What if we nuke a city?

NO WAR ON IRAN! US OUT OF IRAQ!

U.S Peace Council Statement:

NO WAR WITH IRAN! US OUT OF IRAQ!

END REGIME-CHANGE SANCTIONS ON IRAN!

Friday January 3, 2020

On January 2, 2020, the Trump Administration recklessly escalated its war on Iran by the drone assassination of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, Commander of Iran Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force. The assassination, ordered directly by President Trump, is a lawless action against an official of a sovereign state — Iran — with which the US is not officially at war. It occurred on the territory of yet another sovereign state — Iraq — with which the US is not officially at war.

This reckless act is bound to lead to Iranian retaliation and possibly to an all-out war in the region. It is clear that we are no longer on the “brink of war with Iran,” but the war has actually begun.

The decision by Donald Trump and the Pentagon to launch new air assaults on the Iraqi territory in the past week has ignited nationwide resistance by Iraqis who demand to reclaim their full sovereignty and refuse to allow Iraq to be used as a U.S. base in a U.S. war on Iran.

The Trump Administration’s path to all-out war with Iran didn’t start on December 27, 2019, when a US “contractor” (mercenary) was killed. Rather, it started in January 2017 with Trump’s inauguration: First, he selected as top foreign policy advisers such war mongers as John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, who called for war on Iran. Then he pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) and embarked on the “maximum pressure” campaign, imposing illegal, severe economic sanctions on Iran and forcing US allies to join in. Since then, he has launched cyberattacks on Iranian facilities and has worked to isolate Iran diplomatically. His public comments have been bullying and contemptuous of a sovereign nation.

The Trump Administration is now further escalating the war by sending thousands more troops to the Middle East, in the name of “preparing against retaliation” by Iran. He has already ordered 750 more US troops to the Middle East and potentially 3,000 more. This is in addition to the 5,200 already in Iraq that push the US agenda against Iran, Syria and Yemen. Many more troops will be needed if the US expands the war.

But the current US policy toward Iran is part of a bigger and longer picture. It is part of the 1953 overthrow of the democratically elected Iranian government, the insertion of a dictator Shah for 26 years. After the Shah was deposed in 1979, the US supported the Saddam Hussein’s 8-year military aggression against Iran as part of US-engineered takeovers of independent countries in the Middle East — through wars on Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan.

Every US president over the last 30 years has ordered the bombing of Iraq. More than a million Iraqis have died during the past three decades years as a consequence of U.S. occupation, bombings, and sanctions. Tens of thousands of US troops have either been killed or suffered life-changing injuries. The US government has spent more than $3 trillion of our tax dollars in the on-going occupation and bombing of this oil-rich country.

Trump Administration’s policy against Iran has also tightened the US alliance with two of Iran’s mortal enemies, Israel and Saudi Arabia; has ramped up tension in the region, has concentrated military forces in the Persian Gulf; and has armed the Saudi monarchy in its genocidal war on Yemen.

Since Trump took office in 2017, US aggression against the rest of the world has also been put into overdrive. The Trump Administration’s foreign policy — supported by much of Big Business and wrapped in the deceitful cover of “Making America Great Again!” — vastly expands Pentagon spending and profitable US arms exports; bullies allies to buy more US-made weapons and join with US military operations; and threatens wars on any state refusing to bend the knee to Washington. The US has been ripping up any multilateral treaty that imposes even the mildest constraints on its aggressive behavior, while flouting international law and the UN Charter.

Given the fact that the US has invaded and initiated war on more than a dozen countries since the beginning of this century and has imposed coercive sanctions — economic warfare — on dozens, all in violation of international law, we should recognize that today the US is the greatest threat to peace in the world.

On Saturday, January 4th, people from around the United States will be organizing local demonstrations to demand: TROOPS HOME FROM IRAQ! NO WAR ON IRAN!

WHAT WE NEED TO DO URGENTLY:

1. Show up on Saturday January 4. List of local actions is below

2. Phone Congress 202-224- 3121. Phone your House member and your US Senator. Take Action to Prevent War with Iran!

3. Phone the White House: 1-202-456-1414 (Switchboard) 1-202-456-1111 (Comments). Say No war with Iran! The Administration must hear that millions of us are unalterably opposed to an insane war.

4.  Write Letters to the Editor. Express your opposition to war with Iran. Bring all the troops stationed in Iraq home safely, now.

5. Hold Vigils and organize Rallies in your area and your cities against war with Iran.

6. Take photos of yourself holding “No War with Iran!” signs. Post them on Twitter and Instagram. Send them to your House Representative and Senator. Encourage others to do the same.

Lies and the war of aggression on Afghanistan

RE: “I helped write the official lies to sell the Afghanistan War” by Lauren Kay Johnson (published in the Washington Post on December 13, 2019)

This was my response to the op-ed written above. WaPo did not publish this piece.

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Like Ms. Johnson, the Afghanistan Papers were not a revelation to me. Not because I was helping to perpetuate the lies and deceptions like Ms. Johnson, and not because I was even on the ground in Afghanistan. I have known what was going on there because I have been paying attention and listening to the voices of the Afghan people whenever I could. And I have been paying attention and listening to the independent journalists, foreign journalists, and human rights workers who were reporting on Afghanistan. Some of these voices included former US military members. 

Furthermore, there was a large publication of the Afghan War Diaries by WikiLeaks in 2010 that was full of information about the ongoing situation in Afghanistan. But even without these sources of information, anyone with critical thinking skills would quickly realize that things are not going well in Afghanistan because of the unending bombing by the US for the last 18 years, the sending over of more US troops repeatedly, and the fact that some US troops are being killed over there. All of these facts point to a horrific mess in Afghanistan.

I am very certain that abuses, killings, polluting the environment and corruption are rampant in every war zone where the US military is present. War is not only a failure of human intelligence and human compassion, it has been a total policy failure from the US government throughout my  entire lifetime. I was paying attention to the impacts of US foreign policies long before Ms. Johnson was born. I have known for many decades that wars and military actions by the US government are based on violence, lies, deception and rampant corruption.  

It is admirable that she wanted to make a positive difference in Afghanistan and her country. But I was very surprised to read that she actually thought that this could be accomplished by deceit and lies. I was even more surprised to read that she did not question this strategy of lies, misinformation and deception while she was in Afghanistan. 

I fail to understand how any US citizen can reach the age of 25 and not realize that a constant pattern of lies will never lead to a good ending. This does not strike me as “idealism” so much as deliberate, dedicated blindness. It is no wonder she felt like a part of a corrupt bureaucratic machine, because that is undoubtedly what she was.

I can tell her what her beliefs and deceptions (or “warped projection of the truth”) may have cost, since she seems to be confused on that issue. It cost the destruction of many innocent lives, the deaths of many innocent people and horrific damage to the culture and environment of Afghanistan. It brought many  people, combatants and civilians alike, the democracy of death and the freedom of the grave. It accomplished nothing good - of that we all can be quite sure. 
I have been protesting and speaking out against the US government foreign policy of wars and human rights abuses for many decades. I certainly was opposed to the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. I knew that it would not turn out well, while it would make loads of money for a very few individuals and corporations. 
And while Ms. Johnson’s article does articulate some new details on how the many lies of war and occupation were fostered on the American and Afghan people, I do not detect any great remorse or grief in her statements about what she helped create. I believe my grief and remorse at failing to stop these wars is much greater than anything she has experienced. 

It is curious that she wonders what happened to the paper trail of her work, as if that has some importance. I wonder what happened to the Afghan people who were subjected to the disinformation campaign she helped run. I wonder if they are still alive, if they are uninjured, if they are still in their homes, and if they are warm and fed at this point in time. I wonder if their environment has been forever poisoned by US military actions. 

However, unlike Ms. Johnson, I have developed no expertise in my endeavor of stopping wars. I have been a total failure, no matter what avenue of expression I have tried, and for far longer than she has been alive. I have supported individuals and organizations that have also opposed all these wars, but they have not seen success yet either. 

The wars and abuses rage on. It seems that the vast majority of my fellow citizens are not even aware of what is happening, much less concerned. The politicians that I lobbied have not listened or heeded what I have said. I have been ridiculed and abused for going public with my statements, whether on the internet or standing with a sign on a street corner or just speaking to someone that I know. Yet, I persist. I persist because I detest lies of all kinds. I persist because I detest the killing and harming of innocent people. I persist because it is my government that is perpetuating this evil insanity. It upsets me deeply that the vast majority American people, including members of the US military, do not rise up and stop the vast evil that our government fosters on foreign countries. It grieves me deeply that so many innocents have been killed, or had their lives, their homes, their businesses, their health, their communities and their country  destroyed for nothing. 

I believe that war is still not the answer. I believe that lies and deception are never a path to wholeness or improvement or anything good, no matter how much ‘idealism’ or naivety or blindness someone brings to the situation. I wish I believed that the American people could do better, but I no longer believe that fantasy. 

After we impeach the president......