Talk World Radio

Francesco Duina is the author of Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country.

William Geimer, author, peace activist, is a veteran of the U.S. 82d Airborne Division and Professor of Law Emeritus, Washington and Lee University. After resigning his commission in opposition to the war on Vietnam, he represented conscientious objectors and advised peace groups near Ft. Bragg NC. A Canadian citizen, he lives with his wife near Victoria, British Columbia where he is a member of the Vancouver Island Peace and Disarmament Network. He is the author of Canada: The Case for Staying Out of Other People’s Wars and serves as advisor on policy issues of peace and war to Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament and Leader of the Green Party of Canada. Bill Geimer, welcome back to Talk Nation Radio.

A Debate: Is War Ever Justifiable?

Pete Kilner and David Swanson

Pete Kilner is a writer and military ethicist who served more than 28 years in the Army as an infantryman and professor at the U.S. Military Academy. He deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan to conduct research on combat leadership. A graduate of West Point, he holds an MA in Philosophy from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. in Education from Penn State.

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie and War Is Never Just. He is a 2015, 2016, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. He holds an MA in philosophy from UVA.

Two debates were held, one at Radford University on February 12, 2018, one at Eastern Mennonite University on February 13, 2018. Alternative Radio recorded the first debate. Last week we aired the first half of that first debate, this week the second half. With thanks to Alternative Radio.

Complete videos of both debates are here.

A Debate: Is War Ever Justifiable?

Pete Kilner and David Swanson

Pete Kilner is a writer and military ethicist who served more than 28 years in the Army as an infantryman and professor at the U.S. Military Academy. He deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan to conduct research on combat leadership. A graduate of West Point, he holds an MA in Philosophy from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. in Education from Penn State.

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie and War Is Never Just. He is a 2015, 2016, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. He holds an MA in philosophy from UVA.

Two debates were held, one at Radford University on February 12, 2018, one at Eastern Mennonite University on February 13, 2018. Alternative Radio recorded the first debate. This week we air the first half of that first debate, next week the second half. With thanks to Alternative Radio.

Complete videos of both debates are here.

Thomas Linzey is an attorney and the Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) – a nonprofit law firm that has provided free legal services to over five hundred local governments and nonprofit organizations since 1995. He is a cum laude graduate of Widener Law School and a three-time recipient of the law school’s public interest law award. He has been a finalist for the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Award, and is a recipient of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union’s Golden Triangle Legislative Award. He is a co-founder of the Daniel Pennock Democracy School – now taught in twenty-four states across the country which has graduated over 5,000 lawyers, activists, and municipal officials – which assists groups to create new community campaigns which elevate the rights of those communities over rights claimed by corporations. Linzey is the author of Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community, the author of On Community Civil Disobedience in the Name of Sustainability, co-author of We the People: Stories from the Community Rights Movement in the United States, was featured in Leonardo DiCaprio and Tree Media’s film 11th Hour and We the People 2.0, assisted the Ecuadorian constitutional assembly in 2008 to adopt the world’s first constitution recognizing the independently enforceable rights of ecosystems.

https://celdf.org

Jamil Simon is a documentary filmmaker who has worked in over 25 countries, developing communication strategies to promote social and environmental reform. He has promoted sustainable agriculture in Malawi, conflict resolution skills in Jordan, democracy in Mali, and water conservation in Tunisia. Most of this work has been done for USAID, DFID, and the World Bank. Simon was a conscientious objector during the war on Vietnam. Recently, he put together an event in New York City called War Stories Peace Stories. It took a deep look at the impact of the way the news media covers peace and conflict on public perceptions, and also how can it be done differently. Simon is currently producing a film about Peacebuilding in Burundi that will become part of a more ambitious film about peacebuilding in 4 countries– Burundi, Ireland, Sri Lanka and Colombia. See:

https://www.newsdeeply.com

https://www.warstoriespeacestories.org

http://spectrummedia-boston.com

Greg Shupak is the author of The Wrong Story: Palestine, Israel, and the Media, which can be purchased on the website of OR Books. He has a PhD in Literary Studies and teaches Media Studies at the University of Guelph in Toronto. His fiction has appeared in a wide range of literary journals and he regularly writes analysis of politics and media for a variety of outlets including Electronic Intifada, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, In These Times, Jacobin, Literary Review of Canada, Middle East Eye, TeleSUR, This Magazine, and Warscapes.

Gail Davidson is a legal activist working for a better world through advocacy and education to enhance understanding of and compliance with, international human rights and humanitarian law. She is the founder and Executive Director of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada a volunteer-run committee of lawyers and other human rights defenders in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN that promotes international human rights and the rule of law through advocacy, education and legal research. Gail was the co-founder of Lawyers against the War, an international committee of jurists and others formed to oppose war, advocate adherence to international humanitarian law and promote accountability for violators. As part of LAW advocacy, Gail brought torture charges against George W. Bush and pursued the right of a private person or group to prosecute torture suspects using universal jurisdiction, through appeal courts in Canada and the UN Committee against Torture.

Gail Davidson will be speaking at the conference on law and war that World BEYOND War is holding in Toronto in September, and we are very much looking forward to that, and people can sign up to attend at http://worldbeyondwar.org/nowar2018

This week on Talk Nation Radio we will be speaking with and listening to the music of Tom Neilson. He has received over two dozen awards, including two song of the year awards from Independent Musicians. In 2017, he received the Arab American Women Association Award for Education About Palestine Through Performance Art. In 2015 he was nominated for the United Nations Nelson Mandela Award for Lifetime Achievement in Peace and Justice. Tom and his partner Lynn Waldron will be performing this September in Toronto at the annual conference held by World BEYOND War: http://worldbeyondwar.org/nowar2018

Visit: http://tomneilsonmusic.com

Rania Khalek is an independent Middle-East-based journalist.