Remarks for Afghan War
Anniversary Rally and March Oct 7, 2012 by Steve Clemens
I
stand before you today more in sadness than anger – although I have some of
that as well.
My
anger, however, is less directed at President Obama than at the system within
which most of our political leaders are (willingly) trapped: a system of
hegemony and domination supported by a military system which is more predatory
than protective. Our political leaders like to think they are “protecting the
American Way of Life” when, in reality, they are promoting a predatory system
of corporate domination which seeks to continue the profligate pattern of
American over-consumption protected at gun-point.
I
had the distinct privilege of traveling to Afghanistan Spring a year ago as part
of an International Peace Team led by Kathy Kelly of Voices For Creative
Nonviolence. In Kabul we met with young Afghans who are committed to nonviolent
solutions in their homeland. The Afghan Peace Volunteers are true nationalists
who don’t want their beloved land “occupied by either US and NATO forces or the
oppressive, fundamentalism of the Taliban.
We
should have no illusions about the brutish misogyny and thuggish rigidity of
the Taliban – but we must also understand the US/NATO complicity with equally
repressive warlords who were bribed with millions of our taxpayer dollars to
help overthrow the Taliban. When the US drove truckloads of crisp $100 dollar
bills and handed them over to warlords 11 years ago this week to buy their
loyalty, cooperation, and combat capability, we directly fed the rampant
culture of corruption that now so clearly has infected all of Afghan society.
We
also empowered the system of tribal warlords who continue to try to keep most
of Afghanistan back in the 15th century when it comes to the rights
of women and girls. Our Secretary of State as well as a couple of her
predecessors, Condi Rice and Madeline Albright have used the battle-cry of
“women’s rights” as a call to support the present US Occupation of Afghanistan.
But, as my friend Chante Wolf of Veterans For Peace and others have so clearly
observed, looking to the US Military to defend the rights of women is beyond
ironic and is rather full-fledged hypocrisy. The incidence of sexual
harassment, abuse and assault within the US Military of it’s own women soldiers
is frighteningly horrendous and such a system based on fear, authority, and
domination cannot be expected to model human rights for anyone – let alone
others who speak a different language, practice a different religion, and have
very different cultural mores and practices.
[Again,
the irony of today’s situation is palpable: if we really supported the rights
of women in Afghan society, we would have supported the efforts of the Soviet
Union in the late 1970s in their attempts to quell the rising fundamentalism in
Afghan society. It was the Soviets who elevated the roles of women within that
culture while those who militantly opposed such an effort were the mujahedeen
funded in secret by the CIA.]
I
have no illusions as I march in these streets that President Obama will listen
to us. He has already weighed his political options and doesn’t want to appear
to be “soft” on defense against terrorism. He has decided to double-down on the
use of un-manned aerial vehicles, drones with the names of Predator and Reaper,
machines which rain destruction from on high, so fewer American troops come
home in body-bags. His policy has made all Afghan and Pakistani males between
the ages of 15 and 45 as “militants” for whom he has granted himself the right
to “kill-on-sight”. When they are killed by Apache helicopters, bombers, or
drones, they are no longer classified as “collateral damage” – civilians killed
by accident in a war-zone – because they have already been re-defined by the Pentagon
as combatants because of their gender and age.
But
I can personally assure you that although they fall within that gender/age
range, my new friends Abdulai, Ali, Amer Shah, Basir, Ghulmai, Mohammed Jan,
Asif, and others should not be targets of our weapons but fellow collaborators
for peace and justice. Sharbanoo, Zahra, Lena, and other Afghan women I met are
not looking for continued American occupation of their country in the name of
their rights but also want that occupation to end NOW.
I
wrote to my friends in Afghanistan and asked them what they would like to say
to you today. Here is what the Afghan Peace Volunteers sent me:
Statement for October 7, 2012 in protest of the 11th year of the U.S./ NATO war in
Afghanistan- from Hakim and the Afghan
Peace Volunteers. www.2millionfriends.org
After 11 years of the
U.S./NATO war in Afghanistan, and the three decades of war before that, we are
very tired of the killings.
This war cannot stop the war.
This human method of war doesn’t work.
Afghans have a saying that
‘blood cannot wash away blood’ and we’ve witnessed and experienced its truth,
daily. The U.S. has lost 2 thousand of their soldiers. Afghans have lost at
least 2 million loved ones over the past four decades of war.
Stop. Stop the killings. Stop
the mutual bloodshed. Stop spending two billion US dollars a week just on
killing. Stop the drones. Stop the use of depleted uranium. Stop.
Ordinary Afghans don’t need
more weapons or more war. We need food, water, shelter and clothing. We need
education, health care and decent livelihoods for all.
We also need friends. We wish
to remember the 2 million Afghan victims of war by finding 2 million
friends for peace in Afghanistan. The Afghan Peace Volunteers ask
for a ceasefire from all warring groups. We want
peace, the peace which is the color, soul and jewel of life, without which we
live bearing fears and worries, and without which life has little meaning. In
2010, we the Afghan Peace Volunteers inscribed our beliefs and hopes on a
plaque that sits at the entrance of Bamiyan Peace Park in the centre of
Afghanistan, “Why not love? Why not bring peace? Even a little of our love is
stronger than the wars of the world.”
Even
though most of our politicians running for office [with the notable exception
of Minnesota’s own Keith Ellison and candidates running under the banner of the
Green Party or other small independent tickets] won’t even mention Afghanistan
in their campaign events (other than to praise “our troops” as “heroes”) , it
is important that we send a message by being on the streets. We can send a
message to the Afghan Peace Volunteers that there are Americans standing in
solidarity with them. We can send a message to the United Nations and other
international bodies that there are some Americans who really want substantive
“hope and change” – not just as political rhetoric but as a tangible
redirection of our nation and its policy. And we can send a message to our
fellow citizens who find themselves wearing a military uniform: we call on you
to refuse to deploy to a nation where our Occupation is both unwise and
illegal.
I’ll
be marching with both sadness and anger – but also with intent to engage my
fellow Minnesotans in conversation urging both truth-telling and a new
direction for our foreign policy. I'd rather carry a
candle to shed some light and hope rather than just curse the darkness of our
present policies. Silence isn’t an option.
No comments:
Post a Comment