Text Fwd: TAKE BACK THE INITIATIVE

Bruce Gagnon blog
Sunday, August 09, 2009
TAKE BACK THE INITIATIVE

At 11:02 am today the whole city of Nagasaki stopped for a moment of silence to observe the exact time the US dropped the bomb 64 years ago.

I returned to the second day of the Mayors for Peace conference. I attended a three-hour workshop that reviewed the campaign strategy for the organization. Then they opened the floor for more mayors to speak. It was interesting to learn that 57% of the cities in Belgium (323 of them) now belong to Mayors for Peace.

There are 13 mayors here from Bangladesh and they have committed to return home and organize 100 cities to join the organization during the next four months.

The US is lagging way behind as only 155 mayors have joined the organization and it appears that getting them to take an active role is quite a challenge.

I was approached by the mayor and a councilman from Freetown, Sierra Leone, which is the capital and largest city in that African country. He too asked for a copy of the speech I made yesterday and asked about affiliation in the Global Network. I was really impressed with his sincere interest in the space issue and promised that I'd be in touch with him immediately.

I was also impressed today with Syria's representative who talked about the obvious fear that the Middle East could soon see a regional nuclear arms race. Syria has proposed a resolution at the United Nations to create a Nuclear-Free Zone in the region but Israel has been blocking it. Israel, the only current nuclear power in the Middle East, refuses to acknowledge that they have a couple hundred nuclear weapons and is adamant that no other Middle East country (Iran) should be allowed to have nukes.

A couple of days ago I was on the speaking platform with old friend Joseph Gerson who works for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in New England. I first met Joseph in Tokyo in 1984 when we both attended the World Conference against A & H Bombs. During his presentation in Hiroshima the other day he quoted Gen. Maxwell Taylor (from the Vietnam war era) talking about control of oil in the Middle East. Gerson said Gen. Taylor called the region the "jugular vein of western capitalism." That tells the whole story.

I head for the city of Fukuoka late tomorrow afternoon after the final sessions of Mayors for Peace conference conclude. I will speak in Fukuoka on Tuesday night. Wednesday I get a day off before flying to Seoul, South Korea on Thursday where I will spend my final week of this trip meeting with many different Korean organizations and doing two formal talks - all of which have been organized by Global Network board member Sung-Hee Choi.

One final observation here. After listening to people from virtually every continent over the past two weeks I see a trend underway. The public around the planet generally feel powerless as most governments are ignoring the people. The strategy of most peace groups has been one of playing "inside the box". I mean no offense to anyone but too often our organizations end up acting like "junior negotiators" with the politicians and political systems. When we play by the rules of the status quo nuclear powers we get submerged inside their box. They are pros at controlling the game and the agenda.

The way out I believe, the way we make real progress, is to get out of the box and get with the people. We must "up the ante" and ask for more. We should stop begging for "arms control negotiations" which are bearing no real fruit. Instead we should be creating a global coalition of peace groups, unions, cities, social justice groups, womens organizations, environmental organizations and together we need to be call for full and complete global disarmament and conversion of the military industrial complex.

We have to take back the initiative and advance a positive alternative transformative vision of the future that solves for poverty, climate change, human needs, peace and justice.

The global movement is out there but fragmented. We need to "globalize" our message and unify our movement. When we do that we can put the corporate forces of globalization on the defensive and we can make progress. All of us need to begin talking about this in our local meetings and at every other opportunity we get.

Text fwd: Keeping Track of the Empire's Crimes

* Text fwd by Agneta Noberg on Aug. 9, 2009

Global Reserach
Keeping Track of the Empire's Crimes
by William Blum
Global Research, August 5, 2009
The Anti-Empire Report

If you catch the CIA with its hand in the cookie jar and the Agency admits the obvious — what your eyes can plainly see — that its hand is indeed in the cookie jar, it means one of two things: a) the CIA's hand is in several other cookie jars at the same time which you don't know about and they hope that by confessing to the one instance they can keep the others covered up; or b) its hand is not really in the cookie jar — it's an illusion to throw you off the right scent — but they want you to believe it.

There have been numerous news stories in recent months about secret CIA programs, hidden from Congress, inspired by former vice-president Dick Cheney, in operation since the September 11 terrorist attacks, involving assassination of al Qaeda operatives or other non-believers-in-the-Empire abroad without the knowledge of their governments. The Agency admits to some sort of program having existed, but insists that it was canceled; and if it was an assassination program it was canceled before anyone was actually assassinated. Another report has the US military, not the CIA, putting the plan — or was it a different plan? — into operation, carrying out several assassinations including one in Kenya that proved to be a severe embarrassment and helped lead to the quashing of the program.1

All of this can be confusing to those following the news. And rather irrelevant. We already know that the United States has been assassinating non-believers, or suspected non-believers, with regularity, and impunity, in recent years, using unmanned planes (drones) firing missiles, in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia, if not elsewhere. (Even more victims have been produced from amongst those who happened to be in the same house, car, wedding party, or funeral as the non-believer.) These murders apparently don't qualify as "assassinations", for somehow killing "terrorists" from 2000 feet is morally and legally superior to doing so from two feet away.

But whatever the real story is behind the current rash of speculation, we should not fall into the media's practice of at times intimating that multiple or routine CIA assassination attempts would be something shocking or at least very unusual.

I've compiled a list of CIA assassination attempts, successful and unsuccessful, against prominent foreign political figures, from 1949 through 2003, which, depending on how you count it, can run into the hundreds (targeting Fidel Castro alone totals 634 according to Cuban intelligence)2; the list can be updated by adding the allegedly al Qaeda leaders among the drone attack victims of recent years. Assassination and torture are the two things governments are most loath to admit to, and try their best to cover up. It's thus rare to find a government document or recorded statement mentioning a particular plan to assassinate someone. There is, however, an abundance of compelling circumstantial evidence to work with. The list can be found here.

For those of you who collect lists about splendid US foreign policy post-World War II, here are a few more that, lacking anything better to do, I've put together: Attempts to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments, most of which had been democratically-elected.

After his June 4 Cairo speech, President Obama was much praised for mentioning the 1953 CIA overthrow of Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh. But in his talk in Ghana on July 11 he failed to mention the CIA coup that ousted Ghanian president Kwame Nkrumah in 19663, referring to him only as a "giant" among African leaders. The Mossadegh coup is one of the most well-known CIA covert actions. Obama could not easily get away without mentioning it in a talk in the Middle East looking to mend fences. But the Nkrumah ouster is one of the least known; indeed, not a single print or broadcast news report in the American mainstream media saw fit to mention it at the time of the president's talk. Like it never happened.

And the next time you hear that Africa can't produce good leaders, people who are committed to the welfare of the masses of their people, think of Nkrumah and his fate. And think of Patrice Lumumba, overthrown in the Congo 1960-61 with the help of the United States; Agostinho Neto of Angola, against whom Washington waged war in the 1970s, making it impossible for him to institute progressive changes; Samora Machel of Mozambique against whom the CIA supported a counter-revolution in the 1970s-80s period; and Nelson Mandela of South Africa (now married to Machel's widow), who spent 28 years in prison thanks to the CIA.4

* Gross interference in democratic elections in at least 30 countries5
* Waging war/military action, either directly or in conjunction with a proxy army, in some 30 countries
* Dropping bombs on the people of more than 30 countries
* Attempts to suppress dozens of populist/nationalist movements in every corner of the world6

The Myths of Afghanistan, past and present

On the Fourth of July, Senator Patrick Leahy declared he was optimistic that, unlike the Soviet forces that were driven from Afghanistan 20 years ago, US forces could succeed there. The Democrat from Vermont stated:

"The Russians were sent running as they should have been. We helped send them running. But they were there to conquer the country. We've made it very clear, and everybody I talk to within Afghanistan feels the same way: they know we're there to help and we're going to leave. We've made it very clear we are going to leave. And it's going to be turned back to them. The ones that made the mistakes in the past are those that tried to conquer them."7

Leahy is a long-time liberal on foreign-policy issues, a champion of withholding US counter-narcotics assistance to foreign military units guilty of serious human-rights violations, and an outspoken critic of robbing terrorist suspects of their human and legal rights. Yet he is willing to send countless young Americans to a living hell, or horrible death, or maimed survival.

And for what? Every point he made in his statement is simply wrong.

The Russians were not in Afghanistan to conquer it. The Soviet Union had existed next door to the country for more than 60 years without any kind of invasion. It was only when the United States intervened in Afghanistan to replace a government friendly to Moscow with one militantly anti-communist that the Russians invaded to do battle with the US-supported Islamic jihadists; precisely what the United States would have done to prevent a communist government in Canada or Mexico.

It's also rather difficult for the United States to claim that it's in Afghanistan to help the people there when it's killed tens of thousands of them simply for resisting the American invasion and occupation or for being in the wrong place at the wrong time; not a single one of the victims has been identified as having had any kind of connection to the terrorist attack in the US of September 11, 2001, the event usually cited by Washington as justification for the military intervention. Moreover, Afghanistan is now permeated with depleted uranium, cluster bombs-cum-landmines, white phosphorous, a witch's brew of other charming chemicals, and a population, after 30 years of almost non-stop warfare, of physically and mentally mutilated human beings, exceedingly susceptible to the promise of paradise, or at least relief, sold by the Taliban.

As to the US leaving ... utterly meaningless propaganda until it happens. Ask the people of South Korea — 56 years of American occupation and still counting; ask the people of Japan — 64 years. And Iraq? Would you want to wager your life's savings on which decade it will be that the last American soldier and military contractor leaves?

It's not even precise to say that the Russians were sent running. That was essentially Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev's decision, and it was more of a political decision than a military one. Gorbachev's fondest ambition was to turn the Soviet Union into a West-European style social democracy, and he fervently wished for the approval of those European leaders, virtually all of whom were cold-war anti-communists and opposed the Soviet intervention into Afghanistan.

There has been as much of the same "causes" for wars that did not happen as for wars that did.

Henry Allingham died in Britain on July 18 at age 113, believed to have been the world's oldest man. A veteran of World War I, he spent his final years reminding the British people about their service members killed during the war, which came to about a million: "I want everyone to know," he said during an interview in November. "They died for us."8

The whole million? Each one died for Britain? In the most useless imperialist war of the 20th century? No, let me correct that — the most useless imperialist war of any century. The British Empire, the French Empire, the Russian Empire, and the wannabe American Empire joined in battle against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire as youthful bodies and spirits sank endlessly into the wretched mud of Belgium and Germany, the pools of blood of Russia and France. The wondrous nobility of it all is enough to make you swallow hard, fight back the tears, light a few candles, and throw up. Imagine, by the middle of this century Vietnam veterans in their 90s and 100s will be speaking of how each of their 58,000 war buddies died for America. By 2075 we'll be hearing the same stirring message from ancient vets of Iraq and Afghanistan. How many will remember that there was a large protest movement against their glorious, holy crusades, particularly Vietnam and Iraq?

Supreme nonsense

Senate hearings to question a nominee for the Supreme Court are a supreme bore. The sine qua non for President Obama choosing Sonia Sotomayor appears to be that she's a woman with a Hispanic background. A LATINA! How often that word was used by her supporters. She would be the first LATINA on the Supreme Court! Dios mio!

Who gives a damn? All anyone should care about are her social and political opinions. Justice Clarence Thomas is a black man. A BLACK MAN! And he's as conservative as they come.

Supreme Court nominees, of all political stripes, typically feel obliged to pretend that their social and political leanings don't enter into their judicial opinions. But everyone knows this is rubbish. During her Senate hearing, Sotomayor declared: "It's not the heart that compels conclusions in cases. It's the law."

The former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Charles Evans Hughes, would not agree with her. "At the constitutional level where we work," he said, "ninety percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections."9

By Sotomayor's own account, which echos news reports, she was not asked about her position on abortion by either President Obama or his staff. But what if she is actually anti-abortion? What if she turns out to be the swing vote that overturns Roe vs. Wade?

What if she's a proud admirer of the American Empire and its perpetual wars? American dissidents, civilian and military, may depend on her vote for their freedom from imprisonment.

What does she think about the "War on Terror"? The civil liberties and freedom from torture of various Americans and foreigners may depend on her attitude. In his 2007 trial, Jose Padilla, an American citizen, was found guilty of aiding terrorists. "The jury did seem to be an oddly cohesive group," the Washington Post reported. "On the last day of trial before the Fourth of July holiday, jurors arranged to dress in outfits so that each row in the jury box was its own patriotic color — red, white or blue."10 No one dared to question this blatant display of patriotism in the courtroom; neither the defense attorney, nor the prosecutor, nor the judge. How can we continue to pretend that people's legal positions exist independently of their political sentiments?

In the 2000 Supreme Court decision stopping the presidential electoral count in Florida, giving the election to George W. Bush, did the politics of the five most conservative justices play a role in the 5 to 4 decision? Of course. Judges are essentially politicians in black robes. But should we care? Don't ask, don't tell. Sonia Sotomayor is a LATINA!

Given the large Democratic majority in the Senate, Sotomayor was in very little danger of being rejected. She could have openly and proudly expressed her social and political positions — whatever they may be — and the Democratic senators could have done the same. How refreshing, maybe even educational if a discussion ensued. Instead it was just another political appointment by a president determined to not offend anyone if he can help it, and another tiresome ritual hearing. The Republican senators were much less shy about revealing how they actually felt about important issues.

It didn't have to be that way. As Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun.org pointed out during the hearings: "Democratic Senators could use their time to ask questions and make statements that explain why a liberal or progressive worldview is precisely what is needed on the Supreme Court."

NATO and Eastern Europe resource

No one chronicles the rise of the supra-government called NATO like Rick Rozoff in his "Stop NATO" mailings. NATO has become an ever-expanding behemoth, making war and interfering in political controversies all over Europe and beyond. The United States is not the world's only superpower; NATO is another, as it surrounds Russia and the Caspian Sea oil reserves; although the distinction between the two superpowers is little more than a facade. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the NATO/US 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia. On April 23, 1999 missiles slammed into Radio Television Serbia (RTS) in downtown Belgrade, killing 16 employees. The station, NATO claimed, was a legitimate military target because it broadcast propaganda. (Certainly a novel form of censorship; not to mention the fact that NATO could simply have taken out the station's transmitter.) What apparently bothered the Western powers was that RTS was reporting the horrendous effects of NATO's bombing as well as passing footage of the destruction to Western media.

To mark the anniversary, Amnesty International recently issued a demand that NATO be held accountable for the 16 deaths. Amnesty asserts that the bombing was a deliberate attack on a civilian object (one of many during the 78 days) and as such constitutes a war crime, and called upon NATO to launch a war crimes probe into the attack to ensure full accountability and redress for victims and their families.

Readers might consider signing up for the "Stop NATO" mailing list. Just write to: rwrozoff [at] yahoo.com. Rozoff scours the East European press each day and comes up with numerous gems ignored by the mainstream media. But a warning: The amount of material you'll receive is often considerable. You'll have to learn to pick and choose. You can get an idea of this by reading previous reports at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages.


Notes

1. The Guardian (London) July 13, 2009
2. Fabian Escalante, "Executive Action: 634 Ways to Kill Fidel Castro" (Ocean Press, 2006)
3. William Blum, Killing Hope, chapter 32
4. William Blum, Rogue State, chapter 23
5. Ibid., chapter 18
6. Rogue State, chapter 17, intermixed with other types of US interventions
7. Vermont TV station WCAX, July 4, 2009, WCAX.com
8. Washington Post, July 19, 2009
9. William O. Douglas, "The Court Years, 1939-1975" (1980), p.8
10. Washington Post, August 17, 2007


William Blum is the author of:

Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2

Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower

West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir

Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire

Portions of the books can be read,
http://killinghope.org/

Text Fwd: SUPPORT FOR AFGHANISTAN FALLS BUT PERMANENT BASES BEING BUILT

Bruce Gagnon blog
Saturday, August 08, 2009
SUPPORT FOR AFGHANISTAN FALLS BUT PERMANENT BASES BEING BUILT

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll has found that 54% of Americans say they oppose the US war in Afghanistan, up six points from May. Only 41% now stand in support of the war.

"Afghanistan is almost certainly the Obama policy that Republicans like the most," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "Nearly two-thirds of Republicans support the war in Afghanistan. Three-quarters of Democrats oppose the war."

This is of course very good news. But the flip side of the coin is that, just like in Iraq, the US has no intention of leaving Afghanistan. New permanent bases are being built in Afghanistan - for example a $17 million troop barracks (above) at Bagram Air Base.

Columnist David Wood writes, "Eight years after American forces scattered the Taliban and effectively conquered Afghanistan, the United States is embarked on a frenzied $220 million building campaign at this sprawling and still expanding military air base. Just to meet the base's demand for fresh concrete, it has two of its own cement factories working full time."

"Today, Bagram sports a Burger King and Pizza Hut, five mess halls, and living quarters for 20,000 people (so far), office spaces for the command, Joint Task Force-82, and for dozens of other headquarters and agencies. A well-stocked PX sells everything from potato chips to vacuum cleaners."

"Bagram's air facilities, its supersized runway, parking aprons, cargo handling machines and maintenance bays are sized for the stream of intercontinental and local cargo aircraft, aero-medical evacuation planes, bombers, strike fighters, unmanned drone aircraft and cargo and attack helicopters that roar in and out of here day and night."

It appears that what the American people want, an end to the war in Afghanistan, will just have to wait. The corporate dominated US government has other plans in mind. I know what you are thinking, how can we afford to keep permanent US bases in Iraq and Afghanistan while our economy collapses back here at home? Who will pay for all of this?

The answer it seems is you, your children, and your grandchildren. The US government will continue to run up massive debt and we all will be paying for it. We will also see more cutbacks in social spending as the politicians attempt to balance the budget - on our backs.

Please remember, the Pentagon has determined that America's role in the world under corporate globalization will be "security export" and that is just what we are doing in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan today. We are exporting war and violence and we are rather good at it.

Don't be fooled that a new president will turn things around for us. He won't. He is doing the bidding of the military industrial complex. The citizenry has to provide the leadership now. We have to demand a halt to endless war and conversion of the war machine. If we don't then we will just get more of the same.

Your kids and grand kids might end up sleeping in these new barracks at Bagram...it might be the only job available under our "security export" economy.

Text fwd: S. Korean Marines to Join PKO Drills in Mongolia

Korea Times
08-07-2009 20:56
S. Korean Marines to Join PKO Drills in Mongolia
By Jung Sung-ki, Staff Reporter

South Korea will dispatch a platoon of Marines for the first time to a multinational peacekeeping exercise to be held in Mongolia later this month, government officials said Friday.

Korea has participated in the annual ``Khan Quest'' exercise since 2006 as an observer by sending working-level officers.

This year's exercise will take place from Aug. 15 to 25 at a training camp, about 40 miles west of the capital Ulan Bator, officials at the Ministry of National Defense said.

Since 2001, the general staff of the Mongolian Armed Forces, with the support of the U.S. Pacific Command, has organized the summer peacekeeping exercise.

For the first five years, only Mongolian and U.S. troops participated in the exercise. The joint drills have expanded since then to include many other countries.

About 450 troops from some 20 nations, including Germany, India, Bangladesh and Cambodia, are to take part in this year's exercise.

During Khan Quest, instructors, who have experience in peacekeeping operations overseas, lead practical lessons in realistic conditions. Troops also introduce their weapons and military vehicles to each other.

Korea has actively participated in peacekeeping operations overseas. Currently, about 350 soldiers are stationed in Lebanon, while a 300-strong naval unit is conducting an anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia.

In June, the government announced a plan to establish a 3,000-strong standby peacekeeping unit that can be rapidly deployed to troubled regions.


• Related blog

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/08/text-fwd-chinas-russias-neighbor-us.html
Friday, August 7, 2009
Text Fwd: China's, Russia's Neighbor: US Military In Mongolian Military Exercise

Photos Fwd: Peace for the Three-Step-One-Bow: We Oppose the Expansion of the Mugeon-ri Military Training Fields

Image source: Koh, Sung-Jin, Tongil News on Aug. 8, 2009 (kolong81@tongilnews.com)

There was a three-step-one-bow protest against the expansion of the Mugeon-ri Military Training Field by about 150 people of the Ohyun-ri farmers, students, and the activists in the city of Paju, near the Demilitarized Zone of the Korea on Aug. 8, 2009. The Ohyun-ri farmers’ land is expected to be enforced by the South Korean government soon.

* For more on the Ohyun-ri farmers’ struggle, See here.

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/02/text-fw-struggle-of-ohyunri-south-korea.html
Friday, February 6, 2009
Text Fw: The Struggle of Ohyunri, South Korea

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/search/label/Mugun-ri%2FOhyun-ri
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Collection of the blogs on Mugeon-ri/ Ohyun-ri

Text Fwd: U.S. repeats call on N. Korea to return to 6-way talks: State Dept

Yonhap News
2009/08/08 04:30 KST
U.S. repeats call on N. Korea to return to 6-way talks: State Dept.
By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (Yonhap) -- The United States Friday renewed its call for North Korea to return to multinational talks on its denucleaization, saying nothing has changed in the U.S. position since ex-President Bill Clinton's trip to Pyongyang.

"Our policy remains the same with regard to North Korea," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. "The ball is in the North's court. It needs to come back to the six-party framework, so that we can continue on the path toward a denuclearized Korean Peninsula."

Wood was trying to quell growing optimism that the landmark trip by Clinton might lead to a breakthrough in the negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programs, stalled after its recent nuclear and missile tests.

Clinton had a rare three-hour meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il Tuesday to discuss a variety of issues and, according to Pyongyang, conveyed a "verbal message" from U.S. President Barack Obama.

The White House has denied the delivery of any such message, categorizing the trip as a "private mission" to win the release of two American journalists held in North Korea since March for illegally entering the North on a reporting tour.

National Security Adviser James Jones, however, expressed the hope that the trip will help produce a breakthrough in the deadlocked talks.

"And we certainly hope it could lead to other good things, but we won't know that for a while," Jones told reporters Thursday. "This was a -- who knows where the future will lead ?"

Reports indicate that Kim Jong-il proposed a "grand deal" to Obama through the former U.S. president, whom Kim had reportedly chosen as the only emissary who could help release the journalists.

Clinton will likely meet with Obama in the coming days to brief him about the substance of the conversation he had with the reclusive communist leader and offer his first-hand impression of Kim, who is said to have suffered a stroke last summer. He is also rumored to have pancreatic cancer.

Clinton spoke to Jones Wednesday by phone, according to the White House.

Wood said that scheduling is still under way for Obama's meeting with Clinton.

The North's nuclear and missile tests in recent months invited international sanctions, which led the regime to boycott the six-party talks, citing "U.S. hostility," but also to demand bilateral talks with Washington.

The U.S. insists any bilateral talks be held within the six-party framework.

Pyongyang's recent provocations are seen as an attempt to facilitate an unprecedented third generation power transition to Kim Jong-Il's third and youngest son, Jong-un, 26.

Kim's lengthy meeting with Clinton apparently eased concerns over his health.

South Korean and U.S. officials have said they were discussing a "comprehensive package" for a possible breakaway from a six-party deal on the North's denuclearization that calls for action for action in the process of nuclear dismantlement by the reclusive communist state.

Critics have said North Korea has used the six-party deal as a way to buy time over the past six years for its eventual nuclear armament.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently reiterated the principles of the six-party deal by promising that "full normalization of relations, a permanent peace regime, and significant energy and economic assistance are all possible in the context of full and verifiable denuclearization."

hdh@yna.co.kr

* Related article

Korea Times
08-07-2009 17:38
'Clinton Warns North Korean Leader of Further Isolation'


* Related blog
http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/08/text-fwd-analysis-clintons-visit-to.html
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Text Fwd: [Analysis] Clinton’s visit to Pyongyang could be a turning point in N. Korea-U.S. relations

[국문 번역]Text Fwd: MAYORS ARE GETTING IT

Bruce Gagnon blog
Saturday, August 08, 2009
MAYORS ARE GETTING IT

I arrived in Nagasaki yesterday. It is even hotter here than Hiroshima was.

This afternoon I was the keynote speaker at the Mayors for Peace 7th General Conference. The speaker before me was Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann who currently serves President of the United Nations General Assembly. There were about 300-400 people in attendance inside the huge beautiful hall. In my speech I weaved in many of the words of our Global Network leaders and friends from around the world.

Much to my surprise there was only one US mayor present. He is from Akron, Ohio. The US Conference of Mayors sent two representatives. There were many mayors from Japan of course. Other representatives from cities around the world included Bangladesh, Belgium, Cameroon, Croatia, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, New Zealand, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sri Lanka, Uganda, United Kingdom, Israel, Bahrain, Republic of Benin, Costa Rica, Eritrea, Denmark, Kenya, Kuwait, Malawi, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, and Syria.

Mayors for Peace has been growing at a phenomenal rate in the last few years. It is a great thing that local governments around the world are beginning to see that they can in fact have something to say about "foreign policy" issues as they do affect directly the cities ability to provide human services to their constituencies. The growth of such political movements is one great way to work around the corporate arterial blockage of most national governments these days. It was indeed a real honor for me to have been invited to speak today.

Immediately after I spoke a young man from Senegal came up to the front row of the hall where I was seated and said my speech had touched him. He asked could he have a copy of my speech so he could translate it and distribute it in his country. I handed him my copy.

After the plenary session broke up the mayors adjourned to a smaller meeting room where they began reviewing their organizing plan for the coming campaign to build international pressure on the nuclear powers to get rid of all nuclear weapons. They also began a process of hearing short speeches from 16 mayors. The first eight spoke before they ran out of time. The rest will speak tomorrow.

Here are a few highlights from some of the mayors:

* The children of Croatia are being educated on disarmament by learning to fold paper cranes in the schools.

* The mayor from a small French city said, "Sustainable development and nuclear weapons are not compatible." This has to become an issue in our local governments, he said.

* A Japanese mayor remarked, "If we have solidarity across national borders then we can create nuclear disarmament."

* The mayor of Florence, Italy said no nuclear plants are allowed in their community and the kids are being taught about the "peace culture" in their schools.

* A local official from the UK reported on 30 years of work by the Nuclear Free local authorities.

It is surely a struggle between the war culture and the peace culture. There is something happening around the world. People are tired of endless war and wasting our resources on militarism. The mayors want to build public transit systems and educate the kids. They want to provide green jobs. The next step is to get them to talk about the conversion of the global war machine. You can be sure I mentioned that in my speech today.


*시장들은 깨달아 가고 있다.
2009년 8월 8일, 토요일, 브루스 개그논 씀

저는 어제 나가시키에 도착했읍니다. 여기는 히로시마보다 덥습니다.

오늘 오후, 저는 *평화를 위한 시장 모임의 7번째 일반 회담 기조 연설자였읍니다. 저보다 앞서 발언한 연설자는 현재 유엔 총회의 의장을 맡고 있는 미구엘 데스코토 브록크만이었읍니다. 거대하고 아름다운 홀에 약 300~400여 명이 참석했읍니다. 제 연설에서 저는 글로벌 넷워크의 지도자들과 전 세계 친구들의 많은 말들을 함께 엮었읍니다.

크게 놀랍게도 미국에서는 오직 한 사람의 시장만이 참석했읍니다. 그는 오하이오 애크론에서 왔읍니다. 미국 시장 회담에서는 두 대표를 파견했읍니다. 물론 일본의 많은 시장들이 있었읍니다. 전 세계 도시들에서 온 대표들의 국가들은 방글라데시, 벨지움, 카메론, 크로아티아, 프랑스, 독일, 이라크, 이탤리, 뉴질랜드, 파키스탄, 세네갈, 시에라 리온, 스페인, 스리랑카, 우간다, 영국, 이스라엘, 바레인, 베닌 공화국, 코스타리카, 에리트레아, 덴마크, 케냐, 쿠웨이트, 말라위, 모잠비크, 사우디 아라비아, 세르비아, 남아 공화국 그리고 시리아를 포함했읍니다.

평화를 위한 시장 모임은 지난 2년간 뚜렷하게 발전했읍니다. 전 세계 지방 정부들이 그들 스스로 그들의 선거민들에게 제공하는 능력을 도시들에 직접적으로 행사함으로서 그들이 사실 인력 봉사들로 “외교 정책 foreign policy” 이슈들에 대해 말할 수 있다는 것을 알기 시작하게 되었다는 것은 위대한 일입니다. 그러한 정치적 운동들의 성장은 오늘날 대부분의 국가 정부들의 동맥을 막고 있는 기업들에 대한 하나의 훌륭한 대안입니다. 오늘 제가 연설하도록 초대된 것은 진정으로 커다란 영광입니다.

제가 연설을 마치자마자 세네갈에서 온 한 젊은이가 제가 앉았던 홀의 앞줄로 나와 제 연설이 그를 감동시켰다고 말했읍니다. 그는 그가 번역해서 자신의 나라에 돌릴 수 있도록 제 연설 복사본을 가질 수 있겠는가 하고 물었읍니다. 저는 그에게 제 복사본을 주었읍니다.

총회가 끝난 이 후 시장들은 좀 더 작은 회의실들로 가 핵 보유국들이 모든 핵무기를 제거하도록 국제적 압력을 가할 미래의 캠페인에 대한 그들의 조직 계획을 검토하기 시작했읍니다. 그들은 또한 16명의 시장들로부터 짧은 연설을 듣는 과정을 시작했읍니다. 처음 8명이 연설을 다 마치자 시간이 가버렸읍니다. 다른 분들은 내일 말할 것입니다.

몇 시장들의 연설 중 약간의 하이라이트들을 말한다면:

* 크로아티아의 어린이들은 학교에서 종이학을 접는 것으로 비무장에 대해 교육받습니다.

* 프랑스의 한 작은 도시에서 온 시장은 “지속적인 개발과 핵무기는 양립할 수 있는 것이 아닙니다.” 이것은 우리 지방 정부들의 이슈가 되어야 합니다. 하고 그는 말했읍니다.

* 한 일본 시장은, “우리가 국경을 가로질러 연대한다면 우리는 핵 비무장을 만들어 낼 수 있읍니다.” 라고 언급했읍니다.

* 이탤리 플로렌스의 시장은 그들의 공동체에 어떠한 핵 공장도 허락되지 않으며 어린이들이 그들의 학교에서 “평화 문화” 에 대해 교육받고 있다 말했읍니다.

* 영국의 지방 관리는 비핵을 위한 지방 당국들의 30여년 간에 걸친 작업에 대해 보고했읍니다.

이러한 모든 것은 확실히 전쟁 문화와 평화 문화 사이의 투쟁입니다.

전 세계적으로 무언가 일어나고 있읍니다. 사람들은 끝없는 전쟁과 군사주의에 우리의 자원을 낭비하는 것에 지쳤읍니다. 시장들은 대중 교통 시스템을 짓고 어린이들을 교육하길 원합니다. 그들은 녹색 직장들을 제공하길 원합니다. 다은 순서는 그 들로 하여금 전지구적 전쟁 기계들을 전환하는 것에 대해 말하도록 하는 것입니다. 당신은 제가 제 연설에서 그 것을 말했음을 확신할 수 있읍니다.

-원문 링크-

2020 비전 캠페인을 위한 평화를 위한 시장 모임
http://www.2020visioncampaign.org/

Text Fwd: Reasons for Progressives to Oppose North Korean Nuclear Armament

Below was the speech by Gwang Eun, Choi, Representative, Socialist Party, South Korea, during the 64th World Conferences against A- and H-Bombs in Hiroshima, from Aug. 3 to Aug. 7. The writing does not necessarily reflects the opinion of this blogger.

Reasons for Progressives to Oppose North Korean Nuclear Armament
- In Support of Universal Pacifism and Antinuclear Universalism

Gwang Eun Choi / Representative, Socialist Party (South Korea)

Second Nuclear Experiment and Missile Launch of North Korea

The 64th World Conferences against A- and H-Bombs has the subject of 'Northeast Asian Security and Denuclearization.' The biggest concern, when discussing the Northeast Asian security, will undoubtedly be the North Korean nuclear armament. The second nuclear experiment of North Korea that was carried out on May 25th morning, as well as the succeeding missile launches, has severely aggravated the unpredictability of the Northeast Asain security. North Korea repeatedly claimed that the May nuclear experiment has been performed “to consolidate the self-defensive nuclear control”, and that it will secure the autonomy of the nation as well as contributing to the peace and safety of the region including the Korean Peninsula, which is too doubtful.

On May 26th, the day after the experiment, North Korea held the immensely scaled 'Pyongyang People's Rally of Celebrating the Successful Nuclear Test', which has shown that the experiment had not only an effect of outward ostentation but also functioned to strengthen the internal unity. Notably this second experiment is quite different from the first one of 2006 in terms of denuclearization. Back then that was the whole point, the country open to communication and negotiation in quest of denuclearization, while this time the 'consolidation of nuclear control' is highly accentuated and denuclearization is not even mentioned.

In the background of North Korean nuclear experiment is surely the well-known hostile USA-NK relation, but since the North-South Korean relationship is also playing a certain role here, and for that this relationship has been further worsened during the Lee Myung-Bak administration, the discussion needs to expand to include the behavior of South Korean government so far.

Further reading

Text Fwd: Aug 22 Vandenberg protest becomes international

Informed by Frank Cordaro on Aug. 7

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: MacGregor Eddy (macgregoreddy@gmail.com)
Date: Thu, Aug 6, 2009

This is an international protest, there are other events around the
world because of the UN sanctions against starving N Korea.

If you can have a local event at a SILO, on the same date, it
would be make international media. Please read attached flier...

Japan sent their NYC bureau chief to cover the last ICBM launch
and our protest against it.
(NTV) N for Nippon.

MacGregor Eddy

* Related blogs

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/07/text-fwd-august-22-protest-icbm-launch.html
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Text Fwd: August 22 protest ICBM launch Vandenberg AFB

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/search/label/Vandenberg%20AFB
Collection of the Vandenberg protests

Text Fwd: China's, Russia's Neighbor: US Military In Mongolian Military Exercise

StopNATO
China's, Russia's Neighbor: US Military In Mongolian Military Exercise

http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3380&Itemi\
d=36
Ulan Bator Post
August 7, 2009

Khaan Quest 2009 Multinational Military Exercise Starts

Approximately 250 members of the Mongolian Armed Forces, 150 members of the U.S.
military, and 150 international military representatives are scheduled to
participate in the Khaan Quest 2009 from Aug. 3-26 at the Tavan Tolgoi military
training facility near Ulaanbaatar.

Khaan Quest is a multinational training exercise with the goal of improving
peace support operations. The exercise is hosted by the Mongolian Armed Forces
and sponsored by the U.S. Pacific Command.

As part of the exercise, troops will conduct field exercises, humanitarian civic
assistance training, medical readiness training and will take part in a
peacekeeping operations seminar.

The purpose of Khaan Quest is to increase interoperability and planning
expertise among participating nations and to further develop the Mongolian Armed
Forces's training center.
===========================
Stop NATO