Nuclear free peacewalk coming through Columbus, OH
Filed under: Article 9 on March 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
Filed under: Article 9 on March 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
Alec Baldwin, Emmy-award winning star of NBC’s comedy show 30 Rock, says safety problems at nuclear power plants — if known publicly — would kill any chance of an industry revival.
President Obama called last month for a “new generation” of nuclear power plants and approved $8.3 billion in loan guarantees last week for two new reactors in Georgia, which would be the first such nuclear construction in three decades.
Actor Alec Baldwin, star of NBC’s comedy show
CAPTION
By Robyn Beck, AFP/Getty Images
Baldwin doesn’t mention Obama, but in a commentary today on The Huffington Post, he recounts safety problems at various nuclear power plants. He says he’s studied them since 1996 with the Radiation and Public Health Project, which he continues to support. He writes:
We gathered information about Indian Point, and worried about implications of a containment breach there long before 9/11 heightened that risk. We gathered information about Oak Ridge, Tennessee, The Gaseous Diffusion plant in Piketon, Ohio. The problems with operations at Dresden, Illinois. At Turkey Point in Florida. And we immersed ourselves in the problems surrounding the Oyster Creek facility in Tom’s River, New Jersey.
I started going down to Oyster Creek in 1996. I returned there with a 60 Minutes camera crew a couple of years ago. I have a strong and abiding belief that true knowledge of what does and does not go on in Tom’s River, as well as in both Trenton and Washington, combined with unbiased knowledge about nuclear power in utility reactors could kill any of the talk about reviving this industry.
Filed under: Article 9 on February 23rd, 2010 | No Comments »
students protest Gen Patreus at Georgetown
Filed under: Article 9 on February 14th, 2010 | No Comments »
President Obama did not say that he would be leaving Afghanistan, but increasing the US presence there is not helping the current situation in that country. Below I have the Obama’s Death toll.
This is an easy reminder that too many people are dying. As a fellow veteran has said, Peace is winning, War is losing. I used to naively believe that peace could be achieved through war, but now I have realized that war is war, and you cannot achieve anything but war once you start one. It is impossible to prevent a war by going to war, because you just started one!
Filed under: Article 9 on February 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
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Filed under: Article 9 on January 13th, 2010 | No Comments »
GENERAL McCHRYSTAL HAS PLANS FOR AFGHANISTAN
By: Bill D. Vietnam Veteran
The New York Times Magazine recently had a long article about General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The article examined the general’s counterinsurgency plan for “success”. The Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer recently claimed that General McChrystal is the world’s foremost counterterrorism expert because in his previous job in Iraq “he killed thousands of bad guys.” (How many “bad guys” do they have in Iraq?)
A picture in the Times article showed that the general has Ranger and Special Forces patches on his sleeve. These are very select units. It means he is also airborne qualified. General McChrystal also runs every day and is, according to one report, “a fitness nut”. He is strong and brave. These may be qualities that are important to him, and that’s fine. But for our country, the more important questions are: is he compassionate and is he wise.? Because strength and bravery without compassion and wisdom are worse than useless, they are destructive. Is General McChrystal a destructive man? I believe so.
If you read the N.Y.Times article carefully and critically, what comes across most strongly is that the general wants to win. But what does he want to win? He says he wants to win the military struggle by protecting the civilian population from the Taliban, by building up the Afghan Army and Police so that they can take over from our soldiers, and by convincing Taliban fighters to come over to the government side. This is a formula for failure.
General McChrystal has been given the power of life and death over millions of Afghans. Is he wise enough to use that power? The answer appears to be “No.” Does he know what the Afghan people want or need? Has he asked? Or is he just another in a long line of Americans whose chief export is arrogance?
The main U.S. goal is said to be getting the population on our side. We have spent eight years not following through on this often stated goal. General McChrystal is not following through on it yet, and his request for 40,000- 85,000 more troops shows that winning over the people is just a sound bite for him. The plan offers nothing to the Afghan people except more fighting and dying. Some Afghans will be protected while others will be left exposed. General McChrystal wants to build up the Afghan security forces. That will only put the people under the control of a corrupt force working for one of the most corrupt and brutal governments in the world. The criminals, warlords and drug-runners surrounding President Hamid Karzai are, according to Ann Jones in a recent article, as cruel and anti-woman as the Taliban, but they are less disciplined in their fanaticism. U.S. analysts and military commanders love to talk about “stabilizing” the country, but what are they planning on stabilizing: misogyny, injustice, hunger, homelessness, and early death?
What have we done for the Afghan people over the last eight years? They are suffering from extremes of homelessness, the lack of basic necessities of life, and violence We have spent over $200 billion, 90% of which has been for military spending. Most of the 10% that is supposed to be for aid and reconstruction has been misspent or stolen. We have supported Hamid Karzai, a man who has as much legitimacy as Diem did in South Vietnam. The fighting itself creates wounded and dying people, but are we providing for those who are suffering? It seems that if our generals and Congressional representatives understood or cared at all about what they are doing in Afghanistan, the ratio of military to civilian spending would be reversed and the spending for civilians would be increased until civilians were cared for, no matter what the cost. What kind of a lying policy is it when you claim to be protecting people and then you leave them to die from wounds, starvation, and sickness?
Our current debate doesn’t include the fact that the Afghans were credited with doing the fighting in the 1980’s that brought down the Soviet Union. What kind of heartless government supplies the weapons and money for a fight like that and then walks away and leaves several million amputees and disabled people, including children, to fend for themselves in a ruined country? Our government has been bleeding Afghanistan for 30 years now and General McChrystal offers more bleeding.
There is one thing that should be the deciding question here and that is that, just as with the war in Iraq, George Bush started this war under false pretences. The stated goal in the beginning was to find Osama bin Laden and destroy his ability to launch more attacks. Bush demanded that the Taliban turn over bin Laden. When they refused, Bush started bombing Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001. On the weekend of Oct. 13-14, the Taliban offered to turn over bin Laden to a neutral third country for trial. Bush said “No. There’s no negotiations.” The corporate media, like the stinking jackals and corrupt parasites that they are, [Is this language too strong? I'm a reasonable guy. I can tone it down if I must] helped to make Bush look like a strong leader who refuses to negotiate with terrorists. They helped to cover up the reality that Bush had just turned down an offer that could have ended the war almost at it’s start. He didn’t want to end the war, he wanted to keep it going.
Filed under: Article 9 on November 29th, 2009 | No Comments »
Ash and I were emerging from store in Olympia, WA on Aug. 1st to hear a strangely familiar sound- the drumming and chanting of Napponza Miyogi! It was Katada Shoni’s anti-nuclear peacewalk, from New Mexico to Seattle. While we knew vaguely of this walk, we had been very busy with our own plans of moving cross country. Stumbling into a parade of peace friends, then, seemed divinely planned.
We joined the walk until it rested at the state capital. There, Ash introduced himself as another veteran peacewalk and celebration ensued. We had a lovely talk and shared peacewalk, peacemaking stories over lunch.
This was another great opportunity to share our ideas about next summer’s peacewalk. Definite dates have not yet been set but tentatively we will begin mid to late June and travel from NYC to Washington DC. As we left Olympia and traveled eastward to Wisconsin, we were continually placed with people in our path with interest and skills in being involved in the peacewalk. Veterans, especially, are encouraged to come and partake in this literal movement for peace.
As plans continue to develop, we will post them here. See you in June!
Filed under: Article 9 on August 20th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The conversation so far has been only a whisper, but it will grow as things do faster and faster, and pretty soon the conversation of a peace clause in the U.S. constitution will be heard very clearly. This idea has been discussed in every part of American society, in every part of the American landscape. The dialogue isn’t open yet and isn’t free, but with awareness and consideration more people will see that it is a vital component to a lasting world. We see that in violence everyone suffers, and that in violence there is no way to avoid suffering. We understand what our first grade teacher meant when she said,” don’t hit that kid, talk it out because hitting won’t solve our issues.” When one country hits another country to solve a problem, is that problem then solved? I have seen war myself, and the pain that we all suffer from its effects, and I want it to end. As United States citizens we understand our inherent contributions even when these contributions are not conscious decisions to the constant state of war across the world, and want to stop the U.S. military being used as a tool of foreign diplomacy
Filed under: Article 9 on August 11th, 2009 | No Comments »
On July 29 I will have the opurtinity to introduce Military Families Speak Out(MFSO)Gold Star member Cindy Sheehan.
I remember the first mother of a soldier that was killed in Iraq that I had met. She is also a Gold Star member of MFSO, it was with out a doubt one of the most life changing experience that I have had. I met her on the podium in Hiroshima Japan. I was just starting a speaking tour about the corporate greed that was influencing the United States foreign policy, and the effects of war on soldiers and the civilians involved. We were both speaking at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on the anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing. We had the chance to speak side by side, and answer questions together after we spoke. Speaking with Gold Star mother Celeste Zappala mother of Sgt. Sherwood Baker was like speaking with any mother of any fallen soldier. Celeste could have been my mother, and I could have been Sgt. Baker. This connection between Gold Star mothers and veterans is irreplaceable, the depths of which are inconceivable to a civilian.
Cindy Sheehan is a strong example of leadership, she has spotted the problem and aims to do everything in her power to eradicate it. I have immense respect for her and the work that she has undertaken after the loss of her son. I hope that we all soon realize the greed that influences the corporations our government.
“The belligerency of state will not be recognized.” is a line from the pacifist constitution of Japan, the same constitution that has kept Japan out of war since WW2, and the same constitution that the United States is trying to dis-assemble so Japan can fight in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We need to learn from Japan, and promote a pacifist constitution here in the United States, so that we do not relive Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nicaragua etc. etc. etc. ever again.
Filed under: Article 9 on July 20th, 2009 | No Comments »
Veterans for Peace, CPL Jonathan Santos Memorial Chapter 111
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Local Veterans for Peace and Whatcom Peace and Justice to Host
Activist/Author Cindy Sheehan
WHEN: Wednesday, July 29, 2009
WHERE: Christ the Servant Lutheran Church
2600 Lakeway Drive, Bellingham, WA at 7 pm
Bellingham’s Veterans For Peace Chapter 111, www.vfp111.org , along with the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center, is hosting an evening with Cindy Sheehan – Gold Star Mother, 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, anti-war activist, author, and 2008 Independent Congressional candidate – on the last stop of her Myth America speaking tour on Wednesday, July 29.
Her recently published internet book entitled Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution follows three other books, including Not One More Mother’s Child, Dear President Bush, and Peace Mom: A Mother’s Journey Through Heartache to Activism.
Sheehan’s presentations have focused on her belief that it is social and class inequities that divide us. She’s also expressed her frustration with what she describes as the narrowness of the peace movement today. “War is wrong no matter who is president,” she has said. “We have to be just as diligent under the new administration as we were under the old.”
Cindy is hoping to spark dialogue and re-invigorate activism.
Admission by donation.
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Contact: Gene Marx
360-738-8462
Filed under: Article 9 on July 20th, 2009 | No Comments »