Notes from Madeliene Albright
She cut straight to the chase by saying she was plain and blunt and that there are no good options in Iraq. Every alternative carries with it grave risks. We have lost control.
Assign missions that make sense.
Quote from a soldier: Wouldn't know who to shoot at unless I was shot at.
Iraqis must take lead.
Don't have the moral or legal ground to force action.
Have to focus on Al Qaida and the Taliban
and Iran's influence in Iraq.
There is danger of region-wide war.
This year will be brutal.
Have to attempt political settlement and increase diplomatic activity.
Talk to Syria. Ahmenijhad is not the person to talk to.
Nuclear program?
(To the Senators-- Please ask detailed questions.)
There are aircraft carriers in the Gulf.
It would be interesting to know why.
Need to have meaningful Arab Israeli talks.
Peace is the right goal to attempt to achieve.
You cannot build a democracy without democratic principles.
Has some concerns that after this that supporting democracy will be given up.
NATO training of Iraqi forces.
Must involve religious leaders. (All believe God is on their side.)
God is on the side of Peace.
Prisoner treatment.
Settlement and rebuilding.
Would that America becomes America again.
?
BOXER.
Impressed that there is vision and the actual mention of the word Peace. At least two times.
Concerned there is paralysis setting in.
Must think and talk peace and diplomacy.
MA: I want to hear Malaki, "Who the hell is shooting at me?"
BIDEN
Vision.
Break through... Kissinger moving toward Biden Plan.
Resolution cannot come from America.
Must act IN diplomacy.
CAMBRION: Is it not time for diplomacy?
BOXER:
One third of the Senate attended hearings on Global Warming yesterday.
Urgency and sense of....?
ALBRIGHT:
Need a surge of diplomacy.
Regional diplomatic approach.
Maintain territorial integrity of Iraq.
Federalism not brought to table early on.... unfortunately.
Not regional autonomy.
Don't pursue or precipitate break up.
Biden Plan never called for this.
If we increase Al Sadar will simply become mobil and increase his numberts.
MA:
Plan is to keep Iraq together.
Initiate dialog.
What is going on with Iran
LUGAR
Anarchy
Local groups who exercise some authority.
Shia Sunni.
ALBRIGHT
Stages to democracy.
All people want to be responsible for their own lives.
Can't impose democracy.
Many early mistakes.
Democracy isn't an event. It is a process.
(National Democracy Institute.
Just lost Andrea Parvich.
Want support not imposition.
Must be careful or there will be an Arab Persian War.
Desire shifts absorped peacefull.
Risks
Power versus control.
Troubled by America's reputation.
There is now suspicion of all motives.
Use diplomach. Regional focus/ vision.
colonial powers. Brit ( to U.S.) /France.
Motives are suspect.
We need help.
Share the contracts.
Respect of Troops. eventually strength in moral U.S.A.
No military solutions.
Create minority rights and find common ground.
Little Faith in Malaki
(she doesn't know him)
benchmarks not timetables.
Permanent bases?
Senator: Iraq Study Group. Traveled to Syria. met with asad. some cooperation until assassination of Harari.
ALBRIGHT
We gain through discussion with those with whom we disagree.
Iran/Syria - interesting (given differences history)
Need Israel Syria talks.
both interests are the opposite of yours.
She worked with Asad's father.
Ask Madinijhad. (not easy) a "complex" history.
Preposterous statements.
Tom Friedman's column today.
Saudi Arabia (CIA) and the many personal relationships with the royal family.
Didn't really get picture of Saudis working with tribal contacts to help Iraq.
Saudis are worried about changes in their own country.
Need constant contact, not spur of the moment trips.
1327 yrs of conflict. We can't bring them together.
Mighty and the Almighty (bk. by M. Albright.)
Senator Casey question.
military strategy:
1. since 2003
2. what should we do?
3. sustained.
No comprehensive approach. What is the role of diplomacy?
ALBRIGHT
Force and diplomacy working together.
not a chess game, more like pool.
balls knocking into other balls.
need horizontal diplomacy.
And N. Korea is watching.
Senator: 3- 6 month list.
Israel Palestinian issue
(Quartet mtg. Friday)
Contact List of Regions. Executive Committee.
Get other countries helping.
--training
--reconstruction.
Biden: The presidential plan is a tactic.
McCain making a last chance effort.
American people will walk away.
Need specific plan.
per Bosnia / Kosavo ------ had Dayton discussions and accords.
(these countries are no working toward reconciliation.
Where are the plans!?!?
Why won't the admin. do this?
Bring in other countries.
(neighbors/targets)
Trust isn't going to happen.
No possibility of strong central government in the next ten years.
Need conference.
Need breathing space.
She is deeply concerned about America's problems.
Trouble with this democratic
-- militarization of democracy.
Biden:
Reality
Political Solutions
Internal Community
or we will have a
"The mountains are our only friends" scenario.
Notes from Madeliene Albright
She cut straight to the chase by saying she was plain and blunt and that there are no good options in Iraq. Every alternative carries with it grave risks. We have lost control.
Assign missions that make sense.
Quote from a soldier: Wouldn't know who to shoot at unless I was shot at.
Iraqis must take lead.
Don't have the moral or legal ground to force action.
Have to focus on Al Qaida and the Taliban
and Iran's influence in Iraq.
There is danger of region-wide war.
This year will be brutal.
Have to attempt political settlement and increase diplomatic activity.
Talk to Syria. Ahmenijhad is not the person to talk to.
Nuclear program?
(To the Senators-- Please ask detailed questions.)
There are aircraft carriers in the Gulf.
It would be interesting to know why.
Need to have meaningful Arab Israeli talks.
Peace is the right goal to attempt to achieve.
You cannot build a democracy without democratic principles.
Has some concerns that after this that supporting democracy will be given up.
NATO training of Iraqi forces.
Must involve religious leaders. (All believe God is on their side.)
God is on the side of Peace.
Prisoner treatment.
Settlement and rebuilding.
Would that America becomes America again.
?
BOXER.
Impressed that there is vision and the actual mention of the word Peace. At least two times.
Concerned there is paralysis setting in.
Must think and talk peace and diplomacy.
MA: I want to hear Malaki, "Who the hell is shooting at me?"
BIDEN
Vision.
Break through... Kissinger moving toward Biden Plan.
Resolution cannot come from America.
Must act IN diplomacy.
CAMBRION: Is it not time for diplomacy?
BOXER:
One third of the Senate attended hearings on Global Warming yesterday.
Urgency and sense of....?
ALBRIGHT:
Need a surge of diplomacy.
Regional diplomatic approach.
Maintain territorial integrity of Iraq.
Federalism not brought to table early on.... unfortunately.
Not regional autonomy.
Don't pursue or precipitate break up.
Biden Plan never called for this.
If we increase Al Sadar will simply become mobil and increase his numberts.
MA:
Plan is to keep Iraq together.
Initiate dialog.
What is going on with Iran
LUGAR
Anarchy
Local groups who exercise some authority.
Shia Sunni.
ALBRIGHT
Stages to democracy.
All people want to be responsible for their own lives.
Can't impose democracy.
Many early mistakes.
Democracy isn't an event. It is a process.
(National Democracy Institute.
Just lost Andrea Parvich.
Want support not imposition.
Must be careful or there will be an Arab Persian War.
Desire shifts absorped peacefull.
Risks
Power versus control.
Troubled by America's reputation.
There is now suspicion of all motives.
Use diplomach. Regional focus/ vision.
colonial powers. Brit ( to U.S.) /France.
Motives are suspect.
We need help.
Share the contracts.
Respect of Troops. eventually strength in moral U.S.A.
No military solutions.
Create minority rights and find common ground.
Little Faith in Malaki
(she doesn't know him)
benchmarks not timetables.
Permanent bases?
Senator: Iraq Study Group. Traveled to Syria. met with asad. some cooperation until assassination of Harari.
ALBRIGHT
We gain through discussion with those with whom we disagree.
Iran/Syria - interesting (given differences history)
Need Israel Syria talks.
both interests are the opposite of yours.
She worked with Asad's father.
Ask Madinijhad. (not easy) a "complex" history.
Preposterous statements.
Tom Friedman's column today.
Saudi Arabia (CIA) and the many personal relationships with the royal family.
Didn't really get picture of Saudis working with tribal contacts to help Iraq.
Saudis are worried about changes in their own country.
Need constant contact, not spur of the moment trips.
1327 yrs of conflict. We can't bring them together.
Mighty and the Almighty (bk. by M. Albright.)
Senator Casey question.
military strategy:
1. since 2003
2. what should we do?
3. sustained.
No comprehensive approach. What is the role of diplomacy?
ALBRIGHT
Force and diplomacy working together.
not a chess game, more like pool.
balls knocking into other balls.
need horizontal diplomacy.
And N. Korea is watching.
Senator: 3- 6 month list.
Israel Palestinian issue
(Quartet mtg. Friday)
Contact List of Regions. Executive Committee.
Get other countries helping.
--training
--reconstruction.
Biden: The presidential plan is a tactic.
McCain making a last chance effort.
American people will walk away.
Need specific plan.
per Bosnia / Kosavo ------ had Dayton discussions and accords.
(these countries are no working toward reconciliation.
Where are the plans!?!?
Why won't the admin. do this?
Bring in other countries.
(neighbors/targets)
Trust isn't going to happen.
No possibility of strong central government in the next ten years.
Need conference.
Need breathing space.
She is deeply concerned about America's problems.
Trouble with this democratic
-- militarization of democracy.
Biden:
Reality
Political Solutions
Internal Community
or we will have a
"The mountains are our only friends" scenario.
Notes from Madeliene Albright
She cut straight to the chase by saying she was plain and blunt and that there are no good options in Iraq. Every alternative carries with it grave risks. We have lost control.
Assign missions that make sense.
Quote from a soldier: Wouldn't know who to shoot at unless I was shot at.
Iraqis must take lead.
Don't have the moral or legal ground to force action.
Have to focus on Al Qaida and the Taliban
and Iran's influence in Iraq.
There is danger of region-wide war.
This year will be brutal.
Have to attempt political settlement and increase diplomatic activity.
Talk to Syria. Ahmenijhad is not the person to talk to.
Nuclear program?
(To the Senators-- Please ask detailed questions.)
There are aircraft carriers in the Gulf.
It would be interesting to know why.
Need to have meaningful Arab Israeli talks.
Peace is the right goal to attempt to achieve.
You cannot build a democracy without democratic principles.
Has some concerns that after this that supporting democracy will be given up.
NATO training of Iraqi forces.
Must involve religious leaders. (All believe God is on their side.)
God is on the side of Peace.
Prisoner treatment.
Settlement and rebuilding.
Would that America becomes America again.
?
BOXER.
Impressed that there is vision and the actual mention of the word Peace. At least two times.
Concerned there is paralysis setting in.
Must think and talk peace and diplomacy.
MA: I want to hear Malaki, "Who the hell is shooting at me?"
BIDEN
Vision.
Break through... Kissinger moving toward Biden Plan.
Resolution cannot come from America.
Must act IN diplomacy.
CAMBRION: Is it not time for diplomacy?
BOXER:
One third of the Senate attended hearings on Global Warming yesterday.
Urgency and sense of....?
ALBRIGHT:
Need a surge of diplomacy.
Regional diplomatic approach.
Maintain territorial integrity of Iraq.
Federalism not brought to table early on.... unfortunately.
Not regional autonomy.
Don't pursue or precipitate break up.
Biden Plan never called for this.
If we increase Al Sadar will simply become mobil and increase his numberts.
MA:
Plan is to keep Iraq together.
Initiate dialog.
What is going on with Iran
LUGAR
Anarchy
Local groups who exercise some authority.
Shia Sunni.
ALBRIGHT
Stages to democracy.
All people want to be responsible for their own lives.
Can't impose democracy.
Many early mistakes.
Democracy isn't an event. It is a process.
(National Democracy Institute.
Just lost Andrea Parvich.
Want support not imposition.
Must be careful or there will be an Arab Persian War.
Desire shifts absorped peacefull.
Risks
Power versus control.
Troubled by America's reputation.
There is now suspicion of all motives.
Use diplomach. Regional focus/ vision.
colonial powers. Brit ( to U.S.) /France.
Motives are suspect.
We need help.
Share the contracts.
Respect of Troops. eventually strength in moral U.S.A.
No military solutions.
Create minority rights and find common ground.
Little Faith in Malaki
(she doesn't know him)
benchmarks not timetables.
Permanent bases?
Senator: Iraq Study Group. Traveled to Syria. met with asad. some cooperation until assassination of Harari.
ALBRIGHT
We gain through discussion with those with whom we disagree.
Iran/Syria - interesting (given differences history)
Need Israel Syria talks.
both interests are the opposite of yours.
She worked with Asad's father.
Ask Madinijhad. (not easy) a "complex" history.
Preposterous statements.
Tom Friedman's column today.
Saudi Arabia (CIA) and the many personal relationships with the royal family.
Didn't really get picture of Saudis working with tribal contacts to help Iraq.
Saudis are worried about changes in their own country.
Need constant contact, not spur of the moment trips.
1327 yrs of conflict. We can't bring them together.
Mighty and the Almighty (bk. by M. Albright.)
Senator Casey question.
military strategy:
1. since 2003
2. what should we do?
3. sustained.
No comprehensive approach. What is the role of diplomacy?
ALBRIGHT
Force and diplomacy working together.
not a chess game, more like pool.
balls knocking into other balls.
need horizontal diplomacy.
And N. Korea is watching.
Senator: 3- 6 month list.
Israel Palestinian issue
(Quartet mtg. Friday)
Contact List of Regions. Executive Committee.
Get other countries helping.
--training
--reconstruction.
Biden: The presidential plan is a tactic.
McCain making a last chance effort.
American people will walk away.
Need specific plan.
per Bosnia / Kosavo ------ had Dayton discussions and accords.
(these countries are no working toward reconciliation.
Where are the plans!?!?
Why won't the admin. do this?
Bring in other countries.
(neighbors/targets)
Trust isn't going to happen.
No possibility of strong central government in the next ten years.
Need conference.
Need breathing space.
She is deeply concerned about America's problems.
Trouble with this democratic
-- militarization of democracy.
Biden:
Reality
Political Solutions
Internal Community
or we will have a
"The mountains are our only friends" scenario.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Guantanamo
Last evening, Tuesday evening, the women in the Pink House were fortunate to have an opportunity to speak with an informed source about the first person witness accounts of the true conditions in Guantanamo that this person has seen during visits to the base.
The horrors continue.
There is a feeling among those who go to Guantanamo to meet with prisoners that due to the military courts that are soon to commence, the rate and severity of torture will intensify again so as to gain testimony.
The open to the elements cages are gone, but that is a mixed improvement, at best, as now many prisoners are in severe solitary confinement without windows, without options to exercise, and without any contact with daylight. These men have no contact with anyone who is not involved with questioning them except for that annual visit that may or may not happen.
Many Guantanamo prisoners are refusing the special treats, favorite foods and such during the once a year re-evaluation sessions. These men have lapsed into total despair and paranoia.
Psychiatrists are being used. Adel Hamad
I guess the good news is that no more children are imprisoned at Guantanamo. There were children there and they were treated just like the adults. The youngest Guantanamo prisoner was a child of 10.The youngest prisoner is now around 20 years of age. He would have been around 15 when detained.
The purported acts that were the reasons for detention no longer make up the argument for continued imprisonment. The annual review of each case (which is sometimes overlooked or forgotten) is an assessment of whether the person is of future danger to the U.S. should he be released. Of course after 5 years of torture those individuals who have not yet gone mad do want vengence.
Many of the remaining 300+ prisoners are from Bosnia as well as Afghanistan. Of course we discussed the sweeps that were made to round up everyone within a certain area that contained farmers as well as Taliban, the $10,000 U.S. plus bounty that was paid to informants for turning someone in to the U.S. forces in a country where the yearly income is one to two hundred dollars.
The word atrocity doesn't begin to describe the horror of the injustices committed in our name in the past and at the present time in Guantanamo and other secret prisons.
We also spoke of the need to stop the flights that begin in N. Carolina and Georgia that spirit U.S. targets of interest in Europe and elsewhere away to other secret prisons and torture chambers.
The plan to put a face on this horrific injustice was explained by a Pink woman who has and suggests that we all demonstrate with orange jump suits, black torture hoods, and the number 940 that has been given to Adel Hamad, a Guantanamo prisoner who has a particularly poignant story of injustice.
The horrors continue.
There is a feeling among those who go to Guantanamo to meet with prisoners that due to the military courts that are soon to commence, the rate and severity of torture will intensify again so as to gain testimony.
The open to the elements cages are gone, but that is a mixed improvement, at best, as now many prisoners are in severe solitary confinement without windows, without options to exercise, and without any contact with daylight. These men have no contact with anyone who is not involved with questioning them except for that annual visit that may or may not happen.
Many Guantanamo prisoners are refusing the special treats, favorite foods and such during the once a year re-evaluation sessions. These men have lapsed into total despair and paranoia.
Psychiatrists are being used. Adel Hamad
I guess the good news is that no more children are imprisoned at Guantanamo. There were children there and they were treated just like the adults. The youngest Guantanamo prisoner was a child of 10.The youngest prisoner is now around 20 years of age. He would have been around 15 when detained.
The purported acts that were the reasons for detention no longer make up the argument for continued imprisonment. The annual review of each case (which is sometimes overlooked or forgotten) is an assessment of whether the person is of future danger to the U.S. should he be released. Of course after 5 years of torture those individuals who have not yet gone mad do want vengence.
Many of the remaining 300+ prisoners are from Bosnia as well as Afghanistan. Of course we discussed the sweeps that were made to round up everyone within a certain area that contained farmers as well as Taliban, the $10,000 U.S. plus bounty that was paid to informants for turning someone in to the U.S. forces in a country where the yearly income is one to two hundred dollars.
The word atrocity doesn't begin to describe the horror of the injustices committed in our name in the past and at the present time in Guantanamo and other secret prisons.
We also spoke of the need to stop the flights that begin in N. Carolina and Georgia that spirit U.S. targets of interest in Europe and elsewhere away to other secret prisons and torture chambers.
The plan to put a face on this horrific injustice was explained by a Pink woman who has and suggests that we all demonstrate with orange jump suits, black torture hoods, and the number 940 that has been given to Adel Hamad, a Guantanamo prisoner who has a particularly poignant story of injustice.
Rae Abileah on Hannity & Colmes
I felt such joy seeing Rae stand up to and topple Fox b.s. Last evening Rae got out of jail for the arrest at Hillary's Web of Lies action and rushed off to an interview on Fox "News."
Hannity was trying to get her to bash Hillary and she didn't fall for it. She stayed on topic -- why senators must get on board getting us out of Iraq -- why she would like to be able to vote for Hillary.
It was today's featured video on the Fox site.
Hannity was trying to get her to bash Hillary and she didn't fall for it. She stayed on topic -- why senators must get on board getting us out of Iraq -- why she would like to be able to vote for Hillary.
It was today's featured video on the Fox site.
Kissinger, Albright and Missing Strategies
This was a difficult morning for me. Besides being followed in the Capitol Hill area, which is actually sort of humorous, I had to contain myself while a man I personally despise spoke in a Senate Hearing. My brother, closest in age to me of all my brothers, was severely injured in Vietnam in 1968. The topic of war crimes in Vietnam and Cambodia are very personal matters to me. I'm not going to go into detail, but I had a hard time not beaming intense wishes for ill health at the back of his head.
Biden opened the hearing with statements about "effective diplomacy" and "best strategic minds" and the three points of agreement thus far in these hearings.
Lugar then spoke about the U.S. organizing regional players, the U.S. as a source of stability, and the need to recalibrate our reference points. He also spoke of "oil assets and how the current tactic is to have a narrow focus on certain "key terrain" which holds only 7% of the Iraqi people. But coming back to reality he did say we had an unsustainable Iraqi Policy.
Kissinger opened with a statement about the fundamental issue of the long term role of the U.S. and wars, events, and such we'd been involved in there at least seven times in the last 50 years. The vital nature of the region can be seen through the vital nature several presidents have given it.
He then discussed the weakening role of the state in the region due to the "artiicial borders.) [Aren't all borders artificial? ] Anyway he went on to say that there are now units that have the character of states and that the upheaval extends across the whole region. He characterized the 50 year role of the U.S. as attempts for progress and peace.
Aside: Lugar was exuding absolute adoration while Kissinger spoke.
The conflicts between Shia, Kurd, and Sunni regions in Iran, Tukey, and Syria are all merging conflicts. He continued that the U.S. must move into a position to defend regional security.
Some the the actions/approaches he then mentioned favorably were:
Our separating from the civil & sectarian fighting.
strategies that include other gegions
left to politics not military
establish penalties and rewards
work with separate Syrian and Iranian issues
get the security council to involve other troops
contant readiness to negotiate
accept Iran as a major player but not as a dominating force.
U.S. must remain in region.
Biden then said that this would create an explosion and nontraditional state and that we will end up with Iraq as a Federation or a dominant power.
Lugar iterated the need for benhmarks, oil agreements and that we cannot withdraw from the region.
Then he stated that this is predicated on a belief that the minimum can become the maximum for the region.
A military veteran with pink accessories held up an Out of Iraq banner and was escorted from the room. A security officer/ capital police approached the pink person sitting next the seat where the banner carrier had been seated. She was told that if she did anything she would immediately be cuffed and this was the only warning she was going to get. Considering that she hadn't done anything.....that seemed a bit harsh.
Anyway the hearing continued. Feingold asked about redeployment from Iraq, and how we can prepare.
K said: Develop an international committee per the political future of Iraq.
F: How do we engage neighbors?
K: Discussion of proliferation of nuclear weapons by Iran.
F: What will happen in Somalia and Afghanistan?
K: we have to "balance" presens in Iraq.
Senator Coleman mentiioned: "End" only after exhaustion, that we will be in Iraq for a LONG time, also mentioned tools for protecting Shia militia -- and asked do we have to see balance before withdrawal.
K: May have to settle for a Mandala-like solution -- acceptable but not desired. We are maneuvering within extremes.
Then the what can we do now questions began coming.
K: I don't believe in withdrawal. Need for a regional conference about Iran.
Boxer agreed that a regional conference is needed.... but..... THE PEOPLE VOTED FOR ENDING THE WAR and they got a surge. What about the Biden proposal for semiautonomous regions?
K: That may be the outcome....
Cannot support that.
Boxer: The diplomats seem to have gotten stuck. We must break free from the diplomatic stagnation. If just one diplomat would come forward. Quote per Kissingers supposed call for end and humiliation of radical Islam.
Kissinger denied this "alleged quotation." Says he did not say that despite the reporters insistance that he did. Iterated need for international control.
Senator B. Concern that there will be an adverse reaction to the surge if there is no positive outcome.
K: We should keep in mind a move to move to concensus strategy.
Don't believe we can withdraw.
Need content of strategy to have direction. Can't go on as it is.
Cannot include a time table.
Biden: Must keep the "audience in mind" and note the difference between what is now felt and what may be felt in two or three years.
Discussion that everty alternative has grave risks. Each alternative for success has more to do with what others do than with what we do.
B: Can't do this by ourselves. Aren't we involved in sectarian violence. Isn't that taking sides?
K: Of course.... to some extent.
K: Must make attempt to break the back of militias.
B. What about withdrawal from Iraq, from the region? Phased withdrawal? How to get regional partners?
K: Mentioned withdrawal from Iraq could mean withdrawal from region.
B: How do we get leaders to act?
K: International Conference.
Senator ?: suck up comments..... best paper....
Questions about the Presidential job success in explaining strategy. How to speak to international community? When do we engage partners in the region.
K: Now. Protect the oil industry there. Presidents since Rooseveldt have. We have permanent interests there. We can't act impulsively.
Obama: The only expression has been maintain or increase troop level.
What is the new Iran policy?
Is that strategy articulated anywhere?
I'm saying that if we don't do this...
K: would not object to a statement.
Obama: What you say versus what administration says.
K:
Sunni Shia have been warring for 1400 years. Has been bloody and brutal.
There is a limit to what the American people will accept.
We base our assessment on what we cannot prove.
Cannot continue at this level.
Will go on for several administrations.
Need to deal with militias. In the context of a grand strategy.
Obama: The American people are saying, "I'm disappointed." They feel less safe. They have been asked to make an enormous investment. The outcome is worse than before. The surge isn't salient. IS there a strategy?
There has been such division between the President and the Congress. No action on Baker Hamilton.
Biden: Bush and Rice rejected.
Isaacon: Went in to Iraq to: UN 1441.
Free elections and a constitution
Train iraqi military.
Admit our failure at yr. 3. Relate power to diplomacy. Maneuvering room for major strategy.
Will it create enough resolution to create peace?
Objective is compatible with what the president is to do.
Mistakes were made.
I am convinced we will move 2 or 3 ... toward concensus.
--
K: Last two years of office cannot be spent in a civil ware between the executive and legislative branches. His plea.
"We are there because diplomacy failed."
Biden:
Spent time waiting for an invitation .....
strategy has not come forward.
What is the strategy?
Overtures flatly rejected.
We should have had a Camp David with congress leaders and Bush. But no desire by Pres to do that.
The surge is a tactic masquerading as strategy that will not accomplish the mission."
----------
--------
Of course these are notes not quotes ,and are just put up for flavor of what was happening in the session.
Biden opened the hearing with statements about "effective diplomacy" and "best strategic minds" and the three points of agreement thus far in these hearings.
- Troops cannot stop sectarian violence.
- Need for intensive regional diplomacy.
- Focus on actual terrorists.
Lugar then spoke about the U.S. organizing regional players, the U.S. as a source of stability, and the need to recalibrate our reference points. He also spoke of "oil assets and how the current tactic is to have a narrow focus on certain "key terrain" which holds only 7% of the Iraqi people. But coming back to reality he did say we had an unsustainable Iraqi Policy.
Kissinger opened with a statement about the fundamental issue of the long term role of the U.S. and wars, events, and such we'd been involved in there at least seven times in the last 50 years. The vital nature of the region can be seen through the vital nature several presidents have given it.
He then discussed the weakening role of the state in the region due to the "artiicial borders.) [Aren't all borders artificial? ] Anyway he went on to say that there are now units that have the character of states and that the upheaval extends across the whole region. He characterized the 50 year role of the U.S. as attempts for progress and peace.
Aside: Lugar was exuding absolute adoration while Kissinger spoke.
The conflicts between Shia, Kurd, and Sunni regions in Iran, Tukey, and Syria are all merging conflicts. He continued that the U.S. must move into a position to defend regional security.
Some the the actions/approaches he then mentioned favorably were:
Our separating from the civil & sectarian fighting.
strategies that include other gegions
left to politics not military
establish penalties and rewards
work with separate Syrian and Iranian issues
get the security council to involve other troops
contant readiness to negotiate
accept Iran as a major player but not as a dominating force.
U.S. must remain in region.
Biden then said that this would create an explosion and nontraditional state and that we will end up with Iraq as a Federation or a dominant power.
Lugar iterated the need for benhmarks, oil agreements and that we cannot withdraw from the region.
Then he stated that this is predicated on a belief that the minimum can become the maximum for the region.
A military veteran with pink accessories held up an Out of Iraq banner and was escorted from the room. A security officer/ capital police approached the pink person sitting next the seat where the banner carrier had been seated. She was told that if she did anything she would immediately be cuffed and this was the only warning she was going to get. Considering that she hadn't done anything.....that seemed a bit harsh.
Anyway the hearing continued. Feingold asked about redeployment from Iraq, and how we can prepare.
K said: Develop an international committee per the political future of Iraq.
F: How do we engage neighbors?
K: Discussion of proliferation of nuclear weapons by Iran.
F: What will happen in Somalia and Afghanistan?
K: we have to "balance" presens in Iraq.
Senator Coleman mentiioned: "End" only after exhaustion, that we will be in Iraq for a LONG time, also mentioned tools for protecting Shia militia -- and asked do we have to see balance before withdrawal.
K: May have to settle for a Mandala-like solution -- acceptable but not desired. We are maneuvering within extremes.
Then the what can we do now questions began coming.
K: I don't believe in withdrawal. Need for a regional conference about Iran.
Boxer agreed that a regional conference is needed.... but..... THE PEOPLE VOTED FOR ENDING THE WAR and they got a surge. What about the Biden proposal for semiautonomous regions?
K: That may be the outcome....
Cannot support that.
Boxer: The diplomats seem to have gotten stuck. We must break free from the diplomatic stagnation. If just one diplomat would come forward. Quote per Kissingers supposed call for end and humiliation of radical Islam.
Kissinger denied this "alleged quotation." Says he did not say that despite the reporters insistance that he did. Iterated need for international control.
Senator B. Concern that there will be an adverse reaction to the surge if there is no positive outcome.
K: We should keep in mind a move to move to concensus strategy.
Don't believe we can withdraw.
Need content of strategy to have direction. Can't go on as it is.
Cannot include a time table.
Biden: Must keep the "audience in mind" and note the difference between what is now felt and what may be felt in two or three years.
Discussion that everty alternative has grave risks. Each alternative for success has more to do with what others do than with what we do.
B: Can't do this by ourselves. Aren't we involved in sectarian violence. Isn't that taking sides?
K: Of course.... to some extent.
K: Must make attempt to break the back of militias.
B. What about withdrawal from Iraq, from the region? Phased withdrawal? How to get regional partners?
K: Mentioned withdrawal from Iraq could mean withdrawal from region.
B: How do we get leaders to act?
K: International Conference.
Senator ?: suck up comments..... best paper....
Questions about the Presidential job success in explaining strategy. How to speak to international community? When do we engage partners in the region.
K: Now. Protect the oil industry there. Presidents since Rooseveldt have. We have permanent interests there. We can't act impulsively.
Obama: The only expression has been maintain or increase troop level.
What is the new Iran policy?
Is that strategy articulated anywhere?
I'm saying that if we don't do this...
K: would not object to a statement.
Obama: What you say versus what administration says.
K:
Sunni Shia have been warring for 1400 years. Has been bloody and brutal.
There is a limit to what the American people will accept.
We base our assessment on what we cannot prove.
Cannot continue at this level.
Will go on for several administrations.
Need to deal with militias. In the context of a grand strategy.
Obama: The American people are saying, "I'm disappointed." They feel less safe. They have been asked to make an enormous investment. The outcome is worse than before. The surge isn't salient. IS there a strategy?
There has been such division between the President and the Congress. No action on Baker Hamilton.
Biden: Bush and Rice rejected.
Isaacon: Went in to Iraq to: UN 1441.
Free elections and a constitution
Train iraqi military.
Admit our failure at yr. 3. Relate power to diplomacy. Maneuvering room for major strategy.
Will it create enough resolution to create peace?
Objective is compatible with what the president is to do.
Mistakes were made.
I am convinced we will move 2 or 3 ... toward concensus.
--
K: Last two years of office cannot be spent in a civil ware between the executive and legislative branches. His plea.
"We are there because diplomacy failed."
Biden:
Spent time waiting for an invitation .....
strategy has not come forward.
What is the strategy?
Overtures flatly rejected.
We should have had a Camp David with congress leaders and Bush. But no desire by Pres to do that.
The surge is a tactic masquerading as strategy that will not accomplish the mission."
----------
--------
Of course these are notes not quotes ,and are just put up for flavor of what was happening in the session.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Liz meets McCain
Liz was zipping between actions and meetings when she ran into John McCain in the hallway. She stepped up and firmly shook his hand and told him, "I've come from Arizona as a constituent to talk to you and tell you that you have to stop funding endless war. I know your office knows about our feelings on these issues because I fasted in front of your office in Phoenix and regularly do anti-torture demonstrations there also.
McCain thanked her and hasitly departed. Huh? Did he even hear what she said?
McCain thanked her and hasitly departed. Huh? Did he even hear what she said?
Got the wrong info. Correction.
Medea Benjamin was arrested in a Senate Committee Hearing where Negroponte was testifying. Not for her distrubance of the hearing but for a bogus outstanding warrant for which she had appeared but which the court had no record. Seems they conveniently found it today. She is still in jail.
Hope she is getting better treatment than the women arrested yesterday at the white rose action. One woman lost circulation in a hand cuffed to a cell wall, and the officers would do nothing. similarly another person who had recently broken an arm was similarly twisted into a painful cuffed position.
I guess they want to teach us lessons or frighten us. Won't work.
Hope she is getting better treatment than the women arrested yesterday at the white rose action. One woman lost circulation in a hand cuffed to a cell wall, and the officers would do nothing. similarly another person who had recently broken an arm was similarly twisted into a painful cuffed position.
I guess they want to teach us lessons or frighten us. Won't work.
Arrests in Hillary's office
Medea Benjamin and six others were arrested this morning for disturbing the peace in Hillary Clinton's office. They wove a symbolic web of lies told by Hillary. The web snaked through furniture and around people throughout the office. The web Hillary spins is of course about the Iraq War and her stand on it. She now says she was always against the war, but this is a lie. She has supported this war from day one. It must end NOW! Scissors (pink and made of cardboard) were offered to her staff if she would cut the web.
Two of our sisters from the pink house were arrested: Sandy and Leslie. This was Leslie's first arrest.
More news as I hear it.
...more like disturbing for peace....
Two of our sisters from the pink house were arrested: Sandy and Leslie. This was Leslie's first arrest.
More news as I hear it.
...more like disturbing for peace....
What can you do?
This is what a friend says about the coming storm and action this month.
---------------------------------------
Pretend you are spending the next 3 weeks in D.C..... in the power center of our nation….
Take a moment, sit or stand quietly. Breathe deeply, fold your hands, close your eyes. Let your life-style fall away from you. Put your job aside, put away the neighborhood you are able to live in and your mortgage or rent payment; put the things you are able to buy because of your job – the car, the bike, the DVD player, the cell phone, the computer, lattes, everything – put them on the shelf; put your education, the schools you are able to send your child to, the classes you are able to take, put them all on hold.
Pretend you are going to spend the next three weeks of your life in Washington D.C. engaging in actions to end war. Think about what you are willing to do.
Now think about the 4th week, when the bombing will likely start against Iran. Think about the 100-or so-thousand human beings whose lives are going to be vaporized. Think about the 10’s of 100,000’s of human beings whose lives will be in grave danger, the pain and the suffering of nuclear burns.
Think about the millions of human beings whose lifestyles will be radically altered in Iran, the entire middle east – and around the world.
Think about just one of those lives that will be destroyed – the infant just born, the mother of adolescent twins, the grown daughter of the elder who can no longer care for herself. Pretend she is someone you love fiercely and passionately.
Now think about what actions you are willing to take in Washington D.C. to prevent the destruction of this one life.
Pretend you are protecting your LIFE and not your LIFE STYLE.
Brainstorm the actions you would take and email me!
Peace, Zanne Sam Joi
---------------------------------------
Pretend you are spending the next 3 weeks in D.C..... in the power center of our nation….
Take a moment, sit or stand quietly. Breathe deeply, fold your hands, close your eyes. Let your life-style fall away from you. Put your job aside, put away the neighborhood you are able to live in and your mortgage or rent payment; put the things you are able to buy because of your job – the car, the bike, the DVD player, the cell phone, the computer, lattes, everything – put them on the shelf; put your education, the schools you are able to send your child to, the classes you are able to take, put them all on hold.
Pretend you are going to spend the next three weeks of your life in Washington D.C. engaging in actions to end war. Think about what you are willing to do.
Now think about the 4th week, when the bombing will likely start against Iran. Think about the 100-or so-thousand human beings whose lives are going to be vaporized. Think about the 10’s of 100,000’s of human beings whose lives will be in grave danger, the pain and the suffering of nuclear burns.
Think about the millions of human beings whose lifestyles will be radically altered in Iran, the entire middle east – and around the world.
Think about just one of those lives that will be destroyed – the infant just born, the mother of adolescent twins, the grown daughter of the elder who can no longer care for herself. Pretend she is someone you love fiercely and passionately.
Now think about what actions you are willing to take in Washington D.C. to prevent the destruction of this one life.
Pretend you are protecting your LIFE and not your LIFE STYLE.
Brainstorm the actions you would take and email me!
Peace, Zanne Sam Joi
We Are Escalating Actions! You Must Also.
At a women's meeting last evening in D.C., women from all over the country gathered together to determine actions and priorities from now until our Senate and House shutdown the madman who is steering our country and the world over the falls. The message pure and simple is threefold:
NO IRAN WAR
DEFUND THE WAR
TROOPS HOME NOW
War with Iran (which is imminent) must be stopped. It will start a chain reaction. We bomb Iran. Iran retaliates. Israel retaliates. Russia retaliates. Dr. Strangelove is ready to send out those planes (only they are ships). This isn't just a feel-good information campaign. We are calling for every person who hears this message in his or her heart or soul to begin immediate civil disobedience actions.
Things we have heard people are doing --- lip-sticking every glass and mirrored surface in the country. NO IRAN WAR.
People also should think about how to safely shut down business as usual in the United States through traffic stoppages. Three cars abreast on major arteries driving very very slowly during morning rush hours. Perhaps cars will begin to "stall" in critical intersections at critical times.
Bush's next insane escalation will trigger true world war. We must stop him. Please act now. If not our world will have a truly Silent Spring.
NO IRAN WAR
DEFUND THE WAR
TROOPS HOME NOW
War with Iran (which is imminent) must be stopped. It will start a chain reaction. We bomb Iran. Iran retaliates. Israel retaliates. Russia retaliates. Dr. Strangelove is ready to send out those planes (only they are ships). This isn't just a feel-good information campaign. We are calling for every person who hears this message in his or her heart or soul to begin immediate civil disobedience actions.
Things we have heard people are doing --- lip-sticking every glass and mirrored surface in the country. NO IRAN WAR.
People also should think about how to safely shut down business as usual in the United States through traffic stoppages. Three cars abreast on major arteries driving very very slowly during morning rush hours. Perhaps cars will begin to "stall" in critical intersections at critical times.
Bush's next insane escalation will trigger true world war. We must stop him. Please act now. If not our world will have a truly Silent Spring.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Multi-Banner Drop in the Hart Bldg. after talking with Gabby's staff.
29 JANUARY 2007
NOTES FROM GABBY’S folks.
Marched from the Pink House to Cannon.
Actually I was supposed to go with the Pinkers to Rayburn & the Shoe distribution.
My shoe has Ashref Katjhem Gasem name attached. She was 5.
Got to 502 Cannon after navigating the corridors, construction and ---- and ------ were already there. I wrote out a hasty note as Maura hired a new staff member – a young gentleman hired just minutes before. There was pleasant chitchat until Daniel Graver arrived and I realized he was the gentleman I’ve given the pink balls of courage to to give to Gabby at a bar in Tucson where there was a heckle the tv state of the union watching party last year.
We shook hands and agreed we’d met before….and I sensed a bit of not altogether comfortable anticipation . We went with Daniel to Gabby’s office to chat. -------opened on a political campaign note.
He began writing a few of the UFPJ points down that we’d put our own spin on.
Troops home now. Iraqi people against us. Cut funding.
Also she ran as a progressive , why hasn’t she joined the progressive caucus?
What is she doing in the next two weeks to stop the illegal nuclear weapon use of the US on Iraq in three weeks? We have to observe the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
Jill & John from KBRP Bisbee came in part way into our mtg and began taping.
And Maura switched with Dan to field questions.
Walked with them to the Hart bldg. Met Ellen. Walked back to the Rayburn bldg. Got coffee and talked to Robin and Julia about their lobbying in the afternoon.At noon we joined a white rose action at the inner court yard fountain . I laid a card down and a few roses as the names of Iraqi dead were read. The frozen water and flowers were as stark a testimony to the dead as any I’ve seen or in which I’ve participated. Didn’t want to be arrested so I left for the Dirkson Bldg. Which is where I met up with Sam and Maureen (newbie) and walked to the Hart Bldg.
The atrium of the Hart Bldg is perfect for banner drops. From various tales told after the event., I’ve reconstructed compatriots stories of being followed to floor 5 then going to 3 via the elevator and walking back up to 4. I was doing similar diversion between floors.
Finally the signal came as I was taking pictures of a shoe action from a fifth floor overview. (I will upload as soon as I get to the house. ) There were at least 100 women throughout the building . Banners were being unfurled from every floor. One would go over the rail and unfurl a message of peace only to be grabbed and eventually taken away by police. Some of the many banner bearers with whom I spoke said they asked for 30 secs for a picture, various first second and third warnings were issued by various uniforms and suits. After Gael had a few problems with a suit who was gruff at first, I and others. ran over to help her & get the banner stretched out. It said Peace on Earth. The big 40 foot pink slip was unfurled but had twisted, So Medea who was on the main floor of the atrium leaped up to straighten it and it was lifted off the floor a bit when police on a higher floor tried to take the banner. Individuals with N, O, W. A, R. letters lined up on five different floors for a multi –floor multi-part banner. Of course songs and chants were being sung and shouted from every floor into the atrium. “Out of Iraq.” “De-fund the war. “ “War is over if you want it.” “No more money for war.” It was so great to see banner after banner unfurl after each confiscation. The banner and floor I was involved with actually had three banners. The first big pink one was confiscated . Then Nell pulled out her rainbow Peace banner. We dropped it. It was confiscated. Gail unfurled her scarf. It was confiscated. Then we began waving our scarves -- PINK of course. We saw one slip across the way …… just a simple unadorned pink slip We later learned it was not confiscated because of one woman ‘s quick thinking. An officer was trying to take it when she said… “I have a pink bra too!” and he said,, “OK, OK.” At about that time we had run out of banners and decided to chant our way all the way from the fifth floor to the first. Then the cops tried to corral us. But they changed their minds. (If I find out more I will let you know.)The exhilaration wasn’t as strong as the first actions I did, but it still feels good –to speak our minds in the halls of our Senate offiice bldgs. And the joy of the UFPJ lobby folks who stumbled across the pink action was palpable. They thanked us, joined in the chants – as did a few staffers.
Eventually we made our way out after a few chants of , “THIS is what democracy looks like. “
We managed to get most of the banners back.
My only regret is that I didn’t get a clear shot of the big banner that LA Sam and Jodie ( I think) dropped – the big 40 ft. long one that said, No More Money for War.
Then it was off to the Dirkson Bldg. For a late lunch.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Wire Services ContinueTowing the Govt Line
Don't believe the wire reports from the Washington D.C. march-- their tens of thousands should read 100s of thousands. The entire Mall was packed from Third Street to the Washigton monument. Once the march started and encircled the Capitol on all four sides before the last marchers had even started, you know that it was at least a half a million people. The Washington Post revised its count at least once already from tems of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
The CODEPINK rally before the UFPJ rally had at least 3000 folks and probably lots more... but the Washington Post and all the other papers taking their lead from them presented an image of equal ranks of protestors and counter protesters. The Pink supporters numbered in the thousands, and the super conservative "counter" protesters numbered around a couple dozen. The paper gave the impression of equal amounts.
Please tell your papers and local media that you are sick and tired of deceptive "reporting" and that you expect accurate and truthful reporting and the current standards are far from this standard.
More on the speakers at the rallies when I blog tomorrow.
The CODEPINK rally before the UFPJ rally had at least 3000 folks and probably lots more... but the Washington Post and all the other papers taking their lead from them presented an image of equal ranks of protestors and counter protesters. The Pink supporters numbered in the thousands, and the super conservative "counter" protesters numbered around a couple dozen. The paper gave the impression of equal amounts.
Please tell your papers and local media that you are sick and tired of deceptive "reporting" and that you expect accurate and truthful reporting and the current standards are far from this standard.
More on the speakers at the rallies when I blog tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The First Night of a Month of Peace Activism in D.C>
Arrived at the Pink House in D.C. around 8:30 p.m. So now I'm posting what I wrote earlier in the day.
Greetings Friends and Foes,
I’m writing as I fly toward D.C. I am unsure what sort of connection to the internet I will have for the next several days, So I will do what I am doing right now. I will compose when I can and post when I can.
I’m not sure what tomorrow holds for me. (Are we ever?) I think it will primarily be internet and coffee until I plan out all the things I have as yet to find out about, then I believe there will be a meeting of women later in the day to put together the Walk in Their Shoes display that will be out on the 26th. I sent a couple pair of teenager shoes with Zanne and I have two infant sets with me. I still have to tag them with the names of infants killed in the Iraq War. These are real souls who left this world violently and unjustly. I miss my daughter already, and she is alive and well. To think of the heartache of her being gone breaks my heart. I cannot imagine what the lose of a child must be like. I hugged her goodbye this morning as she went off to school. I think she knows I am doing this for her. For her future. For all children’s futures. I am leaving my home for a month during a year that I really did not want to travel. She is 17. There are not many more months when she will live under my roof. I hate to give up spending one of those with her, but I must. This war is wrong. The visuals of masses of citizens marching should send a clear signal that there are people who feel so passionately about the need for our Representatives and Senators to stop this war, no matter what they must do in order to accomplish that, that they will come all the way across the country to march and meet with Congressional staffers.
I’m reading two books right now. One is about writing biography – the biography of women. The other contains small mindfulness “talks” about peace, being peace, creating peace, breathing peace by Thich Naht Hahn.
These two works are almost diametrically opposed at one level, but I am bringing them together, into peace, within my being. Learning from them both. Seeing them both. This provides excellent practice for the tasks that probably comprise my path this next month. I am not going to worry about them or even plan them out too much as I need to live in the moment and listen to my heart and notice all that is around me so that I may seize on positive action. CODEPINK was originally about bring the creative feminine into play in our world FOR Peace. I strongly believe that we must not fall into opposition or anger. We can only change things through individual action. The fierce gentle hand of mother Gaia contains us. We are her, and we must strive to live up to the wonder that is the miracle of life and breath and self organized existence. War and violence has no place in this world. Our self awareness is a rare gift – we can get beyond the aggressive territorial ape aspect of our being and consciously, mindfully become gentle and cooperative beings. We can. We will. We are. Starting at this very moment. Be Here Now.
Namaste.
Greetings Friends and Foes,
I’m writing as I fly toward D.C. I am unsure what sort of connection to the internet I will have for the next several days, So I will do what I am doing right now. I will compose when I can and post when I can.
I’m not sure what tomorrow holds for me. (Are we ever?) I think it will primarily be internet and coffee until I plan out all the things I have as yet to find out about, then I believe there will be a meeting of women later in the day to put together the Walk in Their Shoes display that will be out on the 26th. I sent a couple pair of teenager shoes with Zanne and I have two infant sets with me. I still have to tag them with the names of infants killed in the Iraq War. These are real souls who left this world violently and unjustly. I miss my daughter already, and she is alive and well. To think of the heartache of her being gone breaks my heart. I cannot imagine what the lose of a child must be like. I hugged her goodbye this morning as she went off to school. I think she knows I am doing this for her. For her future. For all children’s futures. I am leaving my home for a month during a year that I really did not want to travel. She is 17. There are not many more months when she will live under my roof. I hate to give up spending one of those with her, but I must. This war is wrong. The visuals of masses of citizens marching should send a clear signal that there are people who feel so passionately about the need for our Representatives and Senators to stop this war, no matter what they must do in order to accomplish that, that they will come all the way across the country to march and meet with Congressional staffers.
I’m reading two books right now. One is about writing biography – the biography of women. The other contains small mindfulness “talks” about peace, being peace, creating peace, breathing peace by Thich Naht Hahn.
These two works are almost diametrically opposed at one level, but I am bringing them together, into peace, within my being. Learning from them both. Seeing them both. This provides excellent practice for the tasks that probably comprise my path this next month. I am not going to worry about them or even plan them out too much as I need to live in the moment and listen to my heart and notice all that is around me so that I may seize on positive action. CODEPINK was originally about bring the creative feminine into play in our world FOR Peace. I strongly believe that we must not fall into opposition or anger. We can only change things through individual action. The fierce gentle hand of mother Gaia contains us. We are her, and we must strive to live up to the wonder that is the miracle of life and breath and self organized existence. War and violence has no place in this world. Our self awareness is a rare gift – we can get beyond the aggressive territorial ape aspect of our being and consciously, mindfully become gentle and cooperative beings. We can. We will. We are. Starting at this very moment. Be Here Now.
Namaste.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Woot! Woot!
Couldn't get into my dashboard for the longest time! I'm finally back on Blogger and will be posting up a storm! Why? Because I'm headed to D.C. -- again -- for a month of civic participation as a CODEPINK Activist. Just got a $200 roundtrip fair via Priceline. Will be staying at a CODEPINK house currently being set up. I'm gonna MARCH, I'm gonna LOBBY, and I'm going to be the pink thorn that irritates the status quo on Capitol Hill for the next month. Woo Hoo!
And you know what? I'm not the only Arizonan going. You could be there too. Join us! Heck-a-roonie.... even MoveOn.org sent out an email encouraging members to come to D.C. and march or join a local protest. This isn't the "official" graphic for the march.... but who cares? This one is too good not to use!
And you know what? I'm not the only Arizonan going. You could be there too. Join us! Heck-a-roonie.... even MoveOn.org sent out an email encouraging members to come to D.C. and march or join a local protest. This isn't the "official" graphic for the march.... but who cares? This one is too good not to use!
Monday, November 06, 2006
They’d rather die: brief lives of the Afghan slave wives
The Sunday Times November 05, 2006
They’d rather die: brief lives of the Afghan slave wives
Christina Lamb
THE first thing one notices about 16-year-old Gul Zam is her eyes, pretty and dark yet as watchful as a hunted animal’s. But then the scarf covering her head shifts slightly, exposing a livid red scar on her neck. The hands that play nervously in her lap are ridged with pink burns that reach up her arms, across her chest and down her legs.
Three months ago Gul Zam poured petrol over her body and set herself alight. To her it was the only way out of a marriage so abusive that her husband Abdul had beaten her until her clothes were soaked in blood.
“I felt all other ways were blocked,” she whispered. “My husband and his family treated me like a slave. But I could not go back to my family because of the shame that would bring. So I crawled into the yard, poured a can of petrol over me and lit a match.”
Five years after the Taliban were ousted from Kabul, the number of Afghan women setting fire to themselves because they cannot bear their lives has risen dramatically.
Gul Zam’s husband and in-laws watched her burning and did nothing. She was saved by a neighbour who poured a bucket of water over her, wrapped her in a sheet and rushed her to hospital. After the doctors removed the sheet, tearing the blisters, she spent 10 days in a coma. Her head had been fused to her chest by the burns. She has endured several operations and will need at least six more before she can move her arms.
“This is a society where being born a woman is not a gift,” said Alberto Cairo, an Italian doctor who runs the Red Cross clinic in Kabul where Gul Zam is being treated. His room is full of fairy lights and a laughing Christmas tree that he has kept up all year because “there didn’t seem to be much happiness”.
A report last week by the UK-based charity Womankind Worldwide said cases like Gul Zam’s were becoming more common because between 60% and 80% of all marriages in Afghanistan were forced. More than half of all girls are married off before the age of 16, some as young as six. Many of these marriages are to settle debts or feuds between tribes. The women are regarded as commodities rather than wives and are often treated like slave workers by their new families.
Those who try to escape often end up in prison like 13-year-old Shabano, jailed in Kandahar for running away from the 50-year-old man to whom her father had sold her. “We don’t have democracy in this country if someone wants a love marriage,” she said, nibbling at grimy nails in the dark, dirty cell. “My father exchanged me for a teenage bride for himself.”
Gul Zam was lucky. Not only was she saved, but unusually her family have decided to support her and her father demanded a divorce. But her story is an indictment of the international community’s failure to improve the lives of Afghan women.
In 2001 the West’s most-cited criticism of the Taliban regime was its oppression of women. Not only did the Taliban forbid women from working and girls from being educated, they also beat them for wearing lipstick or shoes that clicked on the ground. The all-encompassing burqa, with its ugly shape and cage-like grille over the eyes, became a symbol for a heartless regime.
Laura Bush, America’s first lady, took over her husband’s weekly radio address to highlight the plight of Afghan women. Cherie Blair made an impassioned speech at 10 Downing Street, saying: “Women could have their nails torn out for wearing nail polish.”
“The recovery of Afghanistan must entail the restoration of rights of Afghan women,” insisted Colin Powell, then the US secretary of state.
Five years on there is just one woman in government — the minister for women’s affairs. Symbolic photographs of women throwing off their burqas after the Taliban had fled were no more than that. Apart from a small educated elite in Kabul, the overwhelming majority of women are still forced to cover their entire bodies and faces. The United Nations recently circulated a memo to all staff in Afghanistan, advising women to cover their heads even in Kabul.
Watching boys flying kites over the Bala Hissar fort or chattering girls streaming to school, white scarves over heads and rucksacks on backs, to say there have been no improvements since November 13, 2001, when the Taliban fled the capital, would be wrong. Millions of Afghans voted for a new president in 2004 and a parliament in 2005 in which 25% of the MPs are women. Five million children, of whom 1.5m are girls, are enrolled in school.
But there is a huge gap between the reality on the ground and the “remarkable progress” claimed by western diplomats who sit in fortified compounds behind guards and concrete blocks and who never leave Kabul. The only area in which the country could really be said to have made remarkable progress is in growing the poppy. Under British supervision, Afghanistan has become the world’s biggest opium producer. Last year it produced 6,100 tons — 92% of world supply.
Afghanistan is engulfed in its bloodiest violence for 10 years. At least 3,000 people have been killed this year — more than twice last year’s total.
For all the talk of girls’ education, only 5% of those of secondary school age are enrolled. More than 300 schools have been burnt down this year or shut after threats from militants, leaving 200,000 pupils with nowhere to go.
There have been no significant water or power projects and two highways built with western aid have become almost no-go areas. The Kabul to Kandahar road is plagued by Taliban militants setting up fake checkpoints, killing Afghans accused of collaborating.
Two weeks ago I drove on the other new road from Jalalabad to Kabul, wearing a burqa because of warnings of foreigners being kidnapped. I was stopped at three checkpoints set up by police to extract bribes. As for the much-heralded parliament, it has more warlords and people charged with human rights abuses than women MPs. It has yet to create any legislation, though it has voted in pay rises for its members.
“Parliament is just a showpiece for the West,” complains Malalai Joya, one of the female MPs. “Women do not have liberation at all. People in power, whether in government, parliament or governors, are warlords and jihadis who are no different in their outlook from Taliban.”
The 27-year-old MP has received so many death threats for her outspokenness that she has to sleep in a different place every night. To meet her involves going to a spot, then following an old man on a motorbike. She will not give out her address. The house is surrounded by sandbags and guards who search visitors before they can enter.
Inside Joya sits in a room that is bare of decoration apart from a black and white photograph of King Amanullah, under whose reign in the 1920s women were given equal rights and strict dress codes were abolished. She tells me she has just returned from visiting a five-year-old girl who had been kidnapped and raped in Kabul by a local commander. “The killing of women is like killing a bird for these men,” she said. “We have no value.” When she tries to speak in parliament, she is physically attacked by fellow MPs. “When I speak, they pelt me with water bottles,” she said. “One shouted, ‘Take and rape her!’ “The West talks of Afghan women having freedom and going outside without a burqa but I tell you the burqa was not the main problem for women. Look at the high rate of suicide among our women. The real problem is security and more and more are returning to the burqa.”
In the south, Nato forces seem hell-bent on proving the alliance can fight at least as well as the Americans. What was supposed to be a reconstruction mission has morphed into combat producing high casualties.
But the violence is no longer confined to the southern and eastern provinces. Somehow the Taliban, who were driven out of Afghanistan by US-led forces and B-52 bombers in just 60 days, are creeping nearer the capital. According to a US military official, nine of the 21 districts in Ghazni, which is less than 60 miles south of Kabul, now have “significant Taliban influence”.
Even Kabul, which was an oasis of calm, has become a jumpy place where people live behind high walls and sandbags after suicide bombs rocked the capital.
Although the number of foreign troops has risen to 37,000, it is generally accepted that it was too little too late and the distraction of the war in Iraq allowed the Taliban to regroup. Neighbouring Pakistan, from where the Taliban emerged, has proved an ideal haven and training ground.
“The desire for a quick, cheap war followed by a quick, cheap peace is what has brought Afghanistan to the present, increasingly dangerous situation,” says the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.
David Richards, the British general who commands the Nato forces, admits he was shocked by the lack of basic development when he arrived in Afghanistan in April.
He has created a Policy Action Group, a kind of war cabinet chaired by President Hamid Karzai, bringing together ministers and international donors to “bump-start” development. “If we don’t act soon, we risk more and more people turning to the Taliban,” he warns.
Aside from such grievances and the worsening security, the other main problem is corruption. Public institutions are weak or nonexistent. Where institutions do exist, they are so corrupt that people wish they were not there.
In the ante-room to Karzai’s office, it is common to see people offering bribes to get relatives lucrative posts or arrange for them to be let off crimes. Karzai has refused to act against senior government officials or his own relatives, whom the international community says are involved in the narcotics trade.
“I am very unhappy,” complained Younus Qanuni, speaker of the parliament. “The past five years we’ve had a golden opportunity in Afghanistan. Instead I feel once again terrorism is returning: narcotics, increasing daily corruption while in people’s lives there are no changes. Things are moving in the wrong direction.”
For girls like Gul Zam facing years of operations and stigma as a divorcee, the end of the Taliban was never meant to be like this.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discovered this article by reading
http://www.snohwomen.blogspot.com/
They’d rather die: brief lives of the Afghan slave wives
Christina Lamb
THE first thing one notices about 16-year-old Gul Zam is her eyes, pretty and dark yet as watchful as a hunted animal’s. But then the scarf covering her head shifts slightly, exposing a livid red scar on her neck. The hands that play nervously in her lap are ridged with pink burns that reach up her arms, across her chest and down her legs.
Three months ago Gul Zam poured petrol over her body and set herself alight. To her it was the only way out of a marriage so abusive that her husband Abdul had beaten her until her clothes were soaked in blood.
“I felt all other ways were blocked,” she whispered. “My husband and his family treated me like a slave. But I could not go back to my family because of the shame that would bring. So I crawled into the yard, poured a can of petrol over me and lit a match.”
Five years after the Taliban were ousted from Kabul, the number of Afghan women setting fire to themselves because they cannot bear their lives has risen dramatically.
Gul Zam’s husband and in-laws watched her burning and did nothing. She was saved by a neighbour who poured a bucket of water over her, wrapped her in a sheet and rushed her to hospital. After the doctors removed the sheet, tearing the blisters, she spent 10 days in a coma. Her head had been fused to her chest by the burns. She has endured several operations and will need at least six more before she can move her arms.
“This is a society where being born a woman is not a gift,” said Alberto Cairo, an Italian doctor who runs the Red Cross clinic in Kabul where Gul Zam is being treated. His room is full of fairy lights and a laughing Christmas tree that he has kept up all year because “there didn’t seem to be much happiness”.
A report last week by the UK-based charity Womankind Worldwide said cases like Gul Zam’s were becoming more common because between 60% and 80% of all marriages in Afghanistan were forced. More than half of all girls are married off before the age of 16, some as young as six. Many of these marriages are to settle debts or feuds between tribes. The women are regarded as commodities rather than wives and are often treated like slave workers by their new families.
Those who try to escape often end up in prison like 13-year-old Shabano, jailed in Kandahar for running away from the 50-year-old man to whom her father had sold her. “We don’t have democracy in this country if someone wants a love marriage,” she said, nibbling at grimy nails in the dark, dirty cell. “My father exchanged me for a teenage bride for himself.”
Gul Zam was lucky. Not only was she saved, but unusually her family have decided to support her and her father demanded a divorce. But her story is an indictment of the international community’s failure to improve the lives of Afghan women.
In 2001 the West’s most-cited criticism of the Taliban regime was its oppression of women. Not only did the Taliban forbid women from working and girls from being educated, they also beat them for wearing lipstick or shoes that clicked on the ground. The all-encompassing burqa, with its ugly shape and cage-like grille over the eyes, became a symbol for a heartless regime.
Laura Bush, America’s first lady, took over her husband’s weekly radio address to highlight the plight of Afghan women. Cherie Blair made an impassioned speech at 10 Downing Street, saying: “Women could have their nails torn out for wearing nail polish.”
“The recovery of Afghanistan must entail the restoration of rights of Afghan women,” insisted Colin Powell, then the US secretary of state.
Five years on there is just one woman in government — the minister for women’s affairs. Symbolic photographs of women throwing off their burqas after the Taliban had fled were no more than that. Apart from a small educated elite in Kabul, the overwhelming majority of women are still forced to cover their entire bodies and faces. The United Nations recently circulated a memo to all staff in Afghanistan, advising women to cover their heads even in Kabul.
Watching boys flying kites over the Bala Hissar fort or chattering girls streaming to school, white scarves over heads and rucksacks on backs, to say there have been no improvements since November 13, 2001, when the Taliban fled the capital, would be wrong. Millions of Afghans voted for a new president in 2004 and a parliament in 2005 in which 25% of the MPs are women. Five million children, of whom 1.5m are girls, are enrolled in school.
But there is a huge gap between the reality on the ground and the “remarkable progress” claimed by western diplomats who sit in fortified compounds behind guards and concrete blocks and who never leave Kabul. The only area in which the country could really be said to have made remarkable progress is in growing the poppy. Under British supervision, Afghanistan has become the world’s biggest opium producer. Last year it produced 6,100 tons — 92% of world supply.
Afghanistan is engulfed in its bloodiest violence for 10 years. At least 3,000 people have been killed this year — more than twice last year’s total.
For all the talk of girls’ education, only 5% of those of secondary school age are enrolled. More than 300 schools have been burnt down this year or shut after threats from militants, leaving 200,000 pupils with nowhere to go.
There have been no significant water or power projects and two highways built with western aid have become almost no-go areas. The Kabul to Kandahar road is plagued by Taliban militants setting up fake checkpoints, killing Afghans accused of collaborating.
Two weeks ago I drove on the other new road from Jalalabad to Kabul, wearing a burqa because of warnings of foreigners being kidnapped. I was stopped at three checkpoints set up by police to extract bribes. As for the much-heralded parliament, it has more warlords and people charged with human rights abuses than women MPs. It has yet to create any legislation, though it has voted in pay rises for its members.
“Parliament is just a showpiece for the West,” complains Malalai Joya, one of the female MPs. “Women do not have liberation at all. People in power, whether in government, parliament or governors, are warlords and jihadis who are no different in their outlook from Taliban.”
The 27-year-old MP has received so many death threats for her outspokenness that she has to sleep in a different place every night. To meet her involves going to a spot, then following an old man on a motorbike. She will not give out her address. The house is surrounded by sandbags and guards who search visitors before they can enter.
Inside Joya sits in a room that is bare of decoration apart from a black and white photograph of King Amanullah, under whose reign in the 1920s women were given equal rights and strict dress codes were abolished. She tells me she has just returned from visiting a five-year-old girl who had been kidnapped and raped in Kabul by a local commander. “The killing of women is like killing a bird for these men,” she said. “We have no value.” When she tries to speak in parliament, she is physically attacked by fellow MPs. “When I speak, they pelt me with water bottles,” she said. “One shouted, ‘Take and rape her!’ “The West talks of Afghan women having freedom and going outside without a burqa but I tell you the burqa was not the main problem for women. Look at the high rate of suicide among our women. The real problem is security and more and more are returning to the burqa.”
In the south, Nato forces seem hell-bent on proving the alliance can fight at least as well as the Americans. What was supposed to be a reconstruction mission has morphed into combat producing high casualties.
But the violence is no longer confined to the southern and eastern provinces. Somehow the Taliban, who were driven out of Afghanistan by US-led forces and B-52 bombers in just 60 days, are creeping nearer the capital. According to a US military official, nine of the 21 districts in Ghazni, which is less than 60 miles south of Kabul, now have “significant Taliban influence”.
Even Kabul, which was an oasis of calm, has become a jumpy place where people live behind high walls and sandbags after suicide bombs rocked the capital.
Although the number of foreign troops has risen to 37,000, it is generally accepted that it was too little too late and the distraction of the war in Iraq allowed the Taliban to regroup. Neighbouring Pakistan, from where the Taliban emerged, has proved an ideal haven and training ground.
“The desire for a quick, cheap war followed by a quick, cheap peace is what has brought Afghanistan to the present, increasingly dangerous situation,” says the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.
David Richards, the British general who commands the Nato forces, admits he was shocked by the lack of basic development when he arrived in Afghanistan in April.
He has created a Policy Action Group, a kind of war cabinet chaired by President Hamid Karzai, bringing together ministers and international donors to “bump-start” development. “If we don’t act soon, we risk more and more people turning to the Taliban,” he warns.
Aside from such grievances and the worsening security, the other main problem is corruption. Public institutions are weak or nonexistent. Where institutions do exist, they are so corrupt that people wish they were not there.
In the ante-room to Karzai’s office, it is common to see people offering bribes to get relatives lucrative posts or arrange for them to be let off crimes. Karzai has refused to act against senior government officials or his own relatives, whom the international community says are involved in the narcotics trade.
“I am very unhappy,” complained Younus Qanuni, speaker of the parliament. “The past five years we’ve had a golden opportunity in Afghanistan. Instead I feel once again terrorism is returning: narcotics, increasing daily corruption while in people’s lives there are no changes. Things are moving in the wrong direction.”
For girls like Gul Zam facing years of operations and stigma as a divorcee, the end of the Taliban was never meant to be like this.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discovered this article by reading
http://www.snohwomen.blogspot.com/
Friday, November 03, 2006
"Raytheon Six² Defendants Get Community Service; Four of Five Charges Dismissed.
"Raytheon Six² Defendants Get Community Service; Four of Five
Charges Dismissed.
by Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa
Four Tucson residents were each sentenced November 2 to eight
hours of community service for their part in a nonviolent protest at
the Raytheon Missile Systems Plant south of Tucson last March 20, the
third anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Pima
County Justice Court judge Maria Felix accepted their pleas of no
contest to a charge of obstructing a highway, a class 3 misdemeanor.
Two co-defendants who could not be in court today will be sentenced
at a later date.
The sentences came as a result of a plea agreement that
included dismissal of four of the five original charges laid against
each the anti-war activists: unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct,
being a public nuisance and being a pedestrian on a roadway.
Before the formal hearing, the court invited Tucson¹s Raging
Grannies to sing. The Grannies were among nearly two dozen
supporters who had rallied outside the court house prior to the
hearing, and now filled the small courtroom. They obliged with one
of their trademark anti-war parodies, ³God Help America.²
The four sentenced today were Gretchen Nielson, age 73,
Bill Moeller, age 52, Pat Birnie, age 76, and Jack McPherson, age 61.
Before pronouncing sentence, Judge Felix invited the defendants to
address the court. The statements of Pat Birnie and Jack McPherson
follow, along with a poem by Gretchen Nielsen that concluded her own
brief statement. Bill Moeller chose not to address the court.
Poem read as part of sentencing statement of Gretchen Nielsen
HELL'S GETTING READY
to be lit with missiles
built by robots
programmed with misconceptions
(while ridiculed into silence
the wise watch wordless)
bombs are bought and sold
by parents
still not knowing what they're doing
'til the children they have nurtured
scream in fiery beds
Hell's getting ready
to be lit by leaders
proud and vengeful
still not knowing what they're doing
'til they're judged as they've been judging
watch their children's children burn
(while the merciful moan in madness
anguished with compassion)
wealthy preachers mock the truth
the pope parades in a funny hat:
prophecy fulfilled
(wise and ridiculed
merciful and mad)
Where is the leader of the meek?
Gretchen Nielsen (1980)
=============
Sentencing statement of Pat Birnie
I strongly oppose the U.S. invasion and continuing violent occupation
of Iraq, a sovereign country that threatened no provocation to our
country.
Because I consider the U.S. military actions in Iraq to be immoral
and illegal by U.S. law as well as International law, I am ashamed
and distraught that a local business, Raytheon Missiles Systems, is
participating in and profiting from the human suffering their
products cause in Iraq.
I have tried to communicate my angst via direct correspondence with
Raytheon management, letters and phone calls to our elected
officials, letters to the editor (unpublished!) of our local
newspapers, and regular legal protests at Raytheon Missiles Systems
factory.
Because these efforts have failed, I had to resort to my least
-favored form of free-speech, to put my body on the line.
I will not willingly allow, by my silence, these atrocities to continue.
========
Sentencing statement of Jack McPherson
My participation in the blockade of the Raytheon munitions plant was
done to express solidarity with the tens of thousand innocent
civilian victims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I do believe it is my moral obligation:
To speak out against - war crimes
To speak out against - war profiteering
And to speak out against - weapon contracts emanating from huge
political contributions.
Raytheon is not as they would have you believe a defender of freedom
and democracy, but rather are in the business of killing for profit.
Charges Dismissed.
by Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa
Four Tucson residents were each sentenced November 2 to eight
hours of community service for their part in a nonviolent protest at
the Raytheon Missile Systems Plant south of Tucson last March 20, the
third anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Pima
County Justice Court judge Maria Felix accepted their pleas of no
contest to a charge of obstructing a highway, a class 3 misdemeanor.
Two co-defendants who could not be in court today will be sentenced
at a later date.
The sentences came as a result of a plea agreement that
included dismissal of four of the five original charges laid against
each the anti-war activists: unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct,
being a public nuisance and being a pedestrian on a roadway.
Before the formal hearing, the court invited Tucson¹s Raging
Grannies to sing. The Grannies were among nearly two dozen
supporters who had rallied outside the court house prior to the
hearing, and now filled the small courtroom. They obliged with one
of their trademark anti-war parodies, ³God Help America.²
The four sentenced today were Gretchen Nielson, age 73,
Bill Moeller, age 52, Pat Birnie, age 76, and Jack McPherson, age 61.
Before pronouncing sentence, Judge Felix invited the defendants to
address the court. The statements of Pat Birnie and Jack McPherson
follow, along with a poem by Gretchen Nielsen that concluded her own
brief statement. Bill Moeller chose not to address the court.
Poem read as part of sentencing statement of Gretchen Nielsen
HELL'S GETTING READY
to be lit with missiles
built by robots
programmed with misconceptions
(while ridiculed into silence
the wise watch wordless)
bombs are bought and sold
by parents
still not knowing what they're doing
'til the children they have nurtured
scream in fiery beds
Hell's getting ready
to be lit by leaders
proud and vengeful
still not knowing what they're doing
'til they're judged as they've been judging
watch their children's children burn
(while the merciful moan in madness
anguished with compassion)
wealthy preachers mock the truth
the pope parades in a funny hat:
prophecy fulfilled
(wise and ridiculed
merciful and mad)
Where is the leader of the meek?
Gretchen Nielsen (1980)
=============
Sentencing statement of Pat Birnie
I strongly oppose the U.S. invasion and continuing violent occupation
of Iraq, a sovereign country that threatened no provocation to our
country.
Because I consider the U.S. military actions in Iraq to be immoral
and illegal by U.S. law as well as International law, I am ashamed
and distraught that a local business, Raytheon Missiles Systems, is
participating in and profiting from the human suffering their
products cause in Iraq.
I have tried to communicate my angst via direct correspondence with
Raytheon management, letters and phone calls to our elected
officials, letters to the editor (unpublished!) of our local
newspapers, and regular legal protests at Raytheon Missiles Systems
factory.
Because these efforts have failed, I had to resort to my least
-favored form of free-speech, to put my body on the line.
I will not willingly allow, by my silence, these atrocities to continue.
========
Sentencing statement of Jack McPherson
My participation in the blockade of the Raytheon munitions plant was
done to express solidarity with the tens of thousand innocent
civilian victims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I do believe it is my moral obligation:
To speak out against - war crimes
To speak out against - war profiteering
And to speak out against - weapon contracts emanating from huge
political contributions.
Raytheon is not as they would have you believe a defender of freedom
and democracy, but rather are in the business of killing for profit.
U.S. DU Death Toll Tops 11,000
U.S. DU Death Toll Tops 11,000
Nationwide Media Blackout Keeps U.S. Public Ignorant About This Important Story
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/du_death_toll.html
By James P. Tucker Jr.
The death toll from the highly toxic weapons component known as depleted uranium (DU) has reached 11,000 US soldiers and the growing scandal may be the reason behind Anthony Principi’s departure as secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department.
This view was expressed by Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter.
“The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given,” Bernklau said. “However, a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the U.S. military.”
The “malady [from DU] that thousands of our military have suffered and died from has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. . . . The terrible truth is now being revealed,” Bernklau said.
Of the 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are now dead, he said. By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. More than a decade later, more than half (56 percent) who served in Gulf War I have permanent medical problems. The disability rate for veterans of the world wars of the last century was 5 percent, rising to 10 percent in Vietnam.
“The VA secretary was aware of this fact as far back as 2000,” Bernklau said. “He and the Bush administration have been hiding these facts, but now, thanks to Moret’s report, it is far too big to hide or to cover up.”
Terry Johnson, public affairs specialist at the VA, recently reported that veterans of both Persian Gulf wars now on disability total 518,739, Bernklau said.
“The long-term effect of DU is a virtual death sentence,” Bernklau said. “Marion Fulk, a nuclear chemist, who retired from the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, and was also involved in the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in the soldiers [from the second war] as ‘spectacular’—and a matter of concern.’ ”
While this important story appeared in a Washington newspaper and the wire services, it did not receive national exposure—a compelling sign that the American public is being kept in the dark about the terrible effects of this toxic weapon. (Veterans for Constitutional Law can be reached at (516) 474-4261.)
Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
Nationwide Media Blackout Keeps U.S. Public Ignorant About This Important Story
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/du_death_toll.html
By James P. Tucker Jr.
The death toll from the highly toxic weapons component known as depleted uranium (DU) has reached 11,000 US soldiers and the growing scandal may be the reason behind Anthony Principi’s departure as secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department.
This view was expressed by Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter.
“The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given,” Bernklau said. “However, a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the U.S. military.”
The “malady [from DU] that thousands of our military have suffered and died from has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. . . . The terrible truth is now being revealed,” Bernklau said.
Of the 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are now dead, he said. By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. More than a decade later, more than half (56 percent) who served in Gulf War I have permanent medical problems. The disability rate for veterans of the world wars of the last century was 5 percent, rising to 10 percent in Vietnam.
“The VA secretary was aware of this fact as far back as 2000,” Bernklau said. “He and the Bush administration have been hiding these facts, but now, thanks to Moret’s report, it is far too big to hide or to cover up.”
Terry Johnson, public affairs specialist at the VA, recently reported that veterans of both Persian Gulf wars now on disability total 518,739, Bernklau said.
“The long-term effect of DU is a virtual death sentence,” Bernklau said. “Marion Fulk, a nuclear chemist, who retired from the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, and was also involved in the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in the soldiers [from the second war] as ‘spectacular’—and a matter of concern.’ ”
While this important story appeared in a Washington newspaper and the wire services, it did not receive national exposure—a compelling sign that the American public is being kept in the dark about the terrible effects of this toxic weapon. (Veterans for Constitutional Law can be reached at (516) 474-4261.)
Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
Thursday, November 02, 2006
So What Happens The Day After The Election?
I haven’t blogged in a while. I had to take a break so I could turn on the old wisdom crock pot and attend to healing after a year of ill health, personal loss, family upheaval, and near constant political action. So I ruminated and allowed myself the utter luxury of doing whatever the hell I felt like for a few months so I could have the energy and inspiration to face whatever situation presented itself the after the election.
This is basically the same thing I did before the 2004 election. I just started gearing up for the long haul of what would be needed AFTER the 2004 election so I could jump in with whatever was needed when most folks were burned out from putting all their energy into the election.
Here I am again.
So what are we going to do if votes actually cast next Tuesday have no relationship with who “wins” in these U.S. elections?
What are we going to do if token Democrats win but no Progressive voice travels with them to D.C.?
So what are we going to do if U.S. people start being “disappeared?”
We must not lose high-level, integrated focus and descend into a mire of liberal bickering over petty details.
Last week’s approval of the use of military force against our own citizens just before the most critical elections in our country for almost a century is a very dark cloud on the horizon. We have to work together.
The following is from an email I received this morning from The People’s Email Network:
Some of you will who know me personally will remember when I spent several years on a project in which I attempted to salt our cultural milleau with real information about the various cohorts that comprised the boom in births that occurred after WWII. (Yes, I’m digressing, but stay with me…) I coined and forwarded the term Late Boomers to describe the last half of the Baby Boom Generation. Another person, Jonathan Pontel (sp?) forwarded the term Generation Jones to describe this same group. I felt that Jonathan (a child-roofing safety latch tycoon) was doing this, I felt, for some sort of financial gain or personal aggrandizement. This morning I became certain of it when I saw him on FOX. He was spouting about how a surprise win by the Republicans next week will show the power and conservatism of Generation Jones. My disgust meter went haywire. I suspect he is making these statements so that he will be credited with foresight if the elections are stolen again. But it reminded me of how important the Late Boomers, who have really never shown their strength, will be in the next few months.
How history remembers the various cohorts within the Baby Boomers will probably hinge around this election. That much is true. My take on this is totally different from Jonathan’s. I happen to believe that THE test of the moral fiber (not to be confused with religious faith) of the Woodstock Generation, the Late Blooming Late Boomers, and Generation X sll will be tested in these next few months. How history remembers us will be determined by next summer. In these next few months I need to be writing on my blog about how to undermine the DLC death grip on the Democratic Party but I fear I will be writing about the manifestation of fascistic Bushist doctrine into military coercion and the use of military force against our own people.
The activist community has been abuzz about detention centers being built by KBR for almost a year now. It is quite likely that if force is used against our own people those forced and fired upon by our own military in our own streets will be sent to detention centers that have supposedly been built to house “illegal aliens.”
That is right, the“Detention Centers” are ready. (Built by KBR.)
This of course can only be achieved if the People of the United States allow and enable it. But
collaborators are already proudly wearing their brown shirts and acting as though they were military police. Remember when folks in a taxpayer funded event in Denver last year were removed from the gathering because of some printed slogans? They were removed by some political hacks masquerading as secret service agents under the direction of event organizers (The White House).
Just a reminder. I’m not a Marxist. I’m not a Communist. I’m not a Terrorist. I’m a life-long registered Democrat whose ancestors met the Puritans (who comprise another part of my ancestral tree) as they arrived in this land almost 400 years ago. I oppose not only this goon squad of a Republican Congress, but also the DLC’s usurping the guidance of Democratic Party and the lame response by the DNC. The Republican Party that is largely composed of honest, albeit misguided, folks. Same can be said of most Democrats.
My own take on why this is happening (which I like to think of as network theory, not conspiracy theory) is that Al Gore wasn’t the only politician aware of global warming and the dramatic changes our human culture will experience in the next few decades. Policy makers, scientists and social theorists have known about the degradation of Earth’s current biosphere for decades. We discussed, diagramed and debated aspects of it in my university classes in the late 1970s. The powers that be have been incorporating it into planning strategies for decades. Remember when Jimmy Carter promoted the use of solar energy and energy conservation? That was right before Papa Bush negotiated with terrorists in Paris (arms for hostages) and thus insured the hostages would not be released during the Carter term of office.
Those with the money and position to shape society (real political power) who understood this coming time of global change seem to have a couple different strategies dependent upon whether they are good or evil. (Sorry, but it does boil down to that.) Gore represents one group, and Bush represents another. (Remember --- Grandaddy Bush traded with the Nazis during WWII -- a treasonous offense.) We can work with each other to create the best response we can to environmental degradation and political instability in our vastly over-populated and divisive world (Gore’s strategy); or, those with power and global network access can consolidate their power and wealth within their very small clan before the “apocalypse” (the Bush Cheney Rumsfeld Rove response.)
I have come to classify this dichotomy as Gaia versus God. Friends tell me not to use the word Gaia as it is a parochial concept. I vehemently disagree with many of the assumptions required to make that statement. Gaia is a semiotic concept of the process that is reality, life, and the World as we know it. The time for preoccupation with things is coming to an end. Being and Becoming as it was called by one great mind (Dr. Earl Count) by which I was fortunate enough to be given undergraduate instruction, is what we do. Focus on “what we are” is based in illusion as “are” implies orientation from a static point in time that does not and never has existed. We can accept our growing understanding of interconnection and simultaneity or we can focus on “things” which are no more than deathly slices of being.
Acceptance of Gaia is acceptance of the Earth, our Mater Terra, as a living system. It says nothing of worship, or omniscience, benevolent or otherwise. It also alludes to a feminine wisdom. In my mind we could use a little bit more of that… no matter what the outcome of next week’s U.S. election.
So what do I suggest we do with all this? I have to Laugh Out Loud, as this is what we always face in planning for any future. We can be Luke and Leahs, or we can align with their father. (Sorry but I had to put in some popular culture reference and it was either Star Wars or a John Water’s reference, so I chose Star Wars.) We can be pie eyed optimists backed by fierce, righteous knowledge, or we can submit to evil. Doesn’t really matter how you do it, the thing is that you do it. It is much better if we don’t all do the same thing.
So I will keep on doing my more or less independent, silly little metaphoric actions and writing. That is what I’ve always done and I doubt I will change at this point.
I’ve endowed Pederson with the balls to stand up against the Iraq War (Pink Balls of Courage) – and I’ve told Gabby Giffords, in person, on more than one occasion that we need her to stand up against the war and gett our troops out of Iraq now even if that means withdrawing all funding for the war. All I’ve gotten are mushy canned responses in return. I’ve given Pink Balls to Gabby’s staff too.
I’m just an iconoclast. I’m also an intelligent woman and a fairly good researcher who is well-trained in social theory as well as several methodologies for evaluating (not measuring—I really don’t give a rat’s ass about quantification) patterns of behavior. I’m relatively harmless… just like the man in the following story:
Steve Howards says he used to fantasize about what he’d say to President Bush or Vice President Cheney if he ever got the chance. That opportunity arrived on June 16, the same day he says he read about U.S. fatalities in Iraq reaching 2,500......... “I didn’t even know he was in town,” Howards says. “He was walking through the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’ And then I walked away. Howards says he knew the Administration has a_ “history of making problems” for people who protest its policies, so he wanted to leave off at that. But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment. “About ten minutes later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,” Howards recalls, “and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and his exact words were, ‘Did you assault the Vice President?’ ” Here’s how Howards says he responded: “No, but I did tell Mr. Cheney the way I felt about the war in Iraq, and if Mr. Cheney wants to be shielded from public criticism, he should avoid public places. If exercising my constitutional rights to free speech is against the law, then you should arrest me.” Which is just what the agent, Virgil D. “Gus” Reichle Jr, proceeded to do.
I guess we should keep on exercising our rights to free speech after the election next week. Loudly. Publicly. That is the best and most important thing we can do. (But you may want to wear your best running sneakers and have a vinegar dampened cloth to put over your face when the pepper spray comes out.
Peace my friends, I bid you peace.
This is basically the same thing I did before the 2004 election. I just started gearing up for the long haul of what would be needed AFTER the 2004 election so I could jump in with whatever was needed when most folks were burned out from putting all their energy into the election.
Here I am again.
So what are we going to do if votes actually cast next Tuesday have no relationship with who “wins” in these U.S. elections?
What are we going to do if token Democrats win but no Progressive voice travels with them to D.C.?
So what are we going to do if U.S. people start being “disappeared?”
We must not lose high-level, integrated focus and descend into a mire of liberal bickering over petty details.
Last week’s approval of the use of military force against our own citizens just before the most critical elections in our country for almost a century is a very dark cloud on the horizon. We have to work together.
The following is from an email I received this morning from The People’s Email Network:
If there were ever a more urgent reason to replace each and every member of Congress virtually without exception, one need only look at the breathtaking new martial law powers granted to the Bush administration this month. It has always been a sacred tenet of our Democracy that the U.S. military should not be deployed AGAINST American citizens. But literally in the dead of night and almost without comment, an amendment to the Insurrection Act was slipped into the just passed Defense Authorization bill stating, and get this:
"the President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when . . . the President determines that domestic violence has occurred"
So let's just say for example that the electronic election results in 8 days are so far out of line with pre-election and exit polling data so as to defy credulity. And let's just say that people organized massive peaceful protests of the theft of their elections. And let's just say that the Bush administration provoked "police" riots, or even had their own provocateurs commit violent acts so as to justify a military crackdown. Voila . . . now you have American soldiers shooting at otherwise peaceful political protesters. And you thought Kent State was a party!
And if you don't think that could ever happen, then why the hell have they pushed for such changes, which are now the law of the land?
The whole concept of the president as an unaccountable determiner, or "decider", insulated from any kind of oversight by Congress or the Courts has been the hallmark of the Cheney/Bush executive coup, which just keeps steamrollering along while our presumptive protectors in Congress are asleep at the switch, or cowering in their cloakrooms.
Some of you will who know me personally will remember when I spent several years on a project in which I attempted to salt our cultural milleau with real information about the various cohorts that comprised the boom in births that occurred after WWII. (Yes, I’m digressing, but stay with me…) I coined and forwarded the term Late Boomers to describe the last half of the Baby Boom Generation. Another person, Jonathan Pontel (sp?) forwarded the term Generation Jones to describe this same group. I felt that Jonathan (a child-roofing safety latch tycoon) was doing this, I felt, for some sort of financial gain or personal aggrandizement. This morning I became certain of it when I saw him on FOX. He was spouting about how a surprise win by the Republicans next week will show the power and conservatism of Generation Jones. My disgust meter went haywire. I suspect he is making these statements so that he will be credited with foresight if the elections are stolen again. But it reminded me of how important the Late Boomers, who have really never shown their strength, will be in the next few months.
How history remembers the various cohorts within the Baby Boomers will probably hinge around this election. That much is true. My take on this is totally different from Jonathan’s. I happen to believe that THE test of the moral fiber (not to be confused with religious faith) of the Woodstock Generation, the Late Blooming Late Boomers, and Generation X sll will be tested in these next few months. How history remembers us will be determined by next summer. In these next few months I need to be writing on my blog about how to undermine the DLC death grip on the Democratic Party but I fear I will be writing about the manifestation of fascistic Bushist doctrine into military coercion and the use of military force against our own people.The activist community has been abuzz about detention centers being built by KBR for almost a year now. It is quite likely that if force is used against our own people those forced and fired upon by our own military in our own streets will be sent to detention centers that have supposedly been built to house “illegal aliens.”
That is right, the“Detention Centers” are ready. (Built by KBR.)
This of course can only be achieved if the People of the United States allow and enable it. But
collaborators are already proudly wearing their brown shirts and acting as though they were military police. Remember when folks in a taxpayer funded event in Denver last year were removed from the gathering because of some printed slogans? They were removed by some political hacks masquerading as secret service agents under the direction of event organizers (The White House).
“Leslie Weise and Alex Young, two of the three people removed from the taxpayer-funded event, are suing two Denver men for actually ousting them. But they believe a White House official gave the order.”These are the type of cases that must be pursued. Only by establishing locally grown and based enclaves of sanity and justice will democratic principles survive when and if elections are stolen again. These enclaves must be able to stand up to being labeled as "Fifth Columnists."
Just a reminder. I’m not a Marxist. I’m not a Communist. I’m not a Terrorist. I’m a life-long registered Democrat whose ancestors met the Puritans (who comprise another part of my ancestral tree) as they arrived in this land almost 400 years ago. I oppose not only this goon squad of a Republican Congress, but also the DLC’s usurping the guidance of Democratic Party and the lame response by the DNC. The Republican Party that is largely composed of honest, albeit misguided, folks. Same can be said of most Democrats.
My own take on why this is happening (which I like to think of as network theory, not conspiracy theory) is that Al Gore wasn’t the only politician aware of global warming and the dramatic changes our human culture will experience in the next few decades. Policy makers, scientists and social theorists have known about the degradation of Earth’s current biosphere for decades. We discussed, diagramed and debated aspects of it in my university classes in the late 1970s. The powers that be have been incorporating it into planning strategies for decades. Remember when Jimmy Carter promoted the use of solar energy and energy conservation? That was right before Papa Bush negotiated with terrorists in Paris (arms for hostages) and thus insured the hostages would not be released during the Carter term of office.
Those with the money and position to shape society (real political power) who understood this coming time of global change seem to have a couple different strategies dependent upon whether they are good or evil. (Sorry, but it does boil down to that.) Gore represents one group, and Bush represents another. (Remember --- Grandaddy Bush traded with the Nazis during WWII -- a treasonous offense.) We can work with each other to create the best response we can to environmental degradation and political instability in our vastly over-populated and divisive world (Gore’s strategy); or, those with power and global network access can consolidate their power and wealth within their very small clan before the “apocalypse” (the Bush Cheney Rumsfeld Rove response.)
I have come to classify this dichotomy as Gaia versus God. Friends tell me not to use the word Gaia as it is a parochial concept. I vehemently disagree with many of the assumptions required to make that statement. Gaia is a semiotic concept of the process that is reality, life, and the World as we know it. The time for preoccupation with things is coming to an end. Being and Becoming as it was called by one great mind (Dr. Earl Count) by which I was fortunate enough to be given undergraduate instruction, is what we do. Focus on “what we are” is based in illusion as “are” implies orientation from a static point in time that does not and never has existed. We can accept our growing understanding of interconnection and simultaneity or we can focus on “things” which are no more than deathly slices of being.
Acceptance of Gaia is acceptance of the Earth, our Mater Terra, as a living system. It says nothing of worship, or omniscience, benevolent or otherwise. It also alludes to a feminine wisdom. In my mind we could use a little bit more of that… no matter what the outcome of next week’s U.S. election.
So what do I suggest we do with all this? I have to Laugh Out Loud, as this is what we always face in planning for any future. We can be Luke and Leahs, or we can align with their father. (Sorry but I had to put in some popular culture reference and it was either Star Wars or a John Water’s reference, so I chose Star Wars.) We can be pie eyed optimists backed by fierce, righteous knowledge, or we can submit to evil. Doesn’t really matter how you do it, the thing is that you do it. It is much better if we don’t all do the same thing.
So I will keep on doing my more or less independent, silly little metaphoric actions and writing. That is what I’ve always done and I doubt I will change at this point.
I’ve endowed Pederson with the balls to stand up against the Iraq War (Pink Balls of Courage) – and I’ve told Gabby Giffords, in person, on more than one occasion that we need her to stand up against the war and gett our troops out of Iraq now even if that means withdrawing all funding for the war. All I’ve gotten are mushy canned responses in return. I’ve given Pink Balls to Gabby’s staff too.I’m just an iconoclast. I’m also an intelligent woman and a fairly good researcher who is well-trained in social theory as well as several methodologies for evaluating (not measuring—I really don’t give a rat’s ass about quantification) patterns of behavior. I’m relatively harmless… just like the man in the following story:
Steve Howards says he used to fantasize about what he’d say to President Bush or Vice President Cheney if he ever got the chance. That opportunity arrived on June 16, the same day he says he read about U.S. fatalities in Iraq reaching 2,500......... “I didn’t even know he was in town,” Howards says. “He was walking through the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’ And then I walked away. Howards says he knew the Administration has a_ “history of making problems” for people who protest its policies, so he wanted to leave off at that. But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment. “About ten minutes later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,” Howards recalls, “and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and his exact words were, ‘Did you assault the Vice President?’ ” Here’s how Howards says he responded: “No, but I did tell Mr. Cheney the way I felt about the war in Iraq, and if Mr. Cheney wants to be shielded from public criticism, he should avoid public places. If exercising my constitutional rights to free speech is against the law, then you should arrest me.” Which is just what the agent, Virgil D. “Gus” Reichle Jr, proceeded to do.
I guess we should keep on exercising our rights to free speech after the election next week. Loudly. Publicly. That is the best and most important thing we can do. (But you may want to wear your best running sneakers and have a vinegar dampened cloth to put over your face when the pepper spray comes out.
Peace my friends, I bid you peace.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Performance of "I Am Rachel Corrie" in the Heartland
I attendeded a performance of " I am Rachel Corrie" last evening at Purdue University. The Semiotic Society of America is having their annual meeting at this fairly conservative university so I was quite heartened to see an organizer of the SSA encouraging attendance at Katherine Burke's solo production of this play by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner (produced with permission of Rachel's family) about a young woman's life (and death).
This play is not about Palestine and Israel - it about a young woman's maturation as chronicled through her writings from age twelve through 23 when when her young life ceased was crushed under an Israeli tank in front of a Palestinian home she was attempting to protect as an ISM member. Youth, self-awareness, recognition of mortality, the sadness that comes with wisdom, family, desire for some modicum of fairness in a world that has none -- these are all themes, strings, and tendrils of meaning that regularly wander in and out of her expressed thoughts as depicted in her journals, emails, and miscellaneous writings through this amazingly aware and articulate young woman explored more deeply, broadly and with more passion in her short life than do most people who live 4 times longer than she did.
This play is not about all the things the hoopla about it imply. It is about a life. See it if you can. Put on your own production of it. Read it.
This play is not about Palestine and Israel - it about a young woman's maturation as chronicled through her writings from age twelve through 23 when when her young life ceased was crushed under an Israeli tank in front of a Palestinian home she was attempting to protect as an ISM member. Youth, self-awareness, recognition of mortality, the sadness that comes with wisdom, family, desire for some modicum of fairness in a world that has none -- these are all themes, strings, and tendrils of meaning that regularly wander in and out of her expressed thoughts as depicted in her journals, emails, and miscellaneous writings through this amazingly aware and articulate young woman explored more deeply, broadly and with more passion in her short life than do most people who live 4 times longer than she did.
This play is not about all the things the hoopla about it imply. It is about a life. See it if you can. Put on your own production of it. Read it.
Friday, September 15, 2006
A soldier's dilemma and honorable action.
Justin Watts is an honorable man. A local Tucson man showed a strength of character that few possess and fewer still can maintain when confronted with horrific knowledge that if disclosed will permanently alter untold numbers of lives and indeed the course of a nation.
Justin is the man who voiced his concern about what his brothers in arms appeared to have done -- raped a young teenage girl and then killed her and her family. The story is here in the Arizona Daily Star.
What amazed me is comment 63 on this story.
Thank you Justin for showing me that although our troops are being asked to ignore international law and conventions, and because of this evil cultivation are having their darkest sides emerge that men and womenof character are refusing to go along with an immoral status quo. Justin and those others who will now step forward because of his bravery, along the folks who are refusing to go back to fight in this immoral attrocity, are showing that Americans still have among them the best, the brightest, and the most honorable citizens who serve because they believe in justice and what Americans hold in their hearts as the essence of what our country is and can be.
Let us all send safe energies to him, pray for his safety, and for this shining example of courage to be followed and to inspire other soldiers to do what is right and just.
Breathe in courage. Breathe out action.
Justin is the man who voiced his concern about what his brothers in arms appeared to have done -- raped a young teenage girl and then killed her and her family. The story is here in the Arizona Daily Star.
What amazed me is comment 63 on this story.
I'm very happy this man [Justin] was so brave to come forward. He is a hero to me and to my kids now. He will never know how much he helped my family alone. One of the soldiers he told on is my husband. He used to beat me and make me sleep on the floor while pregnant. In april he was home on a leave and he wanted me to be alone with him but i said no. I've been trying to divorce him for more than 2 years now and i had a restraining order against him. He violated it so many times that I had to move. I told the army what was going on and they did not help at all. they left me with no option but to run and hide. Now thanks to Justin watt, my children are safe and so am I. God bless him and I hope things get better for him.This is a neglected aspect of the horrific situation our country faces. Violence begets violence. Allowing violence upon women is symptomatic of a cultural suppression of morality. Thank you Justin for keeping the tiny spark of belief in the essense of good alive within me. This heinous war is creating a generation of military vets who have been wounded in unimaginable ways -- scars unlike anything ever before seen are forming.
Thank you Justin for showing me that although our troops are being asked to ignore international law and conventions, and because of this evil cultivation are having their darkest sides emerge that men and womenof character are refusing to go along with an immoral status quo. Justin and those others who will now step forward because of his bravery, along the folks who are refusing to go back to fight in this immoral attrocity, are showing that Americans still have among them the best, the brightest, and the most honorable citizens who serve because they believe in justice and what Americans hold in their hearts as the essence of what our country is and can be.
Let us all send safe energies to him, pray for his safety, and for this shining example of courage to be followed and to inspire other soldiers to do what is right and just.
Breathe in courage. Breathe out action.
Monday, September 11, 2006
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