Why I'm against Obama's Afghanistan
Marine Benji Lewis, Iraq War veteran and Courage to Resist member, explains why he has pledged to refuse deployment next month. Also: Benji Lewis Defense Fund
"I am appalled by the notion that many support the war in
Afghanistan, referring to it as the good war."
US War resisters in Canada, an overview
I'll have a "draught dodger!" Canadian federal judge grants Kim Rivera a temporary reprieve from deportation; Canada’s House of Commons again votes to allow resisters to stay
Also:
Why are Army recruiters killing themselves?
By Time/CNN. April 2, 2009 (link only). Army combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan now constitute 73% of the 7,600 recruiters nationwide.
Iraq veteran: Why I'm against Obama's Afghanistan
By Benji Lewis, Courage to Resist for AlterNet. April 8, 2009
I am a veteran of Iraq who served two tours in the U.S. occupation
of that country. I experienced firsthand the horrors of that war, and
like many others, came to see it as nothing more than a chance for a
very few to make vast profits in a short amount of time. Now, because
of those selfish and irresponsible actions, the citizens of not only
the U.S., but of the entire world, are asked to pay for the fallout of
war in blood, sacrifice and currency.
But this is old news.
Yet, even as we deplore the war in Iraq and the unconstitutional
actions of the former administration, we are sucked back into the
propaganda of the ‘first war,’ the ‘good war,’ as if the Bush
administration was so unpatriotic that it had no interest in
Afghanistan. Even as we acknowledge that Iraq is a war for oil and
profit, we ignore the history of Afghanistan and the oil resources of
the Caspian Sea that would be opened up through this conquest. Even as
we sit on the brink of a depression we are willing to pour our money
and resources into a so-called ‘ten year plan’ that will cost unknown
sums of money that we will not get back. Exactly as it is happening in
the Iraq war, the fruits of our labor will be siphoned off into the
banks of contractors and industrialists, and for whose benefit?
Certainly not ours, for we have only some false hope of revenge to
attain.
If it was not evident before, it should be apparent by now that
Obama is not our savior. He does not bring us hope of no war and he
certainly is either not able or not willing to bring about real change.
He is, above all, one thing: a politician, and as such he is bound by
the rules of his trade. That is his livelihood, so his career rests not
on the energized citizens who, inflated with the jingoism of his
campaign, rushed to the phones and then to the ballot box in support of
his campaign, but by his financial backers, who are already reaping the
benefit of ‘bailouts’ and a newly resurrected war. And if anything is
transparent it is that Obama’s administration plans to use the same
bully tactics that the Bush administration used in order to subvert the
will of the electorate and secure the interests of a very few while the
rest of us struggle in a recession.
Yet he was elected on a ‘no war’ ticket and in this, if we know our
history, he is no different than Woodrow Wilson who pulled America into
World War I against the wishes of his constituency and later admitted
that it was only for the benefit of capitalists. Obama stood
shamelessly behind podiums and promised an end to the Iraq War, all the
while planning to launch us into the good and just war against
Afghanistan -- a nation that is really not one nation at all, but a
heterogeneous population of many languages, tribes and cultures.
Even several of the Obama supporters I know cringed at his recent
announcement of his ten-year plan in Afghanistan, a horrific
declaration of war that boasts no objective other than training and
arming a foreign military that supports the United States to protect
U.S. corporate interests in Asia. Here again we see the despicable
logic of building large armies in the name of peace. Perhaps more
perturbing is the fact that our ‘new’ government is still insistent on
abusing the rights of young men and women by duping them into military
service.
As a veteran facing and refusing recall orders back into the Marine
Corps, I am appalled by the notion that many support the war in
Afghanistan, referring to it as the good war. As if any war is good.
Still, even against their own interests, people cannot seem to see past
the obvious facade that is the endless "war on terror."
Afghanistan is one of the most unstable countries in the world. Its
population is diverse, its mountainous territory virtually
impenetrable. The region has been sought after by outsiders for as long
as there has been conquest, and not once has a force succeeded in
occupying the terrain. The people of the United States look at that
country as a singular entity, but in truth there are vast political
differences in that region. To increase military force in Afghanistan
will be as destabilizing in the region as the U.S. support for Israel
has been farther west. And, as we have seen in Iraq, our enemies there
will only increase.
Solutions to global problems do not reside in bombs, retribution and
revenge. They grow from supporting the many peaceful causes in the
region and by uprooting instead of propagating war. For our brothers
and sisters in that region are people just like us. They ask for
solidarity and we send in the Marines. They ask for aid and we give
them conditions.
I have refused to return to military ‘service’ because doing so
would be a disservice to this country. For all that money should belong
to the people, and not to the military industrial complex and those it
benefits. For all that money could reduce hunger and poverty and thus
subvert war. Though the events of 9/11 were horrific, do we justify
them by becoming terrorists ourselves? Or do we move forward, admit and
amend the mistakes of our past, and set our sites on peace and
prosperity for all the world?
Donate to Benji legal defense:
couragetoresist.org/benji
US War
resisters in Canada overview
I'll have a "draught dodger!"
By Mike Ferner. April 8, 2009
For the second time in 10 months, Canada’s House of Commons told
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government,
including Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, to stop deporting U.S.
soldiers resisting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The vote united the
three opposition parties, the Liberals, the Bloc Quebecois and the New
Democratic Party in a close 129-125 vote.
Two weeks ago, the War Resisters Support Campaign rallied for former
Army soldier, Kimberly Rivera (photo above-right with family), the first female U.S. soldier to go to
Canada. Nearly 100 people filled the chairs and lined the aisles at the
Steelworkers hall in Toronto for Rivera, her husband and three
children, the youngest born in Canada six months ago.
The morning after the March 25 rally, Rivera was due to be deported
back to the U.S. to face an Army court martial, but Federal Judge James
Russell agreed with Rivera’s argument that resisters who speak out
against the war publicly in Canada receive harsher sentences, and
granted her a temporary stay.
“This was the fifth time that the court ruled that Iraq war
resisters face harsher punishment if they’re sent back to the U.S.,”
said Michelle Robidoux, spokesperson for the Toronto-based support
campaign. “The courts have spoken, Parliament has spoken and Canadians
have made their views clear. These conscientious objectors should not
be sent back to the United States to face jail time for opposing the
Iraq War.”
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