[Peace] [Peace-discuss] Flyer for AWARE demonstration, Saturday 12/2

Thu Nov 30 04:54:26 UTC 2017

 When Obama was President, many liberals wanted to blame others (Bush) for his policies, the hand he was dealt, etc. That was wrong, and needed to be counteracted, including by noting the delight that Obama took in using the military, drone strikes, etc.

But Trump is now President, and he delights no less in the use of military force, although "only" Yemen stands as an egregious example. It may be important to counteract prevailing liberal wisdom by noting the institutional forces arrayed to influence Trump; but the alleged contrast between Trump and Obama becomes less convincing as the year moves to a close. It doesn't sound right anymore to see him as somehow opposed to or the victim of institutional forces. And it comes to seem like a double standard to have focused on Obama's personality as opposed to Trump's alleged powerlessness. It does matter that Trump is a genuinely creepy human being, although in his own way no more creepy than Obama.
Plus, he's the President right now, and has a lot of power.

DG
    On Wednesday, November 29, 2017, 5:32:10 PM CST, Karen Aram via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:  

 I’m sorry, Carl
I don’t like it, the title alone makes AWARE look like “Trump defenders.” It’s one thing to say this in conversation when explaining our wars, to those who think the problem began with Trump, but as a title, it sucks. Most people in this town are Democrats and won’t bother to read it.
I’m not pleased with some of that which is in the article either, because the focus  on the election is old news. Its time to move on. Trump is President and he is responsible for that which occurs on his watch.  
Trump bombed Syria and that is an impeachable offense, granted every other President before him, committed war crimes that were also impeachable offenses, Bush and most especially Obama, but Trump has been in power for almost a year now. His provocations of war with Korea, and Iran are extremely dangerous. 

On Nov 29, 2017, at 12:46, C G Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
PRESIDENT TRUMP IS NOT THE PROBLEM:ILLEGAL U.S. WARS AROUND THE WORLD ARE
The US government is today making war around the world - and it’s doing so without authorization from the U.S. Constitution or the U.N. Charter. 
If American leaders were put on trial today as German leaders were, at Nuremberg after World War II, for “launching aggressive war,” they - like the German leaders - would be hanged.   
The U.S. military is today killing people in seven Mideast and African countries - Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan (and on the other side of the world, in the Philippines). Thousands of U.S. troops are fighting in these countries, although most Americans don’t know that.  In addition, the 70,000-member U.S. ‘Special Operations Command’ is active in three-quarters of the countries of the world. Their activities include kidnapping (‘rendition’), torture, and murder.
President Obama was elected as an anti-war candidate, but in office he sent thousands of additional U.S. troops into America’s longest war, in Afghanistan. President Trump, who promised caution and non-interventionism in foreign policy - and described Hillary Clinton as a “trigger happy warmonger” - has now done the same thing himself.
What both men knew is that, in spite of intense media propaganda, most Americans don’t want U.S. troops engaged in foreign wars and don’t see the killing as justified; both candidates had to seem to oppose the wars, in order to get elected.
But the ‘one percent’ - the U.S. economic elite - do want the wars.
When World War II ended in 1945, the U.S. was the least-damaged major country on either side, and controlled the world economy. America’s wars since then - in Korea, Vietnam, Latin America, and the Mideast - have killed between 20 and 30 million people for the purpose of maintaining that control. Ordinary Americans have paid for these vicious wars, but they haven’t profited from them. 
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."
We must demand that foreign military bases be closed, U.S. troops (and weapons) be brought home, and social support - including free medical care, education, and a universal basic income - be provided for Americans immiserated by generations of U.S. government wars.
WRITE CONGRESS - DEMAND U.S. TROOPS & WEAPONS BE BROUGHT HOMEOur representatives in Congress from this area - and their email addresses - are as follows:
Representative Rodney Davis: <https://rodneydavis.house.gov/contact/>Senator Tammy Duckworth: <https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/content/contact-senator>Senator Dick Durbin: <https://www.durbin.senate.gov/contact/email>
~~~
ANTI-WAR ANTI-RACISM EFFORT - on Facebook at <AWARE of Champaign Urbana Illinois>~ U.S. troops & weapons out of the Mideast ~ Medicare for all ~ Universal basic income ~

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