[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [Peace] peace demonstration / Saturday, 2pm-4pm / January 7, 2017

[Karen Medina]

Dear Peace-Discuss,

I was reading through Carl's flyer.
* It seems to me that Obama is a Lame Duck president with less than two
weeks left in his presidency.
* I think we might be better off diving directly into things as they
currently are, the situation that Trump will inherit.
* I took out stuff that I think we don't need, and I changed Obama to US in
a few places.

-karen medina
---
A proposed flyer for Saturday’s demonstration. Comments welcome.
[I took out stuff that I think we don't need.]
---
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S ATTACKS ON THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST -
AND ITS WAR PROVOCATIONS AROUND THE WORLD - CONTINUE IN 2017.
THAT’S UNJUSTIFIED - WE MUST TELL THEM TO STOP .

The United States is continues making war around the world - although most
Americans are not aware of what we are doing.

Since World War II, US presidents have killed more than 20 million people
in 37 nations. The US remains what M. L. King called it, “The greatest
purveyor of violence in the world today.”

In addition to conducting wars throughout the Mideast, the US 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 United States is risking
war with both Russia and China, even nuclear war. The President 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 United States risking nuclear war, we are preparing for it:
President Obama  launched a 10-year trillion dollar program to update
nuclear weapons - and make them more usable!

The Obama administration is also partly 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 theses resources 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.

As Obama leaves office, he promises ten thousand US troops will stay in
Afghanistan - along with mercenaries and ‘coalition forces’ (NATO). And US
subversion of other countries in MENA - the Mideast and North Africa -
continues apace.

Astonishingly, the US administration claims that its authority to continue
to kill people in the Mideast today comes from the “Authorization for the
Use of Military Force” passed by Congress just after the criminal attacks
of 9-11-2001: that was directed against al-Qaeda, the organization
responsible for the 9-11 attacks. But the US administration is killing
people today in the Syria in alliance with al-Qaeda - although most
Americans don’t know it.

And the supporters of that murderous policy, the neocons, are desperately
seeking to influence the incoming Trump administration.

The Australian journalist John Pilger wrote before the election, "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."

But 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 anti-war groups around the US demand that President Trump
~ (1) establish a foreign policy based on diplomacy, international law,
human rights, and respect for the sovereignty of other nations;
~ (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; &
~ (5) lead on global nuclear disarmament.
~ (6) hand back the war powers to Congress.

~~~
        {This flyer is distributed by members and friends of the Anti-War
Anti-Racism Effort}
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