Peaceful march for Tibet in Chicago ends with broken window at consulate

I love watching the news now that I have time. And even though the U.S. news is not that good, they sometimes report important things. Though this isn't about Iraq, it is important and relevant to the protests we have done and will continue to do in the future, because we can learn from this as to what is eye catching. Also, this issue has to do with human rights, which is always important, but relates to what the U.S. is doing to the Iraqi people and what our government is doing to our own people as well. The issue also has to do with allowing outsider media sources into Tibet to report what is actually happening there, a problem that we have in the U.S. as well (as it relates to Iraq, Darfur, etc.). Also, just to make me happy, the protesters wish to strip China of the 2008 Olympics, something that will make it apparent that the world will not support the genocide in Tibet or Darfur, both of which China is supporting. We must learn from these issues and realize that C.A.N. goes beyond Iraq, and into more human rights issues.

McCain Visits Iraq to Meet With Officials

I find this interesting that two Iraqis are interviewed and one thinks that McCain is great to keep promises to the Iraqi people, and another reports about the abhorrent conditions Iraqis have to deal with. I guess it has to do with which group is on the U.S.'s side that day... This is important because it shows McCain's evil policy to keep this war going, and most likely extend it throughout the middle east.

Clinton Attacks Obama, McCain on Iraq

I was watching the wonderful "news" at home today, and saw this wonderful statement that Clinton was making about Iraq and how she is the best candidate for the issue. Though her statements are noble, and certainly correct about McCain and Obama, according to ontheissues.org, she hasn't really had a concise decision on what to do in Iraq:

Withdraw all combat troops: one or two brigades a month. (Feb 2008)
Calling for troop withdrawal pressures Iraqi government. (Feb 2008)
Some tactical success in Iraq, but no strategic success yet. (Feb 2008)
Would have never diverted attention from Afghanistan. (Jan 2008)
Bush must ask Congress to approve agreements with Iraq. (Jan 2008)
GovWatch: Withdrawal in 60 days has no timetable to finish. (Jan 2008)
After 9/11:Those helping terrorists would feel "wrath" of US. (Jun 2007)

Americans. Don't. Torture.

One of the most irritating aspects of the Mr. Bush's administration (aside from all the other irritating aspects) is the insistence that the interrogation technique that America condemned when it was used by the Khmer Rouge - namely, water boarding - is now not only legal, but absolutely necessary to conduct the "War on Terror" ("War of Terror" might be more apt). With the wingnuts and Administration officials screeching about the "Ticking Bomb" scenario, many people also buy into the idea.

The are a number of problems with Mr. Bush's recent veto of a bill that would prevent the CIA and other groups from using water-boarding and other torture techniques.

First and foremost, waterboarding IS torture. The Japanese and Gestapo used the technique in World War II. And early form of it was used during the Spanish Inquisition. Most famously, it was used by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. US troops used it in Vietnam, but they did so illegally - during that other failed act of aggression 40 years ago, the generals designated the technique illegal.

Which brings me to the next point. Not only is waterboarding torture - and thus illegal under the Geneva Convention - but it is also illegal under US law. The fact that Mr. Bush has made it
legal by fiat - presidential signing statements and executive orders - shows how little respect he has for the Constitution and seperation of powers. Perhaps he never saw School House Roch as a child, but only Congress can make the laws, and the President cannot enact a line-item veto, which is effectively what his use of Presidential Signing Statements amount to. The truly egregious part is that he has not been hauled before Congress to at the least testify. We as a country have slowly moved from outrage over the actions of this Administration to apathy, as it becomes expected that the Executive can do whatever he or she pleases.

Thirdly, waterboarding and torture do not work. Let me repeat: waterboarding the torture do. not. work. People subjected to torture will say anything to have the torture stop, whether they know anything or now. Additionally, the "ticking bomb" scenario - the idea that we need to be able to torture, in case there is a bomb in a major city somewhere and the only choice is torture or destruction - is pure Hollywood fantasy. Such events might happen in 24, but in the real world they are not only unlikely - according to experts, "Ticking Bomb" scenarios are impossible.

Even if such a scenario were to occur, torture would not help. In order to obtain useful information from suspects, an interrogator needs to build a relationship with the suspect, which takes weeks. Psychological attacks work much more effectively than physical abuse.

The list could go on. The fact remains that Mr. Bush cannot veto a bill banning waterboarding because waterboarding is already illegal and immoral. The bill should never have gone through Congress in the first place: they had already passed an anti-torture bill a few years ago. What Congress should have done was object to Mr. Bush's signing statement on that bill - which effectively turned a bill designed to close loopholes into a massive loophole on the question of torture.

However, the political ramifications of this act - if it is properly publicized - could be enormous. While the Republicans will couch the veto in the language of National Security, the Democrats - if they are clever - will beat the Republicans over the head with this veto. I am no fan of the Democrats, mind you. I just desire some remuneration for what will be 8 long years of law breaking, illegal war, and the erosion of the economy. I say, send the war criminals off to the Hauge and let them answer for their crimes before the international community.

So it begins again

The BBC has reported today that a station commander in Britain suggested that members of the RAF not wear their uniforms in public because of verbal abuse from people opposed to the Britain's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Slowly, then we can see the resurgence of the Vietnam myth: that antiwar activists hate the troops, that we spit on them or deride them, or verbally abuse them. Antiwar individuals run the gamut in their opinion about the troops, or the army, but on the whole the antiwar movement is, and has been, incredibly supportive of individual soldiers (especially veterans) while at the same time being incredibly critical of the system that creates soldiers - a position that is in no way contradictory.

We stage counter-recruitment events not out of a hatred of the troops, but out of a hatred of the war and the current Army, and out of a desire to keep more young men and women from the trials and tribulations of armed service.
This particular incident strikes a chord with me, based on an event that happened just yesterday while on the Quad, tabling for our Week of Action. An individual began a heated debate with us about how he had family over in Iraq, and how what we were doing was disgraceful. In his mind, antiwar activists since Vietnam have opposed the troops, and the troops have in turn opposed the antiwar community. While debating individuals can be cathartic and fun, it also does tend to reflect poorly on us when we are tabling. Shouting at people on the Quad makes us seem quite hostile, more radical than we are, and frankly, unapproachable and unfriendly. People like that will not be swayed in the two minutes we spend yelling at them, and in that time we may very well loose others who might have come out. I am not, of course, saying that we should not have civil discussions with people with whom we disagree, and I fully expect shouting to be a part of that. But when we table, I feel that discussions should try to be as civil as possible.

The idea that the antiwar community and the community of active and veteran soldiers are set at odds is, of course, a falacy, but one which unfortunately continues to exist. Education is the best way to combat this issue. By working closely with IVAW, we are able to show people that the antiwar community respects the veterans. By counter-recruiting, the antiwar community shows that it respects and values lives more than the Army does. By showing educational films - such as Sir! No Sir! and The Ground Truth - the antiwar community is able to show that we have a history of supporting the veterans and the troops, and that the myth of spitting on vets is just that - a myth.

A number of weeks ago, a fellow student told me that he really supported a sign that I had in my window for some time: "Support the Troops, Bring Them Home." He, like many others, has been taught only the myths of the antiwar movement, and he told me that the sign showed him that on the whole the antiwar movement is made up of normal people, and not fringe radicals.

Now, I won't say that such "verbal abuse" never happens, nor will I say that it never will happen. However, happily Brown's government has come out decrying this claim as rediculous, and the report mentions that no reports of such actions have been filed.

We must all be active in our rejection of the myth of the antiwar movement as a movement that is also opposed to the veterans, both in our words and in our actions.

Week of Action and Vets

So our chapter is going to have a busy week next week. For the 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq (over a decade longer if you include sanctions and air strikes throughout the 90's) UIUC is on Spring Break. Therefore we decided to move our Week of Action forward a week. We have so many great events going on and so many dedicated members to help with it; our CAN chapter has come a long way from only a year ago.



Monday:
"Winter Soldier Film screening with Iraq Veterans Against the War"
Location - Illinois Disciples Foundation (IDF)
610 E Springfield
7:00 pm

Tuesday:
Counter-Recruitment protest at the new recruiting stations in Champaign
507 Town Center Blvd
4:00pm - 6:00pm
http://uillinois.facebook.com/event.php?eid=22160478088

Wed:
Lunch Lecture and Discussion on the Antiwar Movement at Hopkins Dorm
12:00-1:00

Thurs:
Walk-out, March, Rally, and Die-in on the Quad hosted with the Campus Greens.
11:00am - 1:00pm
Quad side of the Union
http://uillinois.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10419805759

Friday:
Live streaming of "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan" with Iraq Veterans Against the War
Time - 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Place - TBA

Saturday:
Continuation of the live streaming of "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan" with Iraq Veterans Against the War
Time: 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: TBA


I think my favorite events will be the ones on Winter Soldier! In 1971 the first Winter Soldier was held as a way for Vietnam veterans to stand up against the racist, illegal, and genocidal war of Vietnam. It ended up boosting the antiwar movement into the main stream and which in turn helped bring Vietnam to an end. Now there is a modern day Winter Soldier being put on by IVAW Iraq Veterans Against the War. It's happening the whole weekend of March 14-16! Our CAN chapter has a few people attending as invited guests because we work very closely with IVAW. A few of us who are staying behind are inviting the public and any remaining students to watch a live online video feed of the modern Winter Soldier. I encourage everyone who reads this to do the same.

All you have to do is go to www.ivaw.org and poke around some until you find it. You can watch a trailer for it right now on their front page! Here are the first few minutes of it.

I think it's just so inspiring that this is going on and has the potential to boost both IVAW and CAN into the national view of the antiwar movement. IVAW is bigger than VVAW when they held the first Winter Soldier. And CAN is bigger than SDS (the main grassroots antiwar organization from Vietnam) was in their earlier stages.

This just really gives me hope for the kind of movement we are trying to make. A movement that:
1) Calls for an end to the racism of arabs and muslims
2) Believes the Iraqi people have the right to self-determination free from American intervention
3) Calls for IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL of all troops from Iraq
4) Calls for the expulsion of private contractors in Iraq and calls for these jobs to be given to the Iraqis
5) Demands that veterans receive the full health benefits, education, and compensation they deserve
6) Demands that compensation be given to the Iraqi people for the invasion, years of sanctions and air strikes, and for years of supporting the dictatorship of Saddam.
7) Is grassroots and does not think that just by electing someone to office that this war is going to end. Afterall, the antiwar movement used to say "half the way with LBJ" to end the war but when he got elected he expanded the war into Cambodia. I think it's important that we do not have disillusions about ANY political candidate, meaning that we realize no matter who gets elected, we are still going to have a war to protest for many years to come.
8) Is opening trying to outreach to other organizations to create a unified left antiwar movement. That means connecting the issues between sexism, islamophobia, the economy, immigrant rights, health care, racism, homophobia, Palestine, Afghanistan, the pending war with Iran, and trying to get people to see how all of these issues are connected to each other through the war.
9) Probably most importantly, recognized the key role veterans play in the antiwar movement. Not as the "token veteran" but as an actual activist and organizer of the movement. Because it won't be possible to end this war unless we get the military on our side.

I'm ready to end this war, and I'm ready for CAN and IVAW to take off the ground and push itself into the national perspective of the antiwar movement. Now who's with me!

CAN Midwest Winter Retreat!

This weekend, Urbana-Champaign was host to not only to the drunken debauchery that is "Unofficial". No, instead our campus was host to the amazing Campus Antiwar Network Midwest Winter Retreat, and it was an incredible success! With members from 6 different chapters across the Midwest, Midwest CAN was able to come together in a way that we have not done before, starting the important work on the regional conference in April and also developing what we hope will be an incredibly successful communication structure, so the gains and networking developed over the weekend aren't lost.

First, the retreat really did a great job of allowing the Midwest to network much better. We have decided to set up a system to ensure members are able to not only contact other branches with ease, but that branches stay in touch regularly through monthly conference calls. Such a system should ensure a much stronger unity among the Midwest, which can only be to the benefit of the movement and to the individual chapters.

Along that line, simply being able to discuss politics and local events with other chapters is eye opening. It was discovered by many of the chapters - Iowa, UIC, and Cincinnati, to name a few - that while they have a very solid logistical aspect of their group, they very rarely talk politics. Most of the members from those groups are likely going to return and encourage a real change in their organizations to allow for more political discussions. For our own part, UIUC suffers from the inverse problem. Our level of political discourse is very high, but because of that we have not focused on events and actions. This may have led to a decreased presence on Campus, which can only depress turnouts. With the weather warming up, however, it is very likely that UIUC will once again become more active in the eyes of the student body at large, as we stage more demonstrations and events.

Additionally, the retreat began to get the Sisyphusian boulder which is the Regional Conference rolling. We set a date (April 18-20), confirmed Iowa as the location, and developed both an overarching vision for the conference as well as a number of concrete suggestions of how to invite other groups into the Conference, whom to work with in particular, and what workshops to put on. Most importantly, we developed the system to get the Conference Planning Committee (the CPC) off the ground by next Sunday - in the first official Regional Conference Call.

That is going to be a very interesting and intense call. It is both the first call for the new Chapter Liaisons and the first call for the CPC, and it is also an open call, so anyone can participate (but only the CPC members can vote on issues relating to the Conference). The CPC will have their hands full, reading abstracts of suggestions for the conference and then debating on them, while the Liaisons, in my mind, will also be quite busy formalizing and finalizing what exactly they hope to accomplish.

Our own chapter will need to elect the Liaison and the CPC members (up to two of the latter, only one of the former) on Tuesday. Tuesday will likely be a busy logistical meeting, but it seems that with the high level of political discourse in our chapter anyway, it is OK to have the logistical meetings, especially with events coming up as they are.

We hope to jump on the Green Party's 5th Anniversary protest the week before Spring Break, and really take the lead in organizing it (since so far it does not seem that the Greens have been as aggressive as they could have been with their outreach to other groups - a charge that frankly could be level at us more often than we would like to admit). We also hope to show the film Winter Soldier with the local IVAW chapter the Monday of that Week of Action, and then show parts of Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan on either Friday or Saturday. The fact that that is the start of Spring Break could suppress turn out, but even so simply getting the information out to people to allow them to watch it on their own is important.

We can safely say that coming out of the Retreat we all feel much more energized and strengthened as a chapter, and as a movement as a whole. What we need to do now is translate that energy, that networking, and these wonderful ideas into actions and and events to strengthen the chapter. As was stated during the retreat by Madison's own Chris Dols, "The Midwest is only as strong as the sum of its chapters." And we feel that the chapters - all the Midwest chapters - have the potential to be much stronger now than ever before.