Fresno Center for Nonviolence
Community Alliance Page

October 2021

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I keep hearing people say that Afghanistan was the
longest war. Yet the US fought Native Indigenous
people for over 60 years during the 19th Century. In
many cases, the US hasn’t stopped.

Edited by
Richard Gomez

Dedicated to PEACE and SOCIAL JUSTICE through
SIMPLICITY ~ JUSTICE ~ INCLUSIVENESS ~ NON-INJURY
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Image Credit: WHSV https://www.whsv.com/2021/08/17/people-valley-preparing-help-afghan-refugees/

Veterans for Peace Statement on US Withdrawal from Afghanistan.

August 17, 2021 – Submitted by Joshua Shurely – Board member

Veterans For Peace has previously condemned the U.S. “forever wars” against “terror” and called for withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places in the world. We unequivocally believe that war is not the answer to any problem and that there is no military solution in Afghanistan.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was shameful and poorly executed. We have left too many behind. It was only after veteran and media outcry over leaving dedicated translators and their families, people who risked their lives for us that the U.S. decided, too late, to include them in our withdrawal. Many Afghans have been blocked by callous immigration policy and “Muslim Bans” from seeking safety in the United States, from the destabilization in Afghanistan that the U.S. created. Caring for refugees and civilians fleeing from conflict is basic decency, and the United States fails to act with the urgency required to protect people. Casual disregard for Afghan lives continues all levels.

The release of the Afghanistan Papers last year clearly laid out the failed policy and the catastrophic level of malfeasance that reach the highest levels of the U.S. government. Virtually all U.S. government agencies bear responsibility for misleading the American public and for creating the conditions in which an unchecked military operates without accountability.

In the Afghanistan Papers over 400 people detailed the systematic failure of the U.S. military to take responsibility for its ineptness and instead blamed “corruption” of the Afghanistan government, all the while revealing the massive corruption and lies that the U.S. is perpetuating. While U.S. military commanders bemoaned Afghan leaders enriching themselves off American tax dollars, those same commanders climbed government ranks and earned promotions for promoting endless war.

U.S. Soldiers, contractors, and veterans were routinely marginalized or persecuted to maintain the status quo in Afghanistan. Their integrity was questioned while government lies were glorified as truth by a complicit media and government agencies.

Afghanistan is yet another example of U.S. military ineptness. Name it and it was wrong…. Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and a host of other military deployments in Latin and South America. There are other instruments of national power that can be used to achieve reasonable national objectives than the U.S. military. Will our national leaders ever learn this lesson?

As veterans who have served in these wars and past wars, we are enraged by leaders that lie to us and lack the moral courage to act even when there is proof. We demand accountability in real and tangible ways. The pandering and posturing of so many politicians today are infuriating. Both parties are to blame for this and a militaristic culture that places profit above all else.

We must see a shift towards a future that holds the military and our government officials accountable. We must reduce the military budget and reallocate those funds towards social programs that prioritize meeting people’s needs and to support the masses of
refugees that seek safety for their families.

We continue to stand by these demands:

• Accept all Afghan refugees and provide humanitarian aid & resettlement aid.
• The military IMMEDIATELY release all three hundred names of those quoted in the Afghanistan Papers
• Congressional hearings that include perjury trials for all those officials who knowingly lied in official Congressional testimony, including closed door sessions of the House and Senate Armed Forces Committees
• A special Congressional committee to investigate fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement for the war in Afghanistan
• A Congressional tribunal allowing Afghanistan veterans to testify about their experience.
• Repeal of the AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists) — which includes any subsequent AUMF to have a sunset clause.
• Recognition of Moral Injury as a legitimate diagnosis
• Reparations to Afghanistan and to all Afghans

Image Credit: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Joseph

“Hear me, my chiefs! I’m tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more, forever.” – Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it

By the time Joseph had surrendered, 150 of his followers had been killed or wounded.
Their plight, however, did not end. Although Joseph had negotiated with Miles and Howard
for a safe return home for his people, General Sherman overruled this decision and forced
Joseph and 400 followers to be taken on unheated rail cars to Fort Leavenworth, in
eastern Kansas, where they were held in a prisoner of war campsite for eight months.

Toward the end of the following summer, the surviving Nez Perce were taken by rail to a
reservation in Oklahoma; they lived there for seven years. Many of them died of epidemic diseases while there. In his last years, Joseph spoke eloquently against the injustice of United States policy toward his people and held out the hope that America’s promise of freedom and equality might one day be fulfilled for Native Americans as well. Chief
Joseph died on September 21, 1904, “of a broken heart”.