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt’s military dictator, and various Gulf State autocracies. Or consider the actions and statements of the Trump administration and of the two administrations that preceded it and here’s what seems obvious: the United States is in many ways little more than an air force, military trainer, and weapons depot for assorted Sunni despots… After Israel, Egypt is the number two recipient of direct U.S. military aid, to the tune of $1.3 billion annually. And that bedrock of liberal values is led by U.S.-trained General Abdul el-Sisi, a strongman who seized power in a coup and then, just for good measure, had his army gun down a crowd demonstrating in favor of the deposed democratically elected president. More
The U.S. Is in Denial About the Civilians It’s Killing in Syria
The number of civilians killed by the U.S.-led coalition assault on the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria is mounting, but the coalition’s commanding general has cast doubt on the toll his forces are inflicting on innocents there. The monitoring group Airwars currently assesses that 1,700 or more civilians have likely been killed by U.S.-led air and artillery strikes in Raqqa governorate since March. A minimum of 860 civilians, including 150 children, are credibly reported to have been killed in Raqqa since the official start of operations to capture the city on June 6. Despite these findings and corroborating evidence from U.N. bodies and nongovernmental organizations, Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend has described reports of large-scale civilian death as hyperbole. In one instance, the general prematurely called allegations not credible even before the coalition had completed its own investigation. More
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