[Peace-discuss] [Peace] anybody to organize a discussion of preempting US support for this?

[Carl G. Estabrook]

Perhaps we in C-U need a forum - at least one 'teach-in' - critiquing  
US government policy in the Greater Middle East (which now apparently  
includes North & East Africa if not Nigeria as well).

Country by country presentations ("US government policy toward Iraq/ 
Iran/Israel/Pakistan/Saudi Arabia/Somalia/Egypt /Libya etc.") should  
consider what the policy is and whom it benefits. (Working title - "US  
policy in the Greater Middle East: Cui Bono?") It's clear now that the  
policy doesn't change much  from administration to administration, so  
we can avoid the calculated distraction of the election campaign.

It seems that the rather pusillanimous faculty at UIUC is unwilling to  
tackle the matter, particularly publicly, so maybe AWARE should do it.  
A panel in the week after the Thanksgiving break might be possible.

For openers, here's the summary with which we begin "AWARE on the Air"  
each week:
[a] Each week at this time we bring you news and comment about the  
wars that the United States government is conducting around the world,  
and about the opposition to them, here and across the country, by  
people like us who see that these wars betray our democratic principles.
[b] Today the US government is threatening, invading, and occupying  
countries from the Maghreb to the Indian subcontinent, and from  
Central Asia to the Horn of Africa - a vast circle with more than a  
2,000-mile radius, sometimes called the Greater Middle East: the US  
military calls it "Central Command."
[c] This region has the world's greatest concentration of oil and  
natural gas, and our government is spending hundreds of billions of  
dollars month after month to control it. Control and not just access  
to these energy resources is what the US government wants: we in fact  
import very little oil from the Mideast, contrary to what you've  
heard, but control gives the US government an unparalleled advantage  
over its oil-hungry rivals in Europe and Asia.
[d] We're killing people in the Mideast and North Africa because China  
needs oil, and our government wants to control where they get it. Our  
government says that we're conducting these vastly expensive wars to  
stop terrorism and protect civilians; but we can see that, instead,  
we're killing civilians and creating terrorists. These wars are  
against the interests of the vast majority of Americans.
[e] But the war policy remains essentially the same whether  
Republicans or Democrats are in office. The Obama administration is at  
least as eager as earlier ones to kill people to maintain control of  
the region. More than a thousand members of the U.S. military have  
died in Afghanistan alone since Obama became president - more than  
during both Bush administrations. Of course, many more Afghans than  
that have died, and many more Americans than that have received  
serious injuries.


On Nov 4, 2011, at 4:40 PM, Ya'aqov Ziso wrote:

> Thanks, Carl.
>
>

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