[Peace] "Afghan Regrets" -- AOTA 10pm ch.6

[C. G. Estabrook]

AWARE ON THE AIR for the 4th week of August, 2009 -- presented by members and 
friends of AWARE, the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of Champaign-Urbana, a local 
peace group -- tonight brings you "Afghan Regrets" (we should have more than a 
few) on Urbana Public Television, cable channel 6 at 10pm.

Ron Szoke and yr. obdt. servt. present an account of the US government's 
invasion & occupation of the Middle East, from Palestine to Pakistan -- and of 
the opposition to it, both locally and nationally, from American citizens like 
us who are appalled at the government's betrayal of our democratic principles.

	THE ANTI-WAR ANTI-RACISM CALENDAR

Today is August 25, a difficult day for capital cities:

ON THIS DAY IN 1814, a British raiding party led by Admiral Sir George Cockburn* 
launched an attack on Washington DC.  They set fire to the Capitol, then 
proceeded to the White House and, before setting fire to it, consumed a meal set 
out by Dolly Madison, which had been abandoned by the fugitive president and his 
family.  Cockburn next proceeded to the offices of the The National Intelligence 
[a newspaper] to avenge himself on the press for what it had written about him. 
  He ordered his men to destroy the paper's printing types, saying, "Be sure 
that all the Cs are destroyed so that the rascals cannot any longer abuse my 
name."  Cockburn then laid siege to Baltimore, the unsuccessful fusillades 
prompting the composition of the "Star-Spangled Banner," whose reference to "the 
hireling and the slave" in the rarely-sung last stanza alludes to the fact that 
Cockburn had offered freedom to all slaves who would join him in his attacks of 
1813 and 1814.  According to a British report these slaves conducted themselves 
very well and "were uniformly volunteers for the Station where they might expect 
to meet their former master."  Some of these black recruits were in the party 
that burned the White House.  But things were different 130 years later, as 
follows.

ON THIS DAY IN 1944, British and American troops occupied Paris.  But it was 
shown just this past spring that British and American commanders ensured that 
the liberation of Paris was seen as a "whites only" victory.  Black colonial 
soldiers made up around two-thirds of Free French forces, but the American army 
had them deliberately removed from the unit that led the Allied advance into the 
French capital.  The leader of the Free French forces, Charles de Gaulle, made 
it clear that he wanted his Frenchmen to lead the liberation of Paris.  Allied 
High Command agreed, but only on one condition: de Gaulle's division must not 
contain any black soldiers. In January 1944 Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, Major 
General Walter Bedell Smith, was to write in a memo stamped "confidential," "It 
is more desirable that the division mentioned above consist of white personnel. 
  This would indicate the Second Armored Division, which with only one fourth 
native personnel, is the only French division operationally available that could 
be made one hundred percent white." At the time America segregated its own 
troops racially and did not allow black GIs to fight alongside whites until the 
late stages of the war. Given the fact that Britain did not segregate its forces 
and had a large and valued Indian army, one might have expected London to object 
to such a racist policy, yet this does not appear to have been the case.  Allied 
Command insisted that all black soldiers be taken out and replaced by white ones 
from other units.  When it became clear that there were not enough white 
soldiers to fill the gaps, soldiers from parts of North Africa and the Middle 
East were used instead.  So De Gaulle got his wish to have a French division 
lead the liberation of Paris, even though the shortage of white troops meant 
that many of his men were actually Spanish.  The British and Americans got their 
"whites only" Liberation even though many of the troops involved were North 
African or Syrian. For France's West African Tirailleurs Senegalais, however, 
there was little to celebrate.  Despite forming 65% of Free French Forces and 
dying in large numbers for France, they were to have no heroes' welcome in 
Paris.  After the liberation of the French capital many were simply stripped of 
their uniforms and sent home. To make matters even worse, in 1959 their pensions 
were frozen.  The president of France at the time was Charles de Gaulle.

	THIS WEEK ON THE LOCAL SCENE

Aug 28-29 “Sweet Corn Festival” in Urbana – AWARE will be present.  Volunteers 
needed for the table: write <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu>.

Sep 1 (Tuesday) 1PM, Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S Vine St.  Taping of 
"AWARE on the Air" for UPTV to be broadcast later the same day.

Sep 1 (Tuesday) 10PM, UPTV (cable channel 6). Broadcast of "AWARE on the Air," 
taped earlier in the day.

Sep 5 (Saturday) 2-4PM Main St & Neil St, Champaign.  "The Main Event" -- 
AWARE's monthly street demonstration event. Largely focuses on opposing U.S. 
occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, but is open for anyone to join us either 
using one of our signs or one of their own.  We try to have a topical flyer to 
distribute to motorists and passers-by each month.

Sep 12-13 (Saturday-Sunday) Chicago, IL. "US Campaign to End the Occupation": 
8th Annual National Organizers' Conference. See: 
<http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=253>. AWARE 
participates in this campaign to oppose military aid to Israel and  is now 
officially listed as an endorsing organization for a letter to Congress on the 
matter. See 
<http://www.endtheoccupation.org/downloads/FY2010BudgetOpenLetter.pdf>.  A 
formal letter has been sent by an AWARE member to Sen. Durbin regarding 
opposition to military aid to Israel and including a request to meet in person 
with AWARE.  We'll inform you of the date and place of the meeting: we hope you 
can plan to attend.

Sep 19-25 (Saturday-Friday) Pittsburgh, PA. Call by "National Assembly to End 
the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars & Occupations "for demonstration/action at G20 
meeting.  See <https://www.natassembly.org/G20.html>.

Oct 9-11 "Midwest Liberty Festival" at the Du Quoin fairgrounds in southern 
Illinois. "A non-partisan, non-factional event for liberty lovers and those who 
respect our Constitution and the Bill of Rights" -- including perhaps Cindy 
Sheehan; it should contain a substantial anti-war element. For more information: 
<info at midwestlibertyfest.com> and 
<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119830955184>.

	***

The foregoing is from the minutes of AWARE meeting for August 23rd 2009.  (On 
that day in 1996 – five years before the 9/11 attacks -- Osama bin Laden issued 
"A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy 
places.")

AWARE meet every Sunday 5-6:30PM in the basement of the old post office in 
Urbana.  Visitors and new members are welcome.  If you're opposed to the war & 
want to know what you can do, join us & work on it together.

Nota bene: speakers & discussion leaders for your group's meeting are available 
from AWARE, which has no connection with any political party.  See our website 
at “anti-dash-war-dot-net” or write <cge at shout.net>.

--C. G. Estabrook, for AWARE

_________________

*The journalists Alexander, Patrick, and Andrew Cockburn are collateral descendants.

	###