PINKtank

Shocking! U.S. general says time for U.S. to ‘go home’ from Iraq

In an “unusually blunt” memo, senior American military adviser in Baghdad Col. Timothy R. Reese concluded that it is time “for the U.S. to declare victory and go home,” even though Iraq faces some problems including corruption, poor management and the inability to resist Shiite political pressure.

THE NET: The Pink Ladies (via Jezebel)

Jezebel.com just posted a photo and info from CODEPINK’s Ahava action in DC yesterday — here. The comments are all over the place, some supportive, some wondering why we’re wearing bikinis (just for attention? because we can?), and some just wondering what we’re doing. To explain a bit: the demonstration was part of CODEPINK’s new [...]

OFF THE SHELF: LOVE AND WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

Love and War in Afghanistan by Gulchin Gulmamadova-Klaits & Alex Klaits (Seven Stories Press, 2005). It’s hard to imagine arranged marriage if your culture does not practice it. It may be equally hard to imagine spending your honeymoon in two northern provinces of Afghanistan, collecting love stories from the field. But that is precisely what [...]

Afghan Women Speak Out: Deja-vu? (+ audio interview)

I just posted this new piece, “Put Down The Pom-Poms,” to Huffington Post (and it’s circulating elsewhere, like on CommonDreams) on Vice President Biden’s comments last week that war in Afghanistan is a justified “sacrifice” to “protect” Americans from terrorism. As someone who helped found CODEPINK six years ago in response to the Bush administration’s [...]

CHEESE! No place like home

NOBODY’S RECRUITS: GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS

An amazing victory for a community in Atlanta that didn't want the military helping to create a public high school for their children. Activists waged a two-month campaign to oppose the establishment of a military-themed high school which the U.S. Marine Corps and the DeKalb County Board of Education had hoped to open on Aug. 10. Relentless watchdogs of their school board, this team of parents, students and community members used media coverage and direct actions to successfully oppose the plan. That's the good news. The bad news is that Obama's new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is known in Chicago for having fostered many such schools during his tenure as superintendent of schools. And plans continue for military-themed high schools in other low-income areas around the country. Who's watching your school board?