[Peace-discuss] [ufpj-activist] Green Party statement on Trump's missile strike in Syria

[Karen Aram]

Thank you Michael for your worthwhile insight, I agree we aren’t an organization with the funds or structure as of yet, to make immediate press releases, we are also egalitarian in that we don’t want a couple people speaking on behalf of the whole group.

I am a Green within a small community and we will be protesting today at a couple locations in our town of Champaign, Illinois. I have also called for others locally and across the nation to join, or organize against the recent bombing of Syria. At this point we are demonstrating not on behalf of the Greens but on behalf of AWARE, an anti-war group, of which most if not all of our members are also Greens.

Robert Naiman’s disdain for the Green Party, as well as all competitors of the Democrats is well known to most of us. Thus he will vilify us every chance he gets.

More people now see, the Democrat Party for what it is, opportunists jumping on every opportunity to promote themselves while at the same time supporting foreign wars. The Republican Party isn’t even worth a line of discussion, being the bad cop vs. the Democrats.

On Apr 9, 2017, at 08:14, Mitchel Cohen <mitchelcohen at mindspring.com<mailto:mitchelcohen at mindspring.com>> wrote:

Thank you, Karen, for your statement on Syria, which I've forwarded to some lists I coordinate, particularly the ActionGreens listserve (which is a private list of activists concerned with Green (and other) issues, and is not an official Green Party list).

As to Robert Naiman's criticism, while I share his sentiment that the Green Party statement could and should be stronger and more expansive, the GP is not set up to issue immediate responses to whatever matter is before us. There usually needs to be discussion and some sort of decision first.

Yes, I find that frustrating. Nor do I like (and never have liked) the tendency of many Left groups as well as the Green Party to "call on" this or that to happen, rather than to organize to make it happen. We don't need "Resolutionary Socialism", "sending a message," "raising the consciousness of others," and so forth. My guiding principle here is best articulated oh so sharply in Monty Python's "Life of Brian", which is all about the Left and worth re-showing every year. Unicorns, indeed!

But the Greens don't have (and don't want to have) one person who is empowered to make those decisions for the party as a whole. We're simply not set up that way, where one or two individuals could make decisions for the entire Party and write press releases without wide consultation first.

Meanwhile, the GP in NYC has indeed initiated quite a few antiwar demonstrations in the last few months, and its members have participated in hundreds of'm ... including efforts to get anti-war issues included in the general "No Ban, No Wall" protests -- as have rank-and-file Green members across the country. No Ban, No Wall, No War !

I agree that the sentence about Mosul and Saudi Arabia should have been included.

We need to work together.

Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens/Green Party




At 10:39 AM 4/9/2017, Robert Naiman wrote:

A day behind everyone else. But it's a start. We can say that the Green Party tried to show up in some way. Â

Now how about if the Green Party would actually try to organize some activity, any kind of activity, against Trump's action? There's nothing in the Green Party statement that asks anyone who supports the Green Party to do anything. It's all about, the Green Party calls for this, the Green Party calls for that, the Green Party calls for dismantling of the military industrial complex, the Green Party calls for unicorns and ponies, all children under the age of sixteen, are now sixteen.Â

Compare and contrast: in less than twenty-four hours, Just Foreign Policy rallied 7,419 people to defend the War Powers Resolution. And this was our second alert on the topic since Trump's strike.Â

Join @RepPeterDeFazio, @RepMarkPocan: tell @realDonaldTrump he has 48 hours to report on Syria
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/join-reppeterdefazio?r_by=941832

And we're just one little NGO, one of many working on this front - we don't advertise ourselves to be a national political party.Â

Also: how come the Green Party is still silent on U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's war and blockade in Yemen? The Green Party has produced a long statement. It's not like they didn't have room to talk about U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. Here was a perfect opportunity to mention it: "Since his inauguration and despite his protestations of sympathy for civilians, including children, killed in the Idlib assault, Mr. Trump has ordered raids in Yemen and air assaults on Mosul and a mosque near Aleppo that have killed scores of civilians."

"Mad Dog" Mattis' proposal to attack Hodeida and push Yemen into famine is still reportedly in the inbox of McMaster and Trump's national security team. It sure would be great if the Green Party would speak up on this.Â

Tell @realDonaldTrump: Come to Congress Before You Attack Hodeida
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/help-repmarkpocan-justinamas?r_by=1135580






Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/>
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org<mailto:naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
(202) 448-2898 x1

On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 6:56 AM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:

Green Party statement on Trump's missile strike in Syria


________________________________
[syria-sanctuary-not-missiles.jpg]

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Green Party of the United States strongly condemned President Donald Trump's unilateral cruise missile strike on a Syrian government airfield and called for a halt to further overt and covert military action by the U.S.

Greens called for an internationally cooperative and impartial investigation of the nerve gas attack in Idlib province that killed scores of civilians, which supposedly motivated Mr. Trump to order the strikes. The U.S. alleges that the President Bashar al-Assad government is responsible for the gas attack, a claim disputed by some journalists covering the war.
________________________________
Greens call for halt to U.S. attacks and ongoing overt and covert military intervention in Syria, which will inflict even more civilian casualties and escalate the war in Syria, urge an arms embargo on all sides and an open door for fleeing Syrian civilians

An impartial probe of the Idlib gas attacks and emergency negotiations are necessary to stop further bloodshed, prevent expanded Cold War conflict

Greens criticize war drumbeats from Democrats and U.S. media, call for a revived antiwar movement

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org<http://www.gp.org/>
@GreenPartyUS<https://www.twitter.com/GreenPartyUS>

For Immediate Release:
Saturday, April 8, 2017

Contact:
Scott McLarty, Media Director, 202-904-7614<tel:(202)%20904-7614>, scott at gp.org<mailto:scott at gp.org>
________________________________
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other leaders have also called for an investigation. Green Party leaders noted that unilateral attacks on another sovereign country that poses no immediate threat to the U.S. violate international law and treaties to which the U.S. is signatory.

The Green Party also calls for the U.S. to admit Syrian civilians, especially children, who are fleeing the war.

Greens said that the strike ordered by President Trump threatens to expand the Syrian conflict into a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia in the context of a new Cold War between the two powers. The CIA and Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, have supplied funding and weapons to Syrian rebel groups that have strengthened ISIL and al-Qaeda, even while the U.S. continues to bomb the latters' strongholds in Iraq.

Green Party leaders asserted that the investigation and emergency negotiations with Russia, Iran, and all others involved or with an interest in the Syrian war are necessary to stop further bloodshed and prevent a wider regional or global military confrontation.

The Green Party supports an international arms embargo on all sides, which is only possible through multilateral negotiation. The party refutes bipartisan claims that military solutions can bring peace and stability.

In calling for a halt to U.S. military action, the Green Party in no way defends either the Assad government or rebel forces, which are responsible for the slaughter, maiming, and displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The party supports an international investigation into war crimes on all sides. Greens warned that U.S. military action will only lead to more mass civilian casualties, as shown by U.S. invasions and attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and other Muslim countries since 2001.

The Green Party sharply criticized major media and warhawk Democrats who are cheering the missile strikes. Mr. Trump's pre-attack friendly stance towards Russia -- opposed by Democrats enthusiastic for a new Cold War -- offered a chance for cooperation between Washington and Moscow. The missile strikes are likely to have scuttled that chance.

Greens said that Trump Administration's belligerence risks a new era of reckless warfare comparable to -- or worse than -- President George W. Bush's disastrous first term. Since his inauguration and despite his protestations of sympathy for civilians, including children, killed in the Idlib assault, Mr. Trump has ordered raids in Yemen and air assaults on Mosul and a mosque near Aleppo that have killed scores of civilians. These crimes are compounded by his administration's anti-Muslim immigration proposals and deportations, especially targeting Syrians fleeing their country's civil war.

The Green Party calls for a revived mass antiwar movement that opposes military action that threatens the lives of civilians, that rejects wars for oil and other resources and for U.S. political and economic domination, and that recognizes a dangerous continuity in the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations' war policies. These same policies have ignited rage against the U.S. and may lead to new retaliatory violence against Americans.

The party also urges deep cuts in defense spending (except for veterans' services) and dismantling of the military-industrial complex, noting that the U.S. military budget is ten times greater than Russia's and that the U.S. faces no threat from other countries.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org<http://www.gp.org/>
202-319-7191<tel:(202)%20319-7191>
@GreenPartyUS<https://www.twitter.com/GreenPartyUS>


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