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The
WAND News Bulletin is posted on the
web site monthly.
When it appears, WAND sends out a condensed
version via email. If you would like
to receive these email Bulletins, please
let us know.
Left,
the beary clever WAND folks in OR turned
out in great numbers for the Eugene
Celebration Parade. WAND had a Circus
car in the Peace Train, with the message
'Free All Beings from Nuclear Threat.'
It was deemed Best of Show and Best
Decorated -- and, we think, cutest.
|
| Table
of Contents | Click
to move to content within the Bulletin. |
Capitol
Hill Update, August 2006
 |
Both houses of Congress
are expected to go out for
recess by Sept. 29 to campaign,
and return for a lame duck
session of at least a few
days (maybe longer) starting
Nov. 13.
Take
action here.
Try it! Really. Go ahead. |
|
|
At the top of our action
list this month:
 |
Give
negotiations a chance: No
war on Iraq
Extend Iran Libya Sanctions
Act (ILSA) temporarily.
The new ILSA expiration
date is 9/29; Hill lobbyists
are currently lobbying Members
of Congress to extend it
again. Advocacy by constituents
would help a lot!
|
 |
SMART
Security is better security.
To be truly safe,
we need to be smart, cooperative,
global. Support a new approach
to security. Ask your
Representative to co-sponsor
vital legislation. |
 |
Why
is this man smiling?
He's
remaking the federal budget
-- one dollar at a time.
Click
here to
take action!
|
|
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Notes
from
the
WAND
News
Bulletin
editor
Not
a
lot
happens
on
the
federal
budget
in
September.
(Except
for
those
wars
draining
our
coffers
and
poisoning
our
future.)
|
|
Actually,
we
do
have
something
tasty
for
you.
WAND
just
revamped
our
famous
Federal
Budget
Study
Guide,
and
it's
ready
for
you!
It's
nice,
bite-size
pieces
of
info
about
the
military
budget,
the
deficit,
and
loads
of
other
fun
stuff.
It
may
sound
dull,
but
it's
quite
lively
and
fun.
Really.
Great
new
study
guides
from
WAND
Education
Fund
will
help
you
find
your
way
around
the
wacky
federal
budget!
Gotta
get
'em
all!
Military
Budget * Federal
Budget * Smart
Budgets
Nuclear
Weapons *
The
Deficit * Tips
for
Trainers
If
you'd
rather
have
a
real
printed
copy
in
your
hand,
please
contact
our
national
field
office:
twallace@wand.org;
or
404-524-5999
|
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We
Need Action
on Real Threats
at Home
September 13,
2006 by the
South Florida
Sun-Sentinel
by Miriam Pemberton
| Click
here.
...What's
the big picture
here? That the
strategy of
using the military
to stop them
there so they
won't come here
is the one that's
not working.
That diplomacy,
peacekeeping
and international
police work
are the ones
that are.
Bush
would say that
all of these
security tools
are part of
his administration's
"comprehensive"
approach to
countering terrorism.
But if you look
at the numbers
in his budget,
this claim to
comprehensiveness
becomes unconvincing...
The
U.S. spends
seven times
as much on military
strategy for
keeping the
country safe
as on all other
security strategies
-- including
diplomacy, peacekeeping,
foreign aid,
nuclear nonproliferation
and homeland
security --
put together.
If you add in
spending on
the wars we
are actually
fighting (which
the administration's
budgets carefully
do not) the
proportion becomes
nine to one.
In light of
the recent track
record, these
priorities seem
misplaced. |
|
We're
Getting Jacked
By 'Conservative'
Pickpockets
Click
here for
full article.
| AlterNet.
Posted September
12, 2006.
The
"conservatives"
are the politicians
that consider
themselves "fiscally"
conservative,
but don't get
the irony of
the financial
mess they've
made of this
country's balance
sheet during
the past six
years. They're
the Republicans
who talk a good
game about small
government,
and individualism,
and the budget
being more "efficient"
(by cutting
domestic social
programs) but
at the same
time have let
this country
build up its
highest deficit,
amount of debt
owed other countries,
and trade imbalance
ever. The dollar
is embarrassing,
and respect
for us around
the globe has
diminished.
The
"conservatives"
include Senator
Ted Stevens
(R-Alaska) who
let oil executives
testify about
their profits
in front of
the Senate without
taking an oath.
They are Senator
Bill Frist (R-Tennessee)
who championed
a bankruptcy
bill that screwed
consumers, declaring
it lent "fairness
to an abused
system,"
while he is
under investigation
by the SEC and
Justice Department
for questionable
financial activities
of his own.
They are Dick
Cheney who had
the nerve to
tell Americans
that they should
save money while
he's in the
top 1% of the
country financially
and doesn't
have a clue
what's going
on in the other
99% percent.
They are anyone,
Republican or
Democrat, who
voted for tax
cuts, in which
three-quarters
of American
households (families
with incomes
below $75,000)
get just 5%
of those benefits.
There
was one woman
I interviewed,
De Ette Peck,
a single mom
with two daughters
in Portland,
who was abused
as a child and
in several violent
relationships
before breaking
free and supporting
other struggling
women through
hotline work
and going to
college to get
a filed nursing
degree to help
her community.
She said, "You
give single
mothers a dollar,
and we'll show
this administration
how to stretch
it right."
|
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National
Priorities Project
has
just released Congressional district-level
information on the cost of war,
and what else the money could
buy in terms of health care, school
teachers, housing units, police
officers, etc. Users can also
find information on nuclear weapons,
ballistic missile defense, and
tax breaks for the richest 1%.
|
Celebrating women in Congress!
and supporting those on the run!
WAND
PAC is delighted that at least
three (possibly four) women
running to serve in Congress
for the first time have won
their primary elections, and
will be heading to the general
election in November. WAND staffers
joined in the celebrations on
the night of September 12 in
Washington, DC.
(l
to r): Darcy Scott Martin, WAND
PAC Director; Mary Jo Kilroy,
who won her primary in Ohio;
Jan Schakowsky, U.S. Representative
from Illinois (and honorary
co-chair of WiLL); and Marie
Rietmann, WAND Public Policy
Director.
(l
to r): Darcy Scott Martin, WAND
PAC Director; Gwen Moore, U.S.
Representative from Wisconsin
(and former longtime member
of WiLL); Marie Rietmann, WAND
Public Policy Director; and
Diane Farrell, who won her primary
in Connecticut.
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WAND
hosts Sarah Chayes in
lively discussion about
Afghanistan in Boston
(l
to r) WAND Board member
Suleyken Walker; Sarah
Chayes, formerly of NPR,
author of The Punishment
of Virtue; Robin
Young, host of NPR's "Hear
and Now" and the
evening's moderator; WAND
Executive Director Susan
Shaer; WAND activist Corinne
Dunster.
The pews
were packed in Old South
Meeting House in Boston
on September 11, as Sarah
Chayes shared her fascinating,
and frightening, experiences
as a reporter and a businesswoman
in Afghanistan.
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WAND
briefing on Iran on Capitol
Hill
When WAND cosponsored
a briefing on "US
Policy Options Toward
Iran" in
early September, an equal
number of Republican and
moderate Democratic offices
sent staff, and religious
and academic community
representatives attended
as well.
Speaking
were Dr. Trita Parsi of
the National Iranian American
Council, author of Treacherous
Triangle – The Secret
Dealings of Iran, Israel,
and the United States,
and Gen. Robert Gard (U.S.
Army Ret.) who recently
spearheaded a letter from
former military leaders
and diplomats calling
for direct talks with
Iran.
Topics
included issues for Congressional
consideration as we move
toward the September 29
expiration of current
U.S. sanctions against
Iran and next steps in
resolving Iran’s
nuclear program.
|
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UN
Report: U.S. Women and the
new Peacebuilding Commission
September 2006 | Click
here to read full report. |
|
by Sayre Sheldon, WAND representative
on the NGO Working Group
for Women, Peace and Security
Humanitarian
crisis has followed humanitarian
crisis around the world
and our press is flooded
with images of women and
children victims of bombing
or other forms of wartime
violence. It almost seems
as if conditions for women
were getting worse. From
our more fortunate place
as U.S. women, we feel helpless
in the face of so much suffering.
This is when we turn to
the United Nations: will
they alert the world, enlist
the NGO’s, find the
funding, go out and alleviate
these desperate situations?
For most U.S. citizens,
this is what we think the
U.N. does and what we count
on it to do.
|
How
great is this? Oregon WAND wins
Best in Show!
The
beary clever WAND folks in OR
turned out in great numbers for
the Eugene Celebration
Parade. WAND had a Circus
car in the Peace Train, with the
message 'Free All Beings from
Nuclear Threat.' It was deemed
Best of Show and Best Decorated
-- and, we think, cutest.
Click
here for loads more photos!
|
WAND
of Northern Indiana: Meeting
and Making a Difference!
| August 2006
The four women standing
together are left to right,
Marilyn Gore, Jeanne Jourdan
(a retired judge), Brenda
Borgemann, and Judy Rutherford
... Cass County Michigan
WAND representatives!
In
August, WAND of Northern
Indiana strongly objected
to the Defense Department’s
proposal to conduct a large
test, called Divine Strake,
for its nuclear weapons
program. They urged their
Senators, Richard Lugar
and Evan Bayh, to block
the test. The DOD apparently
had its eye on a limestone
quarry outside Bedford,
Indiana. The Defense Department
wants to collect data on
very large explosions in
rock to calibrate the effects
of using a nuclear bunker
buster in Iran or North
Korea. (This increase in
the U.S. nuclear weapons
program comes at the same
time as the administration
is asking Iran and North
Korea to freeze their nuclear
programs.)
In
a late August news release,
Sen. Lugar stated that the
U.S. Defense Threat Reduction
Agency confirmed to him
that they will not conduct
the Divine Strake test explosion
in Indiana.
WAND
continues to advocate to
prevent Divine Strake from
taking place in the other
places it is currently being
considered -- New Mexico
and Nevada.
|
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Notes
from the WAND News Bulletin
editor
Be
sure to check out our new
study guide on nukes. Scary,
timely.
|
|
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Five
Former Soviet Republics Swear
Off Nuclear Weapons
Arms Control Association
Applauds Central Asian States
for Forswearing Nuclear Arms
September
8, 2006 | oneworld.net
Today,
five former Soviet republics committed
themselves to never acquiring,
manufacturing, possessing, or
testing nuclear weapons by signing
a treaty to create a Central Asian
nuclear-weapon-free zone. The
nonpartisan, independent Arms
Control Association (ACA) welcomed
the move as a positive step forward
in reinforcing a beleaguered nuclear
nonproliferation regime and advancing
the goal of nuclear disarmament... |
What
Would War Look Like?
Time, September 25, 2006 | Click
here. | By
Michael Duffy
...On
its face, of course, the notion
of a war with Iran seems absurd.
By any rational measure,
the last thing the U.S. can afford
is another war. Two unfinished
wars--one on Iran's eastern border,
the other on its western flank--are
daily depleting America's treasury
and overworked armed forces. Most
of Washington's allies in those
adventures have made it clear
they will not join another gamble
overseas...
And
for all the good arguments against
any war now, much less this one,
there are just as many indications
that a genuine, eyeball-to-eyeball
crisis between the U.S. and Iran
may be looming, and sooner than
many realize. "At the moment,"
says Ali Ansari, a top Iran authority
at London's Chatham House, a foreign-policy
think tank, "we are headed
for conflict."...
Given
the chaos that a war might unleash,
what options does the world have
to avoid it? One approach would
be for the U.S. to accept Iran
as a nuclear power and learn to
live with an Iranian bomb, focusing
its efforts on deterrence rather
than pre-emption. The risk is
that a nuclear-armed Iran would
use its regional primacy to become
the dominant foreign power in
Iraq, threaten Israel and make
it harder for Washington to exert
its will in the region. And it
could provoke Sunni countries
in the region, like Saudi Arabia
and Egypt, to start nuclear programs
of their own to contain rising
Shi'ite power.
Those
equally unappetizing prospects--war
or a new arms race in the Middle
East--explain why the White House
is kicking up its efforts to resolve
the Iran problem before it gets
that far. Washington is doing
everything it can to make Iran
think twice about its ongoing
game of stonewall. It is a measure
of the Administration's unity
on Iran that confrontationalists
like Vice President Dick Cheney
and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
have lately not wandered off the
rhetorical reservation.
|
|
Iran
Offers Talks On Nuclear Issue
But Proceedings at U.N.
Must Stop, Newly Disclosed Proposal
Warns
By John Ward Anderson | Washington
Post Foreign Service
September 13, 2006 | Full article,
click
here.
PARIS, Sept. 12 -- Iran's confidential
response three weeks ago to an
international proposal over its
nuclear program offered extensive
negotiations to resolve the standoff,
but only if proceedings against
Iran in the U.N. Security Council
were stopped.
|
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Bush's
Message to Iran
By
David Ignatius, Washington Post
| September 15, 2006 | Click
here.
What
would President Bush say to the
Iranian people if he had a chance
to communicate directly with them?
I was able to put that question
to Bush in a one-on-one interview
in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
His answer made clear that the
administration wants a diplomatic
solution to the confrontation
over Iran's nuclear program --
one that is premised on an American
recognition of Iran's role as
an important nation in the Middle
East...
In recent days, the Washington
rumor mill has been bubbling with
talk that the administration is
planning military options for
dealing with the crisis, perhaps
in the near term. But Bush's remarks
went in a different direction.
His stress was on reassuring Iran
that the United States recognizes
its ambitions to be an advanced
nation, with a robust civilian
nuclear power program and a role
in shaping the Middle East commensurate
with its size and power. The red
lines for America involve nuclear
weapons, military threats to Israel
or the United States, and Iran's
links to terrorist groups....
I
came away with a sense that Bush
is serious about finding a peaceful
solution to the nuclear crisis,
and that he is looking hard for
ways to make connections between
America and Iran.
|
|
U.N.
Inspectors Dispute Iran Report
By House Panel
Paper on Nuclear Aims
Called Dishonest
By
Dafna Linzer, Washington Post
| September 14, 2006 | Click
here.
U.N. inspectors
investigating Iran's nuclear program
angrily complained to the Bush
administration and to a Republican
congressman yesterday about a
recent House committee report
on Iran's capabilities, calling
parts of the document "outrageous
and dishonest" and offering
evidence to refute its central
claims...
The IAEA openly
clashed with the Bush administration
on pre-war assessments of weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq. Relations
all but collapsed when the agency
revealed that the White House
had based some allegations about
an Iraqi nuclear program on forged
documents.
|
|
Revive
the Test Ban Treaty
September 2006, Arms Control
Today | Daryl G. Kimball
| Click
here.
Ten years ago
this month, UN member states overwhelmingly
endorsed and later opened for
signature the longest-sought,
hardest-fought nuclear arms control
treaty: the Comprehensive Nuclear
Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Today,
despite widespread support for
the CTBT and a de facto global
nuclear-test moratorium, the treaty
still has not entered into force.
The CTBT is a
simple treaty with profound value
to the struggle against proliferation.
By verifiably prohibiting “any
nuclear weapon test explosion
or any other nuclear explosion,”
the treaty would simultaneously
help constrain the qualitative
improvement of nuclear weapons,
curb proliferation, advance disarmament,
and delegitimize nuclear weapons.
Moving
forward on the CTBT is an essential
step toward restoring confidence
in the beleaguered nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty (NPT) regime. The
nuclear-weapon states’ commitment
to achieve the CTBT was a crucial
part of the bargain that won the
indefinite extension of the NPT
in 1995.
|
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Notes
from the WAND News Bulletin
editor
The
fifth anniversary of 9/11/01.
I figured we had to say
something to mark it. Then
I had to figure out where
to put it. |
|
In
the end, it's here, under
Iraq. Weird, huh? As if
Iraq, or Saddam Hussein,
or Iraqis, had anything
to do with what happened
that day.
Finally,
it's here because that day
triggered the fever that
allowed W to take us to
war. It created the smoke,
and he pointed a finger
at another fire altogether.
One
of the best pieces is from
the Frame King George
Lakoff. He says that
when W called it a War,
rather than a Crime, he
set up a whole context of
how he could behave, what
he could justify. Brilliant:
...The
war metaphor was chosen
for political reasons.
First and foremost, it
was chosen for the domestic
political reasons...
Once
adopted, the war metaphor
allowed the president
to assume war powers,
which made him politically
immune from serious criticism
and gave him extraordinary
domestic power to carry
the agenda of the radical
right: Power
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