No one knows better about the costs – physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual – of war. Their words make great sense and I wanted to pass them on as Pres. Obama prepares for his first journey beyond our borders. He will no doubt hear other voices raised for peace. I keep wondering what it will take for our people to say no to war in recognition of what the veterans are saying in this statement, which ends with: “Our collective experience tells us wars are easy to start and hard to stop and that those hurt are often the innocent. Thus, other means of problem solving are necessary.”
VETERANS FOR PEACE STATEMENT ON OBAMA’S AFGHANISTAN POLICY
NATIONWIDE – March 27 – Today President Obama announced what he termed, “a comprehensive, new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
The President went on to say, “I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That’s the goal that must be achieved. That is a cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: We will defeat you.”
The national organization Veterans For Peace takes issue with the President’s characterization of the conflict in Afghanistan and his policies. Vietnam War Navy Corpsman and National President of VFP, Mike Ferner, said, “The President has already escalated the war in Afghanistan by an additional 17,000 troops. Today’s announced escalation of 4,000 more troops is another step into the swamp. It doesn’t matter if those steps are big or small, we’re still going into the swamp and we need to turn around. At some point we will undoubtedly stop bombing and start talking. The sooner we do that the better.”
Ferner, who as a Corpsman attended hundreds of wounded troops, added, “Some of what the President said will help the situation, but it is all undercut by the basic belief that more force will provide security. U.S. use of force in the region has caused the deaths of thousands of civilians, greatly increasing opposition to U.S. presence and undermining confidence in the local government. Our military operations in Pakistan have aggravated an already unstable environment, and expanding them will only increase instability. Obama’s plan will ensure more of the same in both countries.”
VFP Executive Director Michael T. McPhearson stated, “President Obama expressed concerns for the women and girls in Afghanistan. VFP shares those same concerns for the women serving in our Armed Forces who are more likely to be sexually assaulted than their civilian counter-parts. What I do not hear in this discussion is the fact that those who suffer the most in war are women and children. War does not protect the vulnerable, it throws social mores out the window and women are seen as spoils. VFP urges the President to rethink his plan of escalation and put the full force of U.S. efforts in diplomacy, economic assistance and humanitarian aid.”
In their August, 2008 Annual Convention VFP passed a resolution calling for: “the government of the United States to immediately withdraw all military and intelligence forces from Afghanistan and Pakistan; to provide humanitarian aid directly to the people of Afghanistan, in non-coercive forms, to help the Afghan people rebuild their own nation and their lives in cooperation with other nations in the region; and to allow the people of Afghanistan to freely determine their own government without interference by the US.”
The resolution also renounced the claim that the war in Afghanistan is somehow the “right” war and reaffirmed their position that war must be abolished.
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To any of you who might help a dear friend of ours, now in need of shelter in Washington D.C.
Tom Mahany has begun a hunger strike as of 11, November, toward the pull-out of our troops from the Afghan and Iraqi fronts. Tom is a Viet Nam War Vet, a long ago protester and hunger strike activist against that war.
Now past 60, he has driven himself to Washington D.C. to try to raise awareness of the great human toll and waste of this current war.
He is desperately in need of shelter in the D.C. area, from which he can reach out his message to The President and those in power to make military decisions. Tom attended West Point, served in Viet -Nam, is an upstanding member of his Michigan community. The events a week ago at Fort Hood have made a horrible impact on Tom’s conscience, and spiraled him into this hunger strike to try and make a difference.His message below explains his position.
I am attaching the letter which he hopes to circulate.
I am urgently in hopes that you have contact in D.C. which can offer this kind and caring man shelter immediately. He is running out of strength rapidly.
I am most sincerely yours,
Janet Levine
janet@iwild.com
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC
Dear Sir,
In May of 1970 I spent 29 days in Lafayette Square fasting for Peace in Viet Nam. I now feel that is time to act again. Accordingly, as of 0600 Hours, Nov 11, Veterans Day 2009, I have taken my last material sustenance other than water until specific action is taken by your Administration and our Military to stem the tragic and ever-increasing rise in cases of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome which is rapidly approaching endemic proportion amongst our Fighting Men and Women.
I fought in Viet Nam and I also lost a brother-in law from suicide caused by PTSS. He had two young sons. I have seen firsthand what this can do to a family.
In taking my action I hope to elicit from the national populous moral support sufficient to spiritually bolster you while making your upcoming decision concerning our military presence in Afghanistan.
Mr. President, please end this needless, incessant war making. We have long ago surpassed humanely reasonable demand exacted upon the fruit of our middle class as well as wrought excessive death and destruction on unwitting civilians in foreign lands. Let us tone down the hatred and stop the violence that has engulfed our society.
I beg you in the words of Abraham Lincoln; please do not yield to the “peculiar and powerful interests. [Sic] With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, [Sic] let us strive on to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, [Sic} to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. [Sic} The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart, [Sic] will yet swell the chorus [Sic], when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature”
Sir, I pray you find the strength to make the honorable choice and the courage to implement it.
Withdraw our military men and women from the Middle East now. Take them away from the ordeal of continually dealing with adjacent, senseless mortality. Deal with the cause, not just the effect.
Again, I am resolved to partake of no food until some concrete positive action on your part has come to pass. During this time I shall, if allowed, keep myself available to the public in Lafayette Square across from the White House.
Respectfully yours,
Thomas E. Mahany
Thomas E. Mahany
Royal Oak, MI
101st Airborne Division, USRV, 1969