…nutrition. That includes more than two million children. Equipped with U.S.-manufactured Littoral Combat Ships, the Saudis have been able to blockade air and sea ports that are vital to feeding the most populated part of Yemen – the northern area where 80 percent of the population lives. This area is controlled by Ansar Allah, (also known as the “Houthi”). The tactics being used to unseat Ansar Allah severely punish vulnerable people –those who ar…

…e not responsible if Fatima died. They said Jamila must continue with twice-a-day injections of strong antibiotics. After being discharged from the hospital, Fatima continued receiving the injections for a year and a half until, one day, about three months ago, Jamila abruptly stopped giving Fatima the injections. When Fatima developed a fever, Jamila became panicky again. Fatima finally ended up in a private hospital whose initial tests cost 3,00…

…Singapore who has done humanitarian and social enterprise work in Afghanistan for the past 10 years, including being a friend and mentor to the Afghan Peace Volunteers (https://ourjourneytosmile.com), an inter-ethnic group of young Afghans dedicated to building non-violent alternatives to war. He is the 2012 recipient of the International Pfeffer Peace Prize….

…ssly obscene atrocity that is war.   Kathy Kelly ([email protected]) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence (vcnv.org) She returned from Afghanistan in mid-September, 2015 where she was a guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers (ourjourneytosmile.com)…

…e who meant us no harm. Illustration courtesy of Sallie Latch A version of this article first appeared at The Progressive.org  https://progressive.org/dispatches/remembering-first-gulf-war-kelly-210302/ Kathy Kelly, (Kathy.vcnv@gmail.com) is a peace activist whose effort have at times led her into war zones and U.S. prisons….

…drone, will sweep unpredictably over the people below, rotating atop its 25-foot-high steel pole, its direction guided by the wind.  Unlike the real Predator, it won’t carry two Hellfire missiles and a surveillance camera. The drone’s death-delivering features are omitted from Durant’s sculpture. Nevertheless, he hopes it will generate discussion. “Untitled (drone)” is meant to animate questions “about the use of drones, surveillance, and targeted…

…s deemed safe areas. Innocent civilians are being killed by snipers. Thirty-one out of thirty-six hospitals have been damaged or destroyed. Escape routes are cut off. Persistent restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid into and around Gaza are driving a desperate shortage of food, fuel, and medicine. As access to humanitarian relief is deliberately choked off, children are being collectively punished while Israeli leaders denounce them as anim…

…eas. I saw a global military machine coming at us on a normalized, business-as-usual excuse of ‘defense’, and I understood the roots of my grandfather’s killing by the Japanese military in World War II. This was merely one of many infringements by the U.S./Japan military on the open seas, oblivious to the ‘dugongs’ and natural life within and around the waters. Using a magnifier viewing goggle which I placed over the side of our boat, I could see…

…d villains, create a dangerously under-educated public unable to engage in democratic decision-making. Nicole d’Entremont writes of battered soldiers, soldiers who know they’ve been discarded in an endless, pointless war, longing to be rid of their uniforms. The overcoats were heavy, sodden, and often too bulky for struggling through areas entangled with barbed wire. Boots leaked and the soldiers’ feet were always wet, muddy, and sore. Miserably c…

…s, their concern for children occupied the forefront of their distress and commitment. Their research and study, along with their good humor, helped all of us gain needed maturity as we tried to campaign for ending the hideous economic war and prevent a new round of bombing and invasion.   Having watched them in action through many years of Voices witness and work, I wasn’t surprised by their readiness to become rooted in Damascus, intent on findi…