VIEW IT HERE (26 minutes)
Obama's announcement that it will be weeks before he decides on Afghanistan opens a window for war opponents to build public opinion against the war and troop escalation. It's as if Obama understands that time is the enemy of the escalation, as Americans across the spectrum ask more and more questions. A widened war will be disastrous for jobs in the American economy, as capital is diverted to the war machine. An Afghan Marshall Plan for stability would cost 1/10 of the cost of military operations, and build security, not insecurity.
We call hunger and unemployment the underside of the insurgency, but in fact it is the elephant in the room. The politicians know this, but pretend to be blind and hard-of-hearing, since war is more profitable for a few in the short-run than peace.
The documentary "Afghan Marshall Plan: Winning With Jobs Not Guns" was created to educate the public on why this war has no military solution,
in order to cause a collapse of the "floor" of polled support and to force the politicians to abandon escalation plans.
As we have seen from the continuing Iraq debacle, they don't care what a small number of activists alone think. But the combination of a "surge" in opposition and a drop in public support for the war could be the knock-out blow for the escalation, then on to withdrawal of troops.
The film is available for free broadcast and distribution at Pegmedia.org, a site for broadcast professionals to download free, high-quality, independently-produced content in a format ready to burn onto DVD. Dozens of public access TV stations are now airing it. Please keep this number growing, see how below.
FILM DESCRIPTION: "Afghan Marshall Plan: Winning With Jobs Not Guns" (filmed in Kabul)
"In the midst of the superheated debate over the course of the war in Afghanistan, two independent film-makers, one an American, the other an Afghan citizen, release this provocative look at the underside of an insurgency. In a country with 40% unemployment, they talk to those whose voices have been missing: ordinary Afghans. See and hear them up close in the squares where they gather by the thousands looking for work, and struggle to feed their families. Ranked as the fourth poorest nation in the world, many have never even heard of 9/11, nor the Twin Towers. But someone is always hiring at a good daily wage: the Taliban. The documentary reveals that a civilian solution to stability would cost but a small fraction of the present occupation. Troops in Afghanistan are counterproductive. Help for Afghans is not. (26 minutes)"
Email the below to your nearby public access TV station managers, which you can look up here:
Your public access TV station
CUT AND PASTE THE BELOW INTO AN EMAIL TO THE STATION MANAGERS. THEY CAN DO THE REST. ONCE YOU HAVE RUN DATES AND AIR TIMES, SEND AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER TO PUBLICIZE. ADD WATER. STIR. DONE. YOU HAVE HELPED STOP A WAR.
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Hi,
I would like to request that you broadcast the timely community-produced documentary, "Afghan Marshall Plan: Winning With Jobs Not Guns" which was filmed in Kabul this summer (26 minutes.) It is easily downloadable at Pegmedia.org , the site for public access TV managers to find quality, community-produced content (free, in mpeg2 format ready to burn to DVD.) Please contact me with the run-times and dates if you can run this as a community service.
Thank you!
(YOUR NAME)
Community Television Fan
FILM CONTENT DESCRIPTION: "Afghan Marshall Plan: Winning With Jobs Not
Guns" (filmed in Kabul)
"In the midst of the superheated debate over the course of the war in Afghanistan, two independent film-makers, one an American, the other an Afghan citizen, release this provocative look at the underside of an insurgency. In a country with 40% unemployment, they talk to those whose voices have been missing: ordinary Afghans. See and hear them up close in the squares where they gather by the thousands looking for work, and struggle to feed their families. Ranked as the fourth poorest nation in the world, many have never even heard of 9/11, nor the Twin Towers. But someone is always hiring at a good daily wage: the Taliban. The documentary reveals that an civilian solution to stability would cost but a small fraction of the present occupation. Troops in Afghanistan are counterproductive. Help for Afghans is not. (26 minutes)"
LINK TO PEGMEDIA DOWNLOAD PAGE FOR STATION MANAGERS (MPEG2 file)
"Afghan Marshall Plan: Winning With Jobs Not Guns":
www.pegmedia.org/index.php?q=msvr/showall/253/detail
LINK TO DOCUMENTARY FOR ONLINE VIEWING BEFORE DOWNLOADING (compressed MP4)
www.ralphlopezworld.com/pbs.mp4
MORE BACKGROUND LINKS ON SUBJECT:
LINK TO BOSTON GLOBE/BALTIMORE SUN OP-ED "We Can Win With Jobs Not
Guns in Afghanistan"
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.afghanistan16aug16,0,4671831.story
LINK TO "An Exit Strategy for Afghanistan" by Ralph Lopez
www.jobsforafghans.org/exitstrategy.html
LINK TO FILM WEBSITE:
www.jobsforafghans.org
LINK TO PRINTABLE PUBLICITY POSTER (FOR COMMUNITY LIBRARY BULLETIN BOARDS ETC.)
www.jobsforafghans.org/poster.pdf