Comments for Tompkins County Against War & Occupation

Comment on JFK, Obama, and the Unspeakable by Sandra Twang

Sandra Twang — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:12:19 +0000

On my day off this this was incredibly moving and moved me to much respect for the international call to non violence and the willingness to die for freedom and justice. I had never heard of this gentleman..Thank you so much for sharing this…

Comment on Rhetoric and Reality: Masking War Escalation as a Withdrawal Plan by Argaman

Argaman — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:49:59 +0000

What’s remarkable about this statement is that it entirely omits mention of the Taliban. The “140 armed insurgent groups” spoken of are part of the Taliban – the woman-hating, xenophobic, hosts of Al-Qaeda who are responsible for the continued killing of their fellow Afghans by suicide bombers and other methods of attack. Before the U.S. invasion women were confined to their homes, girls were forbidden to go to school, and gay men were hanged in the soccer stadium in Kabul. While my support for the continued U.S. presence is Afghanistan is ambivalent, my opposition to the Taliban and their fellow travelers is unequivocal. I think it is incumbent upon any anti-war movement worth the name to think long and hard about what will happen if the U.S. withdraws and leaves Afghanistan entirely to the Taliban. Do we really want to leave the women and girls of Afghanistan to their tender mercies? I understand that the U.S. did not invade Afghanistan for feminist reasons, but inadvertently we have become supporters of more (certainly not all) rights for women and girls.

Comment on Contagious Love Experiment: Josh Stieber at Grassroots by Sarah Tiers

Sarah Tiers — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:03:58 +0000

Dear Josh,

I’m deeply moved. I feel a movie needs to be made about your experience, illustrating your experience in Iraq, where the man served you, had Love in his eyes, etc. Stephen Spielberg could do a magnificent job on this. It needs to be mainstream. It also needs to illustrate how the military “focuses on dehumanizing” the soldiers, as well as “the enemy”, rather than seeing good in all and Love as the answer. I’m writing songs about Peace and want to support you in that way. I will show your testimony to the band that is just being formed.

Thank you for following your soul’s call to make the world a better, Loving world.

Peace and Love,

Sarah Tiers

Comment on Submit by Le Ann Wimmer

Le Ann Wimmer — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:11:50 +0000

Wow!! God Bless you Josh! I too have become a C. O.. It has been with grate grieving in my spirit for a better way that I have come to this. I have broken away from the systems of reatraint and have experienced the divine love of The Father. It is through His eyes that I have seen the suffering of mankind. We are truely all created equal but then along comes the wolf seeking whom he may devour and convinces us of a lie. We must all come back to the place where God intended us to be and that is to Love one another. This is the greatest of all His commandments. This is why He came.
There is no enemy but the one inside of each of us that we must defeat. It is then that we can love each other. Then can the Lion lay down with the Lamb! Le

Comment on Contagious Love Experiment: Josh Stieber at Grassroots by Jim Murphy

Jim Murphy — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:42:02 +0000

Just received this note from Mary Reynolds Powell
re: Josh walking in Ohio. (Mary was a medevac nurse at Binh Hoa)…
“Jim- He will be here on Aug 2/3/4. VFP members are having a potluck for him on the 2nd; he’ll be speaking just before a PAND concert that will mark Hiroshima Day on the 3rd; he’s speaking at Oberlin in the 4th. I’ve contacted John Miller (another CO dustoff pilot from my book) who lives in Iowa to see if he can do something.”
Mary

Comment on Contagious Love Experiment: Josh Stieber at Grassroots by Jim Murphy

Jim Murphy — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:06:13 +0000

Beautiful rap, Josh… thank you for bringing back the truth without the glitz. I sincerely hope that other vets on your path will learn what you are learning… In Peace, Jim

Comment on Commentary: Bellingham, WA sanctuary effort needs our support and has local import by Cris

Cris — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:47:58 +0000

Good question. To help clarify the question, I obtained the text of the proposed resolution from the Bellingham Peace & Justice Center. The 6th and 7th “Whereas” statement lay out the legal thinking:
…
WHEREAS, when requests for discharge or reassignment based on conscientious objection are denied, servicemembers may be forced to deploy to, or remain armed in, a combat theater, leaving no conscientious choice but to go absent without leave, thus being labeled deserters and criminals, having committed no crime outside of the Uniform Code of Military Justice; and,

WHEREAS, United States Code, Title 10, Section 808 authorizes civilian law enforcement agents to apprehend deserters, but establishes no requirement to do so; and, …

Certainly, it would be an enormous stretch to call this proposed ordinance treasonous, though I am sure some detractors would. No one advises, counses or urges insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny or refusal of service under this proposed ordinance; nor does it in any way constitute a conspiracy. It simply asserts a choice in a very limited case where there is no legal mandate to comply.

The issue seems to be one of jurisdiction.

I have uploaded the file of the proposed ordinance here.

Comment on Commentary: Bellingham, WA sanctuary effort needs our support and has local import by a.nonnymouse

a.nonnymouse — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:06:25 +0000

I’ve read the Commentary and am unclear about the following piece of it: Federal law provides, under the category of Treason, Sedition and Subversive Activities, that it is a crime for any person to advise, counsel or urge insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny or refusal of service; to conspire to commit those acts; or to harbor any person who commits such an act. Does the city council’s involvement facilitate and abet treason?

If the above is indeed the law, it seems to apply in the Bellingham case. I didn’t see this being refuted; I assume I may be missing something?

Comment on Ithaca, NY designated “City of Sanctuary” for anti-war veterans, soldiers, and peace workers by Kane

Kane — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:54:17 +0000

It is a volunteer military and people make a choice to come in and serve their country. If they do not belive in what the military does and what our country is involved in why would they join? When are we going to hold people accountable for the choices they make. They sign a commitment to their country to serve a contract and need to be responsible and fulfill this contact and not run off to a city that doesnt support their country. I am embarrased to call Ithaca my home town and wont from now on!

Comment on Our Friend Bassam Killed in Bilin, Palestine, April 17th by admin

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:05:22 +0000

———- Forwarded message ———-
Date: Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 12:16 AM
Subject: [aatw-tour] the killing of Basem Abu Rahma
To: aatw-tour@lists.riseup.net

Dear friends,

As you may know, Basem Ibrahim Abu Rahmeh (a.k.a. Phil), a 30 year-old Bil’in resident, was killed this past Friday during a demonstration against the wall. He was fatally-injured by a high-velocity teargas projectile shot directly at him by Israeli soldiers. Only a few weeks ago, American citizen Tristan Anderson was critically injured by the same weapon during a demonstration in the village of Nilin. These incidents clearly demonstrate that the army and border police are not trying to be less lethal in their actions. In fact, they are becoming more and more dangerous: It seems that life is worthless to them.

Perhaps the most effective way we have of reducing lethal violence used by the army is to mobilize and apply political pressure both locally and internationally. We are proposing a series of coordinated actions for this Friday, April 24. Local actions could include a demo at an Israeli consulate, leafleting, or anything else. Please reply to me with ideas and with your thoughts on this proposal.

This week is probably a good one for coordinated actions, not only because of the proximity to Basem’s shooting, but also because the fourth Bilin conference on grassroots popular resistance will be taking place. The links below are to media resources with which you can make posters (but they are not for press use;, if anyone wants to publish it in commercial media please contact activestills). Links to videos of the incident are also included (one movie was rated, so only if you have a you tube account can you watch it). For higher resolution images, please contact us.

LInks:

1 – long video
2 – links to pictures
3 – Hi res picture of Basem Abu Rahma

Shachaf and Kobi

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posters etc. can be found at
https://lists.riseup.net/www/d_read/aatw-tour/
wiki page for tour is at
http://aatwtour.wiki-site.com/
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