Send a Peace Zucchini to our War Minister!

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Afghanistan Needs Food, not Bombs: Send a Zucchini today to Canada's War
Minister (no postage required--details below, including sample letter and
address)

This email includes:
1. FOOD CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN

2. CANADA SHOULD SEND FOOD, NOT BOMBS, TO AFGHANISTAN

3. WHY ZUCCHINIS, WHY NOW?

4. FEED THE AFGHAN PEOPLE, STOP SQUASHING THEIR HOPES FOR PEACE (includes
address of War Minister Gordon O'Connor and sample letter)

5. SENLIS COUNCIL NEWS RELEASE ON HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN



1. FOOD CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN
This week, in a much under-reported story, the European-based Senlis
Council released a report that stated children are starving in Afghanistan.
Foreign military expenditures in that country outpace development and
reconstruction spending by 900% (much as the Canadian military budget
outpaces the housing budget by over 900%!)

Indeed, $82.5 billion (U.S. funds) have been spent on military operations
in Afghanistan since 2002 compared with just $7.3 billion on development.

The report states that "five years after the 2001 US-led invasion, a
humanitarian crisis of starvation and poverty has gripped the south of the
country and the US- and UK-led failed counter-narcotics and military
policies are responsible...makeshift, unregistered refugee camps of
starving children, civilians displaced by counter-narcotics eradication and
bombing campaigns can be found on the doorstep of new US and UK
multi-million dollar military camps." (see full Senlis press release below)

The United Nations World Food Programme has been forced to cancel plans to
provide more than 2.5 million Afghans with urgent food aid. Unless these
needs are met, this will have dire consequences for millions of Afghans.


2. CANADA SHOULD SEND FOOD, NOT BOMBS, TO AFGHANISTAN
We are most often told that the main reason the Canadian military is in
Afghanistan is to help the Afghan people. Many Afghan people are starving.
It is time to send massive amounts of food aid, not massive amounts of
bullets and bombs.


3. WHY ZUCCHINIS, WHY NOW?
The Power of A Symbol
Politicians are often unable to grasp the meaning of words, and require
symbols to help them out. We have seen in the past few years stunning
examples of Homes not Bombs campaigns that have succeeded in employing the
noble zucchini in the cause of peace. We have argued that successive war
ministers' confused sexual desires to launch phallic-shaped missiles would
be more safely directed if phallic-shaped zucchinis were sent instead.

Surely it can be no coincidence that:

1. Homes not Bombs repeatedly presented Peace Zucchinis to then War
Minister Art Eggleton in an effort to get Canada out of star wars; his
government rejected overt participation in the Bush space warfare scheme.

2. Homes not Bombs presented Peace Zucchinis to then War Minister John
McCallum in late January, 2003, with the demand that Canada not join the
war against Iraq. His government did not formally join that invasion, and
McCallum enjoyed a good stir-fry.

3. Homes not Bombs spearheaded the campaign to send empty pens to then
"Public Safety" Minister Anne McLellan, the idea being her desk would fill
up with so many ink-less pens that when CSIS came knocking for her to sign
a secret trial security certificate, she wouldn't be able to find a pen
that actually worked. Needless to say, McLellan never signed a security
certificate!

4. Homes not Bombs precursor Banana Republics United, a 1980s open
conspiracy, played a major role in a campaign to send bananas to then-U.S.
Ambassador Paul Robinson, who treated Canada much like said banana
republic. Needless to say, he eventually split.

There is clearly a pattern here that cannot be ignored.

Perhaps the most famous example of a culinary symbol in the cause of peace
is described by David Albert in People Power: Applying Non-violence Theory:

"In the mid 1950s, the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, learning of
famine in the Chinese mainland, launched a "Feed Thine Enemy" campaign.
Members and friends mailed thousands of little bags of rice to the White
House with a tag quoting the Bible, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him." As
far as anyone knew for more than ten years, the campaign was an abject
failure. The President did not acknowledge receipt of the bags publicly;
certainly no rice was ever sent to China.

"What non-violent activists only learned a decade later was that the
campaign played a significant, perhaps even determining role in preventing
nuclear war. Twice while the campaign was on, President Eisenhower met with
the Joint Chiefs of Staff to consider US options in the conflict with China
over two islands, Quemoy and Matsu. The generals twice recommended the use
of nuclear weapons. President Eisenhower each time turned to his aide and
asked how many little bags of rice had come in. When told they numbered in
the tens of thousands, Eisenhower told the generals that as long as so many
Americans were expressing active interest in having the US feed the
Chinese, he certainly wasn't going to consider using nuclear weapons
against them."


4. FEED THE AFGHAN PEOPLE, STOP SQUASHING THEIR HOPES FOR PEACE
So now it is time to make sure War Minister Gordon O'Connor gets the
picture. Postage free, you can mail a zucchini and a note urging that
O'Connor feed, not bomb, the people of Afghanistan (sample letter follows).
Can you imagine the War Minister's office deluged with zucchinis? He can't
help but charter a plane and start loading them personally!)

We would like to keep a running tally, so please email tasc@web.ca when you
have lovingly wrapped your zucchini in an envelope and sent it postage-free
to the following address:

Gordon O'Connor, MP, War Minister
157 East Block
House of Commons
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. O'Connor,

Please forward the enclosed zucchini to the people of Afghanistan with the
next plane headed that way. It would be far better to send this phallic
symbol than the phallic symbols - missiles and mortar rounds - that you are
currently sending.

As you must be aware, there is a humanitarian crisis, especially in the
southern region of Afghanistan, where thousands of Canadian troops are
deployed. That crisis is one of extreme poverty and hunger, and cannot be
alleviated with guns, aerial bombardment, house raids, arbitrary detention,
and mistreatment of detainees.

The respected Senlis Council recently noted that 900% more has been spent
on the military build-up than on development in Afghanistan.

The United Nations World Food Programme has been forced to cancel plans to
provide more than 2.5 million Afghans with urgent food aid. Unless these
needs are met, this will have dire consequences for millions of Afghans.

I urge you to bring Canada's troops home and to seek dialogue and peaceful
solutions to the crisis in Afghanistan. The billions you are spending to
fight there would be far better spent on peaceful conflict resolution and
meeting the pressing social needs of the Afghan people.

You often refer to those you are fighting as your enemy. While "enemy
thinking" is an unacceptable world view that inevitably leads to violence,
I remind you of the Biblical reference in Romans 12:20, "If thine enemy
hunger, feed him."

The Afghan people are not our enemy. But they are hungry. It's time for
food, not bombs.

Name
Address




5. SENLIS COUNCIL NEWS RELEASE
5 SEPTEMBER 2006
Five years after their removal from power: The Taliban are back

Taliban Frontline now cuts half-way through Afghanistan

US and UK led failed counter-narcotics policies are responsible

Humanitarian crisis hits southern Afghanistan - extreme poverty, drought
and hundreds of thousands starving in south

LONDON - The Taliban have regained control over the southern half of
Afghanistan and their frontline is advancing daily, warned The Senlis
Council on the release of an evaluation report of the reconstruction of
Afghanistan marking the five year anniversary of 9/11. The Report is based
on extensive field research in the critical provinces of Helmand, Kandahar,
Herat and Nangarhar.

The Taliban frontline now cuts half-way through the country, encompassing
all of the southern provinces. Senlis Afghanistan reports that five years
after the 2001 US-led invasion, a humanitarian crisis of starvation and
poverty has gripped the south of the country and that the US and UK-led
failed counter-narcotics and military policies are responsible. The
subsequent rising levels of extreme poverty have created increasing support
for the Taliban, who have responded to the needs of the local population.

Taliban's return to power is a direct consequence of the flawed approach
that the US-led international community has taken in Afghanistan since 2001

"When you first came here we were so glad to see you. Now we have lived
with you in our country for five years and we see you tell a lot of lies
and make a lot of false promises," says a former Mujaheedin commander from
Kandahar quoted in the Report.

The US-led nation-building efforts have failed because of ineffective and
inflammatory military and counter narcotics policies. At the same time
there has been a dramatic under-funding of aid and development programs.

"Huge amounts of money have been spent on large and costly military
operations, but after five years southern Afghanistan is once more a
battlefield for the control of the country," said Emmanuel Reinert,
Executive Director of The Senlis Council. "At the same time Afghans are
starving. The US has lost control in Afghanistan and has in many ways
undercut the new democracy in Afghanistan. I think we can call that a
failure, and one with dire consequences which should concern us all. The US
policies in Afghanistan have re-created the safe-haven for terrorism that
the 2001 invasion aimed to destroy."

Emergency Food Aid needed now: "Children are dying here"

Due to lack of funding from the international community the Afghan
Government and the United Nation's World Food Programme are unable to
address Afghanistan's hunger crisis. Despite appeals for aid funds, the
US-led international community has continued to direct the majority of aid
funds towards military and security operations.

"The United Nations World Food Programme has been forced to cancel plans to
provide more than 2.5 million Afghans with urgent food aid," said Reinert.
"Unless these needs are met, this will have dire consequences for millions
of Afghans."

Hunger and the insurgency: Hunger Leads to Anger

"Five years after 9/11, Afghanistan is still one of the poorest countries
in the world and there is a hunger crisis in the fragile Southern part of
the country," said Reinert. "Remarkably this vital fact seems to have been
overlooked in funding and prioritisation of the foreign policy, military,
counter narcotics and reconstruction plans.

Relieving poverty, which should have been the main priority, has not
received the attention it so desperately needed. Consequently the
international community has lost the battle for the hearts and mind of the
Afghan people.

The Report reveals that makeshift, unregistered refugee camps of starving
children, civilians displaced by counter narcotics eradication and bombing
campaigns can be found on the doorstep of new US and UK multi million
dollar military camps.

"I took my child to the graveyard, my child died of hunger. There are
children dying here," said a man in one of these camps in Kandahar
Province.

"Hunger leads to anger," said Reinert. "Farmers who have had their poppy
crop eradicated by the US and UK led eradication campaign now see their
children facing starvation."

These camps also accommodate families who have left their home due to
violence and fighting. Some are there because their homes have been
destroyed by coalition forces' interventions in the 'war on terror' and the
current heightened counter-insurgency operations.

A man in a camp in Lashkar Gah is quoted in the Report as saying, "After
the bombing I moved to Lashkar GahŠI am afraid and terrified." There have
been no official camps established to provide for civilians who left their
villages due to US bombing campaigns.

Hunger has led to anger against the rich foreign community the Afghans see
in their country. This and the crop eradication policies provide a perfect
breeding ground for the Taliban propaganda against the foreign presence in
Afghanistan.

US and UK-led failed counter-narcotics policies are responsible for the
hunger crisis and the return of the Taliban

By triggering both anger and a hunger crisis in southern Afghanistan, US
and UK-led counter-narcotics policies are directly responsible for the
breakdown in security and the return of the Taliban.

"Forced poppy crop eradication is an anti-poor policy," said Reinert.
"Poppy cultivation means survival for thousands of Afghans. By destroying
entire communities' livelihoods, without any alternative plan for how the
farmers would feed their families, the current eradication programmes are
pushing farmers straight back into the arms of the Taliban."

A worker in Kandahar city is quoted as saying "In the villages, they had
their crops destroyed, there is no water, no jobs, nothing to do - isn't it
fair that they go and join the Taliban? Wouldn't you do the same thing?"

The Wrong priorities since 2001

"Prioritising the 'war on terror' over the 'war on poverty' has recreated
the exact situation it was intended to remove in southern Afghanistan,"
said Reinert. "Right from 2001, the US-led international community's
priorities for Afghanistan were not in line with those of the Afghan
population. It is a classic military error: they did not properly identify
the enemy."

An Afghan commander in Kandahar province is quoted as saying "The
foreigners came here and said they would help the poor people and improve
the economic situation, and they only spend money on their military
operations. The poor people are poorer now than when the Taliban were the
government. We don't trust them anymore. We would be fools to continue to
believe their lies."

Military expenditure outpaces development and reconstruction spending by
900% - the wrong priority

82.5 billion USD has been spent on military operations in Afghanistan since
2002 compared to just 7.3 billion USD on development.


Focus on poverty relief and development could have created a solid
foundation on which to re-build Afghanistan. Instead, the focus on
"securing" Afghanistan with aggressive military tactics has led the Afghan
population to mistrust the reasons for the large international military
presence in their country.

The large numbers of civilian casualties and deaths have also fuelled
resentment and mistrust of the international military presence.

"We have a saying about you now: Your blood is blood, our blood is just
water to you," the Report notes a former Mujaheedin commander from Kandahar
as saying.

There were 104 civilian casualties in Afghanistan in the month of July alone.

Faced with the return of the Taliban, the US and the international
community must immediately reassess entire approach in Afghanistan

"Emergency poverty relief must now be the top priority," said Reinert.
"Only then can we talk of nation-building and reconstruction. A complete
overhaul of the failed counter-narcotics strategies is urgently needed. We
must try and win back the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. The
Taliban are advancing north every day. This should concern us all."

Research for the Report was carried out throughout Afghanistan in the
spring and summer of 2006 by Senlis Afghanistan teams of Afghan and
international researchers.