[pjw] NEWS: Peace group urges Governor to extend National Guard refusal beyond the US border

Sat Nov 17 19:20:41 EST 2018

PJW supporters
We sent this out the the media after forwarding our Guard Home letter to 
Governor Brown. I neglected to send it to all of you while tied up with 
the City Council ordinance issue-- apologies.

The current theory is that the military Trump sent to the border (for the 
"approaching hoard" that suddenly fell out of the news) will not be 
directly confronting any migrants, just supporting border patrol doing the 
President's racist dirty work.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/5/joseph-dunford-says-border-troops-wont-deny-migran/

Anyway, feel free to circulate this. And to our allies who signed the 
letter last year-- we specifically wanted to get this to Governor Brown IF 
she won the election and as soon as we could afterward. We certainly 
welcome others to contact the governor in support of this new use of last 
year's Guard Home letter.
--dan handelman
peace and justice works

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2018 09:31:48
From: Peace and Justice Works <pjw at pjw.info>
To: News Media <newsmedia at pjw.info>

NEWS:  Peace group urges Governor to extend National Guard refusal
            beyond the US border

November 13, 2018

The group Peace and Justice Works sent newly re-elected Governor Kate Brown a 
message today urging her to extend her refusal to send Oregon National Guard 
troops to the US-Mexico border to any undeclared war. The message includes a 
letter signed by 18 groups in 2017 and is pasted in below.

For media inquiries call or text PJW at 503-236-3065 or email pjw at pjw.info .

----------------------------------------------------------------

To: Governor Kate Brown

Re: Deployment of Oregon National Guard

Governor Brown

Peace and Justice Works sent you a letter in October, 2017 asking for you to 
keep Oregon's Guard from being deployed to undeclared war zones. In the 
interim, you have told President Trump clearly that you do not intend to send 
the Guard to the border with Mexico, even if called to do so. We support this 
100% and hope that you see the connection between the misuse of our local 
military for xenophobic border patrol and the US wars that are ongoing.

Last week, a Utah National Guard member deployed in Afghanistan was killed; he 
was also the Mayor of North Ogden (Associated Press, November 5)*-1A.

Let us not see any Oregonian's lives lost on these endless, unlawful wars which 
destroy the environment, deplete the national coffers, and provoke more hatred 
toward the United States.

We have attached the 2017 letter below with the signatures from other groups 
and individuals who signed on.

--Dan Handelman
on behalf of
Peace and Justice Works

*1A-https://www.apnews.com/d17be963137b4445916ba185aed9df82

--------------------------

Peace and Justice Works
PO Box 42456 Portland, OR 97242 (503) 236-3065 pjw at pjw.info http://www.pjw.info

Governor Kate Brown
160 State Capitol 900 Court Street Salem, OR 97301-4047

October 5, 2017

Governor Brown:

As the war in Afghanistan enters its seventeenth year on Saturday, we are 
writing to you once again to raise concerns about the potential use of Oregon's 
National Guard in unauthorized military adventures abroad. Many of us who 
signed onto this letter contacted you in September 2015. We also sent a similar 
letter to you and other candidates for governor in July 2016 on this issue.*-1 
Many were involved in the 2009 effort to Keep Oregon's Guard in Oregon, hoping 
to prevent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan under the then- and 
still-outdated Authorizations for Use of Military Force from 2001-2002. We 
gathered over 7000 signatures from all over the state. We have urged Governors 
Kulongoski and Kitzhaber, and now we ask you, to deny the use of our state 
militia for undeclared combat. We still need Oregon's National Guard to stay 
stateside, as evidenced by your deployment of troops in August to handle the 
onslaught of tourists visiting for the eclipse. As of mid-September 600 Oregon 
Guard members volunteered and 125 were called to active duty to train to fight 
the wildfires.*-2 With climate change, such fires will become more of the norm 
in the coming years. Should a tragedy like Hurricane Harvey visit upon Oregon, 
we cannot afford to have our Guard overseas.

While the country has become numb to the ongoing war efforts in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, as well as Syria, Libya, Somalia and Pakistan, President Trump is 
threatening to militarily intervene in more countries including North Korea, 
Iran and Venezuela. The current engagements in Iraq and Syria involve at least 
5000 troops on the ground*-3, and are ostensibly being waged to combat the 
Islamic State/ISIS. The US also has "boots on the ground" in Somalia, Yemen and 
Libya.*-4 However, there has been no Congressional approval despite being 
active far more than the 90 days envisioned by the War Powers Resolution. As we 
have noted in the past, ISIS is not the same organization as Al Qaeda-- the two 
even fight each other. Thus, the 2001 AUMF does not cover any deployments to 
Iraq or Syria. Also, because the US claimed it would have all troops out of 
Afghanistan by the end of 2014, any troops sent there after that time should 
specifically be authorized by Congressional action. The President gave 
authority to send about 4000 more troops, even though the official count of 
8400 did not reflect the actual numbers stationed there.*-5

We sent two letters to Governor Kitzhaber, in January 2013 and April 2014, and 
received no reply, while roughly 1000 Oregonians were dispatched to Afghanistan 
and, thankfully, most of them made it back alive.

Once again, we hope to meet with your or your staff about this issue, and would 
be encouraged to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Thank you,

Dan Handelman for
    Peace and Justice Works (Portland, OR)

Michael Carrigan
    Community Alliance of Lane County *

Michael Taylor and Linda Marshall, parents of Iraq combat Veteran
    members Military Families Speak Out* (Portland) *

Ed Pool
    Veterans for Peace, Chapter 141 Bandon, Oregon

Allen Hallmark
   Veterans for Peace Rogue Valley Chapter 156 (Medford/Grants Pass/Rogue River)

Bart Bolger
     Veterans For Peace, Linus Pauling Chapter 132 (Corvallis)

S. Jenika, President
     Veterans for Peace Chapter 72 (Portland)

Dan Shea, board member (from Oregon)
    Veterans For Peace (national organization)

Kelly Campbell, Executive Director
    Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

Leah Bolger
    Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-Corvallis

Elizabeth Hallett, Chair
    Peace House, Ashland Oregon

Yamhill Valley Peacemakers (McMinnville)

Brenda B. Gould for
    Citizens for Peace & Justice (Medford)

Our Revolution Southern Oregon

John Grueschow
    War Resisters League--Portland

Pastor Mark Knutson
    Augustana Lutheran Church (Portland) *

Recruiter Watch PDX

Gerry Foote
     St. Luke Lutheran Church Peace & Justice Group (Portland)

Rob Ranta
     Portland Peaceful Response Coalition

and others

For the previous letters, see: http://pjw.info/troopshomecampaign.html

* organization listed for identification purposes only

*1- Ultimately five of the eight candidates/parties expressed philosophical or 
outright support to keep Oregon's Guard stateside; the only candidates/parties 
who did not reply were from the Republican, Democratic and Working Families 
parties; respondents were from the Libertarian Party, Constitution Party, 
Independent Party, Oregon Progressive Party, and Pacific Green Party.

*2--Oregon National Guard supports firefighting efforts for Chetco Bar Fire (US 
Army 9/11/17):
https://www.army.mil/article/193629/oregon_national_guard_supports_firefighting_efforts_for_chetco_bar_fire

*3-US Is Sending 400 More Troops to Syria (NY Times 3/917)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/world/middleeast/us-troops-syria.html

*4-(a) US troops are on the ground in Yemen for offensive against al-Qaeda 
militants (Wash Post 8/4/17)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/08/04/u-s-troops-are-on-the-ground-in-yemen-for-offensive-against-al-qaeda-militants/
(b) The Pentagon wants to keep ground troops in Libya and go on offense in 
Somalia (Military Times 3/24/17)
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/russians-libya-islamic-state
(c) Dozens More US Troops Deployed to Somalia (VOA 4/14/17)
https://www.voanews.com/a/dozens-more-us-troops-deployed-somalia-voa-exclusive/3809351.html

*5-US Has Thousands More Troops in Afghanistan Than the Pentagon Admits (NBC 
8/23/17)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/u-s-has-thousands-more-troops-afghanistan-pentagon-admits-n795141