Kathy Kelly

Earlier this week, 100 Afghan families from Bamiyan, a rural province of central Afghanistan mainly populated by the Hazara ethnic minority, fled to Kabul. They feared Taliban militants would attack them in Bamiyan.

The path out of war seems to involve creating peace where we can, in earnest community with people whose basic needs aren’t met. It involves creating a green and equal world, acting conscientiously to abolish war. 

“Afghanistan experienced three decades of war,” said Esmatullah. “I wish that one day we’ll be able to end war. I want to be someone who, in the future, bans wars.” It will take a lot of “someones” to ban war, ones like Esmatullah who become schooled in ways to live communally with the neediest of people.

Our young friends have had enough of war, displacement, trauma and hunger.  60 million people, worldwide, now seek refuge, many of them fleeing war and violence. Shameful warlords and war profiteers, such as those who commandeered U.S. wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, destabilize defenseless populations. 

A letter of plea to the president of the United States of America  from an American in Baghdad by Kathy Kelly

A page from a diary from Iraq by veteran peace activist Kathy Kelly describing the horror and havoc caused by the American-led war on Iraqi civilians.