[Peace-discuss] ME flyer - short or long?

[C. G. Estabrook]

  [One reader has proposed a short version of the flyer for tomorrow's Main 
Event, below.  Let me know which you prefer - the 2pp. version on the Peace 
list, or the 1p. version below - and I'll have some prepared for distribution 
tomorrow 2-4pm at Main & Neil.  --CGE]


      /*Sixty-five years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the
      Japanese cites of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the only country ever to use
      such weapons in war - we spend more each year on war than the entire rest
      of the world. Our country has maimed, killed and made homeless more
      noncombatants than all the rest of the countries in the world combined
      since World War II.*/

Amid the furor over the possibility that Iran may build a nuclear weapon, the 
International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution calling on Israel to join 
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and open its nuclear facilities to 
inspection.

The United States and Europe tried to block the IAEA resolution, but it passed 
anyway. The media virtually ignored the event.

*The United States assured Israel that it would support Israel's rejection of 
the resolution - reaffirming a secret understanding that has allowed Israel to 
maintain a nuclear arsenal closed to international inspections, according to 
officials familiar with the arrangements. Again, the media were silent.

*Both India and Pakistan are expanding their nuclear weapons programs. They have 
twice come dangerously close to nuclear war, and the problems that almost 
ignited this catastrophe are very much alive.

Passed unanimously, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1887 calls for the end of 
threats of force and for all countries to join the NPT, as Iran did long ago. 
NPT non-signers are India, Israel and Pakistan, all of which developed nuclear 
weapons with U.S. help, in violation of the NPT.

*Nonpartisan budget monitors report that the "administration's request for $538 
billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2010 and its stated intention to 
maintain a high level of funding in the coming years put the president on track 
to spend more on defense, in real dollars, than any other president has in one 
term of office since World War II. And that's not counting the additional $130 
billion the administration is requesting to fund the wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan next year, with even more war spending slated for future years."
*
/The U.S. war in the Middle East will continue until more Americans speak up 
loudly and reject it. A majority of Americans do reject it, but that is not 
enough for our government. If you are appalled that the US is conducting an 
unjustified war in the Middle East -- and misrepresenting the reason for it -- 
call your Congressional representatives. Congressman Tim Johnson, Senator Roland 
Burris, and Senator Dick Durbin can be reached through the Capitol switchboard 
at 202-224-3121. Tell them that the US has no business killing people in the 
Middle East for resisting our invasion and occupation. (Your protest makes a 
difference: Congressman Johnson, who voted for the invasions of Afghanistan and 
Pakistan, now says that he was wrong to do so and refuses to vote for any more 
funding for war in the Middle East.)

You can also join a local peace group that is working to end the war in 
Afghanistan. In Champaign-Urbana, one local peace group is AWARE, the Anti-War 
Anti-Racism Effort (see our page on Facebook), members and friends of which 
produced this leaflet for our monthly peace demonstration in downtown Champaign. 
We meet every Sunday 5-6:30pm at the McKinley Foundation, 5th & Daniel streets 
in Champaign. Visitors and new members are welcome.

AWARE presents "AWARE on the Air" each Tuesday 10-11pm on Urbana Public 
Television, cable channel 6. Each week we bring you comments by members and 
friends of AWARE about the war and the opposition to it, locally and nationally, 
by Americans who oppose our government's betrayal of our democratic principles. 
AWARE is composed of people opposed to the war, but it is not affiliated with 
any other group or political party.

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/
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