Ever think about those killed in the war in Iraq?  You know the collateral damage of war - the people who didn't sign up for a war.

Conservative estimates peg the war dead at around 100,000. Other scientific estimates, which take into account unreported deaths, range up into the 1.4 million range. It's an impressive toll for 8 years of war.

The Iraq Memorial to Life - a project of the Fellowship of Reconciliation - is a memorial to Iraqis who have been killed as a result of the war.

It is an attempt to keep us from forgetting these Iraqis.

Make your plans today to be there to call for a peaceful, nuclear free, secure, and just world for us all!

Advocates for peace will be meeting in New York City on April 30-May 1st.   Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR-USA) is one of more than 200 sponsors of the International Conference.   The conference coincides with the five year review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).  Every five years a report is delivered to the United Nations which reviews not only the compliance of nations with the treaty's provisions but also recommends additional steps toward the elimination of nuclear weapons.

FOR-USA invites and encourages its members and friends to attend the international conference (April 30 - May 1) as well as a Rally and March planned for Sunday, May 2nd near Times Square.

Film and Discussion

 at FOR 

521 No. Broadway, Nyack, NY

March 21, 2010

2 - 5 PM

The next film to be shown as part of the Phil Greenspan film festival at the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Nyack, NY will take us on a healing journey to what is acknowledged by most to be akin to the heart of darkness; Auschwitz.   Directed by actor Michael O'Keefe, who participated in the pilgrimmage, the documentary brings us close to the stories of the 150 people that talked, comtemplated, prayed and meditated on and around the grounds of Auschwitz during the 1996 event. The group was composed of Americans and Europeans who are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and secular and who share their reflections during their time together. 

A war that goes on for 46 years -- some would say over 60 years -- gets tucked into all the most obscure tissues and corners and stories of a people. Its toxins surprise with surreal grotesquerie and impossible reasons. So in Colombia, our country's "closest ally" in South America, where capitalism and competition have extended so far that purchasing and sale of kidnap victims and electoral votes have become signatures of a ruthless business sense. Where politics is a business.

At the beginning of the screening of Rethink Afghanistan at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, I challenged the mostly "anti-war" audience to really look at the film critically and to examine the extent to which it would be genuinely persuasive to someone that did not already agree with the premise that the U.S. military role in Afghanistan was a bad thing. The film, produced and directed by Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation can be seen at their website,  in segments that are added to as the war continues to go on. Since our screening on 2/14/10, more segments have been made available that challenge the rationale of Obama's declaration to add another 30,000 troops.

By David Hartsough

On the first anniversary of the war on Gaza, known as Operation Cast Lead, close to 1,400 people from more than 40 countries came to Cairo, Egypt planning to go to Gaza and help end the siege, a total blockade which began in 2007 and continues today. Unfortunately, under extreme pressure from Israel and perhaps the United States, the Egyptian government did not allow most of us to enter Gaza. However about 90 from the Gaza Freedom March did get into Gaza from Dec. 30, 2009 to January 2, 2010. I was privileged to be part of that group.

For many years, today's date in U.S. calendars seemed to be an odd, cynical juxtaposition of politically and socially-inflected observances: Presidents' Day, right in the middle of Black History Month. One the one hand, white powerful men were being honored at the same time as those who had fought enslavement, dispossession, and imprisonment at their hands. That is, it felt an oxymoron until the dramatic election of Barack Obama. The new issue of The New Yorker magazine brings us back to the thrilling feelings many of us felt one year ago at Obama's inauguration -- when Rev. Joseph Lowery closed the momentous program with a stirring invocation -- through an extraordinary photo spread honoring African Americans leaders (or their descendants) of the civil rights movement.

About 15 minutes is all it takes, maybe less. From Manhattan, you take the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey's Route 9/1, a left on to North Avenue and a quick right on to Dowd Avenue, and there: you've arrived at the Elizabeth Detention Center. You wouldn't be the wiser if you missed it, though.

To give you a lay of the land, the Elizabeth Detention Center is a windowless converted warehouse owned and operated by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private corrections company in the United States. The facility is huddled amongst the other masses of industrial buildings just down the street from the Anheuser Busch Company and across the street from the Newark International. It's hard to believe the inconspicuous facility houses 300 detained asylum seekers and other non-criminal non-citizens. These people are hidden but not forgotten.

I had lunch this week with a labor union organizer from Iran seeking support for the rights of workers in Iran. One of his biggest fears was that the implementation of additional sanctions would serve the interest of Iranian leadership making the case for foreign intervention as the reason for solidarity across all sectors in Iran. While it may appear that factions in Iran are sharp and irreconciliable there is a clear warning that movements in the direction of reform, and the well-being of the Iranian public, would be severely affected by new sanctions. Jim Fine's assessment below extends that analysis and provides background we should have in hand on the state of the sanctions legislation in Congress.  Mark C. Johnson

From Jim Fine at FCNL:

The Colombian military and police have, by far, the worst record of human rights abuses in the Western Hemisphere. Over the last 7 years, more than 2,000 innocent civilians have bee killed by the Colombian army and then presented as guerrilla or paramilitary killed in combat to bump up the body count numbers and qualify for bonuses, vacation time and promotions.  The Army has also been involved in the execution of horrific massacres of innocent civilians, including children such as Santiago and Natalia Bolivar and Deiner Guerra (18 months old, 5 and 11), chopped up with machetes in February 2005 along with their parents, all San Jose de Apartado Peace Community members.