Anti-War
On a Thanksgiving visit home two years ago to his family in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Jim Loney tried to explain to his father why he wanted to go to Iraq with Christian Peacemaker Teams. He told his Dad about a grade school chum, Rick, sent to Afghanistan with the Canadian Armed Forces, who narrowly escaped death from a roadside bomb.
“If Rick was being asked to risk his life as a soldier then I, as a pacifist Christian who believes that war is not the way to peace, should be prepared to take the same risks,” he recalled trying to reason with his father.
Jim returned from Iraq safely, but on a return trip this year, his father’s worst fears were realized. On November 26, Jim was taken hostage in Baghdad, along with three CPT colleagues, Harmeet Sooden, also from Canada, Norman Kember, from England, and Tom Fox, from the U.S.
Millions of people around the world are learning for the first time about these peace warriors. But what few people know is that CPT members go to conflict zones like Iraq expressly stating that if they are abducted they do not want to be rescued by the military or any violent means.
“If Rick was being asked to risk his life as a soldier then I, as a pacifist Christian who believes that war is not the way to peace, should be prepared to take the same risks,” he recalled trying to reason with his father.
Jim returned from Iraq safely, but on a return trip this year, his father’s worst fears were realized. On November 26, Jim was taken hostage in Baghdad, along with three CPT colleagues, Harmeet Sooden, also from Canada, Norman Kember, from England, and Tom Fox, from the U.S.
Millions of people around the world are learning for the first time about these peace warriors. But what few people know is that CPT members go to conflict zones like Iraq expressly stating that if they are abducted they do not want to be rescued by the military or any violent means.
Democrats leading the charge into the second phase of a bipartisan investigation into pre-war Iraq intelligence have said this week that they will spend the next month or so working with Pentagon officials who last week agreed to probe a top secret spy shop once headed by Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith that many longtime CIA and FBI officials and other intelligence analysts believe was responsible for providing the Bush administration with bogus intelligence used to justify war with Iraq.
When the probe is complete, which aides to Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) - both of whom are aggressively working to collect pre-war intelligence documents that undercut administration's claims that Iraq posed a grave threat to national security - said will likely be in early 2006, there could be some sort of "public reprimand" brought against lower-level administration officials who work or worked at the Defense Department, the National Security Council, and in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, for "cherry-picking" questionable intelligence on Iraq and using it to win public support for the war.
When the probe is complete, which aides to Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) - both of whom are aggressively working to collect pre-war intelligence documents that undercut administration's claims that Iraq posed a grave threat to national security - said will likely be in early 2006, there could be some sort of "public reprimand" brought against lower-level administration officials who work or worked at the Defense Department, the National Security Council, and in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, for "cherry-picking" questionable intelligence on Iraq and using it to win public support for the war.
Washington D.C. – Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi has been playing hard ball with Bush administration officials during his eight day trip to Washington D.C.
According to senior associates of the Iraqi official, who have accompanied him to meetings with Bush administration officials, Mr. Chalabi has been threatening his friends in the Bush administration that if they do not support his candidacy to become the next prime minister of Iraq that there will be no way to contain Iran. He has told them in no uncertain terms that he is the only one who can make the Iranians behave.
According to senior associates of the Iraqi official, who have accompanied him to meetings with Bush administration officials, Mr. Chalabi has been threatening his friends in the Bush administration that if they do not support his candidacy to become the next prime minister of Iraq that there will be no way to contain Iran. He has told them in no uncertain terms that he is the only one who can make the Iranians behave.
If you are hitting yourself in the head with a hammer, using heroin or having unprotected sex with a HIV positive person, my guess is that you, the reader, would believe that staying the course regarding these self-destructive behaviors would be wrong. The same basic argument holds true for our approach to the Iraq War.
The Bush White House and his Republican supporters are urging American citizens to “stay the course” in Iraq. Unfortunately, the course they are advocating is self-destructive to the American nation.
The invasion of Iraq was bad policy from day one. The reasons for the invasion advocated by Bush were mistakes at best, deliberate lies at worst. Iraq had no significant stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq played no significant role in Islamic terrorism aimed at the United States. Iraq was not a serious threat to neighboring countries when the invasion was launched. Saddam Hussein was certainly not behind the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Larry Beinhart has documented all these assertions in his new book, Fog Facts.
The Bush White House and his Republican supporters are urging American citizens to “stay the course” in Iraq. Unfortunately, the course they are advocating is self-destructive to the American nation.
The invasion of Iraq was bad policy from day one. The reasons for the invasion advocated by Bush were mistakes at best, deliberate lies at worst. Iraq had no significant stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq played no significant role in Islamic terrorism aimed at the United States. Iraq was not a serious threat to neighboring countries when the invasion was launched. Saddam Hussein was certainly not behind the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Larry Beinhart has documented all these assertions in his new book, Fog Facts.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have posted on Internet "several hundred" photographs of mutilated corpses from "the real war," in exchange for free online pornography, according to the owner of a Web site investigated by the Pentagon.
"This is an uncensored view of the conflict going on in Iraq and Afghanistan," 27-year-old Christopher Wilson, owner of nowthatsfuckedup.com, said in an e-mail interview.
"These pictures are taken directly from the cameras of the soldiers and uploaded to my site.
"Gory photos are not the only ones accepted for free access, and the gory section is clearly labeled so those wishing not to see it aren't tricked into doing so," said Wilson, based in Lakeland, Florida.
"If people don't want to see the REAL war, then they simply don't have to look. I receive an average of three death threats per day, and it makes no sense to me. No one is forcing them to see this stuff".
Who photographed or posted the hundreds of pictures, who killed the unnamed people portrayed, and the photos' authenticity have not been publicly confirmed.
"This is an uncensored view of the conflict going on in Iraq and Afghanistan," 27-year-old Christopher Wilson, owner of nowthatsfuckedup.com, said in an e-mail interview.
"These pictures are taken directly from the cameras of the soldiers and uploaded to my site.
"Gory photos are not the only ones accepted for free access, and the gory section is clearly labeled so those wishing not to see it aren't tricked into doing so," said Wilson, based in Lakeland, Florida.
"If people don't want to see the REAL war, then they simply don't have to look. I receive an average of three death threats per day, and it makes no sense to me. No one is forcing them to see this stuff".
Who photographed or posted the hundreds of pictures, who killed the unnamed people portrayed, and the photos' authenticity have not been publicly confirmed.
I joined a contingent of 12 people from Oregon who went to Washington last
week to demonstrate against the Iraq War, and I want to share my experiences
with the public because I believe they offer learning opportunities and
inspiration to the burgeoning movement to take back our country from the
extremists who have taken over our government.
What do we make of the Saturday, October 1 Washington Post headline “Poison Found in Air During Anti-War Protest”?
Washington D.C. Public Health Director Greg A. Pane posed the right question in the Post article, “Why that day? That’s what is not explained.” Pane pointed that it was “just this 24-hour period and none since.”
The Post noted that Pane found “. . . it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the mall was packed with people.”
Puzzling? Indeed. Biohazard sensors detected tularemia bacteria at the mall on Saturday, September 24.
Equally puzzling was an earlier Post report: “Weekend protesters hit travel snags.” The article reported that Amtrak trains from New York City were turned back, cancelled or delayed from heading to the nation’s capitol for the biggest peace demonstration since the Vietnam War era. Also, Metro subway cars coming into the capitol were disrupted by repairs.
Federal officials are still pondering the death of five people on U.S. soil and scores of others who were infected with U.S. military-grade anthrax in the fall of 2001.
Washington D.C. Public Health Director Greg A. Pane posed the right question in the Post article, “Why that day? That’s what is not explained.” Pane pointed that it was “just this 24-hour period and none since.”
The Post noted that Pane found “. . . it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the mall was packed with people.”
Puzzling? Indeed. Biohazard sensors detected tularemia bacteria at the mall on Saturday, September 24.
Equally puzzling was an earlier Post report: “Weekend protesters hit travel snags.” The article reported that Amtrak trains from New York City were turned back, cancelled or delayed from heading to the nation’s capitol for the biggest peace demonstration since the Vietnam War era. Also, Metro subway cars coming into the capitol were disrupted by repairs.
Federal officials are still pondering the death of five people on U.S. soil and scores of others who were infected with U.S. military-grade anthrax in the fall of 2001.
Having publicly raised the idea of turning the September 24 anti-war march in Washington into a sit-down, I feel obliged to report on what happened last weekend and ask what more will we do?
The column I wrote on that idea a couple days before the demonstration (“Will We Use the Power We Have on September 24th?”) generated several email replies. All but one were supportive, generally along the lines that “the horrors we are perpetrating in Iraq call for the strongest non-violent response possible.” Keeping in mind the unscientific nature of my polling process, here’s what I learned from talking with as many people as I could on the way to Washington and while waiting in line for the march to begin the morning of the 24th.
The column I wrote on that idea a couple days before the demonstration (“Will We Use the Power We Have on September 24th?”) generated several email replies. All but one were supportive, generally along the lines that “the horrors we are perpetrating in Iraq call for the strongest non-violent response possible.” Keeping in mind the unscientific nature of my polling process, here’s what I learned from talking with as many people as I could on the way to Washington and while waiting in line for the march to begin the morning of the 24th.
With each month that passes, the Democratic Party seems to have touched bottom. Then it promptly sinks even deeper into the ooze of cowardice and irrelevance.
While Interstate 45 from Galveston to Houston was clogged with evacuees fleeing the wrath of Hurricane Rita, there was a similar jam on the beltway round Washington, D.C., as Democrats fled the city on the eve on the Sept. 24 antiwar rally, panic-stricken lest their presence in Washington might somehow be construed as endorsement of the rally's antiwar message.
Here's a war that the voting population of the United States views a hostility that is soaring by the day. The latest CNN poll released on Sept. 26 shows 67 percent disapproving of Bush's Iraq strategy. This represents a jump of 10 percent holding this position since CNN ran its last poll, less than a month ago.
More than half CNN's latest sample declare that Iraq will never become a democracy; 63 percent want to see a pull-out start right now.
While Interstate 45 from Galveston to Houston was clogged with evacuees fleeing the wrath of Hurricane Rita, there was a similar jam on the beltway round Washington, D.C., as Democrats fled the city on the eve on the Sept. 24 antiwar rally, panic-stricken lest their presence in Washington might somehow be construed as endorsement of the rally's antiwar message.
Here's a war that the voting population of the United States views a hostility that is soaring by the day. The latest CNN poll released on Sept. 26 shows 67 percent disapproving of Bush's Iraq strategy. This represents a jump of 10 percent holding this position since CNN ran its last poll, less than a month ago.
More than half CNN's latest sample declare that Iraq will never become a democracy; 63 percent want to see a pull-out start right now.
All last week I had a rare opportunity – to join several impressive speakers on the “Bring Them Home Now” tour’s northern route. Al Zappala, whose son was killed in Iraq last year; Tammara Rosenleaf, whose husband is due to deploy to Iraq this fall; Stacy Bannerman, whose husband has already served a tour in Iraq; Carlos Arredondo, whose son was killed during a second tour in Iraq; Elliott Adams, former Army paratrooper in Viet Nam; and two Iraq war veterans: former Marine, Michael Hoffman, and Cody Camacho, former Army Specialist.
At each stop I was with them: Detroit, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, Amherst, and Boston, we explained what motivated us to be on the tour. We condemned the war and ongoing occupation. We urged people to attend the massive demonstrations planned for September 24-26 in Washington, D.C.
In each city I saved part of my five minutes to go beyond urging participation in the march and rally on the 24th, and plead for people to consider participating in the civil disobedience planned for the 26th as well. This quote from Howard Zinn was particularly well-received.
At each stop I was with them: Detroit, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, Amherst, and Boston, we explained what motivated us to be on the tour. We condemned the war and ongoing occupation. We urged people to attend the massive demonstrations planned for September 24-26 in Washington, D.C.
In each city I saved part of my five minutes to go beyond urging participation in the march and rally on the 24th, and plead for people to consider participating in the civil disobedience planned for the 26th as well. This quote from Howard Zinn was particularly well-received.