Dear John,
This week, bombs fell in Lebanon. This month marked the 23rd anniversary of 9/11 - the day an act of terrible violence spurred the United States to launch a twenty-year war in the Middle East. And this month, Congress struggled to fund the U.S. government.
On the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, we reported that the U.S. had spent $21 trillion on militarism at home and abroad over those twenty years. And, throughout those wars, close to one million people died from the fighting. Millions more died as a result of indirect effects of the war.
We can see the same forces playing out now in Gaza, where Israeli military attacks have killed tens of thousands of people, and disease and hunger threaten those who survive. And as far-right forces in Israel bring the fight to Lebanon, the threat of wider war makes the analogy to the U.S. 9/11 response more apt.
The good news is that there is something the U.S. can do: our government can stop arming Israel and demand more serious negotiations to end this.
This week is also New York Climate Week and the Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice. Activists in New York and around the world are gathering to demand a more peaceful world and real solutions to global problems, showing us the way forward.
In solidarity,
Alliyah, Lindsay, Hanna, and Aspen
