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

[Carl G. Estabrook]

I hope all the members & friends of AWARE who’ve participated in this discussion will participate in AWARE ON THE AIR, the tv program recorded noon-1pm on Tuesday at Urbana Public TV (100 Vine St., Urbana). It’s an unrehearsed panel discussion of the ongoing US war-making, which is being hidden and misrepresented by the administration and the media. (Here’s an example: <http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-06/here-us-intelligence-report-accusing-putin-ordering-campaign-influence-us-election <http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-06/here-us-intelligence-report-accusing-putin-ordering-campaign-influence-us-election>>.)

The recordings are cablecast and available on YouTube.

—CGE


> On Jan 7, 2017, at 11:57 AM, Karen Medina via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> I agree that Obama and his administration have committed war crimes way beyond the war crimes of each previous administration.
> And I believe that each succeeding president will commit more. 
> 
> All governments lean toward endless war, concentration of power, and fascism, UNLESS the people stop it. 
> 
> If we were to write an article about Obama, then we should write an article about Obama. 
> I see this flier as an article about 2017. Where we are. How WE can turn it around.
> 
> -karen medina
> 
> On Sat, Jan 7, 2017 at 8:24 AM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
> I continue to marvel at Obama’s ability “to cloud men’s [and women’s] minds.” (I’ll buy a beer for anyone old enough to get that reference.)
> 
> He expanded Bush’s wars and launched "the most extreme terrorist campaign of modern times - his drone assassinations” (Chomsky).
> 
> Refusing to prosecute the Bush administration’s torture (which his administration continued sub rosa), Obama said he had “a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.” Suppose the Nuremberg tribunal had said that?
> 
> The problem is acute today as Obama and the neocons work furiously to bend the Trump administration to their war policies.
> 
> We should expose and oppose that - not minimize Obama’s crimes.  —CGE
> 
> 
> 
>> On Jan 7, 2017, at 8:05 AM, Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com <mailto:baldwinricky at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Karen's version is much improved.  I do not think overemphasizing the outgoing president's crimes (as AWARE did not do 8 years ago) is worth the space.  Four years is a lot longer than 2 weeks.
>> 
>> 
>>  
>> Ricky Baldwin 
>> "Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes." 
>> - Maggie Kuhn
>> 
>> 
>> On Saturday, January 7, 2017 7:50 AM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> I like the change of “Obama” to “US” or US government in many places, that Karen Medina has suggested, one I have suggested many times as well, with no success. 
>> 
>> However I question “The Obama administration is also “partly” responsible for the “civil” war .  The addition of “partly” is I believe misleading because it minimizes the US role, Implying others are more responsible though others likely wouldn’t be involved at all if not for US involvement. 
>> 
>> Also, though the main stream media refers to it as a “civil” war, that is open to debate.
>> 
>> 
>> On Jan 7, 2017, at 04:49, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Thats the crucial issue today, and it’s there in the draft. 
>>> 
>>> After a description (which your edit removes) of Obama’s behavior in office, it says,
>>> 
>>> "And the supporters of those murderous policies, the neocons, are desperately seeking to influence the incoming Trump administration." 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>  
>>>> On Jan 7, 2017, at 6:30 AM, kmedina67 via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I like the part about obama furiosly trying to lock trump into the neocon wars. You should put that in the flyer. 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
>>>> 
>>>> -------- Original message --------
>>>> From: "Carl G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu <mailto:galliher at illinois.edu>>
>>>> Date: 1/6/17 22:28 (GMT-06:00)
>>>> To: Karen Medina <kmedina67 at gmail.com <mailto:kmedina67 at gmail.com>>
>>>> Cc: Peace-discuss List <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net <mailto:Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>>
>>>> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] peace demonstration / Saturday, 2pm-4pm /   January 7, 2017
>>>> 
>>>> Karen—
>>>> 
>>>> I’ve been through your proposed edits for tomorrow’s flyer, and I think they have a tendency to obscure the differences between Trump and Obama-Clinton on war - and even to exculpate Obama.
>>>> 
>>>> Obama is a good deal more than a lame duck, when it come to war policy: the Obama-Clinton people are working furiously to lock the Trump administration into the very neocon, pro-war policies Trump criticized in the campaign. The Russian hysteria shows the lengths they'll go to in order to do this.
>>>> 
>>>> We shouldn’t minimize Obama’s vicious war-making - especially as he and his allies are making significant attempts to force the new administration into it. 
>>>> 
>>>> (As Karen Aram points out, Francis Boyle thinks they’d go as far as actually starting war with Russia to present Trump with a fait accompli.) 
>>>> 
>>>> Under these circumstances I’d prefer to have the passages you took out included. 
>>>> 
>>>> Regards, Carl
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> > On Jan 6, 2017, at 11:27 AM, Karen Medina via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
>>>> > 
>>>> > 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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