The Best Little Blog in Cyberspace: The World Must Tell President Obama it is tired of America's Wars. How best to do so? Please sign the NØbel For Obama petition

Last October, after President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he showed ingratitude by refusing to sign the Land Mines Treaty and then committing 30,000 troops to General Stanley McChrystal's unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Fellow peace activist Monique Frugier and myself decided to begin a campaign to force the Danish Parliament, which gives this august honor, to reconsider and cancel its decision. We both feel to wisdom and urgency of this campaign is now greater than ever--and we urge all who feel as we do to engage in peaceful protest by signing the petition we drafted at that time. Afghanistan is now in its ninth year and our victory in Iraq is a Pyrrhic victory that accomplished nothing but the enrichment of arms merchants and the further impoverishment of America's taxpayers.

We feel compelled to renew our call for some form of high-minded, deep-meaning symbolic act of global non-violent protest against President Obama's failure to make significant steps toward peace in our 9-year war of occupation in Afghanistan.

The best symbolism remains to rescind the Nobel Peace Prize given to Barack Obama last October. With one signature, each signer protests the warfare state of America and pleads for it to return to being (in the truest, noblest sense) a welfare state.

It was an understandably hopeful but ultimately naive gesture of good will for Denmark's parliament to award America's commander in chief the world's highest honor in human affairs and international conflict resolution. Obama responded to that invitation to begin laying down arms--and begin entry into the plowshare phase of American life--by lecturing the world on the nature and necessity of Just War. He used his speech to spurn the award and the spirit in which it was given. By so doing, he telegraphed his intention to continue America's hegemonistic foreign policy and betrayed the hopes behind his selection as recipient of the award.

Now confiscation of the Nobel Prize takes on deeper meaning and urgency in light of President Obama's failure to stop the war on nature being waged by global capitalism. The latest theater of that war is the Gulf of Mexico. But if Obama doesn't force BP to suspend planned Arctic drilling, the world will soon have a new theater of operations--and be fighting a two-front war. For his own misguided sake, we need a Caine mutiny in which President Obama is stripped of his standing as the acting Nobel Peace Laureate. To do so is tantamount to stripping him of his Nobel commission (for peace-making) just as Gen. Stanley McChrystal was stripped of his (for war-making).

Please consider signing the NObel for Obama petition. A copy and link are below:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/nogoodwarforpeace/index.html

The Petition

When on October 9, 2009, Barack Obama became the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the world's most prestigious human affairs honor, it was viewed both by giver and recipient as an act of faith that would be justified by future actions. President Obama himself said it was more "a call to action" than a recognition of any specific accomplishment. In explaining its bold faith-based gesture, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said its unanimous decision was based on Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation among peoples." The Committee took special note of the president's restoration of "dialogue and negotiation" as the cornerstones of American foreign policy, lauding his leadership "on the basis of values and attitudes shared by the majority of the world's population" as well as "renewed US commitment to international organizations." We the undersigned believe that in the two months following this stirring announcement, President Obama has undermined the trust on which this award was made and by so doing sacrificed his eligibility for it. We cite two major violations of this trust: 1- the refusal to join the international Landmines Treaty five years after its ratification 2- the decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending an additional 30,000 US troops to that embattled nation. In light of President Obama's failure to accept the Nobel Committee's implicit invitation to be a peacemaker, we the undersigned ask this august body to revoke this award and, instead, give it to someone who has shown by actions not just rhetoric repeated commitment to the principles on which this award is based. In asking the Committee to take this unprecedented action, we believe that this body will be acknowledging its premature and mistaken judgment and also defending the integrity of this momentous honor. Last, we believe that such a revocation will send a message to all future recipients that their most inspired words must be followed by significant deeds. Note: The following petition to cancel awarding the Nobel Peace Price to Barack Obama will be sent to Dag Terje Anderson, the current president of the Norwegian Parliament, to forward to Thorbjorn Jagland, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee which is part of the parliament.

Veterans' Banner Tags Abandoned Detroit Building: "How's The War Economy Working For You?"

Submitted by Chip on Sat, 2010-06-26 14:33

DETROIT -- On June 26, at 2pm, a group of U.S. military veterans will hang a large banner on the abandoned Eddystone Hotel, on Sproat St., between Cass and Park, to protest and reveal the effect of war spending on American cities.

Members of Veterans For Peace (VFP), attending the U.S. Social Forum, a gathering of over 8,000 activists from across the U.S., created and erected the 10 x 15-foot sign that reads, "HOW IS THE WAR ECONOMY WORKING FOR YOU?" Detroit has an unemployment rate of 15 percent and 10,000 abandoned homes on the mayor's demolition list.

Taxpayers in Detroit have sent a total of nearly two billion dollars to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The city's 2011 general fund budget of 1.3 billion dollars contains an estimated deficit of 300 million dollars, even after years of cutbacks in services once assumed to be part of urban life. The budget for Detroit schools has a deficit in the same range.

"Detroit, like so many of our cities, is in crisis," said Mike Ferner, National President of VFP. "This crisis is no different than a five-alarm fire and we should respond the same way. Instead, we watch America's cities literally crumble while we pour thousands of lives and trillions of dollars into wars abroad."

John Amidon, President of VFP Chapter 10, added, "It's absolutely criminal that the people who built the U.S. auto industry have to watch their city collapse around them while they send $2,000,000,000 to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is indeed the purest form of madness and it's coming to a city near you."

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VFP, with over 100 chapters, is beginning a campaign to work with local government officials to place “war counters” on city halls stating the amount of money each community has sent to the wars. Veterans For Peace members fought in World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan wars and have served in all eras in between conflicts. VFP is an official Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) represented at the UN.