Peace and War

GO HERE.

The tide is turning against war. 
We’ve permanently shut down the Army Experience Center!
We’ve kept student information from recruiters in Maryland!
The war escalation supplemental funding has stalled!
The attack on Kandahar read more

For Five Dollar Friday I just gave $5 to Veterans for Peace. I hope you’ll do the same. This is the most principled and strategic party-independent peace group we’ve got. I hope you’ll also consider joining. I’m not and would never be a veteran, but I am a member of Vets for Peace. Check them out: http://veteransforpeace.org

By David Swanson

Last June, Congressman Tom Perriello wanted to vote against war funding, because — much as he loves wars — he opposed the IMF bailout attached to it. So, the White House and the Democratic Party gave him a choice. He could vote No and be cut out of the family, “dead to us.” Or he could vote Yes and nice things would happen. Perriello voted yes, and the Party bought radio ads to promote him. Van Jones, then a White House employee, came down to Charlottesville read more

By David Swanson

In 2008 Joe Allen published “Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost,” which provides a terrific and concise history of the United States’ involvement in Vietnam, from beginning to end. Doing this in 200 pages results in a limited history, but the basic points all seem right.

Allen concludes that Vietnam was ended by three forces: the resistance of the Vietnamese, the peace movement in the United States, and the resistance of soldiers in the U.S. military. Because read more

100 Congressional Candidates and National Organizations Oppose War Spending No Matter What Lipstick Is Applied to It

Seventy-six congressional candidates and 24 national organizations are opposing any more funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, no matter what unrelated measures are packaged into the same bill, and no matter whether the bill appears likely to pass or not.  This position contrasts strongly with that of most incumbent congress members read more

By David Swanson

If a person could approach you on the street, gently caress your cheek, and walk away leaving you with the feeling of having been violently slapped and dowsed with a bucket of ice water, they would approximate Tom Engelhardt’s writing, including that in his newest book “The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s.”

Let me stipulate from the start that at least three-quarters of the book has nothing to do with Obama, but deals purely with read more

By David Swanson

Muntadhar al-Zaidi famously threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in December 2008, kicking off a stream of shoe-throwing protests around Iraq and the world. He then spent nine months in jail. TheRealNews.com has now posted a four-part video interview in which al-Zaidi reveals, to the certain bewilderment of many Americans, that he has absolutely no notion of “hating us for our freedoms.” In fact, al-Zaidi lists completely read more

Apparently the United Nations is going to ask the United States to please stop using a secret agency to murder numerous people with drones. What the United States might say in response is found in the new National Security Strategy which, like all things hopey and changey, is pretty much like the old National Security Strategy, and which declares:

“Military force, at times, may be necessary to defend our country . . . “

and which could have stopped there, stayed legal, and left well read more

By David Swanson

At 5 p.m. this evening, the House Appropriations Committee will begin marking up a bill to spend another $33.5 billion on escalating the war in Afghanistan. Various useful projects will be packaged into the bill in order to provide congress members with assorted lame excuses for voting yes.

Among those speaking and voting against the war funding in committee will be Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who just told me that her thinking is as follows: “Since Congress last authorized read more