Iraq

I AM LEAVING FOR IRAQ WITH A CPT DELEGATION

“What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to loving and doing good to their enemies as armies devote to war?”

By xofferson, DocuDharma

I had promised to report on the National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation held June 28-29 in Cleveland, but delayed it to await an official summary of the actions taken there. Unless you were in the room almost all of the time for the debate and votes, it was impossible to know exactly what decisions the 400-plus participants made. And I confess to spending a good chunk of time "networking" and kibitzing in the halls.

Now the organizers have produced their summary and evaluation, which you can read it its entirety here.

"Unfortunately, governmental cowardice and opportunism have stymied past attempts to indict Saddam, as Human Rights Watch learned during its intensive efforts to bring him to justice in the 1990s. At the top of any indictment should be Saddam's 1988 genocidal Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds, described by Jeffrey Goldberg in this week's New Yorker.

By Alix Bryan

Greeting friends, I hope there is joy in your lives. If you get the chance, I would love to hear from you. If you want to be removed from this, let me know. There won't be many more of these updates....

That's $4,681 per household, $1,721 per person, $341.4 million per day.

Taxpayers in Charlottesville, Virginia will pay $75.1 million for total Iraq war spending approved to date. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:
490 Affordable Housing Units
OR
1,094 Elementary School Teachers for One Year
OR
10,478 Head Start Places for Children for One Year
OR
9,350 Scholarships for University Students for One Year
OR
21,036 People with Health Care for One Year

These are the new numbers from the National Priorities Project ( http://www.nationalpriorities.org ). So, these numbers need to be multiplied by about 10 to give you the true cost as calculated by Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz to include interest, rising price of oil, care for injured veterans, etc. And, of course, we aren't actually spending this money, we're borrowing it and expecting our kids and grandkids to pay it. Hence the need to tell people how much it is!

TJMC PEACE CONVERSATIONS HOSTS "EYES WIDE OPEN" MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

Over Memorial Day weekend, TJMC Peace Conversations, along with three other local groups, Veterans for Peace, the Charlottesville Quaker Meeting, and the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice, hosted Eyes Wide Open at the Free Speech Wall on the Downtown Mall. The exhibit, created by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), is part of a national campaign to show the human cost of war. It includes combat boots tagged with the names of the 117 service men and women from Virginia who have died in the war and a visual representation of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people who have died during the conflict.

By David Swanson

I would support a GI Bill if Congress were to pass one and send it to the President.

I oppose from the bottom of my soul and with every fiber of my being the near universal pretense (OK, universal except for me) that Congress is about to do just that.

Congress is NOT. What Congress is considering sending to the President is a GI AMENDMENT. It says the same things about providing education for veterans as what everybody tells you is in the "GI Bill" but it comes attached to an unimaginably enormous piece of funding legislation that is absolutely guaranteed to give tens of thousands of members of the U.S. military brain damage and/or PTSD and to lay hundreds of them in their graves and seriously injure thousands more, not to mention causing the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis, enraging people around the world against the United States, wrecking what's left of the US economy, and putting our unborn grandchildren in debt to China for life.

By David Swanson

The House is stalling, but don't be fooled. Don't let your guard down. Don't relax. They still intend, possibly next week, to dump the hard earned pay of your as yet unborn descendants into funding another full year or more of occupying Iraq, paying for the occupation well into the next Congress and presidency, plus enough in interest payments to China that we could have, with the same amount of money, provided clean water and basic nutrition to everyone on the planet.

By David Swanson

I've got no strings
To hold me down
To make me bow to Cheney's crown
I had strings
But now I'm free
I'm Nouri al Maliki

Nouri Kamel Mohammed Hassan al-Maliki, the puppet Prime Minister of Iraq, represents me and the people of Virginia's Fifth Congressional District better than Congressman Virgil Hamlin Goode [rhymes with lewd], Jr. This is not an idiosyncratic opinion so much as a measurable fact.

By David Swanson

Something called the "GI Bill" passed both houses of Congress with large majorities in recent weeks. It really would provide educational benefits to veterans, but it's not a bill. It's an amendment. It could be introduced as a bill, pass again with large majorities, and probably even override a veto. Or it could die from repeated vetoes after being passed repeatedly, a goal the Democrats have treated as their ideal dream outcome for all sorts of other bills over the past year and a half. Of course, even if the GI amendment is signed into law, the current president may eliminate it with a "signing statement."

The following letter has been sent to every member of Congress on behalf of Democrats.com, United for Peace and Justice, AfterDowningStreet.org, Code Pink, Gold Star Families for Peace, Progressive Democrats of America, US Labor Against the War, and Voters for Peace.

By David Swanson

One of the best outlines I've seen of a post-Bush-Cheney foreign policy that makes sense and could make us all more safe, more free, and more prosperous can be found in a short new book called "Re-Engage: America and the World After Bush," by Helena Cobban. Like Thomas Jefferson and most people with useful ideas for the world, Cobban lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, where we work together on the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice. She also writes for the Christian Science Monitor and works in Washington, D.C., for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. That's Friends as in Quakers. Her website is http://justworldnews.org

Tonight, May 28th, from 8-9 p.m. ET, I'll have the pleasure of interviewing Helena Cobban, with your help. Go to: http://thepeoplespeakradio.net to learn more. Go to http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/listen-live to listen live. You'll find instructions there to enter a paltalk chat room where you can post questions. You can also phone in and ask your questions on the air. Call in tollfree from anywhere in the United States or Canada at 888-228-4494 or anywhere else in the world at 877-489-6350. Following the show, the audio file will be posted at http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/audio/2008 and you can find there now the recordings of numerous shows with amazing guests, including Cindy Sheehan, Lincoln Chafee, Brad Friedman, Shirin Ebadi, Phil Donahue, Mark Crispin Miller, William Odom, etc.

By David Swanson

Former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's new book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" is not just a particularly good addition to the ten-foot high stack of rants against Bush's crimes and abuses of power. It's also an argument that state and local prosecutors have the necessary jurisdiction to try Bush for murder and for conspiracy to commit murder, at least once he's out of office.

By David Swanson

As an alumnus of the University of Virginia, I receive its magazine in the mail, a magazine that always makes me question how I can have received as good an education at UVA as I think I did, when the people who produce this magazine seem not to have received the same. The Summer 2008 issue contains an article called "Stories from Iraq", which contains not a single story of a single Iraqi, coincidentally the exact same number of campus peace organizations in existence at UVA. Instead, we get the stories of alumni, and most of them could have been written from summer camp - except that letters home from summer camp usually include complaints. Judging by the article UVA Magazine has concocted, this "war" is going so well, and its main purpose of training Americans in a variety of job skills and esteem boosting progressing so well, that it'd be a shame to ever end it.

Alumnus #1 got shot at by evil terrorists but captured them alive. Alumnus #2 is a doctor over there to save people's lives (by people, we of course mean Americans). Alumnus #3 works very very hard and goes to church and risks his life bravely. Alumnus #4 was part of the invasion of Iraq way back when, and he enjoyed it because being in Kuwait had been so unpleasant. (No word on whether he ended up enrolling in archery class or swimming lessons.) Alumnus #5 reconstructed Iraq and imagines that it would be really nice if he could look back and say he'd actually reconstructed anything. Alumnus #6 was minding his own business when some people who lived in the country attacked his troops. He found destroying those people "exhilarating" and he in fact "felt a visceral satisfaction unlike any I had ever known." (Plus he got high marks in human skull carving 101.) Alumna #7 was touched when an Iraqi woman thanked her for her help. Alumnus #8 went to Auja searching for "Saddam, among other things." (Other things? No shit? What other things might those have been? Not the WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION that escaped mention in this whole embarrassing piece of propaganda that might as well have been written by Pentagon employees? Oh wait.) Alumnus #9 ...

Well read the rest yourself. Skimming through, it appears to get worse and worse. And all of these no doubt heavily edited tales come from people with words like Captain, Colonel, Major, and Lieutenant in front of their names. Apparently none of them KILLED anyone who had flesh or blood (although alumnus #6 did destroy some enemies). Apparently none of them have any thoughts on why in the hell we're spending our granchildren's money to continue occupying a distant country with ever worsening violence, while 80 percent of the people who live there (people who almost completely escaped notice in this article) have long said that the United States should get out and go home. Apparently none of these people learned from UVA's honor system any particular wisdom in the area of honor.

By David Swanson

Have you ever met one of those remaining 15 or 20 percent of Americans who have the kool-aid IV in their arms, and they ask you "Well, what would you DO then?" meaning "If you're so opposed to recklessly wasting our grandchildren's money slaughtering innocent people around the world, what exactly would you do instead? What would you do to make sure we bombed the evil people who need bombing, other than bombing them?" The question also takes a more directly answerable form when someone asks "Why are you so negative, criticizing our Commander in Chief all the time? What will you do when you don't have Bush and Cheney around to attack anymore?"

Sheehan to speak at Omni
By Erika Howsare, Cville Weekly

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan will speak in Charlottesville on May 22. She was in town almost exactly two years ago, speaking against the war in Iraq and about the death of her son there, and stopped here again last July for a rally in support of the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

At that last appearance, Sheehan was talking about running for Congress in California's Eighth District if the incumbent there, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, didn't join her in calling for impeachment. Well, Pelosi didn't, and Sheehan is indeed running. Having made her reputation by camping in front of President Bush's Texas ranch in summer 2005, Sheehan has evidently lost none of her instinct for frying big fish.

For $50, get your picture taken with Cindy Sheehan at the Omni on May 22. No hat required.

By David Swanson, http://afterdowningstreet.org

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted No and blocked Speaker Nancy Pelosi's latest proposal to throw another $165 billion into the occupation of Iraq. This happened in large part because ordinary citizens pressured their representatives to vote No. In the final count 149 Democrats voted No, 132 Republicans voted Present (neither Yes nor No), 12 members did not vote, and only 141 voted Yes. Here's the roll call:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll328.xml

While the Republicans had less of an impact than the Democrats, the corporate media is quickly giving the Republicans credit for blocking the vote. This is nonsense. This vote was blocked by 149 Democrats finally - FINALLY - doing the right thing. We should thank them immediately. We should thank each other for having moved them. We should contact the media and praise them. We should have flowers delivered to their offices on Friday.

By Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.)

Cindy Sheehan, a peace activist and candidate for Congress in California’s 8th District, will speak at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel on May 22.

The event will last from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Preston Room. Tickets will be available at the door and cost $10 for students; $20 for general admission; $50 for admission and a photo with Sheehan; and $100 for admission, a photo with Sheehan and priority seating. Free parking will be available at the Omni for people attending the event.

Sheehan is running as an independent in an attempt to unseat House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represents California’s 8th District.

Sheehan, who lost her son in the Iraq War, rose to national prominence in 2005 when she set up an anti-war encampment outside of President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Sheehan has visited Charlottesville twice in the past three years, most recently in July as part of her “Journey for Humanity” tour.

Take 1 Minute to End the Killing:

Congress Members have received thousands of phone calls, and some of them are committing to voting no on Iraq funding. The vote won't happen until next week, so keep the calls coming: Call your Congress Member now at 202-224-3121 and tell them to vote No on the war funding.

More Detail:

Pelosi does not have the votes to pass the Rule, a procedural vote that must pass prior to votes on each of the three amendments (1. war money, 2. a nonbinding "timeline goal," re-banning of torture and permanent bases, redundantly banning a Bush-Maliki treaty without consent of Senate or both houses of Congress, and forcing Iraqis to pay for the reconstruction, 3. other spending including military spending and veterans spending).

She doesn't have the votes because of Republican opposition to the whole maneuver (which will involve amending a bill that's already passed in order to avoid a vote on the whole package - except for the Rule vote), and because of "blue dog" (right-wing) Democratic outrage over spending some $11 billion on something useful when they want to stay focused on wasting over $100 billion on killing. Democrats who do plan to vote No on the war funding have not threatened to vote No on the Rule. But they should if they want to block this thing.

If Pelosi buys off the blue dogs somehow, progressives could still step in and block the war money by blocking the Rule. There may be some progressive resistance to the Rule anyway, because Lee and Kucinich both want to be permitted to bring up amendments. (Lee's would resrict funding to a withdrawal. Kucinich's would ban the use of funds for attacking Iran, Syria, etc.)

So, call your Congress Member now at 202-224-3121 and tell them to vote No on the war funding and on any Rule that would bring it up for a vote! And tell them to make their position clear to the Speaker. Tell them that you will REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER. Make clear to them that voting for either of the other two amendments will be no excuse for voting for the war funding amendment. You can remind them (92 of them) of this letter in which they committed to voting No.

As Congress considers President Bush's request for another $100 billion for Iraq, 68% of Americans want Bush to bring U.S. troops home within 6 months, according to a Democrats.com telephone poll of 628 adults conducted from May 1-4, 2008 by ICR ( http://www.icrsurvey.com ).

The poll marks a 14% increase from 54% in September. Most of that increase (11%) came from those who want Congress to require Bush to use existing funds to bring our troops safely home, bringing that total to 51% - a majority of Americans.

Broken down by party, 85% of Democrats want our troops home within 6 months, as do 78% of Independents. By contrast, only 32% of Republicans want our troops home soon.

Democratic support grew by 15% since September, and Independent support grew by 20%. By contrast, Republican support was unchanged.

The new poll differs slightly from last September's poll because Congressional Democrats have proposed giving President Bush $70 billion more than he requested in order to avoid another unpopular funding vote before the November election.

The new poll asked: "President Bush wants Congress to spend 100 billion dollars more in tax dollars this year to keep U.S. troops in Iraq." The comparison data below is only for the identical questions, with last September's data immediately below in italics.

HERE ARE THE RESULTS:
http://democrats.com/iraq-poll-2

Media covers plans for wedding between Jenna and Henry:
Click:

By David Swanson

Here is the perfect Mother's Day gift for your mother, your mother in law, your grandmothers, and in fact for the men in their lives as well - who ought to be shamed into action. Joan Wile has published a book called "Grandmothers Against the War: Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing Up for Peace." As far as I know, this is her first book. It is very much an account of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. If more people did the same, we would put an end to war.

By David Swanson

The collateral damage in Iraq is most of the damage, and intentionally producing it is most of the mission. This is one of the conclusions I take away from an important new book by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian called "Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians."

The authors published a related cover story in the Nation magazine's July 30 / Aug. 6, 2007 issue called "The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness." The book is quite short by book standards, but longer and more useful than the article. The authors interviewed 50 U.S. veterans of combat in Iraq over a period of seven months. The book does not just record these veterans' statements. It synthesizes what the authors learned.