Your points on Iraq are well taken. However, my reading of the letter is not to forget about Iraq, as many of us turn our attention to Afghanistan.

The Israeli company Aeronautics Defense Systems Limited http://www.aeronautics-sys.com/ has provided drones to the Israeli military, as well as to the Netherlands (for use in Afghanistan) and two undisclosed NATO members, according to their website. They also supply the US market (to patrol the border with Mexico perhaps ?). The company’s web site only mentions surveillance, but it stands to reason that drones used for surveillance could be outfitted with weapons, and that the full nature of the company’s involvement with the Israeli military, and to Motorola, is far from transparent. I wonder about Motorola’s partnership with Aeronautics. I wonder who the “two undisclosed NATO members” are. I wonder of how much Israeli technology is behind the drone wars, wherever they may be.

And thanks for your coverage of the life of Peter De Mott, another one of those crazy Catholic Worker folks who are relentless in their commitment to nonviolent action in pursuit of peace and justice.

Now, my comments on this letter from Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace and Military Families Speak Out:

It is a very good letter that calls for a total end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and adeqate care for our returning veterans.

But its conspicuous absence of any mention of Afghanistan begs the question, “Why?”

IVAW and VFP have both called for an end to the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. Maybe Military Families Speak Out had not quite got to that point at the time of this unity letter, which was written perhaps a month ago.

Whatever the case, silence or ambivalence about the escalating U.S. war against the people of Afghanistan is no longer acceptable.

President Obama’s recent pronouncment about why he is escalating the U.S. war in Afghanistan is reminiscent of LBJ’s expansion of the Vietnam War in 1965. Remember what happened there for the next ten years?

It is time for the antiwar movement to re-build itself, with opposition to the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan front and center, as well stopping the drone attacks in Pakistan, getting all the way out of Iraq, and supporting the courageous GIs who refuse to participate in those illegal, immoral wars of imperialism.

For more information on GI resisters, check out my blog, http://www.SoldierSayNo.blogspot.com, or the websites of Courage To Resist, http://www.couragetoresist.org, and the War Resisters Support Campaign in Canada, http://www.resisters.ca

Keep up the Struggle!