[Peace-discuss] Re: Suggested text for Main Event flyer

[Randall Cotton]

This goes right along with one of the suggestions made at the meeting
(something on the economy), is also strongly anti-war and seems to me to
be an excellent idea. Barbara is supplying electronic content for the
Kenney events to Durl, who has volunteered to run off the copies, so it
should be just a matter of posting the edited text to peace-discuss and
Durl could take it from there. Someone pipe up if I'm wrong on any of this
8-)

Thanks
R

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>
To: "Randall Cotton" <recotton at earthlink.net>
Cc: <Peace at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 11:37 AM
Subject: Suggested text for Main Event flyer


: Randall Cotton wrote:
: >
: > Someone is needed to create content for AWARE's "Main Event" flyer.
: > One side of the flyer will contain publicity for AWARE's upcoming Dan
: > Kenney events, but though there were suggestions for content for the
: > flipside (see below in the minutes, under "Main Event"), no one has
come
: > forward yet to put this together.
: > Contact: Randall Cotton, recotton at earthlink.net, 351-8644/722-8470
:
: > ...
: > Flyer page 1 will be advertisement for Dan Kenney events
: > Suggestions for the other side of the flyer:
: > Something on the economy
: > Something on local armed forces leaving this week to go to Afghanistan
: > Something including the statistics that we disseminate via the
anti-war
: > electronic billboard
: >
: > Volunteer needed to assemble a second side for the flyer
:
: [Page 2 of the flyer should complement Kenney's topic by connecting the
war and
: the bailout (which is not dead). I'm willing to edit (and format) a
selection
: from the following piece by Chalmers Johnson (which is too long to fit
on one
: page).  Johnson is the author of three linked books on the crises of
American
: imperialism and militarism. They are Blowback (2000), The Sorrows of
Empire
: (2004), and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic
(2006). --CGE]
:
: We Have the Money.
: If only we didn't waste it on the defense budget
: Chalmers Johnson
:
: There has been much moaning, air-sucking, and outrage about the $700
billion
: that the U.S. government is thinking of throwing away on rich New York
bankers
: who have been ripping us off for the past few years and then letting
greed drive
: their businesses into a variety of ditches. In fact, we dole out similar
amounts
: of money every year in the form of payoffs to the armed services, the
: military-industrial complex, and powerful senators and representatives
allied
: with the Pentagon.
:
: On Wednesday, Sept. 24, right in the middle of the fight over billions
of
: taxpayer dollars slated to bail out Wall Street, the House of
Representatives
: passed a $612 billion defense authorization bill for 2009 without a
murmur of
: public protest or any meaningful press comment at all. (The New York
Times gave
: the matter only three short paragraphs buried in a story about another
: appropriations measure.)
:
: The defense bill includes $68.6 billion to pursue the wars in Iraq and
: Afghanistan, which is only a down-payment on the full yearly cost of
these wars.
: (The rest will be raised through future supplementary bills.) It also
included a
: 3.9 percent pay raise for military personnel and $5 billion in
pork-barrel
: projects not even requested by the administration or the secretary of
defense.
: It also fully funds the Pentagon's request for a radar site in the Czech
: Republic, a hare-brained scheme sure to infuriate the Russians just as
much as a
: Russian missile base in Cuba once infuriated us. The whole bill passed
by a vote
: of 392-39 and will fly through the Senate, where a similar bill has
already been
: approved. And no one will even think to mention it in the same breath
with the
: discussion of bailout funds for dying investment banks and the like.
:
: This is pure waste. Our annual spending on "national security" – meaning
the
: defense budget plus all military expenditures hidden in the budgets for
the
: departments of Energy, State, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, the CIA, and
numerous
: other places in the executive branch – already exceeds a trillion
dollars, an
: amount larger than that of all other national defense budgets combined.
Not only
: was there no significant media coverage of this latest appropriation,
there have
: been no signs of even the slightest urge to inquire into the
relationship
: between our bloated military, our staggering weapons expenditures, our
: extravagantly expensive failed wars abroad, and the financial
catastrophe on
: Wall Street.
:
: The only congressional "commentary" on the size of our military outlay
was the
: usual pompous drivel about how a failure to vote for the defense
authorization
: bill would betray our troops. The aged Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), former
chairman
: of the Senate Armed Services Committee, implored his Republican
colleagues to
: vote for the bill "out of respect for military personnel." He seems to
be
: unaware that these troops are actually volunteers, not draftees, and
that they
: joined the armed forces as a matter of career choice, rather than
because the
: nation demanded such a sacrifice from them.
:
: We would better respect our armed forces by bringing the futile and
misbegotten
: wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to an end. A relative degree of peace and
order has
: returned to Iraq not because of President Bush's belated reinforcement
of our
: expeditionary army there (the so-called surge), but thanks to shifting
internal
: dynamics within Iraq and in the Middle East region generally. Such
shifts
: include a growing awareness among Iraq's Sunni population of the need to
restore
: law and order, a growing confidence among Iraqi Shi'ites of their nearly
: unassailable position of political influence in the country, and a
growing
: awareness among Sunni nations that the ill-informed war of aggression
the Bush
: administration waged against Iraq has vastly increased the influence of
Shi'ism
: and Iran in the region.
:
: The continued presence of American troops and their heavily reinforced
bases in
: Iraq threatens this return to relative stability. The refusal of the
Shia
: government of Iraq to agree to an American Status of Forces Agreement –
much
: desired by the Bush administration – that would exempt off-duty American
troops
: from Iraqi law is actually a good sign for the future of Iraq.
:
: In Afghanistan, our historically deaf generals and civilian strategists
do not
: seem to understand that our defeat by the Afghan insurgents is
inevitable. Since
: the time of Alexander the Great, no foreign intruder has ever prevailed
over
: Afghan guerrillas defending their home turf. The first Anglo-Afghan War
: (1838-1842) marked a particularly humiliating defeat of British
imperialism at
: the very height of English military power in the Victorian era. The
: Soviet-Afghan War (1978-1989) resulted in a Russian defeat so
demoralizing that
: it contributed significantly to the disintegration of the former Soviet
Union in
: 1991. We are now on track to repeat virtually all the errors committed
by
: previous invaders of Afghanistan over the centuries.
:
: In the past year, perhaps most disastrously, we have carried our Afghan
war into
: Pakistan, a relatively wealthy and sophisticated nuclear power that has
long
: cooperated with us militarily. Our recent bungling brutality along the
: Afghan-Pakistan border threatens to radicalize the Pashtuns in both
countries
: and advance the interests of radical Islam throughout the region. The
United
: States is now identified in each country mainly with Hellfire missiles,
unmanned
: drones, special operations raids, and repeated incidents of the killing
of
: innocent bystanders.
:
: The brutal bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital,
Islamabad, on
: Sept. 20, 2008, was a powerful indicator of the spreading strength of
virulent
: anti-American sentiment in the area. The hotel was a well-known watering
hole
: for American Marines, Special Forces troops, and CIA agents. Our
military
: activities in Pakistan have been as misguided as the Nixon-Kissinger
invasion of
: Cambodia in 1970. The end result will almost surely be the same.
:
: We should begin our disengagement from Afghanistan at once. We dislike
the
: Taliban's fundamentalist religious values, but the Afghan public, with
its
: desperate desire for a return of law and order and the curbing of
corruption,
: knows that the Taliban is the only political force in the country that
has ever
: brought the opium trade under control. The Pakistanis and their
effective army
: can defend their country from Taliban domination so long as we abandon
the
: activities that are causing both Afghans and Pakistanis to see the
Taliban as a
: lesser evil.
:
: One of America's greatest authorities on the defense budget, Winslow
Wheeler,
: worked for 31 years for Republican members of the Senate and for the
General
: Accounting Office on military expenditures. His conclusion, when it
comes to the
: fiscal sanity of our military spending, is devastating:
:
: "America's defense budget is now larger in inflation-adjusted dollars
than at
: any point since the end of World War II, and yet our Army has fewer
combat
: brigades than at any point in that period; our Navy has fewer combat
ships; and
: the Air Force has fewer combat aircraft. Our major equipment inventories
for
: these major forces are older on average than any point since 1946 – or
in some
: cases, in our entire history."
:
: This in itself is a national disgrace. Spending hundreds of billions of
dollars
: on present and future wars that have nothing to do with our national
security is
: simply obscene. And yet Congress has been corrupted by the
military-industrial
: complex into believing that, by voting for more defense spending, they
are
: supplying "jobs" for the economy. In fact, they are only diverting
scarce
: resources from the desperately needed rebuilding of the American
infrastructure
: and other crucial spending necessities into utterly wasteful munitions.
If we
: cannot cut back our long-standing, ever increasing military spending in
a major
: way, then the bankruptcy of the United States is inevitable. As the
current Wall
: Street meltdown has demonstrated, that is no longer an abstract
possibility but
: a growing likelihood. We do not have much time left.
:
: ###
:
: