[pjw] REPORT BACK: Friday rally #44 under stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

PJW supporters

Last night at the Friday rally, five of us rallied with face coverings 
while staying 6 feet apart, and three of us went on the march. We had an 
average number of horn-honking drivers supporting us at the Square while 
we rallied.

I joked that it was another slow news week, then talking about how, 
thankfully, two of our predictions of the end of Trump's presidency did 
not come to pass: him being dragged out of the White House by four 
security guards, or him launching an attack on Iran eactly as Biden was 
sworn in. Folks may know that Reagan's inauguaration was intercut with 
the hostages in Iran being released...

https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/news/local-history/40-years-ago---reagan-sworn-in-iran-hostages-released/article_55dc0c02-ee5b-5621-bfca-f8cbce086ca3.html

Othern national/international headlines included:

--Biden signed many executive orders to undo some of the damage done by 
Trump, including a temporary halt to deportations, ending border wall 
construction, rejoining the Paris climate accords and anding the "Muslim 
travel ban."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/bidens-17-executive-orders-in-detail/ar-BB1cWeT4

However, I noted, we have a lot of work still to do:

--An aide says Biden probably won't close Guantanamo until 2022.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/joe-biden-promise-close-guantanamo-bay

--Biden wants to add prerequisites for Iran before rejoining the Nuclear 
Deal.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-state-iran-idUSKBN29O2HD

--Syria's UN Ambassador demanded the US remove its troops; this is 
something Trump initially said he would do but flip-flopped in order to 
"protect the oil fields" (aka have the US control the flow of mideast oil)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/syria-sends-first-message-to-president-biden-withdraw-troops-stop-stealing-oil/ar-BB1cW3KL

--One of the first people to be confirmed to Biden's administration is 
Avril Haines as Director of National Intelligence; Haines is well known 
for being behind torture and drone programs.

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/30/bidens-pick-for-intelligence-chief-avril-haines-is-tainted-by-drones-and-torture/

(I got Haines confused with Gina Haspel, who also supported torture but 
was employed previously as Trump's CIA director.)

And then there are some other remaining Trump actions worth mentioning:

--The US flew B-52s near Iran for the fifth time last weekend.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/b-52s-fly-over-middle-east-iran/

--After removing the 700 troops from Somalia, the US bombed that country 
both on Monday and Tuesday.

https://www.africom.mil/pressrelease/33422/us-africa-command-forces-conduct-strike-on-al-shabaab-compound

https://www.africom.mil/pressrelease/33426/us-africa-command-forces-conduct-two-strikes-on-al-shabaab-operatives

--While Trump drew down from over 10,000 military personnel in Afghansitan 
to just 2500, there are still 18,000 contractors there.

https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/troop-levels-are-down-but-us-says-over-18-000-contractors-remain-in-afghanistan-1.659040

Had to think about the math-- that's 7 times more mercenaries than 
soldiers.

My final thought before we took off related back to last week's theme 
about 30 years since "Gulf War part 1." There was a lot of talk about 
Iraqi missiles that landed in Israel, but it turned out more people died 
of heart attacks than from the missiles themselves. The US had to convince 
Israel not to retaliate. Instead, the US ended up killing hundreds of 
thousands of Iraqis both with weapons, destroyed infrastructure and 
sanctions.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-gas-masks-safe-rooms-and-saddam-hussein-thirty-years-since-the-gulf-war-1.9458412

Along the route we talked about how Biden's new Secretary of State Blinken 
said in his confirmation hearing that the US intends to keep its embassy 
in Jerusalem and (against international law and norms) recognize Jerusalem 
rather than Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/534926-blinken-affirms-plan-to-keep-us-embassy-in-jerusalem

And as we returned to the Square I noted that Biden has a plan to help 
sure up the economy and get more money into people's hands.

https://apnews.com/3d8d5841bb9098a81ad9452fb2619024

Unforutnately, it's not to redirect most of the $700 billion from the 
pentagon's budget.

The Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial sign froze up again on the east side of 
Pioneer Place Mall, but remained illuminated almost until we got to the 
endpoint.

Quick reminder that you can watch the Sarah Mirk Guantanamo event at our 
Youtube page, it's gotten a lot of positive feedback.

https://youtube.com/peaceandjusticeworks

As always, we welcome you to join us if your situation allows for it, 
every Friday at 5 PM at SW Yamill and Broadway.

--dan handelman
Peace and Justice Works
    Iraq Affinity Group
    PO Box 42456
    Portland, OR   97242
    (503) 236-3065
    iraq at pjw.info
    http://www.pjw.info/Iraq.html
    Donate on line: http://www.pjw.info/pjwdonate.html