Tag Archives: Afghanistan

antiwar, Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Book of the Week

Nobel Laureates: End Afghan War

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The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe final chapter in The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace is the  2001 International Appeal of Nobel Prize Laureates, Poets, Philosophers, Intellectuals and Human Rights Defenders for an Immediate End to the War against Afghanistan. This appeal ends the final section of the book: Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975- ) .

The appeal succinctly reiterates the points made in the last two essays.  The invasion of Afghanistan fails on two accounts.  It did not bring the perpetrators of 9/11 to justice.  It is increasing the future likelihood of terrorism against the US.

Since the Appeal is short, and a public document, I have reproduced it below:   Continue reading Nobel Laureates: End Afghan War →

antiwar, Nonviolence, Royal Book of the Week, Royal Song of The Day

Wise: War is Naive

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The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe Tim Wise 2001 essay Who’s Being Naive? War-Time Realism Through the Looking Glass is the penultimate chapter in The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace. This essay continues the Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975- ) section of the book.  Wise is an anti-racism educator and author.

His essay complements the previous Arundhati Roy essay War is Peace.  While Roy upholds the polite –but firm– criticism of a foreigner, Wise bluntly takes his fellow Americans to task for the Afghan War.  As someone who forces Whites to face up to their own privilege in US society,  Wise is at ease in ripping apart pro-war arguments in kitchen table language.

The criticism put forth by Roy and Wise reinforce each other by coming to the same conclusions from both external and internal vantage points.  Both 2001 essays were written when the Afghan invasion was fresh, and they have proved to be prescient as the Afghan War has dragged on for a dozen years.  Reminds me of the just departed Pete Seeger masterpiece,  Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. Continue reading Wise: War is Naive →

antiwar, Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Book of the Week

Roy: Afghan War based on DoubleSpeak

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The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe Arundhati Roy excerpt War is Peace is from her .from ‘s 2002 book Power Politics.  It form the twenty-second chapter in The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace. This essay continues the Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975-  ) section of the book.  Roy is an activist and Man Booker Prize winning author. Though, the preceding essays in this book all deal with timeless themes in supporting pacifism, this essay, which centers on the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, is the first essay in the book to feel that it is based on contemporary world politics.

Roy starts the essay with the gamification {the process of turning war into a video game] of the October 7, 2001 US-led attack on Afghanistan. The attack was done without seeking UN approval or even under color of international law.  Inverting the expected criticism against her comments, Roy makes clear that she does not take the side of any entity that chooses violence:  Continue reading Roy: Afghan War based on DoubleSpeak →

antiwar, Music, Nonviolence, Peace, Royal Song of The Day

5/20: The Peace Song of the Day is “Peace Is Possible”

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“Peace Is Possible” is the Peace Song of the Day for May 20, 2012. This song was created by Fre Atlast and Victoria Christgau.

The Duke and Duchess would like to dedicate this song to NATO, the NATO demonstrators, and the people of Chicago on this dramatic day of discussions about war and peace. The big march for today, Sunday May 20th, started at 2pm from Grant Park/Chicago. Info and details at Occupy Chicago: here.

More about the video and the NATO summit in Chicago at the readmore… Continue reading 5/20: The Peace Song of the Day is “Peace Is Possible” →

Nonviolence, Peace

#AfghanistanTuesday Protests. Discuss.

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Ok tweeps, between the planet-wide protests of the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War, and the flowering of the planet-wide Occupy movement, there is much to discuss.   Scarry Thoughts in his post  #AfghanistanTuesday World Report – October 11, 2011 gives a suggested schedule for this twitter discussion.

The schedule is geared to the peak hours we have been experiencing to date for #AfghanistanTuesday conversation, approx 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern U.S. time.  Continue reading #AfghanistanTuesday Protests. Discuss. →

Nonviolence, Peace, Uncategorized

Occupy #AfghanistanTuesday

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October 6, 2011 are the protests on the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War.  In the blog post The hour is approaching: Make a commitment!, we are asked to focus this week’s tweets on organizing for that day:

Tuesday October 4 … #AfghanistanTuesday! We have wide-ranging conversations every week on #AfghanistanTuesday, but I #AfghanistanTuesday tweetswant to suggest that this week we need to give special attention to the protests themselves. With protests just days away, now is the time we must: Get people to find their local action! When people join up with others near them, protesting the war ceases to be solely theoretical and begins to become a reality. There is a list of many actions nationwide (and worldwide) on the website for the Chicago protest; I predict that as the hours pass, the number of local protests will grow too fast for this list to keep up with!

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Nonviolence, Peace

Join the #AfghanistanTuesday 10 Club

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The Duke realizes that this has been a very taxing week for social justice advocates.  The killing of Troy Davis was filled with the hope of repreive for a few hours, and then an overwhelming mourning for the US justice.  At the same time, the Occupy Wall Street movement has been giving a voice to the discontent 99% of Americans feel. Yet with all this going on,  I beg of you to take a few moments to support the #AfghanistanTuesday movement for an immediate end to the war.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/MidwestAntiwar/status/116508587915886592″]  Continue reading Join the #AfghanistanTuesday 10 Club →