Monday, June 26, 2006

Paul Responds to Times Letter

To the Editor,

Once again I find myself responding to someone’s attack on my letter to the Times. In this case, it was about my letter from June 15 titled “Where’s the Outrage Over Iraq?” The first comment I want to make is that not one of my examples of U.S. war crimes was challenged. My main reason for writing these letters is to inform as many people as possible about important issues that they might not be aware of. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do try to find out the truth about these issues and then write about them. I view this space in our local paper as a means to share ideas and where necessary have an open debate that will help flesh out what the truth is.

The issue of U.S. war crimes in Iraq is an extremely important one. Most Americans aren’t aware of the fact that prior to the war on Iraq most Iraqi’s were living a relatively comfortable lifestyle. Men and women would go to work, children would go to school and probably play soccer after school and then they would have supper together and pray together and then sleep peacefully at night. Today it is just absolute chaos. There is virtually no electricity, no clean water and no security. Every Iraqi now fears for their life and those that they love. The civilian death toll is said to be over 50,000. The wounded probably over 100,000. (And they don’t have access to adequate medical care.) Hundreds of thousands are now probably homeless due U.S. bombs and missiles.

All of this overwhelming suffering is due to a war of aggression. Iraq didn’t pose any threat to the U.S. The Bush administration manipulated the intelligence on WMD and connections to 911 and al-Qaeda. The main reason we invaded Iraq was to gain control over Iraq’s vast oil reserves. To support this view, I merely have to point to the fact that about the only part of Iraq that was given any security was the oil industry.

There are a number of other serious consequences that the war on Iraq is responsible for. The most important to most Americans should be the impact on our troops. So far 2,520 U.S. troops have been killed. The total wounded is said to be between 20,000 and 48,000. The disruption of tens of thousands of families’ lives is a true hardship. Then there is the damage to our image around the world as countries view us as an aggressive, violent nation. The on going genocide in Darfur is another consequence. Over 400,000 people have been killed over the past few years in Darfur. This is happening in Sudan, where more innocent people are being killed and tortured each week than Saddam was probably responsible for over a number of years time. I wish our marines were standing between these helpless people and the brutal thugs who are terrorizing them. But, there is no oil for us there and we are already stretched too thin in Iraq.

As far as the comment that I denigrated our leaders, I will stand guilty as charged. We have a President and a Vice President who when they were younger both supported the Vietnam war and they both not only lacked the courage to go fight in it, they pulled every string possible to keep from going! These men have sent our troops into an unnecessary war without proper body armor and humvee plating, which has caused many deaths and serious injuries. Both of them have sanctioned the use of torture. They also didn’t have a realistic plan to keep the peace after the war or a realistic exit strategy. To paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr., we have a foreign policy that is based on guided missiles that is directed by misguided men. Our troops and the Iraqi people are paying dearly for their blunders.

The best way to end this tragedy is to do what 72% of our troops in Iraq have stated in a February 2006 Zogby poll. That is to withdraw from Iraq by the end of this year. The people of Walpole can best support our troops by signing the Declaration of Peace at www.declarationofpeace.org

Peckham, June 26,2006

Vigil for Victims of Torture

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group invites townspeople to join us for a vigil commemorating the 7th annual United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The vigil will be held on Monday, June 26, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on the Walpole Common, at the corner of West and Main streets.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appealed to "all governments and members of civil society to take action to defeat torture and torturers everywhere," calling June 26 a "day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable… an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable."

The importance of this action is clear. Despite long-standing international conventions against torture, and national laws against this crime against humanity within the U.S. and elsewhere, the United States and over 150 other governments continue to perpetrate acts of torture.

Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC) and torture survivors from every continent around the world will be gathering in Washington DC on June 26 for a 24-hour vigil.

We will join this vigil for one hour, here in Walpole, voicing grave concern about the ongoing U.S. abuse of prisoners detained in the "War on Terror" and affirming a position on the abuse of any detainee: "Zero tolerance for torture!"

If you cannot join us for the 5:30-6:30 vigil on Walpole Common, we hope you will light a candle in memory of those who have been tortured.

Lois Czachorowski
Walpole

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

After Last Tuesday

To the editor,

After last Tuesday’s talk at the Walpole Library by Dr. Nabeel Khudairi, my first response to the audience was to ask “Where’s the outrage!?” Dr. Khudairi gave a very informative talk on Iraq that showed it to be a major center of education and culture in the Middle East. Even during Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, the majority of the people in Iraq were living a relatively comfortable lifestyle in it’s very modern cities.

As the talk started to focus on the impact of the first Gulf War, the 12 years of UN sanctions and the current war, the effect on everyone was truly gut wrenching. We saw images of young children with arms burnt down to the elbow, without legs, severe body burns, infants born with the most grotesque birth defects imaginable. We saw peoples’ homes destroyed by bombs as well as whole blocks of homes just leveled to rubble from U.S. attacks. Dr. Khudairi described how the U.S. basically destroyed Iraq’s entire infrastructure – water treatment plants, bridges, roads, etc., and how this caused 10’s of thousands of civilian deaths, mostly young children and the elderly.

What has been happening in Iraq can only be described as a horrific nightmare that has as it’s source a long list of war crimes that the U.S. is responsible for. The list starts with a war of aggression that the Bush administration started against Iraq by lying to the American public about WMD and al Qaida connections. The Nuremberg Tribunal called the waging of aggressive war “essentially an evil thing… to initiate a war of aggression…is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

Then there is the use of such illegal weapons as cluster bombs, white phosphorus, depleted uranium, etc. (One of the effects of depleted uranium is the aforementioned birth defects.)

Then there is the collective punishment against the civilian population as is evidenced in cities such as Baghdad and Fallujah. The “Shock and Awe” bombing of Baghdad was probably the cause of many of the destroyed homes that we saw pictures of. Eight weeks of bombing Fallujah caused the destruction of 36,000 homes, 60 schools, 65 mosques and untold civilian casualties.

Then there is the widespread use of torture that is in direct violation of of the Geneva Accords. The list goes on and on, but for the sake of brevity I want to make my point that we as U.S. citizens need to take action and vigorously oppose what the Bush administration is doing in Iraq. We need to demand that the U.S. set a goal of getting out of Iraq as soon as possible – hopefully by the end of the year. We also need to demand that those who are responsible for these war crimes are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And I’m not talking about just a few bad apples at the lower levels of service, but as far up the chain of command as needed.

One of the most outrageous aspects of this war is the silence of the American people. Silence in such important matters as this can only be described as complicity. I feel that the mainstream, corporate media is mainly responsible for this. They didn’t challenge the manipulated intelligence that the Bush administration gave them and they haven’t shown the carnage taking place in Iraq that we saw on Tuesday night. I firmly believe that most Americans will want to take a stand against such injustices if they really know the truth.

So what can people in Walpole do about this? You can start by getting informed. Get your information from alternative news sources, such as The Nation Magazine, Z Magazine, truthout.org, alternet.org, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International (or Amnesty International USA), etc. Make donations to organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Sign the Declaration of Peace. Take part in our (Walpole Peace and Justice Group) meetings and demonstrations. (It would be great if we had 100’s of people at our demonstrations on the common.) You can contact us at walpole_peace@verizon.net

Paul Peckham 6/12/06

Pauls Letter to Walpole Times

To the Editor,

I just want to say a few words about the Walpole Peace and Justice Group’s Speakers Series. We have had I wide range of speakers so far covering such topics as Cuba, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Taiwan, Venezuela, and Islam. (We might have Mr. Hafiz Muhammad Masool back because we ran out of time before he could answer everyone’s questions. For those of you who couldn’t hear Mr. Masool speak and would like to know more about Islam, he was kind enough to donate the brief and very informative film, Islam: A Closer Look, to the library.)

I am particularly looking forward to our next talk on Iraq by Dr. Nabeel Khudairi. Iraq has become the single, most important issue for most Americans today. What is happening in Iraq will have an impact on all our lives for years to come. I don’t know if Dr. Khudairi supports the war in Iraq or if he is against it. When I talked to him, I merely asked if he would talk about Iraq and he said he would like to.

Dr. Khudairi was born in Baghdad in 1961 and his family moved to Boston in 1966 in order to avoid political harassment by the Ba’ath Party. His family returned to Iraq for a few years in the mid 1970’s but left again when Saddam Hussein seized the presidency. He still has close ties to Iraq since many of his friends and relatives still live there. Dr. Khudairi is an optometrist with private practices in Norwood and Wellesley. He is president of the Norwood Lions Club as well as the Islamic Council of New England. I hope we get our largest turnout yet for what should be a very informative and important talk for everyone.

Paul Peckham

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Talk on Iraq June 6

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group is continuing their speakers series on June 6 with a talk on Iraq by Dr. Nabeel Khudairi. Dr. Khudairi was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1961. In 1966, to escape political harassment by the newly established Ba’ath Party, his family moved to Boston, where his father taught at Northeastern University. As a young adult he returned to Iraq for a few years in the mid 1970’s but returned to the U.S. when Saddam Hussein seized the presidency. Many of his relatives still residing in Iraq have suffered incredible hardships from the first Gulf War, the 12 years of deprivation from the U.N. imposed sanctions and more recently from the decline in domestic security created by the current occupation of Iraq.

The lecture will reflect on the lesser known history of Iraq, it’s society and the impact of the three devastating wars in less than two decades that the civilian population has endured.

Dr. Khudairi is an optometrist with private practices in Norwood and Wellesley. He is president of the Norwood Lion’s Club and president-elect of the Islamic Council of New England. He has lectured to various schools and religious and peace organizations and has been interviewed by major television, radio, and print news services about the affairs in Iraq.

The speakers series is the first Tuesday of the month at 7:30 PM at the Walpole Public Library. All talks are open to the public.