This is the POLIBLOG of JMBzine and is dedicated to political links and commentary by JMB. If you wish to go to the MAINBLOG of JMBzine click here.
Monday, March 31, 2003
Quote of the Day
Extract from a letter by J.R.R. Tolkien to his son Christopher:
10 April 1944
I sometimes feel appalled at the thought of the sum total of human misery all over the world at the present moment: the millions parted, fretting, wasting in unprofitable days - quite apart from torture, pain, death, bereavement, injustice. If anguish were visible, almost the whole of this benighted planet would be enveloped in a dense dark vapor, shrouded from the amazed vision of the heavens! And the products of it all will be mainly evil - historically considered. But the historic version is, of course, not the only one. All things and all deeds have a value in themselves, apart from their "causes" and "effects." No man can estimate what is really happening sub specie aeternitatis. All we do know, and that to a large extent by direct experience, is that evil labors with vast power and perpetual success - in vain: preparing always the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.
I often post updates from the CPTnet, but this one is probably one of the most moving I have read. Please read it. It speaks volumes about the kind love of the civilian population of Iraq and horrible attrocity of the US/UK war against that people...
CPTNET Welcome at Rutba Mar. 30 2003 by Doug Hostetter
(The author of this piece is a 15 year adviser and friend of CPT who is currently supporting peace work in Amman, Jordan. He is Peace Pastor, Evanston Mennonite Church (Evanston IL), and Senior Middle East Correspondent for American Friends Service Committee.)
Amman Jordan - A three vehicles convoy started out early Saturday morning (3/29/03) heading for the Amman Jordan on the road that runs through the Western Iraqi desert from Baghdad to the Jordanian border. The group included Iraqi drivers for each vehicle, 8 Americans and an Irishman from Christian Peacemakers Teams and Voices in the Wilderness, two Japanese reporters and a Korean peace activist. As the group headed west in the early morning light, there was ample evidence of the effects of US/British bombing. There were the downed bridges, the destroyed gas stations, and the blackened shells of destroyed military and civilian vehicles by the side of the road. US and British planes could be seen in the skies, and were actively engaged in bombing near the road so the drivers decided spread their vehicles apart and travel at maximum speed so as to minimize the likelihood of their becoming "collateral damage" in this war. The last of the vehicles carried three Christian Peacemaker Team Members: Weldon Nisly, Seattle Washington, Kara Speltz, Oakland, CA and, Cliff Kindy of CPT staff in Ohio, along with Shane Claiborne, Philadelphia, PA who was in Iraq with the Voices in the Wilderness Iraqi Peace Team. They were a few hours from the Jordanian border traveling at about 80 miles per hour when a tire blew, causing the diver to lose control. The vehicle left the road and landed on its side at the bottom of a 10 foot ditch. The driver thought that the wheel had been shot by a nearby Allied plane, but the team thinks it was just as likely that the tire was destroyed by shrapnel or debris on the road from earlier Allied strikes.
They were able to open the doors on the top side of the vehicle and eventually were able to pull everyone out. Everyone was bruised, badly shaken, but all were conscious though it was clear that Weldon was badly injured, and Cliff was bleeding badly from a large gash in his head. The car was totaled, and the other two cars in the convoy were well out of sight down the road toward the Jordanian border and no one in the delegation had a satellite phone. Because of to the intensive US/British bombing, with very good reason, there were very few vehicles on the road between Baghdad and the Jordanian. The group was just beginning to panic, when an Iraqi civilian car approached, pulled over and asked if he could help. Without a second thought, the driver packed the 5 additional passengers into his car and drove to the closest Iraqi town, Rutba, about 6 km from the site of the accident. Rutba is a city of about 20,000 people located 140 km east of the Jordanian Border. The group was astounded to see that this civilian town, with no apparent military structures had been devastated by US/British bombing three days earlier. Much of the town was destroyed including the children's hospital in which two children were killed in the bombing. The group was taken to the only remaining functioning medical facility in town, a 20-foot X 20-foot four-bed clinic. The people of the town quickly gathered to inspect their uninvited foreign guests. The group hastily offered everyone a copy the CPT hand-out, a description of the Christian Peacemakers Team's mission and work in Iraq, with English on one side of the page and Arabic on the other. Introduction in hand, the people of Rutba warmly welcomed the wounded stranded American refugees, just three days after their town had been destroyed by American/British Aircraft. The next morning, Shane asked, "How do you think Americans would respond to Iraqi civilians accidentally stranded in their community three days after Iraqi aircraft had destroyed their town?"
When the doctor arrived, the group was in for an even bigger surprise. In this town of 20,000 in the middle of the Iraqi desert, the doctor who would treat them spoke perfect English, and without delay, he started his examinations. Everyone in the vehicle was badly bruised, but Weldon Nisly had a broken thumb, several broken ribs and other possible fractures, while Ciff Kindy had a very bad gash in his head. The doctor was professionally embarrassed. Because of the embargo, and the Allied attack on their primary hospital three days earlier, many medications were unavailable. Some painkillers were on hand, but Cliff Kindy would have to get the 10 stitches he needed to close the gash in his head without anesthesia. Under normal circumstances, the doctor explained, they would gladly have offered to take the wounded of group by ambulance to Jordan. But, he could not make that offer in the current situation. As was obvious from the bombed out ambulance not far down the road, it appears that even ambulances are at times considered legitimate targets of American/British bombing. By the time everyone in the group had been treated, about two hours after they had arrived, the two other cars in the convoy had returned and found them. The group warmly thanked the people of Rutba for their hospitality, and tried unsuccessfully to pay the clinic and doctor for their services. "We treat everyone in our clinic: Muslim, Christian, Iraqi or American. We all are part of the same family you know," the doctor said.
Christian Peacemakers Team
Weldon Nisly, Mennonite Pastor from Seattle, WA Jonathan & Leah Wilson-Hartgrone, Philadelphia, PA Kara Speltz of Oakland, CA Betty Scholten, Mt. Rainier, MD Peggy Gish, Athens, OH CPT staff Cliff Kindy, Indiana CPT staff
Voices in the Wilderness Iraq Peace Team Michael Birmingham, Ireland Shane Claiborne, Philadelphia
Christian Peacemaker Teams is a program of Brethren, Quaker and Mennonite Churches. CPT P. O. Box 6508 Chicago, IL 60680 tel. 773-277-0253; Fax: 773-277-0291, E-Mail cpt@igc.org WEB www.prairienet.org/cpt
LA IMC has a lot of good coverage on Los Angelinos who are speaking out, both in large rallies and in local neighborhood protests! From what I've read so far, I think they might be more effective than the more talked about San Francisco protest actions.
(Bold typeface emphasis was added by me in the quote below...
. . . With attention thus deflected, the administration and its allies in Congress have come up with one proposal after another to weaken programs that were designed to help struggling Americans.
In his budget last month the president offered a plan to make it more difficult for low-income families to obtain government benefits, including tax credits and school lunch assistance. This month, as The Times' Robert Pear reported, the administration proposed changes in the Medicare program that would make it more difficult for elderly people, many of them frail, to appeal the denial of benefits like home health care and skilled nursing care.
The extent to which the most vulnerable Americans are being targeted is appalling. Billions of dollars in cuts have been proposed for food stamp and child nutrition programs, and for health care for the poor.
Collectively, these are the largest proposed cuts in history. Even cuts for veterans' programs are on the table — in the midst of a war!
The administration is actually fighting two wars — one against Iraq and another against the very idea of a humane and responsive government here at home.
At some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, the war against Iraq will end. Americans will then have the opportunity to look around and be stunned by the fix we'll be in. We'll look at the enormous costs of the postwar occupation in Iraq, and at the social and economic dislocation that's occurring here. And we'll look at the disaster that the federal budget has become. We'll be broke, and we'll ask ourselves, again and again, "What have we done
I say call Congress and ask them if they really support the troops or not. I'm sick and tired of the way we lie to those who serve our country. I've had too many friends who are veterans who have been screwed by Uncle Sam. This war is bad enough, but to CUT VETERAN'S BENEFITS during the war is crazy whack!
By and large, recent pro-war rallies haven't drawn nearly as many people as antiwar rallies, but they have certainly been vehement. One of the most striking took place after Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, criticized President Bush: a crowd gathered in Louisiana to watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a collection of Dixie Chicks CD's, tapes and other paraphernalia. To those familiar with 20th-century European history it seemed eerily reminiscent of. . . . But as Sinclair Lewis said, it can't happen here.
Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out, is that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry — with close links to the Bush administration.
The CD-smashing rally was organized by KRMD, part of Cumulus Media, a radio chain that has banned the Dixie Chicks from its playlists. Most of the pro-war demonstrations around the country have, however, been organized by stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, a behemoth based in San Antonio that controls more than 1,200 stations and increasingly dominates the airwaves.
US attacks residential neighborhood with 2 cruise missles
NPR this morning and MSNBC are both reporting that at least 14 Iraqi civilians were killed in a residential neighborhood, with death counts likely rising.
Folks on the ground report that there were NO military or government targets nearby. Either this is a horrible mistake or the US/UK coalition is changing strategies.
From: Credit Union Journal, March 24, 2003, Vol. 7; No. 12; Pg. 6
Wrestling With A Pig; 10 Questions Every Credit Union Should Ask Itself Before Supporting The Bankruptcy Reform Bill
By Jim Blaine
Haven't heard of Chapter 2 bankruptcy? Bet you skipped on over to Chapters 7 and 13 which have all the "steamy stuff," didn't ya? Well, the newly, reintroduced Bankruptcy Reform Act is much like one of those wicked romance novels-there sure are some saucy parts that will definitely make those old toes "curl"!! Might want to back up and read "the whole book" from cover to cover, if you want to better understand "the plot."
Now that the 2003 version of the Bankruptcy Bill has been regurgitated without revision, it's pretty obvious that the credit union trade associations have chosen, once again, to disregard the facts and to favor, instead, their spin doctors and opinion pollmeisters-which often passes for thinking "inside the wasteline." (Um, maybe that should be waistline, or is it beltway?) Anyway, here are 10 questions that I suspect you'd like to understand before you cast your credit union pearl before this hoggish Bankruptcy Abuse Reform Fiasco ("BARF" for short). Remember how surprised you were with "the subsequent revelations" (and major disastrous problems) which arose from HR 1151? Well, as old Ron used to say: "Here they go again!"
Were you aware that BARF included these credit union "political victories"?
Ten Questions You Should Ask About Bankruptcy Reform
1) The new bankruptcy bill encourages the use of Chapter 13 bankruptcy in lieu of Chapter 7.
Currently, two-thirds of Chapter 13 filers do not finish these bankruptcy repayment plans. There is no apparent reason to feel the new law will improve the ratio.
In Chapter 13 filings under current bankruptcy law, unsecured creditors are rarely repaid. There is no reason to anticipate that credit union losses will improve.
Has your trade association given you an honest estimate of how much you'll "save" in loan losses? If not, why not?
2) Do credit unions truly wish to agree to mandatory debt-management plan (DMP) participation (with resultant rate reductions) dictated by consumer counseling groups? Did you know the new bankruptcy bill "encourages" this?
3) Do credit unions really think members will benefit by giving manufactured home financing companies a higher priority in bankruptcy? The new bankruptcy bill enhances mobile home dealers standing in comparison to credit unions. Do you really want this?
4) Do credit unions truly believe members will benefit by giving "used car salesmen" greater protection and priority under the new bankruptcy act? Used car dealers (your "Fast Eddie type") gain an advantage over credit unions in the new bankruptcy bill. You endorse this- right?
5) Do credit unions really feel that credit card companies should have a greater ability to collect from college students who were given numerous cards in college when the students had no income?
Credit card companies gain financial advantage over credit unions in the new bankruptcy bill. We're spending our political capital to promote this?
6) Do credit unions endorse all lending practices by all creditors? Is there any differentiation that should be made based on rate, terms, lending practices, fees, due diligence, ethics? The bankruptcy bill gives equal standing to all unsecured lenders regardless of their lending ethics. The ethical, "white hat" lenders get trashed under the new bill. You agree this is fair?
7) Do credit unions really support permitting the affluent to keep their "multi-million-dollar mansions" (if they've owned the house for 40 months)? Despite what you've heard, the bill penalizes the poor. Your credit union endorses letting the wealthy keep the estate while sending the poor to the wall?
8) Why do credit unions support eliminating "judicial discretion" in the bankruptcy process? Does "no mercy," no individual variance truly reflect real life? Are all individual cases of bankruptcy exactly the same? Is all bankruptcy unjustified and abusive? Do you really want a legal system that can't use judgment?
9) For bankruptcy repayment standards, do credit unions really support letting the IRS fix the "living standard" criteria for all members? Does "one size fits all" really make sense in evaluating the financial needs of individuals? All members have the same basic financial needs, right?
10) Many credit unions have moved to risk-based pricing on loans. In theory, risk-based lenders take greater credit risk and should expect greater credit losses. Credit union risk-based lenders charge higher rates to compensate (actually to gouge!) for the extra risk. So quit whining! You've already been "paid" for those bankruptcy losses! Or is risk-based lending a little less scientific than claimed? Are credit union managers pointing the finger at "bankruptcy abuse" to avoid acknowledging their poor lending practices?
*BONUS QUESTION*
Which group of credit union members, volunteers and professional staff has thoroughly reviewed the provisions of this bankruptcy bill? Who were they? When did they meet? As democratic cooperatives, how did the vote come out?
You ought to get a wee bit nervous if those trade folks won't give you some straight answers to these questions. Why don't you give 'em a call and ask...
Finally, about this Bankruptcy Bill (BARF), just remember what my Mama used to say about siding up with unseemly associates: "You should never wrestle with a pig. You'll both get dirty and the pig likes it!"
Jim Blaine is CEO of State Employees Credit Union, Raleigh, N.C. Mr. Blaine can be reached at P.O. Box 27665, Raleigh, NC, 27611.
Copyright 2003 American Banker-Bond Buyer a division of Thomson Publishing Corporation
This op-ed piece is thought-provoking and alarming. While I do not think the parallels are exact, they are still uncanny. (Before jumping to conclusions on this piece, be sure to read the last few paragraphs.)
When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History by Thom Hartmann February 27, 2003
The 70th anniversary wasn't noticed in the United States, and was barely reported in the corporate media. But the Germans remembered well that fateful day seventy years ago - February 27, 1933. They commemorated the anniversary by joining in demonstrations for peace that mobilized citizens all across the world.
It started when the government, in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign ideologue had launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings, but the media largely ignored his relatively small efforts. The intelligence services knew, however, that the odds were he would eventually succeed. (Historians are still arguing whether or not rogue elements in the intelligence service helped the terrorist; the most recent research implies they did not.)
But the warnings of investigators were ignored at the highest levels, in part because the government was distracted; the man who claimed to be the nation's leader had not been elected by a majority vote and the majority of citizens claimed he had no right to the powers he coveted. He was a simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world.
His coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in the government and media. And, as a young man, he'd joined a secret society with an occult-sounding name and bizarre initiation rituals that involved skulls and human bones.
Nonetheless, he knew the terrorist was going to strike (although he didn't know where or when), and he had already considered his response. When an aide brought him word that the nation's most prestigious building was ablaze, he verified it was the terrorist who had struck and then rushed to the scene and called a press conference.
"You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history," he proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by national media. "This fire," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, is the beginning." He used the occasion - "a sign from God," he called it - to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion.
Two weeks later, the first detention center for terrorists was built in Oranianberg to hold the first suspected allies of the infamous terrorist. In a national outburst of patriotism, the leader's flag was everywhere, even printed large in newspapers suitable for window display.
Within four weeks of the terrorist attack, the nation's now-popular leader had pushed through legislation - in the name of combating terrorism and fighting the philosophy he said spawned it - that suspended constitutional guarantees of free speech, privacy, and habeas corpus. Police could now intercept mail and wiretap phones; suspected terrorists could be imprisoned without specific charges and without access to their lawyers; police could sneak into people's homes without warrants if the cases involved terrorism.
To get his patriotic "Decree on the Protection of People and State" passed over the objections of concerned legislators and civil libertarians, he agreed to put a 4-year sunset provision on it: if the national emergency provoked by the terrorist attack was over by then, the freedoms and rights would be returned to the people, and the police agencies would be re-restrained. Legislators would later say they hadn't had time to read the bill before voting on it.
Immediately after passage of the anti-terrorism act, his federal police agencies stepped up their program of arresting suspicious persons and holding them without access to lawyers or courts. In the first year only a few hundred were interred, and those who objected were largely ignored by the mainstream press, which was afraid to offend and thus lose access to a leader with such high popularity ratings. Citizens who protested the leader in public - and there were many - quickly found themselves confronting the newly empowered police's batons, gas, and jail cells, or fenced off in protest zones safely out of earshot of the leader's public speeches. (In the meantime, he was taking almost daily lessons in public speaking, learning to control his tonality, gestures, and facial expressions. He became a very competent orator.)
Within the first months after that terrorist attack, at the suggestion of a political advisor, he brought a formerly obscure word into common usage. He wanted to stir a "racial pride" among his countrymen, so, instead of referring to the nation by its name, he began to refer to it as "The Homeland," a phrase publicly promoted in the introduction to a 1934 speech recorded in Leni Riefenstahl's famous propaganda movie "Triumph Of The Will." As hoped, people's hearts swelled with pride, and the beginning of an us-versus-them mentality was sewn. Our land was "the" homeland, citizens thought: all others were simply foreign lands. We are the "true people," he suggested, the only ones worthy of our nation's concern; if bombs fall on others, or human rights are violated in other nations and it makes our lives better, it's of little concern to us.
Playing on this new nationalism, and exploiting a disagreement with the French over his increasing militarism, he argued that any international body that didn't act first and foremost in the best interest of his own nation was neither relevant nor useful. He thus withdrew his country from the League Of Nations in October, 1933, and then negotiated a separate naval armaments agreement with Anthony Eden of The United Kingdom to create a worldwide military ruling elite.
His propaganda minister orchestrated a campaign to ensure the people that he was a deeply religious man and that his motivations were rooted in Christianity. He even proclaimed the need for a revival of the Christian faith across his nation, what he called a "New Christianity." Every man in his rapidly growing army wore a belt buckle that declared "Gott Mit Uns" - God Is With Us - and most of them fervently believed it was true.
Within a year of the terrorist attack, the nation's leader determined that the various local police and federal agencies around the nation were lacking the clear communication and overall coordinated administration necessary to deal with the terrorist threat facing the nation, particularly those citizens who were of Middle Eastern ancestry and thus probably terrorist and communist sympathizers, and various troublesome "intellectuals" and "liberals." He proposed a single new national agency to protect the security of the homeland, consolidating the actions of dozens of previously independent police, border, and investigative agencies under a single leader. He appointed one of his most trusted associates to be leader of this new agency, the Central Security Office for the homeland, and gave it a role in the government equal to the other major departments.
His assistant who dealt with the press noted that, since the terrorist attack, "Radio and press are at our disposal." Those voices questioning the legitimacy of their nation's leader, or raising questions about his checkered past, had by now faded from the public's recollection as his central security office began advertising a program encouraging people to phone in tips about suspicious neighbors. This program was so successful that the names of some of the people "denounced" were soon being broadcast on radio stations. Those denounced often included opposition politicians and celebrities who dared speak out - a favorite target of his regime and the media he now controlled through intimidation and ownership by corporate allies.
To consolidate his power, he concluded that government alone wasn't enough. He reached out to industry and forged an alliance, bringing former executives of the nation's largest corporations into high government positions. A flood of government money poured into corporate coffers to fight the war against the Middle Eastern ancestry terrorists lurking within the homeland, and to prepare for wars overseas. He encouraged large corporations friendly to him to acquire media outlets and other industrial concerns across the nation, particularly those previously owned by suspicious people of Middle Eastern ancestry. He built powerful alliances with industry; one corporate ally got the lucrative contract worth millions to build the first large-scale detention center for enemies of the state. Soon more would follow. Industry flourished.
But after an interval of peace following the terrorist attack, voices of dissent again arose within and without the government. Students had started an active program opposing him (later known as the White Rose Society), and leaders of nearby nations were speaking out against his bellicose rhetoric. He needed a diversion, something to direct people away from the corporate cronyism being exposed in his own government, questions of his possibly illegitimate rise to power, and the oft-voiced concerns of civil libertarians about the people being held in detention without due process or access to attorneys or family.
With his number two man - a master at manipulating the media - he began a campaign to convince the people of the nation that a small, limited war was necessary. Another nation was harboring many of the suspicious Middle Eastern people, and even though its connection with the terrorist who had set afire the nation's most important building was tenuous at best, it held resources their nation badly needed if they were to have room to live and maintain their prosperity. He called a press conference and publicly delivered an ultimatum to the leader of the other nation, provoking an international uproar. He claimed the right to strike preemptively in self-defense, and nations across Europe - at first - denounced him for it, pointing out that it was a doctrine only claimed in the past by nations seeking worldwide empire, like Caesar's Rome or Alexander's Greece.
It took a few months, and intense international debate and lobbying with European nations, but, after he personally met with the leader of the United Kingdom, finally a deal was struck. After the military action began, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told the nervous British people that giving in to this leader's new first-strike doctrine would bring "peace for our time." Thus Hitler annexed Austria in a lightning move, riding a wave of popular support as leaders so often do in times of war. The Austrian government was unseated and replaced by a new leadership friendly to Germany, and German corporations began to take over Austrian resources.
In a speech responding to critics of the invasion, Hitler said, "Certain foreign newspapers have said that we fell on Austria with brutal methods. I can only say; even in death they cannot stop lying. I have in the course of my political struggle won much love from my people, but when I crossed the former frontier [into Austria] there met me such a stream of love as I have never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators."
To deal with those who dissented from his policies, at the advice of his politically savvy advisors, he and his handmaidens in the press began a campaign to equate him and his policies with patriotism and the nation itself. National unity was essential, they said, to ensure that the terrorists or their sponsors didn't think they'd succeeded in splitting the nation or weakening its will. In times of war, they said, there could be only "one people, one nation, and one commander-in-chief" ("Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer"), and so his advocates in the media began a nationwide campaign charging that critics of his policies were attacking the nation itself. Those questioning him were labeled "anti-German" or "not good Germans," and it was suggested they were aiding the enemies of the state by failing in the patriotic necessity of supporting the nation's valiant men in uniform. It was one of his most effective ways to stifle dissent and pit wage-earning people (from whom most of the army came) against the "intellectuals and liberals" who were critical of his policies.
Nonetheless, once the "small war" annexation of Austria was successfully and quickly completed, and peace returned, voices of opposition were again raised in the Homeland. The almost-daily release of news bulletins about the dangers of terrorist communist cells wasn't enough to rouse the populace and totally suppress dissent. A full-out war was necessary to divert public attention from the growing rumbles within the country about disappearing dissidents; violence against liberals, Jews, and union leaders; and the epidemic of crony capitalism that was producing empires of wealth in the corporate sector but threatening the middle class's way of life.
A year later, to the week, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia; the nation was now fully at war, and all internal dissent was suppressed in the name of national security. It was the end of Germany's first experiment with democracy.
As we conclude this review of history, there are a few milestones worth remembering.
February 27, 2003, was the 70th anniversary of Dutch terrorist Marinus van der Lubbe's successful firebombing of the German Parliament (Reichstag) building, the terrorist act that catapulted Hitler to legitimacy and reshaped the German constitution. By the time of his successful and brief action to seize Austria, in which almost no German blood was shed, Hitler was the most beloved and popular leader in the history of his nation. Hailed around the world, he was later Time magazine's "Man Of The Year."
Most Americans remember his office for the security of the homeland, known as the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and its SchutzStaffel, simply by its most famous agency's initials: the SS.
We also remember that the Germans developed a new form of highly violent warfare they named "lightning war" or blitzkrieg, which, while generating devastating civilian losses, also produced a highly desirable "shock and awe" among the nation's leadership according to the authors of the 1996 book "Shock And Awe" published by the National Defense University Press.
Reflecting on that time, The American Heritage Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983) left us this definition of the form of government the German democracy had become through Hitler's close alliance with the largest German corporations and his policy of using war as a tool to keep power "fascism (fash'iz'em) n. A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."
Today, as we face financial and political crises, it's useful to remember that the ravages of the Great Depression hit Germany and the United States alike. Through the 1930s, however, Hitler and Roosevelt chose very different courses to bring their nations back to power and prosperity.
Germany's response was to use government to empower corporations and reward the society's richest individuals, privatize much of the commons, stifle dissent, strip people of constitutional rights, and create an illusion of prosperity through continual and ever-expanding war. America passed minimum wage laws to raise the middle class, enforced antitrust laws to diminish the power of corporations, increased taxes on corporations and the wealthiest individuals, created Social Security, and became the employer of last resort through programs to build national infrastructure, promote the arts, and replant forests.
To the extent that our Constitution is still intact, the choice is again ours.
Thom Hartmann lived and worked in Germany during the 1980s, and is the author of over a dozen books, including "Unequal Protection" and "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight." This article is copyright by Thom Hartmann, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached. ### (c) Copyrighted 1997-2003
Remember this war is NOT about Iraqi (or Kurdish) freedom. If it was, the US would go to the UN to demand that a peacekeeping force be sent to Northern Iraq to keep the Turks out and establish a DMZ.
Look what was the top press release on the US State Department's website: State.gov: Secretary Powell on Fox News --- It looks to me like those Austin protestors were dead on right in protesting at the Fox News office.
Today I heard that one of my favorite Austin restaurants, Rudy's is hosting a "Go America" rally, and as part of it, people who bring a bottle of French wine and pour it out on the ground will receive a free bottle of Rudy's BBQ sauce. If you'd like to call the corporate office and share your thoughts, here's the number: 512-418-0444.
CPTnet March 25, 2003 IRAQ: Letter from Peggy Gish Monday, March 24, 2003
[Note: This letter has been edited for length.]
Right now as I write this there have been two bombs exploding in the background. . .In most directions we see plumes of black smoke coming up from buildings burning.Yesterday there was a lot of black smoke from burning oil that was hard on me physically. . .
Some cars are still on the streets and we have been able to get around in taxis. Yesterday many of us went to a hospital where wounded people are being taken and were able to go into the wards and see and talk with the patients and their families: one 5 year old girl who had major spinal chord injuries from shelling, a 12 year old boy who had a large cut in his abdomen from shrapnel, and his intestines were coming out. He and 11 other members of his family were injured by shrapnel while in their home two days ago and were hospitalized. Many others were awaiting or just coming out of surgery for removing shrapnel. . .
For the last three nights I have slept out in one of two tents out at the Al Wathba water treatmentplant which is next to a large hospital complex. We could not get approval to put the tents on hospital grounds. Most of the bombing has been more distant from our camp, but a couple have sounded about one fourth or one half mile from us. There is a shelter building near our tents that we could go into if we felt we were in danger. . . .
I have been experiencing a mixture of fear, anger, but mostly grief about what is happening. There is no good reason for this assault on this society and these innocent people. I am impressed by their strength and courage and their continued openness and graciousness to us who are from countries who are bombing them.
. . .
We don't know from day to day what we will be able to do. Our "minders" have just started wanting to know where everyone is during the day, and not having us go out on the streets around the hotels unaccompanied, but we have been able to go to most of the places we have wanted to go. So far we haven't had to go [anywhere] or do anything we have not chosen and which we feel is not meaningful or useful. But our situations could change anytime. We are discussing how we would deal with these possibilities. . .
We pray that the countries of the world are still able to stop what is happening here. We continue to need your prayers for us in all this. I feel that we have been carried by God's love and strength, and your love, prayers, and support. We are very much encouraged when we hear about massive protests and arrests for [civil disobedience] all around. Much strength to all of you in the good work you are doing. Thank you so much.
I love you all very much.
Peggy
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction efforts around the world. Contact CPT, POB 6508, Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253, Fax: 773-277-0291, tp://www.prairienet.org/cpt/
half an hour ago the oil filled trenches were put on fire. First watching Al-jazeera they said that these were the places that got hit by bombs from an air raid a few miniutes earlier bit when I went up to the roof to take a look I saw that there were too many of them, we heard only three explosions. I took pictures of the nearest. My cousine came and told me he saw police cars standing by one and setting it on fire. Now you can see the columns of smoke all over the city.
Todat the third in the war, we had quite a number of attacks during daytime. Some without air-raid sirens. They probably just gave up on being able to be on time to sound the sirens. Last night, after waves after waves of attacks, they would sound the all-clear siren only to start another raid siren 30 minutes later. The images we saw on TV last night (not Iraqi, jazeera-BBC-Arabiya) were terrible. The whole city looked as if it were on fire. The only thing I could think of was “why does this have to happen to Baghdad”. As one of the buildings I really love went up in a huge explosion I was close to tears.
today my father and brother went out to see what happening in the city, they say that it does look that the hits were very precise but when the missiles and bombs explode they wreck havoc in the neighborhood where they fall. Houses near al-salam palace(where the minister Sahaf took journalist) have had all their windows broke, doors blown in and in one case a roof has caved in. I guess that is what is called “collateral damage” and that makes it OK? We worry about daytime bombing and the next round of attacks tonight with the added extra of the smoke screen in our skies.
This might sound silly, but I think they should give Salam and Raed a Pullitzer prize for journalism if they live through this war. This is the best reporting I've heard from the ground is a whole lot better than those silly imbedded reporters who only give one side of the story.
Several things stand out in this story. First, I commend the Austin folks for targeting their protests on folks who actually have a tie to this war... The Federal Government, military contractors, and Fox News (who are the worst warmongers in the corporate media right now).
That said, I think the protestors did wrong by how they dealt with the police. If you intend to do C.D., don't get a parade permit and then break off and do something else. Don't make the cops' job harder than it needs to be. Either tell them nothing and get no permits, or tell them everything. Playing games with the cops just makes it harder for other activists to do lawful protests. Certainly some want to do C.D. and that is great. I commend you if you do it right. Other do not, but still want to speak out and protest. There's no reason to purposely antagonize the cops without reason.
Another thing in the Statesman story is at the end where it discusses what happend in San Marcos last night:
In San Marcos, about a dozen protesters descended on a City Council meeting to speak out against a proposed resolution supporting President Bush, as well as Mayor Robert Habingreither's characterization of an anti-war demonstration on the town square Thursday as "disgusting."
The meeting was temporarily halted after shouting matches erupted among the crowd and protesters balked at putting down their signs inside the council chambers.
"I'm going to hold this sign up!" Lamar Hankins, whose son-in-law is serving in Iraq, told the council. "If you want to have me arrested, have me arrested."
After a 10-minute break, Habingreither agreed to let protesters hold their signs. The council then voted unanimously to support the resolution, which also included a clause saying, "The people of San Marcos, Texas include both citizens who support a war with Iraq and citizens who seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict."
Before voting, Habingreither told the crowd he made a poor choice of words in describing the protesters last week but said he was concerned that current troops would face the same ill feeling that their Vietnam-era predecessors did.
After the council voted, a protester yelled, "You lost a lot of votes tonight."
I got agree with the San Marocs folks. Habingreither needs to go. His pseudo-apology was an insult to peace activists. I don't know ANY peace activists who would disrespect indidivual soldiers or treat them badly. This war is not the GI's fault. The war is the Administration's fault. There is a tremendous amount of anger (and even hatred to some extent) right now for the Bush and Blair administrations, and for the military top brass. But, again I have heard no one disrespect individual GI's. I myself would be very, very disappointed if that every occured.
Mayor Habingreither should know better than to say stupid things like this.
The B-2 bomber carries sixteen 2'000 lb. JDAM bombs. If all goes 100% as planned (the bomb does not fall outside of its specified margin of error of 13 meters, and the GPS guidance system is not foiled by a $50 radio jammer kit, easily purchased), then here is what one such bomb does:
* everyone within a 120 meter radius is killed;
* to be safe from serious shrapnel damage, a person must be at least 365 meters away;
* to be really safe from all effects of fragmentation, a person must be 1000 meters away, according to Admiral Stufflebeem.
The B-2s will be used upon targets within Baghdad. -Prof Marc W. Herold, IBC Project Consultant
For my American readers, remember a meter is a bit more than a yard... so, what this means is that everyone with a football field's length from ground zero is killed, and to be safe from serious shrapnel damage you would have to be almost a quarter mile away!
If they are dropping these kinds of bombs in Baghdad, then I think the civilian casualty counts thus far reported are far less than the truth.
I was extremely disturbed to find this appalling email message in my box today from the "AustinforJesus" listserve. Once upon a time, the AFJ list was a worthwhile ecunemical listserve (created after several special ecunemical worship gatherings in Austin in 2000) but lately has gone to Wackyland. Daniel Geraci, the listserve operator started by first posting a bunch of things that had a right-wing political perspective. I complained to him about this and asked to be removed from the list but was not (probably an honest mistake on his part, I think I had changed email addresses and may not have given him the right one.)
Anyway, fast foward to today's message. The author (who I assume is a Messianic Jew by her spelling of "G-d")claims that God told her to pray for the troops in Northern Iraq because they will be facing incredible dangers there and some kind of trickery. She goes on to encourage her readers to not only pray for the safety of American & British troops (which I whole-heartedly agree with) but forgets to encourage her readers to pray for the safety of the Iraqi people, particularly the civilian population. (I guess they don't count.)
From there she then proceeds to encourage folks to:
Pray that Israel and America will embrace a solid steadfast alliance with each other as true friends and allies, and that American administrations will only APPEAR to be wanting to implement the "road map", yet put so many obstacles in the way so that it won't ever be implemented by the United States.
Is she smoking crack? Does she read the same Bible that I read?
I am aghast that she actually is praying that there would not be peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
I am disturbed beyond belief by this. I cannot believe that someone who claims to be a follower of Christ would say such a hateful awful thing.
I read a compelling blog post at Letters from the Little Girl Inside. In this post she talks about her longing for her beloved who is in the service in the war in in Iraq. It is so, so sad to read.
She also said something else that got me thinking...
the thing that really pisses me off about this war is the protesters... i mean, f*CK! do you really think protesting and wasting our tax money on gettin your *sses arrested by cops we finance will help? is that really going to stop the war? you want to be heard? go write a f*cking book! write an editorial for a newspaper, for goddsakes! dont cause drama for your mama on the damn streets and waste people's time trying to stop you... its not accompishing anything but even making it worse... its not bringing the troops back... its not going to make this war end sooner... its not going to ease the sleep of the families and loved ones that are out there fighting for bush's stupid cause... yeah, i dont agree on the war either... i think its stupid... but do i go parading the streets trying to show off? NO! i mean, i want the war to stop... i didnt even want it to start in the first place... who does? i want chuckie to come home... i want everyone in the military to be able to go back to where they belong- which is here... i want a whole lot of things... but the whole protesting thing is just giving us another war to fight in our very own backyard...
Reading this makes me wonder if she is right. I've talked to several people these last few days who are really turned off by the confrontational protests in San Francisco and other places. Yet, at the same time it doesn't seem right to be silent either.
If you don't believe in the war, to me it is complicity to not speak out. At the same time, is it counterproductive to speak out if it just pisses people off?
I don't know.
I do know this. I think the civil disobedience actions of some protestors right now are backfiring bigtime. Maybe if the protests were better planned (with participants who were truly committed to non-violent methods... you can't protest for peace and at the same time attack or insult the cops) it would be different. As it is right now, I think peace activists would be better served by seeking as much as possible to protest through legal and peaceful means. If there is a time for C.D. actions, then you need to do it right. Focus it on military interests. Don't shut down the streets of San Francisco. If you want to do something that will help things, do a sit-in at a military recruiting office. That would be worthwhile because it would be focused on the problem at hand. Street shutodwns and the like are not focused and tend to hurt the people who have nothing to do with this stupid war (poor folks driving to work for instance).
One last thing which is also from the blog I quoted above. This line is priceless...
fighting for peace is like f*****g for virginity
So true. I think it's time for all peace activists to start acting like PEACE activists.
AlJazeera.net: Photographs of American dead and P.O.W.s (WARNING: These pictures are extremely disturbing. --- This link is provided to remind us of the true cost of war and is NOT intended to any way cheapen the values of these men's lives. They died (or are held captive) because they were doing what they believed in. They deserve the highest measure of respect and honor for their commitment. It is not the soldier's fault for the horrors of this war. I respect the soldiers 100%.
But, at the same time I do mean disrespect to those who sent them there. I don't think the administration took this risk seriously enough (especially since Bush thinks right is an A-OK time for him to vacation at Camp David.). I think the administration and the top military brass bear part of the blame for their deaths/captures.
I shudder to think that the coalition forces haven't even reach Baghdad.
Mother Jones: Words of War --- Unsure how to support the Bush administration at this critical juncture? Now, you can strike a blow against our enemies by simply reworking your vocabulary.
"When about two dozen anti-war protestors descended on the square Thursday, waving signs and changing, not everyone was pleased tos ee them. Eating lunch in a restaurant across the street, San Marcos Mayor Robert Habingreither called the protestors an unappetizing sight.
"I'm disappointed we don't have unamimous support in this country for this president," he said. "It's disgusting to me."
It looks to me that it is time for San Marcos votes to boot Habingreither from office. From recent reports I've read from the community, I am "disgusted" by Mayor Habingreither's lack of respect for free speech and free thought.
Al Jazeera.net: Photographs of civilians killed in the war (WARNING: Extremely disturbing images are found on this link.) --- I hestitate to post these images as I do not want to cheapen the lives (and deaths) of these people, but at the same time I think some of the callous folks I've spoken to lately about this war need to see with their own eyes the horrible cost of it, both for Iraqis and Americans.
The Coalition of the "Willing" (or more likely the bribed)
Here is the list (posted on okgreens@yahoogroups.com recently, and was supposed to be derived from an American Forces Press Service report - list current as of March 19th) of the 30 countries that asked to be publicly identified. (Supposedly there are now more but the others supposedly want to be anonymous.)
Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom
North Africa:
Eriterea, Ethiopia
Here are some interesting phenomenea in this scenario...
1. Only 3 countries in Latin America support this war. Each of those countries have substantial histories of prior American meddling (and sometimes outright forced changes of governments.) Currently Columbia in particular is the recepient of massive amounts of military aid, and will likely be the location of America's next war.
2. Substantial support for the war is found in Eastern Europe and in former soviet republics in central Asia, most likely due to an aversion to supporting Russian policy and also out of a desire for future American aid.
3. There is NO support for the war in Subsaharan Africa, and in fact the only African support is from two warring countries (Ethiopia and Eriterea) who are likely vying for American support of their side in thir war.
4. There are no majority Islamic nations that are giving public support to this war. (but certainly Kuwait and Qatar are obvious supporters.)
5. Generally there is little support for this war from the Southern Hemisphere (only Australia, Columbia, Eritera, and Ethiopia).
6. There is no support for this war in the world's two most populous countries: China and India.
7. Western European support is spotty at best. The only country actually willing to back up their war position with troops is the UK.
(from an email forward, supposedly derived from a New Hampshire Gazette story)
*President George W. Bush - a comfortable slot near home in the Texas Air National Guard, engineered by Dad. Dubya was also "missing" for an entire year from his Alabama duty station - AWOL - a news story not covered by the media.
*Vice President Dick Cheney - no military service.
*Defense Secretary. Don Rumsfeld - no military service.
*Chief Pentagon hawks Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz - no military service.
*Grand Inquisitor Attorney General John Ashcroft - no military service.
*Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott - no military service.
Neo-Conservative media figures baying for war against Iraq: Rush Limbaugh, Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Michael Ledeen, Bill Reilly, George Will, Ken Adelman .... - no known military service during Vietnam.
The only senior member of the Bush Administration with an honorable military record appears to be General Colin Powell, and he was least of all in favor of the Iraqi war.
Reuters has released a photo of the American soldiers who were killed by Iraqi forces yesterday. I can't say that I recommend you view them. It is a horrible horrible sight to see your fellow Americans killed like this. I know that war is hell and that the cost of it is always death and injury, but still to see these images is such a haunting horrible thing.
I want to see the troops brought home now, brought back to their families, to their wives and husbands and children, their parents and grandparents, their friends and their lovers. These soldiers did not deserve to be treated like this, to die in such awful fashion.
Philly.com has a story on the San Fran area protests. It is generally tilted against the protestors, but I would say it brings up some good points. I think the protestors would be better off focusing on those directly involved with the war (government contractors, military recruiters, and government offices) and not try to do stupid things like shut down the Golden Gate bridge at rush hour. I can see the value of doing that once as an attention-getting (wake up and think) measure, but otherwise think it is counter-productive to offend the very people one would hope to offend. Also lots of working folks can't afford to miss or even be late for work. I have no problem with sticking it to those in power who are behind this war (in non violent ways) but don't hurt the little guy.
Reports from the NYC peace protests today (from the NYC IMC) report that either 200,000 (AP's count) or 300,000-400,000 (Police count). Riot police have been pepper spraying protestors at Washington Square Park. Here is one report from the website:
M22 2:44pm The front of the march has been at Washington square for a while. The end of the march is still only at 35th street. There is a giant police van at the park which is broad casting a message that says "The march is now over. Please leave the area so others may enter." Protesters have responded by chanting "The war is now over. Please leave Iraq so people may live!" Riot police have just arrived at Washington Sq.
What is amazing about this protest is that the NYC IMC has been broadcasting text messages to cell phones (those who subscribed via NYC IMC) so that protestors know what is going on throughout the day, but I've been getting the text messages here in Newcastle, OK. Woohoo! It's great to see the people use the corporate media/technology for peace!
CPTnet March 21, 2003 IRAQ UPDATE: 9:30 pm/ 1:30 pm EST
as reported to Gene Stoltzfus
Bombs have been falling for the past hour according to Lisa Martens and Stewart Vriesinga who are at the Al Daar Hotel. In Baghdad the bombing is more intense tonight than it was the previous night. Shrapnel can be heard rattling in the area. Inside the Hotel severe pressure can be felt when bombs explode. Hotel telephone continues to work. Bombing at tent site, Al Wathba Water Treatment Plant , and Al Monsur Paediatric Hospital is somewhat less intense. Telephone connection between the "tenters" and the Hotel (the distance between the two is four miles) continues to work, although connections to other parts of the city are breaking down.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction efforts around the world. Contact CPT, POB 6508, Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253, Fax: 773-277-0291. http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/
Austin-based Fuddruckers announced Friday it's jumping on the "freedom fries" bandwagon, changing menus in its 220-plus restaurants to eliminate offending references to pommes frites. U.S. House members can also enjoy "freedom toast" for breakfast at their D.C. cafeterias. . .
Well I won't eat at Fuddruckers again. Another xenophobic pro-war restaurant.
I think I'm going to Sonic tonight to order some genuine FRENCH FRIES. God bless France!
Where is Raed (the world's most courageous blog author, currently blogging from Baghdad if he is still alive after America's "Shock and Awe" writes eloquently of the terror one feels when you hear on Al-Jazeera that B-52's are on their way to bomb your city.
May God have mercy on us all. I frankly do not why God lets our nation and its allies do such horrible, horrible things. I know God has let awful horrible things happen before (I don't know why) and I guess this is another such time
Thanks to Where is Raed? (blog from Iraq) for this quote:
The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do. --- Samuel P. Huntington
I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but FOXNews has shown off the insipid stupidity of some of the so-called American press. (Fox makes MSNBC, CNN, and the NY Times look good, which is sad since those guys have all been asleep at the switch lately.) Here are a few choice excerpts from Fox's latest example of irressponsible journalism...
All of these demonstrations, particularly the disruptive and violent ones, are drawing attention away from other homeland security efforts, some experts say.
"I think it's almost certainly the case that people are being distracted by these activities," Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, told Foxnews.com. "To the extent that some of these people may actually try -- as they have threatened to do -- to be disruptive, that could actually cause an actual problem.
"More than just minding them, we've got to try to prevent them from doing harm. At [a] time of war, that can translate into aiding and abetting the enemy -- that crosses a potentially important line."
Aiding and abetting the enemy? I guess FOXNews wants us Americans to turn off our brains and be complicit in this war. No way!
I think FOX is doing a major disservice to all American by making statements like this. Civil disobedience has a long and established history in this country, and was instrumental in the movements to ensure the human rights of all Americans. While I might differ with some of the tactics used today by some protestors, I do not think they should be labeled "as aiding and abetting the enemy" and they should not suffer any legal consequences, other than for the specific acts they might commit (trespass, unlawful parade, etc.)
This felony conspiracy business that is being threatened in San Fran is B.S. This is supposed to be America, not the China or the old Soviet Union.
Ecuadorean demonstrators carry a Ronald McDonald statue to be burned in front of the U.S. Embassy during a rally protesting the war against Iraq (news - web sites) in Quito, March 20, 2003. The demonstration were held to protest against the military strike on Iraq launched by the U.S.-led coalition. REUTERS/Franklin Jacome
When I showed a friend this picture, he said, "at least they know who the real enemy is."
From the C.R.O.P. list serve: A peace vigil will be held in Muskogee, OK tomorrow (and on subsequent Fridays), at 3pm at the intersection of Hwy 69 and Okmulgee St.
Austin IMC: Conflicting accounts on tonights arrests on Congress Avenue Bridge From what it sounds like Austin/UT/Travis County PD did a good job of keeping the peace and preserving the rights of protestors at the earlier protests on the drag, but there are lots of questions about what happened later that night on the bridge.
Also lots of amazing and inspirational photos from today's protests can be found at Statesman.com. What really excites me is to see the large number of high school students who walked out of classes today to protest the war! Also, I gotta give props to UT journalism prof Bob Jenson! He'll probably get fired for it, but I'm glad to see UT faculty stepping out like this. I am so proud of my old home. I know I'm supposed to be in Oklahoma right now and am proud of what we're doing here, but it sure is heartwarming to see a city where so many are for peace.
Incredible news is out of mass civil disobedience actions in San Francisco and Chicago. I'm listening to BBC on my shortwave radio tonight and they are talking about it (the funny thing is they interviewed a republican from Lake County I think it was for a counterpoint. The Repub said that the peace movement in San Fran is all backed by the Communist Party who is out to destroy capitalism. Too funny...)
Folks, it looks to me like they're trying to kill freedom tonight. I'm glad the people are rising up to voice their non-violent opposition but I worry that after continued beatdowns and arrests that might give up the fight for peace.
OKIMC: 75 Attend OKC Peace Vigil (scroll all the way down to see additional photos from the OKC National memorial that I took tonight and my thoughts on the night)
If you're in Austin and involved in today's peace actions, please be careful and know that you are in my thoughts and prayers. If the cops beat you, don't respond back with violence. That lets them win. Be strong for peace!
CPTnet March 20, 2003 IRAQ UPDATE: 7:00 pm/ 11:00 am (EST)
By Doug Pritchard
Scott Kerr phoned at 11 am EST (7 pm their time) to say that the subgroup of Cliff Kindy, Peggy Gish and Betty Scholten along with four Iraq Peace Team members has established itself on the grounds of the water treatment plant. They have had a meeting with the Director of the adjacent Paediatric Hospital who was very glad for their presence. They have also met with workers at the water plant and their families, several of whom live in housing on the site. The group has also done a first prayerful walk around the perimeter of the facility. They have set up a watch schedule to have two people on duty every three hours around the clock, awake and walking around the neighbourhood.
Earlier the team had been asking people to erect tents and banners at similar facilities in their own communities--hospitals, water treatment plants, power plants, sewage treatment plants, bridges etc. That seems even more timely now.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction efforts around the world. Contact CPT, POB 6508, Chicago, IL 60680
OKIMC.org: OU Students And Faculty Protest Against War - I'll have another story posted tonight on the OKC vigil. It was very encouraging today at Norman to see so many turn out during spring break to protest the war! I would guess next week's protest will probably have hundreds in participation.
Here is post from a couragous blog author in Iraq Raed. I dare you to read it if you actually believe the administration's lies about this war being "Operation Iraqi Freedom."
[RANT] No one inside Iraq is for war (note I said war not a change of regime), no human being in his right mind will ask you to give him the beating of his life, unless you are a member of fight club that is, and if you do hear Iraqi (in Iraq, not expat) saying “come on bomb us” it is the exasperation and 10 years of sanctions and hardship talking. There is no person inside Iraq (and this is a bold, blinking and underlined inside) who will be jumping up and down asking for the bombs to drop. We are not suicidal you know, not all of us in any case.
I think that the coming war is not justified (and it is very near now, we hear the war drums loud and clear if you don’t then take those earplugs off!). The excuses for it have been stretched to their limits they will almost snap. A decision has been made sometime ago that “regime change” in Baghdad is needed and excuses for the forceful change have to be made. I do think war could have been avoided, not by running back and forth the last two months, that’s silly. But the whole issue of Iraq should have been dealt with differently since the first day after GW I.
The entities that call themselves “the international community” should have assumed their responsibilities a long time ago, should have thought about what the sanctions they have imposed really meant, should have looked at reports about weapons and human rights abuses a long time before having them thrown in their faces as excuses for war five minutes before midnight.
What is bringing on this rant is the question that has been bugging for days now: how could “support democracy in Iraq” become to mean “bomb the hell out of Iraq”? why did it end up that democracy won’t happen unless we go thru war? Nobody minded an un-democratic Iraq for a very long time, now people have decided to bomb us to democracy? Well, thank you! how thoughtful.
The situation in Iraq could have been solved in other ways than what the world will be going thru the next couple of weeks. It can’t have been that impossible. Look at the northern parts of Iraq, that is a model that has worked quite well, why wasn’t anybody interested in doing that in the south. Just like the US/UK UN created a protected area there why couldn’t the model be tried in the south. It would have cut off the regimes arms and legs. And once the people see what they have been deprived off they will not be willing to go back, just ask any Iraqi from the Kurdish areas. Instead the world watched while after the war the Shias were crushed by Saddam’s army in a manner that really didn’t happen before the Gulf War. Does anyone else see the words (Iran/not in the US interest) floating or is it me hallucinating?
And there is the matter of Sanctions. Now that Iraq has been thru a decade of these sanctions I can only hope that their effects are clear enough for them not to be tried upon another nation. Sanctions which allegedly should have kept a potentially dangerous situation in Iraq in check brought a whole nation to its knees instead. And who ultimately benefited from the sanctions? Neither the international community nor the Iraqi people, he who was in power and control still is. These sanctions made the Iraqi people hostages in the hands of this regime, tightened an already tight noose around our necks. A whole nation, a proud and learned nation, was devastated not by the war but by sanctions. Our brightest and most creative minds fled the country not because of oppression alone but because no one inside Iraq could make a living, survive. And can anyone tell me what the sanctions really did about weapons? Get real, there are always willing nations who will help, there are always organizations which will find his money sweet. Oil-for-Food? Smart Sanctions? Get a clue. Who do you think is getting all those contracts to supply the people with “food”? who do you think is heaping money in bank accounts abroad? It is his people, his family and the people who play his game. Abroad and in Iraq, Iraqis and non-Iraqis.
What I mean to say is that things could have been different; I can’t help look at the Northern parts of Iraq with envy and wonder why.
Do support democracy in Iraq. But don’t equate it with war. What will happen is something that could/should have been avoided. Don’t expect me to wear a [I heart bush] t-shirt. Support democracy in Iraq not by bombing us to hell and then trying to build it up again (well that is going to happen any way) not by sending human shields (let’s be real the war is going to happen and Saddam will use you as hostages), but by keeping an eye on what will happen after the war.
To end this rant, a word about Islamic fundis/wahabisim/qaeda and all that.
Do you know when the sight of women veiled from top to bottom became common in cities in Iraq? Do you know when the question of segregation between boys and girls became red hot? When tribal law replaced THE LAW? When Wahabi became part of our vocabulary?
It only happened after the Gulf War. I think it was Cheney or Albright who said they will bomb Iraq back to the stone age, well you did. Iraqis have never accepted religious extremism in their lives. They still don’t. Wahabis in their short dishdasha are still looked upon as sheep who have strayed from the herd. But they are spreading. The combination of poverty/no work/low self esteem and the bitterness of seeing people who rose to riches and power without any real merit but having the right family name or connection shook the whole social fabric. Situations which would have been unacceptable in the past are being tolerated today.
They call it “al hamla al imania – the religious campaign” of course it was supported by the government, pumping them with words like “poor in this life, rich in heaven” kept the people quiet. Or the other side of the coin is getting paid by Wahabi organizations. Come pray and get paid, no joke, dead serious. If the government can’t give you a job run to the nearest mosque and they will pay and support you. This never happened before, it is outrageous. But what are people supposed to do? thir government is denied funds to pay proper wages and what they get is funneled into their pockets. So please stop telling me about the fundis, never knew what they are never would have seen them in my streets. [/RANT]
I just heard Bush give his "declaration of war" on national tv tonight.
It's time now for the response of peace-lovers around the world and especially in our local communities. Here are the events I am aware of that are happening in Oklahoma and Texas. Other events in other locales can be found at UnitedForPeace.org. Lord willing I will be at the OU and OKC demonstrations and will post pictures and accounts at www.okimc.org. BTW, MSNBC has a good story on tomorrow's nation-wide protests.
The University of Oklahoma in Norman - OU Students Against War will be demonstrating on the north oval near Boyd Street from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. Weather forcasts say there may be rain, but planners say the event will happen anyway. They do remind participants that the "demonstration will be peaceful and respectful. Please keep this in mind as you make signs and present yourself at the demonstration."
Downtown Oklahoma City - a Candlelight Vigil will be held starting at 6 p.m. at the Episcopal Center at NW 9th and Robinson.
Tulsa - Streetside Protest - Corner of 41st and Yale, 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
The University of Texas at Austin - Protest/Student Walkout will take place at 12 noon on the South Mall (south of the UT Tower), followed by a 24 hour vigil. Organizers invited you to bring yourself, signs, candles, friends, and family.
Downtown Austin - Protest in front of the State Capitol beginning at 4:30 pm, followed by a march to the Congress Avenue Bridge (around 5:15p). (Civil disobedience actions will be happening later in the week. More info at AustinAgainstWar.org
Bryan, TX - Daily noon protests are planned at 4112 E 29th St. in Bryan Texas. Folks are encouraged to bring signs and bullhorns.
Corpus Christi, TX - Protest at 12 noon in front of the Federal Courthouse, Shoreline & I-37 Corpus Christi Texas 78401
Denton, TX - A peace picnic is planned for 1pm - 3pm at the corner of Hickory and Fry Street in Denton, Texas. "We will raise our voices and music in opposition to the arrogance of the Bush administration to commit murder in the name of multinational oil and gas companies."
Houston, TX - Houston activists call for a gathering at 5 p.m. at Hermann Park "Hippie Hill" (where the outdoor theater is located in Hermann Park), on Hermann Dr. near Caroline St. More news at http://www.houstonjusticenotwar.org/calendar.html
NewsOK: Council votes 7-1 to back war against Iraq --- Many cities in this great nation have passed resolutions against the war. I am aghast that OKC has decided to go the opposite route, especially in times of such great bugetary crisis with the burden for "homeland security" being born most heavily by state and local governments.
The people of Iraq are caught in a trap. Two overwhelming powers approach from opposite sides. Like an animal in a steel trap, they gnaw at their own leg, hoping somehow for freedom, even at the cost of a limb. They watch as the smiling hunter approaches, singing songs of freedom, singing songs of righteousness. They hear the words, "In God we trust," and "God bless America."
The clerk looks up and welcomes me "home" with graciousness and a smile each time I enter the hotel. Since we have arrived in Baghdad, this man has been kind to me, patient with my inability to speak Arabic, concerned whether I had a good day or a bad day. He has a deep and abiding sadness in his eyes.
Tonight, he asks, "John, what do you think about this war?" I explain that I think it is immoral and a tragedy of enormous proportions. "Why did you come?" he asks. I tell him I want to support my Iraqi friends and stand in opposition to my government. I came to Iraq because he is not my enemy, but my brother. He says, "You are better even than us. We do nothing. You come here to help. We can do nothing, do you understand?"
"My family is here in Baghdad. My father, my brothers. Do you know I go home each night and I just sit. I only think of one thing: 'What am I to do? War is coming, What am I to do?' That's it. Tomorrow, the next day, I can do nothing. I just sit. My brothers, my father, the same."
I look deeply into his eyes. Days, months, years, in this trap. "Why this war?" he asks. I cannot answer. I want to console him, but I cannot. I want to hold him like my child, and tell him it will be all right, but it will not be all right.
"Thank you and your friends for being here, you have good hearts", he says. He puts his hand over his heart--a common gesture here in Iraq. It is a reminder for me. For a moment we stand across from each other, holding our hearts, holding our anguish. We both begin to cry. When I can bear it no longer, I turn and head for the lift.
The people of Iraq are caught in a trap. They watch as the smiling hunter approaches, singing songs of freedom, and singing songs of righteousness. Then they notice the look in the eye. The smile is not for them. The hunter merely appreciates the prey. He is thinking he will end it quickly and go home with his prize. The songs are not for them. In the eyes of the approaching power freedom, democracy, and security is only for a select group. As the prey looks up in a final plea for mercy, this truth becomes self evident.
Barber was a member of CPT's February 1-15 delegation to Iraq.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction efforts around the world. Contact CPT, POB 6508 Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253 Fax: 773-277-0291.
Activists in Baghdad Brace for Consequences of War Published on Wednesday, March 12, 2003 by the Gannett News Service by Greg Barrett
BAGHDAD - If the invasion that the Pentagon has dubbed "Operation Shock and Awe" commences, Charlie Liteky is unlikely to feel either.
He expects the United States to bomb Iraq. He expects noise and destruction more powerful and frightening than he has ever known. He expects the Earth to shake and houses to go dark and children to scream themselves hoarse.
But Liteky sounds more determined than frightened.
Like 20 other members of the Chicago-based Iraq Peace Team who remain in Baghdad even as hostilities appear certain, Liteky abhors cluster bombs, cruise missiles and the civil unrest that combat causes. As a decorated Vietnam veteran, he knows firsthand the chaos and carnage of war.
That's precisely why he sounded elated Tuesday morning when he told his wife that the Iraqi government had extended his tourist visa 10 days and is likely to extend it again, long enough for him to help Iraqi children through the difficult time.
Most of the peace activists who descended by the hundreds on Baghdad this fall and winter have fled. Those who remain have no intentions of leaving. They are anchored to the bull's-eye despite the fact - or maybe because of it - that the World Health Organization predicts 100,000 Iraqis could die.
"I'm here because I hear the children cry," Liteky said. "In my mind ... I imagine the bombing and the noise and the windows shattering and something coming down from the ceiling and children looking up and parents grabbing them and fear being transferred from parents to children."
Save yourselves
Washington has warned the activists to clear out. The Pentagon has said its assault will leave no place in Baghdad to hide. So the rundown hotels that enjoyed full houses as recently as February are shuttering their windows.
At the Hotel Al-Fanar on the Tigris river, the Iraq Peace Team is moving to the lower floors because the eight-story building is old and seems unsteady. Its bomb shelter is a musty basement that stores the hotel's chemical cleaning supplies.
Members of the peace team have signed an ominous-sounding contract: "In the event of your death, you agree to your body not being returned to your own country but being disposed of in the most convenient way."
They have had awkward discussions about what to do with the corpses that might collect around them. Wrap the dead in hotel drapes, they decided. Pray for help.
Iraq Peace Team founder Kathy Kelly had a photo enlarged that shows her with some of her dearest friends - the family of an Iraqi widow and her nine children. The photo is being mailed to Kelly's mother in Chicago.
"She can see by that photo that I am very, very happy," Kelly said, sounding serenely calm despite the gathering storm.
On Monday, Kelly helped an Iraqi friend pack to leave. Teacher and artist Amal Alwan rushed her three young children into a taxi and paid $300 for the 10-hour drive from Baghdad to Damascus, Syria. Alwan doesn't have relatives in Syria and couldn't tell the cabbie exactly where to go.
"She doesn't have a clue where she will stay, but she can't possibly stay in Baghdad, not with children," Kelly said. "Her house is next to a communications center."
As Kelly spoke it was almost 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Baghdad and she was awake reading "A Fine Balance," a novel about civil war in India. She planned to rise six hours later for a daily prayer meeting then go with the peace team to the United Nations offices in Baghdad. They would hold aloft several enlarged photos of Iraqi families.
Each photo would carry a single question: "Doomed?"
"I don't have the slightest sense of not belonging exactly where I am right now," said Kelly, 50, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee. "The thought of leaving has not even crossed my mind."
The Pentagon says the presence of U.S. pacifists will not deter the course of war. Although there are no plans to arrest them for violating sanctions on Iraq by traveling to Baghdad, officials throughout the U.S. government, from the White House to the State Department to the Pentagon, sound confused about how to best to deal with them.
"There's not a whole lot of precedence," said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Dan Hetlage. "It's not like you had human shields protecting the Taliban."
Armed for war
Members of the Iraq Peace Team say they are as prepared for war as they will ever be. They have "crash kits" packed neatly and set by their hotel doors. Liteky's is the size of carryon luggage. It bulges with bandages, antibiotics, water-purification tablets, three liters of water, dried fruit, canned tuna, biscuits, power bars and a short-wave radio.
He hopes to ride out Operation Shock and Awe in Baghdad's Orphanage of the Sisters of Mother Teresa. Or at least to rush there as soon as the bombing subsides. He's compelled to at least try to quell the inevitable trembling of the children.
"I'd rather die doing something," he told his wife, Judy, "then die ... in some old folks home."
Liteky, 72, is a former Roman Catholic priest and Vietnam war hero awarded the congressional Medal of Honor for crawling under volleys of gunfire in 1967 to rescue 23 injured U.S. soldiers.
According to Army reports, during the firefight near Phuoc-Lac the wounded became too heavy to carry so Liteky turned onto his back in the mud, pulled the men on top of him and crawled backward under gunfire, using only his heels and elbows.
He's plenty scared of war, he said, but his fear is for the children.
When the attack comes, he said, "the most beautiful thing that can happen for me is if I am permitted to be at the orphanage. At least I could pick the children up, hold them, and try to let my calm and love transfer to them."
Liteky speaks every morning to his wife 11 times zones away in San Francisco. Since arriving in Baghdad three weeks ago, it has become increasingly difficult to hang up the phone. On Tuesday they spoke for 40 minutes, said goodbye twice, and kept talking.
"I don't have a death wish," he said in an interview Monday. "I have everything to live for. I have a wonderful wife and a wonderful life back home."
Liteky and his wife have thought for a week that the invasion of Iraq would begin sometime between March 10 and 17. So when Judy Liteky, a math teacher at a community college, left for work on Monday, she put a bumper sticker on her car.
"Attack Iraq? No!," it read.
"The bumper sticker made me feel just a little bit better," she said
Kelly heard late Monday that the United Nations would evacuate most of its remaining office staff on Tuesday. Still, she sounded steadfast in her decision to stay in Baghdad, even if it meant dying.
"A lot of people are concerned for the foreigners who remain here; you wonder if anyone is concerned for these very ordinary Iraqi people who are going to die here," she said.
When photographer Thorne Anderson chose to travel to Baghdad with Kelly in January to document the people and the war, he informed his family of the trip in an email.
Anderson, who has freelanced for Gannett News Service, Newsweek, The New York Times and other publications, said he expected a little preaching, lots of concern, and some pleas to reconsider.
Instead, his father, the Rev. Eade Anderson of Montreat, N.C., was succinct in his reply.
"I've always said life shouldn't be wasted on the small things," he wrote in an email. "Love, Dad."
Letter to the man in the White House. BY MICHAEL MOORE
Monday, March 17th, 2003
George W. Bush 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, DC
Dear Governor Bush:
So today is what you call "the moment of truth," the day that "France and the rest of world have to show their cards on the table." I'm glad to hear that this day has finally arrived. Because, I gotta tell ya, having survived 440 days of your lying and conniving, I wasn't sure if I could take much more. So I'm glad to hear that today is Truth Day, 'cause I got a few truths I would like to share with you:
1. There is virtually NO ONE in America (talk radio nutters and Fox News aside) who is gung-ho to go to war. Trust me on this one. Walk out of the White House and on to any street in America and try to find five people who are PASSIONATE about wanting to kill Iraqis. YOU WON'T FIND THEM! Why? 'Cause NO Iraqis have ever come here and killed any of us! No Iraqi has even threatened to do that. You see, this is how we average Americans think: If a certain so-and-so is not perceived as a threat to our lives, then, believe it or not, we don't want to kill him! Funny how that works!
2. The majority of Americans -- the ones who never elected you -- are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction. We know what the real issues are that affect our daily lives -- and none of them begin with I or end in Q. Here's what threatens us: two and a half million jobs lost since you took office, the stock market having become a cruel joke, no one knowing if their retirement funds are going to be there, gas now costs two dollars a gallon -- the list goes on and on. Bombing Iraq will not make any of this go away. Only you need to go away for things to improve.
3. As Bill Maher said last week, how bad do you have to suck to lose a popularity contest with Saddam Hussein? The whole world is against you, Mr. Bush. Count your fellow Americans among them.
4. The Pope has said this war is wrong, that it is a SIN. The Pope! But even worse, the Dixie Chicks have now come out against you! How bad does it have to get before you realize that you are an army of one on this war? Of course, this is a war you personally won't have to fight. Just like when you went AWOL while the poor were shipped to Vietnam in your place.
5. Of the 535 members of Congress, only ONE (Sen. Johnson of South Dakota) has an enlisted son or daughter in the armed forces! If you really want to stand up for America, please send your twin daughters over to Kuwait right now and let them don their chemical warfare suits. And let's see every member of Congress with a child of military age also sacrifice their kids for this war effort. What's that you say? You don't THINK so? Well, hey, guess what -- we don't think so either!
6. Finally, we love France. Yes, they have pulled some royal screw-ups. Yes, some of them can be pretty damn annoying. But have you forgotten we wouldn't even have this country known as America if it weren't for the French? That it was their help in the Revolutionary War that won it for us? That it was France who gave us our Statue of Liberty, a Frenchman who built the Chevrolet, and a pair of French brothers who invented the movies? And now they are doing what only a good friend can do -- tell you the truth about yourself, straight, no b.s. Quit pissing on the French and thank them for getting it right for once. You know, you really should have traveled more (like once) before you took over. Your ignorance of the world has not only made you look stupid, it has painted you into a corner you can't get out of.
Well, cheer up -- there IS good news. If you do go through with this war, more than likely it will be over soon because I'm guessing there aren't a lot of Iraqis willing to lay down their lives to protect Saddam Hussein. After you "win" the war, you will enjoy a huge bump in the popularity polls as everyone loves a winner -- and who doesn't like to see a good ass-whoopin' every now and then (especially when it 's some third world ass!). And just like with Afghanistan, we'll forget about what happens to a country after we bomb it 'cause that is just too complex! So try your best to ride this victory all the way to next year's election. Of course, that's still a long ways away, so we'll all get to have a good hardy-har-har while we watch the economy sink even further down the toilet!
But, hey, who knows -- maybe you'll find Osama a few days before the election! See, start thinking like THAT! Keep hope alive! Kill Iraqis -- they got our oil!!
Yours,
Michael Moore www.michaelmoore.com
And one last email forward...
>MEDIA RELEASE >For immediate release: Monday, March 17, 2003 > >Contacts: >Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net >Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, scottmclarty@yahoo.com > >GREENS CALL ON CONGRESS AND AMERICANS TO RESIST BUSH'S WAR DECLARATION >On the brink of the invasion of Iraq, plans begin for The Day After, as U.S. >troops face casualties from Iraqi resistance and depleted uranium; U.S. >civilians face terrorist retaliation; Greens challenge antiwar Democratic >officials to participate in civil disobedience. > >WASHINGTON, DC -- Members of the Green Party of the United States stepped up >their opposition to the ultimatum issued to Iraq by President Bush on Sunday >after his summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Spanish Prime >Minister Jose Maria Aznar, and Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Durao Barroso. > >President Bush declared Monday, March 17 as the day Iraq must completely >disarm or face an invasion, and a U.N. endorsement of a U.S. military attack >is no longer expected. Greens, noting that invasion may begin within the >week, will participate in protests and nonviolent direct action the day >after attacks are launched, in events being planned by United for Peace and >Justice, the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition, the "Bush is Taking >the Shirts Off Our Backs to Pay for this War" Coalition, and other groups. > >Many Greens are challenging Democratic officeholders who oppose the war, >especially presidential candidates, to participate in civil disobedience. >"Let Democrats take the kind of stand Rep. Ron Dellums [D.-Calif.] took when >he was arrested for protesting apartheid in South Africa," said Connecticut >Green Tom Sevigny, chair of the party's national Bylaws Committee. >"Preemptive invasion explicitly violates international law, the Geneva >Convention, the U.N. charter, the Monroe Doctrine of military action as a >defensive last resort, and the U.S. Constitution's restriction of the use of >U.S. armed forces to the defense of our borders. Green leaders have already >risked arrest and been arrested. It's time for antiwar Democrats like >Dennis Kucinich, Carol Moseley-Braun, and Howard Dean to show moral >leadership -- as [Senior Cabinet Minister] Robin Cook has shown today in >Britain." > >Greens are urging all Americans who oppose the war to increase their phone >calls, letters, faxes, e-mails, and visits to Congressmembers, and to >continue the show of support for the peoples and governments of other U.N. >nations that oppose the war. Green Parties in many European countries, >especially Germany, Belgium, France, Finland, and New Zealand, have played a >major role in rallying citizens and influencing their respective governments >not to give the invasion the facade of legitimacy through support in the >U.N. > >"With Congress riding shotgun, Bush is driving America on a collision course >with the global community," said Ben Manski, Green Party Co-Chair. >"Invasion of Iraq will make our nation responsible for the administration of >government in that country for years to come, and will commit America to a >new period of military adventurism in global politics. Such a course is not >sustainable, not just, and fundamentally contrary to the interest of the >American people." > >While President Bush claims that the issue is Saddam's weapons of mass >destruction, the Wall Street Journal reported on January 16 that Bush has >been meeting with oil companies to plan who will profit from the occupation >of Iraq. CBS.MarketWatch.com (January 31) and CNN (March 2) have reported >that oil companies expect a windfall from the invasion. This good news for >oil companies is bad news for the U.S. economy, which will be damaged by the >costs of the invasion and occupation. U.S. citizens will suffer as social >services are cut drastically. > >"Bush's intention all along was an invasion, which is why neither the U.N. >inspections nor Saddam's compliance and destruction of weapons were ever >satisfactory, and U.N. support is a disposable formality," said Carl >Romanelli of the Pennsylvania Green Party. "At no point did Bush ever allow >the possibility of containment under an internationally cooperative plan. >Even if Iraq falls quickly, it will bring neither peace nor security, and >we'll see terrorist retaliation against American civilians and military >personnel. Furthermore, the White House has made it clear that it wants to >topple other governments, beginning with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria." >While the Bush Administration has raised the subject of war crimes trials >for Iraqi leaders, U.S. officials may face charges if they carry out the >threat to drop 800 cruise missiles on Iraq in the first 48 hours of the war. >The U.N. predicts a humanitarian disaster, with up to a half million >civilian Iraqi deaths and injuries during the early stages of the war. > >"Greens will maintain their opposition to the war after the invasion >begins," said Mark Dunlea, chair of the Green Party of New York State. "If >we really care about the lives of American soldiers, we'll continue to >demand that their lives not be placed at risk for the sake of control over >Iraqi oil and political dominance over the region. The Bush Administration >has built its case for this war on deception -- on lies about Iraqi weapons >capability, about connections between Saddam and al-Qaeda, about our real >objectives in the Middle East. The greatest lie is that opposing the war is >unpatriotic. We call on all people who value American ideals of democracy, >nonviolence, and human rights to support our troops -- and demand they be >sent home!" > >MORE INFORMATION >The Green Party of the United States >http://www.gp.org >National office: 1314 18th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 >202-296-7755, 866-41GREEN >Green Party antiwar mobilization page >http://www.greenpartyus.org/peace.html >United for Peace and Justice >http://www.unitedforpeace.org >National Youth and Student Peace Coalition >http://www.nyspc.net >"Bush is Taking the Shirts Off Our Backs to Pay for this War" Coalition >http://www.actagainstwar.org/dc > >- END -
There's not much to say. Last night Bush spoke and gave his ultimatum. I am so disappointed. Pathetically I think now, I had hoped somehow, someway he would change his mind. I guess that won't happen.
So, it looks like war will be here. If 48 hours was the deadline, then it'll be 7 p.m. central time tomorrow, about 21 hours from now.
I don't know what to say. MSNBC says t hat this war will be called "Opperation Iraqi Freedom" but I think a better name would be Opperation Bull**** because that is what this. It might be about oil, it might be about paybacks to someone who tried to kill daddy, it might even be fear, but it sure isn't about the freedom of the Iraqi and Kurdish peoples. (Watch the movie "Three Kings" if you don't believe me on this. That movie shows very clearly how Bush the First let the Iraqi people be butchered by Saddam. That was had NOTHING to do with freedom for Iraq, and this war has NOTHING to do with freedom either.
I still believe there is hope. Maybe a miracle will happen and either Saddam or Bush will change their mind. Maybe Jesus will come sooner that we all think and put an end to this war. Maybe if nothing else the folks who care for the cause of peace are awake, and will be a conscience for the world. They will be here today and will be here in teh days to come to cry out against the evil that is war, and to work to ensure that this will be the last war.
In that light, here are stories and other information on recent and upcoming peace actions in Oklahoma. To me, these stories and announcements are the glimmers of hope in this dark night before war...
UnitedForPeace.org calls for all opposed to the war to take to the streets. (Links to local actions happening in every state of the union can be found here)
From OU Students Against War:
The afternoon following a declaration of war or the start of bombing, OU Students Against war will be rallying on the north oval and Boyd street beginning at 11:30am. Should war start at 7:00pm, we will be there the next day, if at 7:00am, we'll be there that morning. Although we are on spring break, I urge all of you to join us. Please keep in mind, though, that this is a difficult time for many Americans, and when you present yourselves at the demonstration, do so in a way that is respectful.
Please continue to check out our webpage, http://ousaw.org, for further updates. I will post an alert the day we do gather on the oval as well as send out a reminder email. Also, if you are not in Norman, please check out the page for other day-of events happening in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
Thanks, -Phil, OU Students Against War
According to the OK IMC Newswire other peace protests in Oklahoma for the first day of war include:
Candlelight Vigil Episcopal Center NW 9th and Robinson 6:00 PM
Tulsa: Streetside Protest Corner of 41st and Yale 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Candlelight Vigil Fellowship Congregational Church 2900 S. Harvard 7:30 PM
CPTnet March 14, 2003 TORONTO/CHICAGO: Canadian CPTer denied entry to USA, questioned by FBI
Matthew Bailey-Dick, 30, from Waterloo ON, was denied entry into the USA early on March 7, 2003, after U.S. immigration officials at Port Huron MI found literature from Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in the trunk of his rental car. The immigration officers claimed that the CPT newsletters, printed in Chicago IL, were "anti-American." They also raised concerns about a sticker on Bailey-Dick's guitar case that read, "Question authority."
Bailey-Dick is currently studying at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries in Goshen, IN. He had been in Waterloo, ON, speaking at the church he had pastored for the previous two years--Waterloo Kitchener United Mennonite Church--about his participation in the recent CPT delegation to Iraq.
Bailey-Dick was carrying a J-1 student visa, valid until the end of August 2003. U.S. immigration officers confiscated the visa, insisting that he needed a new type of visa document. They then finger-printed and photographed him. Later that day, an immigration supervisor told Bailey-Dick that his student visa was valid, but that he was still denied entry into the USA. The supervisor said that Bailey-Dick needed to go to Detroit for an interview with an even higher-echelon U.S. immigration official.
When he arrived at the Detroit border crossing on March 8, Bailey-Dick was questioned for an hour by FBI agent Tom Morisi and immigration officer John Owen about the work of Christian Peacemaker Teams and the CPT delegation to Iraq. They then informed him that his student visa would be reissued.
At the end of the questioning, Owen cautioned Bailey-Dick, "Don't bring any of that literature across the border any more. It's one thing for an American citizen to distribute such literature. It's quite a different thing for a foreign national to come into the USA and promote such ideas."
For more information contact Doug Pritchard, tel 416-423-5525, cellular 647-297-7079
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction efforts around the world. Contact CPT, POB 6508 Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253 Fax: 773-277-0291.
To receive news or discussion of CPT issues by e-mail, fill out the form found on our WEB page at http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/
It looks like the Homeland Security department is cracking down hardcore on dissent. I have met some of the brave souls involved with CPT (one in particular who stands in my memory is a courageous Mennonite Strawberry Farmer who spent several months each year as a witness for peace in Columbia) and these folks are NOT a threat to the US, and rather are the very folks who might save this nation's conscience and soul.
I would say to be careful in these maddening days but that's not the right advice either. We must keep on keeping on. The forces of evil and oppression can NOT be allowed to prevail over the causes of liberty and peace! Don't be careful. Speak out for truth and what is right. Speak out for peace! Don't let evil win!
. . . "It's a fool's game," said Rep. Frank Davis, R-Guthrie. He compared lawmakers who switched their votes to the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter," who wore the letter "A" on her clothes to represent the word adulteress.
"You will ever wear the letters 'FS,' and that stands for 'For Sale,'" Davis said.
Said Rep. Forrest Claunch, R-Midwest City, "You're pimping for the lottery. You're going to create as a state people with addictive behavior." . . .
Not normally a fan of our Republican legislators, but I gotta commend Davis and Claunch for their artful use of the English language in mocking those who sell out Oklahoma for dirty campaign money.
WASHINGTON, Marhc 11 — Show the flag and pass the ketchup was the order of the day in House cafeterias Tuesday. Lawmakers struck a lunchtime blow against the French and put “freedom fries” on the menu. And for breakfast they’ll now have “freedom toast.” . . .
Two things are goofy about this story. First, the Associated Press mispelt "March" (copied exactly as it appeared on MSNBC), but secondly is the ignorance of our lawmakers. Emulating bigots like ??? the owner of Cubbies restaurant is stupid, but even worse when done by our lawmakers.
AP/Yahoo: Bill Targets U.S. Troops Buried in France --- Boy the bigots come out of the woodwork. Add Congresswoman Brown-Waite to the list of anti-French bigots who need to be replaced come next election.
I believe that Jonathan Ben-Artzi is one of the great pacifist heroes of our time. If more pacifists had his courage, the world would be radically different.
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were, for the moment, unpopular. --- Edward R. Murrow
I've pulled the excerpts from the story that detail the torture techniques used by the American military. Besides the inhuman barbarity of these actions, I also question the wisdom of it from a purely pragmatic point of view. If the US uses these techniques, then the US has no credibility to criticize other nations who might capture an American soldier. The American people would be outraged (and rightfully so) if an enemy state captured American GI's and subjected them to sleep and sensory deprivation, not permitting them to wear clothes for days at a time, having their hands shackled to the ceiling while their ankles are shackled to the floor, denying access to medical care, etc. This is torture clear and simple. Read 1984 if you don't believe me. America's treatment of its POW's sounds just like the psychological torture techniques outlined in 1984.
If this continues, I think the World Court should indict Bush for war crimes. There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for torture. America is supposed to be better than this!
. . . Senior American officials said physical torture would not be used against Mr. Mohammed, regarded as the operations chief of Al Qaeda and mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. They said his interrogation would rely on what they consider acceptable techniques like sleep and light deprivation and the temporary withholding of food, water, access to sunlight and medical attention.
American officials acknowledged that such techniques were recently applied as part of the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, the highest-ranking Qaeda operative in custody until the capture of Mr. Mohammed. Painkillers were withheld from Mr. Zubaydah, who was shot several times during his capture in Pakistan. . .
Routine techniques include covering suspects' heads with black hoods for hours at a time and forcing them to stand or kneel in uncomfortable positions in extreme cold or heat, American and other officials familiar with interrogations said. . .
Qaeda operatives, including Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a suspect in the planning of the Sept. 11 attacks, were initially taken to a secret C.I.A. installation in Thailand but have since been moved, American officials said.
Intelligence officials also acknowledged that some suspects had been turned over to security services in countries known to employ torture. There have also been isolated, if persistent, reports of beatings in some American-operated centers. American military officials in Afghanistan are investigating the deaths of two prisoners at Bagram in December. . .
In this case, officials said, Mr. Faruq was in the C.I.A. interrogation center at the Bagram air base. American officials were convinced that he knew a lot about pending attacks and the Qaeda network in Southeast Asia, which Mr. bin Laden sent him to set up in 1998.
The details of the interrogation are unknown, though one intelligence official briefed on the sessions said Mr. Faruq initially provided useless scraps of information.
What is known is that the questioning was prolonged, extending day and night for weeks. It is likely, experts say, that the proceedings followed a pattern, with Mr. Faruq left naked most of the time, his hands and feet bound. While international law requires prisoners to be allowed eight hours' sleep a day, interrogators do not necessarily let them sleep for eight consecutive hours. . .
The Western intelligence official described Mr. Faruq's interrogation as "not quite torture, but about as close as you can get." The official said that over a three-month period, the suspect was fed very little, while being subjected to sleep and light deprivation, prolonged isolation and room temperatures that varied from 100 degrees to 10 degrees. In the end he began to cooperate. . .
In a typical prison, where punishment is the aim, routine governs life. At Bagram, where eliciting information is the goal, the opposite is true. Disorientation is a tool of interrogation and therefore a way of life.
To that end, the building - an unremarkable hangar - is lighted 24 hours a day, making sleep almost impossible, said Muhammad Shah, an Afghan farmer who was held there for 18 days.
Colonel King said it was legitimate to use lights, noise and vision restriction, and to alter, without warning, the time between meals, to blur a detainee's sense of time. He said sleep deprivation was "probably within the lexicon."
Prisoners are watched, moved and, according to some, manhandled by military police officials. Most detainees live on the hangar's bottom floor, a large area divided with wire mesh into group cells holding 8 to 10 prisoners each. Some are kept on the top floor in isolation cells.
Former detainees have given disparate accounts of their treatment, with the harshest tales, predictably, emerging from the isolation cells. Those who have probably been subjected to the most thorough interrogations, and the greatest duress, have probably not been released.
Colonel King said that an American military pathologist had determined that the deaths of two prisoners in December were homicides and that the circumstances were still under investigation.
Two former prisoners said they had been forced to stand with their hands chained to the ceiling and their feet shackled in the isolation cells.
One said he was kept naked except when he was taken to interrogation room or the bathroom. . .
NY Times: Workers' plight brings new militancy in China --- It is good to see the Chinese people rising up in peaceful protest against oppression but tragic to hear how little their asking for... $20 a month in support for those laid off in the recent move to capitalism. How can anyone live on so little, when we in the west have so much? I think God will judge us harshly for the way we have let so many suffer, and sometimes even contributed to their suffering.
MSNBC: Stones offer satisfaction to China at last --- With tickets ranging from $33-750! Shame on the Rolling Stones for selling tickets for these prices. They ought to be donating their proceeds to those suffering in Northeast China. (see the NY Times story above)
Rush's stack of Saddam stuff - An interesting collections of news links peppered with Rush's infantile rantings. I find it most interesting that Rush omits the role of America in letting the Iraqi people be slaugtered after the last Gulf War. America doesn't give a rat's *** about freedom for the Iraqis. That's just a propaganda to keep the American people compliant.
IrishAntiWar.org - these folks are amazing! The Irish peace folks are an inspiration to the world, especially in their direct actions at Shannon Airport.
Remember Delta Airlines, what Benjamin Franklin said... They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
CPTnet March 6, 2003 IRAQ URGENT ACTION: Write and/or call you your Representatives.
Christian Peacemaker Teams has been in Iraq since October, joining with Iraq Peace Team (IPT) to accompany threatened Iraqi civilians. The team has developed relationships with Iraqi families, hospitals, orphanages and churches. They have visited mosques and NGOs, and have travelled to Basrah and Mosul.
The U.S. press has reported that in the first forty-eight hours of a potential escalation, it will launch 800 cruise missiles, 3000 smart bombs, 800 bombers, and will have six aircraft carriers with seventy jets a piece running multiple missions. The name of the potential attack is "Shock and Awe."
In the event of an escalation, CPT and IPT members will continue to accompany prayerfully Iraqi civilians at specific places, and document the on-going catastrophe of war. See below for a list of places CPT will accompany.
The CPT team calls people of faith to do all they can to stop further bombing of Iraq, including writing and phoning their federal representatives, emphasizing the civilian places where CPT and IPT members will be present.
Current CPTers in Iraq are
Americans: Peggy Gish, Scott Kerr, Cliff Kindy and Betty Scholten
Canadians: Lisa Martens and Stewart Vriesinga.
Over the next several months CPT expects to be sending additional North American delegates to accompany the locations listed below.
Where the CPTers and members of the Iraq Peace Team will be:
1. Amarya Shelter 2. Al Dar Hotel - St. Raphael's Church and Hospital and Sisters of Charity Orphanage 3. Al Fanar Hotel 4. Basra 5. CARE International 6. University of Baghdad 7. Syrian Catholic Church 8. Al Taji Electrical facility or Al Wathab Water Treatment plant 9. Boat on Tigris River or Shalt Al Arab
CANADA Contact information on Members of Parliament is available at www.parl.gc.ca
UNITED STATES Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121; toll free: 800-839 5276. WWW.congressmerge.org will give U.S. Citizens addresses fax numbers and other information they need when they enter their zip code.
The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 VOICE: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative among Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends Meetings that supports violence reduction efforts around the world. Contact CPT, POB 6508, Chicago, IL 60680; Telephone: 773-277-0253 Fax: 773-277-0291.
To receive news or discussion of CPT issues by e-mail, fill out the form found on our WEB page at http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. forces would hit Iraq with 10 times as many bombs in the opening days of an air campaign as in the 1991 Gulf War in an assault meant to "shock and awe" Iraqi defenders, officials said Wednesday.
Many more of the bombs would be guided by lasers or satellite signals, too, adding to accuracy, one official said.
"Shock and awe" should be called "American crimes against humanity." The degree of destruction in the first Gulf War was horrible beyond comprehension. If ten times the number of munitions will be used, the number of civilian casulties could number into the hundreds of thousands.
The official, who discussed U.S. bomb targeting techniques on condition he not be further identified, contended that because of the greater reliance on precision-guided weapons, civilian casualties could be lower than the estimated 3,000 in the 1991 war.
Charlie Daniels has issued an inflamatory pro-war statement that I want to respond to. His statement will be shown in red typeface, my comments are in black.
Subject: Charlie Daniels' Open Letter to the Hollywood Bunch
OK -- Let's just say for a moment you bunch of pampered, overpaid, unrealistic children had your way and the U.S.A. didn't go into Iraq.
Let's say that you really get your way and we destroy all our nuclear weapons and stick daisies in our gun barrels and sit around with some white wine and cheese and pat ourselves on the back, so proud of what we've done for world peace.
Let's say that we cut the military budget to just enough to keep the National Guard on hand to help out with floods and fires.
Let's say that we close down our military bases all over the world and bring the troops home, increase our foreign aid and drop all the trade sanctions against everybody.
I suppose that in your fantasy world this would create a utopian world where everybody would live in peace. After all, the great monster, the United States of America, the cause of all the world's trouble would have disbanded it's horrible military and certainly all the other countries of the world would follow suit.
After all, they only arm themselves to defend their countries from the mean old U.S.A.
While I'm all for working towards the utopia that you so eloquently describe, I don't think your being fair about the politcal views of anti-war folks. We do not believe the USA is "the cause of all of the world's troubles." We certainly bear our share of the blame but neither are we the only guilt ones.
Why you bunch of pitiful, hypocritical, idiotic, spoiled mugwumps. Get your head out of the sand and smell the Trade Towers burning.
Do us all (especially the Bush administration) a favor and SHOW us the connection between Saddam and the 9-11 attack. If anything the connection can be found between Saudi Arabia and the terrorists, not Iraq and the terrorists.
Do you think that a trip to Iraq by Sean Penn did anything but encourage a wanton murderer to think that the people of the U.S.A. didn't have the nerve or the guts to fight him?
No, it told him that some Americans are really to think for themselves. I don't know Sean Penn so I won't defend him, but I do know plenty of courageous men and women who are committed to the cause of peace here in Oklahoma, and believe me they have a lot more guts than you will ever have. It's easy to speak out when your views are popular. It takes a lot more to speak and act in line with your views, when those views are scorned by the popular media.
Barbra Streisand's fanatical and hateful rankings about George Bush makes about as much sense as Michael Jackson hanging a baby over a railing.
You people need to get out of Hollywood once in a while and get out into the real world. You'd be surprised at the hostility you would find out here. Stop in at a truck stop and tell an overworked, long distance truck driver that you don't think Saddam Hussein is doing anything wrong.
Tell a farmer with a couple of sons in the military that you think the United States has no right to defend itself.
Go down to Baxley, Georgia and hold an anti-war rally and see what the folks down there think about you.
Georgia is a bit far away for me but if it was closer I would be glad to come down to Baxley to rally with peace loving folks there. I would be willing to wager that there would be at least a few of them.
My guess is that Georgia is a bit more liberal than Oklahoma, yet we have peace rallies occuring three times weekly in Oklahoma City, at least once a week in Tulsa, and we are now even doing rallies in small towns. Last week in Shawnee, OK (pop. 20,000 or so) we had a tremendous response with 3/4 of those who responded in some way showing support for us.
Charlie you might be surprised if you come and sit on a small town street corner with us some Saturday. You might find that most folks are against this town.
You people are some of the most disgusting examples of a waste of protoplasm I've ever had the displeasure to hear about.
Sean Penn, you're a traitor to the United States of America. You gave aid and comfort to the enemy. How many American lives will your little, "fact finding trip" to Iraq cost? You encouraged Saddam to think that we didn't have the stomach for war.
You people protect one of the most evil men on the face of this earth and won't lift a finger to save the life of an unborn baby. Freedom of choice you say?
No, Charlie. We "people" (as you refer to us) are not out there agitating for peace for Saddam's benefit. We're out there working for peace because we care about the Iraqi people. Fathers, mothers, chidren, grandmas and grandpas, who work hard and love their families, who plant gardens and paint pictures, who sing, who dance, folks who are God-fearing, and maintain hope for democracy and freedom in their country.
Sean Penn is not a traitor for visiting Iraq and reporting on what he saw. He is a hero.
As to the abortion issue, this might be one of the few things you and I will agree on. I'm opposed to all forms of violence and to me abortion often is an act of violence.
My question for you is why are you upset about the killing of unborn babies yet are refusing to "lift one finger" to save the lives of the children of Iraq?
Well I'm going to exercise some freedom of choice of my own. If I see any of your names on a marquee, I'm going to boycott the movie. I will completely stop going to movies if I have to. In most cases it certainly wouldn't be much of a loss.
That's your right and more power to you. I wonder though if you're going to start boycotting everybody because believe me you might have to boycott most of the world in a years. Most folks around the world think this war is crock, and more and more Americans are waking up to this same realization.
You scoff at our military whose boots you're not even worthy to shine. They go to battle and risk their lives so ingrates like you can live in luxury. The day of reckoning is coming when you will be faced with the undeniable truth that the war against Saddam Hussein is the war on terrorism.
America is in imminent danger. You're either for her or against her. There is no middle ground.
I think we all know where you stand.
I respect those who choose to serve in the military. They're following their convictions and I commend them for it. But, I'm going to follow mine.
I assure you though. I am "for" America a lot more than you are. The issue here is I expect more of America than this war against this unjust preemptive war against the Iraqi people.
What do you think?
God Bless America!
Charlie Daniels
Frankly I have my doubts as to whether God will still "bless America" if we engage in unjust wars like this one.
Thanks for making me think Mr. Daniels. If you read this, I hope I made you think.
Schafer’s two grandfathers both fought in World War Two, serving in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific.
“It seemed much more dramatic for them,” he says. “It was an all-out war. They were actually shooting. My father’s father was a 20 mm gunner on a destroyer. He told me about two Japanese kills he had. One was a kamikaze diving on his ship.”
“It’s nothing like it used to be,” Schafer says. “With the way technology has taken wars, everything is so removed. You drop a bomb, push a button, who knows what happens. We don’t really see any of the horrors of it.”
But the folks on the ground will. They will suffer and bleed and die because of those bombs. We need to realize the cost of war. War is never neat and sanitary. It might seem that way from 20,000 feet up but it never is on the ground.
KFOR: McAlester, OK plant provides tools for war - Ironic that the city where Oklahoma's death row is located is also the place where most of the bombs that may soon be dropped on Iraq are made.
When and if the United States does go to war, military sources say the United States is preparing a monster new weapon to be used during the first nights.
It's called MOAB, short for "massive ordnance air burst" bomb. It is a modern, bigger version of the 15,000-pound "Daisy Cutter" used in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War and Afghanistan.
Sources say MOAB -- still experimental -- is a 21,000-pound bomb that will be pushed out the back of a C-130 transport and guided by satellite. Because it is not dropped by parachute, as was the old Daisy Cutter, the aircraft can let it go from far higher altitudes, making it safer for U.S. pilots.
The MOAB's massive explosive punch, sources say, is similar to a small nuclear weapon.
It is intended to obliterate a command center hidden in tunnels and bunkers or a concentration of Iraqi tanks.
Whatever the target, it must be far from cities where civilians might be hurt. But one important aspect of using this type of weapon, sources say, will be psychological impact on enemy troops. It is intended to terrorize Iraqi troops, drastically reducing their desire to continue the fight.
What is disgusting is that this horrible weapon of mass destruction was likely made right here in Oklahoma. May God have mercy on us all.
This is as ignorant as all get out. Yet another case of Ashcroft stealing our freedom piece by piece. The war on drugs is bad enough. We don't need a war on drug paraphernalia too. Our jails are already packed with drug offenders. Let's save the cells for real criminals who commit acts of violence and let the potheads go. I for one feel safer knowing that potheads are sitting at home chilling out, than to know that violent folks are being let out of prison too early.
It looks like my comments feature on this blog is not working right. I will be changing to a different comments system if this isn't fixed soon. In the meantime though, if you have any comments you would like to see published on JMBzine about any subjects that are talked about on here, please email your comments to me at jmb(at)jmbzine.com, with "COMMENT" in the subject line. I'll then post your remarks on the blog. (if you sent me comments in the last couple of days, I'm sorry I can't see them. Hopefully they will be recoverable, but if you want to repost them feel free to email me.) Sorry for the inconvenience.
about/contact
JMBzine.com is a free and independent media outlet protected by the
Bill of Rights, First Amendment.
Unless otherwise noted, JMBzine.com content is (c)2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995 J.M.B.
US Newsmedia
UK Newsmedia
