Making Connections
We recruit children as young as we can to want to join the military as soon as they are legally able. We don’t mind that when they are officially signed up at 18 or 19 they are not even allowed to...
View ArticleStrange Logic
After several weeks of intense involvement in a couple of different volunteer projects along with busy, busy preparations for visiting family including grandchildren…not to mention the exciting and...
View ArticleAnother Reason War Seems So Easy
Last week I wrote about the slippery slope of war – the lessening of barriers to the US embarking on war – due to the ways the very definition of war is being altered, the failure of Congress to...
View ArticleDrones: Think Twice
Burnt by the high cost in human lives and national treasure of massive US land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many Washington policy makers seem to be jumping on the drone bandwagon with a very...
View ArticleMedea Benjamin in Albany!
I’m excited that Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of Code Pink and author of a major new book on drones, will be here in Albany this Sunday, April 22. Medea will speak about the spread of drone warfare...
View ArticleWhat does a “Kill List” and an “Assassination Czar” say about the United States?
There’s so much to say about the recent revelations about our drone killing process, contained in a NY Times article published on Tuesday, May 29th. In that article and another published in The Daily...
View ArticleCan’t Get That Tune…..
“I can’t get that tune out of my head.” This is a common experience, and it reminds me of my issue this week, and that is I can’t get this picture out of my head. The picture is of the map featured...
View ArticleOut of our sight. Are we out of our minds?
Drones: “hunter/killers”, dropping 500 pound bombs and firing Hellfire missiles. We don’t see the blood, the bodies, the destruction. Death rains from the skies. Use of drones distances US civilians...
View Article“Resisting Hell on Earth”: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo.
Right now when 130 of the 166 remaining detainees are engaged in a hunger strike that began on February 6, 2013 [not the first, but the longest and most extensive hunger strike in its history] the U.S....
View ArticlePowerful Music Video about the hunger strike at Guantánamo
This is a must see video about the hunger strikers at Guantánamo Bay Detention Center. It was published on May 13th and is a song and poem with photos of the hunger strikers and names of all the...
View ArticleCome Meet Medea Benjamin!
Do you remember the woman who interrupted President Obama’s May foreign policy speech to demand closure of the US prison at Guantanamo? And the president’s response: “I’m willing to cut that young...
View Article“Save the Children.” All the little children!
“Who really cares? Who is willing to try? — To save a world that seems destined to die. When I look at the world – it fills me with sorrow. Little children today (You gotta hear me now) really gonna...
View ArticleKudos to Tonko, Gibson and Gillibrand!
As the US gets more and more embroiled militarily in the quagmire conflict of Iraq and Syria, I am so grateful to Senator Gillibrand and Congressmen Tonko and Gibson for saying Congress should have a...
View ArticleDrones Quilts Tell Stories of Civilian Victims
Did you ever see the AIDS Quilt Display? I did, and its moving commemorations of those whose lives had been cut short by this terrible disease reached my heart. Seeing it helped me think about each...
View ArticleDo US Drones Kill Civilians?
The powerful exhibit of Drones Quilts, now in the Capital District for a month, supplies the sad answer to this question: Yes, US drone strikes have killed, are still killing, civilians in Pakistan,...
View ArticleGROUNDED Tells Compelling Story of Drone Pilot
Last year I saw the powerful play by George Brant, GROUNDED, in New York City and suddenly understood that even though the pilots of American drones “fly” the planes from desks in the US, they too can...
View ArticleHow Do You Make Enemies?
I have recently been spending most of my time with my sister who is in hospice with the lung cancer that is slowly robbing her of the ability to do things she loves to do. As friends and other...
View ArticleYou Never Die Twice. Lack of transparency in the CIA and military drone...
This week Women Against War and members of several other Capital District peace groups joined in a Statewide lobbying initiative of our two Senators, Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, after having...
View ArticleDiplomacy Works
What a relief that diplomacy won last week! And that we are now looking at a good plan to allay concerns about Iran’s nuclear development and at the potential for US-Iran cooperation in calming the...
View ArticleOn Yemen: Pakistan right – US wrong!
This week Pakistan said no to sending its troops into Yemen and called for diplomacy to end the conflict. The US, on the other hand, further inflamed the escalating chaos with more weapons and...
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