This came in to my emails and I don't know if I yet have permission to post with names so I will post in kind of a paraphrase of the notes to Amy Goodman's recent work:
During every war of occupation soldiers rape the population. It is part of imperialist domination — rape, plunder, and subjugation. After Kosovo, NATO personnel profited and still profit through the sex slave trade. But in the words of Stephen Crane: Do Not Weep Maiden, For War Is Kind." (meant as irony of course)
Sent: Tue, March 29, 2011 10:25:29 AM
Subject: Are US Soldiers using rape, murder, & bombing of children as Weapons of War???
See Amy Goodman's take on one reported rape case in Tripoli, Libya: " Pro-Gaddafi Forces Accused of Using Rape as War Strategy" (DemNow Headlines, 3/28/11) (Who seems to be taking a middle of the road view on this story... until more facts come in...which is what you'd expect, no? (Connie, blogger here's comments)
"Some doctors in Libya have accused pro-Gaddafi fighters of using rape as a weapon of war. On Sunday, five men were arrested for raping and torturing a Libyan woman. The international press learned of the incident when the woman, Eman al-Obeidi, burst into a hotel full of foreign journalists in Tripoli. She was quickly detained by Libyan security officers."
...the woman allegedly pulled empty incubators behind her...claiming Gaddafi forces had broken into the hospital maternity ward, pulled babies out of the incubators and thrown them on the ground, and stamped them to death...couldn't have been more dramatic of course...
Yet is this being used by our Congress to justify another grossly destructive invasion and slaughter of thousands by US air power in the Middle East?
(If so, why don't we address all that we in the US have allowed as well to ask if we have the moral integrity to be trying to set things right elsewhere without addressing the same in US policies thus far? Connie)
The doctors commenting on this single incident in Tripoli were no doubt the same romantic, pure and idealistic, pro-democracy “rebels” adored by DemocracyNow in their overtly sympathetic interviews with these courageous, US armed, financed, and supported fighters - who may have extremists and violent backgrounds themselves - including CIA operatives backgrounds?....but why should we care who they are or where they come from or how they are armed? Is not Democracy Now doing serious questioning on this issue?
(That was the jist of the question on the email...yet I don't know enough to fault DemocracyNow! Just to say here, that we all must question our own values to see if they stand no matter the chaos or the emotion-tugging scenes and stories facing all of us? And we need to ask if we aren't about to be the usual Big Bulls in the dish closet and make a worse mess of everything over the long haul?)
Here's the rest of that email:
"With the reports of rape of women by US troops in Iraq (not to mention the alarmingly high rate of rape of women soldiers within the US military); the bombing of civilian wedding parties, children at play, and innocent villagers in their homes in Pakistan and Afghanistan, why is it that Amy has not headlined that "Murder And Rape Are Being Used By Obama And US Soldiers As Weapons of War"? (And who arrested those accused Libyan soldiers in Tripoli so quickly? It takes forever to get charges brought against American troops and contractors accused of rape, torture and murder in US occupied countries; and even then they most often go free.)...
"If you find my commentary more offensive than Democracy Now's lack of responsible, investigative journalism and Amy's blatantly biased propaganda regarding Libya, that may be indicative of just of how little integrity is left in the so-called American Left." ending of this email...
And I would add, let's get beyond Left and Right and Center and really seek out the facts, act responsibly with our OWN reporting and do OUR OWN careful work...
==========
Leaving these easy to cut/past/send ( and add to these American Friends Service Committee and Peace Action )
WarIsACrime.org is staying up to date on actions related to Libya and other peace/justice events. Here's his latest sent Friday:
Not One Dime for War on Libya!
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost over $3 trillion, with no end in sight.
And every single penny was charged to our uncontrolled national debt, even as Republicans endlessly denounced the immorality of that debt.
At a time when tyrants are murdering civilians in numerous countries, why are we bombing Libya?
Is it just because John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman went on TV to demand it? Why do three TV Senator s get to demand wars?
The Constitution requires majorities of both houses of Congress to authorize wars. Tea Party Republicans insisted they would strictly follow the Constitution. So why didn't they hold a vote?
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) will introduce an amendment to upcoming bills to block any funds for attacking Libya.
Every "progressive," "fiscal conservative," and "Constitutional defender" who opposes this amendment will be exposed as an utter fraud and should be defeated next November.
Tell Congress!
http://www.democrats.com/not-one-dime-for-libya
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