We Need An Exit Strategy For Afghanistan NOW

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Sep 142009
 

The Feminist Peace Network is participating in a week-long effort to demand an exit strategy for Afghanistan.  While certainly believing that there should be accountability for the bombing of the World Trade Center and the many lives that were lost that day, the Afghan people were not responsible for what happened and the United States’ unending campaign to destroy Afghanistan that has cost so many Afghan lives has clearly failed to destroy the Taliban and is unsupportable and needs to end.

As this blog has pointed out countless times, despite the use of the human rights of women in Afghanistan as part of the justification for our actions, the lives of Afghan women remain at extreme peril and the continuing militarism only exacerbates the everyday dangers that  they face.  It is time not only to get out but to substantively provide the Afghan people and especially Afghan women with the means to rebuild their country.  Doing so would make us all much safer.

Tom Engelhardt has put together an outstanding compendium of the true costs of the Afghan war, here are a few of those numbers:

  • Annual funding for U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, 2009: $60.2 billion.
  • Total funds for U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, 2002-2009: $228.2 billion.
  • Funds spent since 2001 on Afghan “reconstruction”: $38 billion (“more than half of it on training and equipping Afghan security forces”).
  • Percentage of U.S. funding in Afghanistan that has gone for military purposes: Nearly 90%.
  • Cost of the latest upgrade of Bagram Air Base (an old Soviet base that has become the largest American base in Afghanistan): $220 million.
  • Cost of a single recent Pentagon contract to DynCorp International Inc. and Fluor Corporation “to build and support U.S. military bases throughout Afghanistan”: up to $15 billion.
  • U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, 2002: 5,200.
  • Expected U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, December 2009: 68,000.

I highly recommend reading the list in its entirety on Tom’s site.

What can YOU do?  First of all  call or write to the President and your elected representatives and tell them you want out now.  Secondly, if you can, please consider making a donation to help the women of Afghanistan to any of the follow organizations:

RAWA

Afghan Women’s Mission (U.S. charity that supports RAWA)

MADRE’s Afghan Women’s Survival Fund

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 Posted by Fempeace on September 14, 2009

Peaceful Women Everywhere Speak Out On The Anniversary Of The Invasion Of Iraq

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Mar 192009
 

Can’t say it better than the ever fabulous Joan Wile:

Relax, everyone! The New York City police are really on the job these days. With rapists, murderers, bank robbers and dope peddlers, not to mention corporate thieves, rampant throughout the City, they made a significant dent in the crime statistics yesterday, March 18, when they arrested seven grandmothers aged 67 to 90 in Times Square.

Representatives Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsy and Barbara Lee reiterate their continuing opposition to the war in Iraq and ask the hard questions about President Obama’s withdrawal plan that need to be asked here.

6 years after her  resignation from the miitary, Ret. Col. Ann Wright reflects:

There are many ways to serve one’s country. I fully believe challenging policies that one feels are harmful to our nation is service, not treason.

And Code Pink calls for the arrest of George Bush here.

With gratitude to Common Dreams for carrying all these strong voices of women against war on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

The Feminist Peace Network wishes to thank all the many, many women everywhere who continue to work so hard to end the deadly militarism that threatens the lives of all.

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 Posted by Fempeace on March 19, 2009

International Women’s Day 2009: Dedicated to the Women of Gaza

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Feb 042009
 

From Code Pink:

March 8, International Women’s Day, is a time when people around the globe focus on the needs and contributions of women. This year, on Sunday, March 8, 2009, women and men worldwide will commemorate the day by highlighting the plight of the women of Gaza and sending an international delegation to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.

What more powerful way to celebrate International Women’s Day than working collectively to ease the suffering of the women of Gaza!

Please show your support by becoming a sponsor (to help with outreach), making a donation and/or joining the March 7-12 International Women’s Delegation to Gaza. Contact gaza.codepink@gmail.com  or call Medea Benjamin at 415-235-6517.

———-

Background:Palestinian women in Gaza have been devastated. We have seen the agonizing pictures of wailing women digging through the rubble of their destroyed homes to look for their buried children.  We heard the stories of the dead mothers whose emaciated children were found hanging onto their bodies for days until reached by aid workers.

The Israeli attack that began on December 27 left over 1,000 dead, including 412 children and 110 women, and over 5,000 injured (1855 children and 795 women), according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. But that but that attack came after 18 months of a crippling blockade that had left the Palestinian population hungry, sick, weak, and already suffering from what UN officials called a catastrophic situation.

Women now have to care for the physical and emotional wounds in their families and communities, while dealing with their own broken hearts. They have to attend to the physical needs of their families in the face of shortages of water, electricity, food, medicine, heat, fuel, and shelter. Some neighborhoods have been almost totally destroyed, with over 100,000 people displaced from their homes.

According to the United Nations, “Children are hungry, cold, without electricity and running water, and above all, they’re terrified. Women are at greater risk of maternal death and or injury as maternity wards are being used as surgical facilities to treat the wounded.”

There are huge medical needs. Twenty-one medical facilities were damaged during the fighting, and there are severe shortages of emergency supplies, including sterilization equipment, needles, anesthetics, catheters, oxygen and essential medications.

The UN says that hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid are needed to help Gaza’s 1.4 million people and billions of dollars will be required to rebuild its shattered buildings and infrastructure.

Groups in Gaza that we will be supporting include:

  • Palestinian Medical Relief Society
  • Gaza Community Mental Health Program
  • Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees
  • Palestinian Center for Human Rights
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 Posted by Fempeace on February 4, 2009