Antiwar/Antimilitarism

Remember Iraq? "No blood for oil"? "Bush lied, people died"? Takes you back, doesn't it? These days, even for that small percentage of Americans who still pay attention to any of our wars, Iraq seems like last year's news. It's a shame that, at the precise moment when the Iraqi people are having some success at forcing the U.S. occupiers from their soil, the attention of the U.S. peace movement is elsewhere, because there's much we can learn from Iraq about how to end an occupation and defeat an empire. And "defeat" is exactly the word to apply to the U.S. imperial project in Iraq. Read and comment here...

WNPJ and VFP member David Williams reports back from LZ Lambeau, a three-day long "Welcome home" to Vietnam-era vets held at Green Bay's Lambeau field. In the event, David sees an effort to "Rehabilitate the memory and lessons of the Vietnam War from a 'lost' war which should have never been fought to an honorable war which was not properly appreciated at the time", all in a effort to "eradicate the last vestiges of the 'Vietnam Syndrome' and build public acceptance for massive and prolonged U.S. military involvements in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere." Read and comment here...

Michael Hastings, the Rolling Stone reporter who published the story that was General Stanley McChrystal's undoing, describes the General as "brilliant." Among the General's "brilliant" observations: The presence of American soldiers in Afghanistan, and the Afghan casualties they cause, are fueling the insurgency. But what good are insights like these if you're not willing to draw the obvious conclusion? And why does President Obama share the same tendency to accurately analyze a problem, right before making it worse? Read and comment here...

Kathy Kelly and Dan Pearson, co-coordinators of Voices for Creative Non-violence , a WNPJ member group, write of the sorrow and horror inflicted upon innocent Afghan civilians by the US-led war there, detail some specific cases, and call for activists to support a withdrawal timeline for US troops. Read it here.