war crimes – E Wayne Ross

Here are a couple of notes plus our latest set of links to recent on-line articles of interest.

1. Groups or individuals on more than 100 campuses have arranged for local participation in the “Fight Back USA” national teach-in being organized for April 5, to be hosted by Frances Fox Piven and Cornel West and live-streamed. Information is at http://fightbackteachin.org

2. The HAW Steering Committee has voted to co-sponsor a “Ground the Drones, End the Wars” march and rally on Friday, April 22 at Hancock Air National Guard Base in Mattydale, NY (outside Syracuse). Information is at http://upstatedroneaction.peaceworksrochester.org/flyers/Ground_the_Drones.pdf

Links to Recent Articles of Interest

“A Debate on U.S. Military Intervention in Libya: Juan Cole vs. Vijay Prashad”
On Democracy Now, posted March 29

“The Unfolding Crisis in Libya”
By Gary Leupp, CounterPunch.org, posted March 28
The author teaches history at Tufts University

“The West’s ‘Double Standards’ in Middle East”
By Mark LeVine, English.Aljazeera.net, posted March 28
The author teaches history at the University of California, Irvine

“An Open Letter to the Left on Libya”
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted March 27
The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan

“American Thought Police”
By Paul Krugman, New York Times, posted March 27
On the Wisconsin Republican Party’s attack on historian William Cronon

“Libya Remembers, We Forget: These Bombs Are Not the First”
By Mark Mazower, The Guardian, posted March 25

“Social Science and the Libyan Adventure”
By Stephen M. Walt, ForeignPolicy.com blog, posted March 24

“Why Nothing Good Will Come of This Intervening in Libya”
By Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch.org, posted March 23
The author teaches history at Trinity College

“The ‘Kill Team’ Photographs”
By Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker blog, posted March 22

“Libya in the Balance”
By Nicholas Pelham, Middle East Research and Information Project, posted March 15
Has much historical background on the Gaddafi regime

Additional note from EWR:
More on “The Kill Team” at Rolling Stone: How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon

The HAW Steering Committee has voted to adopt the following two statements related to the war in Afghanistan.

Statement on military resistance:

This statement was submitted by Staughton Lynd and approved by the HAW Steering Committee. Correspondence on it should be sent to another member of the Steering Committee.

Historians Against the War supports soldiers in the United States military who refuse to fight in Afghanistan, either as conscientious objectors or on the grounds that the United States is committing war crimes forbidden by Nuremburg and the Army Field Manual, such as the use of drone aircraft in Pakistan.

Statement on Escalation in Afghanistan:

This statement originated in a draft suggested by Herbert Shapiro, emeritus history professor at the University of Cincinnati. It was amended somewhat in discussions within the Steering Committee and adopted.

Historians Against War (HAW) expresses its opposition to the escalation of the Afghanistan War announced by President Obama in his December 1 speech at West Point. Once again we are told the United States must increase its commitment of human and material resources in support of a government, steeped in corruption, that fails to demonstrate support of a majority of its country’s population.

In his speech, President Obama took issue with any claim that Afghanistan is another Vietnam. The two conflicts are not carbon copies of each other but there are distinct similarities. And if we go on with the Afghan War it may be that we have not fully learned the lessons of Vietnam.

The Vietnamese would not yield to a counter-insurgency that believed sending increasing numbers of troops, dropping more and more napalm upon them, and flying more bombing runs was a formula for victory. They would not yield to a strategy that could not distinguish between soldiers and civilians and pretended that a discredited Saigon regime had the support of the people over whom it ruled.

In Afghanistan we once more follow the path of escalation, inflicting “collateral” damage on a civilian population and propping up a corrupt government. In the present war we once more adopt a “guns not butter” policy, making war while undermining our ability to devote the resources needed to make the economic reforms so urgently needed at home.

Afghanistan’s own recent history provides further reason for opposing the Obama administration’s current course of action. The Soviet experience of the late 1970s and early 1980s dramatically reinforced Afghanistan’s role as the “graveyard of empires.” At the same time, U.S. intervention in the form of aid to the most reactionary anti-Soviet forces helped lay the groundwork for the emergence of al-Qaeda.

HAW urges a change in direction. We need an Afghanistan policy that includes a full, early, and orderly withdrawal of U.S. military forces, economic assistance to Afghani civil society, and a relinquishment of any project for permanent U.S. bases.