Archive for March, 2013

Korea: Important Background Information

Sunday, March 31st, 2013

Below is an excellent report on the full story in Korea.  The US is provoking North Korea much more aggressively then it has in the past.  This is all in the context of the Asian Pivot, moving 60% of the US Navy to Asia, and the TPP, a trade agreement to isolate countries like China and North Korea even further.

If you want more on the history of North Korea, here’s an article Margaret and I published in Truthout.

North Korea and the United States: Will the Real Aggressor Please Stand Down?

KZ

 

@KBZeese

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———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Brian Becker <info@answercoalition.org>
Date: Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 8:00 AM
Subject: The war danger in Korea: Pentagon’s false propaganda conceals truth about crisis
To: kbzeese@gmail.com

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The war danger in Korea:
Pentagon’s false propaganda conceals truth about crisis

By Brian Becker, ANSWER Coalition national coordinator

B-2 bomber
A B-2 can drop up to eighty 500 lb (230 kg)
GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen 2,400 lb (1,100 kg)
B83 nuclear bombs.

The American war propaganda machine does a thorough job in misleading the public about the high-stakes struggle the Pentagon is waging against North Korea.

On March 28, the Obama administration ordered and the Pentagon executed a mock bombing attack on North Korea by U.S. B-2 stealth bombers equipped to drop nuclear bombs—the most advanced nuclear-capable plane in the U.S. Air Force. In recent months, the U.S. has also used nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to simulate the bombing of North Korea.

The B-2s, each of which costs taxpayers more than $3 billion, dropped inert bombs near North Korea.

It is not necessary to speculate how the United States would react if North Korea sent nuclear-capable bombers close to U.S. territory and dropped inert bombs as part of a “war game.” By itself, this B-2 mock bombing of North Korea cost approximately $5.5 million, according to Foreign Policy magazine. The B-2 flights by some estimates cost $135,000 per hour—almost double that of any other military airplane, according to a report from the Center for Public Integrity. 

The U.S. carpet-bombed North Korea for three years

It is not possible to overstate the impact on North Korea of this week’s simulated destruction of their country and people by U.S. war planes.

Between 1950 and 1953, U.S. bombers carpet-bombed North Korea so relentlessly that a main complaint of U.S. pilots became the absence of anything left to bomb. By July 1953, when an armistice was signed ending open military hostilities, there was not one structure standing higher than one story left in North Korea.

More than 5 million Koreans died during the war, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1967. They died from bombs and bullets. They died from disease and exposure to the cold. They died in horrific massacres committed by retreating U.S. troops, who burned “pro-communist villages” as they were fleeing in retreat from North Korea in the face of a surprise counteroffensive launched by Chinese and North Korean units in late October 1950.

It was the United States that remained after the armistice to occupy South Korea with tens of thousands of troops. The Pentagon required that its occupying troops be exempted from ever having to stand before Korean courts if they were charged with the murder or rape of Korean citizens. South Korea’s military dictators, who had earlier served as proxies of the Japanese occupation forces prior to 1945, were more than happy to oblige their new bosses.

Pentagon backed the military dictatorship in South Korea

Under the tight control and supervision of the Pentagon, a brutal military dictatorship ruled South Korea for decades.

In 1961, General Park Chung-hee, formerly an officer in the Japanese Manchuko Imperial Army during the time of Japan’s brutal colonial occupation of Korea, seized power and held it until his assassination by other military officers in 1979. Any South Korean person who said anything sympathetic about communism, socialism or North Korea was sentenced to decades-long prison terms where torture was a given.

South Korea’s current president, Park Geun-hye, is the daughter of General Park Chung-hee.

The role of the Pentagon and its continuing occupation has been decisive in Korean politics. After the assassination of Park Chung-hee, massive protests were staged in May 1980 against the military dictatorship in the South Korean city of Kwangju.

The pro-democracy movement in Kwangju was labeled “communist-inspired” and the rebellion was crushed in blood. More than 2,000 people were killed May 18 to 27, 1980. Later released secret documents revealed that it was the top brass of the U.S. occupation force that authorized soldiers of the Korean Army’s 20th Division to be sent to Kwangju to suppress the protesting students.

The Pentagon and the South Korean military today—and throughout the past year—have been staging massive war games that simulate the invasion and bombing of North Korea.

Few people in the United States know the real situation. The work of the war propaganda machine is designed to make sure that the American people do not join together to demand an end to the dangerous and threatening actions of the Pentagon on the Korean Peninsula.

The propaganda campaign is in full swing now as the Pentagon climbs the escalation ladder in the most militarized part of the planet. North Korea is depicted as the provocateur and aggressor whenever they assert that they have the right and capability to defend their country. Even as the Pentagon simulates the nuclear destruction of a country that it had already tried to bomb into the stone-age, the corporate-owned media characterizes this extremely provocative act as a sign of “resolve” and a measure of “self-defense.”

As the Pentagon climbs the escalation ladder, North Korea will climb too. That is often how wars start.

The North Korea media yesterday reported Kim Jong-un “convened an urgent operation meeting” of senior generals just after midnight, signed a rocket preparation plan and ordered his forces on standby to strike the U.S. mainland, South Korea, Guam and Hawaii, state media reported. (AP, March 29)

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The Courage of Non-violent Resistance!

Wednesday, March 27th, 2013

Good Friday 2013

Looking to the example of Archbishop Oscar Romero

      “Shortly before he was killed, 33 years ago (last) week, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador said, ‘If one day, they… didn’t let us speak; if they killed off all of our priests and the bishop too, then each one of you would have to be a microphone for God. Each one of you would have to be a messenger, a prophet.’ I think the time has come for each one of us to lend our voice so that together we can be a prophetic people for peace and nonviolence. We all have to become microphones for the God of peace and nonviolence.

      “Romero for me is one of history’s greatest Christian leaders, perhaps the most outspoken, Gospel-based leader we ever had. More than a saint and a martyr, he is a prophet in the same league as Jeremiah and Isaiah. Just knowing that he existed, that we live in the age of Romero, that any of us can follow Jesus like that, gives me strength…

      “Just after he was made archbishop of San Salvador, Romero had to preside in March 1977 at the funeral of his friend Fr. Rutilio Grande, the outspoken Jesuit who was the first priest assassinated. At that moment, the scales fell from his eyes and Romero took up where Grande left off. The military had turned Grande’s town of Aguilares into an encampment of the death squads who stormed the church and desecrated the Blessed Sacrament. Hundreds were killed. When the military left the church in June, Romero held a special Mass, then decided to process through the town with the Blessed Sacrament to purify the village…

      “On March 17, one week before he was killed, Romero met with a young Salvadoran priest who had gone to work in Nicaragua but returned to San Salvador to help out Romero. “You should really leave the country,” Romero told the stunned young priest. “These people in the ruling class are in such a frenzy that you wouldn’t last 24 hours. They’d kill you. Me too. Soon, they’re going to get rid of me, too.” He moved his hand up to the cross around his neck, held it, and let it go. “But you’ll see. There will be other times, better times. We have to create a little reserve with all of you priests that are out of the country right now so that when El Salvador changes, you can come back…

      “It’s important not to love ourselves so much that we’re not willing to take the risks that history demands of us,” Romero said in his last homily, one minute before he was assassinated at the altar. That’s an important lesson for all of us — laypeople, priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes included.” Edited from an article by John Dear, S.J. (See the full piece at www.malu-aina.org)

Love Your Enemies.” Jesus

“Hatred ever kills, love never dies” Gandhi

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622 Emai ja@malu-aina.orghttp://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (March 29, 2013– 601st week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office


Jim Albertini Malu ‘Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Ola’a (Kurtistown) Hawai’i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org www.malu-aina.org

YouTube, Facebook and Twitter workshops in Hilo

Wednesday, March 27th, 2013
Mahalo Kerri,
Jim

On 3/24/2013 11:07 PM, Kerri Marks wrote:

Sat the 6th sounds good to me for facebook and twitter training. I’m available next Saturday the 30th too if anyone wants to do YouTube part 2 training or livestream or something. This is the copy I’ll put on our calendar. Let me know if you have any other specific topics or questions.
SAT 4/6 SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING – facebook and Twitter Training 1:30 pm at Just Cruisin Coffee. Learn about the general layout of facebook, uploading pictures and video, how to post and share things, interacting with groups and community pages, and general netiquette. We’ll also talk about setting up a twitter account, how to write tweets, managing lists, and growing your audience. Bring a laptop if you have one, otherwise just take notes and follow along. Training will last about an hour and a half with plenty of time for questions during and after. Free Internet is (usually) available. Sharing is caring!
I’ll try and put together a wrap up of our session yesterday and send it to you all soon too. thanks to everyone who came, and thanks for the sandwich! i had a great time, and hope everyone at least got a little something out of it. please feel free to contact me if you have questions or problems in the interim.
Aloha! Kerri

Prophet & Martyr Oscar Romero Remembered

Sunday, March 24th, 2013

Looking to the example of Archbishop Oscar Romero  John Dear S.J.  |  Mar. 19, 2013

Like many, I’m hopeful about the new Jesuit pope from Latin America who takes the name Francis, but I’m concerned about reports of his silence during Argentina’s “Dirty War.” I grieve, too, as we mark the 10th anniversary of the evil U.S. war on Iraq, to recall that few U.S. priests and bishops spoke out against our wasteful war. I think we need church leaders who speak out prophetically against war, poverty, nuclear weapons and the destruction of the environment and point us to God’s reign of justice, disarmament and nonviolence. We all need to do that.

Shortly before he was killed, 33 years ago this week, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador said, “If one day, they took our radio station away from us, closed the newspaper or didn’t let us speak; if they killed off all of our priests and the bishop too, then each one of you would have to be a microphone for God. Each one of you would have to be a messenger, a prophet.” I think the time has come for each one of us to lend our voice so that together we can be a prophetic people for peace and nonviolence. We all have to become microphones for the God of peace and nonviolence.

This week, I’ve been reading a wonderful new collection of stories about Archbishop Romero called Monsenor Romero: Memories in Mosaic by Maria Lopez Vigil (Orbis, 2013). For many years, she collected stories by prominent church workers and ordinary “campesinos” who knew Romero personally. They are amazing and inspiring. Romero for me is one of history’s greatest Christian leaders, perhaps the most outspoken, Gospel-based leader we ever had. More than a saint and a martyr, he is a prophet in the same league as Jeremiah and Isaiah. Just knowing that he existed, that we live in the age of Romero, that any of us can follow Jesus like that, gives me strength.

I’m reminded of a poster that used to hang over Daniel Berrigan’s writing desk. It was a mammoth picture of Romero with a big bold caption that read: “We want more bishops like Romero.”

Monsenor Romero: Memories in Mosaic tells of his greatness, his humanity, his struggles, his faith and his compassion. Of course, the book speaks to me because of my own foundational experiences in El Salvador in the 1980s, and I know many of the people in this book. But after all these years, Romero still leaves me speechless with awe and wonder.

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Here are a few stories from the book:

Just after he was made archbishop of San Salvador, Romero had to preside in March 1977 at the funeral of his friend Fr. Rutilio Grande, the outspoken Jesuit who was the first priest assassinated. At that moment, the scales fell from his eyes and Romero took up where Grande left off. The military had turned Grande’s town of Aguilares into an encampment of the death squads who stormed the church and desecrated the Blessed Sacrament. Hundreds were killed. When the military left the church in June, Romero held a special Mass, then decided to process through the town with the Blessed Sacrament to purify the village:

We left the church singing. It was a terribly hot day, and Monsenor Romero was soaked in sweat under his red rain cape. He held the monstrance high. Before him there were hundreds of people. We circled the main square singing and praying. The municipal offices across from the church were full of guardsmen who were watching us. When we neared, several of them went to the middle of the road and pointed their rifles at us. Then more of them came. They spread their legs defiantly and with their large boots formed a wall that we could not go through. Those at the front stopped and gradually those further back had to stop as well. The procession came to a halt. There we were, face to face with the rifles. When no one was moving anymore, we turned to look at Monsenor Romero, who was at the very back. He lifted the monstrance a little higher and said in a loud voice so that all could hear, “Adelante” — “Let us go forward.”

Then, little by little, we moved toward the soldiers, and little by little they began to back up. We moved forward. They moved backward. Eventually they backed up toward their barracks. Finally they lowered their rifles and let us pass. From that day on, when any important event occurred in El Salvador, whether you were with him or against him, you always had to look to Monsenor Romero.

Romero’s homilies were broadcast to the whole nation, and millions of people listened to them. Sometimes they were more than an hour and a half long, yet everyone listened. Each week, he gathered a group of friends to discuss the readings and help him prepare his homily. He usually had no notes. He catalogued all the killings of each week and denounced the government killers. On Mondays, he always asked his secretaries what they thought of his homilies:

In our meetings with him, he was always so humble, and he never imposed anything on us. It was like he depended on us so much. One Monday when he asked me about the homily, I told him what was on my mind. “You’re always so quiet when I see you, Monsenor. And then when I hear you in the Cathedral, I feel like you turn into a different person, even in the intonation of your voice. You project such strength and certainty. It can’t all be the microphone!” “You feel that much of a change?” [he asked.] “Yes, it’s like you’re two people — the everyday person, and the person who gives the homilies at the Cathedral.”

At the Latin American conference of bishops meeting in Puebla, Romero asked London activist Julian Filochowski for advice on speaking to the press. (Earlier, Julian had organized the campaign to get British parliamentarians to nominate Romero for the Nobel Peace Prize.)

“Just respond to the thing you’re really sure about, because whatever you say is on record forever,” [I said.] Basic advice. He seemed really nervous to me, but when he was in front of the sea of journalists, it was like it was with his homilies. He became another man! When they asked him about the divisions among the bishops in El Salvador, he answered: “Unfortunately, there is division. But I think there’s a verse in the Gospel that announced the coming of these kinds of things. It’s when Christ says that he has not come to bring peace, but a sword. When he explains this, he talks about divisions in the family. That’s because true unity is not romanticism. It’s not appearances. The kind of unity that Christ calls for is unity in truth. And that truth is hard sometimes. It means giving up things we like. True unity means that kind of sacrifice. So it’s not hard to understand that within the church there might still be division.”

Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez recalls seeing him in a traffic jam:

I was afraid of him. Terrified. I won’t deny it. Monsenor Romero called a lot of ecumenical meetings, and out of fear, I never went. Who among us didn’t know that they were after him? I admired him because he kept taking greater risks, but those same actions made me stay away. That was my dilemma.

One day, I was driving my car along one of the central streets of San Salvador, and a huge traffic jam started to build up. It was the kind of congestion that exhausts your patience. Then I noticed that right next to me, driving his little car, was Monsenor Romero.

We were there a good long while, and things weren’t getting any better. Then it was as if Monsenor Romero just got fed up. He must have been in a hurry because he decided to get out of the car, leave it there, and continue on foot. I was watching him from my car, which wasn’t going anywhere. Nearby there was a pickup truck full of rich boys also stopped in traffic. When they saw Romero, they started to whistle and yell nasty things at him. “Priest of Beelzebub!” “Why don’t you go back to Moscow?” “Romero, you should be the first to go!” They goaded him, stuck their tongues out, even threw something at him… Monsenor didn’t even look at them. He just keep walking along. He didn’t stop or quicken his pace. The whole thing made me feel terrible …”

On March 17, one week before he was killed, Romero met with a young Salvadoran priest who had gone to work in Nicaragua but returned to San Salvador to help out Romero.

“You should really leave the country,” Romero told the stunned young priest. “Go back to Nicaragua. You won’t be able to do anything here. You won’t be able to work or move around. These people in the ruling class are in such a frenzy that you wouldn’t last 24 hours. They’d kill you. Me too. Soon, they’re going to get rid of me, too.” He moved his hand up to the cross around his neck, held it, and let it go. “But you’ll see. There will be other times, better times. We have to create a little reserve with all of you priests that are out of the country right now so that when El Salvador changes, you can come back. Your experience in Nicaragua is going to be important for everybody. For me, too. You know, we really have to rethink that word I used to be so afraid of — the word ‘revolution.’ That word carries a lot of the Gospel in it.”

“It’s important not to love ourselves so much that we’re not willing to take the risks that history demands of us,” Romero said in his last homily, one minute before he was assassinated at the altar. That’s an important lesson for all of us — laypeople, priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes included. History, and the Christ of history, demand we take risks on behalf of suffering humanity and creation itself. Romero shows us we do not have to be afraid. We, too, can go forward, do what we can, speak out as best we can, and try to make a difference.

In these days of rapid change, I look to the example of Archbishop Romero and hope for a new “Catholic Spring” where we might all rise to the occasion, take the risks history demands of us, become microphones for the God of peace and point the way toward God’s reign of justice, disarmament and nonviolence.

***

John Dear will lead a retreat, “Jesus the Peacemaker,” April 5-7 in East Stroudsburg, Pa. To see John’s speaking schedule for 2013 or to invite him to speak in your church or school, go to John Dear’s website. One of John’s essays appears in the new book A Faith Not Worth Fighting For. His book Lazarus, Come Forth! explores Jesus as the God of life calling humanity (in the symbol of the dead Lazarus) out of the tombs of the culture of war and death. John’s talk at the 2011 Sabeel conference in Bethlehem is featured in the new book Challenging Empire. John is profiled with Dan Berrigan and Roy Bourgeois in a new book, Divine Rebels by Deena Guzder (Lawrence Hill Books). This book and other recent books, including Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings, Put Down Your Sword and A Persistent Peace, are available from Amazon.com.


“Hatred ever kills, love never dies– such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality, for it increases hatred.”  M. K. Gandhi  Peace requires more than the absence of violence. It requires the presence of justice. M.L. King The love of one’s country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?   Pablo Casals  There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. Howard Zinn  Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.  This world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending the sweat of its laborers,  the genius of its scientists,  the hopes of its children….This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.  Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. ***  Dwight D. Eisenhower farewell speech to the American people.

De-militarize Hawaii!

Thursday, March 21st, 2013

Army Seeks Long-Term State

Lease of Hawaiian Kingdom

Crown Lands at Pohakuloa

On Wednesday. March 20, 2013 Hawaiian national leader, Isaac Harp, and peace activist, Jim Albertini, met at the 133,000-acre military Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) in the center of Hawaii island with military leaders to discuss a range of concerns. The meeting was cordial.  The military’s delegation included the PTA base commander, Lt. Col. Eric Shwedo, the Command’s Sgt Maj. Alan Higgs, and PTA Safety Officer, Tim Keller.

      Among the concerns raised by Albertini and Harp were why the Army is seeking to renegotiate a long-term State lease of lands at Pohakuloa, lands currently leased for $1.00 with an expiration date of 2029? And by what authority are Hawaiian Kingdom Crown lands being leased?  The officers offered no clear explanations.

     Other points raised: Citizens deserve answers to dozens of questions submitted to the Army in writing since 2007 that have gone unanswered; what are the current number of live-rounds fired annually at PTA? Military documents, more than 5 years old  say up to 14. 8 million live-rounds annually;  list Depleted Uranium (DU) spotting rounds as well as DU cartridge penetrator rounds (if any) that have been fired at PTA in addition to the Davy Crockett DU spotting rounds; the military confirmed the use of Sparrow and Raven Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) commonly called drones at PTA; why has the military failed to respond to 8 actions called for by Hawaii County Council, resolution 639-08 passed on July 2, 2008 that included a halt to all live-fire and clean up of DU contamination present at PTA; would the military provide 24-hour urine tests for personnel at PTA to check for uranium exposure?

      Isaac Harp presented a 3 page press release dated Dec. 10, 2012 by David Keanu Sai, Ph.D. concerning United Nations and the International Criminal Court involvement over the prolonged and illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States. It detailed various war crimes for which individuals may be prosecuted. In addition, Harp presented summarized facts about invalid US executive orders, the State of Hawaii and counties possessing no lawful jurisdiction over Hawaiian Kingdom lands, and listed proposed actions and specific requests for information, and access to cultural and historic sites.

      The military said they would review all of our concerns and get back to us, (hopefully before their lease expires!)

Aloha ‘Aina!  Stop the

Bombing Now!


Don’t Renew — Cancel the

Unlawful PTA Lease!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622 Emai ja@malu-aina.orghttp://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (March 22, 2013– 600h week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office