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Friday, January 29, 2016

[haw-info] HAW Notes 1/30/16: Saudi Arabia conference; Peace History Society; website on history of US wars; links to recent articles of interest

To members and friends of Historians Against the War,


Here are some notes followed by our occasional listing of some recent articles.


1. Amid increasing scrutiny on Saudi Arabia's role in the Middle East and its relationship with the US, a number of antiwar groups are sponsoring a "Summit on Saudi Arabia" Saturday-Sunday March 5-6 in Washington DC. Code Pink has taken the lead, with co-sponsors including The Nation, the Institute for Policy Studies, Peace Action, and many other groups, including HAW.


2. The latest issue of the Peace History Society's newsletter, edited by

Robert Shaffer is available on-line. Its 50 pages include short articles and reports on a great variety of topics. 


3. This is a reminder of the work-in-progress website on the history of US wars that Roger Peace is developing. He is looking for feedback and suggestions for resources as well as collaboration in developing sections of the site. (A sample module on the War of 1812 is on the site.) His email address is rcpeace3@embarqmail.com.



Links to Recent Articles of Interest

 

"Chemical Wonders"

By Joost Hiltermann, London Review of Books, February 4 issue

Review-essay, seeking to draw lessons on how wars are ended, on Pierre Razoux's book The Iran-Iraq War. The author is Middle East and North Africa programme director at the International Crisis Group.

 

"When 'Made in Israel' Is a Human Rights Abuse"

By Ayed Press, New York Times, posted January 26

Warns against a proposal now before Congress that would force a change in US policy toward the Occupied Settlements

 

"Out of Bounds, Off-Limits, or Just Plain Ignored: Six National Security Questions Hillary, Donald, Ted, Marco, et al. Don't Want to Answer and Won't Even Be Asked"

By Andrew J. Bacevich, TomDispatch.com, posted January 26


"From the First Gulf War to Islamic State: How America Was Seduced by the 'Easy War'"

By Sebastian J. Bae, War on the Rocks, posted January 22

 

"ISIS and the Reversible Stages of Revolt"

By Paul Pillar, The National Interest, posted January 20

The author, a 28-year veteran of the CIA, is a visiting professor at Georgetown University in security studies.

 

"Trump's 19th Century Foreign Policy"

By Thomas Wright, Politico Magazine, posted January 20

Subtitled: "His views aren't as confused as they seem. In  fact, they're remarkably consistent – and they have a long history."

 

"The Frightening Prospect of a Nuclear War Is About to Become a Lot More Likely"

By Lawrence S. Wittner, History News Network, posted January 17

The author is a professor of history emeritus at SUN Y Albany.

 

"Twenty-Five Years Later: Photos from the First Time We Invaded Iraq"

By Mark Murrmann and Bryan Schatz, Mother Jones, posted January 16

  

"Why the B-52 Failed"

By David Bacon, LobeLog, posted January 11

A visit to Hanoi and reflections on the Christmas Bombing of 1972

 

"Ted Cruz's Stone-Age Brain and Yours: Why 'Collateral Damage' Elicits So Little Empathy among Americans"

By Rick Shenkman, TomDispatch.com, posted January 10

The author is founder and editor of the History News Network.


Thanks to an anonymous reader for suggesting most of the articles in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.

Friday, January 22, 2016

[haw-info] New history website - contributors welcome

January 22, 2016

To members and friends of Historians Against the War:

I am looking for assistance in developing the content of a website – www.peacehistory-usfp.org – on the history of United States foreign policy. The purpose of the website is to provide user-friendly, progressive critiques of U.S. wars and foreign policies over the course of 240 years. An ambitious project? Yes, but needed.

The website is online now, with the War of 1812 as an exemplary module (www.peacehistory-usfp.org/the-war-of-1812). Take a look. If you teach about the War of 1812, use the website now. The HAW Steering Committee has agreed to sponsor the website and I am exploring grant possibilities.

I am looking for assistance in a few different ways (see list of entries below):

1. Feedback. Give me suggestions and constructive criticism – now and with future entries.

2. Suggest resources (books, articles, websites, films) for particular areas.

3. Contribute as a researcher and writer on a particular section. This may include reading the work of others.

4. Coordinate a whole entry (e.g., the Vietnam War).

5. Assist the project in obtaining grants and outreach.

The intention is to include in each entry a principled analysis of the causes and conduct of war, domestic debates and antiwar movements, and a critique of administration rhetoric, among other things. There are many critical studies of U.S. foreign policy at higher levels of academia, but little of this information seeps into high school and community college textbooks or popular student websites such as history.com. This HAW website, in other words, is designed to make progressive peace-oriented critiques accessible to non-history majors and the general public.

Chronology of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1775-2015

Overview

1775-1825:
• War for Independence, 1775-1783
• U.S. territorial expansion and Native American resistance
• War of 1812

1825-1875:
• U.S. territorial expansion and Native American removal and resistance
• Mexican War, 1846-1848
• Civil War diplomacy

1875-1925:
• From western expansion to overseas expansion
• Spanish American War, 1898, and U.S.-Philippines War, 1899-1902
• The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, 1904, and "Yankee imperialism"
• U.S. participation in World War I, 1917-1918

1925-1975:
• U.S. participation in World War II, 1941-1945
• Truman Doctrine, 1947, and onset of the Cold War
• Korean War, 1950-1953
• U.S. global interventionism, overt and covert
• The nuclear arms race and Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
• Vietnam War, 1964-1973 (including Laos and Cambodia)

1975-present:
• From the Cold War to the "War on Terror"
• Central America wars, 1980s
• Persian Gulf War, 1991
• War in Afghanistan, 2001-present
• War in Iraq, 2003-present
• Genocide prevention, human rights, and international law

Please contact me if interested in contributing to this project.

Roger Peace
PhD American Foreign Relations
(I have taught mostly U.S. history and "U.S. in the World" at the community college level.)
rcpeace3@embarqmail.com

Note: You are receiving this email because you signed a Historians Against the War statement (see http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/) or asked to be included in HAW's informational mailings. If you no longer wish to receive these occasional messages about HAW's work, send an email to haw-info-request@stopthewars.org?subject=unsubscribe.
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Thursday, January 14, 2016

[haw-info] Urgent solidarity appeal from Turkish scholars

HAW members and supporters,

Some of us received the appeal below, and the SC believes it is worth circulating to you, if you wish to sign on.

Van Gosse

**********
Dear friends,

"academics for peace" in Turkey has written the below statement on the ever worsening state violence and violations by the Turkish governing power and security forces. you can also access this website for the statement in multiple languages: 
http://www.barisicinakademisyenler.net/node/63

Concerning the signatures: originally, the text is to be signed by academics from Turkey or working on Turkey. but also it can be signed by academics throughout the world whatever their field whose signatures will appear on a separate list as signatures of international support.

To add your signature please send your NAMES and AFFILIATIONS to the address info@barisicinakademisyenler.net

Please also circulate as you see fit.

******************************************************************************************************

We will not be a party to this crime! (in English, French, German, Spanish) 
BAK
07.01.2016

As academics and researchers of this country, we will not be a party to this crime!

The Turkish state has effectively condemned its citizens in Sur, Silvan, Nusaybin, Cizre, Silopi, and many other towns and neighborhoods in the Kurdish provinces to hunger through its use of curfews that have been ongoing for weeks. It has attacked these settlements with heavy weapons and equipment that would only be mobilized in wartime. As a result, the right to life, liberty, and security, and in particular the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment protected by the constitution and international conventions have been violated. 

This deliberate and planned massacre is in serious violation of Turkey's own laws and international treaties to which Turkey is a party. These actions are in serious violation of international law. 

We demand the state to abandon its deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region. We also demand the state to lift the curfew, punish those who are responsible for human rights violations, and compensate those citizens who have experienced material and psychological damage. For this purpose we demand that independent national and international observers to be given access to the region and that they be allowed to monitor and report on the incidents.

We demand the government to prepare the conditions for negotiations and create a road map that would lead to a lasting peace which includes the demands of the Kurdish political movement. We demand inclusion of independent observers from broad sections of society in these negotiations. We also declare our willingness to volunteer as observers. We oppose suppression of any kind of the opposition.

We, as academics and researchers working on and/or in Turkey, declare that we will not be a party to this massacre by remaining silent and demand an immediate end to the violence perpetrated by the state. We will continue advocacy with political parties, the parliament, and international public opinion until our demands are met.

For international support, please send your signature, name of your university and your title to info@barisicinakademisyenler.net.




Monday, January 11, 2016

[haw-info] AHA defeats HAW resolution on right to education

A resolution to protect the right to education in the occupied
Palestinian territories was defeated by a 111 to 51 margin at the 2016
meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA).

Historians Against the War (HAW) brought the resolution to the meeting,
with the signatures of 126 AHA members. A group calling itself the
Alliance for Academic Freedom (AAF) launched a concerted campaign
against the resolution.

The resolution (available at http://historiansagainstwar.org/aha16/)
would have put the AHA on record as upholding the rights of Palestinian
faculty and students to pursue their education and research freely in
the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Professor Barbara Weinstein of New York University and 2007 AHA
president was one of the historians who supported the resolution.
Weinstein stated, "It is entirely appropriate for our professional
association to consider this issue. We are addressing serious and
ongoing violations of academic freedom by a close U.S. ally."

The debate and voting on the resolution took place at the AHA business
meeting on January 9, 2016, at its annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
Margaret Power, professor of history at the Illinois Institute of
Technology, made an opening statement for HAW in favor of the
resolution. She outlined the limitations of movement that faculty and
students in Palestine face, and argued that it was within the purview of
the AHA to oppose such violations of human rights.

Sharon Musher of Stockton University provided a rebuttal in the name of
the AAF. She argued that it was a divisive act, and pointed to what she
claimed were errors in the resolution. The AAF also contended that the
resolution wrongly singled out Israel while ignoring violations in other
countries, and would burden the AHA with monitoring a situation for
which it lacks the necessary resources.

Andrew Zimmerman from George Wash University responded to Musher that
disagreement is at the heart of the historian's work. He asked for
logical arguments against the resolution; divisiveness is not an argument.

Carolyn "Rusti" Eisenberg from Hofstra University noted that no one
disputed the charges in resolution. She highlighted the special
relationship between the United States and Israel that allows abuses of
Palestinians to continue. She noted that opposing such violations was a
moral issue.

The AAF failed to engage the proposed resolution on its merits, but
instead used diversionary tactics to challenge its passage. The AAF
labeled itself progressive, by at the same time appealed to such
conservative outfits as Freedom House and attempted to make an argument
in favor of supporting right-wing student protests in Venezuela. A
particularly low point in the debate was when an AAF supporter resorted
to charges of anti-semitism. Nevertheless, as AHA Executive Director
James Grossman noted at the end of the annual meeting, the debate was
carried out with a good deal of civility.

The resolution did not lose on the merits, but with superior resources
and funding the AAF was able to out maneuver HAW in mobilizing AHA
members at the meeting. Even so, the 111 votes against the resolution
was a small fraction of the 3338 people in attendance at the conference,
and fewer than the 126 who signed the resolution.

Bringing the resolution to a vote in itself was a success for HAW. At
the previous year's AHA in New York, AAF used procedural issues to
prevent a similar issue from even coming to a vote. Van Gosse from
Franklin and Marshall College and lead organizer of the initiative left
the meeting with a sense of victory. "We really dominated in the
debate," he noted. "They had no real arguments–just red herrings."

At the AHA, HAW also sponsored a roundtable together with MARHO: The
Radical Historians' Organization on "Violations of Academic Freedom in
the Occupied Palestinian Territories." Salim Tamari of the Institute for
Palestine Studies, Professor Leena Dallasheh of Humboldt State
University, and Tom Ricks, an independent scholar who researches
Palestinian higher education all spoke on the panel.

Ricks drew on his personal experience in Palestine since 1983 to
highlight systematic violations of right to education. He pointed out
that universities routinely faced weeks and months of closures, which
was a particular issue around examination times, and this prevented
students from graduating. Ricks noted that access to education is not
only an issue in Palestine, but throughout the Middle East. He argued
that we should help people gain access.

Salim Tamari argued for the need to disentangle issues of security and
access to education. Every time the issue of freedom of education rises,
Tamari noted, Israel uses the issue of security to deny access. Israel
security forces regularly conduct raids on campuses under the pretext of
hot pursuit, and arrest faculty and students under suspicion of
membership in certain organizations. Educators' right of movement is
restricted at checkpoints. Access of external academics and students are
also denied through visit restrictions.

Leena Dallasheh raised the issue of who has access to craft historical
narratives, including the creation of historical knowledge. Palestinians
face layers of obstacles, including through the active process of
excluding their stories and privileging Israeli narratives. Because of a
lack of statehood, Palestine does not have a formal archive. Records
have been destroyed, stolen, or disappeared. Palestinian scholars also
suffer from restricted access to Israeli archives. Dallasheh notes that
history matters, because it gives us the tools to create active, engaged
citizens. If that is the purpose of education, she asked, then why do we
shy away from trying to change this situation? She contended that the
AHA has a responsibility to make statements such as that contained in
the resolution.

Historians Against the War was founded at the January 2003 AHA meeting
to oppose the pending invasion of Iraq. Since then it has campaigned
against a militaristic foreign policy via publications, public speaking,
teach-ins, and several conferences. HAW has gathered substantial
evidence to support the charges of Israeli government violations of the
right to education in the territories it controls.

Note: You are receiving this email because you signed a Historians Against the War statement (see http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/) or asked to be included in HAW's informational mailings. If you no longer wish to receive these occasional messages about HAW's work, send an email to haw-info-request@stopthewars.org?subject=unsubscribe.
_______________________________________________
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Monday, January 04, 2016

[haw-info] HAW Notes 1/4/16 - revised message with corrected links

[Apologies to anyone who tried to access the three entries in the "recent articles of interest" list that had faulty links in the message sent out earlier today. The links have been corrected in this revised version of the message. Thanks to Roberta Gold for pointing out the problem. Jim O'Brien, embarrassed sender]


To members and friends of Historians Against the War,

Here are some notes, followed by our occasional set of links to recent articles of interest.

1. A memorial service for the feminist and antiwar historian Ros Baxandall, who died in October, will be held this coming Saturday, January 9, at 2:00 pm at the Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, New York City.

2. For those attending the AHA convention in Atlanta next weekend, here is information on two events involving Historians Against the War:  

(a) "Roundtable on Violations of Academic Freedom in the Occupied Palestinian Territories." 2:30 - 4:30 pm in International Ballroom 4 of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level; 

(b) AHA business meeting (open only to AHA members), 4:45 - 6:00 pm in Grand Ballroom A, Hilton Atlanta, Second Floor. A resolution on Israeli violations of academic freedom, sponsored by HAW, is on the agenda for the business meeting. (The resolution, with supporting documentation, can be found at http://historiansagainstwar.org/aha16.)

3. A point of curiosity: Does anyone remember (or otherwise know about) a 1990-1991 organization called "Historians Against the War in the Persian Gulf"?  It was briefly referred to in a recent American Historical Review, but nobody on the HAW Steering Committee recognizes the name. HAW itself was formed in the run-up to the Iraq invasion of 1993.




Links to Recent Articles of Interest

By Lawrence S. Wittner, History News Network, posted January 1
The author is a professor of history emeritus at SUNY Albany.

By David N. Gibbs, History News Network, posted December 27
The author teaches history at the University of Arizona.

By Allen Fromherz, The National Interest, posted December 23
The author is director of the Middle East Studies Center at Georgia State University.

Edited and introduced by William Burr, National Security Archive, posted December 22
 
By Gary Leupp, CounterPunch.org, posted December 18
The author teaches history and religion at Tufts University.

By Walter G. Moss, History News Network, posted December 13
The author is a professor of history emeritus at Eastern Michigan University.

"Gangsta Jihad" [review of Jason Burke's The New Threat: The Past, Present, and Future of Islamic Militancy]
By Andrew J. Bacevich, The American Conservative, posted December 16 
The author is a professor of history and international relations emeritus at Boston University.

By Murray Polnar, History News Network, posted November 30

By William R. Polk, Consortium News, posted November 17
The author is a former State Department official and former University of Chicago history professor.

Thanks to James Swarts, Steve Gosch, and an anonymous reader for contributing suggestions for the above list. Suggests can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.








"



[haw-info] HAW Notes 1/4/16: Ros Baxandall memorial; AHA; curiosity; links to recent articles of interest

To members and friends of Historians Against the War,

Here are some notes, followed by our occasional set of links to recent articles of interest.

1. A memorial service for the feminist and antiwar historian Ros Baxandall, who died in October, will be held this coming Saturday, January 9, at 2:00 pm at the Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, New York City.

2. For those attending the AHA convention in Atlanta next weekend, here is information on two events involving Historians Against the War:  

(a) "Roundtable on Violations of Academic Freedom in the Occupied Palestinian Territories." 2:30 - 4:30 pm in International Ballroom 4 of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level; 

(b) AHA business meeting (open only to AHA members), 4:45 - 6:00 pm in Grand Ballroom A, Hilton Atlanta, Second Floor. A resolution on Israeli violations of academic freedom, sponsored by HAW, is on the agenda for the business meeting. (The resolution, with supporting documentation, can be found at http://historiansagainstwar.org/aha16.)

3. A point of curiosity: Does anyone remember (or otherwise know about) a 1990-1991 organization called "Historians Against the War in the Persian Gulf"?  It was briefly referred to in a recent American Historical Review, but nobody on the HAW Steering Committee recognizes the name. HAW itself was formed in the run-up to the Iraq invasion of 1993.




Links to Recent Articles of Interest

By Lawrence S. Wittner, History News Network, posted January 1
The author is a professor of history emeritus at SUNY Albany.

By David N. Gibbs, History News Network, posted December 27
The author teaches history at the University of Arizona.

By Allen Fromherz, The National Interest, posted December 23
The author is director of the Middle East Studies Center at Georgia State University.

Edited and introduced by William Burr, National Security Archive, posted December 22
 
By Gary Leupp, CounterPunch.org, posted December 18
The author teaches history and religion at Tufts University.

By Walter G. Moss, History News Network, posted December 13
The author is a professor of history emeritus at Eastern Michigan University.

"Gangsta Jihad" [review of Jason Burke's The New Threat: The Past, Present, and Future of Islamic Militany]
By Andrew J. Bacevich, The American Conservative, posted December 16 
The author is a professor of history and international relations emeritus at Boston University.

By Murray Polnar, History News Network, posted November 30

By William R. Polk, Consortium News, posted November 17
The author is a former State Department official and former University of Chicago history professor.

Thanks to James Swarts, Steve Gosch, and an anonymous reader for contributing suggestions for the above list. Suggests can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.








"