From the Activist Newsletter, Nov. 14, 2009
U.S. PEACE GROUPS UNITE FOR
CALL TO ACTION WHEN THE
AFGHAN WAR IS ESCALATED
Seven American antiwar coalitions and organizations are calling for various local actions before and after President Obama decides to widen the Afghanistan war. The decision is expected in a matter of days or a couple of weeks. The groups include A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition, United for Peace and Justice, World Can’t Wait, Veterans For Peace, National Assembly, Military Families Speak Out, and National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance. Their call to action is below.
MID-HUDSON RESIDENTS: Join us in New Paltz the Saturday after the announcement for a 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. picket line on Main St. in front of New Paltz Plaza shopping center (the one with the movie theater). We have lots of signs calling for an end to the Afghan war, or bring your own. The protest is being organized by Peace and Social Progress Now and the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter. We invite other groups to join us as co-sponsors, and rely on our readers to spread the world. For information or to co-sponsor, contact jacdon@earthlink.net.
TEXT OF CALL TO ACTION BY SEVEN GROUPS
Any day will likely come the sickening news that President Obama has decided to escalate the war in Afghanistan.
Here in the U.S. and no doubt around the world people will react in pain, anger and sorrow, knowing what tragedy and suffering will follow.
It will mean at a very minimum that the U.S. will occupy Afghanistan for several more years, sending home dead and wounded soldiers while killing and wounding many times more Afghani people. The suffering in Afghanistan today will grow by orders of magnitude and the U.S. will be that much less secure in direct proportion.
As tragic as it was to see Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" crash and burn on the rocks of the Vietnam war, the stakes are much higher now. The U.S. economy today still teeters at the abyss. Escalating the Afghanistan war will not just be the ruin of desperately needed domestic programs but may very possibly destroy the entire economy.
For those reasons and many more we call upon our members and every U.S. citizen with a love of humanity in their heart to pledge to at least the following actions:
1) Within the next few days, ideally prior to any decision from President Obama, conduct any of a wide range of local activities — from calling Members of Congress to nonviolent civil resistance and everything in between — demonstrating our opposition to and disgust with any decision to widen the war in Afghanistan. To show unity of purpose, we suggest local “March of the Dead” to Federal Buildings, local Congressional offices and government buildings of any sort.
2) On the day immediately following an announcement to escalate the war in Afghanistan, respond again in a variety of ways. To show unity of purpose, we suggest:
a) Making an appointment that day with at least one group that you're not already a member of — a church, union, civic group, etc. — to go and speak with them about the war
b) Return to the streets and again conduct any of a wide range of local activities — from calling Members of Congress to nonviolent civil resistance and everything in between — and be prepared to comment to the news media about the escalation of the war.
