The non-violence training to join the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s ships to Gaza has been intense. As hundreds of us from 32 countries gathered in Istanbul, we were briefed about what we might encounter on this voyage. “We have to be ready for every possibility,” our trainers insisted.
Issues of war and peace should not be a partisan game. When Trump calls for pulling US troops out of Syria and Afghanistan, are Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer simply upset about the process (and we agree, the process was terrible), or really upset because it’s being done by Donald Trump? As much as we might dislike the President (and for many of us, that’s quite a lot), we shouldn’t object to decisions that move us out of conflicts we should have never been involved in.
Nancy Pelosi called the withdrawal from Syria “a decision that is dangerous.” But the status quo was really dangerous, as it threatened to drag us into a confrontation with Russia, Iran or even Turkey. The US withdrawal from Syria eases those tensions. Trump’s order to pull out 7,000 of the 14,000 US troops from Afghanistan is also positive.
Send a message to Democratic leaders Pelosi and Schumer that you support this de-escalation and that instead of criticizing the withdrawal, you want the Democrats to come up with a bold peace plan that emphasizes diplomacy, not endless war.
On November 8, just as President Trump was clinching new business deals with the repressive Communist government of China, the Trump administration announced new rules rolling back President Obama’s opening with Cuba. The new regulations are supposed to punish hotels, stores and other businesses tied to the Cuban military and instead direct economic activity toward businesses controlled by regular Cuban citizens.
But on a visit to the island on a 40-person delegation organized by the peace group CodePink, I found that Cuba’s small private businesses, the very sector the Trump administration says it wants to encourage, are already feeling the blow.
Continue reading “Cubans Are Starting Small Businesses, but the US Is Hurting Them”
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Donald Trump is pro-torture. He said on the campaign trail he’d approve waterboarding “in a heartbeat,” plus “a hell of a lot worse.”
He added: “Only a stupid person would say it doesn’t work.”
There are certainly a lot of stupid people then, because everyone from interrogators to researchers have repeatedly concluded that torture doesn’t work. People will say whatever you want them to say to make the pain stop, making torture not only inhumane but also bad for intelligence.
A 2009 Senate Armed Services Committee review concluded that torture “damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority.” That’s why the Senate voted in 2015 to turn the presidential ban on torture into official law.
To his credit, Trump did water down his original support for torture, allowing Defense Secretary James Mattis – who opposes torture – to override him.
Continue reading “The Torture-Friendly Trump Administration”
Donald Trump has selected Saudi Arabia as the destination for his first trip abroad, strengthening U.S. ties to a regime that is fueling the very extremism, intolerance and violence that the US government purports to eradicate. Here’s 10 reasons why the United States should not be closely allied with the Saudi kingdom.
The Saudis export an extremist interpretation of Islam, Wahhabism, around the globe. Over the past three decades, Saudi Arabia has spent about $4 billion per year on mosques, madrassas, preachers, students, and textbooks to spread Wahhabism and anti-Western sentiment. Let’s not forget that 15 of the 19 fanatical hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks were Saudis, as was Osama bin Laden himself.
The Saudis fund terrorism worldwide. A WikiLeaks-revealed 2009 cable quotes then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying, “Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide … More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar e-Tayyiba, and other terrorist groups.” In Syria the Saudis are supporting the most extreme sectarian forces. And while the Saudi government condemns ISIS, many experts, including 9/11 Commission Report lead author Senator Bob Graham, believe that ISIS is a product of Saudi ideals, Saudi money and Saudi organizational support.
Continue reading “10 Reasons Trump Should Not Strengthen US-Saudi Ties”
The CODEPINK Tribunal taking place December 1 and 2, and live streamed by The Real News, is a historic collection of testimonies about the lies and costs of the Iraq war. It takes on new meaning with the incoming Trump administration, and the hawks who are flocking to join that administration with their sights set on starting yet another war in the Middle East, this time in Iran.
My testimony started with the first CODEPINK action against the war that took place in Congress. It was September 18, 2002, the day Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testified before the House Armed Services Committee about why the US military should invade Iraq. He accused Saddam Hussein of having and hiding weapons of mass destruction, raised the specter of an Iraqi-initiated September 11-style attack and told the Committee that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was a global threat.
Continue reading “Bush’s Iraq Lies, Uncontested, Will Haunt Us Under Trump”
