Peace and War

Tuesday marks 150 years since the start of the U.S. Civil War. Newspapers everywhere are proclaiming it the deadliest war in U.S. history, the costliest U.S. war in terms of the loss of human life. That claim, like most things we say about the Civil War, is false.

Most humans, it will surprise our newspapers to learn, are not U.S. citizens. World War II killed 100 times as many people as the U.S. Civil War, with World War I not far behind. U.S. wars in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq are among those read more

At BradBlog.

By David Swanson, Truthout

Kabul, Afghanistan – The United States, on the verge of shutting down its own government for lack of funds, just forked over another $50 million for a peace jirga (or council) to negotiate peace in Afghanistan or at least sponsor an upcoming conference in the United Arab Emirates and – perhaps more so – bribe Taliban fighters to temporarily stop fighting.

Talking is always preferable to bombing, and anything with the name peace in it has at least that read more

In the good old days of Bybee and Yoo, before we let them get away with it, thereby guaranteeing worse things to come, Justice Department memos “legalizing” the crime of aggressive war were secret. Now they’re published quickly, and there’s a new one out on Libya (PDF). It begins:

“The President had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force in Libya because
he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest. read more

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Afghanistan is full of wonderful people and could be a really terrific place to live. But first my government back home in the United States would have to stop murdering civilians over here.

I can’t join in antiwar rallies over here, where I would be happy to speak against the crimes of my own government, because it’s not considered safe for foreigners, especially Americans, to go near such scenes. Why? Well, imagine if this were happening in the United read more

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — I’ve been fortunate to meet some very talented photographers and film-makers here in Afghanistan. We’re planning an Afghan Film Festival for the United States this fall.

One film director Sahraa Karimi has produced an engaging and illuminating documentary called “Afghan Women Behind the Wheel.” When she told me the title with a bit of an accent, I thought the last word was “Veil.” It could almost as well have been. The film is about read more

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — In honor of April 4, 1967, and April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke out against war and when he was killed, I spent my first full day in Afghanistan on April 4, 2011, avoiding violence and discussing nonviolent activism with those practicing it here.

The previous night I had spoken with a number of foreign aid and development workers here in Kabul, all of whom were upset, both at Afghans who in recent days had killed workers like themselves and at a preacher read more

DUBAI, UAE — I was on my way to Afghanistan and have delayed the final leg of the trip a day to see whether being American is compatible with not getting blown up. The problem seems to be that, in addition to the U.S. military occupying the country for almost a decade and routinely murdering random innocent people, some bigoted jerk in Florida is creating a big stink about how much he hates Islam and enjoys burning copies of the Koran.

The Koran-burning preacher claims that he’s just read more

Here’s the story.

So President Obama has been quoted calling his war in Libya a turd sandwich, while Juan Cole calls it philanthropy, and Ed Schultz praises it as vengeance against this month’s Adolph Hitler. The last time we bombed this particular Hitler we took out his daughter, among other people.

How is Schultz’s spitting mad hatred as war justification squared with Cole’s humanitarian generosity? The answer is easy. They prefer different condiments on their turd sandwiches. Which is why wars read more

I’m headed to Afghanistan and appreciating this wonderful blog from someone just returned home from there.

Johan Galtung, sometimes called the father of peace studies, predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union and the refusal of Egyptian soldiers to attack civilians. His prediction of the collapse of the US empire in 2020 appears to be on schedule. So, it was noteworthy when he predicted on Tuesday at the University of Virginia that the war in Libya would last 20 years. If, however, NATO and the opposition were to kill Gadaffi, he said, the fighting could go on for more than 20 years.

This prediction read more

I’ll be visiting my nation’s longest war next week in Afghanistan, thanks to a wonderful organization called Voices for Creative Nonviolence which seeks to build friendship and understanding between countries. I’ll be meeting with ordinary and prominent Afghans and reporting on what they think of their country’s future — often a more complex view than will fit into a television sound byte.

In preparation, I’ve been trying to ascertain what Americans think read more

Voices for Creative Nonviolence
www.vcnv.org

Peace Activist from Charlottesville Headed to Afghanistan

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. – From April 1st to 10th David Swanson of Charlottesville, Va., will join a group of international peace activists meeting with ordinary and prominent Afghans in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The trip has been organized by Chicago-based Voices for Creative Nonviolence ( http://vcnv.org ) and among the groups participants will read more

President Obama on Monday said he would “never hesitate” to use the U.S. military “unilaterally” to defend “interests” and “values,” including “maintaining the flow of commerce.” Fear of exactly that led the founders of this republic to give Congress the exclusive power to declare war. James Madison did not believe any single individual could be trusted with such power:

“The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the read more

Audio from Hans Michael:

I still hope to get the audio for Part I with Lawrence Kaplan and Part III with Chris Hedges, but here’s Part II (David Swanson) in 3 pieces (mp3s):

one

two

three

Lawrence Kaplan of TNR just explained why we have to bomb Libya
I’m about to be on to correct him
http://www.620kpoj.com/mediaplayer/