Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 5 Juli 2006 / Time Line July 5, 2006
Version 3.507/05/2006
Not In Our Name: Vietnam,
Iraq and the Voters' Pledge
By Dan Ellsberg
According to recent opinion polls, most Iraqis don't believe that
we're making things better or safer in their country. What does
that say about the legitimacy of prolonged occupation, much less
permanent American bases in Iraq? What does it mean for continued
American armored patrols such as the one last November in Haditha,
which, we now learn, led to the deaths of a Marine and 24 unarmed
civilians?
Questions very much like these nagged at my conscience at the
height of the Vietnam War, and led, eventually, to the publication
of the first of the Pentagon Papers in June of 1971, 35 years
ago.
As a former Marine Commander and defense analyst in 1970, I had
exclusive access to highly classified defense documents for
research purposes. They came to be known as the Pentagon Papers and
constituted a 47-volume, top-secret Defense Department history of
American involvement in Vietnam titled, "U.S. Decision-making in
Vietnam, 1945-68." The Pentagon Papers made it very clear that I,
like the rest of the American public, had been misled about the
origins and purposes of the war I had participated in -- just as
are the 85% of the troops in Iraq today who still believe that
Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 and that he was allied with
Al Qaeda.
That period had several similarities to this one. Congress was
debating the withdrawal of U.S. armed forces from Indochina while
President Nixon was making secret plans to expand, rather than exit
from, the ongoing war in Southeast Asia -- including a major air
offensive against North Vietnam, possibly using nuclear weapons.
Today, the Bush administration's threats to wage war against Iran
are explicit, with officials reiterating regularly that the nuclear
"option" is "on the table." Americans saw the color photographs of
the My Lai massacre; now we are seeing photographs eerily similar
to those from Haditha: women, children, old men and babies, all
shot at short range.
What was it that prompted me to begin copying 7,000 pages of highly
classified documents -- an act that I fully expected would send me
to prison for life? I came to the conclusion that the system I had
been part of, giving my unquestioning loyalty to for 15 years, as a
Marine, a Pentagon official and a State Department officer in
Vietnam, was a system that lies reflexively, at every level, from
sergeant to commander in chief, about murder. And I had the
evidence to prove it.
The papers showed very clearly how we had become engaged in a
reckless war of choice in someone else's country -- a country that
had not attacked us -- for our own domestic and external purposes.
It became clear to me that the justifications that had been given
for our involvement were false. And if the war itself was unjust,
then all the victims of our firepower were being killed without
justification.
That's murder.
Today, there must be, at the very least, hundreds of civilian and
military officials in the Pentagon, CIA, State Department, National
Security Agency and White House who have in their safes and
computers comparable documentation of intense internal debates --
so far carefully concealed from Congress and the public -- about
prospective or actual war crimes, reckless policies and domestic
crimes: the Pentagon Papers of Iraq, Iran or the ongoing war on
U.S. liberties. Some of those officials, I hope, will choose to
accept the personal risks of revealing the truth -- earlier than I
did -- before more lives are lost or a new war is launched.
Haditha holds a mirror up not just to American troops in the field,
but to our whole society. Not just to the liars in government but
to those who believe them too easily. And to all of us in the
public, in the administration, in Congress and the media who
dissent so far ineffectively or who stand by as murder is being
done and do nothing to stop it or expose it.
Americans must summon the civil courage to face what is being done
in their name and to refuse to be accomplices. The Voters' Pledge
is one way to do this. The Voters' Pledge is a project comprising
many of the major organizations in the antiwar
movement—United for Peace and Justice, Peace Action, Gold
Star Families for Peace, Code Pink, and Democracy Rising—as
well as groups with broader agendas like the National Organization
for Women, Progressive Democrats of America,
AfterDowningStreet.com, and magazines including the American
Conservative and The Nation. The goal of this coalition is to build
a base of antiwar voters that cannot be ignored by anyone running
for office in the United States. We want millions of voters to sign
the pledge and say no to pro-war candidates.
VotersForPeace
6930 Carroll Ave., Suite 240
Takoma Park, MD 20912
(301) 270-2355
Copyright 2006 VotersForPeace.US & Dan Ellsberg
07/05/2006
NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of
Defense
DoD Announces Installation Realignment in Turkey
The Department of Defense announced today that the United States
would cease operations at the Yumurtalik Sea Terminal, Turkey. Due
to U.S. European Command force structure realignment and
transformation, the Yumurtalik Sea Terminal's jet fuel receipt
point facility has been identified as excess to U.S. Air Forces
Europe's needs and will begin the process to be returned to the
host nation.
07/05/2006
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense
Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a
$552,691,000 firm-fixed-price contract modification. This
undefinitized contract action extension period of performance is
through Sept. 30, 2006, for F-22A lot 6, long-lead activities and
increase not-to exceed. At this time, $319,520,249 has been
obligated. Negotiations were complete in June 2006. This work will
be complete February 2010. The public affairs point of contact is
Capt. Everdeen, (937) 255-1256. Headquarters Aeronautical Systems
Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting
activity (FA8611-05-C-2850).
Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a
$99,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract modification. This
undefinitized contract action is for F-22 lot 6 program
support/annual sustaining period I through Sept. 30, 2006. At this
time, $72,000,000 has been obligated. Negotiations were complete in
June 2006. This work will be complete by September 2006.
Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity
(F33657-97-C-0031).
Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems Inc., Washington, D.C., is being
awarded a $8,299,170 fixed-price-incentive-fee/award-fee contract
modification. This action provides for information technology
services for the Air Force Pentagon Communications Agency. This
action is to add performance requirements for block 30, phase II,
enterprise upgrade. At this time, $7,916,771 has been obligated.
This work will be complete by November 2006. Headquarters Air Force
District of Washington, Bolling Air Force Base, D.C., is the
contracting activity (FA7012-04-C-0003/P00047).
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