Roots Action – 2011-04-09 00:51:04
http://rootsaction.org/
Afghanistan Needs a No-Fly Zone
Roots Action
I’m in Afghanistan this week, talking with advocates for peace and victims of the longest US war. You can find Afghans who don’t want the United States military to leave immediately, but you’re hard pressed to find anyone who believes our military is here with a humanitarian motivation.
Join our call for a no-fly zone now.
One reason people doubt the US government’s noble motives is the constant killing of innocent civilians, many of them from the air. The president of Afghanistan has asked US forces to stop all operations that cause civilian fatalities. What Afghanistan urgently requires, as a first step, is a No-Fly Zone.
When Afghan people look at the sky, they shouldn’t see drones and other aircraft on missions of death.
Please sign a request for a No-Fly Zone in Afghanistan, which we will deliver to the UN Security Council, the NATO headquarters in Brussels and the White House.
David, Aimee, Sarah and the RootsAction Team
Why a No-Fly Zone is Vital for Afghanistan
Civilians look up with fear in Afghanistan. Establishment of a No-Fly Zone would deny access to Afghan skies for US and NATO military aircraft now firing missiles and dropping bombs that kill innocent people.
These crimes have been numerous enough to establish a pattern.1
The United States has made clear its intention to continue and escalate this behavior.2
On the first day of March, two US helicopters tracked and killed, one by one, a total of nine young boys gathering firewood.3
The attacks by drones and piloted aircraft are part of a lethal pattern. Just this Tuesday, a raid killed six people.4
On Wednesday, a convoy ran over three civilians, killing one.5
Elsewhere, British soldiers reportedly ran two over and killed two women, shot a man and wounded a child on Wednesday.6
The simple step of implementing a No-Fly Zone could prevent much of the killing.
Please sign this petition, which RootsAction will deliver, along with documentation, to the United Nations.
The Petition
To the United Nations Security Council, NATO, and the White House,
I am writing in response to the ongoing killing of civilians by US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. I urgently request that you vote on the establishment of a No-Fly Zone for piloted and non-piloted military aircraft in Afghanistan.
Thank you for signing the petition. We’ll let you know of its progress. Please ask everyone you know to sign it as well. We will be much more persuasive with a larger number of signatories
FOOTNOTES
1 http://vcnv.org/atrocities-in-afghanistan-a-troubling-timetable-updated-1
2 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/11/us-afghanistan-biden-idUSTRE7093S220110111
3 http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/502
4 http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/04/05/111572/afghans-complain-about-nato-led.html
5 http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/06/afghanistan.accident.civilian
6 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/06/british-soldiers-afghanistan-kill-civilians
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If you want 10 more years of war raise your hand. How about privatized Social Security, any takers? Supervillain corporations? Bought and paid for politics? A media that glosses over the real costs of war? Raise your hand if you want all that.
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Talk long enough and you’ll find most Americans are pretty much the same. We want a fair country, not one ruled by corporations; enough jobs; opportunities for young people, and security for old ones. We want to fight only when necessary, and if it’s a mistake, we want it to stop.
That’s what most of us voted for in 2008. But elections aren’t enough. Now we know that it’s gonna take action, down at the grassroots level, independent from political party leadership, to solve our biggest problems. It’s gonna take roots action.
It’s time to get to the heart of things in America. To reconnect with our roots, to who we really are. People who believe in justice and peace. People who want democracy. People who demand a truly civil society, where violence (or the threat of it) is never part of the equation. Raise your — HEY! There are a lot of us!
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* Naomi Klein, author of Shock Doctrine, columnist
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* Daniel Ellsberg, released Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers, author
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* Glenn Greenwald, civil rights attorney and blogger
* Bill Fletcher Jr., labor and racial justice leader
* Laura Flanders, GritTV host
* Former U.S. Senator James Abourezk
* Coleen Rowley, former FBI agent and whistleblower
