SIGN THE PETITION TO CONGRESS President Obama has decided to send more than 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, at a cost of more than $100 billion/year. But America cannot afford a war that does not make us safer, and Congress has the power to stop the escalation. Vote NO on any spending bill that would send more troops to Afghanistan.
Sign the petition

In response to President Obama's pending announcement of a major troop escalation in Afghanistan, Peace Activist, Cindy Sheehan, and other major anti-war groups and activists are announcing the formation of a new Peace Coalition that will seek to actively obstruct "business as usual" in Washington, DC, until Congress and the administration announce troop withdrawals from Iraq/Af-Pak.

"We've marched, we've signed letters and petitions, helped get candidates elected and called Congress and the White House, until we're literally blue in the face, and peace is even more elusive now then it was when Bush was president. I believe so strongly in peace and justice for all that I am, once again, uprooting my life, this time to move to our nation's capital until true change occurs. I am calling on people who love humanity and peace to join me in Peace of the Action, " Sheehan said from her California home.

The Coalition's demands are simple:

Troops, drone bombers, and mercenary contractors out of Iraq/Af-Pak and close permanent bases and give the people of Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan any reparations/help rebuilding their nations that they need.
During a televised football game on Sunday, an announcer welcomed the members of the U.S. military viewing the game in 177 nations around the world. When the news came on, the topic was the same one it's been for weeks, speculation as to whether and how much a single individual will escalate war by sending tens of thousands of additional troops to nation number 177, Afghanistan.

Somehow it remains eternally controversial to mention the imperial presidency. Yet the positions on Afghanistan in the United States are limited to "The President should escalate the war," "The President should not escalate the war," and "The President should do whatever he wants." Some people have other things to say on the topic, but almost nobody refuses to hold one of those three positions.

Canwest Global Communications Inc. is owned by the Asper family, with Leonard Asper its current CEO. The corporation is decidedly pro-Israel and frequently has news articles on television or in the daily newspapers that give strong support to Israel. A current article in the Vancouver Sun follows the tired and true formula of blaming the Palestinians for the problems that afflict the Palestinian people, the old victim as perpetrator rhetoric that is so prevalent with all occupying powers.

An underlying conceit of the new spin about benchmarks and timetables for Afghanistan is the notion that pivotal events there can be choreographed from Washington. So, a day ahead of the president’s Dec. 1 speech at West Point, the New York Times quoted an unnamed top administration official saying: “He wants to give a clear sense of both the time frame for action and how the war will eventually wind down.”

But “eventually” is a long way off. In the meantime, the result of Washington’s hollow politics is more carnage.

The next days and weeks will bring an avalanche of hype about insisting on measurable progress and shifting burdens onto the Afghan army -- while the U.S. military expands the war. In the groove, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed, told CNN viewers on Nov. 29: “The key element here is not just more troops. The key element is shifting the operations to the Afghanis [sic]. And if that can be done, then I would support the president.”

Tonight at 8pm EST President Barack Obama is set to announce his commitment to the worst blunder in US policy since Lyndon Johnson escalated the Vietnam War.

That was in March, 1965. Johnson's escalation was generally unnoticed and went largely unopposed---for a while. The nation was still reeling from the 1963 murder of President John F. Kennedy, and still cruising on LBJ's commitment to a Great Society that was to bring advances in Civil Rights, Medicare, a War on Poverty and much more.

Few imagined at the time that LBJ's tragic mistake would surround those programs with poisonous wreckage. The Vietnam disaster stabbed deep into the soul of what was then the richest and most powerful nation the world had ever seen. In many ways we have never recovered.

But hopefully we've learned a thing or two.

There were, to be sure, draft card burnings by a prescient few. There were rumblings in the Congress. There were those who knew the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” on which LBJ's war powers had been based was a complete deception.

IT'S EASY TO HELP WITH PAYROLL GIVING CAMPAIGNS! Connect to your community through payroll contributions made directly from your paycheck. 2009 Workplace Campaigns are underway!

YOUR DONATION WILL HELP PROVIDE STABLE FUNDING FOR LOCAL NON-PROFITS TODAY! For over 15 years, Community Shares of Mid Ohio has participated in workplace giving campaigns that provide vital and stable financial support for our non-profit member charities. Working together, we will defend human and civil rights, feed the hungry, build affordable housing, prevent family, youth, school and neighborhood violence, preserve the environment, and increase health, safety, education, social justice and democracy in our community.

The Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism, publishers of the Free Press, has been a member of COSMO since 1993 - please give to us!

Get dates and details here or learn how you can start a campaign at your workplace!
Greenville, SC -- Two protesters locked themselves to the 1.5 million pound generator destined for Duke Energy’s Cliffside coal plant in Rutherford County, North Carolina. Protesters are vowing to prevent the generator, which has been traveling across South Carolina on a 300 foot trailer, from reaching the coal plant. “Our nation has no choice, we must stop burning coal. The only choice that we can make is whether we do that in time to still have breathable air, drinkable water, a livable climate, and standing mountains,” said, Catherine Anne. Protesters also draped a large banner from the top of the generator reading, “Stop Cliffside.” After blocking the shipment for about an hour, four people were arrested including the two who were locked down. Their names are: Julia Allen Page, Paul Webb Loomis, Catherine Ann MacDougal, and Rachel Anne Scarano.

The Afghan War may now doom our ability both to cope with the global climate crisis and to fairly deliver health care in this country.

If Barack Obama announces an escalation, Copenhagen and the Climate Bill will become meaningless. And the prospects for a single-payer health care system or even a token public option will disappear.

At 11pm Tuesday, December 1---after Obama's speech---we in central Ohio will gather at the Federal Building to either celebrate Obama’s courageous decision against escalation, or to inaugurate what will certainly be hard years of bitter civil struggle against yet another senseless war. Freepress.org, Solartopia.org and other peace, green and social justice organizations ask others around the world to consider joining us in your own home towns.

If there is no escalation, we can celebrate a small step forward in Copenhagen, where Obama has said he will join with Chinese leadership in a 17% reduction in carbon emissions. Joining with the Chinese in setting ANY target is good global politics.

But this is nowhere near enough. Nor is it anywhere near what’s possible.

Pages

Subscribe to ColumbusFreePress.com  RSS