In related news, a new 569-page biography of Chuck Fager (Charles Eugene Fager, born in Birmingham, Kansas in 1942: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Fager ), the recently retired director of the long-running anti-war or pacifist Quaker House in Fayetteville, NC (he was the director from 2002-2012, and Quaker House was founded in 1969: Wikipedia and quakerhouse.org ), has been published (during the summer?). Tell It Slant was written by Haverford College history professor emerita Emma Lapsansky-Werner ( www.haverford.edu/users/elapsans ). Quaker House's December newsletter quotes a reader, Pam, in the Chapel Hill Friends Meeting (at the corner of 54/South Road and Country Club Road, at the top of a very long slope, probably the big hill of Chapel Hill, nearly across from UNC?), as written – "Chuck, this book is fabulous. I thought...ugh...it's so thick how am I going to get through it? but, alas! it is a page-turner! So totally interesting....I love it o much." Quaker House will send a copy for a $100 dollar donation, but maybe it is also available from commercial booksellers. A 252-page book on Quaker House by Chris McCallum and edited by Chuck Fager, published for the organization's 40th anniversary, in 2009: www.goodreads.com/book/show/22809460-yes-to-the-troops-no-to-the-wars is available from Quaker House's online store, along with other materials. Quaker House is part of the GI Rights Hotline network (providing free, confidential, and accurate advising for active-duty military personnel, reservists, veterans, their families, potential enlistees, those who have gone AWOL, etc.: girightshotline.org ; I think some prominent Catholic anti-war activists I knew in the western Triangle during the "War on Terror" worked for the Hotline) and the center offers free counseling and does organizing around peace promotion, anti-torture, non-violence, conscientious objection, and moral injury. For a few years the NC Coalition for Peace and Justice (NCPJ; the exact name?) organized a large rally and march with thousands to hundreds of participants every March in Fayetteville, a pleasant, warm, flowery, and sunny time of year in the Sandhills region of North Carolina, but of course it was in late March because the Iraq War began around the spring equinox in 2003. 'United We March,' back then.... but since the Obama-Biden years the anti-war movement has been reduced and it seems quite divided. Libya, Syria, economic wars, coups, and the continuing legacy of the "War on Terror" and now Ukraine and much of the Middle East/West Asia, and the new cold wars and arms races go by. I note that Quaker House organized a "Stand for Ukraine," in Cross Creek Park 3-5pm March 12, 2022, when the full-scale Russian intervention or invasion in the Ukrainian civil war was very new: quakerhouse.org/event/stand-for-ukraine/ What about the role of the NATO countries, especially our country? I remember that Chuck Fager once recommended my reportback from a large demonstration against the NC-based "torture taxi" Aero Contractors, accused of being a CIA front company, bringing some traffic here, even in 2024, I think, though he made sure to note that he did not share my red politics. In with Uncle Joe...
Originally posted at: www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2024/12/19/pete-hegseth-terrible-choice-defense-chief-veterans-peace His Wikipedia entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Hegseth
Pete Hegseth Is a Terrible Choice for Defense Chief – Veterans For Peace
December 19th
The national organization Veterans For Peace, with chapters in over 100 U.S. cities, is calling on US Senators to vote NO on Pete Hegseth for U.S. Defense Secretary, should President-elect nominate him.
Veterans For Peace is astounded that someone with the track record of Pete Hegseth would seriously be considered for the critically important role of U.S. Secretary of Defense. His dubious and questionable qualifications are far overshadowed by the many reasons that should disqualify him. These include a well-documented record of misogyny, sexual assault, white supremacy, Islamophobia, financial malfeasance, alcoholism, and opposition to VA healthcare. Are these the qualities we want in our Secretary of Defense?
Misogyny
Hegseth’s long-running abusive behavior toward women – even decried by his own mother – should be more than enough to disqualify him. His stated intention to reverse progress for women and gays in the military was only reversed by him in recent days, after pressure from key women Senators whose votes he needs if he is to be confirmed as Defense Secretary. Can he be trusted to defend the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people in the military? Would he challenge the rampant sexual abuse within the military today?
White Supremacy / Islamophobia
Pete Hegseth sports tattoos on his body that are associated with White Supremacy. In January 2021, Hegseth was one of 12 national guardsmen flagged as potential insider threats and removed from a group providing security for the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden, after a fellow Guard member reported he had a tattoo on his biceps reading “Deus Vult,” a phrase associated with the Crusades and, in the 21st century, with white supremacists. Hegseth has said that his National Guard superiors removed him because of his Jerusalem Cross tattoo, a Christian symbol which they determined was connected to extremism.
Post Traumatic Stress / Alcoholism
Pete Hegseth’s bouts with binge drinking and public drunkenness at formal organizational events have been widely reported. On one such occasion, he was heard shouting “Kill All Muslims.” Was it the alcohol talking? Islamophobia? Or both? As a national guardsman, Hegseth served at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq and Afghanistan. Veterans For Peace recognizes that many veterans who experience Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, or Moral Injury have difficulty returning to civilian life, and have problems with alcohol and antisocial behavior. They need professional help, not the additional stress associated with US war-making.
A Voice of Restraint? Or Nuclear War?
Pete Hegseth should not be making critical defense decisions for the largest military in the world, particularly at this dangerous moment of superpower confrontation and nuclear brinksmanship. The very existence of human civilization is imperiled. Would Pete Hegseth be able to provide the president with wise counsel regarding ending the war in Ukraine? Could he stop sending U.S. weapons to fuel the horrific genocide in Gaza? Would he put a brake on the Neocon drive for wars against China and Iran? Could he be a responsible check on a president’s decision to use nuclear weapons? We fear that the answer to these questions is No.
Financial Mismanagement
Pete Hegseth has a track record of “failing upward.” He has been demoted and forced to resign from several veterans organization and PAC’s, after failing to raise funds, and spending as much as half of the organizations’ funds on Christmas parties for families and friends. Arguably, the stupendous and ever-growing Pentagon budget, which just failed its 7th audit in a row, and for which there is remarkably little accountability, might be the perfect piggy bank for Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth Threatens VA Healthcare
Of particular concern to many veterans is Hegseth’s opposition to VA healthcare. He supports “outsourcing” – or privatizing VA healthcare – a concerted goal of the Koch brothers-funded Concerned Veterans of America, which Hegseth headed up from 2013-16. For all its shortcomings, the Veterans Administration continues to provide excellent healthcare to millions of veterans, who rely on it and greatly appreciate it. Undermining, defunding and privatizing healthcare is an attack on all veterans, as well as an attack on the healthcare system, for which the VA provides one of the very best models. Senators who are interviewing Pete Hegseth should ask him why he would dismantle VA healthcare in favor of the failing private healthcare model.
Poll: Pete Hegseth should not be Secretary of Defense
Veterans For Peace’s opposition to confirming Pete Hegseth as U.S. Defense Secretary is shared by most Americans, only 20% of whom approve, according to a recent poll. Will our Senators get the message? We should make sure that they do.
Veterans For Peace is dedicated to restraining the U.S. government from intervening in the internal affairs of other nations, and calls on the US to end its complicity in the Gaza genocide by stopping the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel.
Originally posted at: www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2024/10/22/veterans-peace-applaudsisraeli-soldiers-who-refuse-fight-gaz and I might have already posted it here once.
Veterans For Peace Applauds Israeli Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Gaza
October 22nd
Calls for GI’s to Resist Illegal Wars and War Crimes
Veterans For Peace applauds the Israeli military reservists who are calling for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, and who say they will not participate in genocide. You are doing the right thing. Your courageous stance may be answered by official threats and even imprisonment. But you will never regret refusing to kill innocent Palestinian men, women and children.
Palestinian Lives Matter. Yet Palestinians are being systematically slaughtered before the eyes of the world. The ongoing US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza is unacceptable. It is a stain on human history. And it must be ended.
Veterans For Peace has consistently called for an end to the genocide in Gaza, for a permanent ceasefire, and most importantly, for an end to US arms shipments to Israel. When U.S. bombs stop falling on Palestinian children, the genocide will have ended. Veterans For Peace has meticulously documented the US laws that the Biden Administration is breaking when it sends weapons to Israel while it is bombing and starving innocent civilians. As the slaughter in Gaza has continued and escalated, we have sent Open Letters to the State Department, to President Biden, to Vice President Harris and to the Justice Department.
One thing is very clear – this is genocide, a deliberate sustained campaign to wipe out an entire nation of people. This genocide is now being intensified. And it is illegal a thousand times over.
As veterans who have participated in too many illegal and immoral wars, we also want to address our young sisters and brothers, daughters and sons in the U.S. military. The U.S. has 40,000 troops deployed on ships and at bases throughout the Middle East. President Biden recently sent 100 U.S. troop to be stationed in Israel just as Israel is preparing to attack Iran and is bracing for Iran’s promised response.
The U.S. is also backing Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. The U.S. military itself has recently dropped bombs in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. Now there is active discussion about waging war on Iran!
Are U.S. troops being purposely deployed where they will be targets and casualties? Is this the way that the Biden Administration will back us into a war with Iran? Such a war is not in the interests of the people of Iran, nor of Israel, nor of the United States. This is a bold war of colonialism and empire – fought for control of other people’s land and resources.
Veterans For Peace has joined with several other organizations to promote the Appeal for Redress (v.2), an opportunity for active-duty GI’s to safely present their concerns to their Congressional
representatives. We refer GI’s who are thinking about becoming Conscientious Objectors to the Center on Conscience and War. We can put you in touch with a GI Rights lawyer if needed.
Remember, it is right to resist unjust wars and illegal orders. And when you do, you will have the support of Veterans For Peace.
STOP THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA – No More US Weapons to Israel
REFUSE TO FIGHT ILLEGAL WARS – No War with Lebanon or Iran
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