By Debra Sweet
Actor Mark Ruffalo wrote to World Can’t Wait on why he signed Crimes Are Crimes and donated towards publishing it:"These wars are unjust and the way they are being waged is unlawful. We are not winning hearts and minds. Americans are angry. Every day we see affronts to our laws by corporations and politicians, crimes that go unpunished. For the poor and powerless the law is cruel and unfair. That is the basis of our anger.
We sense our country falling into chaos. That is because law does not seem to carry weight for the privileged and the powerful. Help us put an end to these hypocritical assaults on our constitution. Help us to restore integrity in the purpose of democracy.”
You can take inspiration from his example and join us to make a big splash in The New York Times next week, in the midst of all commemorations and debate surrounding the anniversary of the start of the escalating war in Afghanistan.
As of 6pm Central today we’re at $16,735 of the $30,000 needed towards placing this ad in The Times next week. Our goal is to place it during the same week that the war started – now the longest war in US history. People are donating in amounts from $5 to $1000 via credit card and check. This is very good – but we are not there yet.
You are needed! Please donate, call friends and contacts of World Can’t Wait, email family members, stop strangers on the street, and let people know about this opportunity to break the silence over the war in Afghanistan. The funds are needed this week.
It has been 3 years now that an anti-war statement has appeared in The Times! Isn’t it about time?
The New York Times reports today a significant increase in US drone bombings of targets in Pakistan.
"As part of its covert war in the region, the C.I.A. has launched 20 attacks with armed drone aircraft thus far in September, the most ever during a single month, and more than twice the number in a typical month. Early in the month, the floods had affected the base where the drone flights originate, but it seems that the Obama administration is now making up for lost time."
Wired magazine says:
According to local reports, the drones fired up to 12 missiles in the latest attack, killing as many as 14 people. If those estimates are right, it brings September’s death toll to 60. The drones have killed up to 600 people in 2010 in 66 strikes. With two and a half months left in the year, the rate of robotic attacks has nearly doubled since 2008.
The New America Foundation in its report The Year of the Drones says that since 2004, one third of the people killed in drone attacks on Pakistan are civilians. They say this percentage is falling to around 10% civilian deaths. They also site studies showing that people in the affected areas believe the drone strikes, and the US presence in Afghanistan, fuels anti-US sentiment.
The secretive U.S. drone programs (one run by the CIA, and one by the military) have no oversight; no budget; have never been approved, or even debated outside the White House.
The Obama administration argues that it has the unilateral right to attack people in any country, and wage war with no boundaries.
Crimes are crimes, no matter who does them. Event/Webcast October 20
Stop the Crimes of Our Government:
A Discussion of Collateral Murder & Targeted Assasinaton
Wednesday October 20 7:00 pm
Screening of Collateral Murder, posted by Wikileaks.org in 2010
Commentary by Ethan McCord, dissident veteran of Bravo Company 2-16, the unit involved in killing 12 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
The case Against Targeted Assassinations by the U.S.: Pardiss Kebriaei, staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights
LGBT Center, 208 West 13th Street, NYC
This event will be webcast at worldcantwait.net