[Peace-discuss] Flyer for Saturday's AWARE peace demonstration

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Text of a flyer prepared for distribution at the regular monthly AWARE 
anti-war demonstration, Saturday 4 February, 2-4pm, Main & Neil in 
Champaign; editorial suggestions welcome.]

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NO MUSLIM BAN!  NO CHINA WAR!
President Trump must break with the policies of his predecessors.

“I and the public know / What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return.” --W. H. Auden

[1] NO MUSLIM BAN. President Trump’s restrictions on entry to the US - 
designed to lessen the chance of terrorist attacks on Americans - are 
approved by a majority of Americans, but he is going about it in the 
wrong way. In "War against terrorism or expansion of the American 
Empire?” (2002), William Blum, former State Department employee and 
historian of US interventions, puts it as follows:

	“If I were the president, I could stop terrorist attacks against the 
United States in a few days. Permanently. I would first apologize - very 
publicly and very sincerely - to all the widows and the orphans, the 
impoverished and the tortured, and all the many millions of other 
victims of American imperialism. I would then announce that America's 
global interventions - including the awful bombings - have come to an 
end. And I would inform Israel that it is no longer the 51st state of 
the union but – oddly enough – a foreign country. I would then reduce 
the military budget by at least 90% and use the savings to pay 
reparations to the victims and repair the damage from the many American 
bombings and invasions...”

[2] NO CHINA WAR. A war between the greatest military power and the 
world's second largest economy is no longer unthinkable. The media is 
beating the drums of war as the world is being primed to regard China as 
a new enemy. The disputed islands in the South China Sea have become a 
flashpoint for war between China and America. American bases form a 
giant noose encircling China with missiles, bombers, warships all the 
way from Australia through the Pacific to Asia and beyond.
	A stereotype of communist dictatorship is widely spread by the US, 
preventing from understanding China as it is. The Chinese government is 
not trying to run the world. They want to keep America from dominating 
the region.
	The US massive military build-up is known in Washington as the ‘pivot 
to Asia’. The target is China. President  Obama in 2011 said that 
creating an American presence in the Asia Pacific was his "top 
priority.” For America's unchallenged arms industry, the annual prize is 
huge profits from almost $600 billion of military spending - but the 
smartest weapons need enemies. With the current situation in the South 
China Sea, the danger of confrontation grows by the day.

[3] ANTI-WAR GROUPS HERE & ABROAD CALL ON PRESIDENT TRUMP TO
~ (1) establish a foreign policy based on diplomacy, international law, 
human rights, and respect for the sovereignty of other nations; end war 
provocations In Europe and Asia;
~ (2) end the wars (in the Mideast and elsewhere) and stop US drone 
assassinations;
~ (3) cut US military spending by at least 50% and close the more than 
700 foreign military bases (neither Russia nor China has more than 
twelve); bring US troops (and weapons) home; and withdraw US ‘special 
forces’ - death squads - sent into 70% of the world’s countries;
~ (4) stop US support for human rights abusers, notably Israel and Saudi 
Arabia; and
~ (5) lead on global nuclear disarmament.

ANTI-WAR ANTI-RACISM EFFORT - on Facebook at “AWARE of Champaign Urbana 
Illinois”
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