I was on RT, Russia’s 24/7 English-language news channel, today to talk about the news that the US has stepped up its covert war in Yemen in recent weeks with increased strikes by fighter jets and armed drones. Click here to watch the video.
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Is there no other way in Libya?
25 MarMarch 25, 2011
Waging Nonviolence, Common Dreams, The Indypendent
One of the arguments that is being forwarded by proponents of military intervention in Libya is that Qaddafi is literally crazy and therefore cannot be reasoned with or expected to step down without force.
In an article for Tikkun, entitled “Libya: Acid Test for Nonviolence?,” Metta Center for Nonviolence president Michael Nagler, who I deeply respect and have personally learned a great deal from, makes an argument for war along these lines:
We in the nonviolence field will recognize this as a “madman with a sword” analogy. Gandhi said flatly that if a madman is raging through a village with a sword (read: assault rifle — or Glock Automatic) he who “dispatches the lunatic” will have done the community (and even the poor lunatic) a favor. Here are Gandhi’s exact words, from The Hindu, 1926:
Taking life may be a duty…. Suppose a man runs amok and goes furiously about, sword in hand, and killing anyone that comes in his way, and no one dares capture him alive. Anyone who dispatches this lunatic will earn the gratitude of the community and be regarded as a benevolent man.
Later in the piece, he goes on to say essentially that in this “acid test” for nonviolence, nonviolence has come up short.
Our options are very thin because we have not explored more creative options than brute force, which always operates after conflict has already flared. Military intervention is now the least bad solution from the point of view of nonviolence, but it is bad. What else is left to us?
To be honest, I was very disappointed to read this. Military intervention can by definition never be a solution from the point of view of nonviolence. Killing people is not nonviolent.
It has truly been amazing that so many progressives, even in the nonviolence world, have given up on nonviolence so quickly, especially on the heels of the incredible victories for nonviolent action in Tunisia and Egypt. Can anyone argue that Libyans or the international community really exhausted every nonviolent alternative in the last few weeks?
“People try nonviolence for a week,” as Theodore Roszak says, “and when it ‘doesn’t work’ they go back to violence, which hasn’t worked for centuries.”
The Human Toll
15 FebMarch 2011 issue
This 9-year-old Afghan girl lost her left arm in a U.S. bombing. She now lives in a displaced persons camp outside Kabul.
In December, as the United States entered the 10th year of what President Obama called the “good war” in Afghanistan, I traveled to Kabul to take stock of the human toll of the increasingly bloody occupation.
From the moment I landed in Kabul’s airport, I noticed its distinctive smell — a unique mix of dust, smog, and burning wood. The poor air quality, I learned, is a direct result of the wars. In an attempt to quantify the damage done by air pollution, Afghan authorities recently announced that 3,000 people die every year in Kabul due to the poor air quality, making it a more effective killer of Afghans than the Taliban. War not only destroys people, but it poisons the earth itself, which leads to more deaths.
In Kabul, it’s clear that money was secured from somewhere to surround buildings on nearly every street with enormous concrete blast walls, sandbags, razor wire, and men with AK-47s — turning the city into a massive open-air prison. Someone decided that razor wire was a greater priority than paving roads, providing clean drinking water, or building a much-needed sewage system for the city. Ten years into the so-called “reconstruction” and even at a hotel that caters to internationals, electricity was spotty — going out multiple times a day, sometimes for hours at a time.
These minimal services provided by the Afghan government in the capital, in reality the only part of the country it controls, are nonexistent once you get beyond Kabul. On the U.N. Human Development Index, Afghanistan is ranked as one of the least developed countries in the world. Poverty and unemployment are endemic. One 2010 study released by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission found that up to 40 percent of the country’s 15 million children are involved in some paid work, many because war has left them without fathers. While most of these reluctant breadwinners are trying to sell packs of gum or Kleenex, one young boy took a clever approach, given most foreigners’ concerns about security. “I’ll be your bodyguard,” he told me jokingly, for a price, of course.
As difficult as these children’s lives are, they might still be considered the lucky ones. Afghanistan has the worst infant mortality rate in the world, and one out of every four Afghan children doesn’t live to see his or her fifth birthday.
More than 30 years of war, since the 1979 Soviet invasion, have left the country in a perpetual state of crisis. According to the latest figures from the United Nations, life expectancy in Afghanistan is only 44.6 years, the lowest in the world.
Interview on Russia Today
8 Feb
I was on Russia Today (RT), Russia’s 24/7 English-language news channel, to discuss ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s role in the Iraq war and the use of torture on the day that his new memoir Known and Unknown was released. Click here to watch the video.
The Tragic U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan
17 JanJanuary 17, 2010
Union Daily Times, SC; Worthington Daily Globe, MN; Fayette County News, GA; Asheville Citizen-Times, NC; News Eagle, PA. A shorter version was published in the Peoria Journal Star, IL. Distributed by OtherWords and Featurewell.
Albert Einstein famously defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If that doesn’t accurately describe the more than nine-year-old U.S. war in Afghanistan, I don’t know what does.
The results of the surge of tens of thousands of additional troops into the “graveyard of empires” are now evident. More soldiers, humanitarian workers, and civilians were killed in 2010 than any year since the United States invaded. One tally put the dead at more than 10,000 last year alone.
At least 120,000 Afghans have also been driven from their homes due to the violence over the last year and a half. I visited Charahi Qambar in December, the largest of some 30 camps for the internally displaced around Kabul, and was horrified by the living conditions there. These refugees call simple mud huts home and lack adequate access to food, clean water, education, or work. The most vulnerable, especially the children, often die from the cold during the bitter winters.
Meanwhile, with the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan serving as one of its most effective recruiting tools, the Taliban has grown exponentially–from an estimated 7,000 in 2006 to 35,000 or 40,000 today, according to NATO.
But after the release of the December review of the war, President Obama nonetheless declared that the United States is “on track to achieve our goals.” Either the administration has deluded itself or it can’t muster the courage to tell the American public the truth.
Report back from Afghanistan
16 JanOn January 7, I spoke at this great event at All Souls Unitarian Church in New York with Kathy Kelly and Mike Ferner about our trip to Afghanistan in December.
Here is a link to an hour-long radio interview I did on The New Movement with Roy Beckham on WAZU 90.7FM in Peoria, IL, on January 12.
And the local CBS affiliate in Peoria, WMBD, also did a short segment on the evening news about my trip on January 16. While the piece was well done overall, they did attribute a couple positive lines to me about the US military helping rebuild the country and restructure the Afghan government that I clearly did not say, which is really sloppy, unethical journalism. Hope you enjoy.
Record levels of violence in Afghanistan do not equal progress
17 DecDecember 16, 2010
Waging Nonviolence, Common Dreams, Counterpunch, Huffington Post, The Indypendent, Sojourners
Greetings from Afghanistan. I arrived here now almost a week ago and there is so much to share about this experience that it’s hard to know where to start. I’d like to offer a few random observations about Kabul that I’m sure will make more sense upon reflection.
I was immediately struck by the contrast between the incredible beauty of the landscape here and what humans have managed to do to this little piece of the Earth. On the flight in to Kabul International Airport, you have stunning views from the plane of the Hindu Kush mountains that surround the city.
Once you land, however, you are quickly made aware that something is terribly wrong. Rather than the usual airport scene, buzzing with tourists and commercial flights, you see UN helicopters, military aircraft and surprisingly few people.
After entering the dilapidated airport, which is tiny for Kabul’s rapidly growing population, I had to wait only several minutes before seeing my first AK-47. Little did I know how common they are in this city. Seemingly every hotel that caters to foreigners, every government building, many banks and other important building have at least one Afghan in camo with a menacing weapon guarding the entrance. Razor wire is everywhere. In many ways, the city has the feel of a prison.
The poor air quality is also immediately apparent. There is so much dust in the air that there is almost a permanent haze over the city. When you are in a car navigating the chaotic roads, it at times looks like you are driving through a cloud or thick fog, but it’s just the dust. This is dangerous for me given that I have cystic fibrosis, but it is deadly for Afghans that have to breathe this air every day. In fact, earlier this month, Afghan authorities announced that 3,000 people die in Kabul every year because of the dust and smog. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a gross underestimate.
Interview: A Journalist Not Scared to Speak the Truth
5 JunJune 5, 2010
CelebityDialogue: Which news publications do you write for?
Eric: I’ve written for The Guardian, Mother Jones, The Nation, Huffington Post and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, among others.
CelebityDialogue: What is your beat?
Eric: I don’t have one beat in any traditional sense. My interests are quite varied. I generally critique US foreign policy, our outrageous military budget, the privatization of war, including the use of mercenaries, and the growing use of robotics, both on the ground and in the air, in modern warfare. I also regularly write about nonviolent movements around the world for Waging Nonviolence, a blog that I helped start last year.
CelebityDialogue: What would you say to the critics who may view your writing as mostly anti-government?
Eric: I would say that would be an inaccurate way of characterizing my work. I’m not against all government. I’m against government that is destructive, dysfunctional and unresponsive to the will of the people, and that’s unfortunately where we’re at in the United States. On issue after issue the policies of the US government are in direct opposition to the demands of social and economic justice. To take just one example, we spend upwards of a trillion dollars every year on the Pentagon and war while tens of millions of Americans live in poverty and have no access to health care. That is immoral and unacceptable.
CelebityDialogue: Have you ever been labeled “unpatriotic”?
Eric: I’m sure many people have thought I’m unpatriotic. And truth be told, that doesn’t really bother me. While some on the Left like to make the case that dissent or peace is patriotic, that argument has never really moved me. Appeals to patriotism I’ve found are generally made to stifle free thought and to get people to conform to the status quo.
I don’t think anyone should put the interests of their country above those of any other. Instead, we need to realize that all borders are artificial lines and that we are all part of the same human family. If we saw the average Pakistani as no different and of no less value than our brother or sister, we would never be able to bomb them. Patriotism, like nationalism, is a bankrupt concept that has led to untold suffering and death.
A Lesson on Nonviolence for the President
18 DecDecember 17, 2009
Foreign Policy In Focus, Common Dreams, Antiwar.com, ZNet
In Oslo last week, President Barack Obama ironically used his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize to deliver a lengthy defense of the “just war” theory and dismiss the idea that nonviolence is capable of addressing the world’s most pressing problems.
After quoting Martin Luther King Jr. and giving his respects to Gandhi — two figures that Obama has repeatedly called personal heroes — the new peace laureate argued that he “cannot be guided by their examples alone” in his role as a head of state.
“I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people,” he continued. “For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism — it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.”
Unfortunately, this key part of Obama’s speech, which the media widely quoted in its coverage of the award ceremony, contains several logical inconsistencies and historical inaccuracies that tragically reveal Obama’s profound ignorance of nonviolent alternatives to the use of military force.
The Power of Nonviolence
Almost immediately after acknowledging that there is “nothing weak — nothing passive — nothing naïve — in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King,” Obama equated nonviolence with doing nothing.
To live and act nonviolently, however, never involves standing “idle in the face of threats.” Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Dave Dellinger, Daniel and Philip Berrigan, and countless other genuine peacemakers have put their lives on the line in the struggle for a more just world. Advocates of nonviolence, like Gandhi, simply believe that means and ends are inseparable – that responding in kind to an aggressor will only continue the cycle of violence.
Mercenaries and Murder in Iraq
14 AugAugust 14, 2009
The Guardian, Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, Common Dreams, ZNet
Daniel Fitzsimons
It would be nice to celebrate the recent withdrawal of the remaining British troops from Iraq as the end of the UK’s direct involvement in the military occupation there. But such festivities would unfortunately be premature.
The killing last Sunday in Baghdad’s Green Zone of two armed contractors working for the London-based mercenary firm ArmorGroup by another British contractor from the company, serves as a grim reminder that Brits are still deeply involved in the prosecution of the war.
In fact, with no countries officially left in the so-called “coalition of the willing”, contractors are now playing a more important role than ever, as the Obama administration begins to slowly scale back the war in Iraq.
In June, a Pentagon report revealed that there are still 132,610 contractors in Iraq — effectively doubling the size of the occupation — and that the use of armed “private security contractors” in the country actually increased by 23% during the second quarter of 2009.
The US Defense Department doesn’t break down its data by nationality, but the report does specify that there are 60,244 “third country nationals”, or contractors that are neither American nor Iraqi, on the payroll in Iraq. Therefore, the number of British citizens that are part of this shadow army is likely in the thousands.
Sunday’s shooting should also dispel the myth, if anyone still believes it, that incidents like this are somehow avoidable. Unlike its competitors Dyncorp, Triple Canopy and Blackwater, whose outrageous scandals continue to mount, ArmorGroup has with few exceptions managed to steer clear of negative press.
Moreover, the company has been an outspoken advocate for more rigorous vetting of armed contractors and for greater outside regulation of the industry as a whole. Back in 2005, for example, an ArmorGroup spokesman said: “We are demanding regulation. It is extraordinary that … any Joe Public can get a Kalashnikov and work with a security company abroad. This is an issue of accountability.”
But when ArmorGroup hired Daniel Fitzsimons, who shot his two co-workers during a scuffle after a late night of drinking, the obvious warning signs were not heeded.
In 2007, Fitzsimons was fired and fined $3,000 for “extreme negligence” by Aegis, another British mercenary firm in Iraq, headed by the notorious Tim Spicer, after only a few months on the job. Colleagues said that he had a history of violent conduct and had “been a loose cannon for years”.
Not surprisingly, Fitzsimons was also apparently traumatized by his experiences in war. On his Facebook and MySpace profiles he wrote about the challenges of the “war inside your head” and his constant use of alcohol and drugs to numb the pain.
“When I come home from each rotation I give my liver, kidneys and brain cells a good hiding to teach them a lesson, and to help me achieve this I get as wasted as possible at every opportunity,” he wrote. “Remember reality is a condition caused by lack of drugs.”
ArmorGroup apparently did not pick up on these red flags, however, perhaps because such personal problems are likely par for the course when you enter the world of mercenaries. “Violent conduct” isn’t a worrisome trait, but in the end what these security contractors are trained to do.
Hence, just as the “laws of war” have not stopped soldiers from torturing and committing war crimes, no amount of internal vetting or government regulation of the mercenary industry — even with the best of intentions — will be able to stop such tragedies from happening again.
