[Peace-discuss] Proposed flyer for upcoming AWARE distribution; comments welcome

[C. G. Estabrook]

President-elect Trump Criticized the War-Making of the 
Obama-Clinton Administration: Demand That He End U.S. Wars 
and Bring American Troops (and Weapons) Home

Like all American presidents for more than a generation, President Obama is today making war around the world. And now his administration is threatening Russia with war in Syria - and beyond. 
	
Since World War II, US presidents have killed more than 20 million people in 37 nations. The US remains during the Obama administration what Martin Luther King called it long ago: “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”
	
When his term ends in two months, Barack Obama will have become the first US president - ever - to have been at war throughout two presidential terms. He has attacked eight countries (two more than George Bush), and he is today conducting what has been called “the most extreme terrorist campaign of modern times” - his drone assassinations. He has killed thousands of civilians with drones, including US citizens and hundreds of children. The New York Times says he chooses the targets himself, from lists prepared by the CIA.
	
In addition to conducting wars throughout the Mideast, the Obama administration is acting with belligerence toward China and promoting an ongoing proxy war against Russia in Ukraine; that war has already killed more people than Israel killed (with US permission) in Gaza in 2014. The president is risking war with both Russia and China, even nuclear war. He also commands a 70,000-member private army, the Special Operations Command, active in more than 130 countries. Their activities include kidnapping ("rendition"), murder, and torture. 
	
Not only is the Obama administration risking nuclear war, they’re preparing for it: President Obama has launched a 1o-year trillion dollar program to update nuclear weapons - and make them more usable!
	
The Obama administration is also responsible for the vicious civil war in Syria, which has killed thousands and flooded Europe with refugees. 

Why has our government plagued the world with war for more than two generations? The answer is simple and horrible - to protect the profits of the 1%, the American economic elite.

When World War II ended in 1945, the US was the only undamaged major country, and controlled the world economy, for the benefit of that 1%. In all the years since, US administrations have been willing to kill people and make war to “maintain the disparity,” as American planners said.

The Mideast has been a particular concern of the US government because of its vast stock of oil and natural gas. The US doesn’t need oil from the Mideast, but Mideast gas and oil are needed by America’s economic competitors in Europe and Asia - so control over them gives the US a choke-hold over China, Germany, and other countries. But that control benefits only the American economic elite and not Americans in general, who’ve seen wealth concentrate in fewer and fewer hands - at an accelerating rate - throughout the Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama administrations.
	
Obama was elected twice because the generally anti-war US public understood him to say that he would end George Bush’s wars. But in office, Obama moved massively to expand Bush’s war in Afghanistan, and as he leaves office he promises ten thousand US troops will stay there - along with mercenaries and ‘coalition forces’ (NATO). And US subversion of other countries in MENA - the Mideast and North Africa - continues apace.

In a book on the last presidential campaign, he is quoted as follows: "'Turns out I'm really good at killing people,' Obama said quietly. 'Didn't know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.'" However ironically he meant it, the quote has not been denied by the White House, and it turns out to be true. 

Hillary Clinton - responsible for killing people in Honduras, Libya, Syria and elsewhere - as president would have continued and intensified the warmongering of the Bush and Obama administrations - the blowback from which is now producing terrorist attacks in Europe and America. She made quite clear in her campaign that those who voted for her were voting for expanded warfare in the Middle East - and probably military confrontation with Russia elsewhere as well. Clinton is both a neoliberal (which means more inequality) and a neoconservative (which means more war). But - interestingly enough - Donald Trump isn’t. 

Even in the face of opposition from the US military, Clinton demanded a “no fly-zone” in Syria, threatening to shoot down Russian planes (which are in the country legally) with US planes (which are not legally in Syria, under international law). The leading ‘liberal’ candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee, Representative Keith Ellison, promises the same. But the top US military commander - Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - told the Senate Armed Services Committee two months ago that the enforcement of a “no-fly” zone in Syria would mean a US war with both Syria and Russia. 

Before the election, Australian journalist John Pilger wrote, “The CIA has demanded Trump is not elected. Pentagon generals have demanded he is not elected. The pro-war New York Times - taking a breather from its relentless low-rent Putin smears - demands that he is not elected. Something is up. These tribunes of “perpetual war” are terrified that the multi-billion-dollar business of war by which the United States maintains its dominance will be undermined if Trump does a deal with Putin, then with China’s Xi Jinping. Their panic at the possibility of the world’s great power talking peace – however unlikely – would be the blackest farce were the issues not so dire.”

During the presidential debates, Donald Trump rejected the notion that his administration would consider establishing no-fly zones in Syria, and he has now interviewed for a position in his administration Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who writes 

“I shared with him my grave concerns that escalating the war in Syria by implementing a so-called no-fly/safe zone would be disastrous for the Syrian people, our country, and the world. It would lead to more death and suffering, exacerbate the refugee crisis, strengthen ISIS and al-Qaeda and bring us into a direct conflict with Russia – potentially resulting in a nuclear war. We discussed my bill to end our country’s illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government and the need to focus our precious resources on rebuilding our country, and on defeating al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist groups who pose a threat to the American people.”

If Trump can stick to his campaign promises, he will likely find reliable partners in Russian president Putin (in spite of the Democrats’ lying portrayal of him ) and Chinese president Xi Jinping. Russia and China have little to gain from a confrontation with the US - or, even less, from war. Will president-elect Trump have the wisdom to realize this and use it for the benefit of America?

AWARE and other local anti-war groups in the US demand that President Trump  
~ (1) establish a foreign policy based on diplomacy, international law, and human rights; 
~ (2) end the wars [in the Mideast and elsewhere] and stop the drone attacks; 
~ (3) cut military spending by at least 50% and close the more than 700 foreign military bases [neither Russia nor China has more than twelve]; 
~ (4) stop US support of human rights abusers [notably Israel and Saudi Arabia]; and
~ (5) lead on global nuclear disarmament. 

This flyer is distributed by members and friends of the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort, 
(AWARE) - a local Champaign-Urbana peace group; contact us at <aware at anti-war.net <mailto:aware at anti-war.net>>.

Watch our weekly discussion of war news on “AWARE on the Air” on Urbana Public TV and YouTube;
open meetings Sundays at 5pm at Pizza-M, 208 West Main Street, Urbana.
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