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<span id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e">
<p style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Many
good words here from David Swanson. On renaming the US'
longest war by far; the Good War story;</span></p>
</span><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">"</span><span
id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Ignorance
is the fuel for war like wood is the fuel for fire. Cut off the
supply of ignorance and war ends."; and:</span></span><span
id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e">
<p style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></p>
</span><br>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e">
<p style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">"I
asked [Jonathan Landay] about Bush </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5"
style="text-decoration:none">rejecting</a><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">
Taliban attempts to turn bin Laden</span></p>
</span><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">over
for a trial, and Landay declared that the Taliban never would have
done it [...]</span><span
id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e"></span><br>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e">
<p style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">but
he simply declared what had happened to have been impossible.
...</span></p>
</span><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">[T]hat
is not the reason that virtually no one in the United States knows
the</span><span
id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e"></span><br>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e">
<p style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">incident
ever happened -- and had been happening for years. The reason
is</span></p>
</span><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">related
to the reason USians (people from the nation of the United States</span><span
id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e"></span><br>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e">
<p style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">as
opposed to the continents of America) danced in the street
when</span></p>
</span><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">bin
Laden's death was announced: to have a good war, one must fight</span><span
id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e"></span><br>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e">
<p style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">an
evil subhuman force with which negotiation is impossible."</span></p>
</span>
<div class="moz-forward-container"><br>
<br>
-------- Original Message --------
<table class="moz-email-headers-table" border="0" cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Subject:
</th>
<td>[ufpj-activist] David Swanson: "War is So 2014!"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Sat, 3 Jan 2015 21:28:54 -0500</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>David Swanson <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:davidcnswanson@gmail.com"><davidcnswanson@gmail.com></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:media@lists.mayfirst.org">media@lists.mayfirst.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:media@lists.mayfirst.org"><media@lists.mayfirst.org></a></td>
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<td valign="top" width="40%"><b><font face="Arial"
size="5"><font>Please republish with credit and link
to:</font><br>
OpEdNews</font></b> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1"> Original Content at<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/David-Swanson--War-is-So-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Activism_Antiwar-Movement_David-Swanson_Interviews-150103-842.html">http://www.opednews.com/articles/David-Swanson--War-is-So-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Activism_Antiwar-Movement_David-Swanson_Interviews-150103-842.html</a><br>
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<p><b>January 3, 2015</b></p>
<p class="">David Swanson: "War is So 2014!"</p>
<p><i>By Joan Brunwasser</i></p>
<div style="font-size:12pt">
<p>President Obama has been credited with "ending" and
"drawing down" this war [in Afghanistan] not only
while expanding it to triple the size but also for a
longer period of time than various other major wars
combined.The catch is that this war is not over or
ending. This year was more deadly than any of the
previous 12. War is optional, that it is not imposed
on us, that we have the responsibility to scale it
back or to end it.</p>
<p>::::::::</p>
<span
id="docs-internal-guid-04135ecf-b283-b509-6c18-aae9af7f6c1e">
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><img
moz-do-not-send="true"
src="http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploadnic/screen-shot-2015-01-03-at-7-28-27-pm-png_79_20150103-814.png"
width="193"><br>
</p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">My
guest is David Swanson, blogger, author, peace
activist and campaign coordinator for
RootsAction.org. Welcome back to OpEdNews,
David. You wrote a recent piece, </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/28306-renaming-afghan-war-renaming-murder"
style="text-decoration:none">Renaming Afghan
War, Renaming Murder </a><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">.
Is that hyperbole or is this war really being
renamed?</span><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Oh,
it's no secret, although the news seems to have
downplayed it by declaring the war over. This
actually confused a fair number of people who
remembered the recent announcement that troops
would be staying for another decade and beyond.
But when they declared the war over, they
declared Operation Enduring Freedom over (long
may the memory of its horrors endure!) And then,
almost as a footnote, most reporting noted that
troops would remain in place -- not to mention
(literally unmentioned) drones. And the thing
those remaining troops will keep doing has the
little-reported and highly laughable name of
Operation Freedom's Sentinel. But if you take
both the war before this week and the war beyond
this week to be a war, then what happened was a
name change.</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">By
the way, I'm also director of WorldBeyondWar.org
</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Duly
noted. Your article begins with an amazing fact
about the length of this war, David. Would you
recap it for our our readers, please?</span><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I
said of the ongoing U.S. war on Afghanistan:
"The war thus far has lasted as long as U.S.
participation in World War II plus U.S.
participation in World War I, plus the Korean
War, plus the Spanish American War, plus the
full length of the U.S. war on the Philippines,
combined with the whole duration of the Mexican
American War." That's an accurate statement as
far as it goes. President Obama has been
credited with "ending" and "drawing down" this
war not only while expanding it to triple the
size but also for a longer period of time than
various other major wars combined. The catch is
that this war is not over or ending. This year
was more deadly than any of the previous 12. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Wars
are different now in many ways, fought against
groups rather than nations, fought without
limits in time or space, fought with proxies,
fought with robots, fought with over 90% of the
deaths on one side, fought with over 90% of the
deaths civilian (that is, people not actively
fighting against illegal invaders of their
land). So, to call this a war and the war that
stole Mexico a war is like calling both an apple
and an orange a fruit -- we're mixing apples and
oranges. That war was fought to expand territory
and slavery by stealing half of someone else's
country. This war is fought to influence the
control of a distant land for the benefit of
certain profiteers and politicians. Yet both
involved mass murder, wounding, kidnapping,
rape, torture, and trauma. And both were lied
about to the U.S. public from beginning to end.
The war on Afghanistan has been easier to lie
about, in something of the manner in which World
War II was lied about during the war on Vietnam,
because the war on Afghanistan has taken place
at the same time as a less popular war on Iraq.
Averse to even considering the idea that war
itself could be a bad idea, people across the
super-narrow U.S. political spectrum have
insisted that because the Iraq war was bad, the
war on Afghanistan must be good. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Try
to get them to prove that it's good, however,
and they pretty much come down to "There have
been no more 9-11s." But that was true for
centuries prior to 9-11 and isn't really true
now, as attacks on U.S. and Western facilities
and personnel have been rising during the War on
Terra (the name some of us give the so-called
War on Terror because you can't fight a war
against terror as war itself is terror, and as
Terra means the earth), along with opposition to
U.S. foreign policy -- with a Gallup poll a year
ago finding the U.S. widely considered the
greatest threat to peace on earth. The U.S. also
pulled its troops out of Saudi Arabia, actually
addressing one of the causes of 9-11, even while
devoting most of its energy to further
antagonizing the world.</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><img
moz-do-not-send="true"
src="http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploadnic/screen-shot-2015-01-03-at-7-31-17-pm-png_79_20150103-569.png"
width="156"><br>
</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Hold
on. There's a lot to talk about here. You just
said "in something of the manner in which World
War II was lied about during the war on
Vietnam". Did you mean to say that, David?
Please clarify. What lies were told about WWII
and what did that have to do with Vietnam? You
lost me there. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">World
War II became known as The Good War in contrast
to the War on Vietnam which was the Bad War. In
fact, it was very important for people who
opposed the war on Vietnam to be able to say
they weren't against all wars and to point to a
good one. This has remained the case for most
US-Americans for the past three-quarters of a
century and it has 99% of the time for 99% of
the people been WWII that they point to as the
supposedly good war. But when Obama campaigned
for the presidency and even earlier than that,
he liked to stress that he was against only dumb
wars (meaning the 2003-begun war on Iraq which
he has since praised and glorified, not to
mention prolonging and re-starting) and he
called Afghanistan the Good War. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">This
is very common in Washington DC and very
uncommon outside of it. There has to be a good
war or one risks falling into the principled
position of WorldBeyondWar.org that war is an
abomination that needs to be abolished along
with all preparations for more of it. I
interviewed Jonathan Landay on my radio show
this week ( TalkNationRadio.org ) -- he was one
of the very few reporters who did any actual
reporting in the corporate media in the lead-up
to the 2003 attack on Baghdad -- and he, too,
claimed Afghanistan was a good war and war in
general is good. One has to think that way to
work in Washington. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I
asked him about Bush </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5"
style="text-decoration:none">rejecting</a><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">
Taliban attempts to turn bin Laden over for a
trial, and Landay declared that the Taliban
never would have done it because so abusing a
guest violates Pashtun culture, as if allowing
your nation to be bombed and occupied doesn't
violate Pashtun culture. Landay didn't dispute
the story that it was Bush who had rejected the
offer -- and we didn't really have time to get
into it -- but he simply declared what had
happened to have been impossible. He could be
right, but I very much doubt it, and in any case
that is not the reason that virtually no one in
the United States knows the incident ever
happened -- and had been happening for years.
The reason is related to the reason USians
(people from the nation of the United States as
opposed to the continents of America) danced in
the street when bin Laden's death was announced:
to have a good war, one must fight an evil
subhuman force with which negotiation is
impossible. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><img
moz-do-not-send="true"
src="http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploadnic/screen-shot-2015-01-03-at-7-49-40-pm-png_79_20150103-763.png"
width="229"><br>
</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I
don't think people really know about the
Taliban's several offers to turn bin Laden over.
If that's correct, that's a rather big and
glaring "oversight". Where's the press? Also, I
don't think the average citizen knows that our
involvement in Afghanistan has not wound down as
advertised. How can we possibly keep up if the
goalposts and even the names of military
campaigns keep changing? Our ignorance is really
dangerous.</span><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">
</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Ignorance
is the fuel for war like wood is the fuel for
fire. Cut off the supply of ignorance and war
ends. The </span><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Washington
Post</span><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">
this past year asked US-Americans to find
Ukraine on a map. A small fraction could do it,
and those who placed Ukraine furthest from its
actual location were the most likely to want the
U.S. military to attack Ukraine. There was a
correlation: the less one knew about WHERE
Ukraine was the more one wanted it attacked --
and this after controlling for various other
variables. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I'm
reminded of a Canadian comedy called Talking to
Americans that you can find on Youtube. The guy
asks lots of Americans if the nation of " and he
says a fictional name of a made-up nation "
needs to be attacked. Yes, they tell him,
solemnly, all the other options, sadly,
regretfully have been exhausted. Now, of course,
the comedian may have left lots of intelligent
answers on the cutting room floor, but I doubt
he had to work very hard to find the dumb ones
-- I'd bet you any sum I could get them right
now without leaving the coffee shop I'm in. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Nowhere
outside the United States do people think of
bombing as being anywhere on the list of
options. In the United States, people think of
it as the first and only option. Got a problem?
Let's bomb it. But they are compelled to pretend
that it is a last option, even when there's been
literally nothing else attempted or even
contemplated because a comedian just made up a
nonexistent country to ask about. So nobody
knows that Dubya told the President of Spain
that Hussein was willing to leave Iraq if he
could have $1 billion. Of COURSE (!!!) I'd
rather have seen Hussein tried for his crimes,
but I'd much rather have seen him leave with a
billion dollars than have the war happen -- a
war that has destroyed Iraq. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Iraq
will never recover. The dead will not be
resurrected. The wounded will not be healed. The
reason that people pretend that war is the last
resort is that nothing is worse than war. The
reason it's always a pretense requiring
falsehood and self-delusion is that other
options always exist. So the habit of PRETENDING
we need a war or that we need SOME of the wars
is so ingrained that it comes to people
automatically even in the most absurd
situations. And consider which is more absurd:
supporting the bombing of a fictional nation or
supporting the bombing of Iraq and Syria on the
opposite side of a war you were told had to be
joined a year earlier, doing so despite the
enemy's clearly stated desire that you do so to
boost its recruitment, and doing so despite its
constituting the reinitiating of the
quintessential dumb war, the war everyone hates,
the war whose echoes prevented the launching of
missiles 12 months earlier.</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><img
moz-do-not-send="true"
src="http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploadnic/screen-shot-2015-01-03-at-7-33-34-pm-png_79_20150103-716.png"
width="248"><br>
</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">When
put that way, it's clear that we're caught in
some sort of vicious cycle. The example of the
fictitious country we're happy to bomb is
terrifying, actually. What can we do to bring
that cycle to an end? </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I
think we have to stop opposing each new war in
isolation. Slavery wasn't ended (to the
significant extent that plantation slavery was
ended) by opposing one particular plantation.
Peace groups have focused on the cost to the
aggressor to such an extent that nobody knows
that wars are mass-murder against weak countries
that can barely fight back. The damage to U.S.
troops is horrific, as is the financial waste.
(In fact, the lives lost by not spending the
funding on useful measures far outstrips the
lives killed in wars.) But we won't get people
to oppose mass murder until we start behaving as
if they might be capable of it. That requires
that we start telling them what these wars are:
one-sided slaughters. We have to make a MORAL
case against the greatest evil we've created --
with the possible exception of its partner in
crime: environmental destruction. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">To
make a case for abolition, we have to satisfy
people's logical arguments by explaining that
war doesn't make us safe, doesn't make us rich,
doesn't have any upside to be weighed against
the destruction. And we have to satisfy people's
illogical urges and unstated demands as well.
People need love and community and participation
in something larger than themselves, they need
their fears addressed, they need their passions
released, they need their models and heroes held
up, they need the opportunity to be or to
imagine being courageous, self-sacrificing, and
comradely. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">But
now I'm beginning to answer the question that
the WorldBeyondWar.org website answers far more
comprehensively. That site is a work in
progress, as is the project it outlines and
reports on. The first step, however, I can state
very concisely: We have to admit that war is
optional, that it is a choice, that it is not
imposed on us, that we have the responsibility
to keep it as our greatest public investment or
to scale it back or to end it. </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I'm
glad you provided the WorldBeyondWar.org website
so people can learn more. Anything you'd like to
add? </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Please,
everyone, join people from some 90 nations and
growing who have pledged to work to end war: </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://worldbeyondwar.org/individual"
style="text-decoration:none">http://worldbeyondwar.org/individual</a></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Or
sign that pledge as an organization: </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://worldbeyondwar.org/organization"
style="text-decoration:none">http://worldbeyondwar.org/organization</a><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">For
online activism, check out </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://rootsaction.org"
style="text-decoration:none">http://RootsAction.org</a><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">And
make your own effective petitions at </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://diy.rootsaction.org"
style="text-decoration:none">http://DIY.RootsAction.org</a><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(OpEdNews
should do this as follow throughs to some of its
great articles!) </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Thanks
for the suggestion! </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Find
lots of great bloggers at </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org"
style="text-decoration:none">http://WarIsACrime.org</a><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">and
let me know if you want to be one.</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I'm
at </span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org"
style="text-decoration:none">http://DavidSwanson.org</a><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">My
books are at </span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/store"
style="text-decoration:none">http://DavidSwanson.org/store</a><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">and
I have a new one just out.</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">My
radio show is at </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://talknationradio.org"
style="text-decoration:none">http://TalkNationRadio.org</a><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">
and it airs on a lot of stations and is free to
any station that wants it -- let them know! --
and can be embedded on any website.</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><img
moz-do-not-send="true"
src="http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploadnic/screen-shot-2015-01-03-at-7-37-34-pm-png_79_20150103-493.png"
width="240"><br>
</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">You
are one busy guy. Readers, take note of all
these resources. Anything else before we wrap
this up?</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Peace,
Love and Understanding! </span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Happy
New Year -- May it outgrow hope and change while
changing what we hope for!</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Amen
to that! Thanks so much for talking with me,
David. It's always a pleasure.</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">***</span></p>
<p
style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span
style="text-decoration:underline;font-size:13px;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(17,85,204);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://rootsaction.org/"
style="text-decoration:none">RootsAction.org</a></span></p>
<div><br>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<b>Submitters Website:</b> <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html">http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html</a><br>
<br>
<b>Submitters Bio:</b><br>
<br>
<p>Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for
Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for
the sole purpose of raising the public awareness
of the critical need for election reform. Our
goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent,
secure elections where votes are cast in private
and counted in public. Because the problems with
electronic (computerized) voting systems include a
lack of transparency and the ability to accurately
check and authenticate the vote cast, these
systems can alter election results and therefore
are simply antithetical to democratic principles
and functioning. Since the pivotal 2004
Presidential election, Joan has come to see the
connection between a broken election system, a
dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of
campaign finance reform. This has led her to
enlarge the parameters of her writing to include
interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate
others who give a view quite different from that
presented by the mainstream media. She also turns
the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who
are striving to make a difference, to clean up and
improve their corner of the world. By focusing on
these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and
inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned
off and alienated. She also interviews people in
the arts in all their variations - authors,
journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and
artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and
inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of
ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan
can keep even one of her fellow citizens going
another day, she considers her job well done.
When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing
Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning
interviewer briefly into interviewee. <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Million-Milestone-for-OEN-by-Meryl-Ann-Butler-Black-Box-Voting_Diebold_Election-Integrity_Elections-131212-507.html">Read
the interview here.</a></p>
While the news is often quite depressing, Joan
nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab
life now in an exuberant embrace!"
Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews
since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at
Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://Scoop.co.nz">Scoop.co.nz</a>.
</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p class=""><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/David-Swanson--War-is-So-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Activism_Antiwar-Movement_David-Swanson_Interviews-150103-842.html">Back</a></p>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
<div class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<p><b>David Swanson </b>is an author, activist, journalist,
and radio host. He is director of <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://WorldBeyondWar.org"
target="_blank">WorldBeyondWar.org</a> and campaign
coordinator for <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://RootsAction.org" target="_blank">RootsAction.org</a>.
Swanson's books include <i><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisalie.org/" target="_blank">War Is A
Lie</a></i>. He blogs at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/" target="_blank">DavidSwanson.org</a>
and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/" target="_blank">WarIsACrime.org</a>.
He hosts <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">Talk Nation Radio</a>.</p>
<p>Follow him on Twitter: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson" target="_blank">@davidcnswanson</a>
and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Swanson/297768373319#"
target="_blank">FaceBook</a>. </p>
<p>Sign up for occasional important activist alerts here <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/signup" target="_blank">http://davidswanson.org/signup</a></p>
<p>Sign up for articles or press releases here <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/lists" target="_blank">http://davidswanson.org/lists</a></p>
<p>This email may be unlawfully collected, held, and read by
the NSA which violates our freedoms using the
justification of immoral, illegal wars absurdly described
as being somehow<i> for </i>freedom.<br>
</p>
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