[Peace-discuss] AWARE flyer from eight years ago

[Carl G. Estabrook]

Here’s a flyer that AWARE distributed eight years ago, as Bush was leaving office.


> U.S. WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST:  AFGHANISTAN
> 
> Some people think that Barack Obama is poised for an historic presidency that could unite this country and lead us to a better future.  He has talked of ending wars and negotiating diplomatically with world leaders.  Earlier this year he said, "I don't want to just end the war, I want to end the mindset that got us into war."  This talk and these positions gave us some hope for peace in the world and an end to the millions of killings.  And millions of our people voted for Obama.
> 
> Just recently, though, he spoke of sending a surge of tens of thousands of troops into Afghanistan.  Whoa!  We already have more than 30,000 U.S. troops there, in addition to more than 140,000 troops and maybe 50,000 mercenaries in 17 permanent bases in Iraq.  And we will never "win" the war in Iraq, nor the one in Afghanistan.  How can we not have learned at least that much?  How can we kill one more person, one more old man, one more woman, one more child?  And how can we stand losing even one more of our young men and women?  And did you know that the recent U.S. military death count in Afghanistan exceeds that in Iraq?
> 
> Obama has made major appointments of people who have supported the wars and the killings; these evoke serious concerns.  He must defy the War Party and the corporate interests surrounding him, and pay homage to the millions of Americans who want real change -- and the ones who voted for him and made him president.
> 
> That which we do not resist, we may be forced to accept.  Millions of us want the wars to stop -- recent surveys suggest as many as 70%-80%.  Then anti-war movement needs to move immediately to oppose this shift of the "central front" of the fraudulent "war on terror" to Afghanistan.  We must not be silent and let the "surge" of American troops into Afghanistan become a reality.
> 
> The U.S. "war on terror," which began after the crimes of September 11, 2001, was not just a campaign against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and Osama bin Laden, but a broad global war to control Afghanistan and to the keep the U.S. the global superpower with permanent domination over the Middle East.  It will be fought the same way that the war in Iraq is being fought, where most of he people killed are civilians.  There is no such thing as a good war on terror -- as Benjamin Franklin wrote on another September 11, in 1773, 
> 
> 	"After much occasion to consider the folly and mischiefs of a state of warfare, and the little or no advantage obtained even by those nations who have conducted it with the most success, I have been apt to think that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or a bad peace."
> 
> We must show the people in the Middle East and in the world that in the U.S. there is a difference between the people and the government.  And we must stand up and show our government that the great majority of us do not agree with more war.
> 
> Silence and passivity don't work. We can't wait and see. The "surge" must be stopped before it is started.  We must be visible, and we must be heard.  Our world does not need any more war. 
> 
> We can write letters and make phone calls now -- right now!  Obama (and Bush) needs to hear from us (202.456.1111) -- perhaps we can remind him of his desire to "end the war [and] end the mindset that got us into war."  Congressman Johnson needs to hear from us (202.224.3121), and Senator Durbin needs to hear from us (202.224.3121), and any other person whom we can tell needs to hear from us.  And we can all write and make phone calls...
> 
> ###
> 
> {This comment, by Linda Weber, was cablecast on AWARE on the Air on 23 December 2008.
> The program, presented by members and friends of the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort
> of Champaign-Urbana, is seen every Tuesday at 10:00pm on cable channel 6.}
> 
> 

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