Bombs and troops? Or righteous resistance?
By Debra Sweet
Saturday night I was out on the Ellipse with the Eyes Wide Open exhibit, originally put together by the American Friends Service Committee to commemorate, with empty boots, the US military lives lost in Iraq, and Iraqi civilians killed there as well.
For the first time, the display was just the 870 military killed since 2001 in Afghanistan. To the side was a spiral of shoes of all kinds and sizes, down to infant socks, commemorating the Afghani civilians, number unknown, who have died in the occupation. Thousands of people came by, and hundreds walked among the boots, including active duty military and soldiers and Marine who had been in Afghanistan. They indicated a lot of questioning in the military right now.
Today, on the first Monday in October, the Supreme Court’s new session begins, and we will be there protesting torture. Then, the protest moves to McPherson Square, and a march to the White House. President Obama is holding an outdoor press conference around 11:00 am, I hear, so perhaps we’ll get there in time to bring our loud anti-war message and make the news. World Can’t Wait will be displaying the Museum of U.S. Torture.
Many of you have seen parts of Rethink Afghanistan, the new film by Robert Greenwald. Listen to the voices of people trying to survive in Afghanistan after 8 years of bombing, occupation, and relentless war, and tell me to "give Obama’s surge a chance!"
One father points to his 3 year old daughter standing in the mud with no shoes on and says:
"For God’s sake, …I want to sell this child, but nobody wants her. What can I do? I have nothing. I am poor. I don’t have any blankets, I don’t have any shawls, I don’t have any clothes. There is no food that I can put in her mouth."
Watch this, and share it with others. YOU can be part of the 48-hour surge of resistance, helping to provide World Can’t Wait with funds to run our National Office for the rest of the year, joining in from anywhere. One of the protesters expecting to be arrested tomorrow in non-violent civil resistance against the 8 years of occupation of Afghanistan, messaged me that she wants to donate, but is not sure she’ll be out of jail by Tuesday. She, and you, can go right now to give the virtual fund raiser an early bump!
Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can’t Wait
P.S. Within the next weeks, President Obama will announce up to 20,000 more troops will deploy to Afghanistan in addition to replacing up to 14,000 support troops with "trigger-pullers." This will only mean increasing the death and destruction brought to the Afghan people. And U.S. involvement in Iraq is not only not over, but is becoming a permanent occupation.