Great photos and report by Ellen Davidson.
http://photos.app.goo.gl/vRNVHBwzSuw6oDCj2
Burn Pits: the Agent Orange of our generation?
—FROM http://iava.org/take-action/
A Marine watching civilian firefighters control a burn pit at Camp Fallujah in 2007. Marine Corps photo
http://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-human-cost-of-the-militarys-toxic-burn-pits-d9111eb3e2cc
For Post-9/11 veterans, burn pits could be our generation’s Agent Orange. Burn pits were a common way to get rid of waste in Iraq and Afghanistan and we have seen a widespread trend in health symptoms associated with this toxic exposures. To determine a link between these exposures and illnesses, we need research, but the VA’s Burn Pit Registry is not well-known.
IAVA has partnered with U.S. Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and Brian Mast (R-FL) – U.S. Army Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, respectively, who have introduced legislation to direct the Department of Defense (DoD) to include in periodic health assessments and during military separations an evaluation of whether a servicemember has been exposed to open burn pits or toxic airborne chemicals. If they report being exposed, they will be enrolled in the Burn Pit Registry unless they opt out.
Ask your Senators and House Member to cosponsor and work to pass Burn Pits Accountability Act (S. 3181/H.R. 5671) to increase DoD accountability for exposures by our servicemembers to burn pits and airborne toxins.
CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE TO YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES.
MORE INFORMATION
Current and Historical Uses of Burn Pits in the Military
Natural and effective treatments for Gulf War Syndrome and exposure to burn pits
Thousands of Iraq, Afghan war vets sickened after working at ‘burn pits’
Veterans Condemn Israeli Slaughter of Unarmed Palestinian Protesters
—FROM VETERANSFORPEACE.ORG
Israel receives $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid every year, making it the largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance. U.S. laws, such as the “Leahy Law,” the Arms Export Control Act, and the Foreign Assistance Act, are supposed to prevent U.S. weapons from being used by other countries to commit human rights violations.Countries that violate these laws are subject to penalties, including a cut-off of additional weapons. Furthermore, the opening of the embassy in Jerusalem flies in the face of diplomacy and creates a massive roadblock on a path to peace. It is outrageous that our government continues to uphold and further such actions. Israel must be held accountable for its actions!
More Information
Veterans Return to Vietnam Marking 50th Anniversary Massacre
A group of Vietnam War veterans and peace activists travel back to Vietnam to mark the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre. Juan González & Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) speak with three members of the delegation: Vietnam veteran Paul Cox; Susan Schnall, former Navy nurse who was court-martialed for opposing the Vietnam War; and longtime activist Ron Carver.
http://truthout.org
Content Warning: This video contains graphic footage of the Vietnam War.
Skip The War
Photos and Video…
Ann Wright Celebrates Korea Breakthrough on Democracy Now
Holy smokes!” declares Ann Wright, as she celebrates Korea breakthrough on Democracy Now.
http://www.democracynow.org/2018/4/27/our_dreams_are_coming_true_peace
For a Global Nonviolent Revolution, We Need to Connect the Dots
Published on Common Dreams
For a global nonviolent revolution, we need to connect the dots, and make that connection visible, and address the whole darn global spectrum of violence and death that is killing us and millions of sisters and brothers and the creatures and the planet itself.
READ FULL ARTICLE
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/03/26/global-nonviolent-revolution-we-need-connect-dots
Reality Leigh Winner is a whistleblower who has been jailed without bail since June 3, 2017
Reality Leigh Winner is a whistle blower who has been jailed without bail since June 3, 2017 for helping expose Russian hacking efforts leading up to the 2016 US election.
Charged under the Espionage Act for sending a classified document to the media, she faces 10 years in prison. She is the first victim of the Trump Administration’s “war on leakers.”
Her trial is expect to begin late 2018 or early 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. Please donate to her defense, write her a letter, and
sign the petition! http://standwithreality.org/sign-the-petition/
On June 3, 2017 my daughter Reality Leigh Winner was arrested and jailed and later charged under the Espionage Act for allegedly releasing a top-secret document to a media outlet, The Intercept. The document analyzed information about Russian online intrusions prior to the 2016 presidential election. Reality had been employed by a contract agency and worked at the NSA in Augusta, Georgia following her honorable discharge from the U.S. Air Force in December of 2016.
Reality has pleaded not guilty to this one charge, and her defense team is working furiously to defend against the Espionage charge, but the Court in Georgia continues to rule against Reality at every turn. Reality has been denied pretrial bail and awaits trial in a small county jail in Lincolnton, Georgia.
The impact this has had on Reality and our entire family is devastating. Because of her special diet, Reality’s nutritional and medical needs are not met in jail. She has been spontaneously denied mail, books, and visits. In order to assist in her defense, she must be transported to the Federal Courthouse in Augusta, Georgia and spends up to 12 hours in full shackles and is strip-searched multiple times during the day.
Reality is an extraordinary woman and she remains very strong, despite the situation she is in. I remain forever grateful to all who have written her and continue to support her. There are some very good people out there and this has been one of the blessings to come out of this struggle. As the days pass, our hopes for a quick resolution have disappeared, and I am now realizing that we have a very long and hard battle ahead of us.
Reality needs support long term and I am hoping that she will have this.
Always,
Billie J. Winner-Davis (mother)
http://standwithreality.org/
Please write to Reality at:
Reality L. Winner
Inmate # 3342
Lincoln County Jail
PO Box 970
Lincolnton, GA 30817
We Are the Antidote – Every Choice a Revolutionary Act
S. Brian Willson, June 5, 2008
There is a deeply uncomfortable but clearly structural explanation for the pattern of historic U.S. war-making that continues to this very moment. US Americans, people like you and me, are addicted to insatiable consumption that makes the American Way Of Life totally dependent upon massive exploitation of others and their resources, and the earth herself.
The political-economic market system we have grown up with and support with our tax dollars and voting patterns is a significant contributor to the problem.
Part of the revolutionary antidote, if it occurs, will be in radically changed choices each of us makes as to how we travel, what we eat, what we consume or don’t consume, etc. Take travel, for example.
Air and private auto travel not only emit massive amounts of carbon molecules, accumulating as particles of mass destruction in our biosphere, they also consume inordinate amount of petroleum for each passenger mile traveled.
If we are not committed to taking radical leaps in our own consciousness that manifests in corresponding radical changes in our lifestyles, then we choose complicity in business as usual, i.e., continuing to live as we have been conditioned and to which we are now addicted – comfortable materialism. It is absolutely and totally unsustainable. We now have an evolutionary opportunity for a leap in consciousness to integrate ourselves into a cosmological reality of living in mutual respect with all other life.
But we are the antidote, not the government or the market. As we become conscious, each daily choice we make from eating, traveling, and consuming, or not, is a revolutionary act.
Co-Director Matt Howard speak about the anniversary of the invasion of IRAQ on Democracy Now!
It was 15 years ago today when the U.S. invaded Iraq on the false pretense that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction. The attack came despite worldwide protest and a lack of authorization from the United Nations Security Council. At around 5:30 a.m. in Baghdad on March 20, 2003, air raid sirens were heard as the U.S. invasion began.
http://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/20/a_criminal_war_15_years_after
John Bolton’s appointment as national-security adviser
John Bolton’s appointment as national-security adviser does not require Senate confirmation. That doesn’t mean Congress is powerless.
http://www.thenation.com/article/what-congress-can-do-to-check-a-war-mongering-lunatic/
Gerry Condon at Stop the War Machine Conference
Video of Gerry Codon’s talk at the Stop the War Machine Conference. He was asked to provide an overview of the wars at home and the wars abroad.