WWFOR Member recently went to Jeju Island, South Korea
Savage torturers were U.S. military personnel
Letter to Editor, The Seattle Times by Jean Buskin Horrific, criminal, vicious, inhuman, gruesome, savage: Yes, the immolation death of Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh is all of this [“Group’s immolation killing of pilot outrages Middle East,” Nation & World, Feb. 4]. But the agony endured by this Jordanian pilot was short compared to that of Afghan taxi driver Dilawar who was killed in 2002. Dilawar, whose story can easily be found in The Seattle Times’ online archives, was hung by his arms for several days. During this time, his captors battered his legs until they were “pulpified” according to a medical examiner. According to witnesses, his captors found Dilawar’s cries to Allah amusing, and repeatedly hit the civilian just to…
View of U.S-Korea Relations
by Larry Kerschner Most Americans know very little about Korea’s history. Scarcely anyone in the U.S. knows about more than a century of U.S. military intervention there and the ongoing opposition of much of Korea’s population to U.S. military occupation. The Chinese left Korea in 1958 and we still have 25,000 troops there. Despite U.S. government propaganda maybe North Korea has some reason for their paranoia. The recent death of Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s dictator, with its political uncertainties puts Korea back into people’s attention. The American people do not know that the Korean War never formally ended, but we are only living with a “cease-fire” that has gone on for more than half a century. For another look at the U.S-Korea relationship you…
Notes from the Editor
by Larry Kerschner A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in early December would stop the sale of surveillance technologies by American companies to regimes considered repressive by our regime. A recent Bloomberg News report showed how western technology suppliers used Tunisia as a testing ground as that government used surveillance technologies to track, mis-inform, interrogate and intrusively try to chill the free flow of political discussion. Maybe we should request a bill that would stop these companies from selling this technology to our government. The vast majority of computer surveillance involves monitoring various types of communication on the Internet. Under the U.S. Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement Act (CAFLEA), all phone calls and broadband internet traffic are…
Ecocide: Recognizing a Crime
Currently there are recognized four international Crimes Against Peace: Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes, and Crimes of Aggression. Polly Higgins, an English barrister, has started a campaign to add a fifth crime to the list. Ecocide is the destruction of large areas of the environment and ecosystems. Some ecocide is caused by natural events but there is a category for ecocide caused by human activity: Ascertainable Ecocide. This is the destruction, damage or loss to territory, caused by human activity, whether by people, corporations or nations. Some specific instances of this crime would be nuclear weapons tests, damaging exploitation of resources such as is going on with the tar sands extraction in Canada, the use of defoliants like Agent…
Notes from the Editor
This is the last entry from the journal of our recent trip to Afghanistan. To read the whole journal go to www.globaldaysoflistening.org and click on “Projects”. I now realize how little I have known and still know about Afghanistan and the people who live here. Afghanistan appears to me to be teetering on the brink of collapse despite “the light at the end of the tunnel” talk by the militarist machine. Three and a half billion people on the globe live on less than $2.50 a day- most of the people of Afghanistan among them. Many people here express the desire that the apparent stability maintained by the military presence continue out of a fear of a return of and…
WWFOR Needs You!!
WWFOR cannot function without the volunteers who agree to be members of the Area Committee and various other committees which are necessary to accomplish our goals. At a recent Area Committee meeting I noticed that the faces were the same faces as at most of the recent meetings I have attended. If WWFOR is to survive, and that is not certain, we have to have the energy and vision that new volunteers can bring. The duties are generally not onerous but are extremely necessary. One glaring need is for someone to step forward and begin working with Brenda Collier to at least be a back up for the Treasurer position. Everyone I speak with wants WWFOR to…
Notes from the Editor
Water is a problem. Especially in Afghanistan. Despite the influx of large amounts of international aid into Afghanistan, getting access to any water, let alone clean water, remains a daily struggle for a large part of the country. The government says almost three quarters of the population do not have access to clean water. Diarrheal diseases related to unclean water is the single largest killer of children in a country torn by war. As you read this, a delegation from WWFOR will be in Afghanistan attempting in a small way to help the people we have devastated with our war. Doug and Jody Mackey from the Olympia FOR chapter and myself have been certified in a low-tech form of…
Notes From The Editor
On August 23,1952, A.J. Muste, in his closing address to the Pacific Northwest FOR – AFSC Family Camp meeting, said “The enemy is yourself. Your other self. Your aggressiveness arouses your enemy’s defensiveness. Your defensiveness arouses his aggressiveness. If you arm yourself, you arm your enemy.” Recently I was at Home Depot buying some gardening supplies. When I went out to the parking lot, I noticed a man whose very large red pickup which was parked in front of mine looking at the bumper stickers I have and shaking his head. When I approached he said, “You probably didn’t serve , did you?” When I told him I had been in the Infantry in Viet Nam, he questioned me closely…
Notes From the Editor
A number of years ago I became aware of the effects of the economic sanctions we were imposing on the people of Iraq. Among other intended and unintended consequences of our imposition of power, I found out that, according to the U.N., 5,000 children under the age of five were dying each month. I was moved to go to Iraq in August 2000 to see for myself. I was heart-broken at what I witnessed. The casualness of this evil seemed unimaginable. Kathy Kelly, who I met in Iraq, recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan. She pointed me to a U.N. report on the current status of the children of Afghanistan. Since we “liberated” Afghanistan from the Taliban, children…
