Omni Center Forums

Obama's Drawdown from Surge Not Leaving Afghanistan

2011-06-27T09:07:00.000-07:00

[Significant analysis of war in Afghanistan and President Obama’s feeble plan for withdrawal. D]
“Bad News for a Country Tired of War “
By Bill Boyarsky
Barack Obama’s plan for a limited withdrawal from Afghanistan means tens of thousands of American troops will remain there, many of them fighting, for several years to come.
In his speech Wednesday night, the president announced he will reduce the U.S. fighting force in Afghanistan by 10,000 by the end of this year and a total of 33,000 by September 2012. After that, he said, “our troops will be coming home at a steady pace as Afghan security forces move into the lead. Our mission will change from combat to support. By 2014, this process of transition will be complete. …”
Nowhere did he pledge that all the personnel would be brought home by that 2014 date.
Nor did he mention that 68,000 service personnel will remain in Afghanistan after September 2012. In addition, according to the Congressional Research Office, 18,919 “private security contractors” working for the Defense Department will also be serving in Afghanistan, performing duties seemingly indistinguishable from those done by American military personnel.
That means that after the pullout more than 86,000 personnel will remain engaged in fighting or the vague “support” duties cited by the president. They will add to the human and economic toll of a war that has killed, according to the website iCasualties, 1,632 American troops and wounded 11,191. The financial cost is now more than $426 billion. With the Iraq War added in, the figure reaches $1.2 trillion.

Although Obama’s speech was no cause for celebration, there were some pluses. The troop reduction was more substantial than the much smaller cuts advocated by outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the military command. Obama said the United States would negotiate with the Taliban if they “break from al-Qaida, abandon violence and abide by the Afghan constitution.” It’s doubtful that these conditions can be met, especially given the Taliban’s opposition to equal rights for women, part of the Afghan constitution. But at least we may be at the table with them.
Obama had a positive but not triumphal tone, saying the United States “is starting this drawdown from a position of strength.”
Actually, he is starting it from a position of weakness.
Although the war has been pretty much ignored by cable news and much of the rest of the mainstream media, apparently the American people have a different view.

Read More
http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/63-63/6405-bad-news-for-a-country-tired-of-war

The New American Exceptionalism by Donald Pease

2011-04-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

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

The New American Exceptionalism, Donald E. Pease

http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/P/pease_new.html

Exposes the fantasies that shaped U.S. identity between the end of the cold war and the global war on terror

For a half century following the end of World War II, the seemingly permanent cold war provided the United States with an organizing logic that governed nearly every aspect of American society and culture, giving rise to an unwavering belief in the nation’s exceptionalism in global affairs and world history. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, this cold war paradigm was replaced by a series of new ideological narratives that ultimately resulted in the establishment of another potentially endless war: the global war on terror.

In The New American Exceptionalism, pioneering scholar Donald E. Pease traces the evolution of these state fantasies and shows how they have shaped U.S. national identity since the end of the cold war, uncovering the ideological and cultural work required to convince Americans to surrender their civil liberties in exchange for the illusion of security. His argument follows the chronology of the transitions between paradigms from the inauguration of the New World Order under George H. W. Bush to the homeland security state that George W. Bush’s administration installed in the wake of 9/11. Providing clear and convincing arguments about how the concept of American exceptionalism was reformulated and redeployed in this era, Pease examines a wide range of cultural works and political spectacles, including the exorcism of the Vietnam syndrome through victory in the Persian Gulf War and the creation of Islamic extremism as an official state enemy.

At the same time, Pease notes that state fantasies cannot altogether conceal the inconsistencies they mask, showing how such events as the revelations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and the exposure of government incompetence after Hurricane Katrina opened fissures in the myth of exceptionalism, allowing Barack Obama to challenge the homeland security paradigm with an alternative state fantasy that privileges fairness, inclusion, and justice.

"At last, a genealogy of the paranoid style of U.S. nationalism that has some real psychological and historical depth. With characteristic brilliance, Donald E. Pease uncovers the dark side of the nation’s soul from Hiroshima to Abu Ghraib—via Vietnam, Waco, and Oklahoma City. The New American Exceptionalism sparkles with original insights."
—Nancy Fraser, The New School for Social Research

"Its scope, theoretical adventurousness and lucidity, radical commitment to ethical acts, and seriousness make The New American Exceptionalism an unusual and stunning work of American cultural and political theory. This is a major book by a major critic on the United States’ state of exception and state fantasies; Donald E. Pease’s text explains how American exceptionalism has shaped and directed the U.S. citizens’ desire for a fully realized national culture. It is a thrilling guide to American Studies and dialectical psychoanalysis from one of the most incisive thinkers of his generation.”
—José David Saldívar, University of California, Berkeley

"A passionately argued analysis of how successive governments have constructed specific images to forge the ideas of a unified national culture—despite the fact that American society has gradually fragmented over the last three decades."
—Journal of American Culture

"All in all, the book is a brilliant rhetorical performance."
—Choice

"This “exceptional” work of great scope and brilliant insight marries cultural history with political theory. It is relevant, thought provoking, and even ground-breaking."
—Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, Travel-Watch

Donald E. Pease is Avalon Foundation Professor of the Humanities at Dartmouth College and director of the Futures of American Studies Institute. He is the author of Visionary Compacts: American Renaissance Writings in Cultural Context and the editor of several volumes including, with Amy Kaplan, Cultures of United States Imperialism.

256 pages | 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 | 2009
Critical American Studies Series

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The United States of Fantasy

1. Staging the New World Order: Hiroshima, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the Persian Gulf War

2. America of the Two Covenants: The Waco Siege and the Oklahoma City Bombing

3. A National Rite of Passage: The Return of Alexis de Tocqueville

4. Patriot Acts: The Southernification of America

5. From Virgin Land to Ground Zero: Mythological Foundations of the Homeland Security State

6. Antigone’s Kin: From Abu Ghraib to Barack Obama

Notes, Index

Enough Is Enough

2010-06-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

Enough is enough! Calling for a Clean Energy Economy

Press Release June 28, 2010

On July 2nd, this Friday, the OMNI Climate Change Task Force and 1Sky are sponsoring a benefit for families in the Gulf of Mexico and The Joy Center, a Kenyan orphanage. Both of these communities have been tragically impacted by humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels.

The event boasts live country-punk-blues music from David Kimbrough Jr. and Stacy Nicole Mackey. Others will be invited to share their creativity and thoughts at an open mic. There is an art show featuring local artist Joelle Storet and her recent BP series. Gumbo will be served and was contributed by Café Rue Orleans and Lynn D’s Cajun Gypsy café. To be eco-conscious folks are encouraged to bring their own bowl for the gumbo.

Art sales will benefit The Joy Center, an orphanage in Kenya, one of many nations ravaged by climate change drought. In partnership with Environment America, donations of any size will be accepted to benefit families and wildlife relief efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. All contributions are tax deductible through the OMNI Center. “We want to get together enjoy art, good food, fine music and one another’s company,” states Joanna Pollock of the Climate Change Task Force, “Everyone is trying to process this disaster in the gulf and it is overwhelming. This can also be a time to express those feelings and give what we can to help.”

Joanna Pollock

Thursday, July 10 - Worshipping the Myths of World War II

2008-06-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

A panel will discuss Worshipping the Myths of World War II: Reflections on America’s Dedication to War by Edward W. Wood, Jr., on Thursday, July 10, 6:30 p.m., at Nightbird Books. Nightbird Books is located at 557 S. School Ave. in Fayetteville, on the northwest corner of 71B and 6th St. 443-2080.

Panelists are:

David Edwards, retired Professor of History at the University of Arkansas, where he headed the honors students in the Fulbright College . Since retirement he has been an active member of the Unitarian Fellowship.

John Rule, served in the U.S. Army 1953-55, discharged with the rank of Sergeant. He received his BA and MA from the University of Arkansas in 1955, retired from teaching at Arkansas Tech in 1976, and became a farmer in the Boston Mountains, where he resides. His interests are world and personal peace, ecology and sustainability.

Steve Striffler, Professor of Anthropology and Latin American Studies at the University of Arkansas. He is on the Board of the Northwest Arkansas Workers Justice Center and author of Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food (Yale University Press, 2005).

Lyell Thompson is a Retired Professor of Agriculture at the University of Arkansas, lifelong advocate of civil rights and liberties, World War II veteran who served in the European Theater and at the Battle of the Bulge.

Moderated by Dick Bennett, retired professor of English at the University of Arkansas, a founder of OMNI, compiler of the Peace Movement Directory.

Friday May 16, The Three Trillion Dollar War

2008-04-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Omni Center for Peace will present a forum for the book about the true cost of the Iraq War titled The Three Trillion Dollar War by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes on Friday May 16, 4pm at a location soon to be announced in Fayetteville.

The Omni Center has invited three panelists to comment on the book: Claire Detels, Van K. Brock, Gary Gray and Jane Klein
Claire Detels is a University of Arkansas Professor in Music History and Humanities active in arts education reform and feminist theory.
Van K. Brock is a co-founder of the Creative Writing program at Florida State University, where he founded Anhinga Press.
Gary Gray is a native of Searcy, had four years of active duty in the US Navy, is a Licensed Certified Social Worker; a Clinical Member of American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists; and a Family Therapist in private practice.
Jane Klein is an advocate and counselor for blind and visually impaired persons.
Here are more details about the book from the publisher - W. W. Norton.
The true cost of the Iraq War is $3 trillion and counting rather than the $50 billion projected by the White House. Apart from its tragic human toll, the Iraq War will be staggeringly expensive in financial terms.
This sobering study by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda J. Bilmes casts a spotlight on expense items that have been hidden from the U.S. taxpayer. Written in language as simple as the details are disturbing, this book will forever change the way we think about the war.
Winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, Joseph E. Stiglitz of Columbia University is the author of Making Globalization Work and Globalization and Its Discontents. Linda J. Bilmes, a professor of public finance at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, is a former Assistant Secretary for management and budget in the U.S. Department of Commerce.

February 12 OMNI BOOK FORUM on the Bush Administration's crimes

2008-01-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

FOR MORE DETAILS: contact Dick Bennett at 479-442-4600 or jbennet @ uark.edu
What: A panel will discuss the new book by Marjorie Cohn, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law.

When: On February 12, Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Where: At the home of Jo Bennett, 2473 Jimmie Ave., Fayetteville (off Township above Days Inn Motel.). To find this house, drive east 1 third of a mile on Township Street from College Avenue, then turn left onto Jimmie Ave and the Bennett house will be the 5th one on the left. Here is a photo of her house.

Below is an interactive Google Map for Jo's house.
Click on it to find driving directions.

Snacks and beverages provided.

According to Cohn, Pres. Bush, Vice-President Cheney, their lawyers and advisors, are law-violators in these six major areas:
1) Wars of aggression. Unprovoked wars, forbidden by the UN Charter and the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg following WWII, are war crimes;
2) Torture of prisoners. Torture violates U.S. and international law and is a war crime;
3) Willful killing and indiscriminate slaughter of civilians are punishable as war crimes under the Geneva Conventions;
4) Imprisoning detainees (including children) indefinitely without charges at Guantanamo and other prisons violates U.S. and international laws as well as the Uniform Code of Military Justice;
5) Spying on US citizens. The Bush administration has set up a vast network of eavesdropping on the telephone calles and e-mail of US. citizens in violation of statutes;
6) Refusing to execute laws passed by Congress. President Bush has not only refused to carry out laws constitutionally passed by Congress, but he has usurped the power of the courts' exclusive jurisdiction to interpret the laws.

In all of these violations, Bush administration lawyers (John Yoo, for example) redefined or denied the laws to justify the violations. In all, the Bush administration has displayed unparalleled usurpation of executive power, dangerously undermining our Constitutionally prescribed balance of powers, and leading us steadily toward dictatorship. Cohn also explains what we can do to remedy the administration's breaches of statutory, constitutional, and international law.

Marjorie Cohn is president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. A previous book is Cameras in the Courtroom. She is a contributing editor to several legal magazines and a frequent columnist for many online journals. In 2005 she received San Diego County Bar Association's Service to Legal Education Award. She has participated in delegations to Iran, Cuba, China, Yugoslavia, and other countries. Her articles can be found at http://www.marjoriecohn.com

Below is an interactive Google Map for Jo's house.
Click on it to find driving directions.

View Larger Map

Naomi Wolf Book Forum

2007-11-09T08:18:00.000-08:00

PRESS RELEASE
11-9-07
Contact Gladys Tiffany 973-9049, Melanie Dietzel 442-8600, Dick Bennett 442-4600

SPONSORED BY OMNI: CENTER FOR PEACE, JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY

FORUM
Five citizens in the humanities will discuss the new book by Naomi Wolf, The End of America: A Citizen’s Call to Action. Wolf describes ten steps dictators have taken to shut down a democratic, open society—from Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin to Pinochet. Each of those ten steps is now under way in the United States today. The book is an impassioned call to return to the aspirations and beliefs of the Founding Fathers for a nation of, by, and for the people.

WHEN: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 7 PM

WHERE: UNITED CAMPUS MINISTRY/OMNI, 902 W. MAPLE, FAYETTEVILLE,
Corner of Maple and Storer, north of UA’s Old Main, adjacent east to Tri-Delta Sorority. Parking on Maple, Storer, campus parking lot a block north, and behind OMNI.

PANELISTS: Adelaide Adamson, Claire Detels, Tom Kennedy, Leonard Schulte, Doug Thompson. Dick Bennett, Moderator.

NAOMI WOLF
Wolf’s international bestseller, The Beauty Myth, questioned the unrealistic standards of beauty of the cosmetics industry. She has also written Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood. She co-founded The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, an organization that teaches young women how to become leaders and agents of change. A graduate of Yale and a former Rhodes Scholar, Wolf has written essays for The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, Glamour, The New York Times, and other magazines and newspapers.
To see various videos of Naomi Wolf, go to http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Naomi+Wolf+%22

PANELISTS:

Addie Adamson, Ed.D. professor of English for 40+ years, taught the last seven as a teacher of English as A Second Language at the U of A, Fayetteville. I was a product of the 1960s, politically. I was teaching at San Antonio College from 1966 to 1975 (when I moved to the Mulberry River Valley, as a "drop-out" from the Nixon culture). I taught many wounded Vietnam Veterans and swore that I could never support any war again. Today, I feel that the U.S. government is making even more disastrous mistakes than did Nixon and cohorts. I fear greatly for our country. That is why I am glad to be on a panel to discuss this issue.

Claire Detels is UA Professor in Music History and Humanities active in arts education reform and feminist theory; keyboard performer and director of the Butcher-Detels Four-Hand Duo; author of Music in the Western Tradition and Soft Boundaries: Re-Visioning the Arts and Aesthetics in American Education.

Thomas C. Kennedy is UA Prof. Emer. of History Emeritus) & former Chair. He was President & Program Chair (three times) of Western Conference on British Studies, President of the Friends Historical Society (Great Britain, 1995), and Distinguished Alumnus, University of Dayton (1989). His publications include: British Quakerism, 1860-1920 and A History of the No-Conscription Fellowship, 1914-1919.

Leonard Schulte, M.A., teaches philosophy courses, including Intro. to Phil, and Intro. to Ethics and Logic, at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. He was raised Catholic in a small town in southwestern Missouri, attended seminary for six years where, after having questions about his religious beliefs, he eventually turned to philosophy. He has studied philosophy at three different universities, most recently at the University of Arkansas from 1989 to 1993, where he completed all degree requirements for a Doctorate except for the dissertation.

Doug Thompson is a news reporter and columnist for The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas and for the Arkansas News Bureau. The bureau provides state government news for newspapers in Fort Smith, Jonesboro, Conway, Pine Bluff and other regions of the state. He is a resident of Fayetteville, where he contributes a column to the Fayetteville Free Weekly. He's a long-standing critic of the current administration's policies on domestic spying and use of torture, among its other intelligence-gathering failures.

Dick Bennett is UA Prof. Emeritus in English, founder of OMNI, and compiler of Peace Movement Directory.

THE AMERICAN FREEDOM CAMPAIGN AGENDA, A CALL TO ACTION
(Appended at the end of Wolf’s book.)
At critical moments in our history, Americans have been called upon to protect our Constitutional guarantees of liberty and justice. We face such a moment today. The American Freedom Campaign is a non-partisan citizens' alliance formed to reverse the abuse of executive power and restore our system of checks and balances with these ten goals:
Fully restore the right to challenge the legality of one's detention, or habeas corpus, and the right of detained suspects to be charged and brought to trial.

Prohibit torture and all cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Prohibit the use of secret evidence.

Prohibit the detention of anyone, including U.S. citizens, as an "enemy combatant" outside the battlefield, and on the President's say-so alone.
Prohibit the government from secretly breaking and entering our homes, tapping our phones or email, or seizing our computers without a court order, on the President's say-so alone.

Prohibit the President from "disappearing" anyone and holding them in secret detention.

Prohibit the executive from claiming "state secrets" to deny justice to victims of government misdeeds, and from claiming "executive privilege" to obstruct Congressional oversight and an open government.
Prohibit the abuse of signing statements, where the President seeks to disregard duly enacted provisions of bills.

Use the federal courts, or courts-martial, to charge and prosecute terrorism suspects, and close Guantanamo down.

Reaffirm that the Espionage Act does not prohibit journalists from reporting on classified national security matters without fear of prosecution.

Ann Wright Lecture in Bentonville

2007-11-09T07:57:00.001-08:00

On Monday, October 29, 2007 Bentonville native and retired Army Colonel Ann Wright spoke about her peace activism and the crimes of the current Bush Presidency to an audience of over 100 in the Walton Community Room of the Bentonville Public Library.

Former Bentonville Mayor Terry Coberly was on hand to introduce Colonel Wright, who also served in the U.S. Diplomatic Corps before becoming a peace activist.

A candlelight vigil for war’s victims followed Colonel Wright’s event on the sidewalk in front of the library.