OMNI
ARMISTICE DAY/ WORLD
UNITY DAY (Veterans Day) NEWSLETTER #9, NOVEMBER 11, 2015
WE, THE PEOPLE BUILDING
A CULTURE OF PEACE AND JUSTICE FOR THE PLANET. Compiled by Dick Bennett
What’s at state: Celebrating the End of Wars, not Wars and
Warriors
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Contents: Armistice DAY Newsletter #9, Nov. 11, 2015
PRINCIPLES AND PLANS TO SUPPORT PEACE
AND PEACEMAKERS
Veterans for Peace VfP
War Resisters League WRL
Iraq Veterans Against War IVAW
Vietnam War Whitewash
Noam Chomsky, US History of Terrorism
Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich, the
Distortions Caused by 9/11
Dick, Support the Troops?
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Stand
with Veterans For Peace on November 11
Nov. 2, 2015
Veterans
For Peace is calling on all our members to take a stand for peace this
Armistice Day. We are calling on all our friends and allies to join us
at the barricades of peace on November 11.
Over
the last several years, Veterans For Peace chapters have taken the lead in
 celebrating Armistice Day
on November 11. We are reclaiming the original intention of that
day – a worldwide call for peace that was spurred by universal revulsion at
the huge slaughter of World War One. In Canada and the United Kingdom,
this day is known as Remembrance Day.
After World War II, the U.S. Congress
decided to re-brand November 11 as Veterans Day. Who could
speak against that? But honoring the warrior quickly morphed into
honoring the military and glorifying war. Armistice Day was flipped
from a day for peace into a day for displays of militarism.
This November
11, it is as urgent as ever to ring the bells for peace.
Many Veterans For Peace chapters ring bells, and ask local churches to do the
same, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as was
done at the end of World War One.
There are so many reasons we must press our government
to end reckless military interventions that endanger the entire world.
·
In Syria, the U.S. has armed and supported
rebels who share its goal of overthrowing the Assad government.
U.S. intervention in Syria has been a major factor in the ongoing tragedy
that has made refugees of half of all Syrians, and has done irreparable
destruction to the nation of Syria. The U.S. government and military
must end its support of the rebels and abandon its efforts at regime change.
It must join in sincere diplomatic efforts with the Syrian government and
Syrian opposition forces, along with Russia, Iran, Turkey and Saudi
Arabia. All sides know that the solution to the Syrian war is
political, not military. It is time to stop the bloodshed and the
exodus of refugees, and to start talks that respect the self-determination of
the Syrian people.
·
In Afghanistan, the deliberate U.S. bombing
of a Doctors Without Borders hospital was followed by a weak
apology from President Obama, and his announcement that he would break his
promise to end that war, and keep thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan
beyond his presidency. Fourteen years of deliberate and reckless
killing of thousands of Afghanistan civilians has not brought Afghanistan
peace or stability.
All U.S. troops, planes, drones, contractors and NATO allies
must leave Afghanistan. Let the Afghan people find their own peace
and determine their own future.
·
Don’t Tempt Nuclear War – End the U.S./NATO
Confrontation with Russia. With Russia and the U.S. bombing
different rebel targets in Syria, and with the U.S. and NATO pressing
Russia on its very borders, the threat of yet another World War looms.
The U.S. and Russia have thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at one another,
with the capacity to kill many millions of people in each country.
Nuclear war between Russia and the United States, which was miraculously
avoided during the tense standoff of the Cold War, has re-emerged as an all
too real possibility.
·
In Ukraine, the U.S. poured in many millions
of dollars to stir up opposition to the elected (if corrupt) government, even
supporting fascist gangs who led a violent coup that brought a rightwing,
western-friendly government to power. Russian speaking Ukrainians in the east
were immediately targeted by fascist elements who took control of Ukrainian
military and security forces. The Russian speaking minority felt it
necessary to organize armed self-defense. Russia facilitated a plebiscite in
the Ukrainian province of Crimea, where Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet is
based, leading to an overwhelming vote to rejoin the Russian
federation.
U.S. and NATO forces must pull back from Russia’s borders. U.S. and NATO forces are stationed in Poland and the Baltic nations, encircling Russia on its own borders. A coordinated international media campaign portrays Russian President Putin as the aggressor, while NATO carries out threatening war games and the U.S. beefs up its first strike nuclear capacity in Europe.
NATO, originally organized to confront the Warsaw Pact forces
of the Soviet Union, should be dismantled, instead of being used to
intimidate Russia and morphing into an international intervention force
serving the aims of those who believe in U.S. and Western global hegemony.
·
The U.S. should pull back from its
so-called “Pivot to Asia,” where 60% of U.S. naval forces will be deployed, and
where the U.S. is building regional military alliances to confront
China. In so doing, the U.S. has pressured the Japanese government to
abandon its constitutional pledge not to deploy their military outside
Japan’s borders, forced the South Korean government – against the will of its
people – to build a naval base on Jeju Island, and continues to ignore the
pleas of the Okinawan people to return a sense of sanity to their island by
removing omnipresent military the U.S.
·
The United States, Russia and all nuclear
powers must begin living up to their obligations under the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which requires them to
negotiate in good faith to reduce and eventually eliminate all nuclear
weapons. The Marshall Islands is suing the U.S. and all nuclear powers
because they are doing just the opposite. The U.S. government recently
announced a thirty year program, estimated to cost One Trillion Dollars, to
“modernize” its nuclear arsenal. In other words, the U.S. is building
new generations of nuclear bombs and missiles. This cannot stand.
·
U.S. drone wars in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia
and beyond must end.
·
The U.S. must begin dismantling its 900
military bases around the world.
·
War Abroad Mirrors Racism and Violence at
Home. The militarization of U.S. foreign policy and use of
violence and war around the world is mirrored here at home by racist police
killings, and the militarization of law enforcement and schools, where
military recruiters often have total access to students. Racism and
xenophobia are used to dehumanize Muslims and others in order to justify
killing them in war in their own countries. We in Veterans For Peace
realize this is the same hatred used here at home to justify killing black,
brown, and poor people. It is the same fearmongering used to criminalize
honest, hard-working people and tear immigrant families apart through
deportation.
This Armistice Day Veterans For Peace calls for justice and peace at home and abroad. We call for the end to racist policies, and for equality for all people.
·
Stop the War on Mother Earth.
Veterans For Peace also sees the links between war and the destruction of the
natural environment upon which all living creatures depend. Stubborn
reliance on fossil fuels, and wars for control of them, are primary causes of
the perilous climate change into which the world is descending. The ongoing
nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan reminds us that nuclear power is neither
green nor safe. Shortsighted energy policies threaten to make entire
regions of the planet uninhabitable, turning millions of people into climate
refugees. New and dangerous wars for water, land and other precious resources
are almost certain to follow.
·
Between nuclear war and climate disaster,
we are facing the possibility of Hell on Earth, UNLESS we create a united
worldwide movement for peace, justice, equality and sustainability.
For all of these reasons, stand with Veterans For Peace on
Armistice Day, November 11, 2015
Remember to visit the Armistice Day page for
ways to get involved!
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Veterans
For Peace, 1404 North Broadway, St. Louis, MO 63102, 314-725-6005
www.veteransforpeace.org
Veterans
For Peace appreciates your generous donations.
We also
encourage you to join our ranks.
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· Get your community
involved, send the sample op-ed or
send the sample letter-to-the-editor to
your newspaper
·
Celebrate GI Resistance on Veteran's Day
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11:45 AM (3 hours ago)
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Don't Thank Me For My Service
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1:05 PM (2 hours ago)
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Resources
Additional
Resources
Dear Dick,
This day isn't one
our community takes pride in. We have always cringed at the "Thank you
for your service" platitudes we are offered. Thanking us assumes that our
service and support of the occupations is something to be grateful for, and
it shuts off any chance for dialogue about the atrocities of wars. We refuse
to forget what we took part in and we will not stop in working to end these
wars of choice, wars of greed, wars manufactured by people who don't bear
their burdens. Our community of veterans is marking this day a bit
differently than most. Today, we are launching our #DropTheMIC (military
industrial complex) campaign.
Drop the MIC is focused on highlighting how
U.S. militarism affects everyone's lives- those living abroad facing the
brunt of U.S. forces and weapons and those living here, facing over
militarized police. The same companies that provide weapons to Saudi Arabia
and militias in Syria are equipping police departments with armored vehicles.
U.S. militarism shows up in the recruiters in our schools, the surveillance
aircraft monitoring our protests and the Pentagon sponsored 'Salute our
Veterans' spectacles at sports arenas across the country. It is immersed in
our lives and we are committed to working to make the invisible seen and to
put it to an end.
Today we ask for
your support in two ways:
1.) Share the
countless ways U.S. militarism shows up in your daily life. Post a
picture on social media of the many ways militarism shows up in your
community and use the hashtag #DropTheMIC (military
industrial complex). By using the hashtag on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram,
others will be able to search for like minded posts and see each way
militarism shows up in communities across the country. If you don't have a
picture feel free to post a relevant article or video with the same hashtag.
The goal is to have our friends and family thinking about how widespread U.S.
militarism is here at home and abroad.
2.) Contribute to our ongoing
Indiegogo campaign to fund our new work areas. We are
only $5,000 away from reaching our goal! It makes a big difference for our
continued organizing and putting this work into the world.
On a day that often
feels more focused on hiding the wounds of war and ignoring the reasons we
have so many veterans, we appreciate the fact that you are by our side in
this struggle.
In Solidarity,
Matt Howard
Co-Director Iraq Veterans Against the War |
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Iraq Veterans Against the War
is a 501(c)(3) charity,
and welcomes your tax deductible contributions |
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VIETNAM WAR FOR WAR OR
PEACE?
Telling the Truth About
the War vs. Pentagon/Pres. Obama Official History
Editorial, “Commemorating the American War in
Vietnam.” Peace
in Our Times (Winter 2015). Argues for full disclosure, “an honest commemoration” of the war, instead of
the one initiated by the Pentagon, supported by President Obama, and funded by
Congress at $65 million. The official
commemoration avoids many realities of the war, including the “moral injury”
many returning soldiers experience as PTSD.
Veterans for Peace offers a Vietnam Full Disclosure campaign in
rejection of the Pentagon’s efforts to “sanitize and mythologize the Vietnam
war and to thereby legitimize further unnecessary and destructive wars.” See Vietnamfulldisclosure.org for more
information. –Dick
Veterans
for Peace Editorial, “A CALL TO THE WALL.”
PEACE IN OUR TIMES (Winter
2015). Announces a demonstration at The
Wall in Washington, D.C. on Memorial Day, May 25, on the 50th
anniversary of the
beginning of the American War in Vietnam, in opposition to the Pentagon’s
initiative to convince young people the war was a noble enterprise. For more on the Vietnam War Full Disclosure
movement go to vietnamfulldisclosure.org . VforP calls us to send a letter
addressing the Vietnam War Memorial (i.e. US soldiers who died) and the
millions of killed Vietnamese, who deserve their own memorial, to share our
memories of the war from any perspective.
Email your letter to vncom50@gmail.com, with subject line Memorial Day
2015, or mail it to Full Disclosure, Veterans for Peace, 409 Ferguson Rd,
Chapel Hill, NC 27516, by May 1. –Dick.
OMNI
VIETNAM WAR NEWSLETTER
#7, March 24, 2015.
Compiled by Dick
Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology.
(#1 July 24, 2011; #2 June 9, 2012; #3 Sept. 25, 2012; #4 April 13,
2013; #5, April 9, 2014; #6, Feb. 18, 2015).
2015, the 50th anniversary of the start of US direct combat
operations in Vietnam.
What’s at stake: To the Pentagon and Obama: don’t whitewash
this war.
We must not
forget this atrocious war, the destruction and suffering it caused for no good
purpose. The Pentagon, President Obama,
and others are trying to turn it into part of US patriotic history. Let us instead seek the truth about the
war—and all the other US wars of aggression since WWII.
My blog: War Department and Peace Department
Newsletters:
Index:
See: Agent
Orange, Air War, Chemical War, Civilian Deaths and Suffering, Deceit,
Imperialism, Kissinger, Killing Civilians, Land Mines, Literature About the
War, Lying, Militarism, Nixon, Pentagon, Propaganda, Protest, Recruiting,
Suicides, Torture, US Westward Empire, VFP, War Crimes, Waste, Whistleblowing,
and more.
See OMNI’s
Westward, Pacific/E. Asia Empire Newsletters
Contents #6 at end.
Contents: Vietnam War Newsletter #7
Telling the Truth About the War vs.
Pentagon/Pres. Obama Official History
Editorial from Peace in Our Times
A Call
to the Wall, Peace in Our Times
Veterans
for Peace, Vietnam: The Power of Protest. Telling the Truth.
Learning the Lessons
Learning the Lessons
Lembcke,
Refuting the Myths
Keating,
GI Resistance During the War
Peace Movement
From HAW, Two
Commemorations
Consequences of the War to US and
Vietnamese Troops and Vietnamese People
Dick, Literature and the Wall
Contact Pres. Obama
Noam
Chomsky, The Long, Shameful History of American Terrorism
Reader Supported News, Nov. 15, 2014.
Chomsky writes: "'It's official: The U.S. is the world's leading terrorist state, and proud of it.' That should have been the headline for the lead story in the New York Times on October 15, which was more politely titled 'CIA Study of Covert Aid Fueled Skepticism About Helping Syrian Rebels.' The article reports on a CIA review of recent U.S. covert operations to determine their effectiveness."
READ MORE
Reader Supported News, Nov. 15, 2014.
Chomsky writes: "'It's official: The U.S. is the world's leading terrorist state, and proud of it.' That should have been the headline for the lead story in the New York Times on October 15, which was more politely titled 'CIA Study of Covert Aid Fueled Skepticism About Helping Syrian Rebels.' The article reports on a CIA review of recent U.S. covert operations to determine their effectiveness."
READ MORE
Dennis,
Elizabeth Kucinich | American Journey From Terror to Peace, 9/11 to 11/11.
Dennis Kucinich, Elizabeth Kucinich, Reader Supported News, Nov. 16, 2014.
Excerpt: "While Armistice Day signals a renewed interest in Europe in the practicality of peace and reconciliation and unity, here at home we observe Veterans Day still riveted to the narrative of deep fear derived from September 11, 2001."
READ MORE
Dennis Kucinich, Elizabeth Kucinich, Reader Supported News, Nov. 16, 2014.
Excerpt: "While Armistice Day signals a renewed interest in Europe in the practicality of peace and reconciliation and unity, here at home we observe Veterans Day still riveted to the narrative of deep fear derived from September 11, 2001."
READ MORE
SUPPORT
THE TROOPS
Definition Power
(who controls the language controls the people)
The U. S. Constitution grants power to Congress to call out the militia to “suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” The Constitution declares our right of national self-defense. But what is the “nation”? Now our leaders include in the US “nation” all its advanced bases. Attack any base anywhere and you have attacked USA. And what is “defense of the nation”? US soil has been invaded only three times: War of 1812, Pearl Harbor 1941, and World Trade Center/Pentagon 2001. Yet now “self-defense” is defined as “national security,” and our leaders go to war around the planet—over forty illegal invasions and interventions since 1945 and now “projecting force” through 900 military bases in over 100 countries all part of the US “nation” to be defended.. From D. C. trace your world map westward: Homeland, Pacific, Asia, Europe, Homeland!
The U. S. Constitution grants power to Congress to call out the militia to “suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” The Constitution declares our right of national self-defense. But what is the “nation”? Now our leaders include in the US “nation” all its advanced bases. Attack any base anywhere and you have attacked USA. And what is “defense of the nation”? US soil has been invaded only three times: War of 1812, Pearl Harbor 1941, and World Trade Center/Pentagon 2001. Yet now “self-defense” is defined as “national security,” and our leaders go to war around the planet—over forty illegal invasions and interventions since 1945 and now “projecting force” through 900 military bases in over 100 countries all part of the US “nation” to be defended.. From D. C. trace your world map westward: Homeland, Pacific, Asia, Europe, Homeland!
Slogan Power:
“Support the Troops”
How our leaders persuaded its populace to believe such an absurd yet massively bellicose and lethal a definition of the USA is the dark reality of US history since WWII. The definition breeds the slogan: the unceasing call to “support the troops,” which functions to sustain US wars for the “security” of the “nation” strung out around the globe. And the slogan “support the troops” helps to explain how the new disastrous definition has been sustained. It also reveals why the slogan is losing its powerful grip over the public, as the public increasingly questions the “self-defense” claimed for the wars and the legitimacy of the new name in 1947 for the Department of War The “support the troops” slogan, while it might be valid in defense of the homeland, has lost its persuasiveness in the defense of all of the advanced US bases scattered over land or sea in the several military jurisdictions into which the planet has been divided by the Department of War—the Department of Conquest and Empire. Consider the logic of our leaders which has undernourished the public for sixty years: The US has the right to invade and intervene in order to defend what? old conquests. Heard that before? Listen to the speeches and the boots of the Roman, British, and Nazi imperial rulers and troops.
How our leaders persuaded its populace to believe such an absurd yet massively bellicose and lethal a definition of the USA is the dark reality of US history since WWII. The definition breeds the slogan: the unceasing call to “support the troops,” which functions to sustain US wars for the “security” of the “nation” strung out around the globe. And the slogan “support the troops” helps to explain how the new disastrous definition has been sustained. It also reveals why the slogan is losing its powerful grip over the public, as the public increasingly questions the “self-defense” claimed for the wars and the legitimacy of the new name in 1947 for the Department of War The “support the troops” slogan, while it might be valid in defense of the homeland, has lost its persuasiveness in the defense of all of the advanced US bases scattered over land or sea in the several military jurisdictions into which the planet has been divided by the Department of War—the Department of Conquest and Empire. Consider the logic of our leaders which has undernourished the public for sixty years: The US has the right to invade and intervene in order to defend what? old conquests. Heard that before? Listen to the speeches and the boots of the Roman, British, and Nazi imperial rulers and troops.
Of course we want our loved ones and
those of our friends and of our countrymen and women to return safe. But as the public learns more about the
illegality, immorality, and massive waste of the US wars, the more urgently do
we want our loved ones home and the less we support initiators and leaders of
the wars. For several years the public
majority has wanted the troops to leave Afghanistan
and Iraq
Support the Troops Newsletters: http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/search?q=support+the+troops+newsletter+%231
END ARMISTICE DAY/WORLD UNITY DAY NEWSLETTER #9, NOVEMBER 11, 2015
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