From: 9:37 AM Subject: "How could they have let it happen?"To: cii@igc.org (undisclosed list) Dear friends, Americans need to be alerted that they/we are about to be complicit in the possible deaths of up to seven million people -- a number comparable to the Jews who died in the Holocaust. Should we ever wonder how the German people could have let it happen, we need wonder no more. Perhaps it is time for us to re-examine that remarkable curriculum, Facing History and Ourselves. I studied it back in the early 1990s. We read diaries of Hitler youth and Jewish youth. We watched amazingly compelling Nazi films. We discussed the famous Milgrim experiments in which ordinary people demonstrated a chilling willingness to harm other people if supported by reassurance, rationale and insistence from an authority figure. And we read about The Wave, a movement created by a high school teacher to teach his students the dynamics of the Nazi movement -- a lesson that nearly got tragically out of hand.... Those victims, those perpetrators, are not as different from us as we would like to think. To the extent we fail to acknowledge that, we will live their story again. And again... Below is an article about the impending "humanitarian crisis" in Afghanistan, followed by an ad that will appear in Sunday's LA Times, followed by a call for a bombing halt for Ramadan. This message ends with a note from John Robbins about hunger. Despite the powerful demands to disable terrorist networks and protect Americans from attack, the Bush administration's single-minded focus on these things is rapidly eroding what sympathy and moral high ground we had in the world after 911. We are rapidly approaching a turning point, a test of who we are as a people. We don't have to reconfirm our reputation as arrogantly self-absorbed and oblivious to the rest of the world's needs. There is no better opportunity to change that image -- and that reality -- than now. We proceed with our bombing at our peril. Compassion was never so practical. Coheartedly, Tom _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Although I haven't seen dependable reports this author refers to, that question the 911 casualty figures, the rest of his article articulates the situation we face better than anything else I've seen. -- Tom] http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=12276 Where are you? Millions face death this winter in Afghanistan and we can prevent it Geov Parrish (columnist for the Seattle Weekly) November 5, 2001 Does anybody understand what the United States is on the verge of doing? Experienced, respected food aid organizations warn that even before the bombing of Afghanistan began on October 7, some 7,500,000 Afghans were -- through a gut-wrenching combination of poverty, drought, war, dislocation, and repression -- at risk of starving to death this winter. When the bombing began, almost all delivery of food from the outside world stopped. Now, roads and bridges are destroyed, millions more people are dislocated, and the snow is steadily approaching from higher elevations and from the north. For weeks, aid organizations, along with voices from throughout the region, have been begging the United States to call off its bombing campaign, at least for long enough so that aid agencies can conduct the massive transfer of food into and throughout Afghanistan that is necessary to prevent death on a scale the world has not seen in a long, long time. On our newscasts, it's politely referred to as a "humanitarian crisis." That's a euphemism that makes "collateral damage" seem humane. Seven and a half million people at risk of dying in a matter of months. That's three times the number of people Pol Pot took years to kill. Thirty-five times the number that died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, combined. If 5,000 died on September 11 (a number that reports are now suggesting is vastly inflated), we're talking the equivalent number of deaths to ten World Trade Centers, every day, for 150 days. Slow, painful deaths. Entirely avoidable deaths. Deaths whose sole cause is not the United States, but most of which can still be prevented -- except that the United States is refusing to allow them to be prevented. It repulses me to say this, but I suspect a lot of Americans don't care. They'd rather see the United States "get" Osama bin Laden (though there's no actual evidence that we're any closer to that today than we were two months ago, and probably the task is harder as he becomes more popular and protected). A lot of people in this country do not care that a staggering number of innocent people are on the verge of being condemned to death, or that most of the world will blame the United States. Correctly. We should care. If the object of this war was to thwart terrorism -- to bring existing terrorists to justice, and to isolate them politically and culturally so that others won't throw in their lot -- in less than a month, the United States has perpetrated one of the most abject failures in military history. It still does not know where any of Al-Qaeda's leadership even is. It is on the verge of succeeding in its goal of creating a unified Afghanistan government -- unfortunately, Afghans are uniting behind the Taliban, as warlord after warlord sets aside long-standing differences to stand shoulder to shoulder to fight the American invaders. Tens of thousands more young Muslim men are lining up to cross the borders into Afghanistan to join them. The ones that survive the experience will carry a lifetime of hate: living, breathing proof that within a month, America bombed a country but lost its war in spectacular fashion. That's today. What will happen if millions of Afghans die this winter? How much future terrorism will the dunderheads of the Bush Administration have inspired then? If several million Islamic sisters and brothers starve to death, innocent civilians trapped between winter and the rage of America, how many of Islam's 1.2 billion adherents -- or the five billion other people on earth -- are going to take George Bush's proclamations about eradicating "terrorists" and "evildoers" to heart, and label him, and us, as the prime examples? In less than two months, the United States government has gone from the moral high ground of being victimized by one of the most heinous crimes in world history, to being within a week or two of quite visibly committing a crime so much larger as to obliterate the world's memory of September 11. Remarkably, almost nobody in the United States seems to have either noticed, understood, or cared. While even progressives wring their hands over the ambiguity of a war fought under the auspices of America's legitimate right to defend itself, a situation is unfolding in which there is absolutely no moral ambiguity at all, and for which many people will want to hold each of us as accountable as the world held post-war Germans. Where were you? What did you say? How could you allow this to happen? Or, a more likely reaction in the Islamic world: Why should millions of you not die as well? America will have set out to isolate one man, and instead killed millions and isolated itself. And much of the world will not rest until we are brought to our knees. Seven and a half million people. The snowline is creeping down the mountainsides. The food is almost gone. The infrastructure is in shambles. There will be no "independent verification" of the body count. There wasn't in the Holocaust or Rwanda or Cambodia, either. The judgment of the world did not need one. The clock is ticking. Where were you? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [The following full-page ad will appear in the LA Times on November 11 -- which is the 2-month anniversary of the 911 attack, as well as Veterans Day, Armistice Day, and the newly-proclaimed World Peace Day. The ad was created and paid for by the same folks who got Marine Sgt Greg Nees' letter to Pres. Bush into the New York Times. -- Tom] "THIS IS NOT A WAR AGAINST THE AFGHAN PEOPLE." - PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH HALT THE BOMBING TO SAVE A PEOPLE. "Are we going to preside over the deaths from starvation of hundreds of thousands-maybe millions-of people this winter because we didn't use the window of opportunity before winter closes?" - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson Unless the American people act quickly, a deadly combination of winter and war will cut off millions of Afghan civilians from food aid they need to survive. In the spring, when melting snows uncover the corpses of the young and frail across this tragic landscape, will peace and security be any nearer... for anyone? "...as the onset of winter leaves millions potentially facing starvation in a country that was largely dependent on food aid before the current war began, the humanitarian crisis may soon begin to compete with the priority of overthrowing the Taliban regime in the minds of many alliance partners." -Time magazine Amid our own anger and sorrow about the September 11 attacks, we cannot ignore the fact that our bombing in Afghanistan is setting the stage for a horrible, and totally preventable, humanitarian tragedy. According to international relief agencies, over 7 million Afghan civilians, one-third of the population, are at risk from famine. Unless we halt the bombing and allow food aid to start moving in time, hundreds of thousands of children, women, the elderly, and the disabled face death from starvation and exposure. Even before allied bombing began October 7, three years of drought had cut Afghanistan's grain production in half. Based on World Food Programme data, aid groups say that 3,500 metric tons of food should have been crossing the Afghan border daily to meet current needs and to stockpile sufficient food for the winter. But since the bombing started five weeks ago, food aid transport has reportedly fallen 75% short. Truckers understandably refuse to risk the war zone. Ground action, and air strikes misdirected at relief depots (the US military confirms bombing Red Cross warehouses on October 16, October 25 and October 26), are disrupting NGO food distribution networks. To its credit, the US government is the main grain supplier through the World Food Programme, International Red Cross, and NGOs, and has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, along with other nations, to Afghan relief efforts. The challenge is whether food aid can be delivered in time to save lives. Even if the US military air-drops its entire store of 2 million Humanitarian Daily Rations, for example, it will total 2,000 metric tons-less than 4% of the 55,000 tons of food required to stave off famine this winter. Massive ground shipments, perhaps supplemented by pallet-size low-level air drops, are now the only feasible solution. The United Nations has warned that mass starvation looms. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has backed a bombing pause to allow delivery of humanitarian supplies. Almost ignored in the US press, but widely covered in the United Kingdom, leading aid groups with personnel on the ground in Afghanistan declare that a human catastrophe is imminent unless bombing is suspended. In mid-September, the US created an alliance around the surrender of one man. Two months later, millions of innocent Afghan lives are now in danger. The goal of the military campaign has grown disturbingly vague. Can we rescue a people, tangibly delivering the hope of peace, food, and goodwill in a land torn apart by powerful forces? Or will we destroy the people of Afghanistan in an attempt to pursue the outside perpetrators of injustice, whatever the cost? This is the choice. Let us choose life and hope, in the memory of those who died tragically on September 11, and in the memory of all those who have fought and died, in so many wars, to win a decent world for all of us. Please contact President Bush email: president@whitehouse.gov, fax: (202) 456-2461 & Senate Majority Leader Daschle web: daschle.senate.gov/webform.html, fax: (202) 224-7895. Urge them to act wisely, compassionately, and quickly to save the people of Afghanistan. In spite of our own deep national loss, let us not lose the will to be courageously humanitarian. Today, November 11, has been a day of remembrance for wartime loss and veterans' sacrifice since the WWI armistice was signed on this date in 1918. We invite you to observe a moment's silence for peace 11am, local time. To support organizations delivering relief in Afghanistan: www.veteransforpeace.org/reliefagencies.htm To learn more about the sponsors of this ad... Global Peace Campaign:www.peace2001.org. Veterans for Peace: www.veteransforpeace.org. Veterans for Peace, Inc., World Community Center, 438 North Skinker, St. Louis, MO 63130. (314) 725- 6005. Veterans for Peace is a national organization that conducts projects to help victims of war and advocates American global policies based on justice and peace. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ From: "Eli Pariser" Subject: Stop the Bombing for Ramadan Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 08:33:08 -0500 Call on world leaders to halt the bombing for Ramadan at: http://www.9-11peace.org/ramadan.php3 Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic faith, begins on November 17. Officials from Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia have called for a halt in the bombing campaign to show respect for the Islamic religion during this holy time. These officials are worried that bombing during Ramadan will fan the flames of Islamic militancy and increase popular support for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Bombing continues to worsen the plight of the Afghan people because aid organizations can't get food and medicine into the country. The food dropped by the US is woefully inadequate for the 7 million Afghans who rely on aid. The UN estimates that over 900,000 Afghan refugees may die if aid does not reach them within the next several weeks. Halting the bombing for Ramadan would also give the US and its partners an opportunity to rethink and modify the current war strategy without losing face. The New York Times has reported that the bombing campaign has killed as many civilians as Taliban soldiers, and that battle lines have moved little since September. Stopping the bombing for Ramadan would allow leaders an opportunity to choose a strategy which would minimize the loss of innocent life. Britain's defense secretary, Geoff Hoon, has said that he will give serious thought to a cessation of bombing. Join us in urging leaders in the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia to stop the bombing for Ramadan. You can send your message to world leaders in less than five minutes at: http://www.9-11peace.org/ramadan.php3 More information about Ramadan, the ongoing air strikes, and the aid crisis in Afghanistan is available there as well. Thank you. Many lives are at stake, but if we act now, we can change the face of this conflict. Sincerely, Eli Pariser 9-11peace.org November 8, 2001 _ _ _ _ _ _ __ [and, finally, a reminder about 911 and hunger, and our role in the world...-- Tom] "Approximately 6,000 people perished in the September 11th attacks....But those who died from the attacks on that tragic day were not alone. On September 11th, 35,000 children worldwide died of hunger. A similar number of children died on September 12th, and again on the 13th, and on every single day since then. Meanwhile, we in the U.S. feed 80% of our grain harvest to livestock so that a people whose cholesterol levels are too high can have cheap meat. To advance human security and control terrorism, we must not only find the brutality of the September 11th attacks to be totally intolerable. We must also find intolerable that one billion people worldwide struggle to survive on $1 a day, that more than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and that 3 billion people have inadequate access to sanitationSIf we are serious about stopping terrorism, then our goal must be to reduce the level of pollution, fear, and poverty in the world. The cost of our initial military response will easily top $100 billion (on top of our already enormous annual defense budget of $342 billion). What could we accomplish if we spent even a small fraction of that much on programs to alleviate human suffering? In 1998, the United Nations Development Program estimated that it would cost an additional $9 billion (above current expenditures) to provide clean water and sanitation for everyone on earth. It would cost an additional $12 billion, they said, to cover reproductive health services for all women worldwide. Another $13 billion would be enough not only to give every person on Earth enough food to eat but also basic health care. An additional $6 billion could provide basic education for all. These are large numbers, but combined they add up to $40 billion - only one fifth as much as the $200 billion the U.S. government agreed in October 2001 to pay Lockheed to build new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) jets. What if we were equally as dedicated to eradicate hunger, to provide clean water, to defeat infectious disease, to provide adequate jobs, to combat illiteracy, and to end homelessness? What if we understood that, today, there is no such thing as national security as long as the basic human needs of large portions of humanity are not met?" -- TERROR, LOVE, AND THE STATE OF THE WORLD by John Robbins, founder of EarthSave International, http://www.foodrevolution.org) ________________________________ Tom Atlee * The Co-Intelligence Institute * PO Box 493 * Eugene, OR 97440 http://www.co-intelligence.org * http://www.democracyinnovations.org Please support our work. * Your donations are fully tax-deductible.