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Published in the Wisconsin State Journal

published by Aaron Hughes on 03/16/11 5:28pm
Posted to: 
Staff

Jean Sweet: U.S. should fund social needs, not war

Dear Editor: I remember the horrors of World War II when my fiance served in the army in the Pacific. He fought in the battle of Okinawa but it took 50 years before he could write his war memoir. During the Vietnam War, I demonstrated in Madison and wrote protest letters to Washington. As Another Mother for Peace, I wore a medallion reading: “War Is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things” and will wear it until the wars end. In January 2003, our family organized the full-page newspaper ads of lists of names of people who had signed the “Not in Our Name” Statement of Conscience.

March 19 and 20 will mark almost a decade of war in Afghanistan and eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with protests in Madison and every state. In a recent column, journalist Amy Goodman wrote: “The U.S. is spending $2 billion a week in Afghanistan alone. That’s about $104 billion a year. ... Compare that with the state budget shortfalls. ... The math is simple: The money should be poured back into the states, rather than into a state of war.”

There is change in the air. Journalist Robert Koehler wrotes about the change in Egypt and Madison: “Maybe what we’re witnessing is the end of passive citizenship, at least as something the military-industrial status quo can count on. And maybe, in this country, the defense of public sector union jobs is just the beginning, to be followed by demands for a defunding of our wars, which radiate suffering in all directions, and a redirection of spending into education, health care, infrastructure and other programs that serve the common good.”

Todd Dennis, local president of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, calls on veterans and peace organizations to mobilize in Madison March 19 , at 10 a.m. at Library Mall to stand in solidarity with workers organizing for their rights. “Under the guise of budget crisis, these and other politicians throughout the country are attempting to undo the hard-won union rights of the American people. Yet, these same politicians continue to reach deep into the pockets of working people to finance the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while sending our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, off to fight them. It is time for us to start connecting the dots between endless war abroad and the erosion of our rights and public goods here at home.”

Jean Sweet

Madison

Restrepo Director Dies in Libya

IVAW mourns the passing of Tim Hetherington, photojournalist and co-director of the Oscar nominated documentary film Restrepo. We had the honor of meeting Tim in New York City at a joint screening of another Oscar nominated...

There's No Quick Fix for Veterans

Huffington Post, There's No Quick Fixes for Veterans  April 13, 2011. By Maggie Martin "It has been nearly five years since I left the Army and still my time in the service is fresh in my mind. I think about my...

"Kill Team" in Afghanistan

March 27, 2011 / By Mark Boal Rolling Stone reports, "How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them." http://www.rollingstone....
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Iraqis Take to the Streets, Call for Real Democracy

Repost from Truthout Friday 25 March 2011 by: David Bacon, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis The war in Iraq is supposedly over. The US administration says the occupation, which began on March 20 eight years ago, is ending...

Malalai Joya National Tour

(Reposted from Afghan Women's Mission) Malalai Joya, the acclaimed Afghan activist and author of A Woman Among Warlords with Derrick O’Keefe, will tour the United States this Spring to call attention to the on-going...

Iraq/Wisconson Labor Solidarity: Two Statements

In the wake of the threat posed to what remain of labor rights in Wisconsin, and the public’s powerful response, two Iraqi labor leaders, Hassan Jum’a and Faleh Abood, penned solidarity statements in late February on...

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