let us see what love can do

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/world/07detain.html?_r=1&hp

WASHINGTON — Medical personnel were deeply involved in the abusive interrogation of terrorist suspects held overseas by the Central Intelligence Agency, including torture, and their participation was a “gross breach of medical ethics,” a long-secret report by the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/3/28/161944/992

As Afghanistan experts in NGOs which actually work among the people frantically try to tell Obama that he is making a big, big, mistake, the arrival of the first of 17,000 more American troops has already borne fruit. It has managed to unite different factions of Taliban under the banner of Mullah Omar, who a month ago was wondering how to stay alive day-to-day against Predator strikes on one hand and radical young Taliban commanders who would like to take his place on the other. Obama single-handedly solved many of his problems.

By MARLISE SIMONS
LONDON — A Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation into allegations that six former high-level Bush administration officials violated international law by providing the legal framework to justify the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official close to the case said.

From Three Decades as a Colonel and Diplomat to Six Years as a Peace Activist

Friday 20 March 2009

by: Ann Wright, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
http://www.truthout.org/032009A

It was six years ago today that I resigned from the Bush administration and the US diplomatic corps in opposition to the war on Iraq. I remember the day so well. I woke up about 2 in the morning.

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/01/02/02073.html

“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.” – John Lennon, before his murder by CIA mind-control subject Mark David Chapman
When Gandhi was asked his opinion of Western civilization he said it would be a good idea. But that oft-cited quote, is misleading, assuming as it does that civilization is an unmitigated blessing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khudai_Khidmatgar

The Oath of the Khudai Khidmatgar
I am a Servant of God, and as God needs no service, serving His creation is serving Him,

I promise to serve humanity in the name of God.

I promise to refrain from violence and from taking revenge.

I promise to forgive those who oppress me or treat me with cruelty.

I promise to refrain from taking part in feuds and quarrels and from creating enmity.

I promise to treat every Pasthun as my brother and friend.

I promise to refrain from antisocial customs and practices.

We Still Have Two Wars to End
The United States continues to find itself embroiled in two wars which are draining the strength of the country, already weakened by economic collapse and years of war. Iraq and Afghanistan present different challenges for the peace movement but both need our immediate attention.
We've taken action and we urge you to join us.
Afghanistan: Write your Member of Congress and urge they join the eight Democrats and Republicans asking President Obama to reconsider adding 17,000 troops to Afghanistan. Send a letter to your congressman by clicking here.
http://votersforpeace.us/press/index.php?itemid=1189
The letter to Obama states "the goals of our seven year military involvement remain troublingly unclear, we urge you to reconsider such a military escalation." The letter highlights that the Authorization for Use of Force in Afghanistan was "to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States." Congress did not authorize a counterinsurgency and a broader war that includes Pakistan. You can see the letter by clicking here.
http://votersforpeace.us/press/index.php?itemid=1188
Iraq: Join us in urging President Obama to more rapidly remove all troops, contractors and corporate interests in Iraq. Click here to send Obama a letter.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1312/t/6850/tellafriend.jsp?tell_a_...
Voters for Peace has sent a letter to President Obama which expresses appreciation at the words "end the war in Iraq" coming from a US president. But the letter goes on to indicate that the U.S. troop "departure from Iraq in the Obama plan, the end of 2011, is exactly the same as the deadline set in the Status of Forces agreement negotiated by the Bush Administration." And, while a slow, gradual troop withdrawal will begin, there will continue to be 35,000 to 50,000 troops and 140,000 civilian mercenary contractors conducting counterinsurgency military operations for the next three years - longer than all of World War I. We urge withdrawal of all US military forces and all U.S. contractors from Iraq by the end of 2009 or sooner.
Iraq and Afghanistan are bleeding the human and financial resources of the United States to no positive ends. The wars, began by Bush, are controlling the direction of U.S. foreign policy. It is time for the new administration to take control of these wars by rapidly ending them.
Please join us in urging the president and Congress to end the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Thank you for taking action.

Sincerely,

Kevin Zeese
Executive Director
Tell a friend about this campaign

VotersForPeace.US --- 2842 N. Calvert St.---Baltimore, MD 21218
443-708-8360

http://www.star-telegram.com/212/story/1243922.html

BY J.R. LABBE jrlabbe@star-telegram.com

The United States is using blood and treasure in Afghanistan to defend the worst existing legacy of 19th- and 20th-century European colonialism: artificial borders.

If you are in agreement with this statement, please make a copy of it, sign it, and send it to the White House and your representatives in Congress. This is a critical time to weigh in. Putting this in the regular mail, as opposed to email, can give it more political weight. It is more effort, but it is worth it.
___________
On February 27, 2009, President Barack Obama outlined “a new strategy to end the war in Iraq through a transition to full Iraqi responsibility.”

The words “end the war in Iraq” coming from a US president are welcome to the world. But President Obama’s “new strategy” is not new; the deadline for US troop departure from Iraq in the Obama plan, the end of 2011, is exactly the same as the deadline set in the Status of Forces agreement negotiated by the Bush Administration and the Iraqi government. Moreover, the Obama plan does not really “end” the Iraq War if we consider some basic points.

President Obama said that over the next year and a half the U.S. will progressively withdraw its combat brigades and that “by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.” However, he intends to keep 35,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq until the end of 2011 to assist the Iraqi military and for “conducting targeted counter-insurgency missions; and protecting our ongoing civilian and military efforts in Iraq.”

Considering the presence now of about 140,000 U.S. mercenary military “contractors” in Iraq, it appears that after August 2010, President Obama intends to maintain a military force of nearly 200,000 Americans who will be continuing to conduct “counter-insurgency” combat missions, which is essentially what is happening now, only with a larger number of U.S. forces. While the Obama plan may put fewer Americans at risk, it in no way reduces the sense of dread and the actual risk for the Iraqi people, who will continue to be subject to attack by U.S. forces equipped with extraordinarily deadly ground and air weapons.

The US invasion of Iraq violated the United Nations Charter and was fundamentally illegal. The US occupation is also illegal, and the US has, over the six years of this occupation, systematically violated international law in sustaining the occupation through a variety of war crimes including torture, preventive detention, indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations and disproportionate use of firepower.
The gross violation of international legal principles, undertaken with abandon by the US government, and yet to be recognized by the US government, has led to the deaths of over one million Iraqis, the creation of at least 2.5 million Iraqi refugees, the maiming of tens of thousands of Iraqis, the illegal detentions of tens of thousands of Iraqis and the profound degrading of one of the most advanced economies and societies in the Middle East.

The violation of international legal principles has also resulted in the deaths of more than 4,200 Americans, the wounding of more than 100,000, according to disability filings, and the destruction of thousands of US military families.

The continued US occupation of Iraq until the end of 2011, as planned by President Obama, violates international principles and keeps the door wide open for nearly three more years of killing, violations of human rights and unforeseen tragic, destructive events that have characterized the US involvement in Iraq throughout. We can know with certainty that every day of the US occupation of Iraq will bring more Iraqi deaths and imprisonments, and deaths and injuries of Americans and the inevitable, continued erosion of Iraqi and US morale and economies.

The invasion and occupation have severely undermined, if not destroyed, Iraq’s capability for self-reliance by dismantling their government, agriculture, education, industrial, energy and health care systems; the occupation delays the moment when Iraqis can regain complete control of their resources and act fully in their self-interest.

President Obama speaks of recognizing the sovereignty of Iraqi people, which was violated by the invasion and occupation. However, his schedule for withdrawal does not recognize this sovereignty or respect the lives and capabilities of the Iraqi people. Rather the US schedule appears devised primarily to extend the period during which the US will seek to incorporate Iraq into a US plan for political and economic dominance in the Middle East. Note that President Obama did not touch on the future of the huge US military bases in Iraq. Further, his selection of Chris Hill, a former US ambassador to the Republic of Korea, suggests that the US may be looking toward a decades-long military presence in Iraq at the behest of a compliant Iraqi government.

We urge President Obama to revise his Iraq strategy to bring a withdrawal of all US military forces and all US contractors from Iraq by the end of 2009 or sooner. We urge Congress to: not approve any further funding for the occupation of Iraq; and to specifically approve only those funds required for the total withdrawal of US military forces and contractors by the end of 2009, the closure of all US military bases in Iraq by the end of 2009 and a meaningful contribution to the reconstruction/reparations for Iraq.

Postcard from Crawford
By HILARY HYLTON Thursday, Mar. 05, 2009

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1883374,00.html

At Peace House, a small wooden home turned into an antiwar HQ by a group of Dallas activists during Bush's first term, a MISSION ACCOMPLISHED sign hangs on the toolshed. Dozens of shoes adorn the picket fence, their soles pointing streetward in solidarity with the Iraqi journalist who threw his footwear at Bush.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1883199_1853057,00.html