Peace coalition calling for nonviolent, direct action

[G_j]

http://centraljersey.com/articles/2009/12/02/opinions/doc4b16aeb9e0a1f328501911.txt


DISPATCHES: Escalating in Afghanistan is Obama's folly
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 1:17 PM EST
By Hank Kalet, Managing Editor

President Barack Obama was never going to pull American troops out of Afghanistan.

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But that does not mean we — those of us who want American troops brought home from both Afghanistan and Iraq — can or should remain silent.

A coalition of antiwar groups said as much in a recent letter to the president that called the “decision to deploy thousands more troops and throw hundreds of billions more dollars into prolonging the profoundly tragic war in Afghanistan strikes us as utter folly” and “a war against ordinary people, both here in the United States and in Afghanistan.”

The coalition, which includes the War Resisters League, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, United for Peace and Justice and other groups, is calling for an immediate end to the war and an expansion of “(h)umanitarian aid programs (to) address the deep poverty that has always been a part of the life of Afghan people.”

The coalition is calling for nonviolent, direct action as part of an effort “to build the kind of massive movement — which today represents the sentiments of a majority of the American people — that will, we hope, play a key role in ending U.S. war in Afghanistan. Such is the folly of your decision and such is the depth of our opposition to the death and suffering it will cause.”

Local activists are calling for direct action, as well. The Coalition for Peace Action, based in Princeton, was expected to hold what it called an “emergency protest to the escalation of the war in Afghanistan” at Palmer Square in Princeton on Wednesday (I am writing this on Tuesday, before the president’s speech at West Point), as are numerous other New Jersey peace groups.

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http://www.peace-action.org/