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All families of deployed welcome to join. Military Families Speak Out

"Our son returned to us in good physical health and we were able to hold him in our arms and not just keep him in our hearts. So many of our friends within the organization we co-founded, Military Families Speak Out, have not shared this outcome."

Co-founders of Military Families Group Urge President Obama to End, Not Escalate, the War in Afghanistan

November 23, 2009 - Nationwide - In a letter to President Obama released today, the co-founders of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) asked the President to deeply contemplate the true human cost of the war in Afghanistan on our troops, on military families, on the Afghan people, and on our nation, and act boldly to end it.

In their letter to the President, MFSO co-founders Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessin, whose son served with the Marines in Iraq and as a military contractor in Afghanistan, underscored that there is no military solution in Afghanistan, and that the more the U.S. brings bombs and guns into Afghanistan, the more civilian casualties there are, and the more our troops are targeted as occupiers rather than seen as liberators. They urged the President to "consider the options available to you as if the lives of your loved ones hang in the balance. If it were your daughters who were now being deployed, would you be so quick to stay, or escalate, the course?"

Richardson and Lessin told the President, "Please do not be the one to dash our hope for an end to these wars; for the swift and safe return of our troops; and for a new foreign policy that truly respects the lives of our service members who volunteer to put themselves in harm's way, as well as the lives of children, women and men of other countries who are caught in the crossfire. Please continue to build hope in the world. Send no more troops. Bring our troops home now."

Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessin are co-founders of Military Families Speak Out (www.mfso.org), an organization of over 4,000 families with loved ones who serve or served in the military over the last eight years, and who are speaking out to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. MFSO was founded in November, 2002 and is the largest organization of military families speaking out against wars in the history of this country.

For more information about Military Families Speak Out, see http://www.mfso.org

November 23, 2009

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

As you prepare to announce a new strategy for Afghanistan that could mean deploying tens of thousands more of our loved ones to fight a war with no foreseeable end, we call on you to terminate the military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, bring our troops home now, and ensure they get the care they need when they return. We urge you to stop billions more from being misspent overseas to misuse young men and women and instead utilize those funds to help overcome the pressing domestic issues of our time; a growing population of veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, a fractured health care system, and a woeful economic climate all desperately demand your attention and action.

Our family is intimately connected to these issues. My husband, Charley Richardson, is slowly but surely dying of an aggressive, metastatic cancer, and dealing regularly with the fractured and overstressed medical system. He also lost his job of twenty years at a state university last April as a result of recession-related budget cuts. And our son served one deployment in Iraq as a Marine and was sent to Afghanistan twice after he joined the private army of contractors that is so central to the war efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. We are acutely aware of how political will has been so wrongly misdirected toward military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of achieving economic recovery and sorely needed healthcare reform at home.

We were fortunate. Our son returned to us in good physical health and we were able to hold him in our arms and not just keep him in our hearts. So many of our friends within the organization we co-founded, Military Families Speak Out, have not shared this outcome. Their loved ones returned in flag-draped coffins; or with life-altering physical wounds; or with the hidden, often deadly, psychological injuries of war.

We hope you will think again about the faces of the families that you saw when you were at Dover, and the faces that won't be seen again, hidden in caskets and arriving under the cloak of darkness. We know you are concerned about the unfair burden that this war is placing on a relatively small portion of our population, and the burden that will continue for decades to come. Suicides in the Army have hit a record high. Our returned troops should be re-building their lives rather than seeing depression, violence, divorce and suicide tear those lives apart,. The bombs of these wars are indeed exploding at home.

The people of the United States don't want these wars. Even without a draft, even as we deficit fund the wars, they don't want them. Public opposition continues to grow, with 57 percent opposing the war in Afghanistan, according to a recent Associated Press poll. The latest CNN poll found that 49 percent of Americans favored reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan -- with 28 percent saying they should all be withdrawn immediately -- compared to less than 40 percent who want to send more. Imagine what the polls would tell us if the burden of the wars, financial and service, were actually shouldered and shared throughout our nation.

The American people want safety and security, as do the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. But we don't believe these wars are helping to achieve these goals. The more we bring bombs and guns into Afghanistan, the more civilian casualties there are and the more our troops are seen as occupiers rather than liberators.

We put the same challenge before you now that we put in front of President Bush and in front of Senators and Members of Congress. Consider the options available to you as if the lives of your loved ones hang in the balance. Consider if it were your daughters being deployed, would you be so quick to stay, or escalate, the course?

Please do not be the one to dash our hope for an end to these wars; for the swift and safe return of our troops; and for a new foreign policy that truly respects the lives of our service members who volunteer to put themselves in harm's way, as well as the lives of children, women and men of other countries who are caught in the crossfire.

Please continue to build hope in the world. Send no more troops. Bring our troops home now.

In Peace,
Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessin
Co-Founders, Military Families Speak Out
http://MFSO.org WHERE DO YOUR CONGRESSMAN'S MILITARY CONTRACTOR CAMPAIGN DOLLARS COME FROM? Go to Maplight.org ("Defense")

CAN CONTACT CONGRESS THROUGH THIS LINK

[AntonioMQ]

Hey Ralph, what's this? No conspiracies for us today?

Military families have wanted every war to end sooner than it did. Its not really new. But the question is: do the servicemembers fighting the war want to be pulled out or finish things?

[Automobill]

What conspiracy would you like? Remember the saying, "Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean no one is trying to kill you!"

I know plenty of service members who think our being there has no good use, and we are just making enemies. Finish the job? Bin Laden is probably dead. They're going to need a new villain before long. We can finish the job by letting them rebuild their country after Bush dropped the ball (letting Bin Laden slip away at Tora Bora, no "conspiracy" but the words of Delta Forces "Dalton Fury," and Special Ops Gary Berntsen. ) That way they don't have to take the Taliban's 10 bucks a day to feed their families. LA Times: "In Afghanistan, a drive to lure Taliban with jobs, security"

Without their recruitment the Taliban is nothing, and Afghans will kill the hard-core commanders themselves. Then go with the tribes for security.

Article on the tribal solution, Chief Zazai fought against both the Soviets and the Taliban. His father was assassinated by Mullah Omar, and he has already survived two attempts on his life. He is against an escalation. Favors building a Tribal Union across Afghanistan separate and apart from the Karzai government. He represents a threat to both poles of power, Karzai's warlords as well as the Taliban.

thanks for jumping in!

From Steven Pressfield, author of "It's the Tribes, Stupid."

Chief Zazai: On July 17th, 2009, my 11 tribes, their Chiefs and Tribal elders gathered in the Zazi valley, where the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division is also based. The event was broadcast for three days by the TV channel "Shamasad" and was seen throughout Afghanistan. The tribes met to address the problems created by the escalation of the insurgency and of course the failure of the Karzai administration to bring a stable, uncorrupt and people-representing government to Afghanistan. My father believed that the tribes were the past and future of Afghanistan. Let me show you a letter he wrote before he was killed (and several years before 9/11)...:

Besides the full support of Pushtoon tribes, I’ve the full support of Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and Turkmen Tribes. I successfully expanded the "Zazi Tribes Union" to national tribal union where all the major tribes in Afghanistan are included. The present situation in my country is very bad. People are suffering terribly under the unlawful regime of the Taliban ... In 1995 I warned you of Taliban’s agenda towards extremism and [predicted] the present situation. I hate to say this but "I told you so."...I need [the outside world's] support. My tribesmen are ready. Our Tribal main issue is to completely finish drugs and end the deep roots of terrorism. Steven Pressfield: What are your thoughts on the U.S. sending more troops?

Chief Zazai: To send more troops means to create more new battles, I think we have already got a few nasty fronts in the south where the British soldiers and U.S. Marines are fighting almost non-stop and of course more troops means more body bags and that itself would be an alarming sign. In Vietnam the U.S. had over half a million soldiers and still the generals were asking for more. I would suggest that Gen. McChrystal instead explore better alternatives on the ground rather than asking for more troops. I agree when he is asking for resources and equipment and here I present the Tribal Police Force for his attention–to consider the TPF as an alternative to more U.S. troops.

SP: Who exactly is the enemy? I don’t mean the "far enemy," I mean the "near enemy."

Chief Zazai: The Afghan people ask over and over, "Why don’t the Americans do something?" The answer is the Americans’ hands are tied by the need to support a corrupt and hopelessly compromised regime. Here is what I mean: in my district, a new border Police Chief has been appointed. This man has been on the payroll of the ISI Pakistani military for 30 years. Two weeks ago the Zazi Chiefs protested against this appointment. About 20 elders went to Kabul to meet with the Interior Minister. He refused to even see them!

SP: What does such an appointment mean in day-to-day terms? How does it affect your Tribal Police Force?

Chief Zazai: These officials go to meet with the Americans and poison their minds against the TPF. I spoke to the [American commander in the Zazi Valley] for two hours over the phone and explained to him why the Tribal Police Force was formed and what is the agenda behind this program, and still he was telling me to talk to the Governor, the District Administrator and the border Police Chief. I said I will not speak to these corrupt men who are doing everything in their power to dissolve the TPF and turn everyone against it.

SP: In other words, it’s not the literal enemy that’s the biggest problem; it’s inaction and incomprehension from supposed "friends."

Chief Zazai: The enemy at least fights you in the open. [His allies] within Zazi valley society are on the payroll of the ISI and are serving the interests of the Pakistani free wing of the ISI, whose only wish is to destabilize Afghanistan and turn it into a war zone again.

SP: Are you discouraged?

Chief Zazai: My father and I fought against the Russians and then the Taliban. My father was murdered by these evil men. I will never stop fighting for my people. These [Afghan official] thugs and criminals have tried everything to dissolve the Tribal Police Force program. They brought pressure from the Governor’s office and the Interior ministry, but the program continues to date. Why? Because this is not a private militia or imposed gang, this is by the people of Zazi for the people of Zazi.

...The people are caught between two fires. When the warlords ran Afghanistan after the Soviets got kicked out, a poor person had to pay a "tax" to have a bicycle, to buy rice, if you sneezed they took money out of your pocket. The Taliban arose in response to this and were backed by the people who thought, These guys are bad but at least they are honest. At least they believe in something beyond their own greed and gangsterism. But then the Taliban became just as much of a plague upon the people by jamming their cruel ways down everybody’s throat. And we saw what Mullah Omar let happen, culminating on 9/11.

SP: Your idea of Tribal Police Forces and a Tribal Alliance aims to counter both warlordism and Talibanism. Is that right?

Chief Zazai: Instead of an official government that is "warlord-centric" or a Shadow government that is "Taliban-centric" (which is what my country is suffering under now), what will work is a form of governance that is tribal-centric. The tribal system is the natural form of governance in Afghanistan and has been for thousands of years. And the U.S. will not achieve anything until it understands this.

SP: There was an article in the Washington Post last week by David Ignatius, a very good one, I thought. In it, Mr. Ignatius quotes a "former CIA officer" who seems to be advocating an approach that I believe you’d agree with, of working with "the locals," by which he means (I think) the tribes. But then he refers to them, twice, as "the warlords."

Chief Zazai: If a CIA officer can’t tell the difference between a Warlord and a Tribal Chief, then how would an ordinary American citizen? This is pure ignorance and it is sad to read such embarrassing stuff in the papers.

SP: What exactly is the difference between a tribal chief and a warlord?

Chief Zazai: A tribal leader is elected by the tribes. A warlord is a self-imposed body on the tribes and the people. A tribal leader does not get elected if he has blood on his hands. A warlord cannot survive unless he has killed many innocent people, looted people’s livelihoods and been involved in the opium and drug trade. A tribal leader only gets elected when he, his father and grandfather have been servants of the community. A warlord does not need these recommendations. A warlord gains his position by force of arms and is only interested in personal gain. A warlord has no problem with reelection as this summer’s so-called election has shown. In this case the gun is mightier than the pen.

SP: So when you are talking about organizing Tribal Police Forces, you’re envisioning these as a counter-power to the warlords?

Chief Zazai: Yes, and to other forces—the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and insurgent forces. The tribes are Afghanistan. To say "the people," you mean "the tribes." But the tribes have been weakened terribly over time and are vulnerable to coercion and intimidation by armed, extremist (and warlord) forces. This is why it is so important for the American people to understand who their friends are. Without the tribes, the U.S. cannot win. And without help from the U.S., the tribes cannot protect themselves.

SP: Where are these warlords now?

Chief Zazai: Where? They are running Afghanistan!

It is worse now because these same men have the muscle of the US and NATO behind them and full-fledged support when they wish to do something. These warlords are now kings and princes of Afghanistan. They can kidnap anyone for money and no one would ask them; they are in Mr. Karzai’s Cabinet, in his National Security Committee, in the Parliament; they have control in the Defense and Interior Ministries as well as the National Security Directorate, they are all over the governement and much to our surprise the International Community is treating these thugs and criminals as if they were world-class politicians.

Let me give you a straight answer here: Let’s suppose we bring guys like John Gotti and Al Capone and Scarface and make them Vice Presidents, National Security Advisors, Foreign Secretaries and members of the Congress and Senate in America. How would the American people feel about that?

SP: What would you hope the U.S. would do as an immediate next step in your valley?

Chief Zazai: The U.S. should take charge now, step in and sign treaties with the tribes directly without any middlemen (I am sure Alexander the Great would have done it in the same fashion.) Once the treaty is signed (thumb-printed) by the chiefs and elders, they are honor-bound to do what they have agreed to.