Writings by Dan Pearson

by Dan Pearson and Kathy Kelly

October 21, 2009

Now that the military offensive in Swat has wound down, Pakistan’s government officials have labeled the operation a success. They claim to have cleared the area of Taliban fighters and have commenced a new military offensive in South Waziristan.

A closer look reveals a very different story.

by Kathy Kelly and Dan Pearson
Islamabad, Pakistan
June 11, 2009

In Pakistan’s Swabi district, a bumpy road leads to Shah Mansoor, a small village surrounded by farmland. Just outside the village, uniform size tents are set up in hundreds of rows. The sun bores down on the Shah Mansoor camp which has become a temporary home to thousands of displaced Pakistanis from the Swat area. In the stifling heat, the camp’s residents sit idly, day after day, uncertain about their future. They spoke with heated certainty, though, about their grievances.

View photos from Pakistan delegation

By Dan Pearson
July 21, 2008

VIEW PHOTOS

More than twenty locals from the Milwaukee area joined us yesterday to walk from Oak Creek to Milwaukee, galvanizing the eight of us who’ve been walking since Chicago. Among them were members of Peace Action, Voces de la Frontera, Vets for Peace, Casa Maria Catholic Worker, students from Marquette University and a member of the Oak Creek chapter of Iraq Vets Against War. The Vets for Peace Chapter of Sheboygan, WI greeted us with a generous lunch in Humboldt Park on the south side of Milwaukee. We were then welcomed with an enthusiastic rally by another 20 or so people at our stopping point in downtown Milwaukee at the well known and somewhat contentious sunburst sculpture, jokingly described by some locals as the “big, orange asterisk.”

in Damascus, Syria

July 12, 2007

Rooftop Neighbors: photo by Dan Pearson

For my Iraqi neighbors living here in Yarmouk Camp, the Palestinian example is hardly an uplifting reminder that it could be a very long time before they can safely return to their homes and lands. But, they were lucky enough to escape the nightmare of U.S. freedom and democracy in Iraq, and at least there is usually electricity here and clean water to drink, so they try to put on a happy face. Yarmouk, one of the three most popular destinations for the estimated 2,000 Iraqis crossing into Syria every day, is a primarily Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus.