Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiThe grannies have done it again -- been in the vanguard striking at another dangerous policy of the United States -- the presence and proliferation of U.S. military bases on foreign soil. Several members of the Granny Peace Brigade had attended the meeting of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) in Caracas, Venezuela in April 2007, a meeting at which approximately 1,000 women from all over the world were present. The U.S. group was shocked to learn of the universal outrage that representatives from other countries expressed about the United States military bases that devastate communities and pollute them with crime, sexual assaults, depleted uranium, environmental degradation and more, and our grannies determined to do something about it. On Sunday, November 11, Veteran's Day, the Granny Peace Brigade held a teach-in St. Mark's Church in New York City, a first, entitled: "Close Guantanamo and All U.S. Bases on Foreign Soil."
At present, the Pentagon admits to maintaining 737 bases in 130 countries on every continent except Antarctica. There are 100 bases in Japan, for instance, 100 in Italy, and the list goes obnoxiously on. Plans are in progress for opening new ones -- in Poland, In Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere, and, now, if you can believe it, schemes are afoot by the U.S. for militarizing SPACE!
Citizens in other countries have long opposed the presence of these bases, but the situation is reaching crisis proportions. The grannies felt that people in the U.S. are largely unaware of the numbers of our military bases on foreign soil and the urgent problems they present. With the public awakening to the Guantanamo horrors, they felt this was an appropriate time to clue the public in to the over-all global situation.
Speakers included Lynne Kates of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), who gave a detailed account of efforts to shut down Guantanamo. She has been very active in trying to obtain the right of habeus corpus for the detainees. She described the many horrors of the prison, including how at first prisoners were kept in open-air cages surrounded by razor wire and later moved into solitary confinement cells where they remain to this day. Ms. Kates discussed the upcoming case in the Supreme Court to close Guantanamo and urged us all to go to Washington DC on December 5, the day the trial begins, to assemble at the Court to voice our concerns.
Elsa Rassbach of American Voices Abroad Military Project, a U.S. citizen who has lived for many years in Berlin, informed us that Germany has by far the most strategically important U.S. military air bases abroad for the wars in the Middle East and in Africa, including (outside the U.S.), the largest U.S. military community, the largest U.S. military training facility, the largest U.S. military hospital and the U.S. bases used for the largest amount of transport of munitions and U.S. soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan. She spoke of disaffection among local citizens living near the Ramstein and Ansbach Air Bases concerning 2 a.m. aerial practice, water polluted by fuel generated from the bases, and, above all, the conducting of aggressive war from German soil by the U.S. in violation of the German constitution. Her group works with German peace organizations to break through a media blackout in Germany on this issue and to support U.S. soldiers in Germany who resist these wars.
Al Marder of the World Peace Council told of his attendance in March 2007 at the Quito and Manta, Ecuador, Inaugural Conference of the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases, and the laudatory (and amusing) fact that President Rafael Correa of the Republic of Ecuador refuses to renew the lease for our base in Manta, the largest one in South America, unless we allow him to build his own in Miami. Regina Birchem, Past International President of WILPF (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom), who attended both the Quito and the Caracas conferences, spoke of the positive effect of women from around the globe participating in peace and justice matters and the need for us to mobilize in large numbers for this particular battle. The forum was moderated by actress-playwright Vinie Burrows, who is the UN liaison to WIDF and led the Granny Peace Brigade detail to the Venezuela forum.
Attendance at the teach-in was over-flowing, and all in the audience were enthusiastic about the scope of information provided them. Because of the success of the event, the Granny Peace Brigade intends to hold additional teach-ins in the near future and its No Bases Committee is stepping up efforts to reach out to other organizations and groups to make certain this issue is among the top ones on the Congressional agenda.
Today's grannies have put away their knitting needles and stored their rocking chairs in the attic. Instead, we lead the way to correcting the many wrongs multiplying in our nation, and we're not going to stop.
Listen to your granny
Joan Wile is Founder-Director of Grandmothers Against the War and a Granny Peace Brigade Times Square Jailbird. She is author of "Grandmothers Against the War: Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing up for Peace," to be published by Citadel Press May 2008.
17 Comments so far
Show All"...now, if you can believe it, schemes are afoot by the U.S. for militarizing SPACE!" Nothing more nerve racking than a humdred protesting grannies in space gear floating over a military satellite. That,alone,should stop the government.
I was aware we had some military bases in foreign countries. I was also very aware that a lot of money is being wasted on the military. What are we protecting the friggin world with nonsense like this????? But, 100 in Italy and Japan is ridiculous. I don't see the point in building proposed military bases in Poland either???? I am also aware there is a lot of countries who are fed up with our Imperialist ambitions when it comes to the military. We are the world's worst polluters too! And we honestly wonder why we are hated the world around? The infrastructure of this country is falling apart at the seams! While these people waste more money on another military base. They need to get their priorities straightened out. If I were anywhere near these Granny's I would join them! I am a Grandmother and would love a project like that!
I believe Kucinich and Richardson also support a full and immediate withdrawal of troops, although Richardson might leave troops outside Iraq but close enough to move in IF Iraq requests them.
Paul is obviously right on the war, but also obviously wrong on health care (let the free market do it all), on taxation (get rid of the IRS and have the retail industry become the nation's tax collector; tax all new goods and services, including doctors' appointments and groceries and new homes. Used goods, including used homes, would not be taxed, leading to a pretty big decline in new-home construction). He is a small-government libertarian big time, BUT he is his own person and as such is an admirable man.
A few of us are ABBY.
With our atomic subs and ICBMs poised to strike anywhere in the world, with our mighty carrier fleets, our strategic bombers, We could easily close all of the foreign bases and put the civilians who lose jobes to work selling Chinese made goods at Wal-Marts. ___ I'm serious.
Really hate to pour rain on this parade, but the ONLY candidate who has publicly and LOUDLY mentioned bringing all our troops home and closing all the bases is Ron Paul.
I've been a dedicated Democrat my entire adult life, but I'm pretty firmly committed to Ron Paul now.
They say he's drawing the far-right and the far-left to his candidacy. Well, we're the freakin' far-left as I see it, and all I see Kucinich doing IN THE END is kissing Bill ("How DARE you??" to the 9/11 questioner) and Hillary ("troops out by 2013" horseshit) Clinton's asses at the big Democratic Convention, just like he did in 2004 with Kerry.
Someone should seriously ask Kucinich RIGHT NOW if he plans on launching an Independent candidacy for President should he lose the Democratic primary. He should pull a freakin' "Lieberman" on their corporate asses right NOW, least he lose his Progressive base.
We might be Progressive "Commondreamers"....but we're not stupid.
Bill from Saginaw: I second your ingenious notion. How about emailing it to Kucinich? or Nader?
This is very timely, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates is "threatening" to begin shutting down bases if Congress doesn't approve more money for the Iraq and Afghanistan disasters.
"If Congress doesn't approve $196 billion for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, he says, bases may partly shut down and civilians may lose jobs." -- LA Times, Nov. 15 2007
I feel so sorry for the military and their lack of money.
I propose a phased withdrawal, spread over four years of a genuinely progressive administration.
From 737 US military bases down to 37.
Have the Pentagon, the State Department, and the Armed Services Committee select the timetable for closing the 700, and recommend to the new President which 37 bases are the most essential to keep, from a national security standpoint.
The money from the first 350 base closings goes into Medicaid, as transition funds towards creation of a single payer national health care system with universal coverage, one that eventually puts an end to private health insurance as we know it.
The money from the second 350 base closings goes into the general fund, to start paying down the deficits brought on by Little George's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Matching funds would come from a windfall profits tax upon those corporations who profited and/or stole the most during the Bush/Cheney war years.
And in the second term, then we convert 30 of the 37 overseas bases into academic institutions and teaching hospitals, leaving only 7 bases for purely military (and intelligence gathering) purposes.
I don't believe in isolationism, you see.
Just believe we ought to get back to my grandma's sense of proportion, and take the toys away from the boys until they show they've learned how to behave.
Bill from Saginaw
I think that "Go Grannies Go" has been said already - but deserves being said again. Nothing new to add.
Support the Writers Strike: Call Studio Executives
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/take-action/campaigns/support-the-wr...
Wishing them luck.
Grannies go for it! Keep going for it! Keep fighting the good fight!
cutting to the chase
And if they don't remove their bases, why not allow the rest of us to have bases on US soil?
With CODEPINK as the Mom of the country and these compassionate people as our Grannies we just might be able to turn around the mess our fathers have gotten us into.
Hoa binh
Go Grannies - you RULE!