Afghan Marshall Plan

It’s do or die time for the peace movement, as the Obama administration heads for granting all or part of an additional troop request in Afghanistan. We’ve seen it happen before. Lots of calls for timelines in Congress, lots of calls for exit strategies, then the Pentagon gets everything it wants anyway, as a result of spineless congressmen unwilling to challenge the military-industrial complex. Many Americans, disapproving of the war but not directly affected by deployments in their own families, will go along, as they struggle with their own problems with the economy. Many do not see the direct relationship between this and the enormous cost of war.

Although the peace movement has slowed the momentum for a troop escalation drastically, a critical tipping point in awareness among the general public is needed. What is missing is an understanding of what drives the insurgency, and how it can be addressed. The amazing fact is, despite repeat acknowledgments by the Obama administration that there is no military solution, the administration pursues – what? – a military solution:

“In Afghanistan, as in Iraq, there is no purely military solution, to state the obvious. The guts of our policy, in my view, must be to win the allegiance of the Afghan people to a better future and to help their government connect with the people and deliver on that future.” – Vice President Joe Biden on Feb. 25, 2008

The new 26 minute documentary “Afghan Marshall Plan: Winning With Jobs, Not Guns” was created to provide an understanding of the insurgency among the general public which will cause all remaining polled support to collapse. Only this will force the politicians into a new posture.

You can watch it online here: http://ralphlopezworld.com/pbs.mp4

Any member of a community can have his or her public access channel broadcast the program upon request, usually by filling out a standardized form on the channel’s website. Please help us broadcast this far and wide, to drive the final nail in the coffin of the foreboding tragedy of the proposed troop escalation, which will result in needless deaths, a further strained economy, and a foreign policy debacle. Following are the few easy steps to have this broadcast in your community.

MEDIA KIT

1. Fill out the broadcast request form at your community access TV (CATV) channel’s website. If you don’t know who your CATV is, you can find it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_access_stations_(United_States)

2. We will mail you the DVD (broadcast quality) of the show upon request. You can throw us a few bucks to cover postage if you want, or a self-addressed stamped envelope, but if you don’t have it don’t worry about it. We’ll get it to you. Respond to this email address or contact:

Sue Serpa
10 Cascade Rd.
Worcester, MA 01602
617-599-5195

3. Once you have a run-time and date, send or bring the following short blurb to your local newspaper right away so they can run it in the community announcements section. Viewership skyrockets with a newspaper announcement. Follow up with a call to the editor of the paper to make sure they received it. You can also send the editor a link to the online version of the documentary at
http://ralphlopezworld.com/pbs.mp4

If they would like a picture to run with the announcement, one is attached below.

4. Have a viewing party with your friends! Start the discussion. Then everyone call their congressman to say “No more troops, save our economy from further massive war debt by winning with jobs, not guns in Afghanistan.”

FOR LOCAL NEWSPAPER:
“On [time, date] community access [TV channel] will broadcast “Afghan Marshall Plan: Winning With Jobs Not Guns.” In the midst of the superheated debate over the course of the war in Afghanistan, independent film-makers Ralph Lopez and Najim Dost, the latter 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. Exposing the false choice between simply more troops or fewer, they talk to the people who matter most, who could hold the key to victory. The documentary reveals that an economic solution would cost but a small fraction of the present occupation. (26 minutes)”

LINK TO DOCUMENTARY FOR ONLINE VIEWING
http://ralphlopezworld.com/pbs.mp4

LINK TO BOSTON GLOBE/BALTIMORE SUN OP-ED “We Can Win With Jobs Not Guns in Afghanistan”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.afghanistan16aug16,0,4671831.story

LINK TO “An Exit Strategy for Afghanistan” by Ralph Lopez
http://jobsforafghans.org/exitstrategy.html

LINK TO FILM WEBSITE:
http://jobsforafghans.org