September, 11 2008, 12:26pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michael T. McPhearson 314-303-8874
Elliott Adams 518-441-2697
VFP Calls for U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan and the Prosecution of Dick Cheney and George Bush for Crimes Against Humanity
Nationwide
Veterans For Peace held its
Annual National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota days before the start
of the Republican Convention. Over 400 veterans, military family
members and friends ranging from World War II to the current conflict
in Iraq gathered for workshops, discussions, inspirational speakers and
entertainment. Topics covered included Agent Orange, Depleted Uranium,
outreach to military personnel, PTSD and healing from war, military
sexual assault and others. Keynote speakers for the four day conference
were Father Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest and founder of the School
of Americas Watch; former Marine and chief United Nations Special
Commission (UNSCOM) Inspector in Iraq 1991-1998, Scott Ritter; Iraq War
Gold Star parent and former Minnesota State Senator Becky Lourey; the
author of the best seller "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most
Powerful Mercenary Army," Jeremy Scahill; and West Point graduate James
Yee, former Muslim Chaplin for the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay.
Veterans For Peace also passed sixteen resolutions taking stands on
topics ranging from increasing VFP commitment to greening the annual
convention, working to authorizing the creation of Veterans For Peace
Incarcerated Chapters to assisting disabled military personnel and
veterans. Three resolutions in particular stand out.
Veterans For Peace is calling for changes in military law and other
appropriate regulations so that military personnel can declare
themselves Conscientious Objectors to specific wars based on a
religious, moral, or legal basis. Current law calls for the objection
to all wars to qualify for CO status.
The group is calling for the government of the United States to
immediately withdraw all military and intelligence forces from
Afghanistan and Pakistan. This same resolution calls for the U.S.
government to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan, in
non-coercive forms, to help them 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 U.S.
Continuing with their efforts to impeach President Bush Jr. and Vice
President Cheney, VFP has pledged to take every appropriate measure to
insure that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and responsible members of
their administration are prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against
peace and crimes against humanity before any court claiming
jurisdiction in this country or abroad, for as long as they shall live.
Commenting on these resolutions, VFP Executive Director Michael
McPhearson said, "These three statements from our membership represent
many of the core values of our organization. We believe that service
members have the right to re-evaluate their decision to kill and change
their mind. We know that after all the killing is done the individual
soldiers must live with themselves and make sense of what they have
done. We believe that our political leaders must be held accountable
for their actions. This is a critical to a healthy and functional
democracy. We realize that to survive the challenges we face today,
like global warming, we must find ways to work together and war is not
viable."
To read full text of the resolutions please visit https://www.veteransforpeace.org/Convention_Resolutions_2008.vp.html
Veterans For Peace is a global organization of Military Veterans and allies whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by using our experiences and lifting our voices. We inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars, with an obligation to heal the wounds of wars. Our network is comprised of over 140 chapters worldwide whose work includes: educating the public, advocating for a dismantling of the war economy, providing services that assist veterans and victims of war, and most significantly, working to end all wars.
(314) 725-6005LATEST NEWS
Russia's Putin Secures Another Term
The controversial leader won a record number of votes for a post-Soviet candidate even as opponents organized a protest at noon on the election's third and last day.
Mar 17, 2024
Despite protests on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin won reelection with more votes than any candidate since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Exit poll the Public Opinion Foundation (POF) put the final tally after three days of voting at 87.8%, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) at 87%, and Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) at 87.3%. Putin will now serve another six-year term, meaning he will have been at the helm of the Russian state for longer than any leader since Catherine the Great, surpassing Josef Stalin.
The election comes less than a month after the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and is likely to lead to more tensions between the Russian and U.S. governments.
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"For a U.S. administration that hoped Putin's Ukraine adventure would be wrapped up by now with a decisive setback to Moscow's interests, the election is a reminder that Putin expects that there will be many more rounds in the geopolitical boxing ring," Nikolas Gvosdev, director of the National Security Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told the Russia Matters project.
With most of Putin's prominent opponents either dead, imprisoned, or in exile, the elections results were considered a foregone conclusion by both friends and foes of his administration.
A Putin spokesperson said in 2023 that the election was "not really democracy" but instead "costly bureaucracy," according to CNN. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said the election was "obviously not free nor fair."
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Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, who had also endorsed the protest, voted at the embassy in Berlin, while several protesters gathered outside the embassy in London.
"I expected there to be a lot of people, but not this many," London-based participant Maria Dorofeyeva told The Guardian, adding, "It gives me some hope to see how many people are not happy with the dictatorship, the war, with what's happening in Russia. And we want to stop it."
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"Netanyahu has wanted to get rid of UNRWA because he had seen them as a means to continue the hopes of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own."
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On "Face the Nation," Van Hollen said that the person in charge of operations on the ground in UNRWA was a 20-year U.S. Army veteran.
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He also repeated claims that Netanyahu has wanted to eliminate UNRWA entirely since at least 2017.
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