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RedditIf you've been around a long time, as The Nation has (142 years of troublemaking and peacemaking), you know who your friends are. That's why, this week, we celebrate our longtime ally, Peace Action.
For fifty years, since Peace Action's founding, the two of us have shared a commitment to peace and democratic values and provided a home for the expression of dissent in perilous times. Nation editors and staffers marched along (proudly carrying the magazine's banner) with Peace Action and other antinuclear activists in the huge nuclear Freeze campaign demonstration in Central Park 25 years ago. Peace and disarmament correspondent Jonathan Schell's special 1998 issue – like Peace Action's work – gave voice to the continuing need and struggle for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
And this coming week, I am proud to be one of five "Women Peace Makers" – along with Yoko Ono, Cindy Sheehan, Colonel Ann Wright and Vinie Burrows – who will be honored by Peace Action at its 50th anniversary celebration in Harlem. Longtime Nation friend Cora Weiss, president of the Hague Appeal for Peace, will also receive the William Sloane Coffin Jr. Peacemaker Award – named for a man who was not only a central figure in the history of Peace Action, but a tireless advocate for peace, love and justice.
Peace Action was originally founded as SANE, fifty years ago, with a full-page ad in the New York Times signed by 48 prominent Americans including Norman Cousins, Cleveland Amory, John Hersey, Lewis Mumford, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Paul Tillich. The copy was mostly written by Cousins, editor of the Saturday Morning Review, under a headline reading, "We Are Facing a Danger Unlike Any Danger That Has Ever Existed." It called for the immediate suspension of nuclear testing by all nations and noted that there were already enough nuclear weapons to wipe out the entire human race. The signatories urged a commitment to "the human community" that went well beyond the limits of traditional nation-state interests.
In celebration of its 50th anniversary, Glen Harold Stassen and Lawrence S. Wittner have edited Peace Action: Past, Present, and Future – a collection of essays written by many of the courageous men and women who led the group and whom Schell described in a recent exchange in The Nation as "remain[ing] faithful and active in a cause in the lean years as well as the fat." Homer Jack, one of the founders of SANE, recalls in Peace Action, "Almost overnight, the ad created SANE groups in 15 major cities and informal ones in 41 others." Within about six months there were 130 chapters and 25,000 members holding church meetings, house meetings, rallies, letter-writing and lobbying Congress. But perhaps no one made SANE more visible in the early years than Dr. Benjamin Spock, the world-renowned baby doctor.
After resisting a public stand on the nuclear issue, Spock was persuaded by a letter from Jack, who was a practicing minister. Jack suggested that Spock was in a position similar to that of Albert Einstein, who eventually decided to speak out on issues of human suffering because he knew "he could command public attention" and "he was not afraid, if necessary, to stake his reputation…." Spock joined as a national sponsor of SANE and on April 16, 1962, the most famous ad in Peace Action history ran in the New York Times. The headline read "Dr. Spock is Worried," with a photo of Spock in a business suit looking down concerned over a child at play. Spock drafted the copy of the ad as a response to President Kennedy's resumption of nuclear testing, and his words still ring true today: "Some citizens would leave all the thinking to the government. They forget the catastrophic blunders that governments have made throughout history…. They scorn those who believe in a just cause…. In a moral issue, I believe that every citizen has not only the right but the responsibility to make his own feelings known and felt."
Jack writes, "By June, the public was so wrought up over nuclear testing… that columnist Drew Pearson wrote that President Kennedy's resumption of testing was the most unpopular thing he had ever done.... Dr. Spock's public appeal… must be regarded as a turning point in awakening the conscience of the world to the effects of nuclear testing and the imperative of ending the arms race."
Kennedy then solicited the help of SANE's own Cousins to assure Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev that the president was sincere in his desire for a test ban treaty. In June 1963, Kennedy delivered his famous speech at American University – partially written by Cousins – that announced new test ban negotiations. That same summer the US, British, and Soviet governments signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty, banning tests in the atmosphere, space, and underwater. Wittner writes that Kennedy administration officials would later recognize the "key roles" played by SANE and Cousins in reaching this first nuclear arms control treaty.
It was a great and early victory for a grassroots movement that called out the insanity of the arms race. Over the years the organization would broaden, not only through its merger with the Freeze campaign to create SANE/Freeze – which strengthened the antinuclear movement and as Schell wrote "powerfully undercut public support for Reagan's nuclear buildup" – but as Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair, Representative Barbara Lee, notes in a spirited introduction to Peace Action, "…the organization… was able to harness people's spirit and idealism and the incredible disgust with certain US policies – whether with the war in Vietnam, nuclear proliferation, arms sales, Pentagon pork, or the war in Iraq – and channel it, not simply into acts of protest, but into effective action geared toward changing the way our government works by involving people in the process."
The interest in the peace movement over these 50 years has had a distinct ebb and flow. With President Reagan's militarist agenda and talk of nuclear war, SANE membership exceeded 100,000 and its weekly radio show, Consider the Alternatives, ran on 140 stations. The one million-person demonstration in Central Park – "Freeze the Arms Race--Fund Human Needs" – was the biggest political demonstration in American history. And with William Sloane Coffin Jr. at the helm, the SANE/Freeze merger in 1987 resulted in a membership of more than 200,000 members with chapters across the nation. In contrast, membership declined after the Partial Test Ban Treaty, the Vietnam War, and at the end of the Cold War. As Schell pointed out, "The end of the cold war, seemingly the greatest opportunity to lift nuclear danger since 1946, was wasted. Instead, the whole issue fell into a shocking state of neglect, as if people believed that a mortal illness could be dealt with by forgetting about it."
But if George W. Bush has achieved little else, he has unwittingly demonstrated to the public why we need a vibrant and vigilant peace movement to chart sane alternatives. With his administration's shredding of long negotiated bipartisan arms control agreements, including withdrawal from the ABM treaty; the deploying of a national missile defense system (Bush's Star Wars); blocking treaties on biological and chemical weapons; refusing to support the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the treaty to ban land mines; unilaterally invading and occupying Iraq under false or manufactured pretenses; halting nuclear disarmament talks and supporting the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons. All in all, the Bush administration's unilateral militarism and new arms race has been a disaster for world peace. As Schell summarized, "The nuclear danger is ripe and overripe for public rediscovery, which has in fact already begun."
Signs of that rediscovery are clear as Peace Action celebrates its 50th anniversary with a membership that has once again reached 100,000; a Student Peace Action Network that brings antiwar activism to campuses across the nation; a Campaign for a New Foreign Policy based on supporting human rights and democracy, reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction, and cooperating with the world community. Perhaps The Reverend Dr. Andrea Ayvazian – who helped forge the merger of SANE and Freeze – put it best in writing in Peace Action, "Although movements are full of eager activists who want to see significant, permanent change happen quickly, we must remember that real social change takes decades. If we… remember the years that movements from the 19th and 20th centuries struggled until they achieved their goals, we can settle in for the long haul…."
There is no doubt Peace Action is in this fight for the long haul, and we are a better Nation and nation for it.
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Katrina vanden Heuvel
Thoughts on politics, current affairs, riffs and reflections on what’s in the news and what’s not--but should be.
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Ms vanden Heuvel, come on...
What's the old story about the mouse and the elephant pushing the 10 ton boulder up the hill....the elephant struggles, the mouse struggles, they get to the top of the hill and the MOUSE says ...
"Did you see the way I got that boulder up this hill, Jumbo?"
"SANE and the peace groups stopped Vietnam, prevented World War-III, and ended the Cold War"!???!?! I hope that's not what your husband is teaching or writing these days, else he'd be laughed off the lecturn.
How about the inherent flaws in Sovietism...how about the fact that the middle class became disillusioned with Vietnam regardless of the peace movement and Nixon knew it...how about some credit for ol' Jack Kennedy BEFORE crediting Norman Cousins?
No...I guess "the mouse" got the boulder up the hill and MAYBE the elephant "helped", huh?
Posted by Mask at 10/18/2007 @ 1:47pm
Posted by MASK 10/18/2007 @ 1:47pm
o.k., let's watch the new episode of "hannah montana" instead.
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/18/2007 @ 1:54pm
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 10/18/2007 @ 1:54pm
Yeah, that makes sense.
Posted by Mask at 10/18/2007 @ 2:27pm
Frankshitz-There are therapists near you that you can see free of charge.
Posted by i'm nobody at 10/18/2007 @ 2:46pm
MASK actually said it so well, I'm at a loss for barbs........
Well, good thing clubs exist for those born w/congenital inclination to peace at any cost......and their numbers are tinny....otherwise, we surely would have had 3 or 4 more World Wars in the past 50 years and all Europeans now speaking Russian!
Posted by Happy at 10/18/2007 @ 2:49pm
Mask-What evidence do you have that the middle class was disillusioned with Viet Nam and that Nixon knew that?
Posted by i'm nobody at 10/18/2007 @ 3:27pm
Posted by I'M NOBODY 10/18/2007 @ 3:27pm
The fact that Nixon pressed for the Paris Peace Accords almost immediately upon being inaugurated in Jan 1973, and he knew he could safely ignore the "youth vote" (given his landslide over McGovern)...but NOT ignore the "great silent majority" who were sick of the war, sick of the casualties, and sick of the TAXES to pay for it.
If it was JUST the peace movement, who had been shown impotent by the McGovern landslide defeat....Nixon wouldn't have hurried to end the war. Why worry about a voter bloc that had been shown un-important?
Posted by Mask at 10/18/2007 @ 3:34pm
Mask-Nixon won his second term by a landslide as a pro war candidate.Obviously,he did not get us out of Viet Nam because of the middle class that voted for him.The middle class had nothing to do with it and he did not get us out because of them.The peace movement had alot to do with our getting out,but I,also,think that Nixon knew that Viet Nam was keeping the cold war hot and knew that we had to leave in order to cool it down a bit which happened.Nixon was no idiot and did see the big picture which is why he was sent to China to open up talks with them..
Posted by i'm nobody at 10/18/2007 @ 3:44pm
Posted by I'M NOBODY 10/18/2007 @ 3:44pm
Wait a minute, you're changing your theory now about Nixon and Vietnam. Now, you're saying he did it because he "knew that Viet Nam was keeping the cold war hot and knew that we had to leave in order to cool it down a bit which happened."
Before you said...
BLOG | Posted 05/15/2007 @ 7:54pm Comments for "Iraq Action Camp" by Peter Rothberg
"Maasch-It doesn't look good to have your country being burnt to the ground while you are in charge. Nixon was smart enough to know that the war in Viet Nam wasn't important enough to cause all these problems here at home."---Posted by I'M NOBODY 05/16/2007 @ 12:05pm
So was did Nixon end Vietnam because of the Russians and Chinese...or because of "the kids" (you guys, right?) threatening to burn it down?
Posted by Mask at 10/18/2007 @ 4:01pm
Mask-I,also,stated during that discussion that I believe that Nixon had other reasons for leaving Nam, besides just the peace movement, and I just mentioned one of those other reasons.I have no doubt that he had numerous reasons,but one does not always go into everything on a discussion board due to time constraints.Sometimes a quick response is all there is time for and since I was actively involved in the peace movement then my responses will reflect a bias towards and an emphasis on the peace movement.
Posted by i'm nobody at 10/18/2007 @ 4:21pm
NoBODY,
The Peace movement encouraged the VC and our enemys and Nixon ignored them..when "peace riots and demonstrations" showed up on TV Nixons support grew....
People like my dad called his congressman and said enough..win or get the fuck out ended the war..not some clown on a demonstration, faced painted, hippy beads flying in the breeze with his hair long, stoned looking for pussy after thee "rally"...
Posted by john maasch at 10/18/2007 @ 4:49pm
I'M....this is the key part..
"and since I was actively involved in the peace movement then my responses will reflect a bias towards and an emphasis on the peace movement."-----Posted by I'M NOBODY 10/18/2007 @ 4:21pm
Exactly. Unfortunately something that's endemic to your generation (Babe Booms), who grew up being told by your Greatest Gen parents that you were "the best and the brightest"...and you believed them.
So...when it comes to Vietnam, you think that Nixon was quaking in fear in the Oval of "the kids" "burning down the country"...when "the kids" had just shown that THEIR candidate McGovern was a paper tiger.
Nor did VN have much to do with "detente" with the Soviets or opening with Mao's China. Nixon opened China to use as a leverage AGAINST the Soviets and used detente to use as leverage against the Chinese. The North Vietnamese weren't part of the major equation....domestic policy was (and again, not the domestic policy of worrying about you and Abbie Hoffman and Jane Fonda).
But the domestic policy of Nixon's supporters, who BOTH wanted us to "win in VN" and to get out ASAP (sound familiar?) and the knowledge that if he didn't end the war before '74, it'd hurt his 2nd term agenda...while if he did (and there had been no Watergate), he'd go down as a great President and boost the GOP in 74 and '76.
McGovern proved you guys ("the kids") were irrelevant. Russia and China weren't going to worry about VN, they wanted trade and to work their own deals with us. It was Nixon's BASE that gave us the end of the Vietnam War.
Posted by Mask at 10/18/2007 @ 5:04pm
Maasch-Your dad had nothing to do with getting us out of Viet Nam and the peace movement did not encourage our enemies.A fact that you would know if you'd study up on the history of Viet Nam.In Viet Nam many of our "enemies" had little,if any contact with mass media and had no idea that a peace movement existed.
Posted by i'm nobody at 10/18/2007 @ 6:30pm
Mask-We weren't brought up being told that we were the best and brightest.That was hysterical.Our being in Viet Nam was heating up the cold war as anyone who was around at the time knows or who read a history book.Your response had little to do with anything I posted.My quote that you cut and pasted applies to all humans who were actively involved in anything regardless of what generation they were born into.It's human nature to have bias towards and place emphasis on anything that we're actively involved in be it church,school,a peace movement,or anything else and that has nothing to do with being from a particular generation.Your animosity towards my generation is strange as is your need to put down any form of activism.History proves that activism works.
Posted by i'm nobody at 10/18/2007 @ 6:45pm
Maasch-Your dad had nothing to do with getting us out of Viet Nam and the peace movement did not encourage our enemies.A fact that you would know if you'd study up on the history of Viet Nam.In Viet Nam many of our "enemies" had little,if any contact with mass media and had no idea that a peace movement existed.
Posted by I'M NOBODY 10/18/2007 @ 6:30pm
Melvin Laird was in our living room and was a friend of my father and our family..they laughed and pointed out the help the "clowns in dirty clothes" gave to the enemy..now, it doesn't matter that you think the peace nicks stopped the war or not..the point is Nixon and his people put up with the "demonstrators for peace" since they took the media away from what they wanted to do..flatten the plac(NV) into surrender, as Nixon never wanted to be the first president to bolt from a military action, perceieved or not..a loser..and his pressure on the NORTH V gave him that cover...and the dems are still blamed for losing Viet Nam..and always will be.
I don't really have to "study" the history very deep...I was one of those long haired, stoned, demonstraters looking for pussy at thee "rally"...and found 'em everytime..along with the other 20 million or so college males my age..VIET Nam was winding down anyway..
and yes, there were some dedicated believers that the whole world listened to their chants and cries, but history and reality speak volumes in the opposite direction...
AND Mask is right on CVhina and Russia with the US.
Posted by john maasch at 10/18/2007 @ 7:06pm
Maasch-The Vietnamese would have fought whether there was a peace movement or not as was their history.You are using tired and old propaganda that has been proven to be untrue.It's obvious that you haven't studied their history and I doubt you got any sex at demonstrations which was why you tried to brag and claim that you did.Mask's response about Russia and China had little to do with my post.Viet Nam was keeping the cold war hot with both the USSR and China using our being in Nam to scare their people with by showing how we were trying to surround them with our weapons of mass destruction and if you look at a world map then you'll understand why the propaganda was effective and helping keep the USSR united as well as the Chinese isolated.Fear based propaganda works well.I know that it drives your kind nuts that some funny looking kids could bring about some change,but it happened.
Posted by i'm nobody at 10/18/2007 @ 7:29pm
Your animosity towards my generation is strange as is your need to put down any form of activism.History proves that activism works.----Posted by I'M NOBODY 10/18/2007 @ 6:45pm
I'M, I don't have animosity towards your generation. I have animosity towards self-deception and egotism, and your generation almost more than any other before or since epitomizes it.
What can you say about a generation that started off as protestors and ended up as...
disco dancers!
heheh
Posted by Mask at 10/18/2007 @ 8:17pm
Mukasey that fuccker, that piece of shhit,
"Bush can torture people, as long as he says it isn't torture"
Mukasey said he "doesn't know enough", to be able to say whether water-boarding is right or wrong for America.
Mukasey you right wing piece of shhit, YOU FORGOT TO SAY SIMON SAYS.
Posted by conshame at 10/18/2007 @ 8:19pm
If you forget to say Simon Says, then it's torture.
Posted by conshame at 10/18/2007 @ 8:19pm
Waterboarding demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GcXl1y_mQw&mode=related&search=
If you are not a Republican, in other words if you are a decent American this video will disturb you so much that you had better not watch it. I only post it here for those quasi-Republicans who are on the edge and this close to coming over to the side of decent people.
Republicans are sick, evil, disgusting monsters - who promote torture. Republicans are all going to Hell.
Posted by conshame at 10/18/2007 @ 8:26pm
In Viet Nam many of our "enemies" had little,if any contact with mass media and had no idea that a peace movement existed.
Posted by I'M NOBODY 10/18/2007 @ 6:30pm
Yeah, Ho Chi Minh and his crew were totally oblivious to all the domestic opposition to the Vietnam war....And all those NVA troops were asking, Who the hell is Jane Fonda? whoever she is, she looks pretty hot in that helment, playing with that AA gun.......
Hell, the Soviets and Chinese didn't even know where Vietnam was, they just sent all those guns and ammo to North Vietnam because they had old second hand stuff they needed to get rid of.......
Posted by davebarlett at 10/18/2007 @ 9:00pm
Nobody,
My post stands as does my conversations with Melvin Laird and the Nixon Admin...am I safe in assuming you know who Mel Laird was? I take his word coming from INSIDE the WH and their thought process regarding the protesters over your "studys of history"...your grade is c-- at best...I'll take it from the guys who were MAKING the history..as far as my getting girls at demonstrations...your response suggests you missed the entire era and the atmosphere..unless you are one of those ideologues who actually think you formed policy from the street with shouting 18 year olds........also suggest some "trips" perhaps?
Posted by john maasch at 10/18/2007 @ 9:20pm
In Viet Nam many of our "enemies" had little,if any contact with mass media and had no idea that a peace movement existed.
Posted by I'M NOBODY 10/18/2007 @ 6:30pm
You should watch the Front Line episode on Gen Gap and his thoughts on the "demonstrations"....man, you need more studying..
Posted by john maasch at 10/18/2007 @ 9:21pm
Oh brother, here come the Vietnam apologists still entombed in their intellectual coma, clumsily stumbling forth to lambaste us on how the liberal media lost the war. Yes, never mind that your shit dictatorship was rejected by the vast majority of Vietnamese (oh, those treacherous Pentagon Papers); Communism was "on the march." Don't let details like the hostility and ideological differences between the Soviets and China disturb that crudeness of your simple-minded cartoon depiction, or the Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia and expulsion of the Khmer Rouge from Cambodia; actions which then resulted in our government's patronage and promotion of those responsible for the Killing Fields, because, regardless of whatever inhumanity, the enemy of our enemy is then our friend. It would be best for you loathers of truth to let that disgusting and dark stain of American stupidity rest.
Posted by Oustbush at 10/18/2007 @ 9:34pm
Republicans are sick, evil, disgusting monsters - who promote torture. Republicans are all going to Hell.
Posted by CONSHAME 10/18/2007 @ 8:26pm
Ron Paul is a Republican, but opposes torture. Does that mean he's going to "Heck"?
LOL!
Posted by Mask at 10/18/2007 @ 10:04pm
Posted by MASK 10/18/2007 @ 10:04pm
actually, it seems many (dr. paul excluded) are trying to create "heck" right here on earth.
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/18/2007 @ 10:31pm
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 10/18/2007 @ 10:31pm
CS didn't mention any exceptions, FROSTY.
Of course...religious fanatics rarely do!
Posted by Mask at 10/18/2007 @ 10:32pm
well, so much for u.s. "reconstruction".
i bet the u.s. taxpayer's going to pay for this, anyway.
Iraqi Contracts With Iran and China Concern U.S.
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: October 18, 2007
BAGHDAD, Oct. 17 -- Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants, the Iraqi electricity minister said Tuesday. Word of the project prompted serious concerns among American military officials, who fear that Iranian commercial investments can mask military activities at a time of heightened tension with Iran.
http://tinyurl.com/2gg3nl
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/18/2007 @ 11:22pm
Frosty,
I didn't get a chance to read any of your comments about my definition of victory in Iraq from the other night....For Masky, who later asked the same question, can you comment? I ask neither in sarcasm nor to start an arguement, but because I respect your (and Masky's) opinion, even though I'm quite sure we'll disagree.....
Please note that I injected some strategic overview about the war on terror in general, not just the Iraq campaign, because the two are intertwined, in my view (something else we'll probably have to agree to disagree on......)
Posted by davebarlett at 10/18/2007 @ 11:32pm
Posted by DAVEBARLETT 10/18/2007 @ 11:32pm
i was just looking for that.
couldn't find it, though.
do you remember the thread?
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/18/2007 @ 11:35pm
Frosty, here it is.....from the story posted in the Notion about the 85 votes to defund.....
FROSTY,
This is what victory looks like, first, the pieces in place:
The taliban overthrown in Afghanistan, US and NATO troops hunting taliban remnants, establish forward bases on Iran's eastern Frontier. Russia reminded that the US and it's allies accomplished what the red army could not, and from half a world away, at that.
Saddam Hussein overthrown, US and Allies occupy Iraq and establish forward bases on Iran's western frontier, and Syria's Eastern Frontier. Every nation on earth reminded that the US could successfully mount a full-scale invasion of a formidable regional military power from half a world away.
Libya, fearing attack, voluntarily gives up nuclear weapons program.
The missing pieces:
Iran and Syria, because of force of arms, intimidation, common sense, mediation by Jimmy Carter (OK, I'm being sarcastic here) or combination thereof, decide to stop sponsoring terrorism around the world, and give up their nuclear weapons programs.
Iraqi Government achieves nation reconciliation, Iraqi's kill or expel all foreign Jihadists, who return to their respective nations in defeat and disillusioned, much like the internationalist brigades who fought in the spanish civil war in the 1930's.
American troops and their allies return home in triumph, having defeated the Jihadists and helped establish a stable and allied Iraqi government.
Posted by DAVEBARLETT 10/16/2007 @ 11:35pm
Posted by davebarlett at 10/19/2007 @ 12:02am
Question, is re-posting anything like re-gifting????
Posted by davebarlett at 10/19/2007 @ 12:03am
You know, in that everyone does it, but few admit to it???(heh,heh)
Posted by davebarlett at 10/19/2007 @ 12:04am
Congratulations Katrina
Posted by FRANKGRITS 10/19/2007 @ 12:07am
oh yeah, that's what i forgot about:
felicidades, ms. vanden Heuvel
keep on peacing.
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/19/2007 @ 12:14am
Posted by DAVEBARLETT 10/19/2007 @ 12:02am
hey there DB
i'd love to help you "see the light" but i've got my once yearly headache so i'm hitting the hay.
i believe my response from the other night was "wow".
have a good night!
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/19/2007 @ 12:20am
Frosty, Glad you were impressed....good night....
Posted by davebarlett at 10/19/2007 @ 12:25am
Why can't we stop all this madness?
It is pure selfishness, that is the bottom line. We can't stop testing and developing nukes because if we do, we presume a day will come when Russia or China will have superior weaponry and will eventually blackmail us or even attack us. And now is worse compared to a couple of decades ago...Now that our economical supremacy is dwindling with the euro, the Chinese currency and the several emergent 'middle of the road economic powers', now we need more the reason of force (as opposed to the force of reason of course..)to keep our leadership. It all winds up to a poker game in which of course we can never trust our opponents...
However, the mere fact that our dreams are "awake and well" and shared with so many others, tells us that they might someday be achieved. Achieve, because true they are...
The very first thing that plays strong in the mind of human beings since 50,000 years ago is fear. And fear makes us do the nukes, and fear - less than human fraternity - will draw us back from it when we will be able to put ourselves in "the other's perspective".
Suppose 5 million students graduate every year from high school in the US. Why don't we send each year just 1% (50,000) in ships two weeks to Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to speak with the victims and/or their descendants? Why don't we send an equal number to tour the concentration camps of the Nazi Germany? We need to create a culture of sensitivity and to see how the "other side" feels like. We need to create and support the "culture of life", and the capacity to proclaim the greatness of our individuality, not our superiority...
To the people that keep this flame of hope - in this era of darkness - that peace will one day come to stay, my personal gratitude, because if we were to lose our hope, we might as well lose our souls.
Posted by Frank42 at 10/19/2007 @ 02:33am
keep on peacing.
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 10/19/2007 @ 12:14am
KVH is to peace coming as AIDS is to health care....IOW, her idea of "Peace" will keep us fighting in the future forever, as it is never finished.
Posted by JoMa at 10/19/2007 @ 09:33am
RE: "Why don't we send each year just 1% (50,000) in ships two weeks to Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to speak with the victims and/or their descendants? Why don't we send an equal number to tour the concentration camps of the Nazi Germany?"
Teenagers don't need to be shipped to Japan to learn the obvious fact, NUKES BAD. A growing majority of their Japanese counterparts have neither memory nor awareness of Hiroshima anyway, and the Hibakusha are fading fast. Soon there will be nothing left but a few memorials, books, and films.
The horrors of WWII are already covered in basic Social Studies and History curricula. What slant those subjects are given depends, of course, on the teacher, the school, the district, the city and state, and the textbook publisher.
The real problem, though, is that the shock factor is SO over. For todays teenagers, nuclear power and nuclear weapons are an accepted fact of life in the technological age. Commemorating Hiroshima is about as interesting as commemorating the end of black and white TV. Protesting the use of nukes is only slightly less socially acceptable than protesting the use of iPods.
Fukuyama was right. History is over.
Posted by Tyler Durden at 10/19/2007 @ 09:34am
Posted by DAVEBARLETT 10/19/2007 @ 12:02am
Okay, DAVE, fair enough. Now...how much of that has been achieved?
And when might we expect the rest to be achieved? After ANOTHER 4 years, ANOTHER HALF TRILLION dollars, and ANOTHER 3800+ dead GIs?
Posted by Mask at 10/19/2007 @ 09:40am
RE: "Why don't we send each year just 1% (50,000) in ships two weeks to Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to speak with the victims and/or their descendants? Why don't we send an equal number to tour the concentration camps of the Nazi Germany?"
Teenagers don't need to be shipped to Japan to learn the obvious fact, nukes bad. A growing majority of their Japanese counterparts have neither memory nor awareness of Hiroshima anyway, and the Hibakusha are fading fast. Soon there will be nothing left but a few memorials, books, and films.
The horrors of WWII are already covered in basic Social Studies and History curricula. What slant those subjects are given depends, of course, on the teacher, the school, the district, the city and state, and the textbook publisher.
The real problem, though, is that the shock factor is so over. For todays teenagers, nuclear power and nuclear weapons are an accepted fact of life in the technological age. Commemorating Hiroshima is about as interesting as commemorating the end of black and white TV. Protesting the use of nukes is only slightly less socially acceptable than protesting the use of iPods.
Mainstream American culture - the ideal end-product of Western Civilization, eagerly embraced by the entire world, excepting only raging fanatics and aborigines - exists almost entirely in the frothy now whipped up on the surface of the sea of human history. One day at a time? That's for Grandma and Grandpa. For Mom and Pop, it's one TV show at a time. For the important young upcoming urban demographic, it's one five-second pop-up at a time. A three-minute song is a major span of attention, and when it's over, it's on to the next one.
Fukuyama was right. He just got the emphasis wrong. History is over.
Posted by Tyler Durden at 10/19/2007 @ 09:48am
BTW, found this on another blog....headlines from the past, ranging from USA Today to NPR to MSNBC to the NY Times-
June 2003: Bush Urges Patience in Search for WMD
June 2004: Bush Urges Patience with Iraqi Plans at G8 Summit
Jan 2005: Bush Urges Patience on Iraq as Election Nears
June 2005: Bush Urges Patience, Long View on Iraq War
Aug 2005: Bush Calls for Patience on Iraq Mission
Nov 2005: Bush Urges Patience with Iraq Training
March 2006: Bush Calls on Americans to Show Patience with Iraq
June 2006: After Iraq Visit, Bush Urges Patience
Aug 2006: Bush Urges Patience on Iraq, Speed in Lebanon
Oct 2006: Conceding Missteps, Bush Urges Patience on Iraq
Nov 2006: Bush Urges Patience on Winning Iraq War
March 2007: Bush Pleads for Patience in Iraq War
May 2007: Bush Urges Patience on Iraq
June 2007: Bush Urges Patience on Iraq
July 2007: War In Year 5; Bush Requests Patience
Aug 2007: Bush Pleads for More Patience for Iraq War Efforts
Posted by Mask at 10/19/2007 @ 10:24am
Posted by MASK 10/19/2007 @ 10:24am
much patience is required to read that list.
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/19/2007 @ 11:07am
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 10/19/2007 @ 11:07am
Sorry for the RESE'ian/HSUB'ian post...but I think it makes the point.
Posted by Mask at 10/19/2007 @ 11:24am
Posted by MASK 10/19/2007 @ 11:24am
no need to apologize.
the patience must be directed towards bushco, not thee.
i thought the post was excellent.
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/19/2007 @ 11:38am
i'm a con-troll! i love the war! peace is stupid and communist! evil communists want to spread peace and take my money! i'm a con-troll!
death to peace - long live death!
Posted by ibbleblibble at 10/19/2007 @ 12:28pm
Posted by IBBLEBLIBBLE 10/19/2007 @ 12:28pm
Okay, we'll make you "Agent 86" of Con-troll.
You'll get your shoe phone and hot 60s babe assistant tomorrow!
Posted by Mask at 10/19/2007 @ 12:49pm
Posted by MASK 10/19/2007 @ 12:49pm
but who really deserves the "cone of silence"?
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/19/2007 @ 1:15pm
Posted by MASK 10/19/2007 @ 12:49pm
ooohhh...i can't wait! CON-TROLL
CONSERVATIVE ORGANIZATION of NATIONALISTS - TRUTH REVERSING OPERATIVES of LIBERTY LOVERS
hot 60's babe...not in her 60's, right?
Posted by ibbleblibble at 10/19/2007 @ 1:49pm
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 10/19/2007 @ 1:15pm
You get to be "The Chief".
Posted by IBBLEBLIBBLE 10/19/2007 @ 1:49pm
Actually Barbara Feldon is in her 70s now!
Posted by Mask at 10/19/2007 @ 2:07pm
Posted by MARKCANYON 10/19/2007 @ 2:06pm
ok - thats more like it...
so you are a modern nazi? really? do you have a religion? cos or that aryan christian stuff, or what?
not trying to insult you, just curious...
Posted by ibbleblibble at 10/19/2007 @ 2:09pm
Posted by MARKCANYON 10/19/2007 @ 2:06pm
Dang, Gruppenfuerher, you almost had support for your wacky idea that THE LEFT was the primary opposition to America's entry into the war, and not your ol' pals Lindy and Charles Coughlin!
Posted by Mask at 10/19/2007 @ 2:09pm
Posted by MASK 10/19/2007 @ 2:07pm | ignore this person
and moneypenny is gone! uhuru is on that heroes show, by the way.
also, shoe phone is nice, but shoe blade is cool too...makes those groin kicks extra "OW"...
Posted by ibbleblibble at 10/19/2007 @ 2:11pm
Or how about Ford, Kennedy (Joe), Watson (of IBM fame), or Lindbergh?
Not exactly what you would call a who's who of progressive thought in the US at that point in time...
Posted by jorcheim at 10/19/2007 @ 2:17pm
Thanks for this tribute to our proud history and the critical work that Peace Action continues today.
To get updates about how Peace Action West continues to build the movement in the western US, read our blog, Groundswell. [groundswell.typepad.com]
Posted by rgriffin at 10/19/2007 @ 2:38pm
People on the west coast can join the celebration as well. Peace Action will be honoring Representative Maxine Waters at an event in Los Angeles, Saturday 10/27. Visit www.peaceactionwest.org for more information.
Posted by rgriffin at 10/19/2007 @ 2:43pm
Posted by MASK 10/19/2007 @ 10:24am
There's a reason why hsuB asks for so much patience-- considering in 2001:
MR. HADLEY: And at one point, the President became somewhat impatient with us, he said, "I'm tired of swatting flies, where is my new strategy to eliminate al Qaeda."
Q When was that? Do you remember?
MR. HADLEY: It was probably April or May...
(Not the 'old' Clinton strategy, hsuB wanted the 'Project for the New American Century'-- no wonder hsuB was getting impatient...)
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/19/2007 @ 3:53pm
Posted by HSUBFOOLS 10/19/2007 @ 3:53pm
Well, you know how it is, buddy. A guy believes something is going to happen (say, like Bush believed that Iraq would "eventually" settle down)...thinks it's "coming soon"....months and months pass...it doesn't happen....
then week after week, he keeps claiming (usually on weak or even non-existant data) that his prediction is going to come true....maybe even "sets a date" for it to happen, like Bush did with the Iraqi political goals and "the Surge"...
eventually even HIS OWN time-frame for the event happening runs out...and he starts getting desperate as time runs out.
'cept...in Bush's case, he's not getting desperate, cuz he's going to pass it off to Hillary.
Other guys might not have that option.
(Oh, did I say "Hillary"...sorry, meant "Al")
Posted by Mask at 10/19/2007 @ 4:47pm
Oh,gosh....I said "Bush would pass it off"....again, my bad. He's going to be impeached.
Sorry.
Posted by Mask at 10/19/2007 @ 4:49pm
Posted by MARKCANYON 10/19/2007 @ 6:38pm
Look, Major Hochstedter, you're not even making sense.
You think the isolationists (primarily Republican) were "the Left"? Who did the isolationists want to run against FDR in 1940...Lindbergh....who founded "America First" specifically designed to keep America OUT of the war.
Look, an insane kid like you (God, I hope you're a kid, and not an adult who thinks this way) who thinks the Holocaust was a "good start" is hardly worth arguing with logically....but it's important for people to see guys like you out there and realize that the skin-heads aren't completely gone...some of them think they're actually "progressives"!
LOL!
Posted by Mask at 10/19/2007 @ 8:41pm
Posted by MASK 10/19/2007 @ 4:47pm
Think hsuB's Iraq's 'stall' has got the rest of the reptile's ok with tapping phones along with their feet; ok with leaving kids behind after having to leave kids' behinds alone; ok with periodically flushing billions of tiny bits of our constitution down along with any moral intention?
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/20/2007 @ 01:58am
"the real problem is that the shock factor is over..."
Tyler,
I agree and that is what I am trying to convey. It is the duty of pacifists to make clear over and over how terrible war is.
Listen, the US is a privileged country. Since the Civil War, nothing really bad has happened here with the exception of 9-11, and other attacks that might qualify aa minor. Europe, Japan, Russia, China and so many others have had terrible direct experiences with war in their soils, and frankly at least in Europe they know much better than we do what a war looks like.
America lost a lot of courageous and brave soldiers in say WWII. But even that is so different that when the bombs explode near your home and the air raids come one after the other over the civilian population. We MUST educate teenagers over and over about it. Whether it be trips to countries that have experienced it (and Poland comes jumping to my mind) or films with educational purpose, or statements. How about a visit to Chernobyl? We humans are like that, we have to give the stranger a face and a heart, to emphatize with him/her.
It is the duty of us adults -and one goal of the educational system- to implant that love for life and peace on adolescents by whatever means necessary...and we have not been doing it. For one reason, in the long term that would be the only way to reject war with large majorities. And for a second reason, it will help a lot to diminish the violence going on internally in the US.
You mentioned i-pods and all that gadgetry. I know how it works. Most of that is unfortunately intended to push the adolescent inward, towards himself/herself and to reject issues that are "strange" to his/her world. With our actions we are telling them that we need only to "mind our own business", and that's wrong.
Action is the only course that will change this inward, egotistical process. How about civil service, peace corps? How about going to Latin America or Africa to see what can be done to avoid that people starve? The absence of shock factor then is only a mental state originated by how this society is evolving to total self-satisfaction philosophies.
Posted by Frank42 at 10/20/2007 @ 4:59pm
Posted by HSUBFOOLS 10/20/2007 @ 01:58am
HSUB...you DID get the joke, didn't you???
Posted by Mask at 10/20/2007 @ 7:55pm
I loved Mask's analogy, describing the elephant and the mouse pushing the rock uphill and tying it to the this country's so-called "peace" movement. Indeed, I agree that our leaders, soldiers, and diplomats did the work, while the peace movement took the credit. Maybe another way of looking at is the former provided the power, while the latter furnished the awareness.
Nevertheless, whether you're on the left or the right, we can all agree that peace is good. But where the left and right often diverge is the catch. For peace to be truly good, it must be based on the full set of facts and intellectually honest opinions drawn from them. Using this approach, we can be sure that opposing sides in any conflict will negotiate in good faith and adhere to the terms of their peace agreement.
But such has never been the motivation of groups, like the so-called "Peace Action," at least not in the past 40 years. Instead, the history of these groups is wanting the U.S. to unilaterally disarm, naively (and probably willfully so) believing that our opponents will follow suit, simply because we're doing so, even if there's no precedence for this belief ever coming to pass.
But even if our enemies don't follow suit, that's OK. For in their addled and confused minds, most people, comprising "Peace Action," including Ms. Vanden Heuvel, seem to believe that the U.S. is morally equivalent to the beastly and murderous regimes, who've run the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, and Iraq.
Upon hearing this view, I'm sure the emotions of all the people, who've survived the horrors inflicted by these governments would range from uproarious laughter to utter disgust. Because they probably knew then what history confirmed later - namely that totalitarian regimes view negotiation as war by another means. For instead of honestly pursuing a fair and just peace, such regimes use it as a form of distraction to provide cover for replenishing the means for war.
The only drawback of which is typically the diplomats, themselves, who are doing the negotiating. Usually experienced, hard-headed, and not easily fooled, they're often unimpressed by these types of shams and know that carrots of peace must come with sticks of enforcement. But with moral equivalency thoroughly corrupting the so-called "peace" groups, the red or Islamo-fascists find them useful pawns, who can bypass the diplomats, swallow propaganda whole, and spew it forth, using phraseology that sounds more sensible and appealing to the western ear. Hence, groups like the so-called "Peace Action" are much like money launderer's, taking in the egregious and reprehensible, making it appear just and logical, and produce political cover under which the red or Islamo fascists can more easily attack and subdue their victims, once "negotiations" are complete.
This intention has come to pass in some cases and come close to doing so in others. After negotiating with the communists in Paris and withdrawing from South Vietnam, the North Vietnamese promptly invaded the South, shamelessly breaking the agreement they had signed only two years before. Having been hamstrung by Congress, the Air Force couldn't respond, bombing the badly exposed and very vulnerable NVA into oblivion, thus furnishing the stick needed to make the carrot work. The result was 3,000,000 South Vietnamese imprisoned and about 1,000,000 killed with an even greater number imprisoned, tortured, and killed in Cambodia. The response of the so-called "peace" groups? Nothing.
Witnessing this debacle and our toothless response, the Soviets didn't cease their bullying as the self-proclaimed "peace" groups would have us believe. Instead, they did just the opposite, as precedence confirmed they would. They invaded Afghanistan, fueled proxy wars in Africa and Central America, increased their stockpiles of nuclear weapons, and tried to blackmail the west by moving SS-20's in eastern Europe. How did the self-proclaimed "Peace" Action-type groups respond? Like they almost always do. They launched hysterical screeds, spread disinformation, and launched protests against the west - not against the red fascists, who would've throttled them and their imbecilic drivel in a heart beat.
Lucky for the self-proclaimed "peace" activists, Ronald Reagan ignored them, built up our military, and hastened the demise of communism, one of the most backward, cruel, and murderous ideologies the world has ever known. Yet did the alleged "Peace Action" and its fellow travellers respond with apologies and thanks? No.
Instead, they've continued in their moral bankruptcy and ethical vacuousness to this very day, extolling the vile while excoriating the good. How else do you explain the so-called "peace" groups protesting U.N. sanctions for allegedly "starving Iraqi children," when Saddam's subversion of oil for food was doing so? How do you explain the activist drivel of "Bush Lied, People Died," when the Clinton Administration and countries comprising the U.N. Security Council all agreed that Saddam possessed WMD? How do you believe that inspections would've worked, when the Iraqi Survey Group found WMD smuggling schemes, production capacity, and assembly programs so well hidden that only an invasion would've revealed them. How do you believe anything short of invasion would've worked, when the same ISG revealed how Saddam had defeated the sanctions by 2001, had restarted his WMD-assembly programs, and could've been back in the game in as little as 6 months to two years?
Not only these facts but what about Iraqi documentation, captured during the war, showing Saddams extensive ties with terrorism, including Al Qaeda affiliates, something the so-called "Peace Action" types flatly deny? Even though as little as 5% have been translated to date, these documents prove that Saddam was training and hosting thousands of terrorists, including Abu Musab Zarqawi and the Algerian GPSC, both of whom were Al Qaeda affiliates, up until our invasion, and maintaining relationships with Ayman Al Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden during the same period.
So how do the so-called "Peace Action" types deal with all these facts? They ignore them, mischaracterize them, lie about them, pretend they never happened, and/or hurl vitriol and hate at anyone, who has the temerity to point them out.
Under these conditions, the old story of the elephant and the mouse takes on a whole new meaning. For it's the elephant - not the mouse - who pushes the boulder uphill, struggling against the pursuit of power at all costs, which lies at the core of communist and Islamofascist ideologiesit. The mouse, on the other hand, is pushing the boulder the other way, appeasing these awful tendencies and encouraging them, all in the name of peace at all costs.
So on this, the 50th anniversary of "Peace Action," I appeal to all clear thinking people to lend the elephant our support. Together, we can put the mouse and the behaviors it excuses beneath the rock, where they belong!
Posted by skeetjr at 10/21/2007 @ 01:10am
"Peace Action" movement is so vastly morally superior to your "clear thinking" that you cannot understand it.
I don't think that the group wants unilateral US disarm; instead, the group wants the US don't have double moral standards when it condemns Iran for pursuing nuclear weapons while still in research of more powerful nukes itself. We want to use war as the last resource, instead we seem to be eager of getting into the next.
While the USSR and communism was evil, in the Cold War both the US and USSR were frightened with each other and both wanted to make bold moves to "impress" the adversary. It was basically a "chess contest" of who got more countries of the world under its sphere of influence and nothing more. Soviets were not mad, they thought exactly as us, that a "check" (nuclear game) would be Armaggedon.
We are powerful enough, we don't need to buy Irak or Iran games to broaden our sphere of influence, or gain more leverage over oil. Instead, we should lead the community of nations towards just inter-countries relations and try enforce civlized regimes and countries' political auto determination.
Reagan did not win over the Soviet regime. The Russians rebeled and rejected their rotten system. When Reagan perceived Gorbachev's reforming intentions he started to press him forward, that's all, it was just the right time. Whatever Saddam did or did not, does not justify the fate of the Iraqi children exactly like what Fidel does doesn't mean we condemn the whole Cuban people to economic ostracism.
Peace is the only option. We may even "win the war" in Iraq tomorrow and still have lost because we are leaving there so many people that hate us. Can't your clear thinking understand that?
Posted by Frank42 at 10/21/2007 @ 05:01am
To call the AFC "primarily Republican" is a lie worthy of your tribe. ----Posted by MARKCANYON 10/21/2007 @ 08:36am
My tribe?!? The Scots-Irish Presbyterians?!??!
Posted by Mask at 10/21/2007 @ 09:18am
"Peace through strength", is at best, a short-term strategy that gives the illusion of peace because of the absence of war.
What many of the posters here fail to realize is that "the mice" (to borrow MASK's analogy) have changed the way we look at the world. We now look at the "human family" as "our" family, and not just the selfish national interests or petty political divisions that are figments of our own creation (i.e., colonists v. the uncivilized, communists v. capitalists, or terrorists v. freedom fighters).
The elephants, while doing a lot of work, have not proffered the intellectual or spiritual capital needed to bring about real self-sustaining peace. Absence of war, alone, does not address the root causes of the tensions that lead to war. Given the focus on expediency, we understand why the elephant never quite gets beyond this point, and this is why they can't quite fathom putting down their weapons.
What is needed is international leadership by those with mice-like views. Those who understand that the human desires of Americans are shared by all, and that re-structuring a world so that a much greater percentage is free from human suffering and are able to attain what we consider the American Dream must be the focus of our foreign policy. What good is it if only Americans, or only Europeans are free from human suffering? What do you think the rest of the world (the vast majority) will think of such an arrangement, and will their very human reaction to such injustice simply fuel more tension and more war?
Getting beyond themselves is the biggest challenge the elephants face, because without such spiritual growth, getting up the hill will simply be met with another hill, and yet another, once they thought they had reached the top of one mountain.
Posted by Metteyya at 10/21/2007 @ 11:42am
My tribe?!? The Scots-Irish Presbyterians?!??!
Posted by MASK 10/21/2007 @ 09:18am
are you wearing a kilt?
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/21/2007 @ 2:12pm
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 10/21/2007 @ 2:12pm
Only on special occasions....heheh
Posted by Mask at 10/22/2007 @ 09:23am