Another Pathway is
Possible
No Human Being is an
Enemy of Another Human Being
We, All Life on the Planet, of the Human, Environment, Animal and Ecosystems, Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident, That All Life is Created Equal, and Endowed by its Creator with Certain Unalienable Rights, That Among These are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
Progress In A Real Way: A Reconciliation of Deep Spirituality with Our Humanity with the American Idea and Ideals — Without War — The Other Choice for the Planet
"Mankind
must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind"
–
John F. Kennedy
"I hate war, as only a soldier who has lived it can, as only one who has
seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity"
–
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1946
"War deceives people; it gives people hope but does not fulfil them"
–
The Religion of
Islam
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War – Who Needs It – The People Speak |
U.S. Soldier Tells Truth in Iraq
"It's Not About Patriotism and Honor, It's About Profiteering and Money"
People Who Found and Spoke Their Conscience During the Act of War
Major-General Smedley Butler, USMC: "War is Just a Racket" (Early 20th Century)
US Air Force General Lee Butler: "It is time to reassert the primacy of individual conscience, the voice of reason, and the rightful interests of humanity" (Late 20th Century)
Fl Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith: "Resistance Against Tyranny is not Futile" (Iraq)
Philip Martin, USMC: "I'm sick and tired of this patriotic, nationalistic and fascist crap" (Iraq)
Robert S. Mulford's Statement on Non-Violent Resistance to the War in Iraq
The Brave (Censored) GI
Movement that Said No to War:
"I was doing it right,
but I wasn't doing right"
The Question to the
Mother's of Mankind: Julia Howe, Author of the Battle Hymn of
the Republic
Courage to Resist:
https://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
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"What's Our Mission, What's Our Goal?" |
To the Brave, The Noble and the Free: WE SALUTE YOUR HUMANITY
“To those who have called me a coward I say that they are wrong, and that without knowing it, they are also right. They are wrong when they think that I left the war for fear of being killed. I admit that fear was there, but there was also the fear of killing innocent people, the fear of putting myself in a position where to survive means to kill, there was the fear of losing my soul in the process of saving my body, the fear of losing myself to my daughter, to the people who love me, to the man I used to be, the man I wanted to be. I was afraid of waking up one morning to realize my humanity had abandoned me.”
—Sgt. Camilo
Mejia
* * *
“War is the
greatest form of wrong. I believe that my moral obligation to humanity
is to not allow myself to be a part of this destruction. …
“Why do we want to train the young people in the world that the only way we can settle our differences is to kill one another? Why shouldn't we train them to become surgeons or homebuilders? Why shouldn't we train to become anything but killers? I think that the world would be better off if we were to do that instead. I have talked to veterans from every war from WWII on and their opinion is that the wars they fought were to be the last war ever fought. How many more are we going to fight before we realize that the act of war is for small minded people that are intent in only satisfying their own needs and not the needs of the people in general? I do not want to be killed because I am living in a place that has a ruler that wants to go to war with any one.
“The only way to bring peace to the world is to let the people of the world decide for themselves what they want to spend their efforts on. I feel that in this day and age governments start wars, and not people, and since the governments want the wars then why don't we let the government fight the war? All of the politicians that want to fight a war are free to trade places with me at any time. I will gladly go and learn war no more.
“There are activities that I have been involved in that have led me to these new and developed beliefs, and they are numerous but I can tell you some of them. When you walk in the woods and you see a deer stand and look at you, or you are on the river in the morning and the mist rises off the water while you hear the morning calls of the river birds, and the otters just lie there as you glide past in your boat and don't even move, you know that there is a better way. When you can find solitude in the woods that are so filled with peace and the wildlife that is all around you, you feel the better way all around. A person must acknowledge the fact the we are a part of the universe and the universe does not want to be out of sorts with itself, so why do we spend so much effort on trying to be out of sorts with others of the human race?”
| —Sgt Kevin Benderman |
“Breaking Ranks to Shun War” by David Zucchino
THE FIRST MILITARY OFFICER TO REFUSE IRAQ WAR
“I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to watch families torn apart,.jpg)
while the President tells us to “stay the course.” … I refuse to be
party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve
our aggression. I wanted to be there for my fellow troops. But the
best way was not to help drop artillery and cause more death and destruction.
It is to help oppose this war and end it so that all soldiers can come home.”
-U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ehren WatadaStatement of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada
June 7, 2006Family, Friends, Members of the Religious Community, Members of the Press, and my fellow Americans—thank you for coming today. My name is Ehren Watada. I am a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and I have served for 3 years.
It is my duty as a commissioned officer of the United States Army to speak out against grave injustices. My moral and legal obligation is to the Constitution and not those who would issue unlawful orders. I stand before you today because it is my job to serve and protect those soldiers, the American people, and innocent Iraqis with no voice.
It is my conclusion as an officer of the Armed Forces that the war in Iraq is not only morally wrong but a horrible breach of American law. Although I have tried to resign out of protest, I am forced to participate in a war that is manifestly illegal. As the order to take part in an illegal act is ultimately unlawful as well, I must as an officer of honor and integrity refuse that order.
The war in Iraq violates our democratic system of checks and balances. It usurps international treaties and conventions that by virtue of the Constitution become American law. The wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of the Iraqi people with only limited accountability is not only a terrible moral injustice, but a contradiction to the Army’s own Law of Land Warfare. My participation would make me party to war crimes.
Normally, those in the military have allowed others to speak for them and act on their behalf. That time has come to an end. I have appealed to my commanders to see the larger issues of our actions. But justice has not been forthcoming. My oath of office is to protect and defend America’s laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today.
Thank you.
https://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
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War is Against the Human Grain |
Hundreds of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Gather in Washington DC for Winter Soldier
Iraq Veterans Against the War
To mark five years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) will gather beginning today through Sunday at the National Labor College near Washington, D.C. to disclose the realities of U.S. war policy in a public investigation called “Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan”.
Veterans and civilian survivors of both conflicts will give public testimony and share the eyewitness stories that have been censored from the American public about the true human cost of these occupations. This testimony also will reveal how the Iraq occupation is tactically un-winnable, morally wrong, and has brought our military to its breaking point.
Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan aims to:
-
Motivate veterans and active duty service members
to get involved in today’s growing GI resistance movement;
SIR, NO SIR!
-
Awaken America to the real human costs of war
that have not been exposed sufficiently by the American media;
https://www.planetization.org/iraqtruth.htm
-
Hold both Democrats and Republicans accountable for the illegal Iraq occupation they have jointly kept going.
The term, Winter Soldier, is a play on the words of Thomas Paine who wrote in “The Crisis” (1776) that summer soldiers, “shrink from the service of their country” in times of crisis. In contrast, Winter Soldiers are those who stand up for the soul of their nation in its darkest hours.
America’s democracy is in crisis today, motivated by an economic addiction to oil and empire, engaged in ongoing illegal occupation that has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands, and stymied by a political process that values moneyed interests more than the majority of the American people.
Over 35 years after the first Winter Soldier investigation conducted by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, America needs Winter Soldiers again. Continuing in this tradition, IVAW’s Winter Soldiers are performing a difficult but essential service to our country.
For the past five years, Americans have heard from generals, pundits, and politicians about the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they haven't heard enough from those who have first-hand experience.
From incidents like Fallujah and Abu Ghraib to the awarding of no-bid contracts, Winter Soldier will show that wrongdoings and failures in Iraq and Afghanistan are part and parcel of war policy set at the highest levels of power. Troops are being ordered to do things that violate their conscience and the rules of war.
As hundreds gather to hear the Winter Soldier testimony in Silver Spring, Maryland, thousands will gather simultaneously in their homes, houses of worship, on college campuses, and on military bases around the globe to bear witness to these stories via live broadcast. The Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan proceedings will be carried via satellite on the Deep Dish network, Free Speech and Link T.V., public access television stations, the Pacifica Radio network, and via web streaming on www.ivaw.org.
The horrible, honest reality of the American occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan like you haven’t heard it before.
https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19536.htm
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American preachers have a task more difficult, perhaps, than
those faced by us under South Africa's apartheid, or Christians
under Communism. We had obvious evils to engage; you have to unwrap your culture from years of red, white and blue myth. You have to expose, and confront, the great disconnect between the kindness, compassion and caring of most American people, and the ruthless way American power is experienced, directly and indirectly, by the poor of the earth. You have to help good people see how they have let their institutions do their sinning for them. This is not easy among people who really believe that their country does nothing but good, but it is necessary, not only for their future, but for us all. –Peter Storey, former president of the Methodist Church of South Africa |
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We, The People, Must Start to
Unravel the Red, White and Blue
from War |
Brian Bogart: The Secret
Policy to Base America's Economy
on Military Growth Rather than Social Progress
|
To The Mothers of Mankind |
Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870
by Julia Ward Howe, inspired author, Battle Hymn of the Republic
Arise
then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or
of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered
by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us,
reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us
to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of
another country
To allow our sons to be trained to
injure theirs."
From the bosom of a devastated Earth
a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the
balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the
plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be
left of home
For a great and earnest day of
counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to
bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with
each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can
live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the
sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and
humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women
without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at
someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent
with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the
different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of
international questions,
The great and general interests of
peace.
"Why do not
the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters to prevent
the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the
cost?" |
Born:
May 27, 1819, New York, New York. Died: October 17, 1910, Middletown, Rhode Island. Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
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