On Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:06:17 -0500, "Dallas"
<
Cybnorm@spam_me_not.Hotmail.Com> wrote:
> That said, NATO has morphed from a response to the cold war to the
> closest thing we have to a "world police force".
AMY GOODMAN: Today, we bring you a Memorial Day special, "Honor the
Dead, Heal the Wounded, Stop the Wars." That was the cry of Iraq
Veterans Against the War as they hurled their war medals towards the
gates of the NATO summit.
Shortly before members of IVAW and women from Afghans for Peace led a
protest march at the NATO summit in Chicago, I had a chance to conduct
a joint interview with a member of each group.
SURAIA SAHAR: My name is Suraia Sahar. I�m representing Afghans
for Peace. We�re a global Afghan-led peace movement speaking out
against the occupation and war in Afghanistan. And we�re here to
protest NATO and call on all NATO representatives to end this
inhumane, illegal, barbaric war against our home country and our
people.
AMY GOODMAN: And you�re standing next to...?
GRAHAM CLUMPNER: I�m Graham Clumpner. I was a United States Army
Ranger. I spent three years in the military and deployed to
Afghanistan.
AMY GOODMAN: When were you in Afghanistan?
GRAHAM CLUMPNER: In 2005, 2006.
AMY GOODMAN: So how do you feel standing next to a soldier? Where
were you in Afghanistan?
GRAHAM CLUMPNER: Asadabad in the Jalalabad area.
AMY GOODMAN: Where is your family from?
SURAIA SAHAR: My family is from, well, four different provinces:
Laghman, Kabul, Logar, Badakhshan. I was born in Kabul. And I left
Afghanistan in 1988 as a refugee from the Soviet war.
AMY GOODMAN: And here you�re standing next to a U.S. soldier.
SURAIA SAHAR: Absolutely. And I feel honored standing next to this
veteran, Graham, because they�re now, I believe, in my opinion, doing
what�doing the right thing in speaking out against the occupation and
war alongside us today. And so, we will be marching with them at the
rally, and we will be with them during the reconciliation event
towards the end, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: As we speak here right near the NATO summit, Amnesty
International is holding what they�re calling an alternative summit,
but Madeleine Albright is addressing them. And they have these ads up
now that basically congratulate NATO and talk about continue the
progress with women in Afghanistan. What is your response to that?
SURAIA SAHAR: No, I think that that�s an absolute ridiculous joke.
They are not there to liberate Afghanistan�s women. You cannot
liberate women through occupation and through war, through violence,
through bombs, through tanks, through weapons. That�s not how you do
it. And it�s quite offensive to me, as an Afghan woman, standing here
before you.
AMY GOODMAN: How do you do it?
SURAIA SAHAR: They need to be empowered. They need�we need to
refocus our priorities on their basic human needs: education,
healthcare. Well, education and healthcare would be the top two. And
also we need to focus on reconciliation efforts and reparations, as
well.
AMY GOODMAN: When did you sign up for the military?
GRAHAM CLUMPNER: I signed up after 9/11 in the summer of 2003.
AMY GOODMAN: And when did your views start changing about what you
were doing in Afghanistan?
GRAHAM CLUMPNER: Well, it was during the deployment. I mean, we
saw that what we were seeing on television when we�d sit in the chow
hall about the war was much different from the reality on the ground.
And we were taking casualties on a weekly basis, and we were seeing
other units do the same. We could also see that when we entered a
home, even if there wasn�t a terrorist there before, there was when we
left. And we were radicalizing the entire population just by our
presence.
AMY GOODMAN: You�re wearing a medal. What is the medal for?
GRAHAM CLUMPNER: This is the Global War on Terrorism Medal.
Anybody who serves post-9/11 in the United States military serves in
the global war on an adjective.
AMY GOODMAN: What are you doing with it today?
GRAHAM CLUMPNER: I�m going to be turning it back in to the
generals at NATO to demonstrate that I reject the medal, I reject what
it means, and I reject any affiliation with this war.
AMY GOODMAN: Why?
GRAHAM CLUMPNER: This war, it�s changed so many lives, and it�s
changed my own, and it�s changed hers and so many hundreds of
thousands, if not millions, of people. And it�s not accomplishing the
original goals. I joined because I wanted to help women. I wanted to
be the patriarchal savior who came in and fixed the problems, and I
didn�t understand that I was actually the one making the problems
worse.
AMY GOODMAN: And what is the reconciliation that will happen today
between U.S. military and Afghans for Peace?
SURAIA SAHAR: Go ahead.
GRAHAM CLUMPNER: Well, part of this whole process is starting the
process of reconciliation, which means that we�re actually listening
to each other, and we practice active listening, hearing where the
other people are coming from. We have a long way to go to come
together and for us to overcome a lot of the guilt and a lot of the
shame that we as soldiers and veterans feel for what we participated
in. And we want to start creating instead of destroying.
SURAIA SAHAR: And it�s the first time an Afghan-led peace movement
is now working side by side with a veteran-led peace movement. And so,
this is how�this is the beginning of something new, something better.
So, reconciliation and peace.
AMY GOODMAN: Suraia Sahar of Afghans for Peace and Graham Clumpner,
who served in Afghanistan, they were part of a reconciliation ceremony
that concluded the march on the NATO summit. Graham Clumpner went on
to throw his war medals at the NATO summit gate, along with more than
40 other veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/27/us_army_vets_join_with_afghans