Search Results for: "Human Rights Watch"

U.S. Wars and Hostile Actions: A List

See also the Nonviolent Actions List.

There is a reason that most countries polled in December 2013 by Gallup called the United States the greatest threat to peace in the world, and why Pew found that viewpoint increased in 2017.

But it is a reason that eludes that strain of U.S. academia that first defines war as something that nations and groups other than the United States do, and then concludes that war has nearly vanished from the earth.

Since World War II, during a supposed golden age of peace, read more

U.S. Wars and Hostile Actions: A List Read More »

A message from the U.S. to Iran

1 Comment /

Submitted to the July 2, 2017, conference “United States, Human Rights and Discourse of Domination,” hosted by the University of Tehran and the Iranian World Studies Association.

I’m very sorry not to be there in person and am grateful to Foad Izadi for allowing me to submit this instead. I’m a critic of the institution of war and of all military violence, as well as of all antidemocratic government and all violation of civil liberties. People in Iran, the United States, read more

A message from the U.S. to Iran Read More »

The F-35 and the Incinerating Ski Slope

Leave a Comment /

By David Swanson
Remarks in Burlington, Vermont, April 22, 2017

Thank you all for inviting me. There is no place I’d rather be on earth day. And that includes marching for science at the March for Science in Washington. Although I certainly support marching for honesty, and I’d even march for the cause of getting more scientists to march — and any other group that hasn’t yet found the time to bother.

Unless resisting madness becomes mainstream, the madmen will decide our fate.

Thank you also for having started the first chapter of World Beyond War and for having given us the idea to have chapters. We now have people working on starting dozens of chapters in over a dozen countries. And we have staff to help them, and we have people in 151 countries who have signed the pledge that I’ll pass around here, pledging to work to end all war. We’re trying to get to 175 countries, because that’s how many the U.S. military admits to having troops in. So, 24 more to go. If you know anybody in Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras, Mongolia, Algeria, Lithuania, Ethiopia, or Papua New Guinea, please point them to WorldBeyondWar.org.

And thank you for having set up such a terrific program of workshops today, and — I hope — of work that will follow the workshops.

I hope my comments fit into the program, because I’m going to take a round about way of speaking in support of peace and environmentalism by praising garbage incinerators.

The F-35 and the Incinerating Ski Slope Read More »

Michael Flynn Should Remember Truths He Blurted Out Last Year

Leave a Comment /

Michael Flynn, expected to advise Donald Trump on counterproductive killing operations misleading labeled “national security,” is generally depicted as a lawless torturer and assassin. But, whether for partisan reasons or otherwise, he’s a lawless torturer and assassin who has blurted out some truths he shouldn’t be allowed to forget.

For example:

“Lt. Gen. Flynn, who since leaving the DIA has become an outspoken critic of the Obama administration, charges that the read more

Michael Flynn Should Remember Truths He Blurted Out Last Year Read More »

Bush-Obama Powers Will Pass to Next President

Leave a Comment /

Remember when coups and assassinations were secretive, when presidents were obliged to go to Congress and tell lies and ask permission for wars, when torture, spying, and lawless imprisonment were illicit, when re-writing laws with signing statements and shutting down legal cases by yelling “state secrets!” was abusive, and when the idea of a president going through a list of men, women, and children on Tuesdays to pick whom to have murdered would have been deemed an outrage?

All such read more

Bush-Obama Powers Will Pass to Next President Read More »

War: It's Human Nature only if Collective Suicide is Natural

Leave a Comment /

read more

War: It's Human Nature only if Collective Suicide is Natural Read More »

Opposing War With a Smile

Leave a Comment /

Remarks at teach-in at Spring Rising event March 20, 2015, UDC Law School. Note: Rally at White House is noon, March 21.

More times than I can count, after I’ve given a speech about war and peace without tears in my eyes I’ve afterward been either blamed or credited with optimism. As in “What the hell are you so optimistic about?” or “Oh, I’m so glad you’re optimistic.” So, as our local Nobel Laureate would say, let me be clear: I am not an advocate read more

Opposing War With a Smile Read More »

U.S. Standing Alone Against Children

Leave a Comment /

Lawrence Wittner points out that the United States will soon be the only nation on earth that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

And why not? Wittner focuses on general backward stupidness: the treaty would “override” the Constitution or the importance of families or the rights of parents. He points out the treaty’s support for parents and families and the impossibility of overriding the Constitution — which we might note in any case says nothing read more

U.S. Standing Alone Against Children Read More »

Beyond 935 Lies

Leave a Comment /

Charles Lewis’ book, 935 Lies, would make a fine introduction to reality for anyone who believes the U.S. government usually means well or corporations tend to tell the truth in the free market. And it would make an excellent introduction to the decline and fall of the corporate media. Even if these topics aren’t new to you, this book has something to add and retells the familiar quite well.

The familiar topics include the Gulf of Tonkin, the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, the civil rights read more

Beyond 935 Lies Read More »