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Welcome To Veterans For Peace Corporal Jonathan Santos Memorial Chapter 111
Announcements
If One Phone Call Could End the War
Submitted by Robert Naiman on 8 March 2010 - 11:54am Just Foreign Policy I suspect that the majority of the literate adult population in the United States, if faced with that choice, would press 10 buttons to end the war. Unfortunately, there isn't one phone call that will end the war. But there is a plausible chain of consequence that connects a phone call made to Congress today to ending the war in the foreseeable future. In the next few days the House of Representatives is expected to debate and vote on a "privileged resolution" - H.Con.Res. 248 - introduced by Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich that would establish a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan. Last summer, the majority of House Democrats voted for an amendment introduced by Representative McGovern that would have required the Pentagon to present Congress with an exit strategy from Afghanistan by the end of the year. That was a vote of no confidence from House Democrats in the Pentagon's plans for military escalation. The political goal of the recent military assault on the militarily insignificant Afghan village of Marjah was to put House Democrats back to sleep so they would pass the war supplemental without trying to attach meaningful conditions. Forget about the last seven and half years of endless war, forget about the planned cuts in domestic job creation, education and other public services to fuel the Pentagon war machine as far as we can see. The Marjah assault didn't seem to disturb Congress very much - U.S. press reports only brifely noted the killing of a handful of U.S. soldiers and a few dozen Afghan civilians - so now the Pentagon expects Congress to fork over more money for military escalation without asking when it ends, and to go play in its domestic policy sandbox where it can decide which domestic programs it wants to cut. Once the war supplemental is passed without conditions, then the Pentagon can launch its offensive on Kandahar, which will inevitably kill far more U.S. soldiers and Afghan civilians than the assault on little Marjah, perhaps leading to some Congressional hand-wringing. But with the war supplemental passed, Congress would have given up its main leverage to change U.S. policy for another six months. There is a way to break this cycle, and that's for Members of Congress to speak up now. But Members of Congress will only speak up if they hear from their constituents, and that's why it's important for literate American adults to call Congress today and urge their Representatives to support the Kucinich Resolution. The Capitol Switchboard is 202-224-3121. Rick Larsen's DC number is: 202-225-2605, in Bellingham 360-733-4500. Learn more about Just Foreign PolicyService for VFP's O'Kelly on March 13 At 3 pm next Saturday, March 13, VFP 92 will mourn the passing of its co-founding member, O The memorial celebration will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church, 6512 23rd Ave. NW in Ballard. O’Kelly’s immediate family will be present and Rev. Rich Lang will preside. For more information, email Gerry Condon at president@vfp92.org or call him at 206-499-1220.
Iraq War Anniversary Gathering at Peace and Justice Center
Whatcom Peace and Justice Center will co-host anti-war folk musician David Rovics on Wednesday, March 10 at 100 E. Maple Street, at 7:00 PM. Tickets will be $10 at the door. his event will observe the 7th Anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and will include a candlelight vigil to remember all who have suffered, and still suffer, in this ongoing tragedy. This event is being co-hosted by the Mission, Justice and Social Concerns Committee of the First Congregational Church and Veterans for Peace Chapter 111. Support the March 20th National March on Washington On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a massive National March & Rally in D.C. A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march. There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Veterans and military families are joining with tens of thousands of others who will be marching on Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 20. If you are a veteran, active-duty service member or a member of a military family and would like to join the veterans, active-duty service members and military families contingent, click here.
VETERANS FOR PEACE SALUTESHOWARD ZINNThe death of a loved one or someone significant in our life often leaves us saying, "There weren't many like him," or "she'll really leave a hole in this world." The day before he passed, VFP received an email from Howard Zinn to confirm arrangements for June to film a video greeting for our 2010 convention. In an earlier exchange, Howard had written, "Of cour As a renowned historian, he made no attempt to appear objective, indeed he thought it impossible. In an opening section of "A People's History of the United States," he said he preferred "to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves...the Gilded Age as seen by southern farmers." He believed history should "emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare." Then, as only Howard Zinn can, he wrote, "The reader may as well know that before going on." From the spring in his step to the joyful, incisive wit of his words, few would have guessed his age. But at 87, his great heart, which clearly guided his remarkable intellect, finally stopped. There may be others with great hearts and intellects to match, but Howard Zinn will be missed because he combined those with something much rarer: courage. Some would point to his time in World War II as a B-24 bombardier, flying missions through the red-hot shrapnel of German anti-aircraft fire and Messerschmitt machine guns. Surely that is one kind of courage. It is tempered, however, by accepting that death can strike at any moment. In his youth, Howard Zinn had the courage of a warrior. Over many decades as an adult he had another kind of courage that he practiced often, publicly and boldly, unfettered by the usual shackles of career ambitions, money or even social acceptance by ones peers. This kind of courage, arguably the least common, Zinn frequently brought to bear in his lifelong mission of articulating uncomfortable truths and acting against injustice. How else to explain this historian's ability to not only recognize the importance of the moment in the civil rights movement, but to encourage and join his students, eventually getting fired by Spelman College because they refused to participate as an institution; to speak publicly and early against the war in Vietnam when few with a safe job in academia dared; and most significantly, to fly into the hurricane of our most powerful myths and institutions by challenging "Three Holy Wars." In one of his last speeches he explained that these wars were not religious, but sacrosanct, "the three wars you cannot say anything bad about: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II." Examining his treatment of just one, the Revolution, is to begin to understand the significance of his intellect and the depth of his courage. Zinn said that according to population differences then and now, the equivalent number of deaths today would mean "two and a half million people dying in a war to get England off our backs. Well, you might consider that worth it, or you might not." Challenging the customary tale of our revolution, Zinn pointed out that the year before Lexington and Concord, farmers in much of western Massachusetts drove the British government out without firing a shot. "They had assembled thousands upon thousands around court houses, around official offices and they had taken over and they said good bye to the British officials." Further challenging the standard story, he observed, "Canada is independent of England aren't they? I think so. Not a bad society. They have good health care. They have a lot of things we don't have. They didn't fight a bloody revolutionary war." One problem he noted was we rarely take time to differentiate between various parts of the population "because we don't think in class terms. We think we all have the same interests. We all have the same interests in independence from England. We did not all have the same interests." Perhaps most challenging, he asked, "Did blacks benefit from the Revolution? Slavery was there before; slavery was there after. No, we remained a slave society after the Revolution. Not only that, we wrote slavery into the Constitution. We legitimized it. It is always good if you want to get people to go to war to have a good document and have good words like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...Of course, when they write the Constitution it's not, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...it's life, liberty and property. Have you noticed that difference? You should notice. You should take notice of these little things." Howard Zinn took notice of all those "little things." He took them and, in the crucible of his intellect, forged a new story of how we came to be; a story that took great courage to articulate; a story that has the power to take us a long way down the road of freedom and peace. Blocking War Funding Just Got Easier
By David Swanson |
No reasonable person would take an even bet they couldn't afford to lose that this resolution will become law as introduced. But as Rocky Balboa could have told you when preparing for his first fight against Apollo Creed, that wouldn't be the right standard for measuring victory. The debate and vote on the Kucinich Resolution will be the opening round for the coming fight - if indeed it will deserve to be called a fight - over the Pentagon's
’Kelly McCluskey, and celebrate his passionate activism for peace and justice. 
se my heart is with VFP, but I'm not free to come. Thanks for inviting me, and best wishes for a great event. Howard."
Veterans For Peace 
