Attacking Muslims Inside & Outside the U.S.
Posted by Debra in war and occupation on September 1, 2010
Time magazine asked last week, “Is the U.S. Islamophobic?” They covered screaming mobs outside sites of planned mosques in New York and Tennessee. Since then, a taxi driver in New York was slashed with a knife by a passenger who asked, “Are you Muslim?” Construction equipment at a mosque under construction in Mufreesboro Tennessee was burned, and shots were fired near the site. A supporter said the vandalism “‘takes it to a whole new level… Everyone in our community no longer feels safe.”
According to the New York Times yesterday, “A group of teenagers in western New York has been accused of harassing members of a mosque by yelling obscenities and insults during evening prayers for Ramadan, sideswiping a worshiper with a vehicle and firing a shotgun outside, the authorities said Tuesday.”
No, most people living in the U.S. don’t hate people because they are Muslim. But there’s a dangerous movement, nurtured by Fox News, parts of the Republican Party, Glenn Beck and others who believe 1) the president is Muslim and/or hates white people; 2) Muslim=terrorist and not “real” American, or in other words, “white Christian.”
The group massed in front of the so-called “Ground Zero” mosque on August 22; the armed crowd at the Arizona border to Mexico threatening people who provide aid to immigrants; and the large crowd parked at the Lincoln Monument to hear Glenn Beck Saturday share these sentiments, and are being led to act on them. See Glenn Beck Could Happen Here and Glenn Beck, the “Founding Fathers” …and A REAL Radical Alternative.
Meanwhile, not based on the demands of the people, our government is waging war on countries which are primarily Muslim; has held thousands of Muslims in indefinite detention and under torture; singles out Muslim prisoners in special “Communications Management Units” in the federal prison system. Both this president and the last repeat that they are not at war against Islam…but government actions and “grassroots” sentiment from the right say otherwise.
On 9-11, a flag-waving rally to stop the “Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero” will feature Bush’s former ambassador to the UN John Bolton and Geert Wilders, the Dutch fascist member of Parliament who wants a ban on mosques in The Netherlands. World Can’t Wait will is part of a coalition opposing the attacks on Muslims and mosques, Stop Islamophobia in the U.S.
Only one U.S. citizen, so far, is on the Obama administration’s t0-be-killed list, as we noted in the Crimes are Crimes – No Matter Who Does Them statement published this spring. We are heartened that the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights has filed suit against the U.S. government, on behalf of the man’s father, Nasser Al-Aulaqi, to stop the targeted killing.
Civil Rights Groups Challenge Targeted Killing By U.S.
“The United States cannot simply execute people, including its own citizens, anywhere in the world based on its own say-so,” said Vince Warren, Executive Director of CCR. “The law prohibits the government from killing without trial or conviction other than in the face of an imminent threat that leaves no time for deliberation or due process. That the government adds people to kill lists after a bureaucratic process and leaves them on the lists for months at a time flies in the face of the Constitution and international law.”
Iraq War is Over But the Occupation is Endless
Posted by Debra in iraq, protest and resistance, war and occupation on August 31, 2010
Sunday August 22, the Associated Press reported, “BAGHDAD — An American solider was killed in a rocket attack in southern Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. military said, marking the first American fatality since the last combat unit in Iraq pulled out of the country.”
As the “last” combat brigade left Iraq, President Obama prepares to give a major speech this week. He probably won’t claim victory; that would be laughable. He will claim that the U.S. is taking responsible action, now that the Iraqis are ready to “step up” and run “their own” country. This is the same plan the Bush regime had, but framed and re-branded, Obama-style, to cover a thoroughly illegitimate occupation.
Jeremy Scahill said on Democracy Now earlier this month, that the combat role is shifting to the State Department which “has plans to remake some US bases into what they call ‘enduring presence posts,’ EPPs. And so, you’ll have these outposts around the country that are essentially—what is essentially unfolding here is a downsized and rebranded occupation, Obama-style, that is going to necessitate a surge in private forces. The State Department is asking for MRAP vehicles, armored vehicles, for Black Hawk helicopters and for these paramilitary forces. So, yes, you can say that officially combat has ended, but in reality you’re continuing it through the back door by bringing in these paramilitary forces and classifying them as diplomatic security, which was Bush’s game from the very beginning.”
But don’t think the military is really leaving. General Ray Odierno, who’s in charge in Iraq, says they’ll stay or come back at the discretion of the administration. More troops left Ft. Hood this morning, see below.
There are still 50,000 troops “advising” the Iraqi government which rules through US backing; the biggest embassy in the world ever; civil society in shambles, and no stability for the people. Adil E. Shamoo, a professor of ethics, writes in What You Will Not Hear About Iraq, ” Iraq has between 25 and 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life. What a havoc the United States has wreaked in Iraq…For the past few decades, prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the percentage of the urban population living in slums in Iraq hovered just below 20 percent. Today, that percentage has risen to 53 percent: 11 million of the 19 million total urban dwellers.”
Chris Floyd in The Peace Laureate’s Prayer: War Without End, Amen
So while the “last full U.S. combat brigade” have left Iraq, just under 50,000 soldiers from specially trained heavy, infantry and Stryker brigades will stay, as well as two combat aviation brigades …
There are seven Advise and Assist Brigades in Iraq, as well as two additional National Guard infantry brigades “for security,” said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Craig Ratcliff. …
The Army selected brigade combat teams as the unit upon which to build advisory brigades partly because they would be able to retain their inherent capability to conduct offensive and defensive operations, according to the Army’s security force assistance field manual, which came out in May 2009. This way, the brigade can shift the bulk of its operational focus from security force assistance to combat operations if necessary.
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Stephanie Tang from World Can’t Wait joined anti-war veterans Josh Stieber and Ethan McCord on the Lettieri & Poole show, KGO Newstalk Radio (San Francisco) Saturday August 21, for a talk about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and WikiLeaks.
Josh and Ethan were in Iraq with Bravo Company 2-16, the unit whose Apache helicopter attack on civilians is now known to the world thanks to the Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” video. Ethan is seen in that video, carrying a wounded Iraqi child to find a medic. After returning from Iraq, Josh and Ethan wrote An Open Letter of Reconciliation and Responsibility to the Iraqi People: From Current and Former Members of the US Military.
Listen/Download (36 minutes)
| Scott Trent answers an article, “Eight things Obama has done to make the world a more peaceful place” with The Truth About Obama’s “Accomplishments” and the Need to Build a Mass Movement |  |
How YOU Can Help People See the Truth Exposed by Wikileaks
Posted by Debra in protest and resistance on August 11, 2010
When an activist from World Can’t Wait sent me a link to Thursday’s Pentagon press conference, and called Geoff Morell, their spokesman a “pompus ass,” I thought that wasn’t really a news flash.
But really, to get the full impact of the government’s threat to Julian Assange & Wikileaks for revealing the government’s “property,” you have to see Morell’s sneer as the Pentagon reacted to Wikileak’s posting of its huge “insurance” file, presumably designed to make sure the information is still available if their sites are shut down, or they are rounded up.
The press corps pushed Morell to answer why the Pentagon wants Wikileaks to physically turn over material that’s been viewed and downloaded by millions, and is in the possession of major world newspapers, and what would happen to Julian Assange in particular. Morell ominously repeated that Wikileaks has to “do the right thing” and comply… or else.
For his part Assange is assuredly firm in his motivations for releasing the documents detailing the every day operations of the US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan in War Diaries (wardiary.wikileaks.org). In a video interview with The Economist Assange says “true information does good.” And below, the Guardian interviews him, headlining, “Julian Assange on the Afghanistan war logs: ‘They show the true nature of this war.’”
The editors of Revolution newspaper ended their coverage of the government threats on Wikileaks with a message I think we should spead everywhere in WikiLeaks: Exposing War Crimes of a Criminal War:
“All of the people involved in releasing these WikiLeak documents are taking heroic actions to tell the world about the crimes U.S. imperialism is committing in Afghanistan. They are literally risking their lives. And it is up to anyone with a sense of moral responsibility to humanity-to not turn their eyes, to not change the channel- but instead to act with real resolve to put an end to such crimes.”
How to Show “Collateral Murder” Outside in Public
Some passersby walked by slowly, stopping just long enough to see what we were doing – but then as they kept going they’d start talking about it. A guy commented to his friend “Oh that’s Wikileaks, the helicopter video.” Couples would start exchanging views about the war in Iraq. A group headed into a restaurant would be chatting about wine and vacations — then suddenly they were talking about Wikileaks and what each other thought about the whistleblowers leaking war documents.
Ray McGovern Speaks at Quantico Protest: Pfc. Manning and the Value of Truth
Watch: Abortion, Morality and the Liberation of Women
Webcast: Anti-War Leaders and Veterans Respond to the WikiLeaks Revelations
Posted by Debra in protest and resistance on August 5, 2010
March 20 White House Arrest Trial Ends with 3 Convictions, 3 Acquittals
Posted by Debra in protest and resistance on July 26, 2010
Monday July 12, I spent a day in DC Superior Court supporting six anti-war activists on charges that arose from March 20 arrests at the White House while protesting the 7th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Elaine Brower and Matthis Chiroux were found guilty in a bench trial of “failure to obey a police order.” LeFlora Cunningham-Walsh was found guilty of “crossing a police line.” John Gold, Cindy Sheehan, and Jim Veeder were found not guilty of crossing the police line.
Read the reports, see the photos and watch the videos from the protest March 20, 2010 in DC
There are legal questions involved in the convictions which will likely be appealed. In the course of a permitted, peaceful march, at which symbolic cardboard coffins were left in front of buildings of the Veterans Affairs Offices and Halliburton, marchers dropped about a dozen of the coffins in front of the White House, in the designated “picture postcard” zone where tourists are always allowed, but political protest is not.
The prosecution produced a US Park Police video of the S.W.A.T. team leader Lieutenant Beck announcing, on a barely-audible bullhorn that the protest permit was revoked, and that everyone inside of an arbitrary police line of yellow tape and bike racks had to move. Police already had a continuous line of these bike racks and cops directly in front of the White House fence with plenty of safe space for them to “protect persons and property”, that no one was attempting to challenge.
Where was the emergency or dangerous situation that the prosecution referred to which allegedly gave the park police the right to declare the “permit revoked?” Where was the threat to the area? Elaine Brower, who testified in her own defense, talked of years of opposition to the wars in which her son was deployed. She explained that she lay down on the sidewalk next to the symbolic coffins demanding an end to these illegitimate wars that have so adversely affected those military family members who stood beside her that day crying over the death of their sons. She argued that if tourists can be there at one moment taking photos unimpeded, why can’t a permitted political protest be there at another?
Cindy Sheehan choked up on the stand, recounting her efforts after her son Casey was killed to stop the wars — many miles of marching, thousands of speeches and interviews, her radio show, and even a run for Congress — only to have a new, Democratic Congress and president expand the war in Afghanistan.
These activists all did the right thing in making visible non-violent protest, stepping beyond the bounds of what the government arbitrarily permits, and also refusing to accept any offer of a “plea bargain” in the process leading up to and on the day of the trial. All six defendants stood together in solidarity to demand their right to be heard and that all bogus charges are dismissed. Unfortunately, the end result was that three were ultimately convicted, and three were able to walk away with an acquittal.
That Saturday afternoon in March, Elaine and Matthis were calling on many more of the protesters standing there to join their impromptu action of lying on the sidewalk in front of the White House. If hundreds would have joined in, there likely would have been no arrests and no situation where the six arrested for basically a “traffic violation” were roughed up and held on cement floors in torturous conditions for 50+ hours. Given the max penalty for the infractions were fines, and no jail time, the government clearly was delivering a message that such protest will be riskier and more dangerous. None of them should have been convicted!
Dissent, truth-telling, and daring to speak about why these wars continue, through the Bush regime, escalating into the “change” we should be resisting, has to be our mission. While the Peace of the Action events attracted very few people last week, I applaud Cindy and those who came to protest. I also applaud those that were convicted who could have accepted the plea bargain from the government which ultimately allowed three others to have their charges dismissed.
We need more of this!
Photographers Will Risk Felony Charges to Photograph Oil
Posted by Debra in Gulf Oil Disaster on July 6, 2010
TUESDAY July 6 7:00 pm
Emergency Committee to Stop the Gulf Oil Disaster Report Back & Strategy Meeting
First Unitarian Universalist Church 5212 South Claibourne Avenue @ Jefferson, New Orleans, LA
Agenda:
Photographs and Report from Jake & Nicollette of the past 3 days of oil sightings in Florida & Alabama
Plans for responding to the clampdown on media (see below).
Strategizing further independent actions; fact-finding and speaking tours of the gulf.
On top of the lies and cover-ups about the oil disaster by BP and the Obama administration, it was revealed this weekend that the cover-up goes further every day:
“From Orpheus Reed: On July 3, 2010, the Coast Guard announced the federal government has imposed a new rule that will prevent journalists or anyone else from getting closer than 65 feet to any clean-up operations, equipment or vessels in the Gulf of Mexico without prior permission. People violating this rule will be arrested and charged with a class D felony.
This rule will mean journalists will be essentially prevented from taking pictures of oiled birds and other wildlife or sea life contaminated or killed in areas where clean-up is being done. It will prevent the world from further seeing the scenes of marshlands fouled with oil if they are surrounded by oil booms, and from taking close-up pictures of oil booms laying ineffectually in the water as beaches are fouled. Now showing the world the impacts of the gulf oil gusher is punishable by jail and a fine of $40,000.”
More on BP’s own “reporters” from Kevin Gostzola: BP, Government Blocking Press from Reporting Their “Ballet at Sea”
“BP has “reporters” working for them, producing stories on the oil disaster that they contend are not being covered by media organizations. The reporting consists primarily of puff-piece accounts of the damage, how awesome it is to be flying over the damage and looking down at the wetlands that the oil will likely spread into and further destroy. It consists of celebration of the tourism the Gulf coast has to offer and a profile of tourists who have not canceled their vacations. And, it glamorizes the service of the National Guard who have helped BP militarize the Gulf and turn areas into off-limit zones that members of the media are not allowed to venture into…”
Join the Stop the Gulf Oil Disaster! Facebook Group
The Emergency Committee to Stop the Gulf Oil Disaster is receiving administrative — and heartfelt — support of World Can’t Wait
Operation “Save America” Threatens Clinic in North Carolina
Posted by Debra in abortion and birth control on May 17, 2010
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Dr. George Tiller was killed almost a year ago, on May 31, 2009. His murder, for World Can’t Wait, and others, brought a renewed commitment to stand up for women, and build a movement to stop the spreading attacks on abortion & birth control.
Access to abortion is as limited now as it’s ever been since 1973, with new laws in 10 states being considered, and these passed:
* Nebraska has criminalized abortions after 20 weeks — that’s before viability! This law, which is in direct violation of Roe, is designed only to stop Dr. Leroy Carhart from working in Nebraka. It will be challenged in the courts — but it could also be the basis for the Roberts Supreme Court to overturn Roe.
* In Oklahoma, women seeking abortions will now be forced to undergo an intrusive vaginal-probe ultrasound while viewing the fetus and hearing it described in detail.
* Arizona now prohibits all private and public health insurance plans from covering abortion care — depriving thousands and thousands of women of the insurance coverage they currently have.
(thanks to Terry O’Neill, President of NOW, for this information)
Health care “reform” which limits access to abortion, even through private insurance plans
Increased threats to providers since Dr. Tiller’s murder
It is not at all unlikely that Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision allowing abortion in 1973, will be overturned soon, leaving states to make their own laws. In about 40 states, that would mean no, or decreased, legal abortion.
Call to Action: Operation “Save America” in Charlotte NC, July 17-23
On July 17, a rabidly fundamentalist sect of anti-abortion fanatics called “Operation Save America” is calling on anti-abortion forces to “storm the gates of hell” at a women’s health clinic in Charlotte, NC. Operation Save America has a long and vicious history of opposing women’s right to choose, fighting against gay rights, and spreading vicious anti-Muslim hatred. They must be opposed.
World Can’t Wait is calling for people to converge on Charlotte to defend women’s reproductive rights, and oppose Operation Save America. No to fundamentalist fascists who want to impose their Dark Ages morality, their anti-gay hatred and religious bigotry on society! No to false and anti-scientific claims that abortion harms women! No to threats and violence intimidating those who heroically provide women with the right to control their bodies and their own lives. We seek to unite with a broad array of pro-women’s rights and human rights forces and individuals; that’s where we need to be seeking “common ground” and common cause-not with people who want to control women and promote violence against their healthcare providers!
Contact World Can’t Wait to find out more about this mobilization-and mark the week of July 17th on your calendar to be in Charlotte, NC to defend women’s rights, and defend clinic access! Abortion is not murder-a fetus is not a baby-women are not incubators!
More!
Abortion, Morality and the Liberation of Women, featuring a discussion between Dr. Susan Wicklund, author of This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor and Sunsara Taylor, writer for Revolution newspaper will be screened at the Mid-Atlantic Women’s Studies Association Conference this June.
Women and the Politics of Possibilities: What Have We Made Possible, What Can We Dare to Do?
Friday, June 11, 2010, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Montgomery College – Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus
7600 Takoma Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912
Order your copy of the film today!
Learn about and share the long history of abortion and birth control at artist Heather Ault’s website 4,000 Years for Choice. Designed to educate and inspire, Ault has sent hundreds of postcards to clinics around the country besieged by the anti-abortion movement, and collected an impressive historical timeline that properly places abortion into its context as a human practice found in every civilization. You can even buy poster versions of her beautiful postcards! Heather is also the editor of World Can’t Wait’s film Abortion, Morality and the Liberation of Women.
Some science: PZ Meyers, atheist blogger and biologist at the University of Minnesota, has this blunt and frank appraisal of all the talk of granting the “right of personhood” to embryos in An Embryo is Not a Person.
Abortion Empowers You! Anti-abortion ads appearing in NYC subways claiming “Abortion Changes You” are being corrected with these awesome stickers, setting things straight: Having a child against your will changes you!
Obama Steps over the Line to Assassination First; Due Process Never
Posted by Debra in afghanistan, iraq, war and occupation on May 12, 2010
“In the past few weeks, it has become common knowledge that Barack Obama has openly ordered the assassination of an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, because he is suspected of participating in plots by Al Qaeda. Al-Awlaki denies these charges. No matter. Without trial or other judicial proceeding, the administration has simply put him on the to-be-killed list. ”
Graphic from New York Review of Books ad May 27 2010
So begins the text of a paid ad in The New York Review of Books May 27 issue which arrives on newsstands Thursday. The statement, under the headline “Crimes Are Crimes – No Matter Who Does Them” poses the challenges:
What would we have done if President George Bush had publicly ordered the assassination of a citizen? And what should we do now as a fever pitch of media calls for the drones to “take out” Al Awlaki?
The New York Times went front page Sunday with a long profile titled “Imam’s Path From Condemning Terror to Preaching Jihad.” The article covers al-Awlaki’s speeches and advocacy of ideas, providing no evidence that he’s committed crimes. But this is the newspaper that front-paged Judith Miller’s reporting on Iraq having “weapons of mass destruction.” I’m not convinced that because something appears in the “paper of record” it’s either true, or that it should inform U.S. foreign policy.
My understanding of Obama’s order is that Al Awlaki is to be killed by whatever means necessary, wherever he is found, on sight, or within the scope of a drone or sniper’s rifle. As in Eric Holder’s statement Sunday May 9 that the Obama administration’s effort to set aside Miranda rights in cases of interrogations of suspected terrorists is a “very big deal,” so is ordering the killing of someone suspected of a crime, but not convicted.
If the president is judge, jury, executioner, and there is no check, no appeal, what exactly protects people from being killed for any reason, speech, idea, or even un-uttered thought?
Glenn Greenwald wrote in February when this policy was first made public:
“it’s so dangerous — as well as both legally and Constitutionally dubious — to allow the President to kill American citizens not on an active battlefield during combat, but while they are sleeping, sitting with their families in their home, walking on the street, etc. That’s basically giving the President the power to impose death sentences on his own citizens without any charges or trial. Who could possibly support that?”
Post-colonial rebellions and uprisings around the world reached the U.S. in response to the American-backed, funded and organized assassinations of Patrice Lumumba; Salvador Allende; repeated attempts to kill Fidel Castro and countless abuses such that in 1976, after intense struggle in Congress on the Church Committee, Gerald Ford issued an executive order prohibiting such assassinations. Under the Bush regime, and justifications of the so-called “Global War on Terror” international law, and U.S. laws, were set aside, but not as openly as they have been by the Obama administration.
One of the signers of the NY Review ad, Bill Quigley, wrote May 10 on Common Dreams, “Assassination of US Muslim Cleric is Illegal, Immoral and Unwise,”
“A simple committee of unelected individuals from one branch of government, no matter their subject matter expertise, should not have the power to assassinate an American citizen.”
Even FOXNews.com ran a piece, by Mohamed Elibiary, against the assassination order, It’s a Mistake to Assasinate Anwar Al-Awlaki. Elibiary warns the U.S. not to become identified historically with the Nasser regime in Egypt, which in 1966 executed Syed Qutb, as Islamic scholar, merely for his speech.
“The public perceived injustice, witnessing a military execution without any recognized due process inflicted upon a man for simply speaking and writing his mind. It led to the violent radicalization of tens of thousands.”
A comment on Facebook about the assassination order said, “The ease with which Obama did that, and the easy acceptance by the US public, is quite frightening.” I agree. Jeremy Scahill,writing in February:
There has been almost universal silence among Congressional Democrats on the Obama administration’s recently revealed decision to authorize the assassination of a US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki.
That hideous war criminal Ronald Reagan once “joked” when he didn’t realize he was on a live mike, “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes.” There was international condemnation.
On May 1, President Obama made news — but was not widely condemned as far as I’ve seen — for this “joke:”
Obama declared a warning to the Jonas Brothers, who attended the affair. “Sasha and Malia are huge fans but, boys, don’t be getting any ideas. I have two words for you: predator drones.”
This is the president who launched more predator drones into Pakistan and Afghanistan in one year than George Bush did in 8 years. A week later, PressTV reported that 20 civilians had been killed in a drone bombing in Pakistan, saying,
A total of 300 people have so far lost their lives in 42 drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal belt this year.
I am proud of those who signed this ad, and all those who paid for it in advance of its publication. Sign it yourself, and send your donations so this message can spread! We should all be raising our voices to say “Crimes ARE crimes! No matter WHO does them!”
Hundreds have signed already. Here are the signers appearing in the New York Review of Books ad:
Rocky Anderson • Edward Asner • William Ayers • William Blum • Fr. Bob Bossie • Elaine Brower • Matthis Chiroux • Noam Chomsky • James Cromwell • Carl Dix • Daniel Ellsberg • Jodie Evans • Hester Eisenstein • Donald Freed • Ann Fagan Ginger • Mike Gravel • Stephen Hays • Chris Hedges • Dahr Jamail • Kathy Kelly • Uzma Khan • Joyce Kozloff • Emily Kunstler • Sarah Kunstler • Dennis Loo • Peter McLaren • Ray McGovern • Ann Messner • Tom Morello • Tomás Olmos • Bill Quigley • Michael Ratner • Rev. Dr. George F. Regas • Mark Ruffalo • Cindy Sheehan • Jed Stone • Frank Summers • David Swanson • Debra Sweet • Sunsara Taylor • Cornel West • Andy Worthington • Ann Wright
Talking with Josh Steiber about the war, morality, and protest
Posted by Debra in protest and resistance on April 18, 2010
We Are Not Your Soldiers Banner at the March 20 Protest
We had a lively conference call this past week (apologies to everyone who couldn’t get on or got bumped off due to the number of calls coming in) with people from around the country listening to a conversation between Elaine Brower, leader of WCW, and Josh Steiber, conscientious objector who has been speaking out about being a part of the unit that carried out the now notorious massacre captured in the Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” video. Josh refused to go on that mission and later, as Janis Joplin sang, felt he had “nothing left to lose” after so many atrocities, fighting to get out of the military because he “was so internally torn up that I was at a point that I was willing to do whatever I needed to in order to stop doing these things.”
Now, he is righteously calling out this whole immoral war and using the video to make the point that
such acts were “not isolated incidents” and were “common” during his tour of duty. “After watching the video, I would definitely say that that is, nine times out of ten, the way things ended up,” Steiber was quoted as saying in an earlier press release on the video, “Killing was following military protocol. It was going along with the rules as they are.”
Steiber was not with his unit, who were the soldiers on the ground in the video. He was back at his base with the incident occurred. While not absolving of responsibility those who carried out the killing, Steiber blames the “larger system” of the US military, specifically how soldiers are trained to dehumanize Iraqis and the ROE.
“We have to address the larger system that trains people to respond in this way, or the same thing will probably happen again,” Steiber told Truthout.
Josh Steiber has been speaking out in other places too. Listen to or read his interview with Glenn Greenwald. Elaine asked Josh about how he became a conscientious objector, and how we can get more troops to take that step and resist the military. Josh talked about the responsibility that this society as a whole has for what the US military does and how it does it. Educating people is the key, he said. He talked about the military cadences that troops learn in basic training: songs about killing children and blood flowing. Target practice not on bull’s-eyes, but on the silhouettes of Middle Eastern stereotypes.
For him, it took 2 years before he even found out that conscientious objecting was an option at all.
“There’s a lot of feeling of betrayal, that we can tap into,”
with the troops, he said. To understand the psychology drummed into troops he recommended this video on YouTube, “Die Terrorist Die.” He also recommended that we use the Wikileaks video to show potential recruits what exactly they will be expected to do in the military.
Callers expressed anguish over the situation and the depths of the moral dilemma facing this society. One woman talked about her fears that people are just filtering out the video and that it isn’t necessarily affecting people. Another talked about counter protesting the Tea Party earlier in the day and having conversations with them:
“I don’t fall into this category and probably those of you on the call don’t, but there’s this mentality out there that brutal violence is just a part of humanity and we just have to make sure that it’s OUR brutal violence and no one does it to us.”
She also emphasized how important it is that some troops are speaking out; changing their views, resisting, and leaking these videos.
A Vietnam era veteran on the call said,
“Moments come along that break through the media blackout, like with the photo of the little Vietnamese girl who got napalmed, that give people a taste of the crimes that are being carried out in their names. We have to challenge the troops not to be torturers and murders. Josh talked a lot about betrayal. It’s not the people who betrayed the soldiers it’s the military and the government that betrayed them. The more we can interact with them on that level the more we can break through with them.”
Emma Kaplan underscored this point, responding to the question, “How did the soldiers react after the mission in the video:”
“Josh talks about this in his DN interview – afterwards there’s a process where it sinks in, and they go through a justification in their minds. The point about challenging the troops that Joe made is very important. Troops are thinking people who can change their minds and resist. We have a tremendous responsibility to tell the truth.”
We talked more about the need to go into the morality of the war and the participation in it with soldiers:
“Male bonding forges this brainwashing family structure. It is really difficult. The family structure just constantly reinforces the idea that if you step out of line here that you are betraying your brothers. We have to frame the question in moral terms so that they can truly follow their consciences. The really important thing that WCW is doing is going into high schools and colleges and creating a movement among the youth. Denying the military a section of these kids. Youth can have a tremendous impact among their peers.”
A student from UCSB talked about the speakout they held on their campus earlier that day, and their plans to project the video onto a wall outside on Monday. They also plan to bring the We Are Not Your Soldiers tour to speak before the end of the semester.
The call ended with some more discussion of our plans going forward: the Crimes Are Crimes statement, visible protest such as when General Petraeus comes to NYC later this week, and other ideas people have, for creating video responses to the Wikileaks video, to talking to soldiers.
The We Are Not Your Soldiers tour came up again and again, as a crucial way to impact this situation. One person said,
“It’s not just a point of going to the troops themselves, but making it a question in society at large. Dragging it out into the light of day. This is not just bad apples but what the troops are doing in our name. This is the nature of this war. The more we make this a question in society, that will give the troops who are conflicted air to breathe and room to act.”
Thank you to Josh Steiber and everyone who participated in this call.
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World Can’t Wait E-Newsletter- "New Dawn" of Endless Occupation in Iraq September 2, 2010News From World Can't Wait Dear [[First_Name]], Hello to all those we met last weekend at the Veterans for Peace Convention in Portland, ME. Elaine Brower and I hosted a discussion of the Tea Party & the Anti-War Movement, during which we learned a […]
- "New Dawn" of Endless Occupation in Iraq September 2, 2010
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