We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Afghan feminist: Why foreign troops should leave

by Malalai Joya from Green Left. 
The documents released by Wikileaks prove what we have been saying about war in Afghanistan. There are more massacres by NATO forces than they wanted us to believe. Now the whole world should know this war is a disaster.

These are the reasons that, throughout Afghanistan, more and more people are taking to the streets to protest the US occupation.

Obama’s surge of the war also puts more from the US and other occupying nations at risk. Why are Obama and [Canadian Prime Minister Stephen] Harper wasting so much money on this war when they cannot give jobs or even houses to their own poor people? 
The Afghans are clear about the election games that the Empire likes to play on their people; we in the US must also refuse to collaborate with ruling class deceptions by not voting, except possibly for local candidates and measures to protect our communities.
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