Category Archives: Victims of war

Hold Them Each Accountable for Their Actions: Trump, Biden et al

“We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.”

― Gore Vidal 

Donald Trump committed war crimes, Where is accountability?

 

We have two dominant parties concerned with power and greed, wanting to enrich the billionaires on their team.

 

Trump committed crimes when he bombed Syria and Iraq, he…

• continued the illegal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, across Africa, Syria and other places, arming criminals around the world [such as Saudi Arabia’s crimes in Yemen]

• continued the illegal torture of prisoners,

• continued the illegal spying on Americans,

• continued the illegal killing of civilians and increased the drone assassinations

• illegally threatened wars against N. Korea and Venezuela,

• illegally threatened nuclear war against N. Korea, and

• worked to illegally overthrow governments around the world and distributed weapons across the planet into the hands of criminals and human rights abusers.

 

Joe Biden is beginning to do much the same, but then the self-proclaimed “Zionist” has been a servant of imperialism much of his career.  There are differences, yes, but this is not a popularity contest.

This is rule of law.  This is protecting human rights.   It should be.  However, with each living president, they have each used violence and aggression against other nations. They each armed forces in civil wars [terrorists looking to overthrow leaders that the US was looking to depose.] The politicians and pundits point at the suffering in other nations, then they make it worse.

Let us work toward rule of law, and rise above the team games and tribalism.  Stop the war machine and honor the rights and liberties of all.

Some law links 

~ Charter of the United Nations ~

Chapter VII — Action with respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression

https://legal.un.org/repertory/art51.shtml

 

~ Convention II Article 2 Geneva Conventions ~

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/vwTreaties1949.xsp

 

End support for bombing and starvation of Yemen: Cassandra Dixon and Barb Olson

Letter to the Editor. Cap Times 25 January 2021

original article:

Cassandra Dixon and Barb Olson: Biden should end support for bombing and starvation of Yemen

“For over five years, Yemenis have endured a civil war which has already killed nearly a quarter-million people. Roughly half of those who perished died from war-induced malnutrition, disease and lack of basic services.

Intervening on one side, a Saudi-led and U.S.-supported coalition has used overwhelming military force — including laser-guided bombs and other high-tech weapons supported by our tax dollars — to systematically devastate huge areas of Yemen that their rivals control.

The U.S. has supplied combat ships that are vital to the naval and air blockade presently denying millions of people in Yemen essential food and medicine (90% of Yemen’s food supply is imported).

The U.S. has also directly carried out bombing raids against those it labels “terrorists.” Recently, Congress failed to stop the Trump administration from selling F-35s like those the Air Force wants to station at Truax to the United Arab Emirates, one of the countries bombing Yemen.

As was predicted, famine is now widespread. Two-thirds of Yemenis are hungry and many tens of thousands, especially children, are truly bloated-belly-and-stick-limbs starving. Moderate to severe malnutrition afflicts a quarter of the population, including more than 2 million children.

And now COVID-19 has joined cholera and diphtheria in exponentially compounding their misery.

related

  1. US Envoy to Yemen Is ‘Aggressively’ Pursuing Talks With Houthis to End War
  2. BIDEN WITHDRAWS U.S. SUPPORT FOR SAUDI “OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS” IN YEMEN
  3. UAE Ambassador Al Otaiba’s yells at Rep. Khanna over Yemen Changes
  4. Biden’s Bolt From Yemen?: Symbolic Step, Systemic Limits, and Linguistic Gymnastics

Bad Yemen policy predates the outgoing administration, but things got worse under Trump. Along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the U.S. slashed contributions to international relief agencies trying to mitigate the carnage in Yemen.

Just as they applied “maximum pressure” to the recalcitrant Palestinians by eliminating U.S. funds to UNRWA, the UN agency critical to their survival, the Trump administration did not hesitate to further destroy the lives of the poor, weak, sick and elderly people of Yemen in pursuit of its foreign policy agenda.

Now the Trump administration has made good on its long-standing threat to label Ansar Allah, an Iran-supported Houthi militia in the coalition opposing our dear friends the Saudis, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. This is designed to tighten the already suffocating blockade of Yemen.

In November, major international humanitarian organizations begged U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to make this designation, warning that humanitarian relief could be crippled by charges of aiding terrorism for cooperating with rebels in delivery of relief to civilian populations.

Neither Ansar Allah nor the Houthis pose any threat to the U.S. or its citizens, but that didn’t keep the FTO designation from speeding ahead as Trump, egged on by his allies in Israel and Saudi Arabia, maneuvered to keep the Biden administration from altering our reckless, aggressive campaign against Iran.

 

No FTO designation has yet been reversed in less than two years.

Millions of Yemen’s children don’t have another two years.

Momentum is building to get the Biden administration to immediately reverse the FTO designation. Jan. 25 has been declared a worldwide day of action to finally stop the Yemen war.

Please contact your representative and Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson, asking them to end the U.S. role in the vicious, criminal war on Yemen.

 

 

By Cassandra Dixon and Barb Olson | members, Madison-Rafah Sister City Project.
more…

Dove Mound Effigy by David Giffey

 

“The Mourning Dove Mound is a symbol of peace at the Highground. It represents a constant presence of peace among numerous other memorials and monuments dedicated to wars and conflicts.

As the designer in 1985, I tell the story on this video of the mound and how Native American people built burial and effigy mounds for centuries before I designed the dove mound. It was dedicated in 1989. In recent years, I met hundreds of school children in person at the Highground to tell the Dove Mound story.” 

The artist:  David Giffey

Learn about the Dove Effigy Mound at the Highground Memorial Park

 

The Costs of War: Panel and Discussion [Watch Recording]

link to recording
 Zoom Panel and Discussion on The Cost of War

We had an excellent lineup of guest speakers.
 

All wars have large costs, which the political, financial, and governmental elites instigating the conflicts would rather the citizens minimize –but pay for. With a “volunteer military”, outsourcing, drones, and “smart bombs”, the war-makers attempt to hide the costs of war. The true story, however, is much grimmer.


****************************************
Panelists:
 
***Veteran of the “War on Terror” Brittyn Calyx who will talk about the cost of war on the individual veteran and the impact of war on their own life.
 
***Vietnam veteran, artist, and peace activist David Giffey, who will speak on the societal costs of war,
 
***Dr. Eileen Ahearn, a long-time psychiatrist at the VA in Madison, Wisconsin who will take a look at war and moral injury and
 
***Rev. David Couper, who brings his experience as a veteran, former Madison police chief, and Episcopal priest, and will discuss the militarization of policing.
 

Each panelist will be given about 10 minutes to speak, followed by Q&A. We will use the Zoom chat box to field questions from our panelists.

Facebook Event for Costs of War Discussion

 

Peace
Fran Wiedenhoeft, faw231@aol.com, 608-576-7416
Primary organizer
Veterans for Peace Madison