It seems like a lost cause. A recent Gallop poll shows a large increase in anti-war sentiment. CNN reports two thirds of Americans oppose the war in Afghanistan. Yet there is no end in sight to the Afghanistan war. It is being compared to Vietnam by some very prominent people like Congressman Ron Paul and Col. Andrew Bacevich (video below), as well as many not so prominent but knowledgeable people, like most veterans (see the Winter Soldiers.
This is another Vietnam. We can win nothing. It will cost immensely in lives and money, and the return will be less than nothing (ref. The Three Trillion Dollar War by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Blimes - read it). We will be left with tens of thousands of veterans facing lifetimes of disability, poor health, lost limbs and suffering families. These wars are simply made to profit the corporations who benefit from them, as usual. The Iraq war too continues will no commitment to get out of there, despite the fact that our presence there is an illegal racist genocide. But there are things you can do to stop these wars.
Why?
These wars persist because most people are not aware of the reality of what is going on. Most people believe the political rhetoric and corporate media propaganda that these wars are protecting America from terrorists like the ones who committed the 9-11 attacks. The facts are that these wars endanger our freedom more and more with every day. They continually commit genocide against innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan. This motivates more and more people to join anti-American insurgencies. There are now more terrorists than ever. The military plays the facts down. They censor all media reports and photographs. Only a very few get through. The media reports that do get through are watered down. If you want to know the truth of what is going on, listen to the veterans who have been there and who have experienced the horror.
You can Stop War
You can stop war by listening to veterans. Post links to their websites and videos on your websites, and on your social networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, NewsTrust. If you aren't familiar with these web services and social networks, go to their websites and sign up. Usually all you need is a username, password and email address. once you have accounts on these sites, post links to any stories you find, any video clips of veterans speaking out, any pictures of the truth about what goes on in these wars. Join our project, The Stop War Project, a Ning network. Post your pictures, videos, or blogs about war, on this or any other network. Tell the world your opinions. Post videos from YouTube or anywhere else you find them. Let your friends know. All of these social networks have a feature to let you add friends. all you need is their email address, or if they are already on those networks just invite them to the cause. Use those features to invite all your friends, relatives and contacts to join up, or at least read about the truth. Visit the many veterans against war websites. You will be amazed at how many veterans and honorable military organizations opposed these lawless genocidal wars. Have a problem with the term genocide? Read how the people who know this term best define it, The Holocaust Museum. If you have any problems with any of this, we are here to help. Post a comment here or let us know. We'll put up a tutorial or respond with detailed information. You can also find help on the web. All of these websites have extensive help documentation and even help lines. If we must live with these wars then we should face up to what we are paying for. Americans should admit their country is a racist genocidal warmongering nation. Write your Congressman and tell them what you think. Many of these veteran and anti-war organizations have mailing lists and will keep you informed of opportunities to write your Congressman or to participate in other ant-war activities. Join them.
A Racist America
Do you think America is not racist? Do the police in our cities drop bombs on neighborhoods where there are gangs, who commit domestic terrorism by killing people in the streets? Do we wipe out entire neighborhoods of innocent people just to get to a few terrorists? No. So why do we do that in other countries? Ask a veteran. They don't understand it either. I think the reason is because they are not Americans. They are not white. They are not Christians, and we are a racist nation. So our leaders have no problem with racist preemptive genocide. If you disagree, then get into the fray. Make your arguments. Compare what you have to say with what veterans who have been there say. Read the books and watch the movies that reveal the truth. Link to them on your social networks and pass them on to al your friends. This is what you can do to stop war.
Social Web Networks and Services:
Facebook - Network with family, friends, acquaintances. Join or create groups. Post links, pictures, and video. Link up with other networks.
Twitter - Post 140 character messages with a link. Follow others Twitterers. MySpace- Network with family, friends, acquaintances. Join or create groups. Post blogs, links, pictures,music, and video.
Digg - Post links to news items on the web. Vote and comment on other Digg posts.
NewsTrust - Submit your review of news stories on the web. Review other posted stories. Review other reviews.
Delicious - Post bookmarks to favorite web links and news items. Make feeds of your links based on keywords you assign.
Flickr -post pictures. Join groups. Make contacts. Look at pictures. Make photo albums like ours. Blogger - Create you own blog website for free. Includes free hosting and many gadgets and widgets, like feeds, blog editor, layout, and themes.
Wordpress - Create you own blog website for free (like this one). Does not include hosting but is easy to setup on your website. Includes many gadgets and widgets, like feeds, blog editor, layout, and themes.
Ning - Create your own free social network, with picture albums, video, music, and many gadgets
Current.com - News video/documentary website. Upload your video. Post news limks.
Rethink Afghanistan - Documentary film and website and
Iraq for Sale - Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.
Winter Soldier - Veterans' testimonials to the truth about war
Sir! No Sir! - A documentary about the suppressed Vietnam War documentary film, FTA, about Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland's anti-war tour among the troops.
FTA (a.k.a Free the Army, a.k.a Fuck the Army) - A documentary of Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland's anti-war tour among the troops.
Standard Operating Procedure - Errol Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Democracy Now! - A daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 750 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S.
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An Army sergeant who served in Iraq for 15 months has been restricted to his Washington military base after being accused of waterboarding his 4-year-old daughter because she refused to recite her ABCs.Joshua Ryan Tabor, 27, was arrested on Jan. 31 and charged with assaulting a child after police in Yelm, Wash., responded to a call of a disturbance at Tabor […]
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The United States of America was founded as a racist, sexist, classicist, bigoted nation. From the start, our government only recognized wealthy white male landowners as having a voice in government. Yet their words in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution declared all “men” as equal.
We have since come to reconcile this inherent bigotry by giving minorities and women the rights to vote and to fair treatment under the law. We did not reconcile this by changing the words of the Constitution to specify that only wealthy white landowners have a say in government or deserve special treatment. Yet throughout history and even today, the tradition of sexist, racist, classicist bigotry is alive a well and very much practiced by those who effectively run our government.
In every war we engage in, it is standard practice to dehumanize the “enemy” by labeling them as “kraut”, “gook”, or “hodgie”. We consider all the people of the nations we go to war with as less than human. This is our rationalization for killing millions of innocent people in our wars. We don’t even bother to count the innocent dead that we kill.
But this is not uniquely an American trait. America does not, in effect, harbor some special quality of democracy and justice that our govrnment likes to have us sing about. All countries who wage war use these tactics of dehumanization and bigoted propaganda to justify wars that are truly crimes against all humanity. If they did not do this they could not wage wars. They would have to have a more civilized way to bring those to justice who they consider criminals.
Within our own boarders we don’t bomb entire neighborhoods, killing hundreds of innocent people, when we seek to bring justice to criminals.
In the information age with instant communication around the world it becomes harder to cover up the dehumanization and mass killings of innocent people because of their race or nationality (which is, by definition, genocide) and the bigoted propaganda that is meant to cover it up. The people of the world are onto these practices. The jig is up.
NeilM
I don't believe that these practices have been solely designated to the United States throughout history. It is common place for large governments that inflict their own will on the world and feed the public false truths to fuel the racism, hate and indifference. You say "We" in error, considering that the government is out of control and the actions of the government do not necessarily reflect the wants of the people. The big corporations and big media/news reflect the views of the corrupt bankers that feed the propaganda machine to keep the uneducated masses believing the lies about the war in Afghanistan and accepting what the U.S. military does. The United States has the potential to be a safe haven of diversity, however, when the bankers control all, they have to keep the people uneducated and fighting amongst themselves so they can continue their globalization. I, as an American citizen refuse to take credit for what my uncontrollable government has done. I will not feel as though I am at fault for this. I am well educated and I educate those around me. America is a place of diverse cultures AND thought. Instead of writing a piece just blaming the American people as a whole, maybe it's time to educate them about the powers that be that are tarnishing our individual reputations. THAT is how we make a change, not blame without solution.
NeilM
I don't believe that these practices have been solely designated to the United States throughout history. It is common place for large governments that inflict their own will on the world and feed the public false truths to fuel the racism, hate and indifference. You say "We" in error, considering that the government is out of control and the actions of the government do not necessarily reflect the wants of the people. The big corporations and big media/news reflect the views of the corrupt bankers that feed the propaganda machine to keep the uneducated masses believing the lies about the war in Afghanistan and accepting what the U.S. military does. The United States has the potential to be a safe haven of diversity, however, when the bankers control all, they have to keep the people uneducated and fighting amongst themselves so they can continue their globalization. I, as an American citizen refuse to take credit for what my uncontrollable government has done. I will not feel as though I am at fault for this. I am well educated and I educate those around me. America is a place of diverse cultures AND thought. Instead of writing a piece just blaming the American people as a whole, maybe it's time to educate them about the powers that be that are tarnishing our individual reputations. THAT is how we make a change, not blame without solution.
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Genocide is a term created during the Holocaust and declared an international crime in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
- Killing members of the group.
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The specific "intent to destroy" particular groups is unique to genocide. A closely related category of international law, crimes against humanity, is defined as widespread or systematic attacks against civilians
March 13, 2008: As hundreds of veterans and over a thousand supporters gather just outside Washington, DC for three days of testimony, the pressure is high and questions intense. How is the testimony verified? What will people think of veterans and soldiers for being here? What good will this do? Without hesitation Geoff Millard (US Army National Guard), Ste […]
Courage to Resist received funding to bring together community members, veterans and military families in support of GI resistance and counter-recruitment efforts. “We are very excited to have received this grant from RESIST,” noted Courage to Resist project director Jeff Paterson. “These types of grants make up less than 20% of our budget, yet are extremely […]
CCCO is an independent, non-profit organization funded primarily by voluntary, tax-deductible contributions. Because of the nature of our work, it is difficult for us to obtain support from large foundations or corporations. Not surprisingly, none of our money comes from the government. […]
The Center on Conscience & War (CCW), formerly the National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors (NISBCO), was formed in 1940 by an association of religious bodies. CCW works to defend and extend the rights of conscientious objectors. The Center is committed to supporting all those who question participation in war, whether they are U […]
Veterans for America is an advocacy and humanitarian organization. The primary mission of VFA is to ensure that our country meets the needs of servicemembers and veterans who have served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). VFA focuses specifically on the signature wounds these conflicts: psychological traumas and traumatic […]
Operation Homefront is an effort driven by Lt. Governor Pat Quinn to create a resource library dedicated to the service men and women from the Land of Lincoln, their families, and the citizens and organizations that support them. […]
Veterans For Peace is a national organization founded in 1985. It is structured around a national office in Saint Louis, MO and comprised of members across the country organized in chapters or as at-large members. There is an annual convention each year attended by our members, families and supporters from across the nation. Members receive periodic VFP publ […]
"The Honor System as a feature of West Point seems to grow in importance with a graduate as the years secede until finally it becomes something which he is almost reluctant to talk about -- it occupies a position in his mind akin to the virtue of his mother or his sister." Dwight D. Eisenhower […]
The horrible, honest reality of the American occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan like you haven’t heard it before. Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, features testimony from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground. […]
It all started in 1967, with six Vietnam veterans marching together in a peace demonstration. Now, forty-two years later, VVAW is still going strong-- continuing its fight for peace, justice, and the rights of all veterans. […]
Create you own blog website for free. Does not include hosting but is easy to setup on your website. Includes many gadgets and widgets, like feeds, blog editor, layout, and themes. WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. […]
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? […]
