Becoming water-wise in the midst of a drought emergency

With California in the midst of an historic drought emergency, the governor is calling for a 20% reduction in domestic water use, but so far there have been no compulsory restrictions and Californians haven’t cut back water use significantly. Many prefer to blame our politicians.

It’s amazing how much domestic water we use. When I ask people how much water a typical California home with a family of four consumes per year, people usually underestimate it by a factor of at least 10. Studies show that a typical California home uses nearly 180,000 gallons of water per year (one third what it takes to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool); 70% of which is used for landscaping! Our home currently uses around 140,000 gallons per year and we hope to reduce our water consumption by 15% by using gray water to water our fruit trees.

Pre-filter with wood chips
and diverter to main sewer
(when needed)

Our grey water comes from our bath tub, sinks, washing machine and dish washer. It's a fairly basic system, like the one in this picture. The water cycles to a pre-filter that uses wood chips to purify the water, and then goes to an underground system using pea gravel to disperse the water among our trees.

To use gray water, we have to change our whole approach to cleaning products. We can no longer use products containing boron, salt, chlorine bleach, phosphates, etc. We have discovered that the safest (and cheapest) cleaning products to use are those our grandparents used to clean their homes: vinegar, baking soda, lemon oil, ammonia and "pure" Castile soap like Dr. Bronner’s.

We also hope to reduce our water consumption by another 10-15% by removing 70% of our lawn and replacing it with drought tolerant plants. We plan to do that project later this summer, when the city raises its incentive for turf removal from $1 to $2 per square foot.

“It's not easy being green,” said Kermit the frog. Nor is it cheap. Our gray water and lawn conversion will cost at least 4 K. But it is fun, and it feels good, to find ways to live green and to be water wise. I am sure that Kermit and his amphibian friends would appreciate our efforts.

Gray water friendly cleaning products:

http://laquaker.blogspot.com/2015/05/earth-friendly-gray-water-cleaning.html

http://ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=45756

From War to Peace: A Guide to the Next Hundred Years

Suppose you went to a conference and found that scientists had discovered breakthrough cures for cancer, and were confident that in a hundred years or less, cancer would be a thing of the past. Wouldn't you want to share this good news with everyone? That's how I felt last week when I went to an  historic meeting of peace activists and scholars at Ben Lomond Quaker Center. Peace scholars like Kent Shifferd have shown us that there are evidence-based ways to resolve conflict without violence, and that war could be abolished in much the same way as slavery, if only we had the political will to do so.

 

It won't be easy, of course. There are huge profits to be made from war, and it will take a world-wide mass movement to take back governments from the war makers and plutocrats. But the same was true of slavery. We need to remember that people power has brought about social changes once thought impossible, such as giving women and blacks the right to vote, and ending the Cold War.

 

To learn more about how we could reduce and eventually eliminate the threat of war and create a peace system to replace our war system, I recommend going to the World Beyond War website at http://www.worldbeyondwar.org/. There you'll find a wealth of information and resources that can help you to become active in this effort to create a culture of peace and a peace system.

Ending war has been the goal and dream of God's people going back to the time of the prophets. "Everyone 'neath vine and fig tree will live in peace and unafraid," said the prophet Micah. "And into ploughshares beat their swords/ Nations shall learn war no more." Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to fulfill the prophesy of Zachariah that declared the Messiah would come to abolish war. Jesus made it clear that those who seek peace and justice are blessed, and those who live by the sword will perish.

Religious people need to take up the cause of ending war, just as a hundred and fifty years ago, many people of faith joined the abolitionist movement. We have grounds for hope, rooted in the bible, and also in research done by social scientists, that the culture of war can be changed into a culture of peace. As Kent Shifferd concludes in his important new book:

"The abolition of  slavery, an institution as old as war and as deeply entrenched, took about a hundred years to succeed.  This new story, the abolition of war, has a good chance to succeed in the next hundred years. At the very least, we can start to teach our children that war is not the only and inevitable story on the planet.  We have good reasons to believe that we may well be trending toward peace."

Summary of

From War to Peace: A Guide To the Next Hundred Years (Mcfarland Pubs, 2011)

By Kent Shifferd

(All material in this document may be used freely with attribution.)  This book is currently in use in college and university classes around the country.

While this book looks at war in an utterly realistic fashion, nonetheless the conclusion is a positive outlook for the probability that humanity will end the practice of war.

Introduction: “The Tragedy of War and the Expectation of Peace” introduces the great paradox, good people hate war but still support it.  Section I explains why.

Section I: War

            War is not human nature but it is a cultural system deeply embedded in all the institutions of our society including government, but also religion, education, sports and the economy.  All give positive feedback to the belief that war is inevitable and to the mechanisms for prosecuting it.  It is a self-perpetuating and self-feeding system.  Positive rewards accrue to this behavior.  The cause of war is war itself, the mirror imaging of fear that drives each nation to arm and behave in bellicose fashion which confirms other nations of the need to do the same for self-defense in an ever upward spiraling of the technologies of violence.  Chapters in this section are:

1.    Describing and Analyzing War

2.    The Psychology of Killing

3.    The War System: Part I

4.    The War System: Part II           

Section II: Peace

            The war system is not the only system.  Since 1815 there is a revolutionary and growing trend toward crafting a peace system which I predict will result in the outlawing of war sometime in the next hundred years.  Chapters are:

5.     Defining Peace

6.    The History of Peace in Ancient and Medieval Times

7.    The History of Peace: 1800 To the Present

8.    The Successes of Nonviolent Struggle

9.    Abolishing War and Building a Comprehensive Peace System

10. The Wellsprings of Peace. 

Below is a succinct summary of these trends from a separate document.

The Peace Revolution

 by Kent D. Shifferd

The twentieth century was the most promising century for the eventual development of peace in the last eight thousand years.

            We are living in the midst of a great revolution. True, the twentieth century was one of the most violent in human history and the twenty-first opened up with its share of wars.  It’s an old story but it’s no longer the only story.  Another is in the making although most educators, the media, and even presidents don’t know about it. Twenty-seven undeniably demonstrable trends have been are leading us toward the evolution of a system of global peace.  Below I have briefly summarized these inter-related trends.

1. The development of organized peace action by citizens

Before the nineteenth century, great individuals espoused peace.  Jesus taught love of enemies, St. Francis reconciled quarrels in Tuscany, Erasmus wrote his “Complainte of Peace,” Kant his” Perpetual Peace”, but there was little if any organized activity.  Then, between 1815 and 1816, at least four peace societies were formed, three in the U.S. and one in England.   On 16 August, 1815, David Low Dodge founded the New York Peace Society to discourage war and promote peace. Over the next hundred years, organized peace movements came into being.

Beginning as a religious impulse peace thinking became a secular ideology arguing for a lawful international order and respect for the rights of peoples.  Citizens organized.  By the early twentieth century there were perhaps three hundred thousand European and North American peace activists from over a hundred peace societies that together formed a transnational movement and shared a common ideology then called “pacifism.”

2.    The progressive development of international institutions for adjudicating international conflict

This citizen based peace movement led to the 1899 conference at The Hague which resulted in the creation of the first form of the “world court,” now called the International Court of Justice. Regional courts developed in Europe and Latin America, and ad hoc tribunals arose to deal with war criminals, and most recently the International Criminal Court became a reality.  International courts are a crucial part of an interlocked peace system.

3.    The emergence of supra-national parliamentary institutions to keep the peace   World War I led the great powers to create the League of Nations and then to improve upon it with the United Nations in 1945.  While the UN remains imperfect, the goal of these organizations—to prevent war by negotiation, sanctions, and collective security is revolutionary in the long history of warfare.  The peace-building work of UN agencies is crucial to the evolution of a culture of peace.  Additionally, the European Union, the Organization of American States, and the African Union monitor regional disputes and engage in peace building activities. 

4.    The rise of neutral, international peace-keeping  Neutral forces (the UN Blue Helmets) composed of several nations intervene to quell a conflict or keep it from re-igniting have been deployed in dozens of conflicts and are currently serving around the world.  And now another new development--non-violent, citizen-based peace keeping and peace building such as the Nonviolent Peaceforce and Peace Brigades International are a reality.

 

5.    The development of nonviolent struggle as a substitute for war, beginning with Gandhi, carried on by King, perfected in the successful struggles to overthrow the dictatorial regimes of Marcos in the Philippines, the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe and the Communist coup in Russia and emergence of the Arab Spring.  We no longer need to resort to arms to defend ourselves.  It has been conclusively demonstrated that all power comes from below even in dictatorial regimes.  Nonviolence was even used successfully against the Nazis.

 

6. The development and spread of sophisticated new techniques of conflict resolution known as win-win negotiation, mutual gains bargaining, non-adversarial negotiation, peer mediation are being taught all over the world from grade school to state departments.

7. The rise and rapid spread of peace research and peace education. Hundreds of colleges, universities and schools now provide peace education courses, minors, majors and degrees at the graduate level.  An international umbrella organization, the Peace and Justice Studies Association, brings educators and practitioners together and facilitates the spread of ideas.  Peace research institutions such as the Swedish Peace Research Institute and the United States Institute of Peace are learning more and more about how to deal with conflict in nonviolent ways. A huge body of peace literature is available to the world via books and the web.

 

8. The rapid spread of democratic regimes in the second half of the twentieth century.  Since it is historically demonstrable that democracies do not attack one another.

 

9. The emergence of regions of long-term peace:  Western Europe for almost 60 years, North America for nearly 200 years, Scandinavia for over 300 years.  Peace, like war, is self-perpetuating if a critical mass can be established.  Today, no one expects Canadian tanks to roll over the border into Minnesota.

10. The decline of institutionalized racism: e.g., Jim Crow in the U.S., and the end of Apartheid in South Africa. 

11. The end of political colonialism. Beginning in the 1960s, the old European colonial empires disappeared and dozens of peoples became self-governing.

12. The end of neo-empire. Empire is becoming impossible due to cost and the rise of asymmetric warfare which further increases the cost.  Nations that try to police the world go bankrupt.

13. The end of de facto sovereignty.  In the modern world, a nation state can’t keep out missiles, immigrants, ideas, economic trends, disease organisms, etc.  Borders are permeable. Old style national sovereignty is no longer a description of states in the real world.

14. The rise of women’s rights and the emergence of women in positions of leadership and authority and the consequent diminishment of patriarchy in large areas of the world.  Patriarchy has been associated with war from ancient times. 

15. The rise of the environmental sustainability movement aimed at slowing or ending the consumptive excesses that create shortages, poverty, pollution and environmental injustice in the developing world and oil dependent economies in the global north. 

16.  The spread of peace-oriented forms of religion: the Christianity of Thomas Merton, Jim Wallace of Sojourners and Pax Christi; the Buddhism of the Dalai Lama, and similar movements in Judaism (The Jewish Peace Fellowship, Jewish Voice for Peace) and Islam (Muslim Peace Fellowship, Muslim Voice for Peace). 

17. The successful extension of a regime of international law and especially war-limiting treaties such as the bans on atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, on child soldiers and the on anti-personnel land mines, etc.  Most nation states respect international law most of the time.

18. The legalization of conscientious objector status in many nations.  (In World War I some COs were condemned to death.)

19.  The rise of the human rights movement. Human rights are now an international norm and when they are not respected it is considered an outrage in most countries. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are often able to bring effective global pressure on dictatorial regimes to free political prisoners and respect human rights.

 

20. The evolution of the global conference movement.  In the past twenty years there have been seminal gatherings at the global level aimed at creating a peaceful and just world. The Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, laid the foundations for the modern global conference movement; convened by the UN, attended by one hundred heads of state, 30,000 citizens from around the world and 10,000 journalists who disseminated its message with unprecedented coverage.  Focused on environment and development, it produced a dramatic shift in direction toward the elimination of toxics in production, the development of alternative energy and public transportation, deforestation, and a new realization of the scarcity of water.  Major conferences have since been held on a variety of issues.

21. The emergence of an international development regime including large-scale international development banks (IMF, World Bank), but more importantly, micro-financing as begun by the Grameen Bank movement in India, and thousands of smaller, international development nongovernment organizations.  

22. The creation of the world wide web and cell phones has dramatically increased transparency of government actions (no atrocity escapes notice) and the ability of citizen peace organizations to coordinate with each other and to respond to crises as well as making easily available crucial information about war, peace, human rights; a force multiplier for the peace, justice and environmental work.

23. The sharp decline in old-fashioned attitudes that war is a glorious and noble enterprise.  No troops now march off to war singing as they did in 1914. War is no longer considered glorious, or the “health of nations” as it was for centuries.

24. The emergence of thousands of international non-government organizations providing a wide variety of peace-making, peace-keeping, and peace building services.  The Nonviolent Peaceforce, Peace Brigades International, Doctors Without Borders, World Vision and uncountable others supporting schools in poor countries, providing medical services, bringing clean water to remote communities, etc., all underscore the development of an emerging, de facto global citizenship.  One people, one planet, one peace.

25. The gradual decline of capital punishment in most places of the world.  In 18^th century England there were 220 capital crimes and children as young as seven could be hanged for theft.  England outlawed capital punishment for murder in 1965    Illinois just became the 17^th state in the U.S. to outlaw it.  Worldwide 58 countries maintain it, 95 have outlawed it, and 35 maintain it but have not carried out an execution for at least ten years.

25. The reaction against violence as entertainment, both against violent entertainment media and against war toys. While this movement is embryonic, it is nonetheless underway.

27. The gradual rise of planetary loyalty as people begin to see themselves as citizens of the globe in common humanity with all people and with a common need to protect global ecosystems.  The emergence of a globally linked world society is well underway.

           
All this is new, unprecedented! How it will play out, no one knows.  The abolition of   slavery, an institution as old as war and as deeply entrenched, took about a hundred years to succeed.  This new story, the abolition of war, has a good chance to succeed in the next hundred years. At the very least, we can start to teach our children that war is not the only and inevitable story on the planet.  We have good reasons to believe that we may well be trending toward peace.

*****

Kent Shifferd is emeritus professor at Northland College and author of From War To Peace: A Guide To The Next Hundred Years (McFarland, 2011).  Contact kentshifferd@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Best free anti-war films and documentaries available online

This listing of on-line anti-war films is provided by Frank Dorrel, one of the best anti-war advocates I know--his cartoon booklet "Addicted to War" is a classic and is now updated and available in Spanish as well as English  (see www.addictedtowar.com ). If we want to end our addiction to war, we need to educate people and circulate the truth about the war pushers and profiteers as broadly as possible. Please share this with your friends, esp. those in the social media.

Dear Anti-War Friends,

In my opinion, this is the most important email I will ever send to you!
Yes, I have sent it to my list a couple of times before over the years. The
links to these anti-war films that you can watch on-line sometimes are taken
down. So I have included two or three links when possible. I realize that I
have listed many films here. There is no need to try to watch all of these
films in a short period of time. But the films listed below basically spell
out what I like to call: “The True Nature of U.S. Foreign Policy”. These
films are the proof that the United States has killed as many as 20 million
or more innocent people since the end of World War II - with many millions
more being injured, losing their homes and having their way of life ruined.
This list is the best way I can think of to help educate yourself and others
who might be interested in knowing about this. Today is Memorial Day, a day
reserved to honor those who have served this country in the military and
those who have died in combat. I believe that the Americans who have died in
these wars, have died for lies coming from our government and our mainstream
media, which are both owned by the same people who profit from these wars.
It is what I call: “The Big Lie”.   It is Orwellian and like The Matrix. I
do not know what is actually going on now in Syria or Libya or The Ukraine,
but one thing I do know is that we cannot trust that the United States will
ever do the right thing when it comes to foreign policy. Whatever action
this country takes is to benefit the corporations, the oil companies, the
bankers and the war machine: also known as: The Military Industrial Complex.
The United States is ADDICTED To WAR. It is up to us to try to stop this
horrible situation. There are more people now who do understand this to some
degree than ever before in history. The films listed below and many books
that have been written on this subject are a big reason why this is so. Not
to mention the many anti-war/peace groups there are in this country. And the
Internet is another big reason there is more awareness about this. I know
some of you will want to send me some links to films I haven’t included.
That’s OK. And sometime in the near future I will be sending out another
list of talks by well known peace activists on this same subject. I also
have a list of many 9-11 Truth films you can watch on-line which show that
9-11 was an inside job. I have sent that list out before and will send it to
anyone requesting it.  I have seen a lot of fighting on the internet among
anti-war activists, who I believe, for the most part, will agree with the
message these films deliver about the role the United States has had in the
endless wars and the needless deaths resulting from them. Please stop
fighting and arguing with each other. The anti-war movement needs to work
together if we are ever to make a difference. To everyone reading this
message, thank you for your involvement, whatever it has been in all of
this. And a big thank you to all of the filmmakers listed below, who have
taken the time & effort to make these very important films that tell us the
truth about what the United States has been doing to the people of the
world.

In Peace,

Frank Dorrel
Publisher
Addicted To War
P.O. Box 3261
Culver City, CA 90231-3261
fdorrel@addictedtowar.com
fdorrel@sbcglobal.net  
www.addictedtowar.com



Important Anti-War Films You Can Watch On-Line

WAR MADE EASY: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death - Narrated
by Sean Penn – By The Media Education Foundation: www.mediaed.org  -
Based on Book by Norman Solomon titled: WAR MADE EASY –
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/war-made-easy  -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9DjSg6l9Vs  - www.warmadeeasythemovie.org 
War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year
pattern of government deception & media spin that has dragged the United
States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. This film exhumes
remarkable archival footage of official distortion & exaggeration from LBJ
to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media
have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive
presidential administrations. War Made Easy gives special attention to
parallels between the Vietnam war and the war in Iraq. Guided by media
critic Norman Solomon’s meticulous research and tough-minded analysis, the
film presents disturbing examples of propaganda and media complicity from
the present alongside rare footage of political leaders and leading
journalists from the past, including Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Defense
Secretary Robert McNamara, dissident Senator Wayne Morse and news
correspondents Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer. 

Bill Moyer’s The Secret Government: The Constitution In Crisis – PBS - 1987
This is the full length 90 minute version of Bill Moyer's 1987 scathing
critique of the criminal subterfuge carried out by the Executive Branch of
the United States Government to carry out operations which are clearly
contrary to the wishes and values of the American people. The ability to
exercise this power with impunity is facilitated by the National Security
Act of 1947. The thrust of the exposé is the Iran-Contra arms and
drug-running operations which flooded the streets of our nation with crack
cocaine. -  www.youtube.com/watch?v=28K2CO-khdY  -
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-secret-government -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJldun440Sk

The Panama Deception – Won Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1992 -
Narrated by Elizabeth Montgomery – Directed by Barbara Trent - Produced by
The Empowerment Project 
This Academy Award Winning film documents the untold story of the December
1989 U.S. invasion of Panama; the events which led to it; the excessive
force used; the enormity of the death and destruction; and the devastating
aftermath. The Panama Deception uncovers the real reasons for this
internationally condemned attack, presenting a view of the invasion which
widely differs from that portrayed by the U.S. media and exposes how the
U.S. government and the mainstream media suppressed information about this
foreign policy disaster. -  www.documentarystorm.com/the-panama-deception  -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-p4cPoVcIo
www.empowermentproject.org/films.html

Hearts and Minds - Academy Award Winning Documentary about The Vietnam War -
Directed by Peter Davis – 1975 -
www.criterion.com/films/711-hearts-and-minds
This film recounts the history and attitudes of the opposing sides of the
Vietnam War using archival news footage as well as its own film and
interviews. A key theme is how attitudes of American racism and
self-righteous militarism helped create and prolong this bloody conflict.
The film also endeavors to give voice to the Vietnamese people themselves as
to how the war has affected them and their reasons why they fight the United
States and other western powers while showing the basic humanity of the
people that US propaganda tried to dismiss. -
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/hearts-and-minds  -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d2ml82lc7s - www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC-PXLS4BQ4

  
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky & The Media - Produced & Directed by
Mark Achbar – Directed by Peter Wintonick - www.zeitgeistfilms.com
<http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=manufacturingconsent>
This film showcases Noam Chomsky, one of America's leading linguists &
political dissidents. It also illustrates his message of how government and
big media businesses cooperate to produce an effective propaganda machine in
order to manipulate the opinions of the United States populous. -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AnB8MuQ6DU - www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzufDdQ6uKg -

Paying The Price: Killing The Children of Iraq by John Pilger – 2000 -
www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/pay.html - In this hard-hitting special
report, award-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger investigates the
effects of sanctions on the people of Iraq and finds that ten years of
extraordinary isolation, imposed by the UN and enforced by the US and
Britain, have killed more people than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
The UN Security Council imposed the sanctions and demanded the destruction
of Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons under the supervision of
a UN Special Commission (UNSCOM). Iraq is permitted to sell a limited amount
of oil in exchange for some food and medicine. -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHn3kKySuVo  -
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/paying-the-price  -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OLPWlMmV7s


Hijacking Catastrophe: 911, Fear & The Selling of the American Empire -
Narrated by Julian Bond - The Media Education Foundation – 2004 -
www.mediaed.org
The 9/11 terror attacks continue to send shock waves through the American
political system. Continuing fears about American vulnerability alternate
with images of American military prowess and patriotic bravado in a
transformed media landscape charged with emotion and starved for
information. The result is that we have had little detailed debate about the
radical turn US policy has taken since 9/11. Hijacking Catastrophe places
the Bush Administration's original justifications for war in Iraq within the
larger context of a two-decade struggle by neo-conservatives to dramatically
increase military spending while projecting American power and influence
globally by means of force.
www.hijackingcatastrophe.org –
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/hijacking-catastrophe - www.vimeo.com/14429811
Cover-Up: Behind The Iran-Contra Affair - Narrated by Elizabeth Montgomery –
Directed by Barbara Trent - Produced by The Empowerment Project - 1988
COVER-UP is the only film which presents a comprehensive overview of the
most important stories suppressed during the Iran Contra hearings. It is the
only film that puts the entire Iran Contra affair into a meaningful
political and historical context. The shadow government of assassins, arms
dealers, drug smugglers, former CIA operatives and top US military personnel
who were running foreign policy unaccountable to the public, revealing the
Reagan/Bush administration's plan to use FEMA to institute martial law and
ultimately suspend the Constitution. Strikingly relevant to current events.
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXZRRRU2VRI - www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOlMo9dAATw
www.empowermentproject.org/films.html


Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Majority – Directed By Sufyan &
Abdallah Omeish -2006 - Best Film I’ve Seen about the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict –
A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and
historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike any other
film ever produced on the conflict -- 'Occupation 101' presents a
comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the never
ending controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and
misconceptions. The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the
role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that
stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. The roots of the conflict
are explained through first-hand on-the-ground experiences from leading
Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and
humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in American
media outlets. - www.occupation101.com - www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuI5GP2LJAs
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ycqATLDRow - www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwpvI8rX72o


Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: US Media & the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict - The Media Education Foundation - www.mediaed.org 
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S.
and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing
in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false
perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary
exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil,
and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work
in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a
powerful influence over how news from the region is reported. -
www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=117 -
www.vimeo.com/14309419   -  www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAN5GjJKAac   


“What I’ve Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against The Third World"
– by Frank Dorrel – 2000 -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8POmJ46jqk - www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSmBhj8tmoU 
This is a 2-hour video compilation featuring the following 10 segments:
1. Martin Luther King Jr., Civil rights leader speaking out against the
U.S. war in Vietnam.
2. John Stockwell, CIA Station Chief in Angola -1975, under CIA Director,
George Bush Sr.
3. Coverup: Behind the Iran-Contra Affair U.S. support of the Contras in
Nicaragua.
4. School of Assassins, Our own terrorist training school at Fort Benning,
Georgia. 
5. Genocide by Sanctions, 5,000 Iraqi children die every month due to the
U.S. sanctions.
6. Philip Agee, Former CIA official who spent 13 years in the agency, wrote
CIA Diary
7. Amy Goodman, Host of Democracy Now, Pacifica Radio NY, on the CIA and
East Timor. 
8. The Panama Deception  Academy award for best documentary on U.S.
invasion of Panama
9. Ramsey Clark, Former Attorney General, talking on U.S. militarism and
foreign policy.
10. S. Brian Willson, Vietnam Veteran -Wages Unconditional Peace against
U.S. imperialism
www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.html



"UNMANNED: AMERICA'S DRONE WARS" – Directed by Robert Greenwald of Brave New
Films -  www.bravenewfilms.org  – 2013 -
The eighth full-length feature documentary from Brave New Foundation and
director Robert Greenwald, investigates the impact of U.S. drone strikes at
home and abroad through more than 70 separate interviews, including a former
American drone operator who shares what he has witnessed in his own words,
Pakistani families mourning loved ones and seeking legal redress,
investigative journalists pursuing the truth, and top military officials
warning against blowback from the loss of innocent life. -
www.knowdrones.com/2013/10/two-essential-films.html

Collateral Murder In Iraq - Bradley Manning Sent this Video to Wikileaks -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0 - www.collateralmurder.com -
www.bradleymanning.org   
Wikileaks obtained this video from Bradley Manning and decrypted this
previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It
shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several
others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern
Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial
shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on
the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as
well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as
insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths occurred.
Wikileaks released this video with transcripts and a package of supporting
documents on April 5th 2010. 


Breaking The Silence: Truth and Lies in The War On Terror - A Special Report
by John Pilger – 2003 - www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/break.html 
The documentary investigates George W Bush's "war on terror". In "liberated"
Afghanistan, America has its military base & pipeline access, while the
people have the warlords who are, says one women, "in many ways worse than
the Taliban". In Washington, a series of remarkable interviews includes
senior Bush officials & former intelligence officers. A former senior CIA
official tells Pilger that the whole issue of weapons of mass destruction
was "95 per cent charade".  www.youtube.com/watch?v=phehfVeJ-wk  -
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/breaking-the-silence  - www.johnpilger.com 
                         
The War On Democracy - by John Pilger - 2007 -
www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/wdem.html  - www.johnpilger.com
This film shows how US intervention, overt and covert, has toppled a series
of legitimate governments in the Latin American region since the 1950s. The
democratically elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende, for example,
was ousted by a US backed coup in 1973 and replaced by the military
dictatorship of General Pinochet. Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras and
El Salvador have all been invaded by the United States. Pilger interviews
several ex-CIA agents who took part in secret campaigns against democratic
countries in the region. He investigates the School of the Americas in the
US state of Georgia, where Pinochet’s torture squads were trained along with
tyrants and death squad leaders in Haiti, El Salvador, Brazil and Argentina.
The film unearths the real story behind the attempted overthrow of
Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez in 2002 and how the people of the barrios
of Caracas rose up to force his return to power.
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-war-on-democracy -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeHzc1h8k7o  -
www.johnpilger.com/videos/the-war-on-democracy 

The Oil Factor: Behind The War On Terror - By Gerard Ungerman & Audrey Brohy
of Free-Will Productions – Narrated by Ed Asner - www.freewillprod.com  
Today, 6.5 billion humans depend entirely on oil for food, energy, plastics
& chemicals. Population growth is on a collision course with the inevitable
decline in oil production. George Bush's "war on terror" happens where 3/4
of the world's remaining oil and natural gas is located. -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGakDrosLuA  

Plan Colombia: Cashing-In On The Drug War Failure - By Gerard Ungerman &
Audrey Brohy of Free-Will Productions – Narrated by Ed Asner -
www.freewillprod.com    20 years of US war-on-drugs in Colombia paid for by
U.S. tax-payers. Still, more and more drugs and narco-dollars are entering
the US every year. Is it a failure or a smokescreen by Washington to secure
Colombia's oil & natural resources instead? Now that the U.S. State
Department officially shifted its priority in Colombia from
counter-narcotics to counter-insurgency conveniently dubbed anti-terrorism,
what is left today of the alleged anti-drug purpose of the U.S. "Plan
Colombia"? While cocaine trafficking and money-laundering are skyrocketing
to unseen proportions, is the current U.S. oil administration even concerned
with fighting drugs in Colombia, another top oil supplier to the U.S., when
its U.S.-friendly regime is being threatened by powerful leftist guerrilla
groups? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EE8scPbxAI  -
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/plan-colombia

NO MORE VICTIMS – Videos of 4 War-Injured Iraqi Children NMV Brought to the
US for Medical Treatments: www.nomorevictims.org
What American Missiles Did to 9-Year Old Salee Allawi in Iraq -
www.nomorevictims.org/?page_id=95  
In this video, Salee Allawi & her father tell the harrowing story of the
American air strike that blew off her legs while she was playing outside her
home in Iraq. Her brother & best friend were killed.

Nora, A 5-Year Old Iraqi Girl: Who Was Shot in the Head by a US Sniper  -
www.nomorevictims.org/children-2/noora -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft49-zlQ1V4
As her father writes, “On October 23, 2006 at 4:00 in the afternoon,
American snipers positioned on a rooftop in my neighborhood started firing
toward my car. My daughter Nora, a five-year-old child, was hit in the head.
Since 2003 No More Victims has secured treatment for children injured by US
forces.

Abdul Hakeem’s Story – Narrated by Peter Coyote –
www.nomorevictims.org/?page_id=107  - On April 9, 2004 at 11:00 PM, during
the First Siege of Fallujah, Abdul Hakeem & his family were asleep at home
when mortar rounds fired by US forces rained down on their home, destroying
one side of his face. His mother suffered abdominal & chest injuries & has
undergone 5 major operations. His older brother & sister were injured and
his unborn sister killed. US forces did not permit ambulances to transport
civilian casualties to the hospital. In fact, they fired on ambulances, one
of many violations of international law committed by US forces in the April
assault. A neighbor volunteered to take the family to the hospital, where
doctors assessed Hakeem’s chances of survival at five percent. They laid his
limp body aside & treated other civilian casualties whose chances of
survival appeared higher.
Alaa’ Khalid Hamdan - Narrated by Peter Coyote - On May 5th, 2005, 2-year
old Alaa’ Khalid Hamdan was severely injured when a U.S. tank round slammed
into her family’s home in Al Qaim, Iraq. It was around three in the
afternoon, and the children were having a tea party. Two of Alaa’s brothers
and three of her cousins were killed, all children under ten years of age.
Fourteen women and children were killed or injured in the attack, which
occurred while the men were at work. Alaa’ was peppered with shrapnel in her
legs, abdomen and chest, and urgently needed an operation to save her
eyesight. Micro-shrapnel from the US tank round was embedded in both eyes,
her retinas detached. If the fragments were not removed soon, she faced a
lifetime of blindness. We received her medical reports in June of 2005. No
medical services were provided by the US military for Alaa’ or her injured
mother. Alaa’s impending blindness was of no consequence to occupation
authorities. - www.nomorevictims.org/children-2/alaa-khalid-2

Agustin Aguayo: A Man of Conscience - A Short Film by Peter Dudar & Sally
Marr - www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAFH6QGPxQk  
Iraq War Veteran Agustin Aguayo served his country for four years in the
Army but was repeatedly denied Conscientious Objector status. His Press
Conference never made the NEWS!

Jesus...A Soldier Without A Country - A Short Film by Peter Dudar & Sally
Marr - www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYeNyJFJOf4  
Fernando Suarez, whose only son Jesus was the first Marine from Mexico to be
killed in the Iraq War, marches for Peace from Tijuana to San Francisco.


Vietnam: American Holocaust - Narrated by Martin Sheen – Written, Produced &
Directed by Clay Claiborne –
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/vietnam-american-holocaust 
This film exposes one of the worst cases of sustained mass slaughter in
history, carefully planned & executed by presidents of both parties. Our
dedicated generals & foot soldiers, knowingly or unknowingly, killed nearly
5 million  people, on an almost unimaginable scale, mostly using incendiary
bombs. Vietnam has never left our national consciousness & now, in this
time, it has more relevance than ever.  www.vietnam.linuxbeach.net


KILL THEM ALL
This BBC Documentary reveals atrocities committed by the U.S. in Korea
during the war. - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pws_qyQnCcU

Arsenal of Hypocrisy: The Space Program & The Military Industrial Complex -
With Bruce Gagnon & Noam Chomsky - www.space4peace.org 
Today the Military Industrial Complex is marching towards world dominance
through Space technology on behalf of global corporate interest. To
understand how and why the space program will be used to fight all future
wars on earth from space, it's important to understand how the public has
been misled about the origins and true purpose of the Space Program. Arsenal
of Hypocrisy features Bruce Gagnon: Coordinator: Global Network Against
Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Noam Chomsky and Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar
Mitchell talking about the dangers of moving the arms race into space. The
one-hour production features archival footage, Pentagon documents, and
clearly outlines the U.S. plan to "control and dominate" space and the Earth
below. - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf7apNEASPk 


Beyond Treason – Written & Narrated by Joyce Riley - Directed by William
Lewis - 2005 - www.beyondtreason.com 
Is the United States knowingly using a dangerous battlefield weapon banned
by the United Nations because of its long-term effects on the local
inhabitants and the environment? Explore the illegal worldwide sale and use
of one of the deadliest weapons ever invented. Beyond the disclosure of
black-ops projects spanning the past 6 decades, Beyond Treason also
addresses the complex subject of Gulf War Illness. It includes interviews
with experts, both civilian and military, who say that the government is
hiding the truth from the public and they can prove it. UNMASKING SECRET
MILITARY PROJECTS: Chemical & Biological Exposures, Radioactive Poisoning,
Mind Control Projects, Experimental Vaccines, Gulf War Illness & Depleted
Uranium (DU). www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRG8nUDbVXU  -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViUtjA1ImQc


The Friendship Village - Directed & Produced by Michelle Mason - 2002-
www.cultureunplugged.com/play/8438/The-Friendship-Village -
www.cypress-park.m-bient.com/projects/distribution.htm
A timely, inspiring film about our ability to transcend war, 'The Friendship
Village' tells the story of George Mizo, a war hero-turned-peace activist
after losing his entire platoon in an opening salvo of the 1968 Tet
Offensive of the Vietnam War. George's journey to heal the wounds of war
leads him back to Vietnam where he befriends the Vietnamese General
responsible for killing his entire platoon. Through their friendship, the
seeds of the Vietnam Friendship Village Project are sewn: a reconciliation
project near Hanoi that treats children with Agent Orange-related illnesses.
One man could build a village; one village could change the world.


Palestine Is Still The Issue By John Pilger – 2002 -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrhJL0DRSRQ   -
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/palestine-is-still-the-issue
John Pilger first made: 'Palestine Is Still The Issue' in 1977. It told how
almost a million Palestinians had been forced off their land in 1948 and
again in 1967. Twenty five years later, John Pilger returns to the West Bank
of Jordan and Gaza, and to Israel, to ask why the Palestinians, whose right
of return was affirmed by the United Nations more than half a century ago,
are still caught in a terrible limbo - refugees in their own land,
controlled by Israel in the longest military occupation in modern times.
www.johnpilger.com - www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/pisihv.html 

Life In Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories & Photos – By Anna Baltzer -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3emLCYB9j8c – www.vimeo.com/6977999 
Life in Occupied Palestine provides an excellent introduction — in a
down-to-earth, non-alienating way — to the occupation in Palestine and the
nonviolent movement for freedom and equality in the Holy Land. The video of
Baltzer’s award-winning presentation—including eyewitness photographs,
original maps, facts, music, and action ideas. -
www.annainthemiddleeast.com

Rachel Corrie: An American Conscience – 2005 -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IatIDytPeQ0  -  www.rachelcorrie.org
The late Rachel Corrie (1979 – 2003) was articulate, straight forward and
resolute. Her castigation of Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian
people and the Israeli Government’s disregard for the safety of Israelis and
Palestinians rang with clarity. Through peace activism she ascertained the
facts on the ground. She called it as she saw it. The documentary, “Rachel
Corrie: An American Conscience,” chronicles her humanitarian work with the
International Solidarity Movement in Rafah, Gaza Strip, just prior to her
murder in March 2003. While Corrie stood in front of a Palestinian home to
prevent its demolition, an Israeli soldier in a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer
crushed her to death.


The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg & The Pentagon Papers:
Directed by Judith Ehrlich
<http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Judith%20Ehrlich&ref=dp_dvd_
bl_dir&search-alias=dvd>  & Rick Goldsmith
<http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Rick%20Goldsmith&ref=dp_dvd_
bl_dir&search-alias=dvd>  – www.veoh.com/watch/v20946070MKKS8mr2
Henry Kissinger called Daniel Ellsberg the most dangerous man in America.
This is the Oscar-nominated story of what happens when a Pentagon insider
armed with his conscience, steadfast determination and a file cabinet full
of classified documents decides to challenge the US Presidency to help end
the Vietnam War. His actions shook America to its foundations when he
smuggled a top-secret Pentagon study to the New York Times. Facing 115 years
in prison on espionage and conspiracy charges, he fought back, with events
then leading to the Watergate scandal and the downfall of President Richard
Nixon. The story bears startling similarities to the current scandal around
Wikileaks. - www.amazon.com/The-Most-Dangerous-Man-America/dp/B00329PYGQ


Fahrenheit 9-11 (2004 – 122 Minutes)  - www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwLT_8S_Tuo
- www.michaelmoore.com
Michael Moore's view on what happened to the US after September 11 & how the
Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its
agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan & Iraq.


ROMERO – Starring Raul Julie as Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador –
Directed by John Duigan <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0241090/?ref_=tt_ov_dr>
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hAdhmosepI
Romero is a compelling and deeply moving look at the life of Archbishop
Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who made the ultimate sacrifice in a passionate
stand against social injustice and oppression in his country. This film
chronicles the transformation of Romero from an apolitical, complacent
priest to a committed leader of the Salvadoran people. This man of God
forced by the unspeakable events going on around him to take a stand-a stand
that ultimately leads to his assassination in 1980 at the hands of the
military junta. Archbishop Romero was murdered on March 24, 1980. He had
spoken the disturbing truth. Many chose not to listen. As a result, between
1980 and 1989, more than 60,000 Salvadorans were killed. But the struggle
for peace and freedom, justice and dignity goes on. -
www.catholicvideo.com/detail.taf?_function=detail&a_product_id=34582&kywdlin
kid=34&gclid=CJz8pMzor7wCFat7QgodUnMATA

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised:  (2003 - 74 Minutes)  -
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id--ZFtjR5c
Also known as Chávez: Inside the Coup, is a 2003 documentary focusing on
events in Venezuela <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela>  leading up to
and during the April 2002 coup d'état attempt
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempt> ,
which saw President Hugo Chávez
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez>  removed from office for two
days. With particular emphasis on the role played by Venezuela's private
media, the film examines several key incidents: the protest march and
subsequent violence that provided the impetus for Chávez's ousting; the
opposition's formation of an interim government headed by business leader
Pedro Carmona <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Carmona> ; and the Carmona
administration's collapse, which paved the way for Chávez's return.


THE CORPORATION  -  Directed by Mark Achbar
<http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1T4GPEA_enUS296US296&q=mark+achbar&stick=H
4sIAAAAAAAAAGOovnz8BQMDAy8HsxKnfq6-gXGKkXnFmvMWATPNpv8ueB20zsC85qE-C8sNABItY
wsqAAAA&sa=X&ei=YA6kUfvxE-GWiAKI6YHwAw&ved=0CKcBEJsTKAIwDQ>  & Jennifer
Abbott
<http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1T4GPEA_enUS296US296&q=jennifer+abbott&sti
ck=H4sIAAAAAAAAAGOovnz8BQMDAy8HsxKnfq6-gXm2aVnOkg0SS1Ksn2btcMtu5Xy46mmyXPMnA
GdQr_cqAAAA&sa=X&ei=YA6kUfvxE-GWiAKI6YHwAw&ved=0CKgBEJsTKAMwDQ>  - 2003 -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6zQO7JytzQ - www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHrhqtY2khc -
www.thecorporation.com 
Provoking, witty, stylish and sweepingly informative, THE CORPORATION
explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our
time. Part film and part movement, The Corporation is transforming audiences
and dazzling critics with its insightful and compelling analysis. Taking its
status as a legal "person" to the logical conclusion, the film puts the
corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask "What kind of person is it?"
The Corporation includes interviews with 40 corporate insiders and critics
<http://www.thecorporation.com/index.cfm?page_id=3>  - including Noam
Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Milton Friedman, Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva and
Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for
change.

The New Rulers of The World – Directed by John Pilger -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfrL2DUtmXY - www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxgZZ8Br6cE -
www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/new.html
Who really rules the world now? Is it governments or a handful of huge
companies? The Ford Motor Company alone is bigger than the economy of South
Africa. Enormously rich men, like Bill Gates, have a wealth greater than all
of Africa. Pilger goes behind the hype of the new global economy and reveals
that the divisions between the rich and poor have never been greater — two
thirds of the world’s children live in poverty — and the gulf is widening
like never before. The film looks at the new rulers of the world — the great
multinationals and the governments and institutions that back them — the IMF
and the World Bank. Under IMF rules, millions of people throughout the world
lose their jobs & livelihood. The reality behind much of modern shopping &
the famous brands is a sweatshop economy, which is being duplicated in
country after country:
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-new-rulers-of-the-world 

South Of The Border – Directed by Oliver Stone -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vBlV5TUI64 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvjIwVjJsXc -
www.southoftheborderdoc.com 
There’s a revolution underway in South America, but most of the world doesn’
t know it. Oliver Stone sets out on a road trip across five countries to
explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media’s
misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected
presidents. In casual conversations with Presidents Hugo Chávez (Venezuela),
Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Cristina Kirchner
(Argentina), as well as her husband and ex-President Nėstor Kirchner,
Fernando Lugo (Paraguay), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), and Raúl Castro (Cuba),
Stone gains unprecedented access and sheds new light upon the exciting
transformations in the region.

Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election by Joan Sekler & Richard Perez
– 2002 - www.unprecedented.org <http://www.unprecedented.org/>  -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOaoYnofgjQ
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election is the riveting story about
the battle for the Presidency in Florida and the undermining of democracy in
America. From the moment the polls opened, it was painfully clear that
something was wrong. While the media seized on the controversy surrounding
the poorly designed "Butterfly Ballot", much larger civil rights abuses were
overlooked. Focusing on events leading up to election day and the attempt to
count legally cast votes in the days that followed, Unprecedented examines a
suspicious pattern of irregularities, injustices and voter purges—all in a
state governed by the winning candidate's brother. One of the first
indications that something was wrong came early on election day. Thousands
of African-Americans who had voted in previous elections discovered that
their names were missing from the voter rolls. Investigators later uncovered
irrefutable evidence that exposed an elaborate strategy where thousands of
Democratic voters were purged from the rolls. These voters were
disproportionately African-American.