Historians Against the War

Sign the Statement

HAW Conference

Speakers Bureau

Press Releases and Statements

Virtual Movement Archive

Teach-In

Teaching Resources

GI Resistance

Civil Liberties and Academic Freedom

Links

Join our Listserv

Download HAW images

HAWblog

About us / Contact us


Saturday, February 14, 2009

No to UFPJ

I will not give financial support to United for Peace and Justice and I call for HAW to disaffiliate from the group. Despite the objections of many in the antiwar movement, the UFPJ campaigned for Obama and other pro-war Democrats. Any truly antiwar organization would have opposed both major presidential candidates.

As averse to HAW's principles as Republicans have been, especially in recent years, we historians are well aware of a fact that is apparently unknown or forgotten by the UFPJ -- that over the last century few political parties in the world have invaded more countries, destroyed more local cultures, sent more soldiers to their deaths, and killed more civilians in the service of empire than the Democratic Party of the United States.

President Obama has announced his intentions, consistently and repeatedly since the beginning of the campaign, to return to the warmaking tradition of his heroes, the Democratic presidents who pushed the United States into the killing fields of Europe during World War I, provoked the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor, ordered atom bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, invaded Korea, and sent more than a million troops into Vietnam. Unfortunately, since taking office the new president has lived up to his foreign policy promises: in just 24 days more than 73 Afghan, Pakistani, and Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers have died due to Obama's escalation of the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan and his refusal to withdraw immediately from Iraq.

I am sure the leadership of UFPJ is aware of Obama's foreign policy plans, yet, amazingly, the organization's new "Yes We Can" campaign does not mention them.

The antiwar movement must recognize that the Democrats and Republicans are one party: the War Party.

2 Comments:

Blogger David T. Beito said...

If it has campaigned for pro-war Democrats, why should HAW give this any organization any favorable publicity, much less try to raise money for it?

10:59 PM  
Blogger Mark said...

The steering committee consulted before the appeal to support UFPJ was sent out to HAW members. It passed with 13 votes in favor, 1 opposed, and 3 abstentions.

2:28 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home