You can both Support Veterans and Oppose the Wars!
Veterans Day! 11-11-11
Support Veterans! Stop the Wars &
Bring the Troops Home!
We support veterans, and all people, being given the best possible medical care and other support services. But supporting veterans does not mean support for America’s wars. We are opposed to war, including the present U.S. wars that only benefit Wall St. Bankers, arms makers, and the oil companies, while producing more and more disabled veterans. We need to ask –who profits, and who suffer and die, in these wars, and why?
Every citizen has a moral and legal duty to speak out clearly against these wars of aggression and occupation including the occupation of Hawaii. They are illegal and immoral. The Nuremberg principles, which the U.S. helped to establish following WWII, state: a war of aggression is the supreme war crime; following orders is no excuse in committing war crimes; citizens have a duty to act in resistance to the crimes of their government. Participating in illegal wars is not service to country, be it in Nazi Germany, or present day U.S.A. Today, the U.S. is descending into high-tech barbarism with ever expanding use of targeted assassinations by special operation teams and the use of drones (unmaned aerial vehicles). Now even U.S. citizens have been intentionally assassinated by U.S.drone attacks, citizens deprived of their constitutional rights and life itself, without any due process of law.
Let us reflect this Veterans Day on the confessional words of Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, who was twice awarded the U.S. medal of honor. General Butler’s words are as true today as they were when spoken nearly 80 years ago.
“War is a racket… I spent most of my time ( 33 years and 4 months in the Marines) being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism…. I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests… I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank Boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers… I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American Sugar interests… In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested… Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
This Veterans Day, let us act to protect the health and safety of active duty troops, veterans, and all residents and visitors here on Hawaii Island. For years, the Army has been stonewalling the community seeking the full truth about confirmed radiation contamination at the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA). Let us affirm the July 2008 Hawaii County Council’s unanswered call for stopping all live-fire, and any activities that create dust, that could possibly spread the radiation at PTA. Let us support the citizen call for comprehensive, independent testing and monitoring to determine the full extent of radiation contamination at PTA. Everyone has a right to know the true facts.
Make Peace! Work for Justice!
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622. Email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (Nov. 11, 2011 – 529th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office
