The White House has recently disclosed that double digit unemployment will soon be upon us (if it is not upon us already).
What an unexpected boon for military recruiters at a time when the project of U.S.-based Capitalist imperialism is struggling to enter a new phase.
This recession really is the answer to militarist prayers. How fortuitous! Who could have foreseen it?
The pressing need to find an exit strategy for Iraq has suddenly eased. The Obama Administration's commitment to increase U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan is no longer regarded as untenable.
Suicide bombing in Iraq and Afghanistan continue apace, but no one is minding the body count.
Yes we can! Yes we can!
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Ghaffar Khan and Mahatma Gandhi
An invitation to renew Abdul Ghaffar Khan's life-long non-violent struggle against injustice.
GKS
Suggested Reading
- Rajmohan Gandhi, Ghaffar Khan: Nonviolent Badshah of the Pakhtuns, London: Penguin, 2004.
- Eknath Easwaran, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam, 2nd Edition, Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1999.
- Amitabh Pal, "A Pacifist Uncovered," http://www.progressive.org/mag_amitpalabdul
- Leo Tolstoy, The Law of Love and the Law of Violence, University Press of the Pacific, 2001.
- H. D. Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience," http://thoreau.eserver.org/default.html
Statement of Conscientious Objection to War in Any Form
I hereby affirm, and publish for all the world to witness, my moral opposition to the use of violence to settle disputes. Consequently, I refuse to participate in, or cooperate with, any group, organization, or agency of government that would require me to engage in any act of violence against a fellow human being. Furthermore, I hereby pledge and affirm, from this day forward, to organize my life and livelihood in such a way as to promote peacemaking as a practical ideal.
"Service, Conviction, Love"
Ghaffar Khan and Mahatma Gandhi
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About Me
Page Dedication
This weblog is dedicated to the memory of Professor Jerome Laulicht who passed away March 3, 2006. Dr. Laulicht, a pioneer in the field of peace studies at the University of Pittsburgh, was a wonderful teacher who believed in my potential as a peace-wager long before I ever began to believe it myself.
2 comments:
Would you really have the Obama administration pull all troops out of Afghanistan and cede the country to the Taliban, who terrorize the populace far more than the occupying forces? Also, why mock "yes we can?" Its an aspirational phrase far removed from the sins of the military industrial complex.
To answer your first question: yes I would. Imperial paternalism has never done anything for anyone it is alleged to "help." There is no military solution to the Taliban. After the First World War, the victorious powers paved the way for the rise of the Nazi party by turning Germany into a pariah state. After the retreat of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan in the late 1980's, the "victorious" United States did nothing to re-build Afghanistan from the devastation that our proxy war with the Soviets (during which the CIA recruited and trained one Osama bin Laden...ahem) left behind. The United States helped to plow the field for the sowing of Nazism at the beginning of the 20th century and we plowed the field for the sowing of Talibanism at the end of that century. If we really wished to help the Afghan people, a good place to start would be to stop killing them...
As for "Yes we can"--I think it is clearly an empty phrase. Yes we can...what? Continue the failed policies of the past? That appears to be what the Obama Administration is doing. Hell, Sarah Palin could do that AND chew gum at the same time.
BHO has learned the secret handshake of the Plutocratic War Party. Who is being mocked? Those of us who trusted him.
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