[HCCN] Fwd:We are building radical anti-American movements with every drone attack.. Dud Hendrick

[Judith Robbins]

>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Gary Higginbottom
>
> Dud Hendrick, in his very modest manner, may not pass along the  
> text of the speech he made to the Deer Isle Town meeting.  But it  
> needs to be passed on, because it is truly inspirational, and few  
> people can put together the words, experience, background,  
> knowledge and power that Dud brings to this issue.  So I'm passing  
> along his speech (with Dud's permission) for folks who weren't there.
>
> --Gary Higginbottom
>
> *****************************
>
> Deer Isle Town Meeting:  March 2010
> What I have to say comes from the heart, it comes from my own  
> experiences, and it comes from paying close attention for several  
> years.
> I am a Vietnam veteran, having volunteered to serve there. I’m not  
> comfortable with my memories and I don’t wish to over-dramatize  
> them, but those experiences are relevant to my strong objections to  
> the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I lost several friends in  
> Vietnam and I have many friends who survived, but whose lives were  
> profoundly affected by that war.  Today, I’m proudly the President  
> of the founding chapter of Veterans for Peace.  This national  
> organization, with over 7,000 members and 130 chapters with at  
> least one in each state, works to seek peaceful alternatives to  
> militarism and war.  It is because I feel for the troops and all  
> victims of war so deeply that I have been examining the rationale  
> for wars so closely.  The scrutiny has led me to conclude that,  
> like Vietnam, our present wars do not serve to make us safer and,  
> in no way, do they serve our interests.  On the contrary, I believe  
> our wars are adversely affecting us all.  What General Eisenhower  
> had to say in 1953 is as true today as then:
> “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired  
> signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and  
> are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.  This world in  
> arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its  
> laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”
> Maine taxpayers have seen $2.5 billion of their tax dollars go for  
> the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001—that’s $350 million/ 
> year. Deer Isle’s share has been approximately $465,000 per year.  
> The state taxes applied to the wars would be equivalent to paying  
> the salaries of 50,000 elementary school teachers for one year. We  
> can site many other equivalencies each of which should bring our  
> attention to the 5,000 lb gorilla, the one that is diverting funds  
> from desperate domestic needs to the wars.  Ask any of our  
> neighbors who are in education or who are working at the Island  
> Nursing Home and I bet you will hear of unprecedented budgetary  
> short-falls.  There’s less money available to take care of Deer  
> Isle pot-holes and frost-heaves and nearly every Weekly Packet or  
> Island Advantage carries news of reduced employment and services at  
> Blue Hill Hospital.
> By many measures we’re failing. Randall Amster, a professor and  
> author at presitigous Prescott College writes,  “Educationally,  
> economically, politically, culturally -- all of our national gauges  
> are pointing in the wrong direction. When compared to other  
> countries we're moving down the list on health care, democratic  
> governance, productivity, environmental protection, academic  
> achievement, official transparency, incarceration rates,  
> transportation, and public services.”  I believe the connection can  
> be made—the more money and resources committed to war, the less  
> attention given to the areas that affect all of us.
> Then there are the casualties. We went to war in Afghanistan in  
> October of 2001 in response to 9/11.  Our goal then was to avenge  
> the horrific deaths of over 3000 Americans. Then for reasons that  
> have proven to be fallacious, we turned our attention to Iraq.  To  
> date credible sources report that over 1million Iraqis have died as  
> a result of that invasion and occupation.  It’s nearly impossible  
> to get an estimate on the civilian casualties in Afghanistan.  We  
> do know that nearly 5,000 Americans have died in Iraq and  
> Afghanistan and tens of thousands have been severely wounded.
> I understand that some of you here agree that we should not be in  
> Afghanistan or Iraq but are reluctant to support this resolution  
> because they believe we would be leaving Afghanis to the mercy of  
> Al Qaeda and the Taliban. I would respond that we are building  
> these radical anti-American movements with every drone attack, with  
> every additional life lost.
> The Defense Science Board Task Force commissioned by Donald  
> Rumsfeld in 2004, charged to review the impact of our wars in Iraq  
> and Afghanistan on terrorism and Islamic radicalism, concluded that  
> the underlying sources of threats to America’s national security  
> and what most exacerbates anti-American sentiment, and therefore  
> the threat of terrorism, is American direct intervention in the  
> Muslim world, specifically our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
> It’s worth considering that last point closely. The threat of  
> terrorism is heightened by the American occupation of Iraq and  
> Afghanistan.
> When I went off to Vietnam and for a short while after my return I  
> recall responding to anti-war activists that I did not think they  
> might better know what was good for our country than our President  
> and our leaders.  In time, with deeper reflection and closer  
> observation I came to the opinion that Presidents and leaders are  
> subject to influences and pressures that aren’t necessarily in the  
> best interest of our country.  I believe that President Obama is a  
> good and wise man, but he is surely under great pressure –much of  
> it coming from people who have vested interests in the continuation  
> of war.  There are over 13,000 licensed lobbyists in D.C. and that  
> the defense industry spent over $135 million on lobbying in 2009.   
> These are people handsomely paid to influence policy-making  
> favorable to their interests.
> The approval of this article will be largely symbolic.  But, if we  
> believe that these wars are contrary to our national security, that  
> many innocent Iraqi and Afghan lives are being sacrificed by these  
> occupations, that our wounded troops should be healed and our  
> active troops used more wisely, and that our tax dollars are needed  
> here at home, shouldn’t we speak out?
>
> Our voices will be heard by other towns and they will be heard by  
> Congressman Michaud.  Should this resolution be passed those of us  
> who sponsored it will convey the results to him.  He is a member of  
> the House of Representatives and that body does have the  
> Constitutional authority to stop the funding of war.  That won’t  
> happen if the people do not speak.  I’m asking you to support this  
> resolution as a matter of conscience.
>
> Dud Hendrick
>

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