Should the United States leave Afghanistan?

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Jeff Kisling

Guest article by my friend Rezadad Mohammadi, Afghan student in the U.S.

rez brick

Rezadad Mohammadi

From the invasion by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics known as USSR to the invasion of the United States of Afghanistan, for almost four decades, Afghanistan has been in a state of war. From 1979-1989 of Afghan conflict, “an estimated one million civilians were killed, as well as 90,000 Mujahedeen fighters, 18,000 Afghan troops, and 14,500 Soviet soldiers” (Taylor). According to Westcott a reporter in Cable News Network (CNN), 42,100 Taliban and other militant along with 31,419 Afghan civilians, 30,470 Afghan military and police, 3,946 humanitarian workers, 2,371 U.S. forces have been killed in war in Afghanistan from 2001-2017.

As of right now, “Afghanistan’s economic freedom score is 51.3, making its economy the 154th freest in the 2018 Index. Its overall score has increased by 2.4 points because of notable increases in investment freedom, financial freedom, and monetary freedom and a higher property rights score” (“2018 Index of Economic Freedom”). Afghanistan’s economy shows growth but over-all living situation do not meet the standard of living. Since 2000, Afghanistan has been a sanctuary for terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and Taliban. The presence of these terrorist groups means Afghanistan continues to be unstable.

The horrendous attack of 9/11 that was masterminded by Al Qaeda leaders who were given safe sanctuary by Taliban to fight the west, lead thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The United States was not able to win the war and it has been the longest war in the history of this nation where they did not win the war.

Now the question is, should the U.S. leave Afghanistan or not? Will their presence improve the future of Afghanistan? What roles should/will the United Statas perform to bring peace for Afghans?

What people should understand is that the United States has a real national security interest in Afghanistan’s future and the future of south Asia. I argue that the presence of the United States in Afghanistan will help the unstable government to fight corruption, will support the Afghan government to fight Taliban and finally will bring the Taliban into peace negotiations through the Pakistani government.

Experience from the Iraq war shows that the United States Government should have learned that leaving Afghanistan will open a haven for Taliban to regain sanctuary. The withdrawal of U.S forces will assist Taliban to continue their resurgence activities and engage in more reprisal killings of Afghans who partnered with the previous president, Hamid Karzai and the current one, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai to clear the path of U.S. army to fight with Taliban. Additionally, the minorities like Hazara will face the same fate as the Iraqi Yazidis have been experiencing during the Iraq war. Specifically, “About 3,100 Yazidis were killed – with more than half shot, beheaded or burned alive – and about 6,800 kidnapped to become sex slaves or fighters, according to a report published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine” (Chmaytelli). A report from the UN human rights Commission of Inquiry illustrates that Yazidis are still discriminated against and killed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL) and “the genocide is ongoing and remains largely unaddressed, despite the obligation of states… to prevent and to punish the crime” (Chmaytelli). This means only one thing, that leaving Afghanistan alone, the same situation will occur for minorities such as Hazara.

Experts believe since the United States did not have a clear military plan as they entered the Afghanistan war, that led the war to continue. It is necessary for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan and for Afghanistan to maintain the same military strategy of the last 17 years. Additionally, a report conducted by the Department of Defense in January 2017 to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) stated that “U.S. forces in Afghanistan lacked the capacity to administer, oversee, and close contracts to ensure proper performance” (Elizabeth et al.). Moreover, according to SIGAR:
“The United States currently lacks a comprehensive strategy to guide its reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. It also lacks overarching plans with clearly defined metrics to guide its work in a number of key areas such as anticorruption, counternarcotic, health, education, gender, rule of law, and water. The lack of planning and related strategies means the U.S. military and civilian agencies are at risk of working at cross purposes, spending money on nonessential endeavors, or failing to coordinate efforts in Afghanistan.” (Elizabeth et al.)

Thus, experts believe that without a clear and firm military strategy, the presence of United States’ troops is ineffective and they should leave.

Corruption hampers the Afghan government and the mission of U.S. troops to fight insurgency. After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2005, the U.S. embassy in Kabul proclaimed that corruption was “a major threat” to this nation’s future and taking action against corruption was “fundamental to the success of U.S. policy in Afghanistan” (Elizabeth et al.15). In 2006, a senior official from Department of Defense claimed that the crisis in Afghan government was strengthened by corruption. In order for the U.S. government to help the unstable government of Afghanistan to fight corruption, cooperation from Afghan warlords, powerbrokers and the returning members of Afghan diaspora whom the United States assisted to attain solidity and security was necessary.

The United States funded these people. Hoping to cooperate with them to fight corruption. Once the Taliban were defeated, these warlords would fight one another for control over illicit industries like narcotics and toll roads, and they became hated by the average civilian. This greatly undermined the U.S. attempt at building infrastructure and institution in Afghanistan. Also, this pattern of instability suggested that the country was not ready for the considerable change necessary to turn into a modern state. (Alexander 108)

Later these warlords and powerbrokers became the fundamental element in expansion of corruption and insecurity in Afghanistan.  According to SIGAR, “U.S. officials failed to recognize the extent to which massive inflows of money related to military and aid contracts, paired with weak oversight and contracting practices, were drivers of corruption” ((Elizabeth et al 16). The United States contributed to the expansion of corruption by providing “tens of billions of dollars into the Afghan economy, using flawed oversight and contracting practices, and partnering with malign powerbrokers” (Elizabeth. et al. i). Additionally, the lack of Afghan cooperation along with the anticorruption agencies stymied several U.S. efforts to end corruption and later helped prevent tangible progress on building security. The U.S. government undervalued their connection with individuals in the Afghan government. The U.S policy makers could have more forcefully brought pressure to bear by providing security and development assistance on perceptible development.

The U.S. government did not come up with an effective strategy to weaken corruption: short tours and frequent turnovers of U.S. civilian and military officials, coupled with the lack of specialized anticorruption expertise, led to poor institutional knowledge of the complex risks of corruption and inconsistent attempts to address it. ((Elizabeth et al 76). Thus, the U.S. government should have targeted corruption as a high priority to prevent systemic corruption in the future. Moreover, press reports and interviews divulged that not all the U.S. agencies shared the same goal to fight corruption, “specifically alleging the CIA maintained relationships with some corrupt individuals as assets, while other agencies sought to investigate and prosecute those same individuals. This lack of coherence in the overall U.S. approach to corruption undermined U.S. efforts to fight it.” ((Elizabeth et al 76). This is how the United States government added to corruption in Afghanistan.

The resolutions to enzootic corruption in Afghanistan are primarily political. A commitment from Afghan government to stay honest with the U.S. policies, a firm commitment from the Afghan people to fight corruption within the culture and dedication from the U.S. government in providing resources and aid are necessary to fight corruption. This is not doable unless the United States does not permit their troop and programs to remain in Afghanistan. Lessons from early 2000 till now have shown that Afghan officials are highly involved in corruption. The U.S. programs and resources could contribute more on how to fight corruption by training locals and officials, providing aid to build anti-corruption agencies, and encouraging the international community to provide more funding toward fighting corruption in Afghanistan.

When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, the U.S. troops killed most of Al Qaeda and Taliban soldiers and those who survived escaped to Pakistan or further regions in Afghanistan. Since then, the hate and tension against Afghan and U.S. troops has increased among Taliban: “In recent weeks, the situation in Afghanistan has rapidly deteriorated as the Afghan Taliban and the Islamic State of Khurasan (ISK) unleashed their acts of terrorism in different parts of the country (Mahmood “The Enduring Terror Threat”). Along with that, currently, some foreign fighters from Iraq and Syria are making their way to Afghanistan as the Islamic State (IS) is being defeated in those regions. “The presences of French, Moroccan, Chechen, British and Uighur militants affiliated with IS has been witnessed in Afghanistan” (editorial). That means that the competition between IS and Taliban over resources, new recruiter and fighters, and monopoly over the ideological narrative of jihadism will escalate.

Taliban uses different approaches in order to gain power in Afghanistan. Recently, a letter sent by the spokesperson of Taliban to United Nations and the United States government illustrated their willingness to engage in peace talk with the government of Afghanistan, but that would only happen if all the U.S. troops leave Afghanistan. The spokesperson of the U.S. State Department evaluates the letter by saying: “The Taliban statement alone does not show willingness to engage in peace talks. The Taliban’s recent horrific terror attacks in Kabul speak louder than these words. The Afghan government can only negotiate to end the war if the Taliban are ready. The recent attacks show this is not the case (Barker and Borger)”.

The comments above indicate that Taliban are not ready to be involved in peace talks with Afghan government, and the recent attack in Kabul by Taliban proves that. The letter sent by Taliban also highlights the aid Afghanistan received and blames U.S. policymakers as thieves of tax and revenue from the American citizens. The 2,800-word letter not only shows the interests of Taliban to engage in peace talks but in a way it attempts to persuade the U.S. public that the war in Afghanistan is not winnable. It cites the 3,546 American and those of foreign soldiers killed and the rise of 87% in heroin production in 2017, as well as the report from SIGAR that Taliban dominance on the ground has expanded notably. Taliban indicate they are unwilling to negotiate through peace with the government, unless all the foreign troops are out of Afghanistan, but that is not actually true. According to Semple who is a professor at Queen’s University Belfast, the Taliban has rejected talks with the Afghan government and are willing to talk with the U.S. government. The letter sent to the U.S and the United Nations is not conveying a serious proposal, “but is an attempt to provide cover for a hardline position (with which I suspect most Taliban in Qatar disagree)” (Barker and Borger).

The 17 years of war in Afghanistan indicates that Afghan troops are not able to fight all these insurgencies. Still, aid, resources and strategic training form U.S. troops to help Afghan soldiers fight militants are fundamental to fight Taliban. Therefore, the existence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan is necessary for Afghan government.

From 2002 to 2008, the security situation deteriorated in Afghanistan because insurgencies developed and spread across the Afghan nation: “Geographically, most insurgent activity was centered in the southern and eastern ethnic Pashtun regions of the country, and the northern regions of Pakistan were used frequently by insurgents as safe havens” (Alexander 107). The mutiny in Afghanistan is not directed by a unified force. Rather, it is controlled by a series of networks, such as Hezb—Islami, the Taliban, AQ, the Haqqni network, as well as various local warlord militias, foreign fighters, and criminal gangs. Afghanistan remains unstable because the insurgencies were given a safe haven in Pakistan. History and evidence from U.S. government combat with Taliban and other terrorist groups through airpower and light footprint strategy shows the presence of these insurgencies in Pakistan: “The Taliban and AQ have formed personal relations with some of the tribal networks of the region.78 In effect, Northern Pakistan is a safe haven and staging area for insurgents, and this was openly recognized by President Obama” (Alexander 112).

Since the spring operations to fight Taliban in 2002, Northern Pakistan has been a safe base for Taliban. Although, Pakistani government attempted to crack down Al Qaeda soldiers in the urban areas, however, failed to run the same operation in the rural areas. Since then, U.S forces have seen a dramatic rise in the presence of mutiny in Pakistan-Afghanistan.

Currently, the Trump administration’s plan regarding the war in Afghanistan consists of three core elements.

• First, sending more troops to Afghanistan, including the U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) to assist the fight against insurgency in the region.
• Second, to locate more pressure on the Pakistani government to deal with terrorist and insurgencies within their territory.
• The third policy is to refocus on counterterrorism mission instead of nation building.

This new Trump policy seems a promising feature on how to fight terrorists in both the Afghan and Pakistani land. This strategy could help the U.S. soldiers to prevent insurgencies networks from taking major areas/cities in Afghanistan and will also stop terrorist groups from any further territorial gains in the land of Afghanistan. This will bottle up the insurgencies in Pakistani area too and the United States “can then intensify its diplomatic influence on Pakistan to further pressure the insurgency towards accepting a negotiated settlement with the US and the Afghan government in Kabul” (Alexander 121). As IS soldiers in Iraq and Syria are defeated and are making their way to Afghanistan, thus, defense plans should be designed in regard to dealing with Pakistan for bringing Taliban into peace negotiation with the Afghani government.
Without Pakistani initiative, talks with the Taliban are unlikely to succeed. Perhaps with Pakistani consent and support the Taliban will continue to push their advantage on the ground. Alternatively, given ground realities, the Taliban might demand that the United States and Afghanistan cede provinces in the east and the south to them. (Khalilzad & Dobbins)

The only way to prevent Taliban getting safe sanctuary in the land of Afghanistan, is for the U.S. to intensify pressure on Pakistan government to fight insurgencies in their land and force extremists to engage in peace negotiations with the Afghan government is a must.

The Afghanistan war, as it is currently going on, is not an easy conundrum to solve and the Afghans are not able to solve this issue alone. Continued help from the United States is essential to help end the war in Afghanistan. It has been 17 years and, yet, the Afghan and the United States government did not completely get rid of the insurgency. The recent attack of the Islamic State group in Kabul indicates the active presence of insurgencies in the region: “A suicide bomber killed at least 57 people in an attack on a voter registration line in Kabul on Sunday morning. Men, women, and children were among the dead, and at least 119 people were also injured in the attack, according to Afghan health officials” (Danner). In addition to that, as insecurity reached its peak, foreign fighters from Iraq and Syria known as IS soldiers are making their way to Afghanistan. The presence of their soldiers has been noticed in the region.

Furthermore, corruption, which is one of the essential reasons for Afghanistan war and the insecurity, is actively influencing the war in Afghanistan. The aid received since 2001 to reconstruct Afghanistan was not nearly all spent for the mentioned mission. Instead, powerbrokers and corrupted people stole the money from the foreign aid and later became reasons for insecurity. Additionally, the U.S. government failed to notice the issue and did not take immediate actions for rebuilding the basis for a modern Afghan state. The deceits from officials and lack of effective support from the U.S. government lead the Taliban to regain sanctuary in remote provinces of Afghanistan. Likewise, Taliban are given a haven in Pakistan. The Pakistani government is not willing to take necessary actions to get rid of Taliban from its county or to force them to peace negotiation with the Afghan government.

With all these horrendous situations that Afghan people face, the U.S. presence could be a key element for bringing peace and change Afghanistan into a modern state. The current U.S. administration approaches are a new tactic to solve address this by sending more troops to fight insurgencies in the Afghan-Pakistani area and to approach through diplomacy with the Pakistani government to eradicate insurgencies from its land or force Taliban to negotiate with the Afghan government.

Therefore, the presence of the U.S. in Afghanistan is critical and without the U.S. assistance, Afghan government will not be able to fight Taliban, corruption and get the support from the Pakistani government to fight Taliban. Thus, Afghan people endure more.

Rezadad Mohammadi

DSC_5852_01

Jeff Kisling and Rezadad Mohammadi

Work Cited
“Afghanistan.” Afghanistan Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI, Corruption, http://www.heritage.org/index/country/afghanistan.
Bandow, Doug, “The Nation-Building Experiment That Failed: Time For U.S. To Leave Afghanistan.” Forbes. Forbes.com. 01 Mar. 2017. Web. 06 Mar. 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2017/03/01/the-nation-building-experiment-that-failed-time-for-u-s-to-leave-afghanistan/#53931f265b28
Barker, Memphis, and Julian Borger. “Taliban Publish Letter Calling on US to Start Afghan Peace Talks.” The Guardian, 14 Feb. 2018, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/14/taliban-publish-letter-calling-us-start-afghan-peace-talks
Chmaytelli, Maher, “Three Years since Islamic State Attack, Yazidi Wounds Still Open.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 3 Aug. 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-yazidis/three-years-since-islamic-state-attack-yazidi-wounds-still-open-idUSKBN1AJ1WC.
Downie, James, ” Trump’s Instinct were right: The U.S. should leave Afghanistan.” The Washington Post. Washingtonpost.com. 22 Aug. 2017. Web, 06.2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/08/22/trumps-instincts-were-right-the-u-s-should-leave-afghanistan/?utm_term=.bf458f4ed76f
Khalilzad, Zalmay, and James Dobbins. “Opinion: Pakistan Holds the Key to Peace in Afghanistan.” Newsweek, 13 May 2016, http://www.newsweek.com/pakistan-holds-key-peace-afghanistan-413495.
Mahmood, Sara, et al. “The Enduring Terror Threat in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Region.” Editorial. Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses, vol. 10, no. 2, 2018. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26358990.
Morini, Daryl. “A Diplomatic Surge in Afghanistan, 2011–14.” Strategic Studies Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 4, 2010, pp. 68–100. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26269816.
Salt, Alexander. “Transformation and the War in Afghanistan.” Strategic Studies Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 1, 2018, pp. 98–126. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26333879.
Serchuk, Vance, “America Needs to Stay in Afghanistan.” The Atlantic. Atlantic.com. 18 Aug. 2017. Web. 06 Mar.2018.https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/afghanistan-trump-surge-obama-taliban/537291
Taylor, Alan. “The Soviet War in Afghanistan, 1979 – 1989.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 4 Aug. 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/08/the-soviet-war-in-afghanistan-1979-1989/100786/.
Westcott, Ben. “Afghanistan: 16 Years, Thousands Dead and No Clear End in Sight.” CNN, Cable News Network, 1 Nov. 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/21/asia/afghanistan-war-explainer/index.html.
Young, Elizabeth, et al. “Corruption in Conflict: LESSONS FROM THE U.S. EXPERIENCE IN AFGHANISTAN.” SIGAR, Sep. 2016, http://www.sigar.mil/pdf/LessonsLearned/SIGAR-16-58-LL.pdf.

Posted in peace, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Gun (Un)control

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Jeff Kisling

Landmark Legal Shift Opens Pandora’s Box for DIY Guns is the apt title of a recent article by Andy Greenburg on WIRED.com. DIY stands for “do it yourself”.  It is possible for anyone with a 3D printer to download the software needed to create a gun at home.

“Five years ago, 25-year-old radical libertarian Cody Wilson stood on a remote central Texas gun range and pulled the trigger on the world’s first fully 3-D-printed gun. When, to his relief, his plastic invention fired a .380-caliber bullet into a berm of dirt without jamming or exploding in his hands, he drove back to Austin and uploaded the blueprints for the pistol to his website, Defcad.com.

He’d launched the site months earlier along with an anarchist video manifesto, declaring that gun control would never be the same in an era when anyone can download and print their own firearm with a few clicks. In the days after that first test-firing, his gun was downloaded more than 100,000 times.”
Landmark Legal Shift Opens Pandora’s Box for DIY Guns

The article describes the legal battle between Wilson and the Justice Department.

“Two months ago, the Department of Justice quietly offered Wilson a settlement to end a lawsuit he and a group of co-plaintiffs have pursued since 2015 against the United States government. Wilson and his team of lawyers focused their legal argument on a free speech claim: They pointed out that by forbidding Wilson from posting his 3-D-printable data, the State Department was not only violating his right to bear arms but his right to freely share information. By blurring the line between a gun and a digital file, Wilson had also successfully blurred the lines between the Second Amendment and the First.” (from the article above)

Related article also by Andy Greenburg:  I Made an Untraceable AR-15 ‘Ghost Gun’ in My Office—and It Was Easy.

These developments would seem to thwart efforts to do things like ban assault weapons. Even if an assault weapons ban was passed, anyone with these tools would be able to make their own weapon, one that did not have a serial number or would not be registered.

I don’t see anyway to regulate this, do you?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Prospects for Peace

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Jeff Kisling

As others have expressed, I have had times when I’ve been overwhelmed by the nearly daily onslaughts against democratic norms, institutions and governance, or lack thereof, of the current Republican administration and Congress. This continuous series of attacks on governing principles, civil liberties, the press, and public institutions is a well know technique of authoritarian regimes. The resulting disruptions come at us so fast, and from so many directions, that is difficult to deal with any one issue. The end result is almost none of the threats are successfully challenged.

The Congressional hearing yesterday related to FBI Agent Peter Strzok was an embarrassing spectacle to observe. But more importantly showed the continued refusal of Congress to work on any of the myriad of problems that were cited by Democratic Congresspeople. The hearing also exposed how far Republicans will go to attack the FBI and Justice Department.  And efforts to discredit the investigations into the current administration; another authoritarian technique.

Our international reputation is in tatters as the world watches what is happening in our country, including blatant racism, the treatment of those seeking asylum and other immigrants, forcibly separating children from their parents, the refusal to pass common sense gun legislation, curtailment of civil liberties, attacks on the press and on law enforcement and the judicial system, attempts to diminish access to healthcare, roll back all kinds of protections for land, air and water quality, and trade policies that actually damage businesses. And not only refusing to address climate change, but aggressively promoting the continued use of fossil fuels.

At this same time the President is traveling abroad, where he continues to criticize our allies, interfere with local governments, and praise authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin. I had hoped the summit with North Korea was going to be movement toward peace with that country, but recent events cast doubt on that.

So on top of over a year of damaging domestic policy, we are now witnessing this administration’s disturbing trends in international relations and heightened prospects for war. This at a time when what was supposed to be a system of checks and balances between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government have intentionally been eroded.

Those who work for peace and justice need to renew our efforts. All of the above can only happen when we don’t challenge these threats. Our traditional means of trying to influence our representatives seem to have little effect in the face of huge campaign contributions, and the increased power of corporate lobbyists. Friends can continue to engage with government, and continue to support and participate in the efforts of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). We can continue to support resistance efforts like the Poor Peoples Campaign.

The upcoming midterm elections are the real opportunity to change our government policies.  Voter registration and participation are crucial. Unfortunately the integrity of the upcoming elections is already in doubt because the administration has not fulfilled its duty to protect the electoral process.

The large, looming questions are what charges will the Special Counsel bring, when will that happen, and what will be the consequences? Will there be a constitutional crises? What can we do now to be prepared if that happens?

White House
U.S. Supreme Court
KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA
KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA
Civil disobedience training
FCNL
FCNL
FCNL
Martin Luther King, Jr memorial
#NoDAPL
FCNL
Weekly peace vigil Indianapolis
Posted in climate change, peace, Poor Peoples Campaign, race, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Where are the babies and children?

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Jeff Kisling

Where are the babies and children that were forcibly taken from their parents at the US-Mexican border?

It would be bad enough if the separations were documented to allow the parents and children to eventually be reunited.  But as Senator Jeff Merkley (D) Oregon, says in the following video, that documentation was not done. The Senator has gone to the border to try to see what the living conditions are in the detention camps, and was refused entry to at least one facility. This video is an interview on CNN:

Senator Jeff Merkley: “At the time they separated them from their parents, they called them, then, unaccompanied minors, and they sent them to HHS (Health and Human Services) just as if they had arrived without their parents.  Therefore HHS didn’t have information about their parents. They have had great difficulty figuring this out. That’s why here, after two weeks, only 50 kids, or a few more, will be connected. So this was really poorly planned all the way through.

They are still insisting on a strategy of inflicting trauma on children in order to push a policy of deterrence … no religious tradition, no moral code would possibly allow you to say ‘I’m going to injure these kids to send some political message’.”

The new plan is to keep children and parents together in jail.

We must continue to press our representatives to reunite every child, and to end the policy of deterrence based upon child separation.

From Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL):

Bills expanding family detention are gaining bipartisan momentum in the House and the Senate. The Keep Families Together and Enforce the Law Act (S. 3093) and similar legislation would allow for children to be detained indefinitely with their parents.

Currently, children can’t be kept in detention for more than 20 days. Congress should uphold that standard; passing legislation that undermines protections for children is no solution.

Urge your members of Congress to oppose any legislation that incarcerates children, with or without their parents.

The administration does not need Congress to pass legislation for the administration to stop family separation. Congress should push the administration to end its zero-tolerance prosecution policy and return discretion to protect asylum seekers, especially young children, from being harmfully incarcerated.

Non-restrictive, community-based alternatives to detention are the most appropriate response for families, children, and asylum seekers. Please tell members of Congress to encourage the administration to utilize these options rather than expanding family detention.   https://www.fcnl.org/updates/stop-detaining-children-and-families-1536

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senator(s). Here’s an example of what you can say:

I urge you to support policies that protect and unite immigrant and refugee families. The administration is detaining and prosecuting parents, and forcibly separating them from their children. I call on you to do everything in your power to stop family separation. Congress should increase oversight over the Department of Homeland Security and urge them to end unjust policies. Congress should cut funding for harmful immigration enforcement that separates families. I value the sanctity of the family and believe Congress should act to bring families together, not keep them apart.   https://www.fcnl.org/updates/three-ways-congress-can-protect-immigrant-families-1482

U.S. Capitol
U.S. Capitol
U.S. Supreme Court
White House
FCNL
FCNL

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Universal Basic Income

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Jeff Kisling

Stockton, California, was a bankrupt city. It is expected more and more cities will file for bankruptcy as taxable revenues dry up and property values plummet. And as an increasing number of communities are impacted by more severe storms, fire, flood and drought.

Chris McKenna is executive director of the League of California Cities. By filing for bankruptcy, cities will be able to keep police and firefighters on the street and possibly keep some parks and libraries open while they work out their finances, he said.

More municipal bankruptcies are likely in California and throughout the nation, as cities continue to battle rising costs and a weak economy, said Eric Hoffman, an analyst at Moody’s. Still, “we don’t expect it to be widespread,” he said.  https://money.cnn.com/2012/07/12/news/economy/california-bankruptcies/index.htm

Soon Stockton will give 100 residents $500 a month for 18 months, with no strings attached.

“The nontraditional system for distributing wealth guarantees that citizens receive a regular sum of money. The goal is to create an income floor no one will fall beneath. The concept of Universal Basic Income has gained traction and support from some Silicon Valley leaders, including Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg. It is seen as a way to possibly reduce poverty and safeguard against the job disruption that comes from automation.”   https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/stockton-california-to-give-dollar500-in-basic-income-to-some-residents/ar-AAzOrK1?ocid=spartanntp

According to Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, “It is such a fundamental idea behind America that if you work hard, you can get ahead — and you certainly don’t live in poverty. But that isn’t true today, and it hasn’t been true in the country for decades,” Hughes said. “I believe that unless we make significant changes today, the income inequality in our country will continue to grow and call into question the very nature of our social contract.”

This year Finland begins to explore Universal Basic Income by giving 2,0000 people nearly $600 per month, whether they work or not.

“The idea is that a universal income offers workers greater security, especially as technological advances reduce the need for human labor. It will also allow unemployed people to pick up odd jobs without losing their benefits.
The initial program will run for a period of two years. Participants were randomly selected, but had to be receiving unemployment benefits or an income subsidy. The money they are paid through the program will not be taxed.
If the program is successful, it could be expanded to include all adult Finns” https://money.cnn.com/2017/01/02/news/economy/finland-universal-basic-income/?iid=EL

Canada’s province of Ontario began a program this year that gives 4,000 residents $12,600 a year.

Since the 1980’s Alaska has been giving annual cash payments to all residents from the state’s oil revenues.

I hope the idea of Universal Basic Income spreads. Increasing numbers of people in this country live in poverty while corporations continue to accumulate vast wealth.

SONY DSC

 

Posted in climate change, Poor Peoples Campaign, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Protest Art: Caged baby Jesus

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Jeff Kisling
cage baby jesus

(C)nbcchicago.com

The Nativity scene was put up early this year at Christ Church Cathedral, an Episcopalian church on the Circle in the center of downtown Indianapolis.

The Episcopalian church’s dean and rector, the Rev. Stephen Carlsen, says the display that’s part of the church’s “Every Family is Holy Campaign” condemns the nation’s immigration policy that’s holding families in detention centers at the U.S.-Mexico border.
He says the Holy Family was “a homeless family with nowhere to stay” and that the Bible says “we’re supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves.”  (c)WNDU NBC South Bend, IN

Hopefully creative efforts such as this can build pressure on the Republican administration to reunite children forcibly removed from their families at the U.S.-Mexican border. Especially as it has become increasingly clear the administration did not keep record of which child belongs to which parent.

Irwin Redlener, president emeritus of Children’s Health Fund and a professor of health policy and management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told Salon that  “we typically think of a child abuse and neglect as something that happens to children when parents or a guardian is over-disciplining, or engaged in acts of violence, sexual exploitation, or extreme neglect,” he said. “The federal government has created a policy which is cruel and abusive. Let’s call it what it is: ‘child abuse by government,’ that’s the only way to describe the consequences of the misguided policy.”
“All Americans should be horrified,” he added.   Salon, May 31, 2018

The real question is what was the administration’s actual purpose with these separations? Since they didn’t intend to reunite the children and their families, what was their intention? Is Congress going to fulfill its job of oversight of the administration to investigate why this was done, and make sure it never happens again? Is Congress going to hold those responsible accountable?

Do you have a Nativity scene and some fence?

p.s. The Christ Church Cathedral has been the site of numerous social justice actions over the years. For example, this was the church where high school students camped out at (in the rain as it turned out) to bring attention to the homeless in Indianapolis.

And the Church was the site of at least one Black Lives Matter event.

Posted in Arts, Black Lives, race, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Air conditioning and catalytic converters

Posted on July 8, 2018 by Jeff Kisling

Or how to be an ostrich and keep your head in the sand.

I used to hope that the time would (eventually) come when so many changes in our environment and climate would finally force people to acknowledge that climate change is real and happening now.

Evidently record breaking temperatures around the world, more rain deluges and flooding while other areas experience drought and water shortages, more intense wildfires, accelerating rises in carbon dioxide and methane, and rapidly melting permafrost and glaciers still aren’t enough to force people to see what is happening all around us.

One of my most memorable early life experiences was visiting Los Angeles during a summer family vacation (circa 1965). When we first arrived we saw vast clouds of smog hiding the surrounding mountains from view, our eyes burned and we coughed in the dirty air. I wondered why anyone would put up with such a dirty environment, even though millions of people were doing so.

I had similar experiences when I moved to Indianapolis in 1971 and was enveloped in  clouds of smog as I rode my bicycle to work and around the city. Smog so thick that at times I worried my bicycle and I wouldn’t be seen in traffic.

All of this was before the widespread use of catalytic converters, which began around 1975. People were somewhat separated from the smog as they traveled enclosed in their cars. Although we all appreciate the clearer air now from catalytic converters, the downside is people could easily ignore the (invisible) carbon dioxide they continue to pump into the air from their car’s exhaust.

Imagine what might have happened if catalytic converters had not been invented?

I’d like to think we all might have paid more attention to the damage from fossil fuels as smog worsened. Change happens when something affects us personally, and smog was becoming a universal problem. But after decades of hoping and working for a lot of things to change (addressing environmental destruction, racism, militarism, materialism to name a few), I’m not sure even expanding, denser clouds of toxic air would have made a difference.

Similarly, the widespread use of air conditioners in developed countries makes it easy to ignore rising air temperatures. So many people dwell in homes with air conditioning, travel to work and everywhere else in air conditioned cars, and end up at work or other buildings with air conditioning so cold you shiver. They only feel the heat when moving between air conditioned environments.

We know increased use of air conditioning stresses our fragile energy infrastructure. We will see an increasing number and duration of power brown outs and black outs.

There won’t be anywhere to hide from the heat then.

Imagine life without air conditioning. Spend a day with the air conditioning turned off this summer. Experience what will soon be the new normal.

So we end up hiding from ourselves all the carbon dioxide being dumped into our air, while trying to ignore the rising air and water temperatures resulting from that carbon dioxide, by using air conditioning wherever we are. A vicious cycle of hiding from the environmental truth.

Climate scientist Guy McPherson summarizes abrupt anthropogenic climate change in the video below (posted 11/21/2017).  What McPherson has been saying for years has made him a target for climate deniers. He is often criticized not for his science, but because what he says would upend the status quo if people took him seriously. I believe he is correct when he says dramatic increases in air and water temperatures will occur within a matter of months, not years. That is already happening.

Posted in #NDAPL, climate change, Indigenous, Keystone Pledge of Resistance, Poor Peoples Campaign, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Audit: The Souls of Poor Folk

Posted on July 7, 2018 by Jeff Kisling

“WE COME TO YOU AS REPRESENTATIVES OF BLACK, INDIAN, MEXICAN-AMERICAN, PUERTO RICAN AND WHITE-AMERICANS WHO ARE THE TOO LONG FORGOTTEN, HUNGRY AND JOBLESS OUTCASTS IN THIS LAND OF PLENTY. WE COME BECAUSE POOR FATHERS AND MOTHERS WANT A HOUSE TO LIVE IN THAT WILL PROTECT THEIR CHILDREN AGAINST THE BITTER WINTER COLD, THE SEARING HEAT OF SUMMER AND THE RAIN THAT NOW TOO OFTEN COMES IN THROUGH THE CRACKS IN OUR ROOFS AND WALLS.
WE HAVE COME HERE TO SAY THAT WE DON’T THINK IT’S TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR A
DECENT PLACE TO LIVE IN AT REASONABLE PRICES IN A COUNTRY WITH A GROSS
NATIONAL PRODUCT OF 800 BILLION DOLLARS. WE DON’T THINK IT’S TOO RADICAL TO WANT TO HELP CHOOSE THE TYPE OF HOUSING AND THE LOCATION. WE DON’T THINK IT’S ASKING FOR PIE IN THE SKY TO WANT TO LIVE IN NEIGHBORHOODS WHERE OUR FAMILIES CAN LIVE AND GROW UP WITH DIGNITY, SURROUNDED BY THE KIND OF FACILITIES AND SERVICES THAT OTHER AMERICANS TAKE FOR GRANTED.”
– COMMITTEE OF 100, STATEMENTS OF DEMANDS FOR RIGHTS OF THE POOR, 1968

“WITH THE REALITIES OF SYSTEMIC RACISM, SYSTEMIC POVERTY, ECOLOGICAL DEVASTATION, THE WAR ECONOMY AND THE OFTEN FALSE MORAL NARRATIVE OF CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM, WE ARE IN A MOMENT IN TIME WHICH WE NEED A DEEPLY MORAL, DEEPLY CONSTITUTIONAL, ANTI-RACIST, ANTI-POVERTY, PRO-LABOR, TRANSFORMATIVE FUSION COALITION, WHERE PEOPLE OF ALL DIFFERENT RACES, COLORS AND CREEDS COME TOGETHER AND WORK TOGETHER TO ENGAGE IN MORAL
DIRECT ACTION, MASSIVE VOTER MOBILIZATION, AND POWER BUILDING FROM THE BOTTOM UP, STATE BY STATE AND EVEN IN THE U.S. CAPITOL. WE NEED THIS TO
CHANGE THE NARRATIVE AND INSIST THAT WE WILL NO LONGER ENGAGE IN ATTENTION VIOLENCE AGAINST THE POOR AND OTHER INTERLOCKING INJUSTICES
THAT CONNECT TO POVERTY.”
– REV. DR. WILLIAM J. BARBER, II, CO-CHAIR,
POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN: A NATIONAL CALL FOR MORAL REVIVAL, 2018

Auditing America 50 Years AfSELRES_9a24c140-9261-4086-b579-d6182836ace5SELRES_9a24c140-9261-4086-b579-d6182836ace5ter the Poor People’s Campaign Challenged Racism, Poverty, the War Economy/Militarism and Our National Morality

The Souls of Poor Folk audit can be found at this link:  https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/audit/

From the introduction:

The Souls of Poor Folk traces the 50 years since 1968, when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and thousands of Americans, alarmed at their government’s blindness to human need, launched the Poor People’s Campaign. As they marched up from the nation’s neglected shadows, Dr. King paused to answer a plea for support from sanitation workers on strike in Memphis. There an assassin snatched his life on April 4th.

The Souls of Poor Folk is an empirical study that brings us toward an honest confrontation with our own history—how our path has unfolded since 1968 and how our nation trembles today for lack of moral vision. It summons our highest moral aspirations and diagnoses our deepest national ailments over five decades. It draws on academic research but also upon the testimonies of human beings battered by harmful public policies. Alongside the carefully assembled facts, you will hear the voices of America’s poor themselves, many of them now joining this movement. “Not everything that is faced can be changed,” James Baldwin reminds us, “But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/PPC-Audit-Full-410835a.pdf

SONY DSC
Posted in civil disobedience, Indigenous, Poor Peoples Campaign, race, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Quakers and the Poor People’s Campaign

Posted on July 6, 2018 by Jeff Kisling

Last night Rev. William Barber spoke to Quakers gathered for this year’s meetings of the Friends General Conference at the University of Toledo. He mentioned attending Quaker meetings as a child. He spoke about two Quaker abolitionists who are heroes/sheroes to him, Lucretia Mott and Levi Coffin.

 

He said the Poor People’s Campaign of the 1960’s didn’t die, it was killed when Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr, and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. Fifty years later the Poor People’s Campaign begins again.

Beginning in April, 2013, Rev Barber began the Moral Mondays movement in North Carolina. This movement is based upon building coalitions of many groups to work together on social justice issues. This is referred to as a “fusion” movement, where people and organizations put aside their differences, and work together on the issues they agree about. Secondly, the Moral Mondays movement is based upon peaceful, nonviolent civil disobedience as the necessary means of being a moral, public voice, since laws are often used to silence dissent.

The Moral Mondays movement gradually spread to other states. Erin Polley (AFSC) in Indianapolis was one of the key leaders in Indiana. A number of North Meadow Friends, the Kheprw Institute (KI) community, our Keystone Pledge of Resistance group in Indianapolis were among those who organized and built Indiana Moral Mondays. Rev. Barber joined us for the launch of Indiana Moral Mondays in June, 2015. Slowly a network of similar groups working together on social justice issues was being built around the country.

Indiana Moral Mondays

The next steps were to provide MPOLIS (Moral Political Organizing Leadership Institute Summit) events around the country. These events occurred in about 20 cities in the United States, as part of a new organization named Repairers of the Breach.  Building on the work of Moral Mondays, this is the beginning of a movement to return moral values to our broken political and economic systems.  Rev. Barber explained this eloquently to the nation with  his wonderful speech at the Democratic National Convention. I was able to attend the Institute in Indianapolis in August, 2016.

The purpose of these MPOLIS sessions was to provide local faith leaders with the tools to examine social conditions from a faith perspective and for movement building.   One of the tools explored was the use of theomusicology.  A friend, Yin Min Kyi posted a short video of one song we sang:   We won’t be silent anymore

“Today we stand as truth-tellers witnessing to the pain and suffering caused by the injustices within our community and across this country.  We gather to declare that we need a moral revival, a radical revolution of values.”   https://kairoscenter.org/revival-time-moral-revolution-values/

Higher Ground Moral Declaration

We declare that the deepest public concerns of our nation and faith traditions are how our society treats the poor, those on the margins, the least of these, women, children, workers, immigrants and the sick; equality and representation under the law; and the desire for peace, love and harmony within and among nations.

Together, we lift up and defend the most sacred moral principles of our faith and constitutional values, which are: the economic liberation of all people; ensuring every child receives access to quality education; healthcare access for all; criminal justice reform; and ensuring historically marginalized communities have equal protection under the law.

Our moral traditions have a firm foundation upon which to stand against the divide-and-conquer strategies of extremists. We believe in a moral agenda that stands against systemic racism, classism, poverty, xenophobia, and any attempt to promote hate towards any members of the human family.

We claim a higher ground in partisan debate by returning public discourse to our deepest moral and constitutional values.

The Revival

The idea of revivals is far removed from my Quaker experience, but I attended one October 3, 2016.  I rode my bicycle about 6 miles to a large church on the north side of Indianapolis that eventually completely filled with people–a rough estimate would be 700 or so.  This is related to the Moral Political Organizing Leadership Institute Summit I attended in August, where Rev William Barber taught us about the national campaign for the Revival: A Time for a Revolution in Moral Values.   These events are live streamed and also recorded.  You can see last night’s event here. The initial call to action is to get out the vote for the November elections.

The litany from the revival:

Martin Luther King said, “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.  The truth must be told.”
Today we stand as truth-tellers witnessing to the pain and suffering caused by the injustices within our community and across the country.  We gather to declare that we need a moral revival, a radical revolution of values.  And we call on the prophets of old from the sacred texts of the world’s religions who proclaimed:
Congregation:  “This is what the Lord says:   Do what is just and right.  Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed.  Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.”  Jeremiah 22:3
As with these sacred texts, we, too proclaim revival across this land as we sound the alarm and join hand in hand.
Leader:  We join voice with voice until all are heard and arm in arm until all are seen.
All:  Hallelujah, Thine the glory.
Hallelujah, Amen.
Hallelujah, Thine the glory.
Revive us again!

Rev. William Barber’s article The Third Reconstruction, was published in the Friends Journal, September 1, 2016. “Quakers, it’s time to get back into the public square. If you believe that there’s life above the snake line, it’s time to get back in the public square.”

More from the article:  “That’s what Quakers were doing when they stood against slavery. They said slavery was below the snake line. Hate is below the snake line. Racism is below the snake line. Homophobia and xenophobia are below the snake line. Greed is below the snake line. Injustice is below the snake line. It’s time for us to raise the moral standard above the snake line.”

For this moral revolution to succeed it will take masses of people going to the streets to let the world know that our society needs to move above the snake line. I’ve since written a series of articles about how we get back into the public square.

All this organizing and training has led to the launch of the new Poor People’s Campaign fifty years after the one in the late 1960’s.

“This coming Mother’s Day, the Poor People’s Campaign will launch 40 days of coordinated protests, including civil disobedience, in 30 states. On June 23, they will organize a mobilization in the nation’s capital, just as the 1968 campaign did only a couple months after the assassination of Dr. King.”
 http://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-05-09/poor-peoples-campaign-gears-up-for-mothers-day-launch/

And the list of demands can be found here:   https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/demands/

The efforts now will focus on massive voter registration and turnout.

How do you respond when Rev Barber says, “Quakers, it’s time to get back into the public square”?

Christina Nobiss
Rezadad Mohammadi and Mushtaq Ahmad Wahidy

 

Posted in Arts, Black Lives, civil disobedience, climate change, Indiana Moral Mondays, Keystone Pledge of Resistance, Kheprw Institute, Poor Peoples Campaign, Quaker Meetings, race, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fourth of July

Posted on July 4, 2018 by Jeff Kisling

Concerning Fourth of July celebrations, James West Davidson writes,

“But the best orators who have marked the day have understood that our nation’s laurels are not meant to be rested on. Fourth of July speeches tend to divide into two sorts. The predominant variety is commemorative, celebratory, and prescriptive—solemnized, as John Adams predicted in 1776, “with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”
But in his exuberance, Adams failed to anticipate that the Fourth, as it brought Americans together, would continually threaten to tear them apart. Over the years, celebrations of the Fourth have become a periodic tug of war between commemorations designed to affirm and even enforce the common identity of Americans—out of many, one—and subversive pushback from those obstreperous enough to insist that we are not all free, emphatically not all equal, and certainly not one.”

July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Frederick Douglass delivered “What to the slave is the 4th of July?”

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Having spent time these past several years with Native Americans as we worked to protect water, I am also wondering what they think about the 4th of July. The day my father and I attended the Meskwaki Powwow was the day military veterans were honored. Veterans were also honored at the Prairie Awakening ceremony. Not having spoken with a Native American about this, I have been reading different views about the 4th of July.

“The Secretary of the Interior issued this Code of Regulations (Code of Indian Offenses) in 1884, 1894, and 1904 through Indian Affairs Commissioner’s circulars and Indian agent directives. Indian superintendents and agents implemented the code until the mid-1930s. During this 50-year period, Indian spiritual ceremonies such as the Sun Dance and Ghost Dance were held in secret or ceased to exist. Some have since been revived or reintroduced by Indian tribes.
In response to this policy of cultural and religious suppression, some tribes saw in the 4th of July and the commemoration of American independence a chance to continue their own important ceremonies. Superintendents and agents justified allowing reservations to conduct ceremonies on the 4th of July as a way for Indians to learn patriotism to the United States and to celebrate its ideals. That history is why a disproportionate number of American Indian tribal gatherings take place on or near the 4th of July and are often the social highlights of the year. Over time these cultural ceremonies became tribal homecomings. American Indian veterans in particular were welcomed home as modern-day warriors. The Navajo Tribe of Arizona and Pawnee of Oklahoma are two examples of tribes that use the 4th of July as an occasion to honor their tribal veterans.”   http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/

Many Native Americans evidently have feelings similar to other people of color, feeling the celebration ironic considering the continued oppression of Native Americans today.

“Now, your question might be wondering if July 4th is a time for sadness or bitterness toward the US for its long history of bullying, White supremacy, theft, tyranny, oppression, and cultural annihilation. Kiowas ain’t got time for that; it’s more important to remember that past so as to prevent a recurrence in the future. By the early 20th century, most Kiowas were fine being “Americans” too. We’re dual citizens, basically. And the men in particular relished the chance to gain war glory fighting for the red-white-and-blue. At the big annual Gourd Dance, every day starts and end with a flag song, where the US flag is raised high at the start, and lowered ceremoniously at the end. Other gourd dances often specifically honor veterans and brave warriors who’ve served in the US armed forces.”  What do Native Americans do on the Fourth of July? Andrew McKenzie, Kiowa Indian

The newly launched Poor People’s Campaign is attempting to be a “fusion” movement, pulling all who suffer injustice together in common cause. To work together to form “a more perfect union”, a phrase found in the Preamble to the U.S Constitution, and also the title of the speech Barack Obama delivered at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Noting his proximity to Independence Hall, Obama highlighted the tension between the ideals of equal citizenship and freedom expressed in the Constitution and America’s history of slavery, and connected the American Civil War and civil rights movement with the goals of his own campaign, “to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.”

Bear Creek Friends
Ed Fallon
Bear Creek Friends Meetinghouse
IYMC Peace and Social Concerns Committee
Kheprw Institute
SONY DSC

 

Posted in Black Lives, Indigenous, Poor Peoples Campaign, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment