[Reader-list] NEW YORK: Out Now! and Witness Against War

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

Although it may seem at times, how many more people need to speak out
before this madness stops, you can never have enough people. For those
in NY in October, please check out these events. Well worth
supporting.
-Naeem

This event is presented as part of OUT NOW!, on view at e-flux until
November 8th, 2008 featuring works by Friends of William Blake,
Patrick Cockburn, Kathy Kelly, Trevor Paglen, Martha Rosler, Natascha
Sadr Haghighian, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Jalal Toufic, and organized by
Anton Vidokle

For immediate release:
OUT NOW! Lecture Program
FREE ADMISSION

Witness Against War
A Lecture by Peace Activist and Pacifist Kathy Kelly

October 16th, Cooper Union Wollman Auditorium, 7PM
51 Astor Place, New York City

Kathy Kelly lived in Iraq during the first Gulf War, (1991), the
Desert Fox bombing (1998) and the 2003 Shock and Awe bombing, invasion
and occupation of Iraq.  She and companions from Voices in the
Wilderness were fined $20,000, a fine they refused to pay, for
bringing medicines to Iraq during the 13 year state of siege imposed
on Iraq from 1990 -2003.  During the past year, she has spent five
months living amongst Iraqis in Amman, Jordan who have fled their
homes because of death threats, displacement and ethnic cleansing.
Kelly will talk about people whose lives are forever changed because
they have borne the brunt of suffering caused by a US "war of choice,"
and she will discuss ways for ordinary people to campaign on behalf of
just and fair US policies toward Iraq.

Kathy Kelly is a peace activist and pacifist who was one of the
founding members of Voices in the Wilderness, a group dedicated to
campaigning to end the occupation of Iraq. Since disbanded, Voices for
Creative Nonviolence is a new organization that has formed in its
place with Kelly as its co-coordinator. Kelly was born in Chicago as
attended Loyola University at Chicago and received a Masters in
Religious Education from the Chicago Theological Seminary. She has
taught for over thirty years at Chicago schools, is a three time Nobel
Peace Prize nominee, is active within the Catholic worker movement and
has refused payment of all federal income tax for 25 years since
becoming a pacifist.

Voices for Creative Nonviolence www.vcnv.org


Why America Will Have to
Get Out of Iraq Regardless of
Who Wins the Presidential Election
A Lecture by Middle East Correspondent Patrick Cockburn

October 22nd, Cooper Union Great Hall, 7PM

Patrick Cockburn argues that a central political fact in Iraq today is
that the great majority of Iraqis have always opposed the US
occupation. Though Iraqi factions sometimes find it convenient to ally
themselves with the US military, these alliances are based upon short
term interests rather than any form of longstanding allegiance. Iraqis
may have problems with one another for whatever reason, but a strong
sense of national identity ensures that, together, Iraqis will simply
not allow a long-term US occupation.

Another mistake consistently made by the US is the supposition that
the US controls the political weather in Iraq. It does not. The last
five years have taught us that it is ultimately up to Iraqis to
determine how and when the US withdraws. This will happen soon. After
all, the recent fall in violence has more to do with Iranian support
for the Iraqi government, the Mahdi Army ceasefire, and the Sunni
insurgents' defeat by Shia militias in Baghdad than it does with the
American fantasy that the troop surge provided the backdrop for the
recent period of relative stability.

And yet present-day Iraq still remains the most dangerous place in the
world. Many are convinced that circumstances are improving, yet
television correspondents pictured strolling down peaceful streets are
protected by armed bodyguards perched just beyond the view of the
camera. Granted, things are "getting better," but for Iraqis, the
point of comparison would be the bloodbath of 2006-2007.

At the end of the day, the reality remains that there will be no end
to the fighting in Iraq insofar as the occupation persists. In a
fundamental way, the occupation destabilizes the country by
discrediting any government allowed to subsist alongside it, marking
it in the minds of the Iraqi population as a foreign-installed puppet
regime with little to no claim to power. A US withdrawal and return to
Iraqi sovereignty therefore must be real and not nominal. For all
Bush's talk of respect for Iraqi sovereignty, the US still overtly
controls the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and controls much of
the army covertly.

Having been a Middle East correspondent since 1979, Patrick Cockburn
is widely considered to be one of the most experienced commentators on
the Iraq war. He has won both the James Cameron Prize (2006) and the
Martha Gelhorn Prize (2005) for his on-the-ground , and is the author
of four books on Iraq: Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam
Hussein, Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession, The Occupation: War
and Resistance in Iraq, and Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia
Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq as well as a memoir, The Broken Boy
and a collection of essays on the Soviet Union, Getting Russia Wrong:
The End of Kremlinology. Cockburn is currently the Iraq war
correspondent for The Independent of London.

...............................................................................................

This event is presented as part of OUT NOW!, on view at e-flux until
November 8th, 2008 featuring works by Friends of William Blake,
Patrick Cockburn, Kathy Kelly, Trevor Paglen, Martha Rosler, Natascha
Sadr Haghighian, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Jalal Toufic, and organized by
Anton Vidokle