October, 07 2013, 01:35pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michael McPhearson, VFP Interim Executive Director, mcphearson@veteransforpeace.org
After 12 Years, 2284, 110 and an Unknown Number
WASHINGTON
On this 12th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Veterans For Peace calls for all troops to be brought home now. There is no reason to wait until 2014. There is no need for more loss of life. We call on the U.S. President and Congress to review the past decade and learn from our mistakes and our sins. We call on all of us to face the truth that as a nation we have lost much and gained little if anything. War has not been good for most of us. The only people who have prospered from this horror are the merchants of war and warmongers who call for more bombs and bullets at every turn. We call on the people of the nation to continue to be war wary. Continue as you did in September to reject calls for more war. No war with Syria or Iran. The rest of this decade must be one where diplomacy and peace are our tools of choice not war and death.
What is the significance of the numbers 2284 and 110? The first is the number of U.S. service members who have died in the war in Afghanistan since the start of the invasion and occupation on October 7, 2001. The second is the number of deaths so far in 2013. Both numbers are taken from the website iCasualties.org. All told, 3389 coalition forces have been killed. What about Afghans, you ask? The numbers are far from precise and pretty hard to find, but Costofwar.org estimates just over 19,000 as of February.
The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, or so goes the official story. I was in New York City heading to work when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. I heard about it in the office and we turned on the television in time to see the second plane hit. Sometimes I commuted to work via the PATH train from New Jersey to the WTC to catch a subway. Thankfully, that day I did not. While I did not find I felt afraid, I was depressed. I knew that hate motivated the attacks. I knew that an unspeakable evil had been unleashed on the world and it was going to get worse.
I was most concerned about how the U.S would respond. I felt depressingly sure that war would be our only response, meaning a spiral of death and carnage with no clear direction or end. I wish I had been wrong. I knew politicians would clamor for war if for no other reason than to look patriotic, strong and decisive. Yes, I expected the government to do what was necessary to stop another attack -- I also wanted those responsible to be held accountable. But I knew that war - if at all - was only part of the answer and alone would solve nothing. I doubted my country was willing to ask honest questions about why this happened. I doubted that we were willing to face the truth that as a nation we are not simply innocent victims of mad men; that in fact our government's foreign policies, then and now, play a central role in creating our "enemies."
So here we are, October 2013, and what do we have to show after 12 years of war? Afghanistan will more than likely return to the rule of the Taliban, al Qaeda is now a franchise with wannabes in numerous African nations, Pakistan, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, now Syria and several other places. The Global War on Terror has wasted $1.5 trillion dollars and over time will cost nearly $5 trillion. That is money which should have been used to meet human needs at home and abroad.
U.S. war-making has displaced millions of people. U.S. bullets, bombs and drones have killed tens of thousands of people and physically and mentally disfigured many more. Our government has condoned torture and now conducts mechanized assassination strikes that allow killing of people who may or may not be the intended targets. This includes women and children who were in "the wrong place at the wrong time," like in their home living their lives.
Here in the U.S. we have an anemic economy that could use a trillion dollar investment in job creation. We have unbridled gun violence following the clear lead of our national political leaders who have shown for the last decade that they believe violence is the answer to solve conflicts. And we have soldiers who continue to die in a war without achievable aims as we kill civilians because the inertia of a superpower that has lost interests does not end war quickly. We the people can end it. We can stop the killing. We can bring our troops home.
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.
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"These mass, illegal firings will not stop us," said organizers. "Make no mistake, we will continue organizing until the company drops Project Nimbus and stops powering this genocide."
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The peace coalition No Tech for Apartheid accused Google of a "flagrant act of retaliation" late Wednesday night as the Silicon Valley giant announced it had fired 28 workers over protests against its cloud services contract with the Israeli government.
The firings came after Google organizers held two 10-hour sit-ins at the company's offices in Sunnyvale, California and New York City, demanding the termination of Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract under which Google and Amazon provide cloud infrastructure and data services for Israel—without any oversight regarding whether the Israel Defense Forces uses the services in its occupation of Palestinian territories and bombardment of Gaza.
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"They punished all of the workers they could associate with this action in wholesale firings," said the coalition, which includes Jewish Voice for Peace and MPower Change, a Muslim-led anti-war group.
Google accused the workers of "bullying," "harassment," defacing property, and physically impeding other employees—allegations No Tech for Apartheid rejected as it noted organizers "have yet to hear from a single executive about" their concerns over Google's collaboration with Israel.
"This excuse to avoid confronting us and our concerns directly, and attempt to justify its illegal, retaliatory firings, is a lie," said the workers. "Even the workers who were participating in a peaceful sit-in and refusing to leave did not damage property or threaten other workers. Instead they received an overwhelmingly positive response and shows of support."
The organizers staged the sit-ins on the heels of reporting in Time magazine about new negotiations between Google and the Israeli government regarding further potential tech contracts.
Kate J. Sim, a child safety policy adviser at Google who said she was among those fired this week, said the terminations show "how terrified [executives] are of worker power."
Google employees have a history of harnessing worker power to change policies at the company. In 2018, Google terminated a deal with the U.S. Defense Department to develop drone and artificial intelligence (AI) technology through a contract called Project Maven. The decision followed the resignations of several employees and the condemnation of thousands of workers.
Calling Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian "genocide profiteers," No Tech for Apartheid said Wednesday that they will not stop demonstrating against Project Nimbus until they get a similar result.
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Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," she argued. "That means passing FANFSA and reforming Section 702 authority—and prioritizing everyone's First and Fourth Amendment rights."
Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
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Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
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Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
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The renewed push for Palestine's U.N. membership comes as Israel wages a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, which hasn't controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, rejected the Biden administration's requests to hold off on seeking full membership.
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As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
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