Peace

The International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases was formally established at a conference in Quito and Manta, Ecuador, March 5-9. Over 400 grassroots and community-based activists were in attendance from more than 40 countries. Longtime peace activist Al Marder of New Haven, Conn., attended the “Quito No Bases” conference

WASHINGTON — Voicing anger that Congress approved an Iraq spending bill May 24 with no timeline to withdraw U.S. troops, antiwar activists vowed to press on with demands that the lawmakers “do what voters elected them to do” and pass legislation to end the war.

When I hear activists opposed to the Iraq war chant, “Out Now,” it brings back memories of 1971, when the slogan “Out Now” was a cause for sharp division in the movement to end the Vietnam War.

Anger. Frustration. This is what many opposed to the Iraq war felt after hearing that the Democratic leadership will pull deadlines for troop withdrawal from the funding bill.

“The western media talks about democracy and the liberation of Afghanistan, but the U.S. and its allies are engaged in the warlordization, criminalization and drug-lordization of our wounded land,” Afghani woman parliamentarian Malalai Joya told an audience at the University of California in Los Angeles last month.

As the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War and the ensuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory approaches, violence has once again flared up in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially in the Gaza Strip.

Thinking about the war dead on Memorial Day, “the most important thing is the people who are still there — caring for them, bringing them home,” said Toby, an Army vet from Indiana who served 15 months in Iraq, as he staffed the phone at the Iraq Veterans Against the War office in Philadelphia.

WASHINGTON — President Bush will churn out shopworn platitudes about the sacrifices of the nation’s brave soldiers this Memorial Day. But many of the soldiers, active duty and retired, are not listening. Instead, they want Bush to stop ducking and answer some hard questions.

Though the Korean nuclear issue is far from resolved, a number of developments point to a lessening of tension on the peninsula.