End Wars and Occupations IOT Monthly Conference Call - Progressive Democrats of America

 Deember 2012
sound  chat room 
 
Link to Sound File  Link to Chat Room Archive

Introductions and a run-through on how to find the chat room were finished and discussion began at the 6:30 minute mark. Michael McPherson of UFPJ spoke on the anti-war movement trying to connect with the average voter. The “Jobs Not Wars” campaign is the main vehicle for doing that. Their site has a petition to “place the needs of the people ahead of the profits of the privileged.”

Sandy Davis spoke about public pressure on officials to commit to a faster withdrawal from Afghanistan. Problem is that just about every Senator and Congressperson votes for more funds for it whenever a military spending bill comes up. Representative Frederica Wilson (D-FL) was educated by PDA over an extensive period of time to vote against spending on war and to sign on to Representative Barbara Lee's (D-CA) letter to end the war in Afghanistan.

Sandy then spoke on Syria and Mali. In March, Mali had a military coup that overthrew their government and the interim Prime Minister just the other day resigned. Radical Islamists aligned with al Qaeda have taken over a big chunk of the country. Sandy considers this all as “blowback” from the “War on Terror” (WOT) that G.W. Bush launched in response to 9-11. Terrorism in Iraq has decreased, owing to the US withdrawal from there, but is four of five times than greater before the WOT everywhere else. Discussion about this on the Google Group is encouraged.

Christopher then spoke about GMO foods in Nevada and drew connections between that and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).

Rich Gardner

BTW, I was pleased to get a query on the chat room that I was able to answer. It was about how many Congresspeople signed on to Barbara Lee's letter.