Pentagon Drones Kill Civilians in Afghanistan As Protesters Arrested At Beale Air Force Base

Drone protesters Sharon, Chris, Toby, Shirley, Barry, and Cathy.  All but Barry crossed onto the base.

My sister activist Toby Blome connected the dots in an email this morning:

On Tuesday, Sept. 27, the very day that activists were at Beale Air Force Base protesting endless wars and illegal drone killing, a U.S. Drone attack killed 13 civilians and wounded 14 others in Afghanistan.   

Initially the Pentagon claimed that most of those killed were "suspected militants," but a day later they are admitting to most or all being civilians.  (story here)  Who will be next?

Toby pointed me to an account of the arrests and the rationale for being arrested by Sharon Delgado on her blog post "Campaign Nonviolence Action at Beale" which I repost here:

This morning I was arrested with four other women at Beale Air Force Base after crossing onto base property.   We were taken by military bus to a building on base, given citations, and released.  We may be given an arraignment date and we may go to trial, although in recent months all charges for peace activists have been dismissed. 

We were wearing blue scarves and we had #enough written on our hands because we took this action in solidarity the Afghan Peace Volunteers and their blog Our Journey to Smile.  Afghan Peace Volunteers is a group of young people working for peace in Afghanistan.   I became aware of them when peace activist Kathy Kelly came with us to Beale a couple of years ago.  Our blue scarves and the #enough banners and words written on our hands are a response to their invitation “Join us to say #enough.” 

Before we were arrested, each of us explained what we have had enough of.  I explained that I have had enough of drone warfare.  (Beale is the home of the Global Hawk Drone, a surveillance drone that identifies targets for armed Predator and Reaper drones.)  I have also had enough of the U.S. Air Force Vision for 2020, which is geared toward “full spectrum dominance” for the purpose of “protecting U.S. interests and investments” as “the globalization of the world economy… continues, with a widening between “haves” and “have-nots.” 

 I have had enough of the U.S. military enforcing a global order that is enriching the already wealthy, protecting the privileged, exploiting those who are vulnerable, causing massive suffering, and destroying this beautiful earth.  #Enough war. #Enough “accidental” (or incidental) killing of children.  #Enough suffering.  #Enough extrajudicial killing.  #Enough. 

We also took this action in coordination with the Campaign Nonviolence Week of Actions.  Over 700 separate Campaign Nonviolence Actions have taken place in recent days. 

If you want to know more about drones or past demonstrations and trials related to Beale, seemy past blogs on drones.   Follow my blog by clicking the “Follow Sharon Delgado” button at the right or by “liking” the Shaking the Gates of Hell Facebook page.  

I note that yesterday Congress overrode Obama's veto of what's being called the "Sue the Saudis" bill that allowing families of those who died on 9/11 to seek relief in the courts. Obama presumably vetoed it because Saudi Arabia is a key ally of the U.S., a country to whom billions of weapons are shipped regularly. Similar to our other good buddy in the region, Israel, Saudi Arabia has a horrendous record of human rights violations. 

From RT's report on the veto: 

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has argued that allowing JASTA to become law could lead to US being sued in foreign courts and subjected to an “intrusive discovery process.”

Can I get an Amen?


Perhaps some good will come of the "Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism" law. Perhaps a court case will involve some authentic disclosure of facts surrounding the fire bombing of the World Trade Center in 2001. 

Perhaps it will also set a precedent for victims of state-sponsored terrorism and their families to sue the governments responsible -- including their own.

Real News From Afghanistan, For Those With Ears To Hear It

Girls salvage spilled aid flour in Kabul last winter. Source: Andrea Bruce, NYT

Kathy Kelly came to Portland Maine and gave a talk August 20. She conveyed real news, anecdotal reporting from recent visits to Kabul where she and other members of Voices for Creative Nonviolence work with the Afghan Peace Volunteers.

Source: Andrea Bruce, NYT

Since we heard Kathy speak, my husband and I agree; we can't stop picturing a refugee camp in a cold climate, one with 10,000 people freezing in winter, and starving the year round, many of them ill. 

Source: Andrea Bruce, NYT

Most of these internally displaced people used to be agriculturalists but were driven off their land by by war or, in some cases, by drought because former irrigation systems were ruined by war. So, war. Many are dependent on international aid for their calories.

Fun times in the mess hall at Bagram Air Base. Source: probamablog.com

Across the street we picture the gigantic military base/embassy under construction; when completed, it will be even bigger than the behemoth base we indebted taxpayers built in Baghdad. It is a fortress with gates controlled by heavily armed men who allow only designated people and vehicles to enter. A steady stream of trucks passes through the gates carrying fuel, water, food, and just about everything else people would need to do the work of invading another country. Kathy says when she flies into Kabul her plane is full of private contractors, beefy ex-military men going to work for $120k a year, $80k of it tax exempt.

Source: "US contractors face murder charges" Al-Jazeera

All of this adds up to $2 billion per week. Kathy pays no taxes to the I.R.S. and hasn't for years.

In the camp across from Bagram, children starve to death. Their mothers tell Kathy they feel like they are going insane because of the constant worry that they can't feed their families. Female life expectancy has declined to 42 years since NATO came to town and stayed on.

Source: "Children killed by drone strikes"

A family invited Kathy to witness the injuries of their young daughter, lifting off the covers to show her damaged body, explained with one sinister word: "Drone." Kathy asked people, where do the drones comes from? "Nevada."

Now Kathy tells Afghan women that she knows, seamstresses in Kabul, that people in the U.S. think that NATO presence has improved women's rights. At this they have a hearty laugh. Their view is that Karzai's regime, backed by the military might of the U.S., has been able to get restrictive laws passed that even the Taleban was not able to push through. Laws making a woman subject to her husband pander to conservative elements whose support is needed to keep Karzai and cronies propped up.

Source: Russiablog.com

Kathy told us there is only one road in and out of the country at the eastern end of Afghanistan when Pakistan shuts down border crossings over incursions by Afghan troops hunting militants in Pakistan's territory. Or drone strikes, of which there are about two a week these days under Obomber. This one road's decrepit tunnel through the mountain allows 12 hours of traffic eastbound, followed by 12 hours westbound. It can take up to 17 days for an farmer to get a truckload of produce from field to market. Sometimes the cargo molds or rots before the truck gets through.

Kathy theorizes that if people in the U.S. can believe that U.S. wars are humanitarian wars, then they will go along without resisting.

Under the influence of Fox News, her own mother insisted that people in Iraq ought to be grateful to Americans for liberating them from Saddam Hussein, whom they could have gotten rid of on their own, but didn't. Kathy had been many times to Baghdad, bringing back the truth of life choked by sanctions, bombarded by Shock and Awe. But her mother insisted, "They should thank us."

I suppose Kathy's explanation is as good as any for why 2/3 of us are against the war in Afghanistan, but very few of us raise our voices to protest -- I was going to say the U.S.'s longest war but Kathy says it's wrong to call it that. The first Gulf War + 13 years of sanctions + a "withdrawal" that left tens of thousands of troops and contractors behind in Iraq is really the longest.

War is not even an issue this election season. It's the economy, stupid. And by the way,

Kathy is a faith-based activist who cries out against the war on the poor everywhere, from the prison-industrial system of this country, to the oppression of Palestinians, to the starving, freezing and mangling of children in the way of our access to the oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea.

Source: "Who runs the Madhouse?" by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Her theory about our citizens' confusion and indifference reminds me of the phrase attributed to Jesus of Nazareth before giving instruction to groups: "For those who have ears to hear..."

Source: "Pump down the volume? Re people who watch movies in restaurants, cafes"

Galloping Militarism, And What To Do About It: Kathy Kelly in #Maine

Anyone paying attention is likely to feel discouraged by evidence of galloping militarism. Whether it's prime time t.v. shows glorifying war, or the media circus whipping up sentiment against the next designated enemy, it comes at a time when social programs are being cut left and right as if this were an economic necessity. It is not, nor is hatred between humans of different cultures. What to do?

One thing you could do is hear international peace worker Kathy Kelly, in Maine for a series this week that starts in Portland on Monday, August 20 at the First Parish UU Church on Congress St., 6:30pm, and then travels to Bangor (Aug 21), Brunswick (Aug 22), Rockland (Aug 23), and Belfast (Aug 24).

Kelly is fresh from a visit to the Afghan Peace Volunteers, a groups she lives and works with in Kabul at regular intervals along with other members of the group she co-coordinates, Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She responds to U.S. militarism not only by writing, publishing, and meeting with other activists, but by traveling to be in solidarity with people threatened by the rampaging beast that is our foreign policy in the 21st century.

I became aware of this group originally not through Kelly's work but from an activist here in Maine who shared the blog Our Journey to Smile. A group of students from the Bamiyan area were living in Kabul mentored by a Malaysian medical doctor known as Hakim, and he was helping them find ways to get their stories out to an international audience. Their heartfelt desire to live in peace has now been expressed in videos, blog posts, and a series of 24+ hour conference calls with supporters around the globe. From the blog:

Their hope for ‘2 Million Friends’ is simple, that in place of the 2 million Afghan victims of war over the past 4 decades, they wish to find 2 million friends, as expressed in the video clip ‘Be One of 2 Million Friends’.  And so as not to lose any more human lives, they will be wishing for a multilateral ceasefire to end the war in Afghanistan.

"The Sky As It Falls," Kelly's article about their struggles and the community they have built, offers a peek into their world. Fear, laughter, poverty, volleyball, and the will to survive are all represented. It's uplifting to find that people bearing much heavier burdens than my own keep on keeping on, and I'm energized by their example.

Tom Sturtevant (center) at a Bring Our War $$ Home event in 2011.

Another thing sure to lift my spirits in the coming week: a protest at the Air Force Thunderbirds air show in Brunswick, where I once lived as student myself. Our state's Veterans For Peace chapters have organized a protest for Saturday morning, August 25 in memory of the late Tom Sturtevant, a veteran of Korea who worked tirelessly for decades in Maine to protect young people from the predations of military recruitment. CODEPINK Maine is proud to co-sponsor this event.

Two dedicated activists from the Union of Maine Visual Artists, Natasha Mayers and Nora Tryon, have produced this banner in which innocent children at play are transformed by drones and other high tech military aircraft into dead bodies. I'll be proud to stand with them to show children passing through the gate in the back seat of mom and dad's car that there are alternatives to militarism. Despite what your television and waves of proto-fascist advertising insist on telling you from the moment you are born into this troubled nation, war is not a family value.