war resistance

Admiral Mullen Announces Afghanistan Strategy: Prepare to Nonviolently Resist

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:22:21 -0500

by Jeff Leys

This past Wednesday, Admiral Mullen (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) announced that the Pentagon will seek additional war funds for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2010. While he did not give a firm dollar amount, the New York Times reported that defense budget analysts are kicking around the number of $50 billion.

Where Will They Get the Troops?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:07:27 -0500

by Dahr Jamail & Sarah Lazare

As the Obama administration debates whether to send tens of thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan, an already overstretched military is increasingly struggling to meet its deployment numbers. Surprisingly, one place it seems to be targeting is military personnel who go absent without leave (AWOL) and then are caught or turn themselves in.

War Resisters Reach Out in Dialogue

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:16:46 -0500

by Dialogues Against Militarism

The Dialogues Against Militarism (DAM) delegation has arrived in Be'er Sheva, Israel, a small city that sits in the middle of the Negev Desert. Our travels from San Francisco, California lasted two days, including a twenty hour flight and a long ride through the Sinai Desert. As with crossing any border, the terrain was heavily militarized.

An American Diplomat and a British Soldier Tell Their Leaders They Have No Clothes: No to the Afghanistan War Strategy

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:47:47 -0400

by Ann Wright

British Army Lance Corporal Joe Glenton faces court martial for refusing to return to Afghanistan. He defied a direct order by his commanding officer to not participate in the in the Saturday, October 24, 2009, Stop the War march in London.

Former Marine Captain Resigns in Protest of Afghanistan War

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:44:20 -0400

by Glenn Greenwald

Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain with combat experience in Iraq, resigned last month from his position with the Foreign Service, where he was the the senior U.S. civilian in the Taliban-dominated Southern Afghanistan province of Zabul, because he became convinced that our war in that country will not only inevitably fail, but is fueling the very insurgency we are trying to defeat.

Soldiers Who Just Say No

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:17:43 -0400

by Jon Letman

KAUAI, Hawaii - Six months into Barack Obama's presidency, the U.S. public's display of antiwar sentiment has faded to barely a whisper.

Registering for Peace

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:54:29 -0400

by Tobin Jacobrown

On Wednesday, the 29th of July, I filed a lawsuit against the federal government declaring that, because of my religious beliefs, I should not be required to register for the draft unless it could be officially recognized that I claim to object to all war.

Echo Platoon: Warehousing Soldiers in the Homeland

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:13:20 -0400

by Dahr Jamail and Sarah Lazare

Echo Platoon is part of the 82nd Replacement Detachment of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Soldiers in the platoon are relegated to living quarters in a set of dimly lit concrete rooms. Pipes peep out of missing ceiling tiles and a musty smell permeates beds placed on cracked linoleum floors.

For soldiers who have gone AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and then voluntarily turned themselves in or were forcibly returned, the detention conditions here in Echo Platoon only serve to reinforce the inescapability of their situation.

Refusing to Comply: The Tactics of Resistance in an All-Volunteer Military

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:40:24 -0400

by Dahr Jamail

[Research support for this article was provided by the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute.]

On May 1st at Fort Hood in central Texas, Specialist Victor Agosto wrote on a counseling statement, which is actually a punitive U.S. Army memo:

US War Resister in Germany Awaits Obama

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:13:15 -0400

by Elsa Rassbach

BERLIN - Tomorrow President Obama will be in Germany. First he will stop in Dresden and at the concentration camp at Buchenwald, near Weimar. Then he will visit wounded U.S. soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest American hospital outside the U.S., located on a site of built in 1938 as the campus of the Adolf Hitler School for Youth.