Resist the Ninth Year of War on Afghanistan: Join Us on October 5 in DC

By Pete Perry

As the present co-convener of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, I want to invite and encourage you to join us again on the week the Afghanistan War will enter its 9th year of lost lives, lost hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars and lost direction and morality. This is a war that cannot be won, yet the escalation continues. What are our troops fighting and dying for? Even President Karzai has said during his recent campaign that he wants to sit down at the negotiating table with the Taliban. It is time the war and occupation end, it is time to end indefinite detention at places like Bagram prison and begin the process of building p eace and rebuilding infrastructures.

Eight years ago on October 7, 2001, the U.S. and Britain invaded Afghanistan -- and the war on Afghanistan continues today, with President Obama, the “anti-war candidate,” increasing the number of troops. On Monday, October 5, 2009, the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR), working with Witness Against Torture, Peace Action, The War Resisters League, Atlantic Life Community, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and Veterans for Peace, will mark the anniversary and speak out against the war with direct action risking arrest at the White House.

On October 5th, we will gather at 10 AM at McPherson Square for a permitted rally and to hear lifelong war resister and widow of Phil Berrigan, Liz McAlister. From McPherson, we will march to Pennsylvania Avenue. Around noon, the various affinity groups will visit the White House calling for withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and demand an ending of the illegal bombing in Pakistan with US drones and other forms of violence, the closing of the Bagram prison, and an ending to indefinite detention and torture. We are calling for an end to these wars and occupations, including that of Iraq, so that our resources can be used for life-sustaining actions including the funding and the rebuilding of Afghanistan’s and Iraq's infrastructure and medical assistance to Afghans and Iraqis, in addition to poverty reduction programs in the United States and world wide. We are also calling for accountability for those who have committed war crimes.

The White House action is a key component of a number of complimentary actions planned for October.

For more information: www.nogoodwar.org or http://www.iraqpledge.org
To sign up: http://vcnv.org/ncnr
For the latest death toll: http://www.icasualties.org/OEF
For other events and an ongoing campaign: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=4019

In Peace and Resistance,
Pete Perry
Co-Convener, NCNR