Peace and War

Disturbing the Peace

A new film called Disturbing the Peace tells the story — unknown to most Americans but painfully familiar to others — of Israel and Palestine. Of the many films I’ve seen, this is one of the best. It presents both sides without equating them. It opens itself to a broad audience without boring anybody.

Disturbing the Peace presents personal stories of soldiers and of suicide bombers. You should come away understanding while opposing all of these stories.

In a nod to the power of read more

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I'm Headed to Alaska

David Swanson to speak in Fairbanks, Alaska, on “How we abolish the institution of war”

WHO: David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015 and 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.

WHERE: University of Alaska, Schaible Auditorium, Bunnell read more

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Nobel Committee Gets Peace Prize Wrong Yet Again

Juan Manuel Santos is not a grassroots advocate for disarmament and the abolition of war. He’s someone who has used war but been willing to turn to peace. He is not in need of funding for his work toward global disarmament and peace because he doesn’t do such work and because he is wealthy. He also is one side of a very tentative and precarious peace effort; why the Nobel Committee would give a prize to one side only in such a situation without considering the harm it could do to the read more

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The Nation's Big Scoop on Clinton's Militarism

Katha Pollit buried a huge scoop in her Hillary Clinton endorsement: “[S]he supports . . . reducing the military budget.” That’s not been reported anywhere else that I can find, including Clinton’s own website. If she secretly wants to reduce military spending, why does she openly want to remove the cap created by the sequester? Given that military spending across numerous departments is over half of federal discretionary spending, a secret plan to reduce it could be a read more

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What's Behind Time Magazine's Putin Demonizing?

“Russia Wants to Undermine Faith in the U.S. Election. Don’t Fall For It.” Thus reads the cover of Time magazine with a photo of Vladimir Putin on the cover staring at me from shelves as I sit in an airport.  Genuinely curious, I check out Massimo Calabresi‘s article online.

Of course, U.S. elections are almost completely unverifiable and do not even pretend to meet international standards. Jimmy Carter doesn’t even try to monitor them because there’s no read more

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Police Brutality against Blacks Rooted in US Foreign Policy

By Tasnim News Agency

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior American peace activist and author said the killing of African American people by US police has its origins in the country’s foreign policy.

In an interview with Tasnim, David Swanson, who is the director of the “World Beyond War” website, said that the institutionalized “culture of immunity “for police officers in the United States has led to fatal shootings against African Americans, who are in most cases “unarmed, non-threatening and non-law-violating people.”

Highlighting the role the Israeli military plays in the training of US law enforcement forces, Swanson related the shooting culture to read more

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