Category Archives: War Crime

Below and Beyond War: Susan Friess

Below and Beyond War

by Susan Freiss

 

How removed are we

from the newest attacks

and counter attacks?

How removed from terror

and souls jettisoning

from precious particular lives?

How removed from the slow violence

of oppression accelerated

into vengeance and revenge?

How removed from histories

of humiliation begetting

humiliating deathly harm?

 

Just how removed?

Or, better we ask,

how are we removed?

By thousand of miles

and buffering beliefs

that they are there anguished,

captive, petrified

and we are not?

Eyes open we feel

that buffer’s permeability

and see the illusion of our distance,

our horror ready reverberation.

 

Hands tremor helplessly,

aspiration for justice caught

in our throats, we sink,

let reverberation

draw us into the well

of our connection

and hold vigil

below and beyond war

allowing the convulsing,

the death rattling, the unhinging

to break our hearts open—

again, again, again

 


 

Ineffable the malevolence

of histories of oppression

and virulent racism

into which I was born

and more and more wittingly

have lived, white girl

with so little sense of self,

white woman at home

in the woods and fields

of the seemingly calm Midwest,

mothering, befriending.

 

Learning, following

atrocities I meet dismay

her emanations of despair

my own and yours

along our lines of connection

empathic distress stirs

tears brought to the woods

and fields and there, sure enough,

F-35s, metal death machines,

practice overhead,

grass and trees hold vigil.

 

We cannot pretend

this not part of that

or that is not part of this.

Voices will not be silenced

that object to genocide

though our country has

tried and tried.

The rhythm of vigil is

breaking open

throbbing, pulsing, emanating

below and beyond war.

 


Susan Freiss: I wrote the first section of this poem in the days immediately after October 7. The second section was born of living within the first. May the meaning and experience of vigil ever deepen our compassion and understanding of each other and of all suffering the consequences of war. 

Madison Chapter – World BEYOND War

Not in Our Name: Ceasefire/Peace/Justice in Palestine/Israel ~ Nov 9 Event ~

“Cease fire demonstration at the state capitol, Madison Wisconsin this afternoon. Of course, this is not to excuse attacks on civilians by either side. Neither side is my enemy. My enemy is war.”

Thursday Nov 9 – Larry Orr of VFP Madison

Brad and Jane.
Jane has held that poster since the days of America’s war in Vietnam.
If only our leaders could read….

Esty and friends with our Madison-Rafah Sister City project.

Thousands of mothers and children are dead tonight in Gaza. More will die tomorrow… unless we can get a cease fire, and allow drinking water to flow, and allow hospitals to be hospitals, and, and, and….

Thank you, dear friends.

Thank you, again.

Milana, age 3, was killed in Gaza.

More and more…

indeed

The eyes that have been closed.

Now

 

Welcome to my website…

“Lights up for a ceasefire” picture featured on post.
Friday Nov 10 – Palestine Partners Action
2700 University Ave in Madison

 

Palestine Partners on Facebook

Jewish Voice for Peace Facebook

Letters for Peace August

Please join us in writing and communicating with the public and our elected officials. Respond to the nonsense whether written in the mainstream media, in your local newspapers or magazines.

 

NATO should be trying to end war in Ukraine — Gil Halsted

Military thrives as needs go unmet – Susan Friess

Better use of Pentagon dollars – Stefania Sani

It’s time to reallocate U.S. military spending — Glenn Hoffarth

Negotiation could end war – Gil Halsted

 


NATO should be trying to end war in Ukraine — Gil Halsted 

“A NATO spokesperson was recently forced to apologize for suggesting a possible diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine.

Stian Jenssen, the chief of staff to the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking at a panel discussion in Norway, said one way to end the war in Ukraine would be for Ukraine to give up some territory in return for being granted NATO membership. But his boss immediately forced him to walk back that suggestion and stick with the current NATO strategy, which is to support Ukraine unconditionally with more weapons that can only prolong the war.

NATO should be working to promote peace, not prolong wars. The word “treaty” is in the organization’s name (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Treaties are what happens when wars are ended and peace is established. Jenssen’s proposal may not be the best way to end the war, but it deserves discussion instead of an immediate veto.”

Gil Halsted, Madison


Military thrives as needs go unmet – Susan Friess

 

Dear Editor: I was indoors the other day. I paused and replayed a portion of a podcast and interrupted Zoom as I interviewed new teachers in the afternoon.

Why? The F-35s overhead. Where do I live? Near Schenk’s Corners in Madison. When I’m outside I cringe as they fly over the gardens. In the company of dear friends, tears come to my eyes. I wish to acknowledge my sense of despair and paralysis. I wish to push back.

The fires rage as this summer of undeniable climate change draws to a close. Housing and income insecurity in our town increase. Devastating migration is necessary for so many worldwide. Ongoing war flares around the globe, heightening the threat of nuclear detonation.

I start by acknowledging these nuclear-ready jets in our midst are part of our nation’s military complex — the biggest institutional contributor of greenhouse gases in the world and the recipient of over half the country’s budget — all while energy shifts lag, social supports are further frayed and ongoing insecurity and suffering intensify around the world.

I push back with what I have, my heart and mind. I dare to imagine a world in which the military industrial complex’s presence is not woven throughout this nation and beyond. A world where resources address the pressing needs of humans and the earth of which we are a part.

It is not impossible nor wrong to imagine a world beyond war. In fact, it is healthy and the first step to sanity.

Susan Freiss

Madison

 

 

 


Dear Editor: In a recent story on Wisconsin Public Radio, Sen. Tammy Baldwin is credited with having secured $69 million in federal funding to replace some Fort McCoy facilities. She is quoted as saying: “They just weren’t keeping up with the times.” She said there were all sorts of failures.

But is she keeping up with the times on this issue? Federal assistance is needed in many other areas that are showing “failures.”

What else could that $69 million have done for the general population of this state? Just for example:

• Feeding Wisconsin reports that one in seven people experience hunger.

• Those facing hunger report needing an average of $22.12 more per week to meet their food needs (Second Harvest Heartland).

• The rate of poor and low-income people in Wisconsin is calculated at 31% by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.

The funding of the military is directly contributing to all the real perils we face. Perils that need immediate attention and all the funding they can get. Those perils are many, from the overall inequity to global warming to underfunded social services.

Even a micro-funding for military barracks contributes to the system that keeps us perpetually ready for war and that also impoverishes our society.

Wisconsin taxpayers contribute more than $11 billion to the Pentagon and military yearly. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness there are 4,907 homeless individuals in Wisconsin. Half of them are families and 36% are veterans.

Stefania Sani

Madison


In 2022 Congress approved over $113 billion in assistance to support the war in the Ukraine. All the while, our country suffers from climate-related emergencies such as the recent fire in Maui and a variety of social ills related to massive poverty and inequality.

In his famous “Iron Cross Speech,” former President Dwight Eisenhower stated that, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” His goal in the speech was to highlight how money spent on militarism is money not spent on meeting the many needs of citizens.

A recent report noted that homelessness across the country has increased by 11% this year from 2022. Local food banks have seen a dramatic increase in demand for their services. Military spending is nearly half of the federal discretionary budget. This is unsustainable and unethical. The plague of militarism must end. American citizens must demand a shift in our values away from the destruction of war and instead to the construction of a healthy society.”

Glenn Hoffarth, Madison


Negotiation could end war – Gil Halsted

Dear Editor: In a recent letter to constituents U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan said the war in Ukraine ”will only ultimately end with a negotiated settlement.”

He said “it is critical that the U.S. prioritize maintaining communication” between both Moscow and Kiev. I applaud Pocan for insisting that negotiations should be at the top of the priority list for ending the slaughter in Ukraine. But instead the Biden administration, with congressional approval, has armed Ukrainians with cluster bombs that have been banned by most other countries and whatever else the U.S. arms industry can provide to keep the war hot on the battlefield. Negotiations remain somewhere further down the list of strategies.

This approach will lead to more civilian casualties and ongoing profits for the arms industry, and, in my view, will not lead to a lasting peace. The only winners will be the weapons makers. Continuing to spend American taxpayer dollars on weapons for Ukraine instead of putting intense economic and diplomatic pressure on both Kiev and Moscow to settle at the table will insure more death and destruction.

My fervent hope is that others in Congress will join Pocan in calling for making communication between the warring parties a priority instead of sending more weapons. The best and eventually the only way to win the war is to stop fighting it and start serious negotiations.

Gil Halsted

Madison

Decry the Merchants of Death – Kathy Kelly

Merchants of Death website 

Tribunal: November 10-13, 2023 


article at Decry the Merchants of Death – Progressive.org
by Kathy Kelly

“Days after a U.S. warplane bombed a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing forty-two people, twenty-four of them patients, the international president of MSF, Dr. Joanne Liu walked through the wreckage and prepared to deliver condolences to family members of those who had been killed. A brief video, taped in October, 2015, captures her nearly unutterable sadness as she speaks about a family who, the day before the bombing, had been prepared to bring their daughter home. Doctors had helped the young girl recover, but because war was raging outside the hospital, administrators recommended that the family come the next day. “She’s safer here,” they said.

The child was among those killed by the U.S. attacks, which recurred at fifteen minute intervals, for an hour and a half, even though MSF had already issued desperate pleas begging the United States and NATO forces to stop bombing the hospital.

Dr. Liu’s sad observations seemed to echo in the words of Pope Francis lamenting war’s afflictions. “We live with this diabolic pattern of killing one another out of the desire for power, the desire for security, the desire for many things. But I think of the hidden wars, those no one sees, that are far away from us,” he said. “People speak about peace. The United Nations has done everything possible, but they have not succeeded.” The tireless struggles of numerous world leaders, like Pope Francis and Dr. Joanne Liu, to stop the patterns of war were embraced vigorously by Phil Berrigan, a prophet of our time.

“Oppose any and all wars,” he urged. “There has never been a just war.”  “Don’t get tired!” he begged people, adding, “I love the Buddhist proverb, ‘I will not kill, but I will prevent others from killing.’ ”


People who’ve embraced his message continue meeting at the Pentagon, as happened December 28 when activists commemorated the “Feast of the Holy Innocents.” Christians traditionally dedicate this day to the remembrance of a time when King Herod ordered the massacre of children under two years of age because of a paranoid belief that one of the recently born children in the region would grow up to oust Herod from power and kill him. Activists gathered at the Pentagon held signs decrying the slaughter of innocents in our time. They’ll protest the obscenely bloated military budget which the U.S. Congress just passed as a part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023.

As Norman Stockwell of The Progressive recently noted, “The bill contains nearly $1.7 trillion of funding for FY2023, but of that money, $858 billion is earmarked for the military (‘defense spending’) and an additional $45 billion in ‘emergency assistance to Ukraine and our NATO allies.’ This means that more than half ($900 billion out of $1.7 trillion) is not being used for ‘non-defense discretionary programs’—and even that lesser portion includes $118.7 billion for funding of the Veterans Administration, another military-related expense.”

By depleting funds desperately needed to meet human needs, the U.S. “defense” budget doesn’t defend people from pandemics, ecological collapse, and infrastructure decay. Instead it continues a deranged   investment in militarism.  Phil Berrigan’s prophetic intransigency, resisting all wars and weapons manufacturing, is needed now more than ever.

Outraged by the reckless slaughter of innocent people in wars ranging from Vietnam to Afghanistan, Phil Berrigan insisted that weapons manufacturers profiting from endless wars should be held accountable for criminal activity. The weapons corporations rob people, worldwide, of the capacity to meet basic human needs..


The appallingly greedy Pentagon budget represents a corporate takeover of the U.S. Congress. As the coffers of weapons manufacturers swell, these military contractors hire legions of highly paid lobbyists tasked with persuading elected officials to earmark even more funds for companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon United, and General Atomics. According to militarists, stockpiles of weapons must be used up, in order to justify more weapons manufacturing. Media complicity is necessary, and can be purchased, in order to frighten U.S. taxpayers into the continued bankrolling of what could become worldwide annihilation.

 

Phil Berrigan, who in his lifetime evolved from soldier to scholar to prophetic anti-nuclear activist, astutely linked the racial oppression he opposed as a civil rights activist to the rising oppression caused by militarism. He likened racial injustice to a terrible hydra that contrives a new face for every area of the world. Throughout his life, Phil Berrigan identified with people menaced by the hydra’s new faces of war. Elaborating on this theme in a book called No More Strangers, published in 1965, he wrote that the dispassionate decision of people in the United States to practice racial discrimination made it “not only easy but logical to enlarge our oppressions in the form of international nuclear threats.”