Josh Brolier: Apathy and Inconvenience - Opinions About Protest

Josh Brolier of WNPJ member group Voices for Creative Nonviolence writes about the protests in Chicago surrounding the NATO summit:

I feel compelled to comment on a few things I have heard in the past week during the lead up to and duration of NATO protests here in Chicago. Mainly, I feel disheartened by the way the media and consumerism have shaped national opinion and attitude when it comes to these specific anti-NATO demonstrations. Two friends of mine, whom I highly respect in other aspects both personally and professionally, have made comments that seem to echo too much of the hysteria and general misunderstanding as to why people are protesting and what being a participant in a social movement entails.

In response to the mention of the demonstrations calling for Rahm Emmanuel to restore funding to mental health clinics, I heard one of these friends say something like “some people just have too much time on their hands and don’t know what to do with their life”. It’s sad and somewhat bizarre that when people stand up for something they believe in, they somehow are immediately categorized as lazy or ignorant. Not only is this a vast generalization, it is simply inaccurate. From being a part the anti-war movement, community justice programs and a number of other social projects (all of which involved demonstrating publicly) I can tell you that my colleagues in these movements have not been lazy or uninformed. In fact, they have been some of the hardest working people I know. These friends are not saints or the reincarnation of Gandhi. They are ordinary people who often work full time jobs and then engage in much needed social activism as volunteer work- putting in way more than the traditional 40 hour work week. They often take considerable money out of their own pockets, from hard earned salaries that are modest at best, to travel to demonstrations and participate in events and support causes they feel worthy. Most study these issues to the point of exhaustion; reading articles and books, as well as meeting people first hand who are involved and affected by whatever the issue may be.

The second friend made a comment that since the G8 portion of the summit was moved, the “Trust Fund Babies” from Occupy Wall Street cannot cancel their plane tickets so they will still be coming for the NATO demonstrations. I felt the statement was intended to be insulting and funny. But, again, it was mostly an inaccurate accusation. Though there have been middle and upper class youth who have participated in Occupy Wall Street (and there should be), it’s too comfortable for the average citizen, similarly privileged, to write off this movement as monolithic. Vague criticism can provide an easy out for non-participation and an excuse for not researching the issues being discussed.

I have certainly not been the most active in Occupy Chicago, but I do participate. And what I have seen is far from being easily typified; people from all ages and all walks of life voicing their frustration with an economic system that betrayed the general population a long time ago. Participants ranged from kids out of college facing enormous debt, tenants facing eviction on the south and west sides of Chicago, former home owners who lost their houses in the inexcusable game of poker that our nation’s prominent bankers had played with their mortgages, those already homeless and disenfranchised, nurses and doctors concerned about the collapsing healthcare system, and so on and so forth…

The past six years of involvement in the anti-war movement has also brought me in contact with some of the finest people I’ve ever met. There are those who work full time for peace, those that work full time jobs in another field and organize for social change on the side, and those that come and go as they feel inspired. There are many youth who are raising their voices, and I think they have an important perspective because their moral vision has not yet been clouded by as many years of propaganda and cynicism.

Furthermore, so many in the movement are 60 years of age and upwards. Many of these elders are war veterans who have realized, after participating in war and watching the endless ongoing parade of nightmare conflicts around the world, that violence and coercion will not solve the very serious problems that we as a global society are facing. With time for reflection, they have also come to challenge the notion that violence and coercion are actually intended for humanitarian purposes. This is painfully obvious in the present when the violence which NATO and most world powers are waging is so blatantly serving a small political and economic elite delighted to profit from the misery of others. These veterans and elders hold their opinions from experience and with confidence, without judgment, but in the hopes to leave a more positive legacy behind to the next generations. For those that are non-veterans, the scene is colorful and varied; mothers and sons, grandfathers and grandkids, black and white, US citizens and Iraqis, Palestinians and Israelis, etc… all working together to create a more healthy vision of how we can be better interconnected in this time of rapid globalization.

What I must also mention is the astounding apathy and entitlement that I hear among the portion of our population that are so outraged about being inconvenienced because of the protests. So there are thousands of people coming to Chicago for the counter-summit, but most of the inconvenience comes from the over-zealous police response, not from the protestors. The city frequently hosts sports, music and arts events which bring in thousands of tourists and there is no such public outcry about the inconvenience.

Though it’s true that there are occasionally isolated and small acts of violence that occur during demonstrations, I have been to many and I can’t recall ever seeing a demonstrator intentionally try to harm a non-participant. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but the incidents are rare (comparable to incidents following sports events) and the most egregious violence almost always comes from a police provocateur (uniformed or undercover) as a pretense for the police’s standard practice of using violence as a means for crowd control. The provoked violence sounds good for the newspapers and, even if it is later exposed as a bogus set up, the public relations move by the authorities and the police is effective in the moment at turning the population against the protesters. If there are genuine demonstrators involved, they are often convinced to take a more violent path by FBI/ police infiltrators, as was clearly documented with the 2008 Republican National Convention. The population is beginning to see through this well rehearsed pattern. I strongly suspect that this is the case with the three demonstrators charges with terrorism the evening prior to the summit. We will see with time if the charges are suddenly dropped or if any further evidence comes out. Attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild have been closely following the case and have already stated that they perceive the accusations against the NATO 3 to be farcical and politically motivated.

We often hear scathing criticisms in the media and conservative rhetoric on the issue of entitlement and social welfare programs, etc… But the average US citizen expects that they are to live an uninterrupted life of satisfied consumerism in peace. What is often not realized is that this is a false peace built upon the suffering, exploitation, chaos and US and NATO sponsored state terror that others endure on a daily basis. Furthermore, the rights we take for granted have been fought for and won by social movements at great risk and sacrifice by their participants (think Civil Rights movement, etc. ), not by foreign wars of aggression.

Capitalism and NATO may seem like they provide security for some living here, but they certainly interrupt and inconvenience other societies around the globe. In China, people are working as near slaves to provide us with the lovely parts for our newest IPad. Iraq and Afghanistan have been devastated through decades of war for their resources and strategic positioning. Countless other countries have been severely disrupted through military and economicinterventions. And we don’t want to stop to think about who is causing the continuation of such destructive policies, and how we can effectively involve ourselves in changing these policies.

People occasionally complain when the public transit trains are packed with obnoxious and drunk Cubs fans at 10 AM during the summer baseball season. But generally the city tolerates participants in sporting events. Yet, if there is a demonstration, suddenly it becomes socially acceptable to say things like “Get a job, you lazy freak. ” It’s assumed that that loud and boorish behavior exhibited by Cubs fans is healthy because it fits in dominant narrative of our society. Keep in mind that there are often violent physical confrontations by aggressive fans in Wrigleyville. I have witnessed this multiple times just trying to pass through the area. But as long as you keep consuming, no problem.

Our ruling political class in the United States has done an excellent job of enticing us into passivity. Elections have little real effect on policy within the two party corporate system. But hey, what does it matter if the physical and economic violence is not affecting you personally?This is the perception at least. When the truth is that there is very significant violence and poverty within the United States and it is growing due to the self-implosion of these imperial policies that cannot be sustained.

I am not writing this piece to insult Cubs fans nor those who made the comments to which I am referring. I think that sports, arts and leisure are healthy parts of a society (though they could also be participated in and supported in ways that are less consumerist; ways that build real solidarity and human cooperation instead of varieties of empty, meaningless "team spirit"). And I believe very strongly that we should not let war or politics steal the best things in life from us—sharing a meal with family and friends, music, dance recreation for its own sake, art for its own sake, love in its most natural and unrefined sense. I often hear people say “I hate politics”. Well, I do too. I think most of it is hypocrisy and manipulative games being played by the powerful. But should we let the greedy and the morally calloused make all our decisions for us about how to organize society?If we sit back and do nothing, that is political too, whether we like it or not. We have given our consent by default to the reckless leadership of those who care nothing about us at all.

My hopes in writing this were to make my small challenge to the apathy which is so predominant in our national consciousness and also to clarify what I see as a huge misunderstanding as to who is protesting and why. If we, protestors and non-protestors, can move towards understanding, than I have achieved my aims. I don’t think that demonstrations have all the answers. The physical revolutions are regularly needed to call out and challenge the power imbalances and injustices which will naturally present themselves with the continuation of any system. But truly changing the destructive path we are on requires societal and behavioral shifts and reorganization, and each person has their role in that. Maybe your role is not to demonstrate regularly. Maybe it is to do what you love; to give your skills and talents without harming others- an artist, a construction worker, a musician, a teacher, an honest business person or lawyer. Whatever it is, let’s work together to build a more functioning and compassionate society and realize that it is going to take creative thought, effort, and more than a slight inconvenience to make it happen.

Joshua Brollier, based in Chicago, is a co-coordinator with Voices for Creative Nonviolence and a tenant advocate with the Illinois Tenants Union. He can be reached at [LINK: mailto:Joshua@vcnv. org] Joshua@vcnv. org. _

NATO/G8 in Chicago: At a global crossroads, turn against war

By Brian Terrell

On January 25, the host committee for the G8/NATO summit in Chicago in May unveiled a new slogan for the event, “The Global Crossroads.”  The mood of the organizers is upbeat and positive. This is a grand opportunity to market Chicago with an eye for the tourist dollar and the city is ready, the committee assures us, to deal with any “potential problems.” 

One of the potential problems that the committee is confident that it can overcome, according to a report by WLS-TV in Chicago, is “the prospect of large-scale protests stealing the stage as the world watches.” The new slogan stresses the international character of the event and the prestige and economic benefit that hosting world economic and political leaders is expected to bring to Chicago. “We're a world class city with world class potential," declares Mayor Rahm Emanuel. "If you want to be a global city, you've got to act like a global city and do what global cities do," says Lori Healey who heads the host committee and who previously led the city’s unsuccessful bid to host the 2016 Olympics. 

All indications, unfortunately, are that Chicago is preparing to “act like a global city and do what global cities do” and it appears to want to follow the lead of other “global cities” in dealing with mass demonstrations threatening to “steal the stage;” think Tehran, Beijing, Cairo, Moscow and Seattle, to name a few.

One of the chilling developments the hosting committee announced was that the Illinois State Crime Commission is “urgently seeking Iraq-Afghanistan combat veterans to work security positions for the G8 summit.” The commission's chairman clarifies that is for “private security” and not to work with the Chicago police. As in other “global cities,” these veterans will be used as private mercenaries without the legal protections and benefits of public employees. The Veterans Administration reports treating about 16% of the 1.3 million of veterans of these two wars for post-traumatic stress disorder and many more do not seek help. In answer to a potentially volatile situation in the streets of Chicago, the commission is not seeking workers trained in conflict resolution, but it has an urgent need for ex-soldiers trained in the violent chaos of Iraq and Afghanistan. These veterans urgently need treatment and meaningful employment, but at the “global crossroads,” they are offered only temp jobs as rent-a-cops protecting the interests of their exploiters.

Beyond touting the overblown promise of money that the summit is expected to bring ("To penetrate international markets takes time and money," said Don Welsh, Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau) the city and its welcoming committee do not encourage education or reflection on what NATO and the G8 are and what they do. Despite its claims, NATO was never a defensive alliance. It is structured to wage “out of area” wars in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as to “contain” China. NATO’s creed is aggressive, expansionist, militarist and undemocratic. The G8 represents the economic interests of its member states. It is not a legal international entity established by treaty but acts outside the law, with NATO as its enforcer. Chicago law enforcement might better spend its resources on preparing to arrest and prosecute the war criminals, terrorists, torturers, and racketeers coming as invited constituents of G8 and NATO rather than getting ready for mass arrests of citizens coming to Chicago to exercise their right to protest these crimes.

The morning after the host committee unveiled its new slogan, some of us with the Chicago-based Voices for Creative Nonviolence met to discuss our part in the response to the city of Chicago “bringing the war home” by welcoming NATO and G8.

We at Voices found ourselves in agreement with the host committee that Chicago is indeed a global crossroads. This is true not for the world’s financial elite, war profiteers, military brass and heads of state officially welcomed there in May, but for those who come to Chicago from the all over the continent and around the globe to visit or to make their lives there without the criminal intent of NATO and the G8. In May, especially, Chicago will be a global crossroads for the thousands of good people who will gather in the city to lend a hand and take to the streets for justice and peace.

Chicago in May is also a crossroads in that it is a critical place and time for us all to take stock of where we have been and where we are going. We are at a crossroads- do we continue on the road of war and economic exploitation of the planet that NATO and the G8 are committed to, or do we abandon that road and turn a corner toward economic justice and a world at peace. We are at a crossroads and our choices are stark: global domination and the economic and ecological devastation that it makes inevitable or global community.

With this in mind, Voices for Creative Nonviolence decided to call our efforts leading up to the NATO and G8 summit, “At A Global Crossroads:  Turn Against War.” We are starting the ground work for a walk starting on May 1 from Madison, Wisconsin, to arrive in Chicago in time for the summit on May 19.

Brian Terrell is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Following yonder star

by Kathy Kelly

December 23, 2011

Beneath our flat, here in Kabul, wedding guests crowded into a restaurant and celebrated throughout the night. Guests sounded joyful and the music, mostly disco, thumped loudly. When the regular call to prayer sounded out at 5:20 a.m., the sounds seemed to collide in an odd cacophony, making all music indistinguishable. I smiled, remembering the prayer call’s durable exhortation to live in peace, heard worldwide for centuries, and went back to sleep.

Through most of my life, I’ve found it easy to resonate with the ringing and beautiful Christmas narrative found in the Gospel of Luke, but less so with that jangling discord with which westerners are so familiar—the annual collision between (on the one hand) the orgy of gift-purchasing and gift-consumption surrounding the holiday and the the sweeter, simpler proclamations of peace on earth heralded by the newborn’s arrival. I've found myself quite surprisingly happy to spend many Christmases either in U.S. jails or among Muslims living in places like Bosnia, Iraq, Jordan and now Afghanistan. My hosts and friends in these places have been people who are enduring wars or fleeing wars, including, as in the case of U.S. jails, a war against the poor in the United States.

The Christmas narrative that imagines living beings coming together across divides, the houseless family with no room at the inn, the shepherds and the foreign royals arriving, all awakening to unimagined possibilities of peace, comes alive quite beautifully in the community with which I'm graced to find myself here in Kabul.

Five of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers are spending winter months in the apartment here which accommodates their group as well as visiting guests such as our small Voices delegation. In recent months, the place has evolved into a resource center for learning languages and exchanging ideas about nonviolent movements for social change. I am filled with fond and deep admiration for these young people as I watch them studying each other’s languages and preparing their own delegation to visit other provinces of this land on the brink of civil war, meeting with other young people wherever they can.

I’ve often described Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers as having bridged considerable ethnic gaps in their steadfast aspiration to someday live without wars. It’s quite impressive, during this trip, to learn from them about how close several of them came to becoming armed fighters.

One young friend recalls having spent three weeks, at age 12, as part of a Taliban group. He had no choice but to go with the Taliban as a conscript. He was given a rifle, as well as adequate food, and assigned to be a sentry. "I loaded the weapon and I fired warning shots," said our young friend, who is now 21 years of age, "but I didn’t feel good about it.” A village elder intervened, saying the new recruits were too young, and the Taliban released my friend and the other young teens.

We watched a film together in which another youngster, about seven years previously, had acted the role of the leader of a group of children imitating Talib fighters. Carrying sticks, the young actors had harassed a little girl over her determination that she would learn to read. Now we asked the young man, himself a Hazara, how he felt about playing a Taliban child. He acknowledged having grown up believing that anyone who was part of an ethnic group that had persecuted his people could never be trusted.

The father of another youngster had been killed by the Taliban. Still another describes how he watched in horror as Hazara fighters killed his brother.

Last week, the AYPVs welcomed a new friend who lives in a neighboring province and speaks a different language to join them and help them learn his language. Asked about NATO/ISAF night raids and other attacks that have occurred in his area, the new friend said that families who have suffered attacks feel intense anger, but even more so people say they want peace. "However, international forces have made people feel less secure," he added. "It’s unfortunate that internationals hear stories about Afghans being wild people and think that more civilized outsiders are trying to build the country. People here are suffering because of destruction caused by outsiders."

The air, the ground, the mountainsides, the water, and even the essential bonds of familial living have been ravaged by three decades of warfare here in Afghanistan. People living here have suffered the loss of an estimated two million people killed in the wars. 850 children die every day because of disease and hunger.

Amid excruciating sorrow and pain, it’s good to see people still find ways to gather for celebrations, even when the sounds seem curious and the dances seem, to some, forbiddingly exotic. Differences between insiders and outsiders become less relevant as people meet one another to celebrate.

Peace can surprise us when it comes, and that alone is abundantly sufficient cause for celebration in this season, wherever we are. Dr. King wrote that "the arc of history is long but it bends toward justice," and we should not be surprised as new and growing movements around us reveal an unquenchable and ineradicable longing for simple justice. The killing fields that scar our earth and sear the memories of survivors beckon us to look and listen for new ways of living together. Massacres of innocents call to us to reject the easy and familiar and go home by an other way.

The desires to live more simply, to share resources more radically, and to prefer service to dominance are not unique to any place, season, or religion. Such desires may yet herald unions previously unimagined and a better world for every newborn, each one bringing an astonishing potential - as we do if we strive to fulfill it - for peace.

Kathy Kelly (kathyvcnv [dot] org), twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She and two companions are part of a Voices delegation visiting the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in Kabul

Overcoming contradictions

by Kathy Kelly and Hakim
November 16, 2011

Adelaide, Australia –At Tabor House Technical College, 21 young people sit in a semicircle looking curiously at Hakim and me. We’ve been invited to speak with them about the practice of justice.

 Hakim, who has lived among Afghans for the past nine years, begins by describing how an Afghan youth, Zekerullah, would greet them.  “Salam,” he says to all. With his hand over his heart, Hakim makes eye contact with each student, and then nods in silent greeting. I smile, having watched Zekerullah do just this, whenever he entered a room. The students are interested.

“You can’t listen only to leaders,” Hakim tells them. “We must put our ears close to the hearts of ordinary people and listen to them.”  Hakim is often poetic, but he’s also a trained physician, prone toward assembling data and seeking careful diagnosis.

Rising early this morning, he prepared for today’s presentation by collecting statistics about government responses, in various parts of the world, to massive manifestations of public opinion.  As expected, the short survey showed that leaders aren’t listening well to ordinary people, that ‘national interests’ routinely overrule the people’s interests:

72% of Australians want their troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

But Prime Minister Julia Gillard insists that Australian troops will remain "till the end of the decade, at least."

 63% of Americans oppose the Afghan war.

But the US is about to sign a US-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement that will allow joint military bases in Afghanistan beyond 2024.

80% of the Spanish population support the estimated 6.5 to 8 million Spanish Indignados protesting unemployment.

But the Spanish government has been repressing the protesters since their police cleared out Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid on 17th May 2011.

89% of Chileans support the student protests for free public education.

But Chilean police used water cannons and tear gas to break up a student march on October 6th 2011.
US National polls over October and November 2011 were mixed, with agreement/approval ratings for Occupy Wall Street varying from 59% to 22%, but, generally, approval was larger than disapproval.

Yesterday, New York police cleared out the protesters from Zuccotti Park in New York.

“Do governments hate their people?” Hakim asks, “Or do they simply treat their general public as stupid belligerents?”

He encourages students to recognize the wisdom ordinary people hold, offering as an example Afghan villagers who became his teachers. He thought he had come to assist people in the Afghan village because he had ‘knowledge’ to offer them. He instead found that they changed his life completely.  They taught him about love and community.

Then he shows us a video he filmed of Zekerullah answering questions posed by Hakim.  Zekerullah
was 13 at the time the video was made.

 “Zekerullah Jan,” Hakim asks, “What are you doing?”

“I am peeling potatoes, teacher,” Zekerullah responds.

“Is having work good?” asks Hakim.

“Yes it’s very good for people. Not having work is a disease.”

“In 2009,” says Hakim, “3 Afghan children were killed daily in war, children like yourself.”

“This is vulgar and bad news…bad because there’ll be less Afghans,” Zekerullah says. “The people of Afghanistan will no longer exist.”

Hakim tells Zekerullah that when Afghan children are killed, foreign and local leaders express their ‘regret.’  “Is their ‘regret’ appropriate?” Hakim asks.

Zekerullah responds immediately. “No. Their regret seems to mean that however much the ‘regret,’ children will still be killed again, so their regret isn’t acceptable.”

Hakim asks a new question: “If your younger brother was killed by a bomb, and you were offered money in compensation, would you accept the money?”

Zekerullah says he wouldn’t accept it.  “Firstly,” he asks, “why was he killed?” “Secondly,” he continues, “those responsible should be punished so they won’t infringe on the rights of other people. The monetary compensation shouldn’t be accepted as money doesn’t match up to the value of a person.”

“Zekerullah,” Hakim asks, “Is your life as valuable as the life of Obama’s daughter?”

“Her life is very good,” says Zekerullah, looking directly at the camera, “because she’s the child of a minister or king.”

“Aren’t you as valuable as Obama’s daughter?” asks Hakim.

“In terms of humanity,” Zekerullah replies, “both of us are human beings.”

“Zekerullah,” Hakim says, “Never forget that you are as valuable as every other child, whether in Afghanistan, America or Europe.”

Zekerullah stares at the potato he is peeling, nodding thoughtfully.

“Okay,” he then says, looking up at Hakim.

“And all of us love you,” Hakim adds.

Zekerullah smiles slowly. “Be alive and at peace, teacher,” he says.

One of the students comments about how hard it would be to lose your brother.

 “These young people you know,” he asks, “can they feel forgiveness when their family members are killed?” 

Hakim says it is very hard.  He tells the story of Abdulai who has publicly stated that it’s time to stop the spiral of revenge, even though the Taliban killed his father.  Abdulai, age 15, was invited to join this tour of Australian cities, but the Australian government has not yet issued him a visa.

“Why not value a bearer of forgiveness more than those who bring weapons and preparation for warfare into your country?” Hakim asks.

President Obama is visiting Australia today.  During a 26 hour trip, he’ll go to Darwin where he and Prime Minister Gillard will most likely announce plans to greatly increase U.S. military presence at several bases.  The 72% of Australians who no longer want Australian troops to participate in the U.S./NATO war in Afghanistan will have to work very hard to be heard by their leaders. 

Using costly wars as the de-facto method of controlling terrorists and the world should be debated.

The debate should include careful listening to people bearing the brunt of these wars. And alternative methods for resolving human conflict should be sought. 

Hakim encourages the students to read “The Kingdom of God Is Within You,” by Leo Tolstoy. 

Having watched Hakim’s encounter with Zekerullah, Tolstoy’s confidence that the law of love is in accord with human nature seems wonderfully plausible.  Tolstoy writes:

The inherent contradiction of human life has now reached an extreme degree of tension: on the one side there is the consciousness of the beneficence of the law of love, and on the other the existing order of life which has for centuries occasioned an empty, anxious, restless, and troubled mode of life, conflicting as it does with the law of love and built on the use of violence.

This contradiction must be faced, and the solution will evidently not be favourable to the outlived law of violence, but to the truth which has dwelt in the hearts of men from remote antiquity: the truth that the law of love is in accord with the nature of man.

But men can only recognize this truth to its full extent when they have completely freed themselves from all religious and scientific superstitions and from all the consequent misrepresentations and sophistical distortions by which its recognition has been hindered for centuries.

The class is about to end.  One of the students says that he’s glad we watched the video because it gives him hope that thirty years from now people in the future could know what the people like Zekerullah said and what the politicians did.

Kathy Kelly (Kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org)  Hakim mentors the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (globaldaysoflistening.org)

Steve Burns: Finding the right words for Iraq

Last Friday, President Obama announced that the military would begin a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, saying, “After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over. Our troops will definitely be home for the holidays.” Not surprisingly, corporate media chose to highlight the responses of Republican Presidential candidates like Michelle Bachman (who thinks Iraqis need to pay us back for their “liberation”) rather than listening to the people who had struggled to prevent the Iraq war in the first place, and who had spent the past eight years trying to make a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq a reality.

In light of the apparent attainment of a goal so many of us had worked for over the years, what did the peace movement have to say? An awareness of the horrific price paid by the Iraqi and American people made for a somber tone to many of the responses I found. What words can we find to mark the end of a war that never should have happened in the first place?

What about the mercenaries?
The most common response to Obama's announcement was “Yes, but...” with many organizations choosing to highlight the more than 5,000 mercenaries to be left behind in Iraq at our Baghdad embassy and at consulates in Erbil, Mosul and Kirkuk. Mike Ferner of Vets for Peace said, “The mercenaries will technically be under the authority of the State Department, not the War Department, but a killer for hire is not likely to become a diplomat at the stroke of midnight on December 31.”

Who deserves the credit?
The terms of the withdrawal were actually negotiated by the Bush administration at the end of 2008, and the Obama administration made repeated efforts to win Iraqi approval for keeping troops in Iraq past the Dec. 2011 deadline, causing Medea Benajmin of Code Pink to describe the Iraq withdrawal as ”a promise the Obama administration made every effort to break.” David Swanson of warisacrime.org directed his thanks away from the White House and towards the grassroots opposition that forced the U.S. withdrawal, writing: “This would not have happened without the U.S. peace movement that scared U.S. politicians with its popularity three and four years ago. Of course it would also not have happened without Iraqi resistance, nonviolent and violent alike.” Kevin Martin of Peace Action also sent thanks and congratulations to war opponents here and in Iraq, writing: "This is a victory for an entire generation of youth, who have grown up only knowing war. This is a victory for the Iraqi people, who have suffered by the millions and ultimately refused to allow U.S. troops to remain after the agreed upon deadline. And this is a victory for our troops and their families, who are no longer put in danger for an unnecessary war."

Will justice be done?
Many groups included calls for justice in their responses, demanding prosecution for those responsible for the war and reparations for the Iraqi people. Mike Ferner of Vets for Peace wrote, “We have to pay a full measure of reparations to repair what we have destroyed of Iraq’s agriculture and infrastructure and leave a sizable trust fund to at least partially deal with the deformities and childhood cancers caused by our depleted uranium munitions.” Cindy Sheehan noted the absence of these issues from Obama's speech: “The two most important things, though, that I did not hear Obama say are these: prosecuting members of the Bush regime for the hundreds of lies it told about Iraq, and paying reparations to the people of Iraq.“

At what price?
Code Pink reminded us of the terrible cost borne by the Iraqi people, citing a "conservative estimate" of at least 100,000 Iraqi deaths as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation as well as a 2006 study by the British medical journal Lancet that found "more than 650,000 excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, factoring in the lack of medical supplies and the civil war the invasion set off." Matt Southworth of Friends Committee on National Legislation took up the cause of wounded veterans, noting that, “Hundreds of thousands of the two million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have filed claims with the Veterans Administration (VA) for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)."

Our to-do list
Recognizing that "the war is not really over, not for military families, not for veterans, and not for the people of Iraq," Military Families Speak Out wrote, “There is still a lot of work to be done, and the voices of military families are more important than ever. We must continue working for an end to the war in Afghanistan, for better treatment of our service members, and for proper care for all veterans. We must hold our government accountable and continue to speak out.” Cindy Sheehan also looked into the future, asking "which war will Obama send these troops that are leaving Iraq to? Pakistan? Afghanistan? Uganda? Iran? Or somewhere else that we can only imagine?" Iraq Veterans Against the War stated a commitment to be part of reconciliation efforts, writing, “IVAW will continue to hold our elected officials accountable and build connections with Iraqi organizations doing rebuilding work on the ground.”

Some national peace organizations have not yet issued statements about the Iraq withdrawal, and I expect to return to this subject as the December 31st withdrawal date comes and goes. For now, I can think of no better closing words than those of Celeste Zappala, Mother of Sgt Sherwood Baker, who was killed on April 26, 2004 in Baghdad: “So we can rejoice that a day will come when soldiers will not be in danger in Iraq, and we can pray that all those injured in body and spirit will be offered the healing they need and deserve. Can we promise them we as a Nation will never again send them in to wars based on lies? I fear not, I fear the business of war will always require a market, and unless we are all powerfully vocal, the idea of wars of choice will perpetuate.”

Steve Burns is Program Director of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

Citizens can help make businesses weapons-free

Concealed carry of weapons becomes legal in Wisconsin on Nov. 1, and local governments across the state are deciding whether to allow weapons in public buildings. Most communities are saying no.

It is also a decision business owners face. The law allows them to forbid their employees from bringing guns to work, and allows them to ban weapons on their property simply by posting a sign at the entrance.

Rather than sit back and watch, Wisconsin citizens, individually or in an organized way, can help them make that decision.

Every day, as you spend money in businesses you normally patronize -- the coffee shop, hair salon, grocery store, gas station, restaurant -- ask them to post a sign keeping weapons out. The Wisconsin Anti- Violence Effort has produced some small cards you can give to businesses, asking them to post a sign and giving them some reasons it makes sense to do so. (For example, workers at businesses that allow guns are 5 to 7 times more likely to be murdered, and 80% of all businesses in the country prohibit guns.)

Tell the businesses you want your family to be able to shop in a safe environment. Don't threaten them; make it positive.

If they agree, notify WAVE, which is compiling a list of gun-free businesses so people can know where to shop safely. And sign a pledge on the WAVE website to support businesses that keep guns out.

In some communities like Stoughton and in a number of Milwaukee neighborhoods, there is a more organized effort to visit each business, ask them to ban weapons, and offer them a sign if they agree, to close the deal on the spot.

WAVE is the main contact for organizing, but the small cards and signs also are available in Madison from the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice office, 122 State St., and in Milwaukee from Veterans for Peace and Peace Action Wisconsin, 1001 E. Keefe.   All three of those organizations are WNPJ member groups.

Cards are free, and quantity discounts are available on signs. Contact one of those organizations for more info.

Bonnie Urfer: "So many crimes, so little time"

Bonnie Urfer, 59, of Luck, Wis., was sentenced yesterday to four months in Federal Prison after being held in federal custody since May 11 for joining 12 others in walking onto the property of the Y12 nuclear weapons fabrication complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. to protest the Y-12 complex's role in nuclear weapons production.

Four months in a private, for-profit jail in southeast Georgia has shown Bonnie some of the worst abuses of our nation's prison-industrial complex. Her sentencing statement, written for presiding Magistrate Bruce Guyton is below. She titled it, “So Many Crimes, So Little Time":

To the Court: One of the most unpleasant things in life is to go to jail. But because they are places with some of the worst human rights violations in one of the most unjust systems, it is important that people know what happens in them. We need people in jails who have a voice, and people who know to tell the truth.

In the past 126 days I have been booked into three different jails. The hardest part of the experience is being just one person in the midst of so much systematic crime.

I have a decision to make. Do I refocus and put my energy into exposing the on-going crime of medical negligence in these jails? Do I begin a campaign to highlightthe illegal starvation diet in the Blount County jail, for which no one has been arrested? Do I join the effort to condemn the practice of overcharging mostly dirt poor inmates for phone calls, and commissary, so that corporations and counties receive greater kickbacks? Should I add my voice to those in this courthouse who show up protesting unjust sentences for nonviolent conspiracy charges? Or should I spend all of my time researching how many prosecutors, judges, attorneys, court clerks and law enforcement personnel who hold stock in the private prison industry, commissary companies, phone providers or medical contractors in these human warehouses? I see so many literal and moral crimes, and I’m just one person.

My final answer is none of the above. I will continue to resist the ultimate crime of nuclear weapons and their production here and around the world.

I heartily disagree with this court that Y12’s production of nuclear bombs does not equate to imminent nuclear war. I can tell you about the women I met in the jails who lost family members from cancer after exposure to radiation while working at Y12. The government pays $150,000 to those with cancer or to their family after a death, if they can prove Y12’s liability. Thousands of people are dead or dying from weapons production. How many deaths does it take to convince the courts that Y12 is killing its own in a nuclear war? How many does it take to name it a crime? In my mind — just one.

I have just one life and there is so much to do. It doesn’t matter what my sentence is. If I am returned to jail, I’ll expose more crimes. If I am set free, I’ll expose more crimes.

Now, it is your decision.” — Bonnie Urfer, Ocilla, Grorgia, September 14th, 2011.

This post is updated from a report by John Laforge of Nukewatch recently published at Common Dreams.