The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is coming to Washington DC. on April 4 to mark its 70th birthday. Instead of celebrating NATO’s anniversary, a growing coalition of individuals and organizations is throwing a peace fest to unwelcome the arrival of the largest military alliance in the world.
While championing peace, NATO has repeatedly violated international law, and bombed Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Libya. Under the guise of a “humanitarian intervention,” NATO deliberately targeted civilians and city infrastructure, such as bridges, power plants, and local businesses, in the former Yugoslavia. Decades later, the region is still reeling from billions of dollars in damage and an outbreak of cancer, from the 6 tons of uranium bombs dropped on the country in the 1990s, an illegal war that never got UN authorization, not that its OK would have made the death & destruction any more justifiable.
NATO now accounts for three-quarters of all military spending and weapons dealing on the globe.
War is a leading contributor to the growing global refugee and climate crises, the basis for the militarization of the police, a top cause of the erosion of civil liberties, and a catalyst for racism and bigotry. April belongs to Martin Luther King, Jr., not militarism. Instead of saying “Happy Birthday” to NATO, we’re celebrating peace, in commemoration of MLK Jr.’s speech against war on April 4, 1967, as well as his assassination on April 4, 1968.
Go to notonato.org to learn more & RSVP for the No to NATO, Yes to Peace Fest, this April 3-4 in Washington, DC.
