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Thursday, July 28, 2011

[haw-info] Final Version (Signers) Lee-Jones Out-of-Iraq Letter

The following 93 members of Congress signed the Lee-Jones letter on Iraq: Baldwin, Bass (CA-33), Boswell, Braley, Capps, Capuano, Chu, Cicilline, Clark (MI-13), Clarke (NY-11), Clay, Cleaver, Clyburn, Cohen, Conyers, Costello, Davis (IL-7), DeFazio, DeLauro, Deutch, Doggett, Doyle, Duncan (TN-2), Edwards, Ellison, Farr, Filner, Frank, Fudge, Garamendi, Grijalva, Gutierrez, Hahn, Hanabusa, Hastings (FL-23), Heinrich, Hirono, Holt, Honda, Jackson Jr. (IL-2), Jackson-Lee, Johnson (IL-15), Johnson (TX-30), Jones, Kaptur, Kucinich, Larson, Lee, Lewis (GA-5), Loebsack, Lofgren, Lujan, Maloney, Matsui, McCollum, McDermott, McGovern, Michaud, Miller (CA-7), Moore, Nadler, Napolitano, Norton, Olver, Paul, Payne, Pingree, Polis, Rangel, Richardson, Rush, Sanchez (CA-39), Sanchez (CA-47), Schakowsky, Schrader, Scott (VA-3), Serrano, Sewell, Slaughter, Speier, Stark, Thompson (CA-1), Thompson (MS-2), Tonko, Towns, Tsongas, Velazquez, Waters, Watt, Welch, Wilson (FL-17), Woolsey, Yarmuth


Press release and official letter to the President below:
 
For Immediate Release
July 27, 2011
 
Contact:  
Ricci Graham, (510) 763-0370
 
Barbara Lee, 92 Members of Congress Call for Return of U.S. Troops and Military Contractors from Iraq by December 31, 2011
 
Washington, DCToday, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) released the following statement after sending a letter to President Barack Obama, along with 88 Democrats and 4 Republicans calling for compliance with the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq and a full withdrawal by December 31, 2011:
 
"I am pleased that so many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle joined me in sending a clear message that we must keep our commitment to ending the dangerous and misguided military occupation in Iraq this year.
 
"It has been over eight years since President Bush launched the disastrous war in Iraq. Now President Obama has the opportunity to finally end the war by adhering to the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq which requires all 47,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq to depart before December 31, 2011.
 
"The American people are sick and tired of endless wars, and widely support the current plan to end our involvement in Iraq.  It is past time that we bring this war to an end."
 
The text of the letter can be found below.
 
***
 
July 22, 2011
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
 
Dear Mr. President:
We are writing to urge you to hold to our nation's Status of Forces Agreement with the government of Iraq that commits our nation to bringing all of our troops and military contractors home at the end of this calendar year. 
 
The American people have made it clear that the war in Iraq must end.  By wide and overwhelming margins, Americans approve of your plan to remove all the troops from Iraq by the end of this year. 
 
We are deeply concerned to learn that your Administration is considering plans to keep potentially thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the end of this year.  Extending our presence in Iraq is counterproductive - the Iraqi people do not support our continued occupation.  Remaining in Iraq would only further strengthen the perception that we are an occupying force with no intention of leaving Iraq.
 
Leaving troops and military contractors in Iraq beyond the deadline is not in our nation's security interests, it is not in our nation's strategic interests, and it is not in our nation's economic interests. 
Mr. President, we look forward to working with you in maintaining our nation's Status of Forces Agreement with the government of Iraq and bringing all of our troops and military contractors home at the end of this year.
 
Sincerely,
 
Barbara Lee
Member of Congress
 
Walter B. Jones
Member of Congress
###

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

[haw-info] HAW Notes, including links to recent articles of interest

First, a note:  A Web site has been created for the September 23/24 conference in Toronto entitled "Looking Back, Moving Forward: War Resisters in North America.  The URL is http://warresistersconference.activehistory.ca/?p=1.  Historians Against the War is one of several groups that have endorsed the conference.  The Web site does not yet include the speakers list, but confirmed speakers include two members of the HAW Steering Committee, Staughton Lynd and Carl Mirra. 


Links to Recent Articles of Interest

"The Terror from Within"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/opinion/26jacoby.html
By Russell Jacoby, New York Times op-ed, posted July 26
The author teaches history at UCLA


"Europe's Homegrown Terrorists"
http://www.thenation.com/article/162270/europes-homegrown-terrorists
By Gary Younge, The Nation, posted July 25

"The Limits of Air Power"
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick07252011.html
By Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunch.org, posted July 25
Uses past experience to illuminate the Libya campaign

"September 2011 and May 1948: The Great Fear Now and Then"
http://www.zcommunications.org/september-2011-and-may-1948-the-great-fear-now-and-then-by-irene-gendzier
By Irene Gendzier, Z-Net, posted July 23
Historical discussion of the Palestinian refugee issue; the author teaches Middle Eastern history at Boston University

"War Fatigue and the Un-Critical Critics of War"
http://www.fpif.org/articles/war_fatigue_and_the_un-critical_critics_of_war
By Hannah Gurman, Foreign Policy in Focus, posted July 20

"What Have Workers Gained from Egypt's Revolution?"
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/07/20/what_have_workers_gained_from_egypt_s_revolution
By Joel Beinin, Foreign Policy, posted July 20
The author teaches Middle Eastern history at Stanford University

"Libya and the War Powers Act"
http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad07132011.html
By Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch.org, posted July 13
The author teaches history at Trinity College

"Are Americans Cold-Blooded? Do We Care About Civilian Casualties in Our Wars?"
http://hnn.us/articles/140622.html
By John Tirnan, History News Network, posted July 13

"Reading the Egyptian Revolution Through the Lens of US Policy in South Korea Circa 1980"
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Tim-Shorrock/3561
By Tim Shorrock, Asia-Pacific Journal, July 11

"War Without Humans"
http://www.counterpunch.org/ehrenreich07112011.html
By Barbara Ehrenreich, TomDispatch.com, posted July 11
Revised and updated version of afterword to British edition of the author's Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War

Thanks to Maia Ramnath, Sam Lowe, Ros Baxandall, and Rusti Eisenberg for suggesting articles included in the above list.  Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.

[haw-info] Historians Against the War "Empire" Project

Dear members and friends of Historians Against the War,

"Empire" has recently become a popular subject of historical research
and under the Bush administration it re-emerged in political
discourse. The flood of books on the subject has become overwhelming.
Both supporters and opponents of American foreign policy in general
and military policy in particular use the term "empire" to describe
U.S. hegemony in its various forms. Nonetheless, many Americans are
very resistant to thinking of the United States in terms of empire.
Non-specialists, even among the interested public, often lack
information about how historical empires actually worked and in which
ways historians and political scientists put the United States into
the historical context of past empires. They consider an empire to be
an entity which exercises direct and usually strict territorial
control over other (foreign) areas. This misunderstanding is
illustrated and fuelled by maps of world history that show broad
swaths of red for the British Empire, implying absolute British
control, and the contrast with current maps which show the patchwork
of states today, implying complete sovereignty and freedom from
foreign control.

We propose a project that will bridge the gap between a scholarly
understanding of empires in history and the applicability of the term
to the United States on the one hand and the
popular resistance to interpreting the U.S. in terms of empire on the
other hand. We would like to create an annotated bibliography of
recent and/or important scholarship on the United States and the issue
of empire. The brief book discussions/articles would address the
following issues:

- the author's understanding of the term "empire"
- concrete forms of imperialism discussed or addressed
- the use or abuse of direct or implied historical analogies with past empires
- time period considered (all of U.S. history, only 1898 to the
present, current or recent policy only, only since WW2, etc.)
- whether the author makes policy recommendations, implicitly or explicitly
- which assumptions the work makes about the nature and extent of U.S. interests

We may eventually present a working list of titles of books we would
like reviewed on these terms, but we'll start by opening the review
process to any titles of interest to HAW members. A worksheet/form
that reviewers would fill out to guide their reviews is already
available (http://historiansagainstwar.org/empire/FORM.rtf). We do not
seek to include only books that oppose U.S. policy. Books that discuss
the issue and historically argue that the U.S. is not an empire should
also be considered. The main criterion is the use of "empire" as a
theme, category, approach or model, not a position, for or against,
U.S. policy. While this kind of historiography is often politicized,
we strive to include monographs which are generally scholarly and not
polemical.

The reviews will eventually be published at the HAW webpage and
perhaps as a pamphlet or short book. Information on this project will
be published periodically at http://historiansagainstwar.org/empire/
and at the HAW blog.

We need authors. If you would like to review a book about this theme
for the publication, please get in touch with Mark Hatlie
(mark@hatlie.de).

--

Dr. des. Mark R. Hatlie
Im Feuerhägle 1
72072 Tübingen
GERMANY
Cell: +49-163-1341718
Home: +49-7071-792696
www.hatlie.de

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[haw-info] Has your Congressional Rep signed Out-of-Iraq letter?

If  your Rep has not signed Lee-Jones letter on Iraq, please call their office now. Final version to be sent at 6PM today.

Capitol Hill Switchboard :202-225-3121

KEEP TO THE CURRENT DEADLINE
Bring all U.S. Troops and Military Contractors in Iraq Home by Dec. 31, 2011!

Current Cosigners (80, in addition to Lee & Jones): Baldwin, Bass (CA-33), Braley, Capps, Capuano, Chu, Cicilline, Clark (MI-13), Clarke (NY-11), Cleaver, Clyburn, Cohen, Conyers, Costello, Davis (IL-7), DeFazio, Doggett, Duncan (TN-2), Ellison, Farr, Filner, Frank, Fudge, Garamendi, Grijalva, Gutierrez, Hanabusa, Hastings (FL-23), Heinrich, Hirono, Honda, Jackson Jr. (IL-2), Jackson-Lee, Johnson (TX-30), Johnson (IL-15), Kaptur, Kucinich, Lewis (GA-5), Loebsack, Lofgren, Lujan, Maloney, Matsui, McDermott, McGovern, Michaud, Miller (CA-7), Moore, Nadler, Napolitano, Norton, Olver, Paul, Payne, Rangel, Richardson, Rush, Sanchez (CA-47), Schakowsky, Schrader, Scott (VA-3), Serrano, Sewell, Slaughter, Speier, Stark, Thompson (CA-1), Tonko, Towns, Tsongas, Waters, Watt, Welch, Wilson (FL-17), Woolsey, Yarmuth

Any feedback from Congressional office, please send to hiscze@aol.com

For member of Congress to sign on to this bipartisan letter or for more information, please contact Teddy Miller in Rep. Lee's office (teddy.miller@mail.house.gov or 5.2661) or Ray Celeste in Rep. Jones' office (raymond.celeste@mail.house.gov or 6.5241).

-----

Text of Letter

July 22, 2011

The Honorable Barack Obama

President of the United States

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to urge you to hold to our nation's Status of Forces Agreement with the government of Iraq that commits our nation to bringing all of our troops and military contractors home at the end of this calendar year. 

The American people have made it clear that the war in Iraq must end.  By wide and overwhelming margins, Americans approve of your plan to remove all the troops from Iraq by the end of this year. 

We are deeply concerned to learn that your Administration is considering plans to keep potentially thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the end of this year.  Extending our presence in Iraq is counterproductive - the Iraqi people do not support our continued occupation.  Remaining in Iraq would only further strengthen the perception that we are an occupying force with no intention of leaving Iraq.

Leaving troops and military contractors in Iraq beyond the deadline is not in our nation's security interests, it is not in our nation's strategic interests, and it is not in our nation's economic interests. 

Mr. President, we look forward to working with you in maintaining our nation's Status of Forces Agreement with the government of Iraq and bringing all of our troops and military contractors home at the end of this year.

Sincerely,

 

Barbara Lee

Member of Congress

 

Walter B. Jones

Member of Congress

 



Thursday, July 07, 2011

[haw-info] HAW Notes 7/7/11: Links to recent articles of interest

Suggestions for these lists can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.  Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg, Maia Ramnath, and Rosalyn Baxandall for suggestions for the following list.


"Why the War Machine Keeps on Running"
http://www.counterpunch.org/spinney07052011.html
By Franklin C. Spinney, CounterPunch.org, posted July 5

"Warring Ambitions"
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-appleby-war-powers-20110703,0,3517152.story

By Joyce Appleby, Los Angeles Times, posted July 3
On the Founding Fathers and the power to declare war; the author is a professor of history emerita at UCLA

"Waiting for Godot on the Gaza Flotilla"
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Mark-Levine--Waiting-for-in-Best_Web_OpEds-110701-476.html
By
Mark LeVine, Op-Ed News, posted July 1
The author teaches history at the University of California, Irvine

"King George III Won: Happy Fourth of July"
http://warisacrime.org/content/king-george-iii-won-happy-fourth-july
By David Swanson, War Is a Crime.org, posted June 30

"The Militarized Surrealism of Barack Obama: Signs of the Great American Unraveling"
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175412
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted June 30

"Isolationism: Behind the Myth, a Usable Past"
http://hnn.us/articles/140293.html
By Michael H. Hunt, History News Network, posted June 29
The author is a professor of history emeritus at the University of North Carolina

"On the Mend? America Comes to Its Senses"
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175410
By Andrew J. Bacevich, TomDispatch.com, posted June 28
The author teaches history and international relations at Boston University

"Sacred Mantras"
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery06282011.html
By Uri Avnery, CounterPunch.org, posted June 28

"The Undoing of Libya"
http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad06272011.html
By Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch.org, posted June 27
The author teaches history at Trinity College

"Finally, the Age of Western Intervention Is Over"
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-kampfner-finally-the-age-of-western-intervention-is-over-2303248.html
By John Kampfner, The Independent, posted June 27

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

[haw-info] Call Congress Today! 100 Groups Support "No War Funding" Letter

The House of Representatives is about to pass a $648.7 billion Defense Appropriations bill, perhaps as soon as this evening. Yesterday over 100 national and grassroots groups signed a "No War Funding" letter to the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Historians Against War was pleased to endorse this effort. Support for the letter reflects grass-roots outrage over the willingness of Congress to keep paying for the military, while slashing vitally important domestic programs.
 
 
Now is the time to call all members of Congress. Voting on the 2012 Defense Appropriations bill could come as early as this evening. This bill provides $648.7 for the military, including $118 billion for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
 
Capitol Switchboard: 202-225-3121
 
Tell your Representative to oppose further war funding for Afghanistan and to vote against the entire 2012 Defense Appropriations bill.  Message is simple: we must not continue wasting lives and money. The United States  cannot afford another $648.7 billion for the military. Its time to bring our war dollars home!
 
Please forward this message widely.!!!
 
Carolyn Eisenberg on behalf of the Historians Against War Steering Committee.
 
Send any updates: hiscze@aol.com