Category: Peace Movement

As we hear today, Martin Luther King is commemorated as an apostle of social harmony. In reality, his quest for justice made him a deeply controversial figure in his day.

It’s testimony to the awkward power of Martin Luther King’s life and work that so much effort has gone into sanitizing his memory. Today he’s commemorated as an apostle of social harmony, a hero in the triumphant march of American progress. But at the time of his death 41 years ago, on April 4, 1968, his increasingly radical challenge to war and poverty had made him deeply controversial, spied on and harassed by his government, feared and loathed by millions of Americans.

Congress has appropriated an additional $136.8 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the 2010 fiscal year. National Priorities Project estimates that for this fiscal year, $64.5 billion is directed to Iraq and $72.3 billion to Afghanistan. …

These new appropriations bring total war-related spending for Iraq to $747.3 billion and for Afghanistan to $299 billion, with total war costs $1.05 trillion

Today a good friend sent us a tidbit that he found tucked away in his morgue file, and that got me sidetracked in a real fun way….

Frank has written a lot of historical pieces on Ocean Beach (click on HISTORY up there in the navigation bar, you won’t be sorry) and in my opinion this article needs to be part of the story of the Collier Park Riot. Originally published in the door (another San Diego underground paper) in May of 1972, it tells a bit of the story of our very own EditorDude on that infamous day in March 1971.

CITY HEIGHTS, San Diego. In protest of President Obama’s Afghanistan war escalation, a small crowd gathered at the corner of Fairmont and University Avenue to wave signs, chant, and signify their opposition by their presence. Congresswoman Susan Davis, who has offices nearby, was the target of the protest for her pro-war stance.

The protest had been called by San Diego’s Peace and Justice Coalition as “The Day After” demonstration to Obama’s West Point speech where he declared he’s sending 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan.

In just a few hours, President Obama will lay out his plan to send an additional 30,000+ US troops to Afghanistan. Which makes this a very trying moment for progressives who supported Obama during the campaign, his Presidency, and up to now. It is a very painful moment, a very anguishing one, as many of us are picking up our anti-war protest signs once again. Many of us will be demonstrating against this decision in the coming days and weeks ahead.

Do you feel the pain? I certainly do. This is even very painful for me to write. The pain I feel, that we feel – those of us who did support Obama- is very real. And it is to those I now appeal – those who championed the first African-American to assume the Presidency, to take the reins of our Empire in the hopes of bringing our democracy back from the eight long Bush years.

by Katrina vanden Heuvel / The Nation / Dec. 01, 2009

Tonight President Obama will announce his new Afghanistan policy. By all accounts it will be one of military escalation. This is a tragic moment–both for the nation and his presidency–and it is one I had hoped the President would avoid by courageously leading us in a wiser direction, one that views 21st century challenges anew, in fresh and necessary ways.

President Obama is likely to announce on Tuesday, December 1 an escalation in Afghanistan

SDCPJ calls for a Demonstration The Day After his announcement

35,000 new US occupation troops next year

$35 billion more to pay for the war and occupation

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new “war president”? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do — destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they’ve always heard is true — that all politicians are alike. I simply can’t believe you’re about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn’t so.

by Frank Gormlie

The dilemma of the disenchanted progressive has come full circle. If the progressive is disenchanted and deeply puzzled, what about the progressive community – what about a place like Ocean Beach?

This then is the third and final part of the series. In Part 1, I presented what I see as this dilemma for disenchanted progressives: as people on the political left we are disenchanted about the tempo and types of changes that President Obama has ushered in to date. And yet, as I discuss in Part 2, this country is facing a mass movement that represents an American brand of fascism, and it’s gunning for President Obama.

By Jeremy Scahill / The Nation / November 23, 2009

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

by East County Magazine

On October 14, Southwestern College District Governing Board approved cancellation of its agreement with Xe . The agreement allowed the college’s law enforcement students to use a training facility in Otay Mesa operated by Xe Systems LLC, the company formerly known as Blackwater. Blackwater, which gained notoriety for its activities in Iraq, was also the center of controversy in East County, where the company sought to open a private military training base at Potrero but withdrew following massive public opposition.

Over two-thirds of OB residents want a non-military solution to US involvement in Afghanistan.

We took a poll beginning October 2nd and ran it for a week asking readers what they thought President Obama should do about the war in Afghanistan. 69% of the respondents called for a non-military solution.

This included 25% who thought the US should give only social and economic aid – “assistance in education, agriculture and international commerce.”