Armed conflict throughout the world has been declining over the past decade, according to the Canadian research group, Project Ploughshares.

Many of the current wars still underway around the globe get little, if any, coverage in America’s mainstream media. And that may actually be a good thing, as Project Ploughshares Executive Director John Seibert explains.

The most recent report on global wars shows none continuing anywhere in the western hemisphere, but there’s a less obvious downside to what at first blush looks like good news.

The research of Project Ploughshares forms the basis of the recent documentary film, Soldiers of Peace  which will be shown Sunday afternoon at the Glaser Center in Santa Rosa as part of a local observation of the International Day of Peace . Click on nthe icon below to see a graph of the number of armed conflicts tallied by Project Ploughshares each year over the past decade.

You can also read the Project Ploughshares annual report here, and watch the trailer for Soldiers of Peace here:

Despite the hostile anti-American rhetoric from Iran’s president, a Santa Rosa woman who visited last year says the citizens she met were warm and welcoming.

To get connected with Global Exchange click here!

In her recent visit to the Gaza Strip, a Sebastopol woman left behind some hot pink playground equipment, and brought back a heightened humanitarian concern for the region's residents.

CodePink , the San Francisco-based women's peace organization, assembled an international delegation of 66  that included Barbara Briggs-Ledson of Sebastopol, for a five-day visit to the Gaza Strip early this month, just ahead of President Obama's visit to Egypt. While they were there,the CodePink represetatives were given a letter from the leadership of Hamas to deliver to the President, inviting him to also visit Gaza. Read the letter here .

The sliver of land known as the Gaza Strip comprises just 139 square miles, covering roughly the distance between Sebastopol and Petaluma and extending halfway out to the coast. Home to 1.5 million residents, nearly half of them children and youth, it is intensively urbanized--the refugee camps are blocks of concrete apartment buildings. So Barbara Briggs-Letson says she took particular pleasure in helping bring something colorful for the kids to that scene.

Barbara Briggs-Letson (in white) smiles for the camera along with the Palestinian women who acted as translators for the  CodePink visitors. In addition to bringing and assembling the playgrounds, the CodePink delegation visited hospitals and other public facilities, Briggs-Letson says they also met with some of the area's political leaders.

Damaged buildings at every turn were a constant reminder of day-to-day dangers of life in the Gaza Strip, says Briggs-Letson. And there were others, too.

You can see more photos from the Code Pink Gaza delegation's trip here. 

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan (right) was glad to see George W. Bush leave the White House. Now she's pressing his successor for more change in US military policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Unless President Obama decides to take actions more in keeping with his campaign promises to quickly wind down the dual wars in the Middle East, Sheehan predicts his current high levels of international popularity will plummet.

In addition to recalling American troops, Sheehan believes that a key step toward rebuilding this country's credibility in the eyes of the world would be war crimes prosecutions of top Bush Administration officials.

 Sheehan, who is speaking this evening at Sonoma State University  (see flyer below),  has recently completed a new e-book,  Myth America
10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution!   Here's a peek at its Table of Contents:

Myth One: America: Greatest Nation in the Universe!

Myth Two: Elections Matter

Myth Three: There's a huge Difference Between Dems and Repubs

Myth Four: It is Noble to Die in Robber Class Wars

Myth Five: The Central Banking System is good for the Robbed Class

Myth Six: It's a Privilege to pay Income Taxes to the Robber Class

Myth Seven: Housing, Health Care and Education are Privileges, too

Myth Eight: America has a Free Press

Myth Nine: The Environment, Who Needs it?

Myth Ten: 19 Muslims with box cutters were responsible for 9/11

Summary: The Case for (peaceful) Revolution.

The book is available only in digital format through Sheehan's website.