CFOW Weekend Update
April 14, 2017
Hello Stalwarts – Two big events coming up. Please join us Saturday at the VFW Plaza at noon for our weekly antiwar/pro-peace vigil/protest. Our protest will focus on military spending (Tax Day is coming up) and on the threat of war. Trump's bombing of Syria and then Afghanistan and the looming collision with North Korea make this moment an especially dangerous one. Please come to the rally, not only to raise an antiwar voice, but so we can talk together about what's happening and what we might do.
And on Monday, CFOW will be the host/lead organization for the "Justice Monday" demo/rally in White Plains at noon. Please make a big effort to be there for this important event. This is a weekly event organized by a coalition of Westchester progressive groups (including CFOW). Past Justice Monday's have focused on refugees, environmental and housing issues, etc. This is the first Justice Monday to focus on antiwar. We will be meeting at noon at the Renaissance Plaza (Main St. and Mamaroneck Ave.), at the fountain. Linda Snider and Nick Mottern are coordinating our presentation. Nick will have his drone, and Nick, Susan Rutman, and I will be among the speakers. One of our leaflets will be a version of our statement opposed to bombing Syria, and one will be about military spending. For more information, or if you need a ride/can offer a ride, please send a return email.
Our statement opposing the bombing of Syria has generated some controversy. In preparation for Monday's rally, we sent the statement to all the organizations in the Westchester coalition (15-20), and to other peace and justice organizations in/near the Rivertowns. WESPAC, Indivisible Rivertowns, and Social Action 10591 (Sleepy Hollow) have endorsed the statement, but no others. A half-dozen organizations have informed us that they can't or won't endorse the statement. Some have said they have problems making a decision, others have stated objections. – I find this very interesting and food for thought. Undoubtedly other organizations will endorse the statement in the coming days, but it is clear that war/antiwar is for many organizations not an issue about which they have been thinking, and/or about which they do not have unity. To me this says that we may be optimistic when we sometimes complain that we are only "preaching to the choir." The non-response of many progressive organizations to the plea to protest against the Syria bombing indicates that "the choir" may not be in the church at all. We will learn more about this in the days & weeks to come.
Last night the CFOW healthcare committee met. It was a small but good meeting, following up on last Saturday's rally in Hastings for "Improved Medicare for All" or "Single-Payer." After considering several options, the committee decided to focus its work in the coming months on pushing for the "Single-Payer" healthcare legislation now pending in Albany, This means local education (e.g. leafleting at the farmers market) and targeting legislators about the importance of Single Payer, especially the state senators who are members of the Independent Democrat Caucus (IDC), the nine (I think) members of the Senate who are elected as Democrats but work with the Republicans to control the Senate. Although the IDC senators are supposedly in favor of Single Payer, by working with the Republicans they allow the Republicans to determine what legislation does, and what does not, get to be voted on. So far the Republicans and the IDC are not letting the Single Payer legislation come to a vote. – As some members of the healthcare committee are also members of NYS CD16 Indivisible (Engel's district), we will be exploring the possibility of working with their health committee on this particular project, as we believe the Indivisible group has the same goal and tactics in mind. – If you would like to work with the Healthcare Committee, please send a return email. Our next meeting is on Wednesday, May 3rd.
We had an interesting discussion at last Sunday's CFOW meeting about flying the American flag upside down at our vigils. We began doing this a few weeks ago. Under the flag code, etc., flying the flag upside down is a symbol of distress, a warning/plea that we are in danger. – However, at the healthcare rally, several participants said that they were unhappy with the upside down flag, and there is a letter in The Enterprise this week from some friends at the rally saying the same thing. It is "disrespectful," "unpatriotic." – The discussion at our meeting revealed that we had a broad and evenly divided range of views on this question. The upside down flag strongly stated our distress at the state of our country, but it appeared to turn some people off and may interfere with getting out our primary message. In the end we brought in Solomon's Sword and agreed that we would fly the upside down flag (but only at our antiwar events, not at events with others such as the healthcare rally), and that we would attach a sign to the flag explaining what we were doing and why, and that the street leafletters would have a short leaflet explaining the use of the upside down flag for anyone who wanted to discuss it. – And so the Great Flag Experiment begins, and we agreed we would see what happens and modify our plans if need be. – To me it was a very interesting discussion. I remember in the first weeks of CFOW in September 2001 when many people were flying American flags on their cars. Should we do that? We were patriotic too. But how could we make people understand that we were patriotic AND opposed war? – We ended up fllying UN flags, kindly produced by one of our early members who worked at the UN.
That's all I'm writing for now. Below I'm pasting in a few articles that imo are illuminating with our current military escalations and the dangerous possibility of a military conflict with North Korea, leading to who knows what?
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
478-3848
SOME GOOD/USEFUL WEEKEND READING
New Revelations Belie Trump Claims on Syria Chemical Attack
By Gareth Porter, Truthout [April 13, 2017]
---- Two new revelations contradict the Trump administration's line on the April 4 attack. A former US official knowledgeable about the episode told Truthout that the Russians had actually informed their US counterparts in Syria of the Syrian military's plan to strike the warehouse in Khan Sheikhoun 24 hours before the strike. And a leading analyst on military technology, Dr. Theodore Postol of MIT, has concluded that the alleged device for a sarin attack could not have been delivered from the air but only from the ground, meaning that the chemical attack may not have been the result of the Syrian airstrike. …An internal administration paper on the issue now circulating in Washington, a copy of which Truthout obtained, clearly refers to "a regime airstrike on a terrorist ammunition dump in the eastern suburbs of Khan Sheikhoun." [Read More]
The War Danger on the Korean Peninsula
[FB – It is now Saturday in Korea. Some observers were predicting that North Korea would test a nuclear weapon on Saturday. President Trump has said that a North Korean test would be met by a US military response. North Korea has stated that US military bases, including the ones in South Korea, would be at risk if the US attacked North Korea. A US naval "armada" was reported several days ago heading towards North Korea. (Where is it now? No longer in the news….) We now know that at least two US destroyers are off Korea, one within shooting distance of the North Korean nuclear test site. (It was a destroyer that fired the Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian air base.) – South Korea has impeached its president, and new elections will be held in three weeks. The leading presidential candidates have spoken out against military action against North Korea, but the incumbent substitute president is supposedly cooperating with the United States…; in any case, not someone likely to speak up/out against the Godfather. – One of the articles linked (reprinted) below is by Bruce Cumings, the leading US historian of Korea. An historical perspective is important because, for Americans, Korean history started about three days ago, while for Koreans, the memories of the destruction of North Korea between 1950 and 1953 are kept intensely alive. – The other article is by military expert Bill Arkin, the most useful writing I could find about the military options now in play.]
This Is What's Really Behind North Korea's Nuclear Provocations
By Bruce Cumings, The Nation [March 23, 2017]
---- North Korea is the only country in the world to have been systematically blackmailed by US nuclear weapons going back to the 1950s, when hundreds of nukes were installed in South Korea. … Why on earth would Pyongyang not seek a nuclear deterrent? But this crucial background doesn't enter mainstream American discourse. History doesn't matter, until it does—when it rears up and smacks you in the face. [Read More]
U.S. may launch strike if North Korea reaches for nuclear trigger
---- The U.S. is prepared to launch a preemptive strike with conventional weapons against North Korea should officials become convinced that North Korea is about to follow through with a nuclear weapons test, multiple senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News. North Korea has warned that a "big event" is near, and U.S. officials say signs point to a nuclear test that could come as early as this weekend.
The intelligence officials told NBC News that the U.S. has positioned two destroyers capable of shooting Tomahawk cruise missiles in the region, one just 300 miles from the North Korean nuclear test site.
Some Useful/important Stories from Democracy Now!
(Video) Only Mass Disruption From Below Can Stop Right-Wing Revolution & Trump's Absolute Power
An interview with journalist Alan Nairn [April 12, 2017]
---- As President Trump's administration continues to be rocked by investigations and scandals, we continue our conversation with award-winning investigative journalist Allan Nairn. We asked him to talk more about his assessment of the opening months of the Trump presidency. [Link]
(Video) U.S. Drops Its Biggest Non-Nuclear Bomb on Afghans, Already Traumatized by Decades of War
Including an interview with peace activist Kathy Kelly [April 14, 2017]
---- In Afghanistan on Thursday, the United States military dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever—the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, nicknamed "The Mother of All Bombs." The 21,600-pound bomb reportedly unleashed an explosion equivalent to 11 tons of TNT with a mile-wide blast radius. This comes as the United Nations recently published a report saying airstrikes from the Afghan government forces and the U.S.-led coalition killed nearly 600 civilians in 2016—almost twice as many than in 2015. The U.S. war in Afghanistan is the longest war in U.S. history, extending into its 16th year. We are joined by Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare. She just returned from Afghanistan earlier this month. We also speak with Wazhmah Osman, professor of media and communication at Temple University and member of the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association. [Link]
(Video) This is Most Dangerous Moment in U.S.-Russian Relations Since Cuban Missile Crisis
An interview with Prof. Stephen Cohen [April 13, 2017]
---- On Wednesday during a press conference, President Trump said relations with Russia had reached a new low point. Trump's comments came a day after the White House accused Russia of attempting to cover up the role of the Syrian government in the recent chemical attack in Syria that killed 87 people. Russia has rejected the claim, saying the U.S. has been too quick to blame Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. We speak to Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and Princeton University. [Link]
