Iraq

The Disease of Occupation

 

On Christmas Eve 2006, an off-duty Blackwater mercenary, freshly drunk from a party in Baghdad’s Green Zone, got into an argument with a security guard for one of Iraq’s vice presidents.  Apparently, the Blackwater guard was trying to force his way into an area where senior Iraqi officials live when he was confronted.

WIN News

Dissent in the Heartland

Seventeen peace activists, arrested while occupying the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, offices of Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-IA) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), will go to trial on charges of criminal tresspass on October 29.  On July 6, 75 activists traveled from across Iowa to take part in the nonviolent sit-in, organized by the Iowa Occupation Project, as part of an onging national campaign launched by Voices for Creatove Nonviolence to “occupy” congressional offices to pressure members to defund the war in Iraq.

Letter from WIN

The human capacity for injustice can be a breathtaking thing.  Iraqis living under U.S. occupation face a regime “far more cruel, deadly and venal than anything that existed under Hussein,” writes A.K. Gupta in his analysis of the Iraq war.  Iraqis must deal with daily bomb attacks mass killings by death squads, impunity of the occupation forcs, adn a lack of the most basic services like electricity, water, and health care.

Terrorism and Trump: New Challenges for Social Justice Organizations

"The wake-up call is right there in the front page headline of the Dec. 11 New York Times: 'Poll Has Trump Gaining Ground on Terror Fear.' [ . . . ]

Understand that the fight against racism cannot be won just by struggling around domestic issues. Similarly, international peace cannot be won without a struggle against racism in the U.S. U.S. wars are largely rationalized by racism—the dehumanization and demonizing of people into enemies on the basis of their color or culture to the point of justifying their mass murder and the violent crushing of their economies, homes, public health and schools. The struggle against racism and for peace are potently linked and this needs to be reflected in our strategies and organizing . . ."

No violence. No exceptions. No exceptionalism.

As the days that unfold before us mimic a time over a decade ago when the devastating War on Terror began with US occupation of Afghanistan, we mourn because it is makes us human. For those in Raqqa. For those in Tunis. For those in Yola and Kano, in Ankara, in Beirut, in Baghdad, in Zabul, in Paris, and beyond. But our grief cannot be exceptional. The lives of those living under systemic and perpetual invasion, war and occupation are not disposable and must be mourned and fought for.

Against All Odds: Press and Coverage

Praise for Against All Odds:

"The thesis of Against All Odds: Voices of Popular Struggle in Iraq, should be obvious. But in fact it is revolutionary, at least for people like me, who came up in the U.S. anti-war movement in 2003 and continue to be inundated with media and political images of Iraq as solely a target of death and destruction–and its people hapless victims. [This] is revolutionary because dignity, humanization, and self-determination are the antidotes to militarism and occupation, and the uplifting of Iraqi voices and stories of resistance shines a light towards a better world."

Sarah Lazare - Counter Punch

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