Following a meeting with Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA 3rd) on Sat., Jun. 6, in Olympia, at which the congressman spoke about his second trip to Gaza, the Corries are appealing for your help in encouraging our representatives in Congress to take a fresh look at the Israel/Palestine situation.[1] ...

Nancy Farrell reminds you to turn out if possible for the protest against sales of militarized bulldozers to Israel by Caterpillar, Inc., on Mon. afternoon, Jun. 8, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.[1]  --  Nancy recently sent a letter to the News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) on Caterpillar; the text is posted below.[2] ...

A demonstration calling for an end to Caterpillar Bulldozer sales to Israel will be held outside the Federal Building at Union Station in Tacoma at 4:30 p.m. on Mon., Jun. 8.  --  Details below.[1]  --  See also this Wikipedia article for more information....

Palestinian peace activist Aziz Abu Sarah will speak in Seattle on Sun., May 31, at 6:00 p.m.  --  He has been the Palestinian chairman for the Bereaved Families Forum in Israel-Palestine, a group of 500 Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Families who work for peace, and is a co-founder of Al-Tariq Institute....

An April 2008 decision in the Pentagon has greatly accelerated the use of computer gaming for training and recruitment in the U.S. military, and Fort Lewis in Pierce County, WA, is playing a leading role in the expansion.  --  On Saturday, the News Tribune published a brief piece on Virtual Battlespace 2, "a computer-based trainer" that soldiers from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division have been using since March at Fort Lewis to prepare for the Stryker brigade’s fall deployment to Iraq — its second trip in three years."[1]  --  "Fort Lewis is one of the first Army posts in the country to use Virtual Battlespace 2," King 5 reported Friday.[2]  --  About forty screens from the game can be viewed on a German gaming site.  --  "This is no game," Glenn Farley of King 5 news solemnly intoned, but in fact, it is.  --  "Companies of soldiers can meet at once in a room full of computers, driving different 'vehicles' and run scenarios designed to realistically simulate what they are likely to run up against in Iraq."  --  King 5 posted a vivid videoclip containing extensive snippets of Virtual Battlespace 2.  --  Glenn Farley noted that in the next few weeks the brigade will "travel to Fort Polk, Louisiana, for training in three-dimensional towns with people playing real roles as insurgents and civilians.  They'll do that in their actual Stryker vehicles.  And in the fall, it's back to Iraq for real."  --  World Politics Review reported last week that "gaming is rapidly redefining military recruitment and training."[3]  --  "The push to use games as a recruiting tool dates back to 2002, when the Army released 'America's Army' — a free, downloadable video game that gave people a virtual peek into soldiering," wrote Seth McLaughlin.  --  After "DARWARS Ambush, a multiplayer, first-person shooter game that since 2006 has taught thousands of troops about convoy operations, including how to react to and anticipate ambushes and improvised explosive devices," the game that is being played at Fort Lewis appears to be called "Game After Ambush," which was rushed into a use at least a year ahead of schedule.  --  The Pentagon believes the game "more accurately replicates what today's soldiers encounter on the battlefield, and gives trainers more tools to edit missions, increase difficulty, and run after-action reviews."  --  ("The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is also developing a tailor-made version of VBS2 for tactical training needs of member countries.")  --  Other instructional software includes "Tactical Iraqi" and "Tactical Pashto."  --  Local media reports were uncritical of the development, but McLaughlin noted that "Critics, including antiwar groups and some researchers, accuse the military of preying on a generation of adolescents, raised on video games that blur the brutal reality of war.  These groups often ask:&nbnsp; If soldiers treat a game like war, what happens if they start treating war like a game?"  --  Though no study has probed the effects of moving to such training, the Pentagon is expanding the use of virtual gaming in both training and recruitment.  --  "Last summer, the Army opened a controversial 14,500 square foot Army Experience Center at a mall in suburban Philadelphia" where a "$12-million, taxpayer-funded 'virtual education' facility is supposed to give anyone over the age of 13 years old" can simulate flying a Black Hawk helicopter, shoot an M-16 aboard an Army Humvee, or play "America's Army — which will soon be upgraded to include authentic weapons."  --  "By September, the Army is scheduled to have 70 Game After Ambush systems in 53 military locations across the globe — including Germany, Italy, and South Korea."  --  Increased funding for computer gaming "is a direct result of the Army's decision in April 2008 to institutionalize its use of gaming technology, Stephens said.  Before that, the Army used games informally and had never established a sustained program for the acquisition and use of games.  Now, like other training devices, funding requests for gaming can be part of the line-item fiscal year budget." ...

The Palestine Solidarity Committee is calling for a letter-writing campaign protesting Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna's having lent his name to a propaganda effort whitewashing Israel in the aftermath of its recent assault on Gaza.  --  As PSC points out, in the letter "[a]ll mention of the occupation and attendant human rights violations against Palestinian civilians is omitted.  Turning facts on their head in a breath-taking manner, the letter condemns Hamas's actions while completely exonerating Israel of any war crimes — even justifying a disproportionate military response.  The letter rationalizes Israel's recent offensive against the incarcerated population of the Gaza Strip by citing 'continuous . . . attacks on Israel's civilians' without mentioning that Hamas observed last year's truce with Israel until Israel violated it."[1] ...

On Wednesday, at the request of the Justice Department, the 9th U.s. Circuit Court of Appeals dropped the government's case against Lt. Erhen Watada, which has been followed closely on this web site since June 7, 2006, when Lt. Watada publicly stated at Associated Ministries in Tacoma the reasons for his principled refusal to deploy to Iraq.  --  The Associated Press said that "Watada's attorney, James Lobsenz, said in a news release that his client anticipates he will soon be released from active duty and 'plans to return to civilian life and to attend law school.'"[1]  --  Army officials at Fort Lewis said they were considering pursuing still unresolved aspects of the case and complained that Watada was escaping punishment on a "legal technicality," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.[2]  --  COMMENT:  This assertion is specious: the preponderance of the evidence is that an Army judge deliberately aborted Watada's court-martial when it was clear that it was going in his favor....

On Sat., May 9, Iraq Veterans Against the War Fort Lewis will begin a campaign against the U.S. military's stop-loss policy, which enables the military to extend an enlisted soldier's enlistment contract.  --  Details below in an article by Seth Manzel.[1] ...

The recent labor victory of workers at the Republic Window Company in Chicago will be recounted in word and celebrated in song in a free evening event at 6:00 p.m. on Thurs., May 14, on the University of Washington-Tacoma campus.  --  Performing on stage will be Bettie Mae Fikes of the Freedom Singers, along with Professor Michael Honey and Steve DeTray.  --  Details below....

At midnight on May 3/4, the Seattle Times posted what is believed to be the first mainstream media account of the arrest around midnight Saturday night near Fort Lewis, reporting eleven arrests of port militarization resistance (PMR) activists blocking the movement of Stryker vehicles headed for the Port of Tacoma.[1]  --  A few minutes later the News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) posted a squib giving the number of arrests as "at least nine."[2]  --  The Olympian (Olympia, WA) posted the most detailed account, listing names of four individuals arrested by Lakewood police and five arrested by Tacoma police.[3]  --  A press release by PMR activists claimed "a series of successful direct actions in several locations on the night of May 2."[4]  --  Marion Delgado of Portland's Port Liberation Front posted an account on Indymedia of Saturday night's events and expressed the hope that "this will be the first major anti-militarist and anti-imperialist action during Obama's presidency."[5]  --  UPDATE:  Shortly after midnight on May 4, Twitter traffic indicated that another incident was unfolding involving arrests of would-be blockers of Strykers at Exit 137 of I-5 near the Port of Tacoma....

Phan Nguyen, a PMR activist in Olympia, commented on Sunday on the latest PMR action attempting a blockade of Stryker convoys moving war matériel from Fort Lewis to the Port of Tacoma for shipment as part of the deployment to Afghanistan of the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Divison, later this summer.[1] ...

Courage to Resist issued an appeal on Monday to activists to address letters and phone calls to government officials on behalf of Lt. Ehren Watada, who almost three years ago refused to deploy to Iraq on moral and legal grounds.[1] ...

There is a report of 13 arrests of port militarization (PMR) activists blocking Afghanistan-bound Strykers moving out of Fort Lewis, WA, toward the Port of Tacoma late Sat. evening, May 2, 2009.  --  BACKGROUND:  On Friday evening, May 1, 2009, PMR activists posted word of their intent to seek to prevent the loading at the Port of Tacoma of Strykers bound for Iraq and Afghanistan, and said that police had "stepped up their interference with the legal activities of activists and bystanders."[1]  --  At 9:54 p.m. on Saturday, a reporter from the News Tribune reported that Tacoma police officers had "blocked the only entrance to the dock where vehicles and equipment from 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division were being loaded Saturday night," and that "Just before 10 p.m., a convoy of Strykers rolled through the mostly abandoned streets," on its way to Afghanistan in preparation for the brigade's deployment this summer.[2]  --  "The Strykers began rolling aboard ships Friday night," Scott Fontaine wrote.  --  UPDATE:  But at about 10:00 p.m. Sat. evening, a Twitter posting said that there were "7 arrests or more in progress at [I-5] exit 122" (near Fort Lewis) of activists blocking Strykers.  --  An hour later, another posting announced "13 arrests total so far" by Lakewood police.  --  Strykers were said to be "going in batches of ten," proceeding up I-5, but they were reported to have stopped on the side of the freeway shortly before midnight because of a "broken-down Stryker." ...

On Wed., May 13, SNOW and other groups will co-sponsor "Afghanistan: Giving Peace a Chance," a program in Seattle featuring three knowledgeable speakers on the expanding war in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  --  More information below.[1] ...

Susan Galleymore, mother of a U.S. soldier and now author of Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War and Terror, will speak in Seattle, Tacoma, and Lakewood on Apr. 30, May 1, and May 2.  --  More information below....

On Saturday, as the end of President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office drew nigh, Malcolm Shave of Fircrest, WA, an enclave in Tacoma, was moved to write him a long letter.[1]  --  The message for the 44th president from Shave:  there is room for improvement.  --  Shaking hands with Hugo Chavez is not one of his complaints, though....

The Kitsap Sun expressed "concerns about the appropriate balance between Navy operations and protection of marine mammals" on Friday in the aftermath of training dives this week in Puget Sound conducted by the USS San Francisco, a fast-attack submarime operating out of Bremerton.[1]  --  "Hydrophones (underwater microphones) operated by researchers in the San Juan Islands picked up loud sonar 'pings' from about 7:00 p.m. Tuesday until after 3:00 a.m. Wednesday," Christopher Dunagan reported.  --  A retired physicist called the noises "about the most intense sounds that the hydrophones there have recorded in the past several years of continuous operation."  --  A 2003 incident that seemed to harm whales and seals led to "a Navy policy requiring approval from the Navy's Pacific Fleet Command in Hawaii before using sonar in testing or training operations in Puget Sound," Dunagan siad, and "[l]ittle or no sonar has been used in that area since."  --  "Active mid-frequency sonar, such as that from the San Francisco, can damage the hearing of whales, said Michael Jasny of the Natural Resources Defense Council.  It can also disrupt normal behaviors, because many whales find each other and hunt for prey by using their own sonar, called echolocation.  Loud sonar can even cause death, especially among the numerous species of beaked whales, he said."  --  A blog entry posted a day earlier by Dunagan added some technical details.[2]  --  On Wednesday, the Times of London reported on just-published scientific studies showing that "Mass strandings of dolphins and whales could be caused because the animals are rendered temporarily deaf by military sonar, experiments have shown."[3] ...

The appearance of another peace pole in Tacoma was the occasion of a letter to the Tacoma Weekly by Nancy Farrell on Thursday, calling attention to "a walk for world peace every Saturday night from 6-7p.m., starting at the peace pole behind Guadalupe, then to the one at Bryant Elementary School at 717 S. Grant St., to the pole at First United Methodist before returning to Guadalupe."[1]  --  The article to which Nancy Farrell's letter alludes is also posted below.[2] ...

On Fri., Apr. 3, Andrew Finstuen gave an address critiquing recent commentaries on Reinhold Niebuhr, the important mid-century theologian and social critic.  --  A précis of Finstuen's talk is posted below.[1] ...

A campaign in Washington State to prevent passage in the Washington State Senate of a bill privatizing Child Welfare Services[1] failed on Wed., Mar. 11, when Senate Bill 5943 passed 33-15.[2]  --  Now "SB 5943 advances to the House of Representatives for further consideration."  --  Even as the Senate was passing the bill, which calls for "performance-based contracting," however, the Seattle Times was reporting that performance standards to which contractors would be held "have not yet been developed."[3]  --  So what's the rush?  --  As Jennifer Sullivan and Maureen O'Hagan reported, "The proposal would impact thousands of families and force hundreds of state workers out of jobs.  No one knows how much it would cost, or even how, exactly, it would work."  --  The bill would "radically transform the state's child-welfare system by requiring the state to hire private contractors to work with children and troubled families after verified complaints of abuse or neglect and the first dependency court hearing."  --  The legislation emerged from a process spurred by seed money from Microsoft billionaire Steve Ballmer and his wife.  --  A key player was Mark Courtney, an academic formerly at the University of Chicago who is known nationally for studies of foster children.  --  Courtney is now professor in the UW School of Social Work and has just co-edited a volume of essays entitled Residential Care of Children: Comparative Perspectives (Oxford UP, February 2009).  --  Courtney testified to the Washington State Senate Committee on Human Services and Corrections on Feb. 13, 2009, supporting SB 5943 and calling for "a much more rational division of labor between public and private sector in delivery of child welfare services"; his testimony seems to have played a key role in the bill's passage.  --  But he emphasized that "the devil is always in the details when it comes to such fundamental system transformation," and said that "attempts to develop private sector capacity too quickly will lead to unreliable and poor-quality services and unwanted agency failures."  --  WFSE agrees, and is calling for an effort to stop the bill in the Washington State House of Representatives.[4]  --  Washingtonians should call their legislators at 1-800-562-6000 to communicate their views.  --  BACKGROUND:  For more information on the nationwide drive to privatize child welfare services, see here.  --  See also AFSCME's Safety Net for Sale: The Dangers of Privatizing Social Services (2006), which warns that "The history of privatized social services is replete with cost overruns and service breakdowns.  Meanwhile, critical decisions affecting our society's most vulnerable citizens have increasingly been based on short-term private incentives rather than long-term public interests" and concludes:  "The mission of serving poor children and at-risk families should not be subject to the profit motive and other influences that corrode the social safety net.  Rather, this mission should remain a core public function, responsive to democratic principles and accountable to elected officials." ...