Lawrence McGuire's
200 war crime links
654 965 excess deaths in Iraq from the 2003 invasion until July 2006, according to an article in The Lancet:
Description
Original article
The APJ Café opens its doors once a month for discussions on issues related to peace and justice. Anyone who wants to join the discussion in English is welcome. Keep checking here for information on the next session at the beginning of February.
The next meeting is at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010, probably at at the Librairie Scrupule, 26 rue Faubourg Figuerolles (next to the Pleine Lune).
The APJ hosted another evening marking Martin
Luther King Jr.'s birthday. This event in honor of the nonviolent struggle of the families of the Parents Circle - Families Forum (PCFF) took place at the Espace Martin Luther King in Montpellier and featured the award-winning documentary Encounter Point (Point de Rencontre) followed by testimonies of people from the region who have recently visited Palestine, Israel, and the occupied territories, and who participated in the "Gaza Freedom March."
The Biennial Symposium of the Milan-Montpellier Group took place again
in Montpellier from June 24-26. This year, the symposium was devoted to "Conspiracy and Consent" and the contributions included such intriguing titles as:
»"Knowing What Not to Know': The Changing Function of Public Secrets in
Post-9/11 America."
»"Secret Histories and Imperial Plots: The American 'Archeological' Expansion into Mesoamerica."
»"Lenny Bruce : A Life Outside Consent. A Visual Annotation."
The full program is given here: Front / Back
A collection of APJ Peace cards from 2003 to 2008 can be seen in the Gallery section or by clicking here.
» Previously posted APJ members' writings can be found in the Resources section under Archives.
The Gaza Strip has for some time been the largest prison in the world. Now it is the largest Death Row in the world. Hamas received the executioner for a festival of carnage, and of course the executioner did not hesitate to provide the latest lethal devices, indiscriminately deployed. Civilians are simply part of the war terrain. The 4th Geneva Convention has undergone an eclipse.
Again, no one wins. Everyone loses, particularly those who already had practically nothing left to lose.
Full news of the Montpellier demonstration (in French) can be seen here.
Driving Home
by Charles Simic, August 20, 2007
Minister of our coming doom, preaching
On the car radio, how right
Your Hell and damnation sound to me
As I travel these small, bleak roads
Thinking of the mailman’s son
The Army sent back in a sealed coffin.
His house is around the next turn.
A forlorn mutt sits in the yard
Waiting for someone to come home.
I can see the TV is on in the living room,
Canned laughter in the empty house
Like the sound of beer cans tied to a hearse.
» Previous APJ Blog articles can be found here.
Gene Sharp's 198 methods of nonviolent action are classified into three broad categories: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention.
As this is quoted from a 1973 book, we could now add two more to make 200:
199. E-mail
200. Websites
Live up to the prize!
Stop the war in Afghanistan
Our group “Americans for Peace and Justice” first came into existence in response to the initial US and UK invasion of Afghanistan in October, 2001, and continued to grow as the US threatened to invade Iraq. We remain opposed to the military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Troops sent to Afghanistan, whatever their nationalities, whatever their intentions and attitudes, will always be an invading army, badly accepted by the local population, who will end up backing the extremists, at the expense of fundamental human rights.
Once again, war is not a solution but rather a quagmire where both
sides lose.
Better to seek dialogue than conflict.
Better to send healers than killers, builders than destroyers.
The Afghan people have suffered enough under former occupations. Now's the time to help them reconstruct their country and find peace without oppression.
May the Nobel Peace Prize be a premonition rather than an error.
