Veterans Day Panel to Examine U.S. War Against I.S.I.S. Bloomington, Nov. 8th -- As a formerly reluctant President Obama orders more U.S. troops to Iraq and Congress prepares to authorize military force, a panel on Veterans Day will explore The U.S. and I.S.I.S.: Is War the Answer? The program, which is free and open to the public, will be at the Monroe County Public Library Auditorium from 7 to 8:30 p.m. There will be time for audience questions. It is sponsored by Bloomington Peace Action Coalition, the Just Peace Task Force of the Unitarian Church of Bloomington, and Womens International League for Peace and Freedom. Kevin Martin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University, who is an expert on Syria, will join three Bloomington activists to discuss the U.S. war against the Islamic State (also known as I.S.I.S. or I.S.I.L.) and the risks of escalation. On Friday, November 8th, President Obama announced he was doubling the number of U.S. military advisors in Iraq. The United States has been bombing I.S.I.S. and other sites in Iraq and Syria since September. Some in Congress want the President to escalate further in efforts to overthrow the government of Bashar al Assad in Syria, against whom I.S.I.S. is at war. Joining Prof. Martin on the panel will be Christine Glaser, an economist and environmental advocate, Margaret Squires, a therapist and member of Bloomington Friends Meeting, and David Keppel, a writer who is currently Organizer of Bloomington Peace Action Coalition and Chair of the Just Peace Task Force of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington. War is not the answer, said David Keppel. In fact, it is decades of U.S. intervention that got us into this quagmire, and every step of escalation will cause further unintended consequences. The panel will explore the tangled alliances and antagonisms of the region which make a U.S. military effort especially problematic, including the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Israel on the one hand and Iran on the other. Vice President Biden, in a speech last month at Harvard University, noted that some U.S. allies had actually funded and armed I.S.I.S. Bloomington Peace Action Coalition, the Just Peace Task Force of the UU Church, and Womens International League for Peace and Freedom advocate a diplomatic approach. We are calling for diplomacy -- not with I.S.I.S. itself, which is guilty of atrocities, but with all the nations of the region. People embrace extremists when politics fails, and bombing cannot fix that. Escalation only makes this a fight between the U.S. and Islam itself, not just a violent organization falsely claiming the mantle of one of the worlds great religions. Margaret Squires plans to present the concept of Shared Security, a program that has been developed by Friends Committee on National Legislation and the American Friends Service Committee. Shared Security examines the interdependence of nations and groups. The Middle East, like the rest of the world, is not a zero sum game; in fact, it is not a game at all. More war will have only losers, especially in the civilian population. Building on actual success stories of win-win diplomatic, economic, and environmental solutions, the panel will challenge policy makers to reexamine their outmoded national security assumptions. The audience will have a chance to participate, and organizers hope the event will spur the public to contact Congress and the President in opposition to military escalation. Don Lichtenberg, Professor Emeritus of Physics at Indiana University and an activist, will moderate the program. For information, contact: David Keppel keppel (at) sbcglobal.net
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 16:05:09 +0000