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Departments National Issues Monitoring the new president by Jim Lucas October 19, 2008 Soon we will have a new president. It is imperative that we, the members of the peace, anti-war and anti-imperialist movements, scrutinize his actions, starting with his acceptance speech, to determine whether he is taking actions that we believe will lead to real peace and justice in the world. Although we may not agree on some of the specifics, I have made a list of possible points below that can used as a starting point to monitor how well he is doing over the course of his term in office. Even if he initially takes some actions that we agree with we should not let ourselves be misled into thinking that positive changes will continue to occur without continuous pressure from us. Your thoughts are welcomed. For one thing I may have missed important points. Has the new President:
2. Ordered that the U.S. pay restitution to Iraq? 3. Withdrawn U.S. troops from Afghanistan? 4. Pledged to refrain from carrying out illegal cross border attacks into Pakistan? 5. Stopped the U.S. campaign attack Iran? 6. Ended the U.S. effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government? 7. Stopped the U.S. campaign to promote the secessionist movement in Bolivia? 8. Stopped the U.S. effort to thwart the democratic process in El Salvador? 9. Stopped the U.S. Fourth Fleet from patrolling around South and Central America? 10. Ended the campaign to encircle Russia? 11. Ended the training of Georgian troops as a way to harass its neighbor Russia? 12. Reversed the new U.S. military presence in Africa? 13. Normalized relations with Cuba? 14. Ended U.S. financial aid to Colombia which ostensibly is for a “war on drugs” but too often is spent to support paramilitaries who engage in violence against the Colombian people? 15. Revoked the Bush doctrine of preemptive war? 16. Ended the CIA practice of overthrowing other governments? 17. Stopped the transfer of arms to other nations, especially those led by dictators? 18. Closed all of the over 700 U.S. bases outside the U.S.? 19. Agreed not to use inhumane methods such as sanctions, bombing and proxy militaries as a substitute for using U.S. ground troops? This is in addition to opposing the use of U.S. ground troops. 20. Begun to reduce our nuclear stockpile in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? 21. Started to promote the Middle East as a nuclear free zone which would require that Israel abandon its 200-300 nuclear weapons? 22. Ordered that the U.S. respect the nuclear treaties that our nation has signed? 23. Stopped our anti-missile program which encourages other nations to build more missiles, especially nuclear ones, in order to avoid these defenses, a possible new escalation of the nuclear weapons arms race? 24. Started reducing the military budget as a step toward a budget only for self-defense, recognizing that the projected budget for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars is about $3 trillion? 25. Begun to use funds from the military budget to meet human needs in the U.S.? 26. Ended torture by the U.S.? 27. Closed the School of the Americas which has a history of training military personnel from South and Central America in techniques of repression and torture? 28. Refrained from exporting people to other nations for torture? 29. Adopted a collaborative approach to working with other nations as opposed to its current one of domination? 30. Told the Americans that the most important way to combat terrorism is to meet the human needs of people in the rest of the world and by ending U.S. oppression of them? 31. Acknowledged that people in other nations have suffered far more at the hands of the U.S. than the U.S. endured from terrorists on September 11, 2001? 32. Ended the use of the fear of terrorism as an excuse to extend U.S. power around the world? Email this article to a friend |
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