Archive for January, 2022

Col. Ann Wright’s Od Ed on Ukraine crisis

Sunday, January 30th, 2022

Hi all, My OPED has been published in today’s Honolulu Star Advertiser!

Please consider reposting it.

Ann

Screen Shot 2022-01-30 at 5.57.46 AM.png

BRINK OF WAR? U.S.’ RUSSIA-UKRAINE

DILEMMA

 

For the sake of innocent civilians,stop the next war now by deploying true dialogue and diplomacy

By Col. Ann Wright (Retired)

January 30, 2022

 

https://bit.ly/3rbL4m8

We’ve seen this before. The U.S. creates a situation, digs in its heels and makes ultimatums — and tens of thousands die.

We’ve seen it in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now it may be over Ukraine or Taiwan.

U.S. politicians, think-tank pundits and government war makers have created a war atmosphere on many fronts.

From the U.S. military policy makers in Washington, to the boots on the ground in Europe and the Middle East, to those in ships and aircraft in the Pacific, the U.S. military is under great stress from multiple crises that did not have to happen.

Instead of slowing down and backing off, the Biden administration is led by a very aggressive Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a go-along Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. President Joe Biden seems to have given a dangerous green light to escalation on all fronts at the same time.

In response to U.S. war-mongering on steroids, both Russia and China are calling the diplomatic and military hands of the United States at the same time.

Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed about 125,000 troops to the border of Ukraine, bringing to a head the Russian Federation’s demand that the U.S. and NATO formally declare that Ukraine would not be recruited into NATO military forces. This, after 30 years of the U.S. poaching former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO despite

Russian tanks rolled during a Wednesday military exercise at a training ground in the Rostov region of Russia.

RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Hi all, My OPED has been published in today’s Honolulu Star Advertiser!

Please consider reposting it.

Ann

Screen Shot 2022-01-30 at 5.57.46 AM.png

BRINK OF WAR? U.S.’ RUSSIA-UKRAINE

DILEMMA

 

For the sake of innocent civilians,stop the next war now by deploying true dialogue and diplomacy

By Col. Ann Wright (Retired)

January 30, 2022

 

https://bit.ly/3rbL4m8

We’ve seen this before. The U.S. creates a situation, digs in its heels and makes ultimatums — and tens of thousands die.

We’ve seen it in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now it may be over Ukraine or Taiwan.

U.S. politicians, think-tank pundits and government war makers have created a war atmosphere on many fronts.

From the U.S. military policy makers in Washington, to the boots on the ground in Europe and the Middle East, to those in ships and aircraft in the Pacific, the U.S. military is under great stress from multiple crises that did not have to happen.

Instead of slowing down and backing off, the Biden administration is led by a very aggressive Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a go-along Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. President Joe Biden seems to have given a dangerous green light to escalation on all fronts at the same time.

In response to U.S. war-mongering on steroids, both Russia and China are calling the diplomatic and military hands of the United States at the same time.

Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed about 125,000 troops to the border of Ukraine, bringing to a head the Russian Federation’s demand that the U.S. and NATO formally declare that Ukraine would not be recruited into NATO military forces. This, after 30 years of the U.S. poaching former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO despite

Russian tanks rolled during a Wednesday military exercise at a training ground in the Rostov region of Russia.

RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE / ASSOCIATED PRESS


 

President George H.W. Bush’s promise that the U.S. would not do so.

On the other side of the world, in the Asia-Pacific region, President Xi Jinping of China is responding to the U.S. “pivot to Asia” that has withered the 50-year U.S. policy of diplomatic recognition of the People’s Republic of China — while continuing economic and military support of Taiwan. The “One China” policy was begun decades ago in the 1970s under the Nixon administration.

The innocuous sounding “Freedom of Navigation” naval missions to stake out U.S. domination of the South China Sea have morphed into a NATO naval mission with ships from the United Kingdom and France joining the U.S. armada in China’s seaside front yard.

Today, two U.S. Navy carrier groups, each with an aircraft carrier and five to eight accompanying ships, are in the South China Sea.

U.S. diplomatic missions to Taiwan that had not happened in 50 years began under the Trump administration and now have the highest-ranking U.S. government officials in five decades making highly publicized trips to Taiwan as a stick to poke in the eye of the Chinese government.

The Chinese government has responded to the U.S. actions in the South China Sea by constructing a series of military installations on small atolls as a line of defense and sending naval vessels into its own coastal waters.

And countering increased U.S. military equipment sales to Taiwan and U.S. deployment of military training personnel there, China sent fleets of military aircraft across the Straits of Taiwan from mainland China to the edge of Taiwan’s air defense zone, forcing the Taiwanese Air Force to activate its air defense system.

The U.S. military is stretched to the point that the possibility, if not probability, of an incident or accident occurring that can set off a chain of events that will be disastrous for the world, is explosively high.

To save the lives of innocent civilians around the world, we U.S. citizens must demand from our government true discussion, dialogue and diplomacy, instead of war-mongering.

 

 
 

Ann Wright

Dissent: Voices of Conscience

Jan. 28, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil photos

Friday, January 28th, 2022

 

Jan. 28, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil photos

 

 

 

On the Brink of War Again –Jan. 28, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet

Tuesday, January 25th, 2022

Join the Friday, Jan. 28, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil from 3:30-5PM outside the downtown Hilo Post Office/Federal Bldg. and stand up for NO MORE WAR!  Please wear a mask and social distance.  Pass the word to ohana and friends.  Mahalo.

On the Brink of War

Again!

Haven’t we learned anything after

decades of war?

      The War drums are beating louder and louder over Ukraine. The Military-Industrial Complex – Arms makers are gearing up the factories and walking their profits to the banks. The US and NATO are moving eastward, closer and closer to Russia against decades of broken promises. So what’s new? Now with Ukraine being on Russia’s border, and possibly joining NATO, Russia is saying enough!

See https://popularresistance.org/ukraine-crisis-us-toolboxes-are-empty/

https://unac.notowar.net/2022/01/18/the-manufactured-crisis-in-ukraine-confirms-why-nato-must-be-dismantled/   https://nepajac.org/USrussia.htm   https://consortiumnews.com/2022/01/21/only-fools-replay-doomsday/
https://www.codepink.org/for_gods_sake_boys_stop_this_war?fbclid=IwAR1ToXYDzO-y2R0HcZM2HZgFy-m47CloqsIT94sg4lAiS-Syqlaz_JBBC0w

      Remember the words of warning by former US General and President Dwight David Eisenhower in his Jan. 17, 1961 farewell address to the nation: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” And Dr. Martin Luther King’s words in 1967: “the U.S. is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.”

      Today, the US and Russia are the world’s two most highly armed nuclear powers. There is an increasing risk of war, by accident or design, that could quickly spiral out of control to the use of nuclear weapons causing global destruction. We must not let this happen. Speak out Now!

russia 

DE-escalate War Tensions!

Diplomacy NOT War!

Solution starter: Ukraine remains neutral and does not become a member of NATO.

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject violence & war as solutions. 3. Defend civil liberties.
4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic,
anti-Hawaiian, anti-Black, anti-Asian, etc.
5. Seek peace through peaceful means and work for justice in Hawai`i and around the world.

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawai’i 96760

Phone (808) 966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org to receive our posts. For more information www.malu-aina.org

Jan. 28, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1061– Fridays 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

-- 
Jim Albertini Malu 'Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown) Hawai'i 96760
Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org

Reversing the Path to Self-Destruction! Jan. 21, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet

Tuesday, January 18th, 2022

Join the Hilo Friday Peace Vigil 3:30-5PM at the downtown Post Office. Below is this week’s leaflet for distribution. Please share with ohana and friends. Send me an email ja@malu-aina.org and I’ll put you on the list to receive the new leaflet each week. Shut down Red Hill. Shut down Pohakuloa. No TMT and FREE Hawaii from illegal US occupation. Mahalo and solidarity. Jim Albertini

PS  Please wear a mask and social distance.  I urge you to get vaccinated and boosted too. Mahalo.

 

Reversing the Path to

Self-Destruction!

ban 

     The Human race is on a path to self-destruction by both man-made climate disasters and nuclear war. The world needs an about-face from the direction it is headed – death by global warming, or nuclear winter resulting from nuclear war.

      The signs of climate disasters are becoming increasingly visible. Rising global temperatures, fires, droughts, intense storms, flooding, etc. Signs of the increasing risk of nuclear war are not as visible, and to most nuclear winter remains unknown. International tensions could quickly escalate to nuclear war by accident or design. A nuclear war, beyond the staggering number of immediate deaths from cities destroyed, would put so much debris in the atmosphere blocking sunlight causing temperatures to plummet leading to global crop failures and starvation. See https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00794-y Also see https://tomdispatch.com/only-fools-replay-doomsday/

      Today, the U.S. spends $768 Billion annually on its war machine. That’s more than the next 11 top nations combined, including China and Russia. More than 50 years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Without question, the US is on spiritual life support due to its addiction to war. There is an urgent call to shift spending from war and the nuclear weapons industry to instead support public health, climate stabilization, and meeting human needs.    

     Nine nations now possess nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. One year ago, on January 22, 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force. The Treaty specifically prohibits State Parties from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, acquiring, possessing, deploying, using, or threatening to use nuclear weapons, and from assisting or encouraging such acts. The US and the other 8 countries that possess nuclear weapons are now officially “The Outlaw States.”

     Nuclear Weapons Are Now Illegal Under International Law!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject violence & war as solutions. 3. Defend civil liberties.
4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic,
anti-Hawaiian, anti-Black, anti-Asian, etc.
5. Seek peace through peaceful means and work for justice in Hawai`i and around the world.

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawai’i 96760

Phone (808) 966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org to receive our posts. For more information www.malu-aina.org

Jan. 21, 2022 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 1060– Fridays 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

-- 
Jim Albertini Malu 'Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown) Hawai'i 96760
Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org

Jan. 17, 2022 the 129th anniversary of the US illegal overthrow of Hawaii as an independent nation

Monday, January 17th, 2022

Post by Dr. Ku Kahakalau, PhD on Facebook  Jan. 17, 2022

Today we commemorate 129 years of occupation of the independent nation of Hawaiʻi by the U.S., encouraged by the words of our beloved Queen Liliʻuokalani reminding us to never cease to act because of fear that we may fail. On January 17, 1893, to avoid further bloodshed, and with an unwavering belief that honor and justice were attributes of every “Christian nation”, our Queen temporarily and under protest yielded to the superior forces of the U.S, “until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representative and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.”
 
Even though she initially refused the request for her abdication, threats by U.S. Minister Stevens, who, instead of sustaining the constitutional ruler of Hawaiʻi, hinted that the 162 heavily armed U.S. Marines and Navy sailors he ordered to land in Honolulu the day before, would get involved, if the mostly American terrorists (persons who use unlawful violence and intimidation, in the pursuit of political aims), who had proclaimed a Provisional Government, or their supporters, were attacked.
Following the illegal overthrow of the constitutional Hawaiian monarchy on January 17 1893, Queen Liliʻuokalani spent the rest of her life petitioning to have the islands’ sovereignty restored. As kanaka it is our kuleana to continue this fight, because according to Queen Liliʻuokalani, “”The cause of Hawaiian independence is larger and dearer than the life of any man connected with it.”
 
Mahalo nui e Ka Mōʻi Liliʻuokalani for forever being a symbol of Hawaiian independence and a reminder to honor, preserve and advance our Hawaiian heritage. E ʻONIPAʻA kākou – until the last Aloha ʻĀina!

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