Public Employee Press

DVD Review

Why are we in Afghanistan?

Local 1549 says to leave now

With the death toll of U.S. soldiers topping 1,000 and layoffs and service cuts afflicting states and cities nationwide, Local 1549's Political Action Committee and Delegates voted June 7 and June 8 to urge our government to get out of Afghanistan now and redirect the war spending to domestic needs.

Before they voted, members of the PAC watched a short video titled, "Why Are We in Afghanistan?"

Director Michael Zweig points out the enormous cost of the war in money and lives - military and civilian, American and Afghan - and questions the basis of the war, especially since it seems Osama bin Laden is no longer in Afghanistan.

Zweig ties the war to the 70 U.S. foreign interventions since 1945 and says the goals include U.S. geo-strategic dominance in Central Asia - a region of increasing military importance, growing oil production and desirable natural resources - and President Obama's aim to avoid losing a war he inherited from Bush.

The Afghan war has cost the U.S. over $250 billion since 2001, and President Obama is requesting $33 billion more for 30,000 additional troops and a "make or break" offensive. Zweig, who heads the Center for Study of Working Class Life at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, shows graphically how we could have used that money for domestic needs.

With illustrations by the great labor cartoonist Mike Konopacki, the video constitutes an engrossing challenge to the war. The 28-minute DVD and the 11-minute condensed version are circulating widely among the increasing number of unions questioning the war.

At the Web site www.WhyAreWeIn-Afghanistan.org you can see the video, order the DVD for $9.95 and get more information. Copies of this video and "Rethink Afghanistan" by acclaimed filmmaker Robert Greenwald are available for members and locals to borrow in the DC 37 Education Fund Library, Room 211.

— Ken Nash, Librarian