EndWars
Email this pageAction Proposal Submitted by WILPF’s End the Wars Issue Committee:
Read full Action Program as Adopted by National Conference to Bring the Troops Home Now!
Action Proposal Submitted by WILPF’s End the Wars Issue Committee:
We call for the equal participation of women in all aspects of the antiwar movement. We propose nonviolent direct actions at local U.S. Congressional offices, federal buildings, defense corporations’ facilities, or military bases. These activities would be nationally coordinated local actions, on the same day, for everyone.
Nonviolent direct actions often result in arrest, thus participants would be prepared for that possible outcome before joining the action. Nonviolence training would be offered locally, with lists of trainers being made available.
We would welcome women who choose not to participate in the direct action to come as supporters, as protesters with banners, leaflets, and as press contacts.
Exit Afghanistan? You Make the Call
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Women voting in Afghanistan |
The evidence that the war in Afghanistan is a catastrophe just keeps piling up. Despite General McChrystal’s efforts to reduce civilian deaths, we just learned that so far this year the number of civilians killed by NATO has more than doubled.
This includes a botched raid where special operations forces killed five innocent civilians – including two pregnant women – and then tried to cover it up. Just last week, troops fired into a bus full of civilians, killing as many as five people and causing a firestorm of protest. The Associated Press (4/12/10) has reported that: “With troop levels rising amid heightened violence, at least 2,412 Afghan civilians were killed in fighting last year, an increase of 14 percent from 2008, according to the United Nations … NATO earlier this month confirmed that international troops were responsible for the deaths of five people, including three women, killed Feb. 12 in Gardez, south of Kabul. An Afghan government report on the incident claims U.S. special forces had mistaken their targets and later sought to cover up the killings by digging bullets out of bodies, according to investigators who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.”
Earlier this month, the WikiLeaks website released a harrowing video from 2007 of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter opening fire on a group of civilian men in Bagdad, two of whom were journalists working for Reuters.
End Wars Issue Committee Statement on War in Afghanistan and Drone Bombings in Pakistan
January, 2010
WILPF urges the U.S. Congress and all respective government departments to rescind a policy on continuing and escalating a dangerous war and occupation in Afghanistan, announced by President Obama in his December 1 speech at West Point This path of escalation is inflicting "collateral" damage on a civilian population and propping up a corrupt government. This escalation now includes CIA –operated drone (pilotless) aircraft attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, attacks which are war crimes forbidden by Nuremburg and the Army Field Manual. We condemn the possible further destabilization of the entire region, including Iraq, Yemen and Iran for the stated goal of capturing Al-Qaeda members and destroying the network. This endless war is killing civilians and military personnel on all sides in the war and becomes a recuiting tool for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The Taliban, whether in Afghanistan or Pakistan, is not a direct military threat to the United States.
Kucinich Announces Introduction of Privileged Resolution to End Afghan War
Saturday, 27 February 2010
(February 25, 2010) - On Thursday, March 4, 2010 Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) will introduce his privileged resolution that will require House debate on continuing the war in Afghanistan.
It is expected that the resolution will be taken up for consideration on the following Wednesday, March 10, 2010 and that the debate will be subject to a rule providing for three hours of debate.
More War?
More War?
The cost of employing one soldier is $1 million per year*, in addition to money for equipment, for private contractors and for war-making materials, etc. To this figure we must add the cost of providing medical support for the injured soldiers who return to the U.S. We must oppose this ongoing war as strongly as possible. As Malalai Joya, a former member of the Afghan Parliament says, “A troop surge can only magnify the crime against Afghanistan.” Read her op-ed in The Guardian here.
The truth behind the Afghan insurgency
From the Boston Globe Newspaper, August 17, 2009, page 11
ON A RECENT TRIP to Kabul for our nonprofit organization, Jobs for Afghans, Najim Dost and I made a startling discovery: There is no true Taliban insurgency.
Yes, there is a Taliban leadership, many of whom are “foreigners,’’ meaning, non-Afghans. Yes, there are many fighting-age men who fight because they are paid to do so, by the small cadre of Taliban and Al Qaeda commanders who have plenty of opium money. They fork out the excellent wage in these parts of $8 per day for “insurgent work.’’
But a die-hard, dedicated army of fighters who pledge allegiance to the Taliban ideology and cause? It’s not there. Even Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged last March, “Roughly 70 percent are involved because of the money.’’ And General Karl Eikenberry, former commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said to Congress in 2007: “Much of the enemy force is drawn from the ranks of unemployed men looking for wages to support their families.’’
Plan Now for October 2009: A Month of Anti-War Protest
Plan Now for October: A Month of Protest
October has several dates with significance for the peace movement. In October 2009, we'll mark the eighth year of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and seven years since Congress passed the resolution authorizing war against Iraq. In addition, October commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Vietnam Moratorium, which brought hundreds of thousands into the streets to protest the war.
Designate October 17 as a day for mass rallies, marches, coordinated local and regional demonstrations and other forms of protest.
May 2009: Statement on US Involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Statement on US Involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Click here to view and download a pdf version of this statement
Click here to read the letter to Congress urging aid be given to Afghan women
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section, opposes military action to resolve the armed conflict in Afghanistan. Specifically, we cannot support the sending of 30,000 additional U.S. troops into the country and the use of drone aircraft there and in Pakistan. We call for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO military forces.
It should be self evident that the use of violent force by another country cannot lead to the elimination of violence and armed conflict within Afghanistan. The very people the U.S. claims must be protected from Taliban insurgents are actually endangered by the presence of U.S and NATO troops. According to figures provided by the United Nations, at least 2100 Afghan civilians died in conflict related deaths in 2008. Of these, at least 1000 were killed by Taliban or other insurgents, who often target communities where U.S. military forces have had a presence. At least 800 civilians were killed in 2008 by Afghan government forces or by occupying U.S. and NATO forces, and of these at least 445 were killed by air strikes. Afghan women’s organizations, such as the Revolutionary Association of Afghan Women, and women’s organizations involved in in-country initiatives, such as Madre and the Global Fund for Women, have consistently stated that the occupying U.S. military presence increases the level of violence in Afghan communities resulting in more civilian deaths and abductions and more dangerous conditions for women seeking to participate in public life, peace building, and civilian governance.
Letter to Congress: Afghan Women Desperately Need Our Help
Click here to view and download a pdf version of this letter
May 20, 2009
Dear Senator/Representative:
Afghan women desperately need our help. As you consider the FY09 supplemental funding bill, aid for critically needed educational, occupational and health programs for Afghan women and girls must be included.
We urge you to include funding in the supplemental funding bill that will go directly to Afghan women-led non-profit organizations providing programs for Afghan women and girls, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Women's Affairs.
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