Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 ENOUGH IS ENOUGH Janine Boneparte, of California, is arrested by police after she and others would not move out of an intersection near the Capitol, as part of protest against the war in Iraq in Washington on March 19, 2008. Anti-war protests took place across the nation last Wednesday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Over 200 Arrested Across the U.S.A. on 5th Anniversary of War in Iraq 150 Arrested; Hundreds 'die' in streets of San Francisco (PHOTOS) 32 Arrested;Protesters in D.C. block entrance to the IRS 24 Arrested; Protesters block entrance to Chevron refinery 22 Arrested; Syracuse protesters recreate Baghdad street scene 10 Arrested; Grannies try to enlist at Georgia recruitment station 9 Arrested; Protesters block New York parkway 8 Arrested; Protesters block entrance to Air Reserve Base 7 Arrested; Protesters chain shut Federal Reserve building 7 Arrested; Protesters occupy Sen. Bob Corker's Memphis office 5 Arrested; Protesters shut down Boston recruitment station 5 Arrested; Protesters block entrance to Hartford Federal Building 2 Arrested; Protesters shut down Des Moines recruitment station 2 Arrested; Protesters block Berkeley recruitment center 2 Arrested; Protesters block Grand Rapids road 1 Arrested; Protesters march on Portland recruitment station (VIDEO) 0 Arrested; Milwaukee military recruitment station shut down FOR MORE INFO ON ABOVE Enter Here for Michael Moore's Website |
| PEACE ACTION YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO AFFILIATE people@paytown.org |
| Together, we have the power to change the world. Support Peace and Social Justice. |
| ”If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." -- Samuel Adams |
DISTRACTED DAMN RIGHT I AM! By Georgia Stillwell Military Families Speak Out When I returned home from my trip to Wash. DC, where I met with various Senators, Representatives and the Speaker of the House as part of Military Families Speak Out’s Operation House Call, I received a notice of pending termination of my employment on August 31st. It seems I have been distracted My priorities in life have changed since the war began. It has become my passion, my mission to be part of the frontline of peace. How can I not be? On a personal level, my son is still suffering from his participation in this war. He has killed men, women and children. Yes, let us not pretend that our soldiers are not killing innocents. My son lives with it everyday. “We thought the little boy had a bomb. ” My son weeps as he sits in the bottom of the shower. I recently found out he is experiencing combat flashbacks .No wonder my son drove his car over an embankment. No wonder he feels there is nothing left of his spirit at 22. Alive but dead inside. On a global level... I deeply feel the pain of others. I listen to Gold Star Mothers cry and beg God to bring back their child just one more time. I relate to the mothers whose soldiers came back and killed themselves. I still wonder when I am going to get that phone call. I hear the similarities of stories like my son’s. I think about the wives whose husbands return and vent their frustrations on them. I work in human services and have started to see the Iraq vets here. They are in so much pain, bleeding all over with invisible blood. And then there are the Iraqi people. Forgive us! My heart breaks again. Most nights I don’t sleep well. I keep thinking, ‘is there more I can do?’ We do not have another second, not another child to spare! My job has become so unimportant. And I can’t stop being distracted. I have been to DC twice this year already. Telling my story, telling others’ stories. “Bring them home now, Take care of them when they get here and never put our loved ones in harms way again for a lie.” I remember looking in Dennis Hastert’s blue eyes and thinking about PFC. Steven Sirko’s blue eyes that will never open again. |
| The Congressman comparing Iraq to a football game and me touching his arm and saying “Congressman our children don’t die in football games.”“ We don’t have another child to give you.” Begging Senator Obama to help us. “We are looking to you for great things.” Save our children. I can not express in words the urgency I feel. So I may lose my job. I may lose my home. I may not eat on a regular basis. Since I started on this mission of peace I have been evicted (some landlords don’t like it when you post the number of dead). I have had an IRS audit. I have had people look at me with so much hate at times it was unnerving. So What? There are people dying as I write this and another Mother cries. I am driven; my spirit will not let me rest. I will still stay in the frontlines. I will engage in acts of civil disobedience if necessary, I will not let a politician say they can not see me. And I will always be of peace. I have hugged the recruiter in my town and we have shed tears together. I have hugged the Speaker of the house. I must always show that I am of true peace. I shake the hand or hug every soldier I see. And the soldiers that have made it home — if I come into contact with them — I tell them if they ever need help I am here. If there is a soldier who wants out, I will find you refuge. Martin Luther King Jr. said “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” I have embraced that thought 100%. I do not pretend to have political savvy or be well versed on foreign affairs . I am just the mother of a soldier I beseech the people of America to step out of your comfort zones; get out of those easy chairs. Pour out into the streets and demand an end to this war. Many of us are out here in the frontlines are waiting, wondering... “Where is America?” Our children are dying, again. Georgia Stillwell Member of Military Families Speak Out |
WEBSITE COMPILED AND MAINTAINED BY THERESE FRANCES JOSEPH THERESE@PAYTOWN.ORG |
FOR A SANE WORLD
| "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately" B. Franklin, 1776 |
| “Of course the people don’t want war... that is understood. But voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That’s easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. ” -HERMANN GOERING, at the Nuremberg Trials |
Those who cast
the votes decide nothing.
Those who count the votes
decide everything.”
—Josef Stalin
”Fascism should
rightly be called corporatism
as it is a merger of state
and corporate power,”
—Benito Mussolini
”Behind the ostensible
government sits enthroned an
invisible government owing
no allegiance and
acknowledging no
responsibility to the people.
To destroy this invisible
government, to befoul the
unholy alliance between
corrupt business and corrupt
politics is the first task of the
statesmanship of the day.” —
Theodore Roosevelt ,1906
Only because our elections
have become so dependent
on television and its emphatic
emptiness, could a man of
such sublime and complacent
ignorance assume the
highest office in the land.
--(I lost the author
of this one that I found
on the ‘net.
I think it was
Mark Crispin Miller.)
Former Senator
William Fullbright
succinctly expressed
the type of leadership
we need: “The age of
warrior kings and
of warrior presidents
has passed
The nuclear age
calls for a different kind
of leadership, a leadership
of intellect, judgment,
tolerance and rationality,
a leadership committed
to human values, to world
peace, and to the
improvement
of the human condition.
The attributes upon
which we must draw
are the human attributes
of compassion and common
sense, of intellect and
creative imagination,
and of empathy and
understanding between
cultures.” —Mark Crispin Miller
(author of Bush Dyslexicon)
”I am a firm believer
in the people.
If given the truth,
they can be depended
upon to meet any
national crisis.
The great point is to bring
them the real facts.” -
Abraham Lincoln
| It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.” - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1908 |
| ENTER PEACE ACTION Y-TOWN PROGRESSIVE'S past issues OCT,'06 1989-2007 |
| "Loyalty to country, always. Loyalty to the government, when it deserves it." Mark Twain |
| Walk To End The Wars My name is Bill McDannell. I am a father of five and grandfather of four. I am a Vietnam era veteran and a former pastor of the United Methodist Church. Despite considerable evidence to the contrary I still firmly believe that, as a citizen of the United States of America, I have a voice in the activities of our country, and that my voice can be heard and can have an impact. Beginning on Saturday, November 4th, 2006 I am going to put that belief to the test. Mindful of my constitutional right to petition my government, on that date I will leave my home in Lakeside, California to begin a walk tha twill end in Washington, D.C. I will be carrying with me a petition I intend to present to both the executive and legislative branches of our government requesting that we, as a nation, declare an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am only one person, and do not pretend to have the individual wisdom to dictate exactly what actions should take place as a result of a declaration of the end of the wars. In fact, this is the reason I will be walking to Washington. I expect it will take me nine or ten months to walk from California to Washington, D.C., and I believe that the leaders who managed to figure out a way to get us into these wars in just a few months ought to be able to figure out a way to get us out by the time I arrive. The details of how many of our sons and daughters in the military will be brought home and how soon they will arrive home must be left to those more familiar with the logistics than myself, but I certainly believe that a declaration that the wars are over must come immediately and that, with the wars officially over, our sons and daughters should begin to return home immediately. The basis for my petition is quite simple. First, regarding the war in Iraq. We the people of the United States of America have been given several reasons why we went to war with Iraq in the first place: 1. We have been told that we went to war to liberate the people of Iraq from the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein. We have accomplished that. Saddam Hussein has been deposed and is now standing trial. 2. We have been told that we went to war to locate and destroy weapons of mass destruction and the capability to deliver them. We have discovered that there were no weapons of mass destruction, neither was there any means to deliver such weapons. 3. We have been told that we went to war to establish a democratic government in Iraq. The Iraqi people have voted and there is a democratic form of government in place. Since the objectives we believed were the purpose of the war have all been accomplished, it is now time to officially declare that the war has ended. The only possible argument for not ending the war revolves around a perceived need to establish some sort of stability in the nation of Iraq. The evidence is now quite clear that our continued military presence in Iraq is the primary cause of the continuing instability. As our continued military presence only serves to further exacerbate the situation we want to resolve, it is clear that we must officially end that presence, beginning with a formal declaration that the war is over. Next, regarding the war in Afghanistan. We went to war with Afghanistan to depose the rule of the Taliban, whose influence and support assisted the terrorists that attacked our country on September 11, 2001. Like Iraq, Afghanistan now has a government in place that has been freely elected by its citizens. We no longer have a grievance with the leadership of Afghanistan, and the country and its government do not pose an imminent threat to the sovereignty or safety of theUnited States. Therefore, it is also time to declare an official end to the war in Afghanistan and to immediately begin to remove our military presence from the country. Finally, regarding the war on terrorism. War has historically been viewed as an armed conflict between states or nations in order to establish boundaries, authority, or power, or to redress a wrong inflicted upon one nation by another. The war on terrorism does not fit this definition. It is instead an effort to prevent terrorist activities, to locate and eliminate those individuals or groups who engage in such activities, to dissuade any and all nations from harboring or abetting such groups and to keep not only our country but countries around the world safe from such activities. It is first of all obvious that this will be an essentially endless task of vigilance and intervention. It is also obvious that such an effort does not fit the definition of war any more than does a war on poverty or a war on drugs. Since the war on terrorism does not fit the true definition of a war, once our leaders have officially acknowledged that the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan are over, it will mean that the United States will not be at war with any other sovereign state or nation. Therefore, along with the official declaration that these wars are at an end, I will petition the president of the United States to immediately relinquish the wartime powers ceded to him by the Congress, and petition the Congress to immediately rescind the wartime powers it granted to the executive branch. I do not believe the structure of our democracy ever conceived of a situation where the ceding of wartime powers by Congress to the executive branch would be a permanent arrangement, as this would be a significant step toward dictatorial powers. Therefore, a continuing war on terrorism can neither be viewed as a war in the historic sense nor a justification for the executive branch to retain wartime powers in the absence of any authentic war. I am doing this as an individual citizen - with the help and support of my loving wife - and not as a member of any group, organization or political party. I am doing it as a grandfather, in the belief that if the grandfathers and grandmothers of our nation do not raise our voices, we will one day see our grandchildren being sent off to a seemingly endless war. That said, I welcome any and all individuals, groups and organizations who believe it is time to end these wars to meet me along the way and sign my petition, to walk with me for a while, and to demonstrate our conviction that it is time to take definitive action to end these wars. I am doing this on faith, hoping that those who feel as I do will be inspired to lend their assistance to my effort. But whether or not such assistance comes, I am committing my time, my energy, my health, and my fortunes to this effort. God willing, I shall arrive in Washington and I shall present my petition to our country’s leaders. I am calling my effort Walk To End The Wars, and this website. WTETW/com, will be the place where you will be able to find a regular journal of my walk detailing my experiences along the way, a progress report that will allow you to locate me and join me on the walk or sign my petition if you desire, and methods of contacting me directly should you wish to lend support to my effort. I deeply appreciate your support in whatever form you wish to offer it, and wish you and the generations that will follow you Peace. Bill McDannell |
[Sean Penn received The 2006 Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award from The Creative Coalition on December 18, 2006, in New York City, where he delivered the following speech.] The Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award. For the purposes of tonight and my own personal enjoyment, I'm going to yield to the notion that I deserve this. And in the spirit of that, tell you that I am very honored to receive it. And for this I thank the Creative Coalition and my friend Charlie Rose. It does seem appropriate to take this opportunity to exercise the right that honors us all - freedom of speech. Note for later: The original title for the Louis XVI comedy called "Start The Revolution Without Me" was one of my favorites. That original title was "Louis, There's a Crowd Downstairs." But I'll come back to that... Words may be our most civil weapons of change, when they connect to actions of sacrifice, or good will, but they have no grace or power without bold clarity. So, if you'll bear with me, borrowing a line from Bob Dylan, "Let us not talk falsely now - the hour is getting late." Global warming Massive pollution Non-stop U.S. war in Iraq Attacks on civil liberties under the banner of war on terror Military spending You and I, U.S. taxpayers, spend 1 1/2 billion dollars on an Iraq-war-'focused' military everyday, while social needs cry out. Health care Education Public transit Environmental protections Affordable housing Job training Public investment and levy building. We depend largely for information on these issues from media industries, driven by the bottom line to such an extent that the public interest becomes uninteresting. And should we speak truth, we stand against government efforts to intimidate or legislate in the service of censorship. Whether under the guise of a Patriot Act or any other benevolent-sounding rationale for the age-old game of shutting down dissent by discouraging independent thinking and preventing progressive social change. The most effective forms of de facto censorship are pre-emptive. Systemically, we are encouraged to keep our heads down, out of the line of fire - to avoid the danger, god forbid, that someone in the White House, on Capitol Hill, or a media blow-hard might take a shot at us. But, as a practical matter, most of the limits on creative expression and other forms of free speech come from self-censorship, where the mechanism of corporate clout offers carrots and brandishes sticks. We avoid a conflict before the conflict materializes. We reach for the carrots and stay out of range of sticks. Decades ago, Fred Friendly called it a "positive veto" - corporations putting big money behind shows that they want to establish and perpetuate. Whether in journalism or drama, creative efforts that don't gain a financial "positive veto" are dismissible, then dismissed. We may not call that "censorship." But whatever we call it, the effects of a "positive veto" system are severe. They impose practical limits on efforts to bring the most important realities to public attention sooner rather than later... We're beginning to see more revealing images of this war. But it's later now, isn't it? What we have to pay attention to are the results of these "practical limits." One, is that wars become much easier to launch than to halt. I've got a feeling about how we can begin to change this process and I want to pass it by you. Children grow up in our country -- many by the way, under conditions of extreme poverty -- and are told from a very early age "You will be accountable!" "With freedom, comes responsibility!" And so the lecture goes...Democratic and Republican alike. Lie-cheat-steal, and there will be consequences! Theft will be punished. Actions that cause the deaths of others will be severely punished. The message, from leaders in Washington, news media, mom, dad, and church is clear. Criminals MUST be held accountable. Now, there's been a lot of talk lately on Capitol Hill about how impeachment should be "off the table." We're told that it's time to look ahead - not back... Can you imagine how far that argument would go for the defense at an arraignment on charges of grand larceny, or large-scale distribution of methamphetamines? How about the arranging of a contract killingon a pregnant mother? "Indictment should be off the table." Or "Let's look forward, not backward." Or "We can't afford another failed defendant." ' Our country has a legal system, not of men and women, but of laws. Why then are we so willing to put inconvenient provisions of the U.S. constitution and federal law "off the table?" Our greatest concern right now should be what to put ON the table. Unless we're going to have one set of laws for the powerful and another set for those who can't afford fancy lawyers, then truth matters to everyone. And accountability is a matter of human and legal principle. If we're going to continue wagging our fingers at the disadvantaged transgressors, then I suggest we be consistent. If truth and accountability can be stretched into sham concepts, we may as well open the gates of all our jails and prisons, where, by the way, there are more people behind bars than any other country in the world. One in every 32 American adults is behind bars, on probation, or on parole as we stand here tonight. Which is to say that, globally, the United States is number one at demanding accountability and backing up that demand with imprisonment. But, when it comes to our president, vice president, secretary of state, former secretary of defense.. .this insistence on accountability vanishes. All of a sudden, what's past is prologue. And we're just "forward-looking." But some people can't just look forward. Men and women stationed in Iraq at this moment, under orders of a Commander-in-Chief so sufficiently practiced in the art of deception, that he got vast numbers of American journalists and the most esteemed media outlets of this country, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and PBS to eagerly serve his agenda-building for war. And the process also induced vast numbers of artists and performers (probably even some in this room tonight) to keep quiet and facilitate the push for an invasion in Iraq. I'm sure many people who I met in Baghdad, both in my trips prior to and during the occupation, now similarly cannot just look forward. With lives so entirely shattered by a violence of occupation - an ongoing U.S. war effort and the civil war that it has catalyzed. All on the back of a crumbled infrastructure, following eleven years of devastating U.N. sanctions. And, where is the accountability on behalf of the American dead and wounded, their families, their friends, and the people of the United States who have seen their country become a world pariah. These events have been enabled by people named Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, and Rice, as they continue to perpetuate a massive fraud on American democracy and decency. On January 11, 2003, I made an appearance on Larry King's show following my first trip to Iraq. I suggested that every American mother and father sit down with a scrap of paper and pencil and scribble the following words: Dear Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so -- We regret to inform you that your son or daughter so-and-so, was killed in action in Iraq. I then asked that those mothers and fathers complete that letter in whatever way might comfort them should they receive it. When one considers what a bewildered continuation of those words a parent might attempt to write today, it seems inconceivable that this country could've ever bought into this war. Who were those mothers and fathers believing in?! We know it's not the administration alone, but a culture at large, cloaking itself in self-righteousness, religion, and adolescent hero-dreaming machismo. Would they have believed Rush Limbaugh if they'd known he was high as a kite on OxyContin? Would they have believed the factually impaired Bill O'Reilly if they knew he was massaging his rectum with a loofah while telephonically harassing a staffer? Hannity, had they known he was simply a whore to the cause of his pimps - Murdoch and Ailes? Or the little bow-tie putz, if they knew all he was seeking was a good laugh from Jon Stewart? Maybe our countrymen and women were listening to Ted Haggert while he was whiffing meth and boning a muscle-headed gigolo? Or Mark Foley seeking junior weenis? Joe Lieberman, sitting Shiva? And Toby Keith, singing about how big his boots are? "Oh, there goes Sean...he had to go and name-call. They say he can't help himself." Or, did I name-call? Maybe I just quickly summed up 7 or 8 little truths. Oh, no, you're right - I name-called. I said, "putz". I take it back. Or, do I? Did I say "whore?" Pimp? These are questions. But, the real and great questions of conscience and accountability would not loom so ominously -- unanswered or evaded at such tremendous cost -- without our day-to-day failure to insist on genuine accountability. Of course we'd prefer some easy ways to get there. But no easy ways exist. Not a new Congress. Not Barack Obama. And, not John McCain. His courage in North Vietnamese prison makes him a heroic man. His voting record in Congress makes him a damaging public servant. We have gotta stand the fuck up and show the world how powerful are the people in a democracy. That's how we regain our position of example, rather than pariah, to the world at large. And that is how we can begin to put up our chins and allow pride and unification to raise our own quality of life and security. They tell us we lost 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Is that enough? We're about to match it. We're within weeks, if not less, of killing 3,000 Americans in Iraq. I ask Speaker Pelosi, can we put impeachment on the table then? Without former FEMA chief Mike Brown being held accountable, post Katrina (scapegoat though he may have been) we'd have had the same chaos and neglect when Rita hit Houston. Think about it. And, the same people who trumpet deterrence as a justification for punishment when we speak of "crime and punishment," will boast their positive thinking when dismissing the deterrent qualities of an impeachment proceeding. What is impeachment? It's not a Democratic versus Republican event. Not if used responsibly. If the House of Representatives votes to impeach this president, is he thrown out of office? No, he is not thrown out of office. That is not what impeachment is. Impeachment is the opportunity to proceed with accountability and give our elected senators, democratic and republican, the power to pursue a thorough investigation. The power to put the truth on the table. Mothers and fathers are losing their kids to horrifying deaths in this war every single day. Horrible deaths. Horrible maimings. Were crimes committed in enlisting the support of our country in this decision to go to war? For the moment we're livingthe most spineless of scenarios; where the hawks abused impeachment eight years ago, now, the rest of us politely refuse to use it today Let's give the whistle-blowers cover, let's get the subpoenas out there, and then, one by one, put this administration under oath. And then, if the crimes of "Treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" are proven, do as Article 2, Section 4 of the United States Constitution provides, and remove "the President, Vice President and...civil officers of the United States" from office. If the Justice Department then sees fit to bunk them up with Jeff Skilling, so be it. So...look, if we attempt to impeach for lying about a blowjob, yet accept these almost certain abuses without challenge, we become a cum-stain on the flag we wave. You know, I was listening to Frank Rich this morning, speaking on a book tour. He said he thought impeachment proceedings would amount to a "decadent" sidetrack, while our soldiers were still being killed. I admire Frank Rich. And of course he would be right if impeachment is all we do. But we're Americans. We can do two things at the same time. Yes, let's move forward and swiftly get out of this war in Iraq AND impeach these bastards. Christopher Reeve promised to get out of that chair. Well, I don't know about you, but it feels like he's up now and I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't on his shoulders. Let it be for something. Georgie, there's a crowd downstairs. Thank you and good night. |
Sean Penn
Speaks Up
For
Impeachment
Speaks Up
For
Impeachment
REPRESENTATIVE Robert F. Hagan (D) District 60 77 S. High St 11th Floor Columbus, OH 43215-6111 (614) 466-9435 |
197 West Market Street Warren, OH 44481-0074 Phone: (330) 373-0074 Fax: (330) 373-0098 241 Federal Plaza West Youngstown, OH 44503 Phone: (330) 740-0193 Fax: (330) 740-0182 1030 Tallmadge Avenue Akron, OH 44310 Phone: (330) 630-7311 Fax: (330) 630-7314 |
| Governor Ted Strickland Riffe Center, 30th Floor 77 South High Street Columbus, OH 43215-6108 Phone/Fax: (614) 466-3555 Fax: (614) 466-9354 |
Enough Is Enough By Molly Ivins Texas Observer, 26 Jan,2007 The purpose of this old-fashioned newspaper crusade to stop the war is not to make George W. Bush look like the dumbest president ever. People have done dumber things. What were they thinking when they bought into the Bay of Pigs fiasco? How dumb was the Suez war? How massively stupid was the entire war in Vietnam? Even at that, the challenge with this misbegotten adventure is that WE simply cannot let it continue. It is not a matter of whether we are losing or will lose. We have lost. Gen. John P. Abizaid, until recently the senior commander in the Middle East, insists that the answer to our problems there is not military. “You have to internationalize the problem. You have to attack it diplomatically, geostrategically,” he says. His assessment is supported by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who recommend sending more forces only if there is a clear definition of their goals. Bush’s call for a “surge” also goes against the Iraq Study Group. Talk is that the White House has planned to do anything but what the group suggested after months of investigation based on much broader strategic implications. “We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell.”__Molly Ivins About the only politician out there besides Bush calling for a surge is Sen. John McCain. In a recent opinion piece, he wrote: “The presence of additional coalition forces would allow the Iraqi government to do what it cannot accomplish today on its own- impose its rule throughout the country ... By surging troops and bringing security to Baghdad and other areas, we will give the Iraqis the best possible chance to succeed.” With all due respect to the senator from Arizona, that ship has long since sailed. A surge is not acceptable to the people in this country - we have voted overwhelmingly against this war at the polls and in the polls. (About 80 percent of the public is against escalation, and a recent Military Times poll shows only 38 percent of active military want more troops sent.) We know this is wrong. The people understand, the people have the right to make this decision, and the people have the obligation to make sure our will is implemented. Congress must work for the people in the resolution of this fiasco. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s proposal to control the money and tighten oversight is a welcome first step. If Republicans want to continue to rubber-stamp this administration’s idiotic “plans” and go against the will of the people, they should be thrown out as soon as possible, to join their recently departed colleagues. Anyone who wants to talk knowledgeably about our Iraq misadventure should pick up Rajiv Chandra-sekaran’s Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone. It’s like reading a horror novel. You just want to put your face down and moan: How could we let this happen? How could we be so stupid? As The Washington Post’s review notes, Chandrasekaran’s book “methodically documents the baffling ineptitude that dominated U.S. attempts to influence Iraq’s fiendish politics, rebuild the electrical grid, privatize the economy, run the oil industry, recruit expert staff or instill a modicum of normalcy to the lives of Iraqis.” We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we’re for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush’s proposed surge. . We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, Stop it, now!” |
| ONE OF HER LAST COLUMNS |
| TO SEND EASY PRE-WRITTEN MESSAGES THAT SPEAK FOR YOU ON KEY ISSUES AND LEGISLATION, GO TO www.peace-action.org or to Friends Committee on National Legislation, www.capwiz.com/fconl/home |
| "We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders and we need to raise hell. " Molly Ivins |
| Speak Out!! Congressman Tim Ryan 222 Cannon Office Building Wash, DC 20515 Toll Free: 1-800-856-4152 Office: 202-225-5261 Fax: 202-225-3719 |
| REP. Robert F. Hagan (D) District 60 77 S. High St 11th Floor Columbus, OH 43215-6111 (614) 466-9435 |
| Governor Ted Strickland Riffe Center, 30th Floor 77 South High Street Columbus, OH 43215-6108 (614) 466-3555 Fax: (614) 466-9354 |
| Bill Mc Dannell and grandson |
| Speak Out!! Congressman Tim Ryan 222 Cannon Office Building Wash, DC 20515 Toll Free: 1-800-856-4152 Office: 202-225-5261 Fax: 202-225-3719 |
Ten days before the invasion of Iraq, it was proven that the documents upon which President Bush’s claim about Saddam Hussein trying to obtain uranium was based were forgeries. However, President Bush did not disclose that to the American people. By that failure, he betrayed each of us, he betrayed our country, and he betrayed the cause of world peace. Neither did the vast majority of the news media disclose the forgeries—until it was far too late. It took our local newspapers here in Salt Lake City four months—until after President Bush declared that major combat in Iraq was over—to report the discovery that the documents were forgeries—and, therefore, that there was no basis for the false claims about Saddam Hussein trying to build up a nuclear capability. By its failure to promptly disclose the forgeries, the news media betrayed us as well. Had the American people known we were being lied to— had President Bush informed us that the documents were forged and that he had no other basis for his claim— had our nation’s media done its job, rather than slavishly repeating to us the lies being fed to it by the Bush Administration— our nation may well not have allowed the commencement of this outrageous, illegal, unjustified war. To President Bush, to his Administration, to our go-along Congress, and to our news media, we are here today, demanding, “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!” Then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said that high-strength aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were “only really suited for nuclear weapons programs,” warning “we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” Undisclosed by President Bush or Condoleezza Rice was the fact that top nuclear scientists had informed the Administration that the tubes were “too narrow, too heavy, too long” to be useful in developing nuclear weapons and could be used for other purposes. Dr. Mohamed El Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, agreed. So much for the phony claims of Saddam Hussein building nuclear weapons—the primary claims justifying the rush to war. What were we told about chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction? These claims were as baseless and fraudulent as the claims about nuclear weapons. President Bush told us in his January 2003 State of the Union address that Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. Then, in May of 2003, he made the outlandish statement that, “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told us, “We know where the [WMDs] are.” Vice President Cheney and then-Secretary of State Powell also joined in the chorus of lies and misinformation about weapons of mass destruction. Of course, no stockpiles of biological or chemical weapons were found. Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay noted that Iraq did not have an ongoing chemical weapons program after 1991— a conclusion remarkably similar to statements made by Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice before the 9/11 attacks—and before they sacrificed the truth in the service of promoting the Bush Administration’s case for war against Iraq. On February 24, 2001, less than 7 months before 9/11, Colin Powell said that Saddam Hussein “has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors,” said Colin Powell. And in July 2001, two months before 9/11, Condoleezza Rice said: “We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.” It is astounding how they changed their claims after the President decided to make a case for the invasion and occupation of Iraq! To think that we could be lied to by so many members of the Bush Administration with such impunity is frightening—chilling. Yet these imperious, arrogant, dishonest people think we should just fall in line with them and continue to take them at their word. The truth has been established. Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks on the United States. There is no evidence of any operational ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda. And there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What a tragedy, leading to greater tragedy. We are fed lie after lie, our media reinforces those lies, and we are a nation led to a tragic, illegal, unprovoked war. We are here because of our values. We love our country. We cherish the freedoms and liberties of our country. We don’t call those who speak out against our nation’s leaders unpatriotic or un-American or appeasers of fascists. We have good, wholesome family values. In our families, we teach honesty, we teach kindness and compassion toward others, we teach that violence, if ever justified, must be an absolutely last resort. In our families, we teach that our nation’s constitutional values are to be upheld, and that they are worth standing up and fighting for. Our family values promote respect and equal rights toward everyone, regardless of race, ethnic origin, and sexual orientation. In our families, we teach the value of hard work and competence— and we are left to wonder about a President who, after receiving an intelligence memo about the threat posed by Al Qaeda, decides to continue his month-long vacation— just before the 9/11 attacks on our country. As we demand the truth from others, let us also face the truth. Our government all too often has not cared about the human rights of people in other nations— and it doesn’t really care about democracy, unless it leads to the election of those who will do our bidding. Consider the irony regarding the claims that Saddam had chemical weapons and, because of that, we needed to rush to war in Iraq. When Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons— first against Iranians, then against his own people, the Kurds - our country provided him with biological and chemical agents and equipment to make the weapons. Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush refused even to support economic sanctions against Hussein for his use of weapons of mass destruction. What did our nation do in response to Hussein’s use of chemical weapons, killing tens of thousand of people, when he actually had them? We befriended, coddled, and rewarded him—with government-guaranteed loans totaling $5 billion since 1983, freeing up currency for Hussein to modernize his military assets. Perhaps those in the US government who aided and abetted Saddam Hussein to further US business interests, while he was gassing the Kurds, should be sharing his courtroom dock as he is being tried now for crimes against humanity. No more lies, no more hiding of the truth, no more wars that more than triple the value of stock in Dick Cheney’s prior employer, Halliburton— and which, as of last September, has increased the value of the Halliburton CEO’s stock by $78 million. No. We are patriots. We’re deeply concerned. And we demand change, now. No more lies from Condoleezza Rice about whether she and President Bush were advised before 9/11 of the possibility of planes being flown into buildings by terrorists. No more gross incompetence in the office of the Secretary of Defense. No more torture of human beings. No more disregard of the basic human rights enshrined in the Geneva Convention. No more kidnapping of people and sending them off to secret prisons in nations where we can expect they will be tortured. No more unconstitutional wiretapping of Americans. No more proposed amendments to the United States Constitution that would,for the first time, limit fundamental rights and liberties for entire classes of people simply on the basis of sexual orientation. No more federal land giveaways to developers. No more increases in mercury emissions from old, dirty, dangerous coalburning power plants. No more backroom deals that deprive protection for millions of acres of wild lands. No more attacks on immigrants who work so hard to build better lives. No more inaction by Congress on fixing our hypocritical and inconsistent immigration laws and policies. No more reliance on fiction rather than the science of global warming. No more manipulation of our media with false propaganda. No more disastrous cuts in funding for those most in need. No more federal cuts in community policing and local law enforcement grant programs for our cities. No more inaction on stopping the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. No more of the Patriot Act. No more killing. No more pre-emptive wars. No more contempt for our long-time allies around the world. No more dependence on foreign oil. No more failure to impose increased fuel efficiency standards for automobiles. No more energy policies developed in secret meetings between Dick Cheney and his energy company cronies. No more excuses for failing to aggressively cut global warming pollutant emissions. No more tragically incompetent federal responses to natural disasters. No more tax cuts for the wealthiest, while the middle class and those who are economically-disadvantaged continue to struggle more and more each year. No more reckless spending and massive tax cuts, resulting in historic deficits and historic accumulated national debt. No more purchasing of elections by the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the country. No more phony, ineffective, inhumane so-called war on drugs. No more failure to pass an increase in the minimum wage. No more silence by the American people. This is a new day. We will not be silent. We will continue to raise our voices. We will bring others with us. We will grow and grow, regardless of political party— unified in our insistence upon the truth, upon peace-making, upon more humane treatment of our brothers and sisters around the world. We will be ever cognizant of our moral responsibility to speak up in the face of wrongdoing, and to work as we can for a better, safer, more just community, nation, and world. So we won’t let down. We won’t be quiet. We will continue to resist the lies, the deception, the outrages of the Bush Administration. We will insist that peace be pursued, and that, as a nation, we help those in need. We must break the cycle of hatred, of intolerance, of exploitation. We must pursue peace as vigorously as the Bush Administration has pursued war. It’s up to all of us to do our part. Thank you everyone for lending your voices to this call for compassion, for peace, for greater humanity. Let us keep in mind the injunction of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Rocky Anderson was born in Logan,Utah and received a bachelor’s degree in science from the University of Utahand a Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University. He spent many years as a lawyer in Salt Lake City, specializing in civil litigation while affiliated with the ACLU. Anderson ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1996, but received 55% of Salt Lake City’s vote in that race. Anderson was first elected as mayor in 1999 and was reelected in 2003. Although the office of mayor in Salt Lake City is nonpartisan, Anderson’s personal party affiliation is Democratic, and much of his platform is that of a liberal Democrat. It should be pointed out that while Utah is primarily a Republican or “Red” state, Salt Lake City is primarily Democratic in party allegiance. |
| Click on image below to hear Neil Young's song 'Living with War.' |
| Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. |
Wednesday, July 4, 2007 by TruthDig.com
The High Cost of
Libby’s Silence
by Amy Goodman
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal,” says the preamble to the
Declaration of Independence. Unless, of course, you
are a friend of the president. By commuting
“Scooter” Libby’s sentence, President Bush is also
protecting himself and Vice President Dick Cheney.
I asked former Ambassador Joe Wilson what he
thought about the commutation. It was his 2003
opinion piece that refuted Bush’s claim that Iraq
had sought uranium from Africa. In retaliation, the
White House leaked the name of his wife, Valerie
Plame, and her CIA identity. Wilson said, “It casts a
cloud of suspicion over the president and begs the
question whether the president is participating in
an ongoing obstruction of justice and cover-up of
criminal activity within the White House.” I asked
him how: “By ensuring that Libby will have no
incentive to talk with the special prosecutor.”
Prisoners often cooperate with government
prosecutors in exchange for leniency. With the
prison sentence gone, Special Prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald loses his leverage over Libby. While Bush
and his subordinates stress that Libby still faces a
$250,000 fine, the Libby Legal Defense Trust was
set up to help him out.
Among the listed trustees are former senator, TV
actor and likely Republican presidential candidate
Fred Thompson, and former CIA director and Iraq
war booster James Woolsey. Woolsey’s firm
lobbied for the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmed
Chalabi’s CIA-funded group that provided faulty
intelligence in the lead-up to the war. Woolsey was
also a member of the Committee for the Liberation
of Iraq and involved with the Project for the New
American Century, two influential groups that
helped provide intellectual cover and political
muscle for the invasion of Iraq. Given the power and
wealth represented on his fundraising team, Libby
will do just fine with his fine.
Blogger Marcy Wheeler, who followed the Libby trial
closely, told me: “In some ways, commutation is
worse [for the cause of justice] than a pardon.
With a commutation, Scooter Libby retains his Fifth
Amendment rights.” If Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.,
for example, were to call a hearing, Libby could still
plead the Fifth Amendment against self-
incrimination, remaining silent. Had he been
pardoned and been completely cleared of any
wrongdoing, then he would have a harder time
refusing to answer questions. Libby’s continued
silence protects Bush and Cheney.
The commutation also allows the Bush
administration to remain silent. As Bush said, “I
have said throughout this process that it would not
be appropriate to comment or intervene in this case
until Mr. Libby’s appeals have been exhausted.”
So the commutation ensures that Libby will not
cooperate with Fitzgerald, and will not cooperate
with Congress. Why does this matter? Because this
case is not about obstruction of justice, it is not
about perjury. Ultimately, this case is about war.
The Bush administration’s case for war depended
on false claims about weapons of mass
destruction. President George H.W. Bush hailed
Wilson as
“a true American hero” for his role as acting U.S.
ambassador to Iraq when Saddam Hussein invaded
Kuwait in 1990. But when Wilson publicly debunked
the George W. Bush administration’s claim about
African uranium, he was attacked, his wife was
outed, her career ruined. Her job: an undercover CIA
operative investigating weapons of mass
destruction. This week, the United Nations formally
closed down its weapons search program in Iraq,
the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission. So much for WMD.
Thompson released a statement after the
commutation, saying, “This will allow a good
American, who has done a lot for his country, to
resume his life.” Good Americans sent to war, and
who died, now number close to 3,600. They will not
be getting on with their lives. And let’s not forget the
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed. More than
20,000 Americans are wounded, some with limbs
lost, some blinded, some brain-damaged. They have
no choice but to get on with their lives, but without a
star-studded fundraising committee.
The Declaration of Independence speaks of
unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. It also says that when a government
“becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right
of the People to alter or abolish it.”
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a
daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500
stations in North America.
The High Cost of
Libby’s Silence
by Amy Goodman
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal,” says the preamble to the
Declaration of Independence. Unless, of course, you
are a friend of the president. By commuting
“Scooter” Libby’s sentence, President Bush is also
protecting himself and Vice President Dick Cheney.
I asked former Ambassador Joe Wilson what he
thought about the commutation. It was his 2003
opinion piece that refuted Bush’s claim that Iraq
had sought uranium from Africa. In retaliation, the
White House leaked the name of his wife, Valerie
Plame, and her CIA identity. Wilson said, “It casts a
cloud of suspicion over the president and begs the
question whether the president is participating in
an ongoing obstruction of justice and cover-up of
criminal activity within the White House.” I asked
him how: “By ensuring that Libby will have no
incentive to talk with the special prosecutor.”
Prisoners often cooperate with government
prosecutors in exchange for leniency. With the
prison sentence gone, Special Prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald loses his leverage over Libby. While Bush
and his subordinates stress that Libby still faces a
$250,000 fine, the Libby Legal Defense Trust was
set up to help him out.
Among the listed trustees are former senator, TV
actor and likely Republican presidential candidate
Fred Thompson, and former CIA director and Iraq
war booster James Woolsey. Woolsey’s firm
lobbied for the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmed
Chalabi’s CIA-funded group that provided faulty
intelligence in the lead-up to the war. Woolsey was
also a member of the Committee for the Liberation
of Iraq and involved with the Project for the New
American Century, two influential groups that
helped provide intellectual cover and political
muscle for the invasion of Iraq. Given the power and
wealth represented on his fundraising team, Libby
will do just fine with his fine.
Blogger Marcy Wheeler, who followed the Libby trial
closely, told me: “In some ways, commutation is
worse [for the cause of justice] than a pardon.
With a commutation, Scooter Libby retains his Fifth
Amendment rights.” If Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.,
for example, were to call a hearing, Libby could still
plead the Fifth Amendment against self-
incrimination, remaining silent. Had he been
pardoned and been completely cleared of any
wrongdoing, then he would have a harder time
refusing to answer questions. Libby’s continued
silence protects Bush and Cheney.
The commutation also allows the Bush
administration to remain silent. As Bush said, “I
have said throughout this process that it would not
be appropriate to comment or intervene in this case
until Mr. Libby’s appeals have been exhausted.”
So the commutation ensures that Libby will not
cooperate with Fitzgerald, and will not cooperate
with Congress. Why does this matter? Because this
case is not about obstruction of justice, it is not
about perjury. Ultimately, this case is about war.
The Bush administration’s case for war depended
on false claims about weapons of mass
destruction. President George H.W. Bush hailed
Wilson as
“a true American hero” for his role as acting U.S.
ambassador to Iraq when Saddam Hussein invaded
Kuwait in 1990. But when Wilson publicly debunked
the George W. Bush administration’s claim about
African uranium, he was attacked, his wife was
outed, her career ruined. Her job: an undercover CIA
operative investigating weapons of mass
destruction. This week, the United Nations formally
closed down its weapons search program in Iraq,
the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission. So much for WMD.
Thompson released a statement after the
commutation, saying, “This will allow a good
American, who has done a lot for his country, to
resume his life.” Good Americans sent to war, and
who died, now number close to 3,600. They will not
be getting on with their lives. And let’s not forget the
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed. More than
20,000 Americans are wounded, some with limbs
lost, some blinded, some brain-damaged. They have
no choice but to get on with their lives, but without a
star-studded fundraising committee.
The Declaration of Independence speaks of
unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. It also says that when a government
“becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right
of the People to alter or abolish it.”
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a
daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500
stations in North America.
| WE WON'T BE QUIET by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson Washington Square Salt Lake City, Utah- August 30, 2006 Dear friends: I delivered this address on the occasion of the recent visit by President Bush, Secretary Rice, and Secretary Rumsfeld to Salt Lake City. Thank you for all the work you are doing to stand up and speak out against the disastrous policies of the Bush administration and our Congress. Best regards, Mayor Rocky Anderson A patriot is a person who loves his or her country. Who among you loves your country so much that you have come here today to raise your voice out of deep concern for our nation—and for our world? And who among you loves your country so much that you insist that our nation’s leaders tell us the truth? Let’s hear it: “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! The truth!” Let no one deny we are patriots. We love our country, we hold dear the values upon which our nation was founded, and we are distressed at what our President, his Administration, and our Congress are doing to, and in the name of, our great nation. Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism. A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; or refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating President. That is not a patriot. Rather, that person is a sycophant. That person is a member of a frightening culture of obedience—a culture where falling in line with authority is more important than choosing what is right, even if it is not easy, safe, or popular. And, I suspect, that person is afraid—afraid we are right, afraid of the truth (even to the point of denying it), afraid he or she has put in with an oppressive, inhumane regime that does not respect the laws and traditions of our country, and that history will rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure. In response to those who believe we should blindly support this disastrous President, his Administration, and the complacent, complicit Congress, listen to the words of Theodore Roosevelt, a great President and a Republican, who said: "The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole." Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else. We are here today as truth-tellers. And we are here to demand: “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!” We are here today to insist that those who were elected to be our leaders must tell us the truth. We are here today to insist that our news media live up to its sacred responsibility to ascertain and report the truth—rather than acting like nothing more than a bulletin board for the lies and propaganda of a manipulative, dishonest federal government. We have been getting just about everything but the truth on matters of life and death...on matters upon which our nation’s reputation hinges...on matters that directly relate to our nation’s fundamental values... and on matters relating to the survival of our planet. In the process, our nation has engaged in an unnecessary war, based upon false justifications. More than a hundred thousand people have been killed— and many more have been seriously maimed, brain-damaged, or rendered mentally ill. Our nation’s reputation through-out much of the world has been destroyed. We have many more enemies bent on our destruction than before our invasion of Iraq. And the hatred toward us has grown to the point that it will take many years, perhaps generations, to overcome the loathing created by our invasion and occupation of a Muslim country. What incredible ineptitude and callousness for our President to talk about a Crusade while lying to us to make a case for the invasion and occupation of a Muslim country! Our children and later generations will pay the price of the lies, the violence, the cruelty, the incompetence, and the inhumanity of the Bush Administration and the lackey Congress that has so cowardly abrogated its responsibility and authority under our checks-and-balances system of government We are here to say, “We will not stand for it any more. No more lies. No more preemptive, illegal war, based on false information. No more God-is-on-our- side religious nonsense to justify this immoral, illegal war. No more inhumanity.” Let’s raise our voices, and demand, “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!” Let’s consider some of the most monstrous lies— lies that have led us, like a nation of sheep, to this tragic war. Following September 11, 2001, the world knew that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were responsible for the horrific attacks on our country. Our long-time allies were sympathetic and supportive. But our President transformed that support into international disdain for the United States, choosing to illegally invade and occupy Iraq, rather than focus on and capture the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. Why invade and occupy Iraq? Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice represented to us, without qualification, that there were strong ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. In September, 2002, President Bush made the incredible claim that “You can’t distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam.” President Bush represented to Congress, without any factual basis whatsoever, that Iraq planned, authorized, committed, or aided the 9/11 attacks. Our President and Vice-President along with an unquestioning news media, repeatedly led our nation to believe that there was a working relationship between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government, a relationship that threatened the US. Even last week, when I met with Thomas Bock, National Commander of the American Legion, I asked him why we are engaged in the war in Iraq. He said, “Why, of course, because of the 9/11 attacks on our country.” I asked, “What did Iraq have to do with those attacks?” He looked puzzled, then said, “Well, the connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq.” I was shocked. Here is a man who has criticized us for opposing the war in Iraq—and he is completely wrong about the underlying facts used to justify this war. Not only has there never been any evidence of any involvement by Saddam Hussein or Iraq with the attacks on 9/11, but there has never been any evidence of any operational connection whatsoever between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda Colin Powell finally conceeded there is no “concrete evidence about the connection.” “The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track Al Qaeda” disclosed that “his team had found no evidence linking Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein.” And the top investigator for our European allies has said, ‘If there were such links, we would have found them. But we have found no serious connections whatsoever.’” President Bush himself finally admitted days ago during a press conference that there was no connection between the attacks on 9/11 and Iraq. It’s terrific that the President has now admitted what others have known for so long—but where is the accountability for the tragic war we were led into on the basis of his earlier misrepresentations? Besides the fictions of Saddam Hussein somehow being linked to the 9/11 attacks and his supposed connection with Al Qaeda, what was the principal justification for forgoing additional weapons inspections, failing to work with our allies toward a solution, refraining from seeking additional resolutions from the United Nations, and hurrying to war - a so-called “pre-emptive” war— in which we would attack and occupy a Muslim nation that posed no security risk to the United States, and cause the deaths of many thousands of innocent men, women, and children— and the deaths and lifetime injuries to many thousands of our own servicemen and servicewomen? The principal claim was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction— biological and chemical weapons— and was seeking to build up a nuclear weapons capability. As we now know, there was nothing— no evidence whatsoever—to support those claims. President Bush represented to us— and to people around the world— that one of the reasonswe needed to make war in Iraq - and to do it right away— was because Saddam Husseinwas seeking to build nuclear weapons. His assertions about Saddam Hussein trying to purchase nuclear materials from an African nation and about Iraq seeking to obtain aluminum tubes for the enrichment of uranium were challenged at the time by our own intelligence agency and scientists, yet he didn’t tell us that ( continued in column to the right) |
| Supporting the Troops" Means Withdrawing Them By William E. Odom Nieman Watchdog Thursday 05 July 2007 General William Odom writes that opponents of the war should focus public attention on the fact that Bush's obstinate refusal to admit defeat is causing the troops enormous psychological as well as physical harm. Every step the Democrats in Congress have taken to force the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq has failed. Time and again, President Bush beats them into submission with charges of failing to "support the troops." Why do the Democrats allow this to happen? Because they let the president define what "supporting the troops" means. His definition is brutally misleading. Consider what his policies are doing to the troops. No U.S. forces have ever been compelled to stay in sustained combat conditions for as long as the Army units have in Iraq. In World War II, soldiers were considered combat-exhausted after about 180 days in the line. They were withdrawn for rest periods. Moreover, for weeks at a time, large sectors of the front were quiet, giving them time for both physical and psychological rehabilitation. During some periods of the Korean War, units had to fight steadily for fairly long periods but not for a year at a time. In Vietnam, tours were one year in length, and combat was intermittent with significant break periods. In Iraq, combat units take over an area of operations and patrol it daily, making soldiers face the prospect of death from an IED or small arms fire or mortar fire several hours each day. Day in and day out for a full year, with only a single two-week break, they confront the prospect of death, losing limbs or eyes, or suffering other serious wounds. Although total losses in Iraq have been relatively small compared to most previous conflicts, the individual soldier is risking death or serious injury day after day for a year. The impact on the psyche accumulates, eventually producing what is now called "post-traumatic stress disorders." In other words, they are combat-exhausted to the point of losing effectiveness. The occasional willful killing of civilians in a few cases is probably indicative of such loss of effectiveness. These incidents don't seem to occur during the first half of a unit's deployment in Iraq. After the first year, following a few months back home, these same soldiers are sent back for a second year, then a third year, and now, many are facing a fourth deployment! Little wonder more and more soldiers and veterans are psychologically disabled. And the damage is not just to enlisted soldiers. Many officers are suffering serious post-traumatic stress disorders but are hesitant to report it - with good reason. An officer who needs psychiatric care and lets it appear on his medical records has most probably ended his career. He will be considered not sufficiently stable to lead troops. Thus officers are strongly inclined to avoid treatment and to hide their problems. There are only two ways to fix this problem, both of which the president stubbornly rejects. Instead, his recent "surge" tactic has compelled the secretary of defense to extend Army tours to 15 months! (The Marines have been allowed to retain their six-month deployment policy and, not surprisingly, have fewer cases of post-traumatic stress syndrome.) The first solution would be to expand the size of the Army to two or three times its present level, allowing shorter combat tours and much longer breaks between deployments. That cannot be done rapidly enough today, even if military conscription were restored and new recruits made abundant. It would take more than a year to organize and train a dozen new brigade combat teams. The Clinton administration cut the Army end strength by about 40 percent - from about 770,000 to 470,000 during the 1990s. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld looked for ways to make the cuts even deeper. Thus this administration and its predecessor aggressively gave up ground forces and tactical air forces while maintaining large maritime forces that cannot be used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sadly, the lack of wisdom in that change in force structure is being paid for not by President Bush or President Clinton but by the ordinary soldier and his family. They have no lobby group to seek relief for them. The second way to alleviate the problem is to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq as soon as possible and as securely as possible. The electorate understands this. That is why a majority of voters favor withdrawing from Iraq. If the Democrats truly want to succeed in forcing President Bush to begin withdrawing from Iraq, the first step is to redefine "supporting the troops" as withdrawing them, citing the mass of accumulating evidence of the psychological as well as the physical damage that the president is forcing them to endure because he did not raise adequate forces. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress could confirm this evidence and lay the blame for "not supporting the troops" where it really belongs - on the president. And they could rightly claim to the public that they are supporting the troops by cutting off the funds that he uses to keep U.S. forces in Iraq. The public is ahead of the both branches of government in grasping this reality, but political leaders and opinion makers in the media must give them greater voice. Congress clearly and indisputably has two powers over the executive: the power of the purse and the power to impeach. Instead of using either, members of congress are wasting their time discussing feckless measures like a bill that "de-authorizes the war in Iraq." That is toothless unless it is matched by a cut-off of funds. The president is strongly motivated to string out the war until he leaves office, in order to avoid taking responsibility for the defeat he has caused and persisted in making greater each year for more than three years. To force him to begin a withdrawal before then, the first step should be to rally the public by providing an honest and candid definition of what "supporting the troops" really means and pointing out who is and who is not supporting our troops at war. The next step should be a flat refusal to appropriate money for to be used in Iraq for anything but withdrawal operations with a clear deadline for completion. The final step should be to put that president on notice that if ignores this legislative action and tries to extort Congress into providing funds by keeping U.S. forces in peril, impeachment proceeding will proceed in the House of Representatives. Such presidential behavior surely would constitute the "high crime" of squandering the lives of soldiers and Marines for his own personal interest. -------- Lieutenant General William E. Odom, US Army (Ret.), is a Senior Fellow with Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University. He was Director of the National Security Agency from 1985 to 1988. From 1981 to 1985, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence officer. From 1977 to 1981, he was Military Assistant to the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs, Zbigniew Brzezinski. |
By David Swanson
| ACLU: US Constitution in Grave Danger United Press International Wednesday 25 July 2007 Washington - The American Civil Liberties Union Wednesday said it is "do or die time" to save the U.S. Constitution. The ACLU in a statement urged the U.S. Congress to "vote to hold White House officials in contempt for refusing to cooperate with legitimate congressional subpoenas." The ACLU statement said the issue had become "a constitutional crisis that threatens to destroy the separation of powers." "Presidents have tried in the past to overreach in claiming executive privilege," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "However, Congress has long served as a check to such abuses of power, slapping the president's hand when needed and pursuing contempt or enforcement actions that eventually resulted in the release of crucial information. Today's Congress must do the same if it wishes to remain a meaningful and independent branch of govenment." The ACLU said it "rejected claims that Congress' responsibility to conduct oversight or investigate executive misconduct was somehow less important than its legislative function and therefore not worthy of compulsory enforcement." "It's do-or-die time for the separation of powers," Fredrickson said. "Congress is facing a historic moment when it can fight for its rightful place in our Constitution or accept the president's continued and sweeping claims of supremacy." The ACLU noted that U.S. courts "have long supported Congress' authority not only to pass laws, but also to investigate their application. The courts have asserted that claims of executive privilege are a potentially dangerous proposition that should only be applied, and can only be upheld, under narrow circumstances." The confrontation between the Democratic-controlled 110th Congress and the Bush administration on warrantless surveillance has been escalating in recent weeks, with both sides hardening their positions. |
| Enter below INDEPENDENT MEDIA |
