A peace activist is turned around in Afghanistan

(I'm publishing this because it confirms what Code Pink recently said. I've favored a withdrawal, so this is the "other side of the story."

From: Rabia Elizabeth Roberts rabiaroberts @ earthlink.net

LETTER FROM THE ROAD, #37
Rabia Elizabeth Roberts
October, 2009

AFGHANISTAN:
CONFESSIONS OF A PEACE ACTIVIST

Kabul: armed guards, machine guns and sand bags at every intersection and at
the door to my guest house - open sewers and fecal dust - traffic jams of
SUVs, military convoys, bicycles and pedestrians ­ six-story buildings
amidst crumbling houses and filthy refugee encampments - men, lots of men
everywhere, and street children. The women on the streets are conservatively
dressed (no skin showing) with big scarves. About a quarter of them wear the
signature blue head-to-toe burqa.

I have come to Kabul because I want to experience for myself what is
happening here, eight years after the U.S. ousted the Taliban. I have spent
the past 40 years of my life protesting war and working for peace in
conflict areas. I don¹t believe that killing leads to peace.

I came here as part of a small peace delegation of mostly women who share my
conviction that President Obama must not send more troops and should set a
timeline for withdrawal of the 60,000 that are here.

But now - after seven intense days and nights of interviews and meetings in
Kabul - I no longer have that conviction.

The best path to peace may not be the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops.
And since the troops here now are not able to provide enough security for
the Afghans to rebuild their country, it is possible more troops may be
needed.
It shocks me to admit this. But the voices I have heard ­ local and
international NGO workers, reconciliation activists, ex-Taliban members,
warlords, women in homeless shelters and in governmental positions ­ clearly
do not want a withdrawal of troops now. They are under attack. The great
majority of the people I listened to ­ not all but the great majority ­ feel
that additional troops are necessary to train a viable Afghan army and a
national police force and to secure the country so that development projects
can proceed. Yes, we should have accomplished those goals by now, but we
have not.
Dr. Soraya, a dedicated and hopeful Afghan physician who is Commissioner for
Women¹s Rights, told us, ³If the international troops leave Afghanistan now
it could be a humanitarian disaster. There will be chaos and rape again.²

Leading Questions
I am not the only one in our delegation who had to confront this disparity
between our pre-convictions and the reality we found. This disparity became
a serious tension in our group.

After the second day of appointments, with most of the Afghans we met
expressing support for the presence of troops, one of the leaders of our
delegation said, ³I don¹t like what I am hearing.² So she changed her style
of questioning. For example, when she asked, ³Do you want the troops to
leave?² the answers she received were mostly ³No.² So she began asking
questions like, ³Do you want development and jobs, or do you want that money
spent on more troops?² Sure enough, more people began to say they wanted
³Jobs not war.² This was the sound-bite she wanted.

In my younger days as a social researcher for national-scale projects, I
learned a great deal about survey questioning. You can get the answer you¹re
looking for by limiting the options presented in the question. A more
accurate approach is to formulate questions that are essentially open-ended,
questions that do not in themselves limit the field of the answer.

So when I asked the same people, ³Do you feel Afghanistan can develop
economically and socially at this time without military security?² the
answer was ³No. We need an army. The coalition forces must stay and train an
army of 250,000 Afghans. Until that happens we need U.S. troops to secure
the border with Pakistan so the Taliban stop coming and going from their
training camps there.²

I came to Kabul to listen and learn, and to report back home what I
witnessed. While I respect the heart values of those of my colleagues who
insist on reporting only Afghan voices that support their position, I feel
the simplicity of sound bites like ³No more troops² risks misleading the
American people about their responsibility to the people of Afghanistan and
about how their own security interests are intertwined in the region.

A Snapshot of Three Decades of War
America is not an innocent bystander to the situation in Afghanistan (and
neither is Britain, Russia, Pakistan, or Iran.) Over the past thirty years
American policies have shown an appalling lack of long-range thinking as
well as arrogance and ignorance about the cultural and political forces at
play in the region.

In 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan to bolster a faltering communist
government. Blinded by cold war rhetoric, the CIA spent the next ten years
funding and arming an indigenous insurgency called the mujahedeen (Mr.
Wilson¹s War). So the U.S. couldn¹t be called to account, these funds were
moved through the Pakistan intelligence services (the ISI) who served their
own needs by directing arms and money to the most fundamentalist of the
Islamic warlords involved, slowly freezing out the moderate and nationalist
leaders. When the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the U.S. breathed a sigh of
relief and promptly forgot about Afghanistan.

With 1.5 million Afghans killed in the war and 4 million more banished to
squalid refugee camps, the country was in disarray. But the mujahedeen
militias divided along tribal lines had become accustomed to fighting and
the thrill of living near death. Almost as soon as the mujahedeen took over,
rivalries exploded into civil war. Armed with the weapons we supplied them
they plunged the country into another devastating six years of war.

Many Afghans welcomed the ³talibs² as they poured out of their conservative
madrassas over the border from Pakistan and offered to put an end to the
chaos. But the Taliban victory was soon its own scourge on the people of
Afghanistan. They imposed severe social and religious sanctions on the
populace, and welcomed the money and recruits that came from Saudi Arabia
and Pakistan with the express purpose of challenging Western-style
civilization.

Three weeks after 9/11, American forces attacked Afghanistan. Three months
later the Taliban had melted away. Obsessed with cultivating war with Iraq,
we left the job in Afghanistan unfinished ­ with inadequate security force,
little money for reconstruction, and little attention to the growing drug
trade that was funding renewed terrorist activities. The Taliban and Al
Qaeda moved to Pakistan to regroup, recruit, and then returned to
destabilize the provincial and national governments of Afghanistan.

Americans are now tired of the ³war of choice² in Iraq. Faced with enormous
domestic problems, Americans understandably want to be rid of the Afghan
problem once again. After 8 years of misguided bombing raids to ³kill
Taliban² who are living in villages surrounded by civilians, we have created
a new multi-headed enemy.

Today the Taliban are different from the original fundamentalists who waged
a war in the name of Islam. According to the director of the Peace and
Reconciliation process in Kabul ³only about 10% -15% of Taliban are
ideologically motivated today.² The rest are a combination of poor villagers
angry at U.S. bombing, out of work youth, former militia, drug smugglers,
plain thugs and those from the countryside who distrust any national
government no matter whose it is. ³Most of them,² the director told us, ³if
offered money, land, jobs and personal security would put down their weapons
and come in.²

You Break It, You Own It
Why is this mess our problem? Why should the boys and girls from Indiana and
Texas who I talked with at Edgar Military Base in Kabul come here to risk
their lives for the security of these people? Why? Because the U.S. has been
intimately involved in creating this mess, and we have a moral
responsibility to these people to help clean it up. And in terms of our own
self-interest, if we turn our back on Afghanistan now it will almost
certainly come back to haunt us.

What does ³clean it up² mean? It means we have to do many, many things
differently from how we have been doing over the past 30 years. In my next
letter I will try to outline a few of these courses of action.

Many analysts say the U.S. is using the war on terrorism as an excuse to
expand its military power in order to access resources throughout this
region. This may be true. After 40 years of peace activism it is hard to
trust the military establishment and the industry behind it. Basically I
don¹t. Yet I know if the international forces leave Afghanistan now without
securing the country, there will be a great deal more violence here and it
will very likely spread beyond these borders.

Consider the alternatives. Without an international military presence there
is a good chance that money and influence from neighboring Pakistan, Russia,
Uzbekistan, Iran ­ not to mention Saudi Arabia ­ will plunge the country
back into civil war. Then there is the enormous success of the illegal
heroin trade in the region since the U.S. invasion. Today in the south of
the country, drug production and transport pays the bills and cements the
loyalties of hundreds of tribal chieftains who are involved in the trade.
This could easily become a narco-state funneling half of its profits to
terrorist groups around the world. Two other options are a successful
Taliban victory establishing another repressive, woman-hating,
terrorist-supporting regime fueled by drug money, or maybe simply a failed
state in perpetual war, continuously destabilizing the whole region. Any of
these outcomes would stimulate an increase in Islamist militancy and global
terrorism.

The Dilemma of the Peace Activist
Peace workers are against violence. We protest all war. Military adventurism
and the pervasiveness of the military­industrial complex appall us. I liked
it better when I knew what the moral high ground in Afghanistan was ­ troop
withdrawal ­ but my experience from this intense week in Kabul has given me
pause.

I feel we have to admit a terrible truth: the standard anti-war position of
³bring the troops home now² is in itself a violent policy. It will
precipitate extreme violence. The opposite position ­ maintaining current
troop levels, or adding more ­ also means more violence. But after all that
has happened, the U.S. has a responsibility to help Afghans fashion a
sovereign country capable of human decency.

Unearthly beautiful music this Saturday in Boulder!

Beth Quist was the lead singer for Cirque du Soleil. She's from Boulder, has a 4-octave range, and sang with Bobby McFerrin's Voicestra. Jesse and James are both superb musicians.
Saturday, September 26, 2009 8-11pm $12.00

Location: Immersive Studio No.7, Boulder, CO
3063 Sterling Circle East, No. 7 (E. on Valmont, almost, but not quite to the post office @ 55th, left on Sterling; right around the circle; first left in the back)

Watch Jesse & James with Zahara on drums at Boulder favorite Trident Bookcafe Sept. 12. With hand dancers...



Details:

A quite rare trio performance of James Hoskins, Jesse Manno, and Beth Quist is happening this Sat. Sept. 26th at Immersive studios in Boulder!
-----------------------------
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Time: 8:00pm - 11:00pm
Cost: $12.00 (such a deal!) {or More $$ if generosity permits!}
Location: Immersive Studio No.7
Street: 3063 Sterling Circle East, No. 7 (E. on Valmont, almost,
but not quite to the post ofc. @ 55th, left on Sterling;
right around the circle; first left in the back)
City/Town: Boulder, CO 80301
Phone: 303.413.1131 or me, James: 303.817.8828
Emails: quistian@earthlink.net; james@cellohoskins.com
-----------------------------
Personnel and show info:

Jesse Manno:
vocals, saz, bouzouki, drums/percussion, flutes, oud

James Hoskins:
vocals, cello, gadulka, percussion

Beth Quist:
vocals, keyboards, guitar, hammered dulcimer, percussion

We might also all be trading off between each others instruments... you never
know. This is an evening focusing on our love of improvisation with a few
structured pieces thrown in for energetic bookending.

We will also be joined by 2 wonderful improvisational dancers, Cortney McGuire & Josselyn Levinson. and wonderful lighting & photomedia by Joe Shepard. This is getting more fun by the minute.

"Homework Kills Trees" T-shirts "Stop the Madness"

Tonite at the Neko Case/Calexico concert at Boulder's Chautauqua, I met Elijah. She said she'd worn it to school, with no resulting decrease in homework. The madness continues.

Spectacular Iridescent Clouds with Panasonic LX3

These are the first really good iridescent clouds I've captured with what people are calling the highest quality compact digital camera, the Panasonic LX3 with an excellent f2.0 Leica lens and a larger sensor than most compacts. This camera is so popular with discriminating photographers that the price is above list price and rising 10 months after introduction, unlike almost all other cameras whose prices fall rapidly...



Iridescent clouds occur when most water droplets are the same size. These were taken from Boulder's Chautauqua Park. Lots more here.

Ralph Nader endorses our Vote.org project!

One symptom of America's increasing inequality is the "star system." Normally, it would be almost impossible for a nobody like me to meet someone like Ralph Nader, America's foremost citizen advocate for over 40 years. I've tried several times over the last year to contact him via his nonprofit Public Citizen. No dice.

Yesterday, because of a Colorado snow/slush blizzard, only 50 attended a talk Ralph gave at CU-Boulder, about Single-Payer Health Care. So I was able to talk to him several times at the small reception following. He was enthusiastic about former Senator Mike Gravel's project for better and national ballot initiatives, which I promote at Vote.org And he recognized that "Vote at Vote.org" was way easier to spread than "Vote at ni4d.us"(Gravel's site) and promised to do so!

Having national ballot initiatives will make Congress more humble, as they've done with Switzerland's Parliament since 1848. When they don't represent us, we'll just make law ourselves. This will lessen the star system -and you can bet The People will reduce income inequality too!

Ralph asked about Mike, who's had a hard time since his glory days, when he single-handedly filibustered until the Vietnam draft was ended, reading the Pentagon Papers into the national record. Mike was targeted for defeat by the military/industrial complex and has been out of office since 1981. I told him Mike's considering moving to Switzerland or Korea to promote the National Initiative, since the media ignores or marginalizes him here, even though he sacrificed his retirement to run for President.

Ralph does have a sense of humor, and curiosity. He wanted to know about my Panasonic Lumix LX3, which is supposed to be the best-quality compact digital camera, and does a decent job of video, as you can see if you click the "HD" for high-definition.

You can see here how the media can make a "nobody" out of a popular entertainer who was voted "Best Activist" by Boulderites. You can see why I've devoted 20 years to this project here.

YOU can help bring government BY the people to the U.S., help restore my reputation, and re-balance inequality some by linking here or sharing this story on social networks:

Newspapers digging their own graves -and ours.

My letter to the editors of the Boulder Daily Camera and Colorado Daily:


Editor,

As newspapers wring their hands over their declining readership, they should remember the old dictum: "The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." In so many ways, from the expected rejection of this letter, to editorials to news "slant," we now usually get the opposite, political dictum: "Kiss up and (defecate) down."

My experience: In 1992 I was voted "Best Activist" by readers of the Boulder Daily Camera, for several reasons which annoyed the rulers of "our" town. So, in 1995, after I'd criticized the Mayor at a City Council meeting, the editor of the Camera falsely wrote "Ravitz virtually suggested the Mayor deserved the cancer she was fighting." The official City video of the 6/6/95 meeting, available at the Carnegie Library, proves this false. Or read the actual transcript. The editor repeated his falsehood a week later.

A month later the editor of the Colorado Daily fired me from the columnist post I'd held for 5 years, for another easily-disproven falsehood: that I'd disrupted a meeting on the future of the University of Colorado. Prof. Estevan Flores, who ran the meeting, wrote in a published letter that I'd instead made a "valuable contribution" to the meeting. Prof. Martin Walter wrote that if anyone had disrupted the meeting it was he, when he rose to passionately second my suggestion that CU "democratize." Chancellor Rod Park was also a witness.

When media thus make inconvenient truth-tellers into non-persons they leave only yes-men and women in the pool of leaders. You can see the results. Happy devolution!

Evan Ravitz

Why I've devoted 20 years to better and NATIONAL ballot initiatives

I was the not-so-tight-rope artist and juggler Evan from Heaven for 20 years. I entertained 400,000 on Boulder's mall, but the City banned me and others from 1982-1985, in spite of a petition (see below) of 4000 fans -and Boulder and Constitutional law. I became homeless.

So I went to Aspen and Key West, and then Mexico & Guatemala. I started building a house on a Mayan artist friend's land, but abandoned it when 3 other Mayan friends were killed by the Guatemalan Army -with U.S.-supplied M-16s.


I returned to Boulder, depressed. I read in Howard Zinn's "People's History of the U.S." that polls showed by 1975 that 65% of Americans were opposed to all foreign military aid. I realized if WE had a vote on it, my friends would still be alive -along with millions world-wide. That we'd never have been banned in Boulder. And the world would be a better place.



I spearheaded Boulder's 1993 Voting by Phone ballot initiative, thinking it the technology to make citizens voting directly on the laws practical. We made the CBS Evening News, the Wall St. Journal, etc.

With a dishonest City Council attacking our initiative we were defeated 59-41%. I started Vote.org in 1995 to promote citizen power via better and national ballot initiatives.

I soon got a call from Jared Polis, a Princeton student who'd enabled student Voting by Web. We've been friends ever since. We both love Mexico as well as democracy. I drag Jared hiking once or twice a year.

Jared became the wealthiest and most philanthropic person in Boulder and is now our Congressman! He said on radio that he's going to introduce a bill for national ballot initiatives later this year.

In 2000 I devoted Vote.org to Sen. Mike Gravel's project for better and national initiatives. I took the initiative to solicit endorsements from prominent people. Howard Zinn became one of the first, along with Patch Adams, Pete Seeger, Daniel Ellsberg, Julia Butterfly Hill, "Granny D," Michael Lerner, Ralph Nader etc. See the complete list.

Transport that's fun and follows the laws of physics!

We all learned in school that bikes are the most efficient transportation, in both the artificial and animal worlds. But how can humans be more efficient than, say, antelope? Because of all the "embedded" energy already invested to smooth and pave the roads, which makes skinny wheels way more efficient than any legs. (Animals can't coast, for one thing.)

Cycling's also fun and keeps you healthy. In my 30s I rode across Mexico among other long rides. At 56 I still do all my local travel by bike. Bikes should be our first choice when practical. Bikes are, or can be, easy to take on public transportation, a great combination.

People talk about "transit" as if it were all good. But as the standard text Principles of Pavement Design or any pavement engineer will tell you, road damage increases as the FOURTH power of vehicle weight (assuming the same number of axles). This means that a bus weighing about ten times the average car does TEN THOUSAND times more damage! So buses and heavy trucks do almost all the damage to our highways and major roads.

Pounding our roads and highways, the most expensive infrastructure in the U.S., is just not "sustainable." Heavy transport should where possible run on steel rails, far cheaper and more durable than roads. Rail transport is also the 2nd most efficient, after the bicycle.

Until the 1940s, most urbanites commuted on streetcars -running on rails. Some of our "stimulus" money should go to rebuild them. Some should go to improve long-distance rail lines. And some should go to develop and produce an affordable electric car -especially since car companies are getting bailed out.

Electric cars don't pollute and go much further per dollar than internal combustion vehicles. Having far fewer moving parts and no explosions inside, they are far more durable and require far less maintenance. Soon, many will be charging them from solar panels on their homes, and their batteries will be tied into the electric grid, providing storage to even out the intermittent production of solar and wind energy, and uneven usage.

Hybrid cars save gas, but there's evidence the "embodied" extra energy involved in producing TWO engines -electric and gas- may outweigh that savings, unless, like cabbies, you drive a lot. The gas engine still requires lots of maintenance.

Once economics and physics force much transportion back to streetcars and trains, America's huge road and highway network will be much safer and more fun for cycling again. And the roads will last: A cyclist on a bike weighing (at most) ten times less than a car does TEN THOUSAND times less road damage, 100 MILLION times less than a bus!

Latest Iridescent (or nacreous) Clouds

I've been lucky to see and photograph these sublime clouds often. They occur when most water droplets are the same size, refracting the sun in a collimated way. You can see all my best iridescent and other cloud photos here

NOAA: Climate Change to last 40 (de)generations

The Ojibwe and other American Indians did their "deciding" considering seven generations to come.

Now says Boulder's NOAA: Climate change effects irreversible based on a study in the January 26 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Over 1000 years isn't really irreversible, but it is for us and everyone we'll ever know.

During his campaign my new Congressman Jared Polis quoted this 1997 poll showing 65% of Americans wanted to cut greenhouse gases no matter what other nations did. Yet, 12 years later, with Congress "deciding," greenhouse gases keep increasing. Jared has since declared that he will introduce a bill so that Americans can have a Plan B: National ballot initiatives!

White bear swims in water
Where's my ice, dude?