[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Kathy Kelly vs. Obama's politics of illusion

Wed Apr 18 07:45:54 UTC 2012

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "C. G. Estabrook" <cge at shout.net>
> Date: April 18, 2012 2:06:15 AM CDT
> To: peace <peace at lists.chambana.net>
> Cc: sf-core <sf-core at yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Kathy Kelly vs. Obama's politics of illusion
>
> APRIL 17, 2012
> For You, a Thousand Times Over:
> "There is War in Kabul Today, Many Bombs!"
> by KATHY KELLY
> At the start of The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini later  
> adapted for film, a brave and selflessly loyal Afghan boy runs to  
> help his much wealthier friend, singing out his love for him “For  
> you, a thousand times over …” They have been flying a fighting kite,  
> (these are kites with edges sharp enough to cut the strings of  
> another kite), and the singing boy has gone to fetch an enemy kite  
> they have won.  A dreadful betrayal ensues, its effects exacerbated  
> horribly by the start of the U.S.-Soviet proxy war. Several decades  
> pass before any small sort of atonement can be achieved by the  
> book’s protagonist.
>
> We sang that song this weekend.  I was privileged to attend several  
> actions organized by Kansas and Missouri activists, beginning at  
> Fort Leavenworth prison, to which Bradley Manning will likely return  
> after his current ordeal in a New Jersey military courtroom. .
>
> Manning faces a life sentence and potentially a death sentence for  
> the crime of informing U.S. voters and people around the world how  
> our troops and our client governments behave when we are not meant  
> to be looking. One partial consequence seems to have been the  
> democracy uprising of the Arab Spring. Later, at Whiteman Air Force  
> Base, we presented an indictment for the international war crimes  
> that are implicit in remote-controlled killing using the kind of  
> aerial drones that are piloted from the base.  As three of our  
> friends walked forwards with the indictment to be arrested by riot- 
> shielded base police, we flew kites to remind ourselves that the  
> blue sky above our heads should not be a source of fear,  and we  
> sang, “For you, a thousand times over, for you, a thousand times  
> over…”
>
> Quite a day.  I awoke to a clock radio announcing that deadly  
> tornadoes had again ravaged the plains of the Midwest.  Before I  
> could think of the people I knew in their path, the next news item  
> announced Taliban attacks in several locations of Kabul. It was a  
> relief, a few minutes after logging in to my account, to receive a  
> reassuring message from the Afghan Peace Volunteers, in whose  
> apartment in Kabul I’ve several times had the privilege to stay.  
> There were 12 of them together in the house in Kabul, and they were  
> all okay. When I phoned them, my young friend Abdulai answered and  
> told me, in English, “Kathy, there is war in Kabul today.  Many  
> bombs!”  They had been staying in a rear storage room as far from  
> the street as they could, they had adequate food and no need (and no  
> intention!) to go outside, and Bamiyan, the town many of them call  
> home, had had phone service during the morning so they could  
> reassure their families of their safety.
>
> In Kabul, they’re safe from the drone attacks, which shatter so many  
> families, suspected of any contact with the Taliban, and from the  
> worst excesses of the small-scale local warlords we’ve armed against  
> them.  But no-one is safe in a country ravaged by four continuous  
> decades of war making.
>
> Today we were at Whiteman AFB, singing our kite runner song to pace  
> ourselves and remain calm in the face of a line of advancing  
> soldiers, I imagine all Air Force cadets, which had swallowed the  
> forms of our three brave friends (Brian Terrell, Mark Kenney, and  
> Ron Faust) and was backing us toward a border around the base into  
> which we had crossed.  We had crossed into the base flying kites and  
> bio-degradable balloons all bearing our message calling for an end  
> to drone warfare, to indiscriminate death from above flown like  
> toys, video-game style, through grainy cameras from the safety of  
> bases like this.
>
> We’d prepared a litany of sorts announcing our intention to release  
> ourselves from domination by war and the U.S. war machine, and  
> reading the names of children killed by our country’s war in  
> Afghanistan. The Air Force security, decked out in camouflage- 
> pattern riot gear with shields, helmets, batons, and of course guns,  
> chanted one-two-three-four as they marched deliberately forward,  
> intending of course, to seem as menacing as possible.  From a  
> distance they did, but when they were close enough that we could see  
> their faces, through the riot shields…young, dutiful, far from  
> fearsome…..what to say?
>
> Some two dozen of us had planned to head back off the base when  
> officially warned, and as this seemed quite official, we were now  
> backing deliberately, slowly away.  I had the mike, and assured them  
> we meant no harm.  They were chanting one-two-three-four so I told  
> them I wished I had their discipline, I had been trying to learn  
> Dari and had only learned the numbers up to ten, but I counted with  
> them yek, do, seh, chahar, and it quickly became clear that, between  
> songs and assurances, there was nothing, simply nothing, for anyone  
> present to fear in this particular face-off, except for the men  
> facing imprisonment for declining to retreat with us.
>
> Looking through the clear plastic of the shields into these young  
> soldiers’ faces, I couldn’t fail to think of Bradley Manning,  
> outside whose prison (though he has been, and will likely be, in  
> many prisons) we had stood vigil the previous day. Such an act of  
> unbearable, unbelievable courage, repaid so terrifyingly by my  
> government – by the greatest military power my world has ever, and  
> may, perhaps, ever come to know.  For how much of his life, over the  
> past few years, for how many hours has he even seen the sky?  Not  
> discounting the discipline of these young men before me, could I  
> think of a greater hero, making at such great risk such sensible and  
> visionary choices, as Bradley Manning?  I wondered how many decades  
> of suffering lay before him, not merely because of his near- 
> unfathomable courage, but because he was so alone in his courage.   
> None of us have faced what he is facing, and if more of us had,  
> would his sacrifice have even been needed?
>
> There were other actions this weekend – many people came together in  
> Kansas City, MO, for a well-organized session of community building  
> and planning.  Five people crossed the line and were arrested at a  
> Kansas City factory that manufactures “non-nuclear parts for nuclear  
> weapons” and is the size of 7 football fields!  And the momentum  
> here ensures that there are more actions to come.  We all felt very  
> proud of and moved by the people who committed civil resistance, – 
> and we were grateful for all the many people who helped the weekend  
> activity happen.  Honestly too numerous to name.
>
> But I’m brought back to that story I read, in which the young boy,  
> so full of service and love, runs off into danger, facing it  
> honorably and with passionate courage, singing “For you, a thousand  
> times over.”  I think of my brave friends organizing for peace and  
> sectarian healing in blast-ravaged Kabul, and I think of Pfc.  
> Manning, and his mad, wise, selfless act of love, and I wonder how  
> many decades it will be, how many thousands of these vigils we will  
> attend, before we can achieve some kind of atonement.
>
> Kathy Kelly  co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She’s a  
> contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion,  
> forthcoming from AK Press.
>
> http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/17/for-you-a-thousand-times-over/
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20120418/66b87f0a/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: hopelesscov.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 22426 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20120418/66b87f0a/attachment-0001.jpeg>