The Phony Peaceniks by Philip A. Farruggio

by Philip A. Farruggio
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
April 28, 2011

Check out the April 20^th symposium aired on C-Span under the title ‘The Afghanistan War‘, sponsored by (ready for this?) The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace ‘. On this disgraceful discussion we have many of the front groups for the Democratic Party, like the Center for American Progress and the New America Foundation. Here they all were, indirectly inferring that our empire’s illegal invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was ‘The Good War ‘as the Democrats called it. Tell me folks; where in the hell is there a War in Afghanistan? All I see is mostly American military occupying a sovereign nation, treating the inhabitants like prisoners in a compound while a civil war  continues between the (drug dealing) warlords and the religiously fanatical Taliban. Meanwhile, bombs and missiles and tons of shrapnel torture the civilians. Our soldiers are asked to be ‘unwelcome strangers ‘as they glide through a warzone created mostly by our own WMDs.

All one heard from that symposium was what strategies to follow in this phony Afghan War. Yet, nowhere in this whole event did anyone ask the obvious: ‘Why in the hell are we treating this whole thing as some legitimate action?‘ I watch young men with scholarly labels, perhaps old enough to be in uniform, and I do admit that I wish they could be taken and transported to the hornet’s nest in full combat gear. Better yet, maybe the young men and women on the symposium should spend a few weeks living in one of the villages ravaged by this combination American Occupation + Civil War. Let them fend for sanitary water and comfort from the devastating heat and lack of edible nourishment. Instead, they stand there, like the good Democratic Party supporters they are, and justify the dastardly deeds their President and his party are doing in the Middle East. My friend, activist leader Ed Dunphy, has a sign that trumpets it best: Bush = Obama = Bush!

So, we have the Carnegie full of **** so called Peace organization that sponsors a complete sellout of a truthful peace movement by taking American accountability off the table. Remember in 2006, when the Democrats retook Congress, and Ms. Pelosi stated ‘Impeachment is off the table’?  Now they have taken the argument that we have no business even being in Iraq or Afghanistan (Libya too?) off the table of citizen discourse. They now label the actions our nation is doing in your name as ‘Counterinsurgency strategies ‘. When our country sinks deeper into the depression we already are in, and more and more folks take to the streets in protest…. Will you stand by and watch another form of ‘counterinsurgency strategy’?  Please remember folks that these Democrats are still the ‘Lesser of Two Evils ‘in our rigged and phony 2 Party system.

Philip A. Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen. A graduate of Brooklyn College, class of ’74, Philip has been an anti war activist since the Vietnam War.  Philip is now Volusia Cty spokesperson for the nationwide 25% Solution to cut military spending.  Since the 2000 elections, he has written over 250 columns posted on various sites, including, most recently, Dandelion Salad, dissidentvoice.org and progressivepatriots.net, or at his own blog at http://www.opensalon.com. Philip can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.

from the archives:

I Ain’t Peace Marchin’ Anymore by Ed Ciaccio

Why U.S. and NATO Fed Detainees to Afghan Torture System By Gareth Porter

The Afghan Drug Trade and the Elephant in the Room by Jeremy R. Hammond

Hakim Discusses Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, Interviewed by David Swanson

War in Afghanistan – C-SPAN Video Library