U.S. Middle East Strategy Under New Pressure
UFPJ Talking Points #60: Talks, at least about talking, take hold.
UFPJ Talking Points #60: Talks, at least about talking, take hold.
But what is dubious as a hangover cure is even more so as a solution to the current climate crisis.
Here’s a tip on how to sound smart on foreign policy. When your friends are talking about the Iraq War, shake your head and look very somber. “The real problem,” you inform them, “is Iran.”
The vehemence of the hard-line opposition to the Bush administration’s North Korea policy suggests that, after seven years of blunders and miscues and outright war crimes, Washington has finally done the right thing on a foreign policy issue.
When, one by one, civil movements dislodged the communist governments in the region and ecstatic East Berliners tore down the Berlin Wall, we rejoiced too.
What happened to the global food crisis? It was in the news and out again as quickly as a bad Hollywood movie.
The country would be in better shape if Wisconsin were in charge.
The peace sign turns 50 this year. Barry Miles describes the origins of what has become a nearly universal symbol.
The Granny Peace Brigade’s Teach-In examines the implications of the new U.S. military command infrastructure, AFRICOM; and the direct threat to Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of peace, economic justice, and racial harmony AFRICOM poses on the 40th anniversary of his assassination.
AFRICOM would be the sixth Defense Department regional military command, and according to the Pentagon, would consolidate all U.S. functions (Agriculture, Commerce, Treasury, Peace Corps, and others) under its jurisdiction. The department expects to be "fully operational" in October 2008 but the only African nation willing to house the command’s continental headquarters is Liberia. Currently, AFRICOM is based in Stuttgart-Moehringen, Germany.
Vinie Burrows, actor, writer, and member of the New York Granny Peace Brigade will moderate the program.
Speakers:
Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies
Horace Campbell, professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University
Frida Berrigan, senior research associate at the Arms Trade Resource Center, World Policy Institute
Sonia Sanchez, poet, educator, and member of the Philadelphia Granny Peace Brigade
Admission is free. Donations are welcomed. Doors will open at 1:15 PM, and light refreshments will be available. For more information, call (212) 865-7875.
Founded in 2005 in opposition to the Iraq occupation, the Granny Peace Brigade stands for peace and condemns the use of military force to resolve conflicts. www.grannypeacebrigade.org.
Remarks made at the 2008 Take Back America conference session on strategies to end the Iraq War.
With his preference for diplomacy over militarism, we must neither be naïve about Barack Obama’s limitations nor cynical about his potential.
The U.S. peace movement has worked on behalf of Salvadorans, South Africans, and East Timorese. It is now belatedly taking up the cause of Palestinians.
And, finally, three last comments on what the peace movement should do next.
Eleven peace activists and scholars, in responding to Lawrence Wittner’s essay, gaze into the crystal ball to envision the peace movement’s possible future.
Peace activists helped swing the elections in November. Most Americans want out of Iraq. So why hasn’t the peace movement won already?