Tag: anti-war

There are no photos of this week’s Iraq Moratorium vigil in downtown Milwaukee.  The battery in the digital camera froze.

About 40 people turned out in the bitter cold, and marched with flags, banners, signs and drums past City Hall, then gathered on four corners of the main downtown intersection.

“I was feeling a little wimpy, like maybe it was too cold to come, but I decided that if 70,000 people could go to the Packers game Sunday, when it will be colder than this, I could come out here for an hour to try to stop the war,” one vigiler said.

The tundra was frozen in Hayward, a city of 2,200 in northwestern Wisconsin which has led the nation in percentage of the population turning out for Iraq Moratorium vigils.  Attendance was down from the high of 83 in December, but, as one of the organizers reports on the scene below:

 

24 determined, (and half crazy!) peace supporters braved 20 below zero windchills to stand for an hour in observance of Iraq Moratorium Day #5. We had mostly encouraging responses from motorists who seemed both delighted, and incredulous, at our presence on the street corner.

At 4:45 p.m. some folks suggested that we knock off early due to the bitterly cold winds, but a couple of hardcore skier/peace types shouted, “No! We came to stand for an hour, and for an hour we’ll stand!” We hunkered down, and at 5 p.m. sharp a great cheer went up as we headed for the warmth of vehicles that had been idling for half an hour in the parking lot. See you in February!!

That’s hard core.

Those are among the reports beginning to trickle in to the Iraq Moratorium website in the wake of Friday’s actions, numbering about 90 across the country.  Typically, many more will be posted during the coming week, many with photos and videos.

In Mountain View, California, where the weather was a bit warmer, the Raging Grannies Action League “welcomed” a new armed forces recruiting station to the neighborhood — and let the recruiters know they were invading the Grannies’ turf.  “Killing and Dying is not a career,” the Grannies said.

Iraq Moratorium #6 falls on February 15, the Third Friday of the month.  Now’s the time to start planning, and share your plans and ideas with others at IraqMoratorium.org

P.S. — Go Pack!

Families gathered at the 5th Marine Regiment Memorial Park at Camp Pendleton, Calif.,(right) to spend their last few moments with loved ones before they left for Iraq. Regimental Combat Team 5 left Camp Pendleton on January 3 for their one year deployment to the Al Anbar province of Iraq.– USMC Photo.

While my old regiment ships out again,I have to ask:

Are we headed, as many in the antiwar movement have feared, into an Iraq-free zone during this election season?  Have the Dems decided to wait until next year to try to do anything?

Noah Feldman, in last Sunday’s NY Times magazine:  

What if the United States were at war during a presidential election – and none of the candidates wanted to talk about it? Iraq has become the great disappearing issue of the early primary season, and if nothing fundamental changes on the ground there – a probable result of current policy – the war may disappear even more completely in the new year…

… elections demand that candidates differentiate themselves, yet various plausible front-runners’ positions on Iraq are not all that far apart. There are subtle differences regarding the completeness and timing of withdrawal: John Edwards, for instance, says he would remove even the troops who are training the Iraqi Army and police. But basically, the leading doves say they want to leave, but not too fast; while the hawks claim they want to stay, but not too long.

This week’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas highlighted what Feldman said.  Clinton, Obama and Edwards all offered their nuanced positions, including this clarification of an old question about whether they would have all US troops out by 2013:

(Follow below the fold- ek hornbeck)

^{(Iraq Moratorium)}

This morning’s NY Times brought this news:

The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.

If you were a Democrat running for president to end the war in Iraq, you’d be reacting quickly to that sort of news.

But if there is any sort of blowback — or even concern expressed — by the Democratic candidates, I’ve missed it.  

As if we needed another, here is reason Number 486,948,231 (and counting) to do something to end the war and occupation in Iraq:

A year after he ordered a large increase in American troops in Iraq, President Bush said Saturday that he was prepared to slow or even halt further reductions of forces there, emphasizing that any decision depended on security and the stability of the Iraqi government.

After meeting with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker here at a sprawling desert base in neighboring Kuwait, Mr. Bush noted the sharp reduction in attacks on American troops and Iraqi civilians in recent months, saying the decline in violence was too hard-won to be squandered.

So the surge, intended to buy time to allow for some political progress in Iraq — which has not happened — now must be sustained simply to maintain the status quo, it appears.

Is anyone surprised?  Even the Democrats who keep funding the war without demanding any plans for troop withdrawals?

More, on the anniversary of the “surge,” from the NY Times:

Mr. Bush said that additional withdrawals would depend solely on conditions in Iraq, which General Petraeus was reviewing. During an 80-minute meeting, the president instructed the general, who is due to report in the spring on suggested troop levels, to make no recommendation that would jeopardize improvements in security.

“My attitude is, if he didn’t want to continue the drawdown, that’s fine with me in order to make sure we succeed, see,” Mr. Bush told reporters inside a command center that oversees Army operations in a region stretching from Kenya to Kazakhstan. “I said to the general, ‘If you want to slow her down, fine.’ It’s up to you.”

Friday, January 18, is Iraq Moratorium #5.

If you like the way things are going, and will be content to keep US troops in Iraq as long as we’ve kept them in Korea, don’t do anything.

But if you thing there’s something rotten in Washington, not to mention Baghdad, please do something to turn up the heat on the President — and, more importantly, on the Congress and the presidential wannabes in both parties.

It’s got to stop, and we’ve got to stop it.

Cross-posted at http://silencedmajority.blogs….

In 1967, a non-partisan Hollywood (Beverly Hills) group named Another Mother for Peace (AMP) began their campaign to end the Vietnam war.  The group was formed spontaneously by 15 women attending the party for Barbara Avedon’s son’s first birthday.  In addition to ending the war, the group advocated for a cabinet-level secretary of peace. AMPs biggest impact arguebly came about as a result of a graphic for a card/poster the group promoted designed by Lorraine Schneider (1925-1972) .  In a national campaign led by Hollywood elite, the graphic was sent along with a million letters to elected leaders in DC in an appeal to end the war.  The AMP  is active today. The son of the late Barbara Avedon and the daughters of Lorraine Schneider are carrying on the family tradition by participating in this group.  

Lorraine Schneider’s poster was simple, but poignant.

My generation thought Vietnam was an aberration, but it wasn’t, it was the game plan.  Lie your way into a nasty little war and let other people’s children do the killing and dying while the fat cats at the top of the capitalist pile rake in the dough.  It’s all for the benefit of those so bloated with greed that they just don’t care that their profits come soaked in the blood of innocents and patriots.

By a Gold Star Mother, who lost a son in Iraq, writing on the Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus blog:

What did you do in 2007 to end the war? Did you act? Did you contact your legislator? Did you write a letter to the editor? Did you pick up the phone? Did you participate in a rally or a protest? Or were your days filled with inaction?

Were you indifferent when you heard of our young men and women’s souls were leaving this earth from the sands of Iraq? Were you affected by the death and displacement of so many Iraqi’s who never asked that this fight be brought to their land? What did you do to stop the war/occupation? Did you think it isn’t your problem? Did you think nothing you did would matter or did you just not care?

Were you silent about the injustice of this pointless and endless war? Were you silent when your voice could have been heard and counted? Were you silent because it was easier that way or did you just not care?

Ready for Iraq Moratorium #5?

The Raging Grannies of Mountain View CA will bring cookies and tea to “welcome” recruiters to a new Armed Forces Career Center to the neighborhood on Friday, January 18 – and to let the recruiters know they are moving into territory occupied by the Grannies, part of a national network of antiwar activists.

A vigil at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Maryland will call for money to be spent helping wounded veterans, not the war.  A march in Brattleboro VT will feature drummers, horns, bagpipes, and dancers.  A public forum in Duluth MN will feature Native American and African American leaders speaking against the war.  

That image, courtesy of the Defense Department, is just a reminder of what’s happening on the other side of the world as we count the caucus votes in Iowa.

A New Year’s resolution:  To do what I can to end the Iraq war and occupation.

To do something, even if it’s something small, to try to accomplish something big.

It takes a leap of faith, in 2008, to believe that anything you do can make a difference.  After nearly five years of being ignored by the Bush administration and the Congress, many are disillusioned and/or cynical.

But, for the most part, they are still planning to vote.

If you believe that your one vote will make a difference in this country’s direction, why wouldn’t you believe that your one voice against the war can also make a difference?

When I wrote recently about the Iraq Moratorium , some readers responded that protests are meaningless or even counterproductive.

Protests not your thing?  Fine.  Do something else.  Contact a member of Congress.  Help an antiwar candidate.  Wear a button.  Whatever.  Let a million ideas and individual actions bloom.  But do something.

That’s what’s attractive about the Iraq Moratorium, a national umbrella uniting people and groups who want to bring the troops home.  There is no “one size fits all” philosophy.  There are no rules.  People are encouraged to do their own thing.  But they are encouraged to do something, and, whatever it is, to do it on the Third Friday of every month.  

The Iraq Moratorium website collects information about past and future actions across the country and makes it accessible so people can share ideas and tactics and support and inspire one another.

Since Moratorium #1 in September, there have been several hundred actions in about 30 states, ranging from simple vigils to rallies and marches challenging war profiteers.  The next round is scheduled on Friday, Jan. 18, and organizers are beginning now to list their plans on the website.

But group actions are just a part of the Iraq Moratorium.  Individuals can take part, too, by doing something on the Third Friday of every month, whether it’s wearing a button or armband to work or school, putting up a sign, writing a letter to the editor, or dozens of other possibilities.  

It would be nice if folks would sign the simple pledge on the website:

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.

But even that formality isn’t necessary.

All you need to do is do something, once a month.

The Pentagon and the war machine will operates 24/7/366  this Leap Year.

How about resolving to spend a small amount of time, once a month, to try to make a difference?

Happy New Year.

I’ve acquired some new tools and I am struggling to come up to speed with them.  I’ve only begun the learning process but here’s the first video project I’ve been able to complete.  It has issues so please forgive its shortcomings.  Bigger and better things are coming (I hope).  Any pointers from the pros are most welcome.

Update:  I smoothed out some of the transitions.  Thanks for the feedback.