Ron Paul Speaks Out on Gaza: Supports Non-intervention

The Real Winner of the Iraq War

He is pictured on the left. Iraqi Prime Minister Al Maliki just returned from a cordial meeting in Iran with his most important foreign ally.

Some Thoughts for the HAW Panel Tomorrow on War and the Economy

From 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Empire Ballroom East of the Sheraton New York, 7th Ave. and 53rd St., HAW members and friends will participate in a roundtable: "One Faltering Economy 
and Two Wars: What Can Historians Contribute?
 Unfortunately, I can’t be there. While I’m sure there will no shortage of topics, I hope they will include the widely believed theory (at least among my students) that “wars have been good for the economy” in American history.

Variants of this thesis can be found among across the political spectrum. On the right, neocon Conrad Black argues that World War II “had restored prosperity after the free market had failed.” On the left, Paul Krugman similarly writes: “There's nothing magic about spending on tanks and bombs rather than roads and bridges. The reason World War II worked more effectively than the WPA [in terms of promoting economic growth] as that it was *bigger.*” While Krugman might prefer that this “bigger” spending be on roads and bridges, rather than bombs, this does not change the fact he still accepts the overall premise that spending on wars can be good for the economy. If anyone should have greater reason to call this theory into question, it is antiwar historians.

A good place to start are the works of Robert Higgs on war and the economy. Few historians have provided a more powerful response to the Krugman/Black thesis. Higgs examines the most commonly measures of wartime prosperity and finds them wanting. He makes a compelling case that genuine prosperity did not begin to return until the wartime demoblization of 1945 and 1946. Higgs followed in the tradition of Thomas Cochran who in 1961 had convincingly challenged the thesis of Charles Beard that the Civil War had spurred industrialization.

Re: [haw-info] HAW at end of '08, just before the AHA

glad to send some bucks and hope others can do same. HAW has
accomplished mightily on slim means.
Happy approaching new year to everybody.
We seem to have more political oxygen now. Let's use it. Even among
the notable dullards (aka average historians).

At 11:58 AM 12/31/2008, Jim O'Brien wrote:
>To Historians Against the War members and friends:
>
>We haven't sent out a fund appeal for quite a while, but the truth
>is that our treasury is about bare. Our national conference in
>Atlanta last April was a big success in terms of substance and
>atmosphere, but not financially. Despite careful spending, most of
>our previous surplus is now gone. We'll send out an appeal after a
>new Steering Committee is elected in January, but since many people
>make their contributions around the holiday time, this is a belated
>request for anyone who feels so moved to send something to HAW. The
>easiest way is via PayPal, at
><http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/donations.html>http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/donations.html.
>Another way is to send a check made out to Historians Against the
>War to the treasurer, Van Gosse, 314 West Orange St., Lancaster, PA
>17603. Thanks for any help. In the interest of
>truth-in-soliciting, donations to HAW are not tax-deductible.
>
>For those coming to the AHA convention in New York, here is a
>reminder of the HAW events scheduled for Saturday, January 3. One
>of the events is new: the book signing by Carl Mirra, a HAW
>Steering Committee member.
>
>11:30 - 2:30 Literature table (shared with Radical History Review)
>in the area of the New York Hilton reserved for nonprofit groups,
>probably near the convention registration area
>
>1:30 Book signing for Carl Mirra's book Soldiers and Citizens: An
>Oral History of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Battlefield to the
>Pentagon, Palgrave Booth #267 in the Book Exhibit Hall.
>
>2:30 - 4:30 Roundtable: "The Bush-Cheney Years": In the Empire
>Ballroom East of the Sheraton New York, 7th Ave. and 53rd
>St. Speakers are Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, Vijay
>Prashad, Ellen Schrecker, and Barbara Weinstein.
>
>4:30 - 5:30 Open meeting and discussion for HAW members and
>friends, in the same room as the roundtable: "One Faltering Economy
>and Two Wars: What Can Historians Contribute?
>
>6:00 - 8:00 Reception co-sponsored by the Peace History Society and
>HAW, in the Sutton Center, second floor of the Hilton
>
>All the best for the new year,
>
>Jim O'Brien
>for HAW
>
>Note: You are receiving this email because you signed a Historians
>Against the War statement (see
>http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/). If you no longer wish to
>receive these occasional messages about HAW's work, send an email to
>haw-info-request@stopthewars.org?subject=unsubscribe.
>_______________________________________________
>haw-info mailing list
>haw-info@stopthewars.org
>http://stopthewars.org/mailman/listinfo/haw-info_stopthewars.org

Note: You are receiving this email because you signed a Historians Against the War statement (see http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/). If you no longer wish to receive these occasional messages about HAW's work, send an email to haw-info-request@stopthewars.org?subject=unsubscribe.
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[haw-info] HAW at end of '08, just before the AHA

To Historians Against the War members and friends:

We haven't sent out a fund appeal for quite a while, but the truth is that our treasury is about bare.  Our national conference in Atlanta last April was a big success in terms of substance and atmosphere, but not financially.  Despite careful spending, most of our previous surplus is now gone.  We'll send out an appeal after a new Steering Committee is elected in January, but since many people make their contributions around the holiday time, this is a belated request for anyone who feels so moved to send something to HAW.  The easiest way is via PayPal, at http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/donations.html.  Another way is to send a check made out to Historians Against the War to the treasurer, Van Gosse, 314 West Orange St., Lancaster, PA 17603.  Thanks for any help.  In the interest of truth-in-soliciting, donations to HAW are not tax-deductible.

For those coming to the AHA convention in New York, here is a reminder of the HAW events scheduled for Saturday, January 3.  One of the events is new:  the book signing by Carl Mirra, a HAW Steering Committee member.

11:30 - 2:30  Literature table (shared with Radical History Review) in the area of the New York Hilton reserved for nonprofit groups, probably near the convention registration area

1:30  Book signing for Carl Mirra's book Soldiers and Citizens: An Oral History of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Battlefield to the Pentagon, Palgrave Booth #267 in the Book Exhibit Hall.

2:30 - 4:30  Roundtable:  "The Bush-Cheney Years":  In the Empire Ballroom East of the Sheraton New York, 7th Ave. and 53rd St.  Speakers are Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, Vijay Prashad, Ellen Schrecker, and Barbara Weinstein.

4:30 - 5:30   Open meeting and discussion for HAW members and friends, in the same room as the roundtable:  "One Faltering Economy and Two Wars: What Can Historians Contribute?

6:00 - 8:00  Reception co-sponsored by the Peace History Society and HAW, in the Sutton Center, second floor of the Hilton

All the best for the new year,

Jim O'Brien
for HAW

Bovard on the "Craven Response" of American Politicians on Gaza

Over at Antiwar.com, Jim Bovard condemns members of the American political class, including President Elect Obama, for their silence on the Gaza carnage:

The craven response by the American political class to the use of American planes and weapons to slaughter civilians is what any reasonable cynic should have expected. Obama is maintaining his silence - perhaps because there is little hay to be made from victims outside of Darfur.

This conflict may be even more ludicrous than the typical Mideast carnage. The New York Times, in a front page story headlined, “Israel Reminds Foe It Has Teeth,” noted, “Israel’s military operation in Gaza aims to expunge the ghost of its flawed 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and re-establish Israeli deterrence.”

[haw-info] If you'll be at the AHA convention...

Here are the Historians Against the War activities planned for the AHA convention in New York.  All of these activities are for the first full day of the convention, Saturday, January 3.

11:30 - 2:30  Literature table (shared with Radical History Review) in the area of the New York Hilton reserved for nonprofit groups, probably near the convention registration area

2:30 - 4:30  "The Bush-Cheney Years: A Historians Against the War Roundtable":  In the Empire Ballroom East of the Sheraton New York, 7th Ave. and 53rd St.  Speakers are Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, Vijay Prashad, Ellen Schrecker, and Barbara Weinstein.

4:30 - 5:30   Meeting for HAW members and friends, in the same room as the roundtable.  Open Discussion: One Faltering Economy and Two Wars:  What Can Historians Contribute?

6:00 - 8:00  Reception co-sponsored by the Peace History Society and HAW, in the Sutton Center, second floor of the Hilton

Also, here's a reminder:  If you're interested in running for the HAW Steering Committee (the election will be conducted by e-mail next month), please send a short statement by to either of the current co-chairs, Jim O'Brien (jimobrien48@gmail.com) or Marc Becker (marc@yachana.org), this week if possible.  The statement should use the following template:

Name:
Institution:
Position:
Historical Specialization:
Political Background:
Reason for Running:

Eartha Kitt RIP

Eartha Kitt not only had talent (see, for example, her scene-stealing performance in St. Louis Blues) but fearlessly spoke truth to power.

In 1968, while at a public White House lunch, she properly embarassed Lady Bird Johnson by declaring
"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed....They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

Israel Attacks, Obama Says "No Comment"

As Israel attacks police stations throughout Gaza with our tax money, the President Elect has become uncharacteristically tongue tied.

Neocons in Progressive Drag

As Bush heads for a well-deserved retirement, peace progressives need to stop looking backward and start paying more attention to the pro-war plans of Obama and those around him.

According to Justin Raimondo, as Obama prepares to assume power, the epicenter of the war party has already shifted leftward from the American Enterprise Institute to the Progressive Policy Institute.

[haw-info] seeking candidates for the HAW Steering Committee

Dear Members of HAW: 

Next month we will conduct e-mail voting for members of the HAW Steering Committee.  The Steering Committee makes decisions for HAW in between the annual meetings at the AHA.  Aside from one face-to-face meeting in the summer, the SC conducts business through e-mail and occasional conference calls. 

If you would like to run (and we strongly encourage you to consider it) or if you would like to nominate someone, let us know.  

If you are nominating yourself, please send a brief description, using the template at the end of this message, by January 2 to either of us (jimobrien48@gmail.com or marc@yachana.org).  If you are nominating someone else, send us the name and e-mail address sooner so we can contact them and see if they are willing.

If you have any questions, feel free to write either of us.

Thank you,

Jim O'Brien and Marc Becker
current co-chairs of the HAW Steering Committee

  

Name:

Institution:

Position:

Historical Specialization:

Political Background:

Reason for Running:

Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation Interviewed

In a fascinating give-and-take interview, Scott Horton and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher for The Nation magazine, exchange ideas about libertarianism and progressivism in the peace movement.

According to the description of the show, they also discuss "the incoming Obama Administration, the popular backlash against corporate power, the ethical and practical necessity of ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, how an escalation in Afghanistan would ruin the promise of change and hope from the Obama campaign, the impotence of conventional military power against the contemporary threats of asymmetrical warfare and piracy and why NATO should be disbanded and a new cold war with Russia prevented."

Listen here .

Robert Higgs and the "Ratchet Effect" of National Emergency

One of the most insightful economic historians now writing on the relationship between war and the state is Robert Higgs. In his seminal work, Crisis and Leviathan, Higgs discusses how national emergencies, such as wars and depressions, serve to create a "ratchet effect" which lead to rapid increases in big government. Here are some recent comments by Higgs on this issue:

I have emphasized again and again that the legacies of national emergency are not merely fiscal, but also, more critically, institutional and ideological....we can see both the institutional and the ideological legacies embodied in a generation of highly placed, closely connected individuals who exerted tremendous influence over the apparatus and conduct of U.S. foreign and defense policies for decades after World War II and whose influence may be seen in the government’s conduct of foreign and defense affairs even today, though in somewhat muted and altered form.

George S. Schuyler: Conservative Critic of the Japanese Internment

In recent years, it is has become fashionable among some conservatives to defend FDR's internment of the Japanese-Americans. Michelle Malkin and Daniel Pipes spring to mind as examples.

For this reason, it should be mentioned that one of the few consistent voices against this policy was George S. Schuyler, an important figure in the rise of the modern conservative movement. Schuyler later wrote Black and Conservative and contributed to such journals as The Freeman and National Review.

Until his death in 1977, Schuyler never flagged in his oppostion to Japanese internment. While he had not yet made the full transition to conservativism during World War II, he already hated FDR's New Deal and "Globalony" with a passion.

On May 29, 1943, he wrote the following in his column for The Pittsburgh Courier, one of the two leading black newspapers at the time:

"Some colored folks have said we should remain indifferent because the Japanese-Americans have never championed our cause and sought to avoid us at all times. While this is not entirely true, it would make difference if it were true....These Japanese-American citizens are NOT in concentration because of the commission of any crime against the state. The contention that 70,000 citizens among the millions of whites on the Pacific coast constituted a danger is a fantastic falsehood. These people are the most industrious, thrifty, and best behaved citizens in this country. Thousands of them are the offspring of American-born Japanese-Americans. Other thousands are the offspring of mixed Americans, many having blonde hair and blue eyes, and look no more Japanese than I do. They had farms, businesses, and service jobs and professions. They sent their children to school and college and did all possible to measure up to American standards. They were put in concentration camps SOLELY because of "race," and the principle behind their jailing is exactly the same as that behind the jailing, torture and murder of the Jews under Hitler's jurisdiction.

Their fight is our fight....and the sooner we realize it the better."

[haw-info] Corrected announcement for HAW panel at the AHA

Dear Friends:

HAW has put together a very exciting and timely roundtable for the upcoming AHA
conference in New York City. We hope that you can all come to it. And please invite your
friends, the panel is free and open to all.
The panel "The Bush Cheney Years: The Damage Done, The Consequences to Come, and
How Can we Move Beyond Them" will run from 2:30 to 4:30 in the Empire Ballroom East, on
the second floor, at the Sheraton New York at
7th Avenue and 53rd Street, on Saturday, January 3rd.

The speakers are: Alice Kessler-Harris, Columbia University; David Montgomery, Yale
University; Vijay Prashad, Trinity College; Ellen Schrecker, Yeshiva University; and Barbara
Weinstein, New York University.

After this panel, please join us for a HAW discussion and meeting. Again, all are welcome.
We will discuss the connections between the economic crisis and building the anti-war
movement and the challenges both situations pose, as well as plans for the upcoming year.

For a poster about the panel, go to http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/aha09/

Please contact Margaret Power (power@iit.edu) or Van Gosse (van.gosse@fandm.edu) if you
have any questions.

Margaret Power
Associate Professor
Department of Humanities
Illinois Institute of Technology
3301 S. Dearborn
Chicago, IL 60616
power@iit.edu
312-567-6921

Note: You are receiving this email because you signed a Historians Against the War statement (see http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/). If you no longer wish to receive these occasional messages about HAW's work, send an email to haw-info-request@stopthewars.org?subject=unsubscribe.
_______________________________________________
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[haw-info] Exciting HAW Roundtable at the AHA

Dear Friends:

HAW has put together a very exciting and timely roundtable for the upcoming AHA
conference. We hope that you can all come to it. And please invite your friends.
The panel "The Bush Cheney Years: The Damage Done, The Consequences to Come, and
How Can we Move Beyond Them" will run from 2:30 to 4:30 in the Empire Ballroom East, on
the second floor.

The speakers are: Alice Kessler-Harris, Columbia University; David Montgomery, Yale
University; Vijay Prashad, Trinity College; Ellen Schrecker, Yeshiva University; and Barbara
Weinstein, New York University.

For a poster about the panel, go to http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/aha09/

Please contact Margaret Power (power@iit.edu) or Van Gosse (van.gosse@fandm,edu if you
have any questions.

See you there!

Margaret Power
Associate Professor
Department of Humanities
Illinois Institute of Technology
3301 S. Dearborn
Chicago, IL 60616
power@iit.edu
312-567-6921

Note: You are receiving this email because you signed a Historians Against the War statement (see http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/). If you no longer wish to receive these occasional messages about HAW's work, send an email to haw-info-request@stopthewars.org?subject=unsubscribe.
_______________________________________________
haw-info mailing list
haw-info@stopthewars.org
http://stopthewars.org/mailman/listinfo/haw-info_stopthewars.org

A Christian Conservative Against the Vietnam War

Shown below is my article for the History News Network (co-authored by Linda Royster Beito) on Eugene Siler, the only member of the U.S. House to oppose the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution:

To the extent a religious right of any kind existed in 1964, Eugene Siler easily qualified as a platinum card member. In his nine years in the U.S. House, he was unrivaled in his zeal to implement “Christianism and Americanism.” Yet forty-two years ago this month, on August 7, 1964, he did something that would be extremely rare for a modern counterpart on the religious right. He dissented from a president’s urgent request to authorize military action in a foreign war. It was Siler who cast the lone vote in the U.S. House against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Because he “paired against” the bill (meaning he was absent during the vote), however, most historical accounts do not mention him.

A self-described “Kentucky hillbilly,” Siler was born in 1900 in Williamsburg, a town nestled in the mountains in the southeastern part of the state. Unlike most Kentuckians, he, like his neighbors, was a rock-ribbed Republican. The people of this impoverished area had backed the Union during the Civil War and had stood by the GOP in good times and bad ever since. Siler served in the Navy in World War I and two decades later as an Army captain during World War II. His experiences with the realities of war left him cold to most proposals to send American troops into harm’s way.

After graduating from Columbia University, Siler returned to Williamsburg to be a small town lawyer. A devout Baptist, he gained local renown as a lay preacher, eventually serving as moderator of the General Association of Baptists in Kentucky. He abstained from alcohol, tobacco, and profanity. As a lawyer, he turned away all clients seeking divorces or who were accused of whiskey-related crimes.

He began service as an elected judge of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky in 1945 and promptly refused his regular monthly allotment of 150 dollars for expenses. Instead, he gave the money to a special fund he set up for scholarships. Not surprisingly, Siler often quoted the scriptures from the bench. He did the same in his speeches as the unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor in 1951 earning him a statewide reputation as a “Bible Crusader.”

Siler consistently stressed social conservatism during his tenure in the U.S. House which began in 1955. He sponsored a bill to ban liquor and beer advertising in all interstate media. He said that permitting these ads was akin to allowing the “harsh hussy” to advertise in “the open door of her place of business for the allurement of our school children.” Of course, he was “100 percent for Bible reading and the Lord’s Prayer in our public schools.”

Like his good friend, and fellow Republican, from Iowa, Rep. H.R. Gross, Siler considered himself to be a fiscal watchdog. He disdained all junkets and railed against government debt and high spending. Siler made exceptions for the homefolks, however, by supporting flood control and other federal measures that aided his district.

As with Gross, Siler was a Robert A. Taft Republican who was averse to entangling alliances and foreign quagmires. A consistent opponent of foreign aid, he was just one of two congressmen to vote against Kennedy’s call up of reserves during the Berlin crisis. He favored Goldwater in 1964, but never shared his hawkish views. The people back home did not seem to mind. Sometimes, the Democrats failed to even put up a candidate.

Siler was an early, and prescient, critic of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. In June 1964, shortly after deciding not to run again, he quipped, half in jest, that he was running for president as an antiwar candidate. He pledged to resign after one day in office, staying just long enough to bring the troops home. He characterized the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized Johnson to take “all necessary steps” in Vietnam as a “buck-passing” pretext to “seal the lips of Congress against future criticism.”

The worsening situation in Vietnam prompted Siler to come out of retirement in 1968 to run for the U.S. Senate nomination on a platform calling for withdrawal of all U.S. troops by Christmas. Ernest Gruening of Alaska and Wayne Morse of Oregon, the only two U.S. Senators who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, also went down to defeat that year.

Although Siler lived on until 1987, few remembered his early stand against the Vietnam War. It is doubtful that this particularly bothered him. He knew that his reputation was secure among the plain Baptist Republican mountain folk of southeastern Kentucky who had sent him to Congress for nearly a decade.

Gates: U.S. Troops May Stay "for Decades" in Iraq

The bad news keeps coming from Obama and his hawkish "team of rivals." As I said before, the peace movement needs to raise a ruckus about this now rather than later when it may be too late. Here is what Robert Gates told George Will in a recent interview :

"Regarding Iraq, Gates is parsimonious with his confidence, noting that ‘the multisectarian democracy has not sunk very deep roots yet.' He stresses, however, that there is bipartisan congressional support for ‘a long-term residual presence' of perhaps 40,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and that the president-elect's recent statements have not precluded that. Such a presence "for decades" has, he says, followed major US military operations since 1945, other than in Vietnam. And he says, ‘Look at how long Britain has had troops in Cyprus.'"

Benjamin Netanyahu Praises Obama

First Max Boot, now this:

"President-elect Obama spoke to me about his view that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons is unacceptable," Netanyahu told Reuters in a brief. "I say that what counts is the goal and the result that he envisions and the way that he achieves that goal is less important," said Netanyahu, a former prime minister.

FDR: Another President Who Lied Us Into War

Long before Bush used deception to get us into the Iraq War, economic historian Robert Higgs describes how FDR did much the same thing in the period before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor:

A short comment is no place to settle the controversies that have raged ever since the attack about what Roosevelt and his chief subordinates knew in advance, but one thing has been known for a long time: however “dastardly” the attack might have been, it was anything but “unprovoked.” Indeed, even admirers and defenders of Roosevelt, such as Robert B. Stinnett and George Victor, have documented provocations aplenty. (See the former’s Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor and the latter’s The Pearl Harbor Myth: Rethinking the Unthinkable.) On December 8, the same day that Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan, former president Herbert Hoover wrote a private letter in which he remarked, “You and I know that this continuous putting pins in rattlesnakes finally got this country bitten.”

On the basis of facts accumulated over the past seven decades and available to anyone who cares to examine them, we are justified in saying that Hoover’s characterization of the war’s provocation was entirely accurate - both with regard to the Japanese imperial government as “rattlesnakes” and with regard to the U.S. government’s “putting pins in.” Indeed, we now have a much firmer basis for that characterization than Hoover could have had on December 8, 1941. Countless lies have been told, massive cover-ups have been staged, propaganda has flowed like a river, yet in this one regard, at least, the truth has undeniably been brought out.

Most American historians, of course, no longer bother to deny this truth. They simply take it in stride, presuming that the Japanese attack, by giving Roosevelt the public support he needed to bring the United States into the war against Germany through the “back door,” was a good thing for this country and for the world at large. Indeed, some actually shower the president with approbation for his mendacious maneuvering to wrench the American people away from their unsophisticated devotion to “isolationism.” In no small part, Roosevelt’s unrelenting dishonesty with the American people (Stanford University historian David M. Kennedy tactfully refers to the president’s “frequently cagey misrepresentations”) in 1940 and 1941 - plain enough if one reads nothing more than his pre-Pearl Harbor correspondence with Winston Churchill - is counted among his principal qualifications for “greatness” and for his (to my mind, incomprehensible) status as an American demigod.

HAW Member Andrew Bacevich Interviewed

Here is an audio of Scott Horton's interview of Andrew Bacevich, a member of Historians Against the War. Bacevich is professor of international relations at Boston University and author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. According to the description of the interview, he "discusses the negative net returns of U.S. expansionism from the 1960s onward, the establishment of a permanent national security apparatus that made non-interventionism impossible, the Carter Doctrine’s faulty premises and continued influence in Middle East policies and the current Pentagon reassessment of U.S. military limitations that may inhibit a troop surge in Afghanistan and force a more realistic political solution."

Are Antiwar Progressives Giving Obama a Free Pass?

The answer is yes according to today's story in the New York Times:

To date, there has been no significant criticism from the antiwar left of the Democratic Party of the prospect that Mr. Obama will keep tens of thousands of troops in Iraq for at least several years to come.

Okay, fellow peace activists. What do you have to say? Is the New York Times right? Are antiwar progressives giving Obama a free pass?

If so, what does Obama have to say or do before antiwar progressives finally start rousing themselves? In answer to those who say we "should wait" and give Obama "a chance," I'd answer that if we don't raise a ruckus now, we will lose any claim to have a place at the table or influence policy.

When are antiwar progressives going to stop worrying so much about a lame-duck president and start trying to influence the future?

Toward a Peaceful World: Historical Approaches to Creating Cultures of Peace

The Peace History Society invites paper proposals for its biannual conference to be held at Winthrop University from October 29-31, 2009. Proposals can include efforts to achieve peace or prevent war, including long-term efforts at sustainable development, diplomatic efforts to avert war or maintain peace, and popular social and cultural movements which seek to end war or reform the international environment to avoid future wars. Papers can deal with either current or historical topics and can include, but are not limited to, religious approaches, people-to-people approaches, gender approaches, government-to government approaches, and those dealing with the challenges that peace advocates face in their efforts to bring about reform and lasting peace. Proposals can be for individual papers as well as complete panels including a commentator. Please send one page abstracts and a brief c.v. to both conference co-chairs, E. Timothy Smith, Ph.D., Professor of History, Department of History and Political Science, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL 33161 (esmith@mail.barry.edu), and Virginia S. Williams, Associate Professor of History, Department of History, 377 Bancroft, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC 29733 (williamsv@winthrop.edu), by March 1, 2009.

Say No to NATO Expansion

Ivan Eland urges President Elect Obama to reverse his dangerous course of supporting NATO expansion into territory of the former Soviet Union:

Threats against allies accepting missile defense hardware and naval exercises in the US sphere of influence are Russia's way of signaling that further NATO expansion to include Russia's key neighbors will meet stiff resistance. The up-to-now oblivious US government needs to finally heed these warnings. More important, the incoming Obama administration and the US public should ponder whether they want to ultimately hold their cities hostage to nuclear holocaust to preserve the territorial integrity of these two faraway and non-strategic states. The answer should be an emphatic "no."

Neocon Advocate of "Empire" Praises Obama

Over at the neocon house organ, Commentary, Max Boot, best known for penning the infamous article, "The Case for American Empire," praises the Obama foreign policy team. Where can I get my "change" back?

Obama's "Chump Change" and the Retention of Robert Gates

In this interview, Ray McGovern covers a wide range of subjects including Robert Gates, who worked for him at the CIA. Gates, the chief architect of the surge, will now apparently be Obama's Secretary of Defense. McGovern does not have a high opinion of Gates' governing philosophy.

Appointing Hillary: Obama's Bizarro World Logic

Justin Raimondo offers the case for pessimism in Obama's foreign policy:

The outlook for the foreign policy of the new administration is not good. I foresee a protracted period of confusion and internal struggle, punctuated by periodic foreign crises in which Team Obama will be all too eager to prove their "toughness." Diverted by trouble on the home front, President Obama is likely to let the tremendous opportunities opened up by his international popularity and stature go to waste. Putting Hillary Clinton to work on forging a Middle East peace agreement is another example of Bizarro World logic in action: Obama might as well assign the task to Norman Podhoretz.

Obama's Clinton (and Bush) Hawkish Retreads

Obama's campaign for "change" included a promise not to hire "retreads." As Philip Giraldi points out in this interview with Scott Horton, he is already betraying this promise with a vengeance. His announced, and likely, appointments are not only retreads but pro-war ones at that. As of now, the peace wing of the Democratic Party, which was crucial to electing Obama, is being left out in the cold.

Did Henry Paulson Threaten Congress with Martial Law on the Bailout Bill?

Nat "King" Cole and Rahm Emanuel on the Draft

Watch out. If Rahm Emanuel is able to persuade Obama to impose compulsory national service, this song could suddenly enjoy a revival. Although written prior to Pearl Harbor, the lyrics are surprisingly subversive. Here is an audio of Nat "King" Cole's rendition:

When skinny me went out with my honey, the boys all started to laugh;
But now it's not so funny - they're all gone with the draft.

As a shiek, I can't be beat - the boys all hand me a laugh.
But since I have got flat feet, I'm not gone in the draft.

(Bridge 1:)
I used to envy the fellows who had such fine physiques;
But all they can say is "Hello" on seven-fifty a week.

When the boys get back and see how I'm doin',
they'll be sorry they laughed;
'Cause one can't keep on wooing and still be gone with the draft.

(Instrumental Interlude: 1 Verse, 1 Bridge and 1 Verse)

When Franklyn D did sign the draft, the cats all had a chill;
The boys turned pale and ceased to laugh, 'cause this is a serious bill.

They now realize that skinny me was the luckiest one of all,
Who can stay at home with Minnie, while they face the cannon balls.

(Bridge 2:)
So boys, take it on the chin, and always wear a smile;
You'll find it hard to win carryin' fifty pounds for miles.

When your year of drill is up, you get your calves discharged,
You can come back home and freshen up, and run around at large.

(Coda:)
Gone, gone, gone, gone with the
Draft, draft, draft, draft.

[haw-info] chapters

The following message is sent on behalf of  the Steering Committee of Historians Against the War.  Beth McKillen, who wrote it,  is a Steering Committee member who teaches history at the University of Maine in Orono, where a HAW chapter is in formation with support from the Graduate Student History Association. 

 

November 17, 2008

Fellow HAW members:

The election is over but the need for antiwar activism is not.  Given the current economic crisis, it is more essential than ever that the new presidential administration move quickly to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The United States simply cannot afford to continue to float a $600-700 billion dollar defense budget if it hopes to deal in a creative fashion with the long chain of economic problems currently confronting the country, ranging from bank failures and plants closings, to job losses and home foreclosures.  Yet, as you know, President-elect Obama has pledged to withdraw troops from Iraq only to send them to Afghanistan instead.  The time is ripe for a systematic reevaluation of the costs of U.S. empire. 

With that goal in mind, Historians Against the War wishes to announce a new initiative.  We would like to encourage HAW members to create inclusive local HAW chapters at their universities or in their communities designed to bring together undergraduate history majors, graduate history students, history professors, K-12 history teachers,  and other historically-minded scholars and activists.  The goals of such chapters would be several.  First, such chapters would be designed to foster intellectual and political discussion across the traditional boundaries that often divide students and teachers and  that sometimes isolate historians from their communities.  Secondly, they  they would be charged with planning local HAW events that would bring historical analysis to bear on current foreign policy crises and on the linkages between U.S. empire and the current economic distress.  Finally, we hope that these groups will prove a source of ideas and energy for HAW itself.

If you are interested in building such a chapter, please contact Beth McKillen at Elizabeth.McKillen@umit.maine.edu.   

Sincerely,

The HAW Steering Committee

The Crimes of Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Japanese Internment

I've never understood why so many historians regard FDR as a great president. For example, he failed to get us out of the Great Depression through the New Deal, refused to lift a finger to push through an anti-lynching bill, tried to pack the Supreme Court, turned away the Jewish refugees on the S.S. St. Louis, and pushed a Bush-like doctrine of unconditional surrender which encouraged the enemy to fight on to the bitter end. Under Harry Truman, that rigid doctrine provided the rationale for dropping the atomic bomb.

Most of all, FDR approved one of the most outrageous violations of constitutional rights in American history: the internment of Japanese Americans. Shouldn't that action alone guarantee him a place at the bottom (or near the bottom) in the presidential ranking lists of historians? Am I missing something? Perhaps someone can explain.

Here is a government propaganda film which tries to put FDR's internment policies in a sunny light:

Danny Kaye's Wartime Musical Tribute to the Income Tax

One of the best illustrations of Randolph Bourne’s dictum that “War is the Health of the State” was the rise of the modern income tax during World War II. Before 1942, the tax covered only a small well-off minority. As the federal government lowered the brackets and raised the rates during the war, however, the old “class tax” became a “mass tax.”

The introduction of withholding was the primary means to accomplish this goal. The Office of War Information promoted payment of the tax as not only a patriotic duty but as a positive joy.

It also commissioned Irving Berlin to write “I Paid My Income Tax Today.” Here is an audio of the song as joyfully belted out by comedian and actor Danny Kaye. The lyrics are here if you want to sing along:

[Verse:]
I said to my Uncle Sam
Old Man Taxes, here I am
And he
Was glad to see me
Mister Small Fry, yes, indeed
Lower brackets, that's my speed
But he
Was glad to see me

[1st refrain:]
I paid my income tax today
I never felt so proud before
To be right there with the millions more
Who paid their income tax today
I'm squared up with the U.S.A.
See those bombers in the sky?
Rockefeller helped to build 'em, so did I
I paid my income tax today

[2nd refrain:]
I paid my income tax today
A thousand planes to bomb Berlin
They'll all be paid for and I chipped in
That certainly makes me feel okay
Ten thousand more and that ain't hay
We must pay for this war somehow
Uncle Sam was worried but he isn't now
I paid my income tax today

[3rd REFRAIN with coda:]
I paid my income tax today
I never cared what Congress spent
But now I'll watch over ev'ry cent
Examine ev'ry bill they pay
They'll have to let me have my say
I wrote the Treasury to go slow
Careful, Mister Henry Junior, that's my dough
I paid my income tax
Now you've got all the facts
I know you'll pay your taxes too

Cold War Hawks Hovering Around Obama

Robert Scheer offers this lament and warning:

I know, Obama is not yet in office. I voted for him with enthusiasm in part because he does seem to have transcended the preoccupations of the Cold War. But as a buyer, I have to beware of those unrepentant Democratic hawks now hovering.