TEN YEARS AGO politicians and pundits turned the 9-11 tragedy into an excuse to launch the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Today the United States is deeply mired there in this country’s longest-ever war.

Al Qaeda – the ostensible reason for the invasion – has only 50 members in the whole of Afghanistan according to the CIA. And yet the resistance to U.S. occupation there remains strong and the overwhelming majority of Afghanis want the U.S. out of their country.

TEN YEARS AGO anti-war activists received a great deal of abuse for opposing the Afghanistan war. We warned that the 9-11 tragedy was cynically being used as an excuse to expand U.S. military domination of other peoples of the world.

And this is just what happened. In the last decade, the United States has nearly doubled its military budget, and the wars have spread to Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. U.S. military bases occupy more than 130 other nations, with most of the local populations opposing them.

Sixty-seven percent of the federal budget goes to paying for current and past wars. The U.S. now spends nearly as much on its military as the rest of the world combined.

While many, far-poorer countries are able to give free healthcare, higher education, generous maternity leave and decent public transportation systems, U.S. provisions for these services are decidedly second-rate. Yet lack of money is now being used as the excuse to shrink these programs even further.

How do we get out of this mess?

Please participate in a public forum with long-time anti-war activist Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network and the Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism, and Mary Dean of Voices for Creative Non-Violence . Mary was among a peace delegation that just returned from Afghanistan on August 15th.

2:30 PM ~ Saturday, Sept. 10
Merlo Public Library ~ 644 W. Belmont Avenue

Info: LGBTliberation [at] aol.com / www.gayliberation.net

This meeting is sponsored by the Gay Liberation Network and is part of a series of public forums around the Chicago area aimed at raising awareness about issues of war and peace in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. That anniversary – and the continuing wars abroad – will be protested with a mass march on Obama 2012 National Headquarters in Chicago at 12 noon, Saturday, October 8 beginning at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway.

For more information about the march, please go to www.ChicagoMassAction.org To find out more about how you can get involved in organizing efforts, please email CCAWR [ at] aol.com