Agape Community

Suzanne Belote Shanley of the Agape Community, along with the Buddhist Peace
Community and members of the Catholic Worker Community in Worcester, MA were
among the 300 people who commemorated the 5th anniversary of the opening of
America’s Concentration Camp, Guantanamo Bay on January 11th.

Over 80 people were arrested, among them Claire Schaeffer Duffy of the Sts.
Therese/Francis Catholic Worker and Tom Lewis of Emma House and The Mustard
Seed in Worcester.

The Washington protest was among the most moving I have ever witnessed. As the hooded orange jump suited detainees made their way from the Supreme Court to the Federal District Court, we all had tears in our eyes and shock at what our country is doing to human beings. A remarkable demonstration and I am proud to know and work with all of you. Michael Ratner, President Center for Constitutional Rights … http://www.ccr-ny.org

Washington Post Article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011100964.html?sub=AR

By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 12,
2007; Page A03

More than 80 protesters were arrested inside the federal courthouse in
Washington yesterday after a demonstration that called for closing the
U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The demonstrators were commemorating the fifth anniversary of the
opening of the Guantanamo detention facility. They targeted the
courthouse where lawyers have challenged the legality of indefinitely
imprisoning hundreds of suspected enemy fighters and terrorists at
Guantanamo.

Demonstrators at the U.S. District Courthouse simulate waterboarding
interrogation techniques to protest the incarceration of suspected
terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Those arrested were part of a group of nearly 300 demonstrators — a
loose coalition of antiwar, civil liberty and religious organizations.
The group had a permit to protest outside the courthouse at Third Street
and Constitution Avenue NW.

But dozens of protesters filed through a side entrance and began to
gather in the building’s central atrium, chanting, “Stop torture” and
wearing shirts reading “Shut Down Guantanamo.” Others wearing orange
jumpsuits — similar to those worn by detainees at the prison that now
houses 400 Muslim men from foreign countries — were barred from
entering the courthouse as a security risk, and marshals locked the
court’s front doors about noon.

U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan tried to reach an
accommodation with the protesters inside, ordering that they be allowed
to remain if they removed or covered their shirts and put away their
signs so as not to disrupt trials underway. Court security officials
said it was the first time in recent history that a protest had been
allowed inside the federal court.

But, after a brief discussion with U.S. Marshal George Walsh, the group
refused, and a team of deputy marshals arrested the praying, kneeling
protesters one by one, putting them in flexible plastic handcuffs and
taking them to a booking and holding cell in the court basement.

Many of the people prayed and repeatedly sang, “Peace, Salam, Shalom” as
they were waiting to be cuffed and led away. They were charged with
disorderly conduct on a federal property, a misdemeanor. All were
expected to be released last night.

“If you accuse someone of a crime, you have evidence, you have a trial!”
Maria Allwine, of the Baltimore group Iraq Pledge of Resistance, shouted
as a marshal led her away. “Where is the evidence?”

Earlier in the day, Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional
Rights and defense attorneys for some detainees held a news conference
and rally at the U.S. Supreme Court urging supporters worldwide to
pressure the U.S. government to close the detention facility.

It was opened Jan. 11, 2002, to house alleged terrorists and Taliban
fighters rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the U.S. war in
Afghanistan. The prison has been plagued by allegations of detainee
abuse, and the military has been embarrassed by revelations that FBI
agents warned their bosses that they considered detainee treatment there
cruel and inhumane.

Last week, FBI documents released as part of a lawsuit by the American
Civil Liberties Union included new allegations of questionable treatment
of Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. One interrogator allegedly
infuriated a prisoner by squatting over a Koran, and two agents reported
witnessing military personnel using vicious dogs to intimidate
prisoners, the documents show.

I am reposting this from democraticunderground.com Link to original post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=257170&mesg_id=257170

This list only scratches the surface and doesn’t even address the less quantifiable costs of modern wars to civil societies:

Vietnam War

THERE ARE MORE THAN 58,000 NAMES OF AMERICAN DEAD ON THE WALL IN WASHINGTON, D.C., BUT THE TOTAL COSTS ARE STILL BEING TALLIED.THE PEOPLE
American Veterans — Vietnamese People
In Country 2.5 million est. 1970 pop. 41 million
In Combat 1.5 million unknown
Killed in Action 58,000+ 2.5 million
Wounded 300,000+* 4 million
Missing in Action 2,000+ 250,000
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 1.5 million+ unknown
Suicides 100,000+ unknown

Homeless 150,000 nightly unknown
Boat People 0 1 million (Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia)
Lost at Sea 0 500,000
Disabled Street People unknown 3 million
New Agent Orange Deformities unknown 35,000/year
Peacetime Deaths Due to Unexploded Bombs & Mines 0 50,000+ (Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia)
Maimed by Bombs and Mines (1975-98) 0 67,000
Reeducation Camps 0 400,000 in 100 camps
* includes U.S: 74,000 quadriplegics and multiple amputees

THE VIETNAMESE LAND
Total Herbicides Used 19.4 million gallons
Agent Orange Sprayed 11.7 million gallons
Mangrove Forest Destroyed 60%
Forest & Jungle Destroyed 18%
Cultivated Land Destroyed 8%

U.S. BOMBING
8 billion+ pounds (4 times more than WWII total; equal to 600 Hiroshima-size bombs)
23 million bomb craters
2,257 U.S. aircraft lost
Over 4,000 of toal 5,778 villages bombed, 150 completely destroyed

DESTROYED
10 million cubic meters of dikes
815 hydroelectric works
1,100 lake embankments
8 forestries
48 agricultural research centers with 6,000 agricultural machines and 46,000 water buffalo
400 factories
18 power stations
13,000 boats
15,100 bridges
2,923 high schools and universities
350 hospitals
1,500 maternity hospitals
484 churches
465 pagodas
240,540 thatched huts

TOTAL COST TO THE UNITED STATES:
$925 Billion

Source - http://www.utne.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.display.printable?cl…

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The Gulf War I (1990-1991)

Initially reported figures:

148 Combat Deaths
235 ‘other’ deaths
467 wounded

A decade later (the numbers still controversial):

Veteran’s Adm. Recognizes a total of:

262,586 Veterans disabled from this conflict.
10,617 dead from combat-related injuries and illnesses.
That raises the casualty rate to 30.8 percent.

U.S. estimates 100,000 Iraqi military were killed.
300,000 wounded.
Human Rights groups claim higher figures and estimating
civilian deaths at 200,000

Some weapons used: Smart bombs, cluster bombs, daisy cutters.

Environment: 700 Oil well fires burned for 9 months AFTER the Gulf War I ended.

Infrastructure: …
33 bridges, innumerable highways, water, electric, etc.
One U.N. observer team called it "near apocalyptic" damage. As a result, 70,000 were made homeless and as many as 20,000 others sick and dying in a state that had been bombed back to the "preindustrial age."

The victory for the coalition was the most lopsided in recent history in terms of numbers who died on each side. And the devastation to the industrial infrastructure of most of Iraq and portions of Kuwait, along with an unprecedented environmental disaster brought about by oil spills and Iraqi-set fires, will take a toll on people and resources for years to come.
http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=sep91lop…

Not Included is the number of those who died or been seriously impacted by U.S. Sanctions against Iraq.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Afghanistan, 2001

8,587 AFGHAN TROOPS KILLED
and 25,761 SERIOUSLY INJURED July 2004

3,485 AFGHAN CIVILIANS KILLED
and 6,273 SERIOUSLY INJURED July 2004

295 U.S. TROOPS KILLED
and 885 SERIOUSLY INJURED Jan. 2007

220 OTHER COALITION TROOPS KILLED
and 660 SERIOUSLY INJURED Jan.

2 million war widows
Thousands of deaf/mute children peddling in the streets.
Mortality rate of children under age 5 is 1 in 4, from diarrhea, respiratory infections, malnutrition and vaccine-preventable diseases.

Extensive use by the U.S. of cluster bombs

Between the Russian invasion and the U.S. invasion Afghanistan has lost 40-70 percient in forest cover, and almost a complete loss of wetlands, compromising the entire urban water supply.
1/3 of the population have been forced to flee the country.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Gulf War II (Iraq)

– IN IRAQ –

30,000 IRAQI TROOPS KILLED
and 90,000 SERIOUSLY INJURED Aug. 2003

704,087 IRAQI CIVILIANS KILLED
and 1,267,357 SERIOUSLY INJURED Jan. 2007

3,000 U.S. TROOPS KILLED
and 45,055 SERIOUSLY INJURED Jan. 2007

250 OTHER COALITION TROOPS KILLED
and 750 SERIOUSLY INJURED Jan. 2007

147 U.S. CIVILIANS KILLED
and 265 SERIOUSLY INJURED Jan. 2007

230 OTHER COALITION CIVILIANS KILLED
and 414 SERIOUSLY INJURED Jan. 2007
http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html

Infrastructure Damage: A UN Report says that living conditions are "tragic" due to bombings and infrastructure damage effecting all areas of daily life.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack…

Rebuilding Iraq: 2005 Status Report on Funding & Reconstruction
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05876.pdf

__________________________________________________________________________________________

The Toll In Syria to civilians and infrastructure has not yet been estimated.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

So who is profiting? Many Corporations profit much more from war than from peace. It’s basically a jobs program for a few U.S. industries.
They knock it down in order to rebuild it in their own image. The following story is hardly the exception. It is, in fact, a typical example:

Bechtel: Profiting from Destruction
U.S. Taxpayers Blindly Funding Post-War Corporate Profiteering and Cronyism, Public Interest Groups Say

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. ? Bechtel Group Inc., one of the lead contractors in the reconstruction of Iraq, has a 100-year history of capitalizing on environmentally unsustainable technologies and reaping immense profits at the expense of societies and the environment, said a report released today by Public Citizen, Global Exchange and CorpWatch. Its release was timed to coincide with a day of direct actions around the country to protest Bechtel’s presence in Iraq, the report concludes that the Bush administration must be stopped from doling out contracts to undeserving firms with which it has close ties, including Bechtel and Halliburton.

The report, Bechtel: Profiting from Destruction, provides case studies from Bechtel’s history of operations in the water, nuclear, energy and public works sectors. It documents a track record by Bechtel of environmental destruction, disregard for human rights and financial mismanagement of projects that has affected communities all over the world and does not bode well for the people of Iraq.

"If environmental and consumer protection violations had been taken into account, Bechtel would not have been awarded such an important contract in Iraq," said Sara Grusky, senior organizer with Public Citizen. "The American people are funding this contract through their tax dollars but are being denied the right to see what their money is supporting."

On April 17, Bechtel was awarded $34.6 million of an 18-month Iraq reconstruction contract worth up to $680 million, including the rehabilitation, reconstruction and expansion covering all key elements of Iraq’s infrastructure, including electrical grids, water and wastewater systems. The contract was part of a limited bidding process that forbade public review and was kept secret even from Congress…cont’d

http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7249

And many more companies like it.