NewsTrust - Peace - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

The Tragic Story of Christianity: How a Pacifist Religion Was Hijacked by Rabid Warmongering Elites | | AlterNet

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Gary G. Kohls - Feb. 05 (Opinion) - Altogether too many religions sects of both major and minor religions, despite verbally professing a desire for peace and justice in the world, are actually pro-war, pro-homicide and pro-violence in practice (or they may be silent on the subject, which is, according to moral theology, the same as being pro-violence).

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U.S. Pulls All Funding for UNESCO After Sweeping Vote to Support Palestinian Membership

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 01 (Interview) - In an emotional—and largely symbolic—move, the United Nations cultural organization known as UNESCO overwhelmingly voted to grant membership to the Palestinians, despite opposition from the United States and Israel. Now the United States says it will cancel a $60 million payment due in November to the U.N. body. Membership dues paid by the U.S. account for about a fifth of UNESCO's annual budget. The U.S. is also threatening to veto any Palestinian effort to be recognized by the U.N. Security Council as an independent state. "By going to UNESCO, this was a way both of gauging where the public opinion is among the various governments and, more importantly, symbolically for the world, showing that this is a moment of recognition that the 20-year-old U.S.-controlled so-called 'peace process' simply hasn't worked," said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies. [includes rush transcript]

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"Blood on the Tracks"

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Oct. 28 (Interview) - On September 1, 1987, Brian Willson took part in a nonviolent political action outside the Concord Naval Weapons Station in California. He sat down on the train tracks along with two other veterans to try to stop a U.S. government munitions train sending weapons to Central America during the time of the Contra wars. The train didn’t stop. Willson suffered 19 broken bones, a fractured skull and lost both of his legs. "Before, I had spent many months in Nicaragua in the war zones, and I had been to El Salvador talking to guerrillas and talking to human rights workers, understanding the incredible extent of murders that were going on and maimings and displacements, because of fear of being murdered," Willson said. He decided, "I have to at least escalate my own nonviolent occupation, if you will, of the tracks."

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How Christian Fundamentalism Helped Empower the Top 1% to Exploit the 99% | Occupy Wall Street

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Oct. 15 (Opinion) - As the Occupy Wall street movement spreads across the country and the world, we must bring attention to the enablers of the top 1 percent exploiting the 99. Fundamentalist religion made this exploitation possible. Evangelical fundamentalism helped empower the top 1 percent. Note I didn't say religion per se, but religious fundamentalism. Why? Because without the fundamentalists and their "values" issues, many in the lower 99 percent could not have been convinced to vote against their (our) economic self-interest; in other words, vote for Republicans who only serve billionaires. Wall Street is a great target for long-overdue protest, but so are the centers of religious power that are the gatekeepers of Republican Party "values" voters that make the continuing economic exploitation possible.

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The Truth About My Trip To Hanoi

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Jane Fonda: - Jul. 24 (Statement) - For the first 8 years of the Vietnam War I lived in France. I was married to the French film director, Roger Vadim and had my first child. The French had been defeated in their own war against Vietnam a decade before our country went to war there, so when I heard, over and over, French people criticizing our country for our Vietnam War I hated it. I viewed it as sour grapes. I refused to believe we could be doing anything wrong there.

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How Fundamentalist Religion Is Destroying the World

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Frank Schaeffer - Jul. 07 (Opinion) - The earth bursts with life. Far right exclusionary religion bursts with death. If there is a creator of life He/She/It must hate fundamentalist religion. The countries in the world that are the most fundamentalist and religious, and/or those whose identity is most religion-based, are the world's greatest troublemakers. Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Vatican City and the state of Israel come to mind.

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Live Update From Jewish Holocaust Survivor on U.S. Ship in Gaza Flotilla

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 30 (Interview) - Democracy Now! producer Aaron Mate and 86-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein are on the U.S. ship, “The Audacity of Hope,” as it sits moored in an Athens port, draped in American flags, waiting to set sail for Gaza, joining nine other ships in a humanitarian flotilla to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Palestine. Asked why she is attempting to go to Gaza, Epstein says, “If I can go anywhere in the world, why not to Gaza? Because the Israelis do not want me to go there? That is not a good reason for me not to go.”

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End the Land Mine Plague

Sat, 14 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Ralph Nader - May. 14 (Advocacy) - Everyday around the world innocent people, many of them children, are killed or injured by millions of unexploded land mines and cluster bombs. Some of the cluster bomblets look like candy or a toy which attract a child in a field, orchard, schoolyard or by the roadside

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Historian Adam Hochschild: Lessons For the Antiwar Movement From the Pacifists of World War I

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 10 (Interview) - As the Obama administration continues to engage in military operations abroad, we turn now to the making -- and sustaining -- of war from a historical perspective. How do politicians galvanize populations to support wars? Why do people continue fighting in unpopular conflicts even after nationalist fervor has waned? In his new book, the historian Adam Hochschild examines these questions and many others through the prism of one of the world's bloodiest conflicts, World War I. The book is called, "To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion 1914-1918."

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Ex-Defense Intelligence Analyst Joshua Foust: Death of Bin Laden Will Not Have Enormous Impact on Operations of Al Qaeda Affiliates Worldwide

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 02 (Interview) - n addition to Afghanistan, the United States is fighting al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula. We discuss the impact of Osama bin Laden’s death on al-Qaeda across the globe with Joshua Foust, a fellow at the American Security Project and former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst. "From an operational standpoint, Osama bin Laden doesn’t maintain very tight operational control over the different al-Qaeda franchises that are out there, including in Yemen, including in Somalia, and other places as well. So, this is mostly a symbolic victory," says Foust.

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Talat Hamdani, Mother of 9/11 Victim: I Hope Death of Bin Laden Moves Country Toward Peace, Away from Revenge and Killing

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 02 (Interview) - New York City Police Cadet Mohammed Salman Hamdani died on Sept. 11 after he raced to the Twin Towers to help survivors. He earned a mention in the USA PATRIOT Act for his bravery, yet because he was a Muslim immigrant, the New York Post and others considered him a suspect until his DNA was discovered. We speak to his mother, a member of September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, about the killing of Osama bin Laden.

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The Peace Corps at 50: Remnant of a Bygone Era?

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Nation - By Karen Rothmyer - Mar. 02 (Opinion) - Speaking directly to the point raised by Bane—that the Peace Corps may have helped to tamp down, rather than encourage, demands for change in Liberia—I wonder how much we Kenya volunteers, in a small way, did the same thing. Countries need an engaged citizenry that insists on decent services and public accountability. But early on, Kenya developed a political class that seems to think that if it throws citizens a few bones from time to time (many of them supplied by donors), it can concentrate most of its efforts on looking out for its own political and financial interests. So why is the United States still sending Peace Corps workers to Kenya and many other countries?

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Why Peace Is the Business of Men (But Shouldn't Be): A Modest Proposal for the Immodest Brotherhood of Big Men

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Ann Jones - Jan. 14 (Opinion) - Looking for a way out of Afghanistan? Maybe it’s time to try something entirely new and totally different. So how about putting into action, for the first time in recorded history, the most enlightened edict ever passed by the United Nations Security Council: Resolution 1325?

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Obama: Map Borders for Mideast Peace

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - Dec. 16 - The great brass ring of Barack Obama’s foreign policy — an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement — seems to be rapidly slipping from his grasp. His demand for a moratorium on West Bank settlement expansion is now dead and buried, with scarcely an obituary in the U.S. mass media to mark its passing. There’s a general consensus in [...] ...

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A Treasonous Christmas Eve Truce

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Gary Kohls - Dec. 14 (Opinion) - The prize-winning movie that beautifully characterizes the spirit of the Christmas Truce is “Joyeux Noel” (French for Merry Christmas). The movie tells a moving tale that has been adapted from the many surviving stories and letters home from soldiers that had been there. This unique story of war resistance needs to be retold over and over again if our modern-era wars of empire are to be effectively stopped.

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FBI Raids and the Criminalization of Dissent

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 29 (Opinion) - Early in the morning on Friday, Sept. 24, FBI agents in Chicago and Minnesota’s Twin Cities kicked in the doors of anti-war activists, brandishing guns, spending hours rifling through their homes. The FBI took away computers, photos, notebooks and other personal property. Residents were issued subpoenas to appear before a grand jury in Chicago. It was just the latest in the ongoing crackdown on dissent in the U.S., targeting peace organizers as supporters of “foreign terrorist organizations.”

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The Peace Vision

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Peter G. Cohen - Aug. 07 (Opinion) - We are losing the war. Not just the war in Afghanistan, but the war against war itself - the Peace War. One hundred and fourteen members of Congress voted against the Afghanistan emergency supplemental. To secure the end of these unnecessary wars, we must change that number to a majority in the House of 218. The others who voted billions for more war will be encouraged by campaign contributions from individuals and corporations that benefit from the war budget and the spending it makes possible. Many incumbents run unopposed. Their challengers must come from the people they are supposed to represent, the people of their election districts. read more

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How Easy Is It For Peaceful People to Violate the Patriot Act?

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Joshua Holland - Jul. 10 (Opinion) - Last month, the Supreme Court exposed Americans to jail sentences of up to 15 years just for giving advice to groups the U.S. government considers untouchable. In Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the court ruled that the USA Patriot Act's expanded definition of “material support” for “foreign terrorist organizations” passes Constitutional muster. The broad wording of the statute not only makes it a crime to support violent activities, but also prohibits Americans from offering "services" or "training, expert advice or assistance" to any entity designated as a terrorist group.

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"I Love The US Republic, And I Hate The US Empire": Johan Galtung on the War in Afghanistan and How to Get Out

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juhan Galtung - Jun. 15 (Interview) - We turn now to the second part of my interview with Johan Galtung. Known as a founder of the field of peace and conflict studies, he's spent the past half century pursuing non-violent conflict resolution in international relations. His latest book is "The Fall of the US Empire–And Then What?: Successors, Regionalization or Globalization? US Fascism or US Blossoming?" I spoke to him last week about his prediction of the collapse of U.S. empire in ten years, by 2020. In this second part of our interview, Galtung discusses his assessment of President Obama, the U.S. corporate media and more. But we began with the war in Afghanistan, where he has worked extensively in attempts at conflict resolution.

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Americas War Disease

Mon, 10 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TruthDig - By Bill Boyarsky - May. 10 (Opinion) - The Afghanistan war, along with Iraq, has become a chronic illness that America has learned to ignore. News of the sick economy, natural and human made disasters, along with momentary sensations flash across the cable news screens and the Internet, leaving hardly any space for the war.

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A Middle East Peace That Could Happen (But Won't): In Washington-Speak, "Palestinian State" Means "Fried Chicken"

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

chomsky.info - By Noam Chomsky - Apr. 28 (Opinion) - The fact that the Israel-Palestine conflict grinds on without resolution might appear to be rather strange. For many of the world's conflicts, it is difficult even to conjure up a feasible settlement. In this case, it is not only possible, but there is near universal agreement on its basic contours: a two-state settlement along the internationally recognized (pre-June 1967) borders -- with "minor and mutual modifications," to adopt official U.S. terminology before Washington departed from the international community in the mid-1970s.

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Deporting Gandhi from Palestine

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jamal Dajani - Apr. 16 (Opinion) - The Israeli government's recent announcement of Army order No. 1,650 was just the latest act of provocation in a series of calculated measures to derail any possible resumption of peace negotiations.

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King's Prophetic Words of Peace

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Gary G. Kohls, MD - Apr. 03 (Opinion) - “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” warned Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous speech at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967, 43 years ago this Easter Sunday.

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Israel Plays with Fire

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Beast - By Leslie H. Gelb - Mar. 17 (Opinion) - srael’s right-wingers are congratulating themselves on their announcement of new construction in East Jerusalem during Vice President Biden’s visit last week. They think this stance, so unwelcome in Washington, this public and gratuitous insult to America’s negotiating position in the region, will compel President Obama to back down. They reinforced this notion Tuesday through Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaffirmation of the building plans—plus the insult of announcing yet additional building plans. They’re very wrong. Israel’s move was stupid, dangerous, and self-defeating. Worst of all, it seriously damaged Israeli-American relations and American power in the Middle East. Israeli leaders will not like the way their little power slap plays out. And it is they who should be figuring out how to make the necessary amends—and soon, before further contamination sets in.

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Protecting Israel’s Lawlessness with Spying and Smear Campaign

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Naomi Klein - Mar. 17 (Opinion) - Israeli Intelligence is reportedly turning its attention to peace groups.

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