The Greatest nuclear threat right now

Russia is occupying Europe's largest nuclear power plant, in southern Ukraine.  In the words of Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency the situation there "is completely out of control" and "Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated.” 

Russian President Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons to get his way in Ukraine

We say,

• Putin, get your soldiers and weapons out of Ukraine Nuclear Plants
• Russia, US, Pledge NOT to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, no matter what
• Russia out of Ukraine
• Remember Hiroshima, Never Again

Watch Democracy Now 8/4/2022

 A number of groups have joined to condemn Governor Ned Lamont’s trip to Israel and are planning a protest on Thursday, Feb. 24 on the day he returns from that country. It will start at 1 p.m. outside the Old State House (5 Market St.) and continue in front of UConn’s Hartford branch on 10 Prospect Street.  

Co-sponsoring groups are: Jewish Voice for Peace (New Haven), Middle East Crisis Committee, Tree of Life Education Fund, Poetic Release UConn, Middle Eastern Students Association UConn, African Student Association UConn, Black Muslim Association UConn, American Muslims for Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine CT, Students for Justice in Palestine UConn, Muslim Student Association UConn Storrs, Muslim Student Association UConn Hartford, Arab Student Association UConn, Promoting Enduring Peace, Doctors Without Borders UConn, Socialist Resurgence 

 Stanley Heller of the Middle East Crisis Committee said, “CT Governor Ned Lamont is in Israel making business deals.   He evidently doesn't care one bit about the recent Amnesty International report finding Israel guilty of the international crime of apartheid.  Apartheid has been considered an international crime for decades. Israel’s wretched and systematic mistreatment of Palestinians is well-known and because of that it should be beyond the pale for business dealings.  Lamont says, ‘Israel is a perfect fit because they are the leading innovators in life sciences, and biotech and the defense industry’.  We say their ‘innovations’ in defense and security are based on trying out weapons on Palestinians whether by bombing them or through draconian spying on all aspects of Palestinian life.”  

Along with Governor Lamont on the trip is interim President of the University of Connecticut Dr. Radenka Maric.  A number of student groups at UConn are opposed to her presence on the delegation.  Speaking on behalf of the UConn Students for Justice in Palestine, its president Lena Maarouf said, "UConn claim to want an innovative ecosystem yet continues to prove that Palestinian rights are not on their agenda. We support the rally to tell UConn that we want no part in their newest venture into an apartheid state responsible for the murder of thousands of Palestinians. We will not be silenced. " 

Speaking on behalf of the UConn Muslim Student Association Hartford Jenna Rabah said, "Days ago in the heart of our campus, Governor Lamont and our new interim President, Radenka Maric, proudly boasted about their trip to Israel this week to attract Israeli startups to come to Connecticut. They stood proudly to talk about a country that is ethnically cleansing our people as we speak. A state that’s detaining children without convictions, a state that’s mercilessly demolishing entire residential buildings, a state that robs Palestinians of the right to access clean water and healthcare. This brutalitarian regime even steals peoples' intrinsic rights to movement. We approve of this rally as a way to protest UConn’s contribution to ethnic cleansing and the annexation of Palestine." 

 Issues with Connecticut investments in Israel have surfaced before.  Groups have been unhappy with the investment of pension fund money in Israeli stocks, bonds and currency.  Last June (2021) the Connecticut Treasurer’s Office reported it held $85 million in those assets. 

Back in the days right after 9/11 a number of us went to demonstrations with signs saying "Stern Justice, but No War".  We argued Bin Laden and his gang could be pursued and destroyed without invasion of Afghanistan.  Our message was drowned out by the anger and war fever.  Bush and the Republicans and Democrats united to conquer Afghanistan and to reorganize it as an ally government.  It would be a shining example of neoliberalism and supposed democracy.  For 20 years the fiction was maintained that this plan was working.  Not any more.  Perhaps now people will understand there was an alternative in 2001 and more importantly there was an alternative to the whole Western strategy of conquest and domination.

The events in Afghanistan are a catastrophe, proof of the total failure of militarist strategy outlined in the “The New American Century (1997)” and other visions of U.S. empire.

We need to take long look at US involvement in Afghanistan, well before 9/11, all the way back to Carter and Brzezinski arming of mujahedeen

There was a alternative back in 2011, stern justice, but not war. Recall that in the end Bin Laden was killed by a special force, not in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan.

There was an alternative after the U.S. invaded in October 2001 and defeated the Taliban main forces. See this segment on Democracy Now from August 20.

Tasks for Today

For all its terrible bombings from Afghanistan to Palestine to northern Syria, the US has a moral obligation to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees. (It did just that after Vietnam.)

The U.S. should take in the women and children and the poor, not just the people who collaborated with the U.S. war machine.

It’s time to close up many US bases abroad, to stop the ability of U.S. militarists to meddle and attack foreign countries.

In 1933 Congress had a special commission to investigate the influence of weapons makers and high finance on the U.S. entry into the Great War (World War I). There should be a Congressional investigation now  to document: a) How the military-industrial complex pushes for war  b)How the corporate media glamorizes war and gives soapboxes to retired military figures c) How billions in weapons the U.S. military handed over to the Taliban in Afghanistan

A fine archive of articles about Afghanistan can be found on "The Struggle" site by clicking here that will include this statement by RAWA, the revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

Click here for an article about Jawad, an Afghan refugee to the United States and his difficult experiences.