Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
January 6, 2020
Hello All – This has been an extraordinary, terrifying week. After the assassination of Iran's General Qassem Soleimani, the world waits for the next shoe to drop. Iran is expected to respond to the assassination (at some time, at some place) in the near future, and Trump has announced/tweeted threats to obliterate Iran if it does.
For some help in clarifying these fast-changing events, I recommend "A New Year and a New Trump Foreign Policy Blunder in Iraq" by Kata'ib Hezbollah) Democracy Now! program with Narges Bajoghli, a professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University. (Also recommended is Prof. Bajoghli's op-ed in The New York Times, "Suleimani's Death Changes Nothing for Iran.")
Whether this war is long or short, whether it kills thousands or hundreds of thousands, depends partly on us, the American people. We can make Trump pay a price for this war – in the streets, in the media, in Congress, and in the voting booth. If we fail to do this, if we stand by and let war engulf the Middle East, our children will reap the whirlwind. We have no choice: we must become an unstoppable force against war. Yesterday, CFOW held a well-attended rally in Hastings against Trump's war. According to Popular Resistance, one of the organizers, there were rallies in at least 82 cities in 38 states. This is a good start.
Our first order of business is to make Congress Act. It is Congress, not the President, who can declare war. A war against Iran is not covered by existing authorizations to use military force. The War Powers Act requires Trump to get the support of Congress if fighting goes beyond 30 days. Other legislation in Congress demands that Trump get congressional approval before attacking Iran. The Democrats have focused on Trump's failure to consult Congress. Our New York/Rivertowns representatives in Congress have a lot of power and can make a difference. Please call them and let them know that we want them to stop war with Iran: Eliot Engel (202) 225-2464; Nita Lowey 202-225-6506; Sen. Chuck Schumer (202) 224-6542; and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (202) 224-4451.
This war will be a "war of choice," not of "self-defense." The Trump people say that Soleimani was a "legitimate target" because he was travelling to Baghdad to plan attacks on Americans. Tragically, it appears that – according to the President of Iraq – Gen. Suli
has taken stepsa foreign policy debate among the Democratic presidential candidates.
Unless we stop this war it may escalate out of control. For the foreseeable future, negotiations between the US and Iran will not be possible. The Iran nuclear deal is totally dead. The US bombing of Iran will cause thousands of casualties. Iran and its allies will reply by attacking US people and institutions in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, and many other places. Israel and Saudi Arabia may be drawn into the war; and oil supplies from the Persian Gulf may be stopped, spiking the price of oil and contributing to worldwide economic difficulties. Unless We the People – and our allies in Congress and voters in the 2020 election – can stop Trump and this war, it could last for years. We must do all we can!
Some useful reading on the US & Iran
The Assassination of Suleimani Escalates the Threat of War
By Phyllis Bennis The Nation [January 4, 2020]
How we understand history—the past as well as how the present will become the past—is determined by when we start the clock. The skyrocketing crisis between the United States and Iran didn't start a few days ago when rockets fired at an Iraqi military base killed a US military contractor. … This crisis began almost two years before, when Trump abandoned the internationally endorsed nuclear deal with Iran. Tehran was complying with the agreement, and the diplomacy had succeeded in preventing Iran from moving toward production of a nuclear weapon and was allowing the Iranian people at least a modicum of relief from crippling economic sanctions. Trump's decision to walk away from the deal, launch an economic war in the form of new devastating sanctions, and announce a policy of "maximum pressure" against Iran set the stage for the dangerous escalation we are seeing right now. [Read More]
Killing Qassim Suleimani Was Illegal. And Predictable.
By
---- After the attacks of Sept. 11, "targeted killings" became the new rubric employed to bypass the ban on assassinations — a term which had conveniently escaped definition either by the Church Committee or subsequent presidential authorizations. Under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, executive authority to carry out these targeted killings expanded. Mr. Bush authorized some 50 strikes, but the policy came into its own under Mr. Obama. His administration's lawyers reasoned that despite the ban on assassinations, "targeted killings" against nonstate actors outside the zone of active hostilities and in cases of imminent threat were lawful as act of self-defense in the context of the war on terror, thus authorizing a program that resulted in hundreds of strikes, causing the deaths of thousands of suspected terrorists and an untold number of civilians. The program has taken on renewed energy under President Trump. … The United States and Iran are now in a state of war by any other name. The belief that authorities aimed at nonstate actors would not eventually creep into activity against state actors has proved hollow. The expectation that backlash could be limited by decree has shown itself to be wishful thinking. And the trust that good men would be in office to oversee its legacy was all-too shortsighted. We have come perilously far, it seems, from the call of John Adams for "a government of laws not men." [Read More]
News Notes
Governor Cuomo has called for legislation establishing automatic hand recounts in close elections in New York State. Election-protection activists ask that we call the Guv to thank him for this initiative (518-474-8390). They also ask that we call our state senator (Andrea Stewart-Cousins - 518-455-2585) and our state assembly member (in the Rivertowns, Tom Abinanti - 518-455-5753) and ask them to support the governor's proposal for automatic hand recounts
The New York Times had an article yesterday reporting that young people are concerned about a return of the military draft. It is unlikely that the Pentagon would want this, and Congress would have to pass new legislation to bring back the draft, but it's possible that this is something that Trump would propose, he is so crazy. But even the unfounded rumor may be enough to awaken young people to the fact that there's a war on.
On New Year's Day, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer released a letter from late last year accusing the United States of submitting Chelsea Manning to treatment that is tantamount to torture. Manning has not be accused of a crime, but of simply refusing to testify against Julian Assange. For a good explanation of her situation, and for five things that you can do to support Chelsea Manning, go here.
The US Border Patrol didn't miss a beat before it began its crackdown on Iranian-Americans and people of Iranian descent. For a picture of things to come, read "U.S. Border Agency Says It's Not Singling Out Iranians. This Family Waited 11 Hours and Was Asked About Iranian Heritage" [Link]
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Tuesday, January 14th - Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that uses non-violent, direct action to raise awareness about the climate and ecological crisis. Extinction Rebellion Westchester will present a program called "Climate Change: Heading for Extinction (and What to Do About It.)" XR says: "In this public talk, climate speakers from Extinction Rebellion will share the latest climate science on where our planet is heading, discuss some of the current psychology around climate change, and offer solutions through the study of social movements." At the JV Harmon Community Center, 44 Main St. in Hastings, from 7 to 9 pm. Free.
Thursday, January 16th & Saturday, January 18th – The Legal Aid Society of Westchester will present two "Know Your Rights" forums, both covering the new criminal justice legislation, immigration reform, and voter registration. There will also be Legal Aid attorneys available for one-on-one discussions. The forum on the 16th is at the Yonkers Riverfront Library from 5 to 7 pm; the forum on the 18th is at the Field Library in Peekskill, from 1 to 3 pm.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our rallies are usually about war or the climate crisis, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's immigration policies are often targeted, depending on current events. Also, we (usually) have a general meeting on the first Saturday afternoon of each month. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. And if you would like to support our work by making a contribution, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
SOME USEFUL/ILLUMINATING FEATURED ESSAYS
Happy New Year, Gaza
---- Eight years ago, in 2012, the United Nations issued a report entitled "Gaza in 2020: A livable place?" The answer was contained in the body of the report – no. Not unless steps are taken to save it. No real steps have been taken but the projections in this severe report were also not borne out: The situation is much worse than it predicted. On January 1, 2020, the year of the end for Gaza began. As of January 1, 2 million human beings are living in a place that is not livable. There's a Chernobyl in Gaza, an hour from Tel Aviv. And Tel Aviv is not bothered by that. Nor is the rest of the world. News reviews of the past decade included everything else, just not the humanitarian disaster in Israel's backyard for which Israel, first and foremost, is to blame, is responsible. Instead of taking responsibility for expelling and driving them to Gaza in 1948 and attempting to compensate and atone for what was done, through rehabilitation and assistance, Israel is continuing to pursue the policies of 1948 in a different way: a cage instead of expulsion, jail instead of ethnic cleansing, siege instead of dispossession. [Read More]
For more insights on the situation in Gaza, read – "Is 2020 the Year Gaza under Israeli Occupation Becomes Unlivable?" by Motasem A Dalloul, [December 29, 2019] [Link]; and "The U.N. once predicted Gaza would be 'uninhabitable' by 2020. Two million people still live there," by Miriam Berger and Hazem Balousha, Washington Post [January 2, 2020] [Link]. For some recent developments in Israel, read "Report: In 2019 Israel arrested over 5,500 Palestinians, including 889 children," by Kate, Mondoweiss [Link]; and "The ICC will likely throw out Palestine's case for war crimes, Norman Finkelstein says," by Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss [December 31, 2019 [Link].
Afghan Papers Propagate Colonial Narrative of Noble Intentions Gone Awry
By Joshua Cho, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting [FAIR] [December 26, 2019]
---- The Afghanistan Papers should be considered an excellent case study of contemporary colonial propaganda, and yet another example of corporate media criticizing US wars without opposing US imperialism. Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's famous analysis of media coverage of the Vietnam War, in Manufacturing Consent, found that questions of the invasion's "tactics and costs"—to the US—dominated the debate, because the media absorbed the framework of government propaganda regarding the "necessity" of military intervention, the "righteousness of the American cause" and the US's "nobility of intent." Decades later, Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model of corporate media is still a useful tool in understanding the Post's Afghanistan Papers. The Post advanced the centuries-old colonial narrative of the empire's good intentions gone awry when it argued that the US "inadvertently built a corrupt, dysfunctional Afghan government," and that this illustrated that "even some of the most well-intentioned projects could boomerang." … The Post is so eager to push this colonial narrative of noble incompetence that a later report on "key takeaways" from the Afghanistan Papers claimed that US officials "failed to align policy solutions with the challenges they confronted," having "strategic drift" in place of "coherent US policy for Afghanistan." As noted earlier, one method of discerning whether US officials are being dishonest, not incompetent, is to check whether the pretexts for invading and occupying another country are constantly changing. [Read More] In 1971 the Pentagon Papers [Vietnam War] made a big media splash; the Afghanistan Papers….? The "Papers" were published on December 9th; neither ABC nor NBC news mentioned the story. CBS had a story on December 9th, but no network news covered it on December 10th. [Link]
Americans Want Jobs, Not War
By Guy T. Saperstein and Joe Cirincione, The Nation [January 6, 2020]
--- The full polling results allow us to draw a number of interrelated conclusions about the mood of the electorate in this presidential election year. First, American voters are tired of endless wars. At a time when median real incomes have stagnated for more than a generation, people want more investment at home. This is not a call for isolationism; voters still want to be globally engaged. They just want policy-makers to prioritize funding the social, medical, and environmental changes needed in this country. Our results suggest that policy-makers would be rewarded—not punished—for pursuing diplomatic solutions to conflicts. Second, American voters are uncomfortable with the role of nuclear weapons in our defense policy. With the messaging we suggest, the public strongly supports fewer weapons, more negotiated restraints, and policies that will avoid nuclear war. Third, the American people believe the Pentagon budget is out of control. As former vice president Biden is fond of saying, "Show me your budget and I'll tell you what you value." By that yardstick, our values need some adjustment. There is a real hunger for plans, like those of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, to lower defense spending and reduce corporate influence at the Pentagon. Indeed, our polling suggests that the majority of voters will still call for cuts in Pentagon spending even if it affects their local communities, both because they believe their communities will recover and the money could be spent in more productive ways in the long run. [Read More] For a useful corrective to the Trump claim that he has brought us economic prosperity, read "Trump Will Claim Credit for a Robust Economy. This Is How We Fight Back," by Sasha Abramsky, The Nation [January 3, 2020] [Link].
Our History
First Lady of the World: Eleanor Roosevelt's Impact on New Deal to U.N. Declaration of Human Rights
From Democracy Now! [January 1, 2020]
---- This year, 2020, marks the hundredth anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote. We begin this new decade with an hour-long special about one of the most influential women in U.S. politics, Eleanor Roosevelt, who served as the first lady of the United States from 1933, when her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office, until his death during his fourth term in office in 1945. That wasn't the end of the story for Eleanor Roosevelt, though. She went on to serve as United States delegate to the United Nations General Assembly and spearheaded the U.N. Convention on Human Rights. President Harry Truman later called her the "First Lady of the World." I recently sat down with Blanche Wiesen Cook, distinguished professor of history and women's studies at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She's the author of the definitive three-part biography of the former first lady… I began by asking her how she came to write this trilogy on Eleanor Roosevelt. [See the Program]
