[pjw] REPORT BACK: new year old wars: Friday rally #250 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Iraq Affinity Group supporters

We were surprisingly not rained upon during last night's Friday Rally for 
Peace and Justice, what with Portland's winter rainy season upholding its 
traditional daily dumps and drizzles until maybe a few hours before we met 
up. Six of us rallied and five went on the march. We had no negativity 
this week (unlike last week) but also a mostly sluggish public response, 
with a few horn honks here and there and occasional smiles or 
other positive gestures. Near the Pioneer Place Mall a shopper stopped to 
say "thanks, I love you guys!!" I almost said "can you tell them to turn 
off the jamming signal" but figured it would take too long to explain the 
joke.

OK, so what's the news for the "new year with old wars?" Here you go:

--A US Army Veteran allegedly carrying an ISIS flag rammed people in New 
Orleans. He had served in Afghanistan.

  https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/01/02/new-orleans-attacker-served-army-more-decade-deployed-afghanistan.html

---> And a US Army Green Beret blew up a Tesla outside Las Vegas' Trump 
hotel. Also an Afghan veteran. It seems maybe our government trains 
people to kill, and that killing is how to resolve your problems, and then 
calls these people terrorists when they use those tactics at home. Huh.

  https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/01/02/man-connected-tesla-cybertruck-explosion-trump-hotel-was-active-duty-green-beret.html

--In better news, a fourth Guantanamo was prisoner released, leaving just 
26 prisoners there (reminding me I need to update the web page again...). 
This is of course a relic of the Afghan war ("War on Terror") as well.

  https://www.commondreams.org/news/guantanamo-detainee-repatriated

--A key Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, wrote an editorial telling their 
government to stop attacking Gaza hospitals. Since nobody seems willing to 
enforce international law, though, I don't know if it will stop the 
killing.

  https://news.antiwar.com/2024/12/30/haaretz-calls-for-israel-to-stop-attacking-gaza-hospitals/

---The US-backed Israeli Defense Forces also killed roughly 30 
Palestinians in Gaze on Wednesday and 60 on Thursday. New year, same... 
ok, I've made the point (though there's more examples below).

  https://aje.io/0155q2?update=3418270
  https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/1/2/photos-more-than-70-palestinians-killed-in-israeli-attacks-on-gaza

--The US and UK bombed Yemen again. Yep. No report of casualties in this 
article but this just seems like violence for the sake of violence since 
it's not changing "hearts or minds" (as if violence ever will).

  https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/numerous-us-british-airstrikes-target-yemeni-capital-sanaa

--In Syria, Israel continues to bomb sites such as factories and research 
facilities. They killed 11 people on Sunday. And... nobody seems to be 
doing anything to prevent them.

  https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-strikes-syrian-military-factories-near-aleppo

---Also in Syria, the US is setting up a new military base in the North, 
though the existing ones shouldn't even be there. Is this another 
indication that our government may have (gasp) had something to do with 
the coup?

  https://www.iranintl.com/en/202501029963

--News came out this week that George W Bush called his 2003 invasion of 
Iraq a "mission from God." No, I don't think it was a comical reference to 
the Blues Brothers movie, more like a delusion.

  https://www.msn.com/en-gb/politics/international-relations/george-bush-thought-iraq-invasion-was-mission-from-god-and-wanted-to-kick-ass/ar-AA1wKy6d

In local news, Oregon ended the year with either 31 or 32 law enforcement 
deadly force incidents. There's more information to be learned about a man 
who was cutting himself with a knife when airport police used a Taser on 
him-- did he die of his self inflicted wounds or the 50,000 volts? In 
Portland, there were 7 incidents-- six shootings (three fatal) and a death 
in custody. That's 22% of the deadly force. Portland has about 15% of the 
state's population.

Along the march route I continued last week's surprising story about the 
Palestinian Authority shutting down Al Jazeera in the West Bank with news 
that they are now actively engaging in battles with Palestinian militant 
groups. Like they're doing the bidding of the Israeli government. Perhaps 
they were told "you saw what happened to Syria, you could be next"?

  https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/why-palestinian-forces-are-cracking-down-on-palestinian-militants-in-the-occupied-west-bank/ar-AA1wu0mz

And just think of how much housing, health care and education could have 
been paid for if Biden's latest rush of military aid to Ukraine weren't 
taking the overall cost to US taxpayers for that war to over $175 billion. 
So sad.

  https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/us-announces-5-9b-in-military-and-budget-aid-to-ukraine/ar-AA1wI1fW

Call-back to the shopper at the mall, the Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial Sign 
went out at the usual mystery spot on its south side across from the Apple 
store. *Sigh.* I paused by the Apple store on my way in and it actually 
continued to scroll. A security guard looked skeptical but one employee 
saw it and seemed to make a positive gesture (maybe even a peace sign, 
they were all the way against the back wall).

Unfortunately I was caught up in pondering stuff about the bullhorn/ 
announcements and didn't think to hand out (or ask attendees) to hand out 
any flyers for next week's special rally on Guantanamo. You can still find 
them here, and if I can get the energy up the page should soon say 26 
people remain instead of 27 (which was originally 30).

  https://pjw.info/guantanamo23yl.html

I just heard a story on the radio that noted the original outbreak of 
COVID happened nearly five years ago, and how since then time seems kind 
of fluid. Was that yesterday or a long time ago? Either way, stay safe. 
Hope to see you some week down at the Square. I just noticed that I 
changed the number for this week to 250. That's a lot of weeks.

thanks
--dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group