End Wars and Occupations IOT Monthly Conference Call - Progressive Democrats of America
July 2012
|
|
|
|
Link to Sound File |
Link to Chat Room Archive |
The introduction began at the 5:30 mark
and our guest, Andy Davies, gave us a thorough rundown on the
situations in both Iran and Syria. The US appears to be misjudging
Iran and is increasingly isolated in its hard-line policy towards
that country. Sanctions are apparently working at cross-purposes with
diplomacy. The US can't do both. The military has (very sensibly)
concluded there is no good military option, but the countries are
moving closer to war anyway.
In Syria, we've got the Bashar al-Assad
regime, the Free Syrian Army/Syrian National Council and the National
Coordinating Body for Democratic Change. The FSA/SNC is favored by
the Obama Administration, but it's not related to the groups that
make up the NCB and that started off protesting the Assad regime in
the first place. The 13 parties that make up the NCB are opposed to
foreign intervention and violence in general.
There was then some commentary about
how to find items on the PDA website.
Alice Hammer spoke about her group's
activities in Southeastern Arizona, noting with some disappointment
that big progressive spokespeople are ignoring the wars overseas.
The Norman Solomon vote was agonizingly
close, he missed by 172 votes out of over 150,000, despite 26,000 PDA
calls. Mike Fox, our fundraiser, is pressing for more money for PDA
to get more progressives elected.
Rusty Eisenberg spoke about Congress
and the military appropriations bill ($670 billion) that crowds out
domestic spending.
Lisa Savage spoke about her work with
Code Pink in Maine and agrees there has been some positive progress
in Afghanistan, but military authorities have hugely exaggerated it.
Unfortunately, Amnesty International has been helping to spread the
false narrative of dramatic progress. The Occupy Wall Street people
don't know much about the situation over there and appreciated
Savage's talk about it in Philadelphia. A single minute of the war in
Afghanistan costs $230,000.