Not even General Petraeus can see any light at the end of the tunnel.

There’s no exit plan, no timetable, not even any criteria to know when we’ve achieved the “victory” that George Bush keeps promising.

The Pentagon keeps sending the same troops into the combat zone, over and over and over.

And as long as that continues, the antiwar effort must continue just as doggedly, month in and month out, over and over and over.  There is no other choice except to surrender to the warmongers.

Friday is Iraq Moratorium #8, a day to do something to show that you want the war and the occupation to end.  Please do something.  

The Iraq Moratorium is a loosely-knit national grassroots effort to end the war and occupation of Iraq.

More than 70 events are listed on the national website, from sea to shining sea. There have been 800-plus since the Moratorium began in September, ranging from street corner vigils to more militant actions.

You can easily check at IraqMoratorium.org for one near you.But you don’t need to participate in an action to be part of the Iraq Moratorium.  All it requires is that you do something — anything — on the Third Friday of the month to show that you want to end this war and bring the troops home.

While you’re on the website, you can take the simple pledge, which will also get you on the email list for updates:

I hereby make a commitment that on the Third Friday of each and every month, I will break my daily routine and take some action, by myself or with others, to end the War in Iraq.

Or not.  That’s the beauty of the Iraq Moratorium.  You can participate at whatever level you’re comfortable with.

If that means just wearing a button or a black armband to work or school, fine.  If it means writing or calling your member of Congress, writing a letter to the editor, putting a sign in your yard, or any of dozens of other things, that’s fine, too.

Just do something.

Will wearing a button, or putting up a sign, or standing at a vigil, stop the war?  Not likely.

But is doing something better than doing nothing?  Infinitely better.

Two-thirds of the people in this country want this bloody, pointless war to end.  But they don’t do much about it except tell the pollsters.  That’s obviously not enough.

Many seem to be waiting for a new Democratic president to end the war, and have decided to put all of their energy and resources into electoral politics.

But we shouldn’t take anything for granted, even if we get a Democratic president and bigger Congressional majorities.

We’ve got to keep the heat on, all during this campaign, to keep the war issue on the front burner.  John McCain’s going to try to make this election a referendum on national security.  We need to make it a referendum on the war, and in the process to make it obvious, even to the most cautious, fence-sitting politician that support for this war is unacceptable.

How do we do that? There are a variety of ways.  But for starters, how about doing something on Friday?

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Posted, with sadness, anger and frustration:  A just released study from RAND reports more about the costs of our continuing wars.  The mounting cost of war include this:   Study: 300,000 US troops from Iraq, Afghanistan have mental problems, 320,000 brain injuries:

“…Some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from major depression or post traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 320,000 received brain injuries, a new study estimates….Only about half have sought treatment, said the study released Thursday by the RAND Corporation.”

There’s more….

“There is a major health crisis facing those men and women who have served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Terri Tanielian, the project’s co-leader and a researcher at the nonprofit RAND.”

The 500-page study is the first large-scale, private assessment of its kind… the Defense Department has not released the number of people it has diagnosed or who are being treated for mental problems. The Department of Veterans Affairs…records show about 120,000 who served in the two wars and are no longer in the military have been diagnosed with mental health problems. Of the 120,000, approximately 60,000 are suffering from PTSD, the VA said…”

How long can this continue until our “leaders” completely break the military and their families?  When there are very real issues like this that the Presidential Candidates should be addressing, why do the “moderators” of a televised “debate” focus almost entirely on questions about lapel pins and the comments of one’s former pastor?  Why does our President keep repeating  “stay the course” when it’s becoming obvious that we can’t?  

And, most importantly-why do Americans keep putting up with it all?  That’s actually a rhetorical question.  I don’t expect any answers as I know that most people here are as fed-up as I am.  Basically, I’m posting this because I read it, and I just can’t bear the overwhelming sadness I’m feeling alone.

(The instigator of the NOLA blogathon! – promoted by buhdydharma )

This is the first part of a 2-part Earth Day-themed series on environmental issues in the Gulf Region.

Not only were Katrina, the federal flood, and Rita massive human tragedies, they were for reasons which will be detailed below easily this nation’s biggest environmental calamity.

And their potential impacts on human health and life in New Orleans and in the rest of the affected area are still being assessed over 2 1/2-years later. More below the fold…..  

Soon after Katrina and the flood, long-term environmental damage was predicted in the affected area, potentially hazardous to human health. And this damage includes not only contamination but also the additional sinking of New Orleans:

Inside the flooded areas Louisiana were 60 chemical plants, oil refineries and petroleum facilities. Flooding caused six major oil spills between the mouth of the Mississippi River and New Orleans and several smaller spills in other places. Fifty thousand barrels have been recovered, but Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials estimate another 160,000 barrels were not recovered. Each barrel contains about 42 gallons of oil.

Oil from the 350,000 flooded vehicles in the area will take several years to decompose. The sewage system was also overrun during the hurricane. The EPA announced on Sept. 16 high levels of E-coli, a toxin-producing bacterium, in sediment around the city.

Pollution is not the only environmental factor preventing the safe rehabilitation of New Orleans. Geology Professor Jack Ridge doubts the city can sustain further sediment weathering. “Subsidence is one of the greatest threats to New Orleans,” he said. Built on the Mississippi Delta, New Orleans rests on soil infiltrated with mud from the river. As the city develops and more structures are built, the accumulation of weight squeezes water out of the muddy ground. New Orleans is sinking further below sea level.

There will be more on the sinking of New Orleans in Part 2 of this series. And the following could have long-term environmental impacts–and this time not just in Louisiana and Mississippi, but they could add to global warming. According to this

Washington Post article,

New satellite imaging has revealed that hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest single forestry disaster on record in the nation — an essentially unreported ecological catastrophe that killed or severely damaged about 320 million trees in Mississippi and Louisiana.

The die-off, caused initially by wind and later by weeks-long pooling of stagnant water, was so massive that researchers say it will add significantly to the global greenhouse gas buildup — ultimately putting as much carbon from dying vegetation into the air as the rest of the nation’s forest takes out in a year of photosynthesis.

In addition, the downing of so many trees has opened vast and sometimes fragile tracts to several aggressive and fast-growing exotic species that are already squeezing out far more environmentally productive native species.

The article adds that forests over an area about the size of Maine were destroyed, and also says

Efforts to limit the damage have been handicapped by the ineffectiveness of a $504 million federal program to help Gulf Coast landowners replant and fight the invasive species. Congress appropriated the money in 2005 and added to it in 2007, but officials acknowledge that the program got off to a slow start and that only about $70 million has been promised or dispensed so far. Local advocates said onerous bureaucratic hurdles and low compensation rates are major reasons.

“This is the worst environmental disaster in the United States since the Exxon Valdez accident . . . and the greatest forest destruction in modern times,” said James Cummins, executive director of the conservation group Wildlife Mississippi and a board member of the Mississippi Forestry Commission. “It needs a really broad and aggressive response, and so far that just hasn’t happened.”

Then there are the human costs of this disaster that can be attributed to its environmental impact on the region. Survivors are being exposed to pollutants and other hazards to long-term health from the formaldehyde-emitting FEMA trailers many thousands still live in to dusts and molds that contaminate New Orleans’ air and have caused “Katrina cough.” Also, when the toxic floodwaters of New Orleans receded, they left behind all sorts of pollutants including lead, arsenic, asbestos, and other heavy metals in such places as playgrounds, schoolyards…all over. People cleaning out their homes and gutting them are being exposed to toxic dusts and molds which have been contributing to New Orleans’ elevated post-Katrina death rate.

All of the above are issues environmentalists must tackle in a post-Katrina Gulf Region. But there’s more. In tomorrow’s installment, there will be more about the sinking of New Orleans and the rest of southern Louisiana and efforts to halt before a unique part of this country is wiped off the map.