Ground the Drones

It's time for the Peace Movement to Challenge the President's Foreign Policies.

Medea Benjamin

In These Times

November 25, 2012

http://www.inthesetimes.org/article/14189/ground_the_drones/

The overwhelming majority of Americans think this war is not worth fighting. Foreign policy played a minor role in a presidential election that focused on jobs, jobs, jobs. But like it or not, the United States is part of a global community in turmoil, and U.S. policies often fuel that turmoil. The peace movement, which lost steam during Obama's first term because so many people were unwilling to criticize the president, has a challenge today to reactivate itself and increase its effectiveness by forming coalitions within the progressive movement.

This revitalized peace movement must address five issues.

The first is Afghanistan. Despite Obama's talk about getting out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the U.S.

military still has some 68,000 troops and almost 100,000 private contractors there at a cost of $2 billion a week. And Obama is talking about a presence of U.S.

troops, training missions, Special Forces operations and bases for another decade. But the overwhelming majority of Americans think this war is not worth fighting, a sentiment echoed in a recent New York Times editorial "Time to Pack Up." It is indeed that time. The peace movement must push for an immediate withdrawal and for ruling out any longterm presence in Afghanistan.

Second, drone attacks are out of control, killing thousands, many of them civilians, in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, creating widespread anti-American sentiment and setting a dangerous precedent that will  back to haunt us. Anti-drone actions have sprung up all over the United States at Air Force bases where the drones are piloted, at the headquarters of drone makers, at the CIA and in Congressional offices. Our job now is to coordinate those efforts, execute a massive public education campaign to turn around pro-drone public opinion, and call on our elected officials to start respecting the rule of law. If we strengthen our ties with people in the nations most affected and join in with those at the U.N. bodies who are horrified by drone proliferation, we just might get some global standards for the use of lethal drones.

Third, looming on the horizon is a possible Israeli attack on Iran that would draw the U.S. into a devastating regional war. Almost 60 percent of Americans oppose joining Israel in a war with Iran. We must make sure Obama and Congress hear that voice above the din of American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbyists gunning for war, and steer clear of dragging us into yet another war.

Fourth, and perhaps hardest of all, will be to get some traction on changing U.S. policy toward the Israel/Palestine conflict. The grassroots movement to stop unconditional support for Israel is booming, with groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace building networks across the country.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign is gaining momentum not just in the United States, but globally. We're unlikely to see the Obama administration and Congress officially call for a halt to settlements, human rights abuses or the ongoing siege of Gaza, much less cut off the $3 billion a year that helps underwrite these abuses. But we can continue to shift public opinion and gain allies in Congress, with an openness to reaching out to fiscal conservatives calling for cuts in foreign aid.

Finally, there's the bloated Pentagon budget. At a time when the nation is looking at how best to allocate scarce resources, all eyes should be on the billions of dollars wasted on Pentagon policies and weapons that don't make us safer, from more than 800 bases overseas to outdated Cold War weapons to monies given to repressive regimes. We need a rational look at the Pentagon budget that could free up billions for critical social and environmental programs.

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Opposition to U.S. Bases Reaches Turning Point By Suvendrini Kakuchi Inter Press Service November 25, 2012 http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/11/opposition-to-u-s-bases-reaches-turning-point

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TOKYO, Nov 25 2012 (IPS) - Okinawa, the largest of a group of 60 sub-tropical islands forming Japan's southernmost prefecture, has an equable climate and preferential treatment for United States servicemen under the Mutual Cooperation Security Treaty between the U.S. and Japan.

According to Chobin Zukeran, a member of the House of Representatives from Okinawa, the archipelago is the perfect U.S. base because it fans out into the Pacific Ocean towards Taiwan, making it a vital bulwark for U.S. military strategists concerned with containing China.

But Okinawans, who number roughly 1.4 million, have long opposed U.S. military presence on their homeland, which experienced the only bloody ground battle between Japan and the invading U.S. military at the end of World War II in 1945.

Since the return of the islands to Japan in 1972, over 90 percent of Okinawans - concerned about their personal safety and noise and environmental pollution - have supported the demand for a complete removal of the bases, which occupy 18 percent of their land.

Now, a string of recent incidents involving military personnel has pushed opposition to the bases into outright protest and threatens to foil the U.S.' plans to beef up its military in the Asia-Pacific region.

On Nov. 7, Christopher Browning and Skyler Dozierwalker were charged with raping and injuring a local woman on Oct. 16, in a case that sparked widespread protest across Okinawa.

"Okinawa's struggle against the U.S. military bases is reaching a turning point. We are prepared to take our demands all the way to Washington to end the deadlock,"

Zukeran said at a press meeting in Tokyo earlier this month.

Frustration with impunity for U.S. troops on the island is nothing new. In 1995, the gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three U.S. servicemen resulted in a U.S.-Japan agreement to reduce U.S. military presence on the Okinawan chain of islands, but this did little to appease the local population.

"The rapes and a skewed sense of justice when these crimes involve U.S. servicemen is the worst form of violence against women," said Ryuichi Hattori, a member of the Social Democratic Party that has traditionally led political demands to have the bases removed from Okinawa.

Statistics compiled by the police indicate no fewer than 6,000 cases of crime - including violence and rape - since 1972.

Catherine Fisher, an Australian national who was raped in 2002 by a sailor stationed on a ship on the U.S.

naval base of Yokosuka, 64 miles south of Tokyo, was among the first women to speak publicly about the latest crime.

Fisher took her own case to the U.S. in September in pursuit of her attacker who had been honourably discharged by the U.S. military, although he was found guilty by the Tokyo district court in 2004 and ordered to pay damages.

"I was determined to receive justice and challenge a system that is totally unfair. Perpetrators, when they are U.S. soldiers, have legal protection and this must be changed," she told IPS.

Fisher is currently touring Japan to gather support for her demand that perpetrators of crimes remain in Japan to face trial. She is also trying to set up a 24-hour rape crisis centre that can deal specifically with crimes committed by U.S. military servicemen.

Yet another wave of protest is growing over regular crimes committed by U.S. marines who frequent the bustling bars of Okinawa and participate in its vibrant nightlife.

Masayo Hirata, a former counselor for women seeking advice on their problems with U.S. troops - including offspring abandoned by fathers returning to the U.S. - says romantic liaisons with locals are common.

"Marrying or having relationships with American servicemen has become common these days among younger generation females who meet them in bars," she said.

These interactions are a big part of the problem, according to protest groups, which include academics, lawyers and local politicians.

Sexual exploitation of local women has also sparked protests in other Asia-Pacific countries hosting U.S.

forces, such as in the Philippines, which has a ship repair and recreational facility.

Public protests compelled the Philippine Senate to vote against the renewal of the lease on Clark Base in Angeles City in 1991 - a decision that many Okinawans found encouraging.

South Korea, officially at war with North Korea, hosts 37,000 marines located around the country, but the brutal killing in 1992 of a local woman working in an entertainment area close to the bases triggered demands for an end to the arrangement.

A 2010 survey conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun and Ryukyu Shimpo newspapers found that 71 percent of the Okinawans polled felt that the presence of U.S. troops was not necessary and 41 percent wanted the bases removed.

Campaigns have also focused on environmental degradation caused by the construction of military bases.

Human sit-ins against the construction of a heliport off the northeast coastline of Henoko, a quiet village, were forcibly disbanded. Locals, along with environmentalists on the mainland, claimed the heliport construction endangered coral and the native dugong population.

Okinawans say their daily lives are consumed with gnawing fear of accidents from U.S. fighter airplanes that also create deafening noise as they fly into U.S.

bases located in densely crowded areas.

Animosity has recently been aggravated by the deployment on the island of Osprey aircraft, with locals voicing concerns over the poor safety record of the plane, which is capable of taking off and landing vertically.

Prof. Tsuneo Namihara, sociologist at the Okinawa University, explained to IPS that the recent territorial clashes between Japan and China over the Senkaku islands, claimed by both countries, have made it more difficult to get rid of U.S. bases.

"As a result, I fear the anti-base movement will veer away from the traditional pacifism (associated) with the local protests. The younger generation is getting impatient with the heavy hand of the Japanese government that is ignoring the wishes of the local population," he warned.

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