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

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

Introduction begins at the 13:30 minute mark. The speaker, Michael Eisenscher from US Labor Against the War, starts speaking at the 14:50 mark. He talked about the recent US-Afghanistan agreement for US forces to remain in that country, theoretically as long as 12 more years. The agreement is notable for its fuzziness, it's lack of specificity. Counter-insurgent forces will remain long after main force battalions and brigades have departed. The installed government of Hamid Karzai will remain under close US control as Karzai doesn't run a popular government anyway. The word “sovereign” appears many times in the document, but if Karzai's government were truly sovereign, why isn't the agreement referred to as a treaty, one which will require Senate approval? Army Lt. Col. Davis did lengthy evaluation of the US occupation of Afghanistan and concluded that Pentagon “happy talk” did not represent the reality on the ground. The morale of US soldiers is very low.

The essential problem is a militarized foreign policy where military confrontation is built into the mix. The military uses almost 60% of the discretionary budget and Republicans are trying to shield that section from automatic budget cuts. Veteran's benefits and domestic programs are both at great risk from the effects of the budget deal.

The UFPJ Afghanistan working group has good packet we can distribute. Do Americans depend economically on the war in Afghanistan for jobs? No one knows because no one's ever done a study on the subject. But as the US has about 1,000 bases outside the US. The carbon-based economy and the national security economy are both bad and both need to shrink. Shifting away will be a decades-long process, but we must begin now, preferably with nuclear weapons.

Norman Solomon is running as the peace candidate. Conor reviewed the details as to how to get Norman into office. It'll take about 90,000 phone calls, we believe, but it's definitely a do-able.