Yes Cindy, I would like to see an international peace force like the one in February of 2003. You are the best.

Dave Cline, former president of Veterans for Peace and Vietnam veteran who was wounded in Vietnam and was featured in the documentary Sir! No Sir!, which focused on the GI movement that took place during the Vietnam War, was, along with MLK Jr., one of the giants of the anti-war movement. He died this year from the effects of Agent Orange, the chemical that the U.S. sprayed while he was in Vietnam. There is no doubt that if he were alive today he would be joining with Cindy Sheehan in an attempt to bring the various peace organizations together in order to bring peace in Iraq and Afghanistan and to get the troops out of that abattoir as quickly and as rapidly as possible.

I am surprised it took this long for people to realize that those in charge are not going to change their course. They have no accountability to the people of this nation. They work for the benefit of the power elite and the corporations who control the government. Yes, we all have established this. What we need now is solidarity to create protest but more importantly direct action. We cannot continue to appeal to our "representatives" to fix the problems. They won't. We need to disrupt business as usual, we need to hit them where it hurts--in the wallet. The question now is how to most effectively unite the dissenting public and encourage them to (direct) action.

Cindy, maybe you can help influence the Iraq/Afghan War Vets mentioned here http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/30/5538/

to move up their March 2008 planned event. Seems like it will be a watershed event.

"This is why I am calling for The Dave Cline/MLK, Jr. Memorial Peace Summit in January (18-20) to bring all of the various groups together so we can strategize and brainstorm more effective ways of challenging war and injustices."

Good initiative Cindy! I hope they will consider bringing instant Direct Democracy to America by incorporating We the People into the largest, richest, most powerful, greenest, healthiest, best educated, most peaceful and most socially responsible corporation with each one of us as equal shareholders and an administration that answers directly to us, not to the Halliburtons of the world.

see the neutopian presidential platform at youtube under neutopia for president

Uncle Dick will have dropped the nuke on Iran by then, and shrub will declare a homeland emergency.

The link goes to a website that hasn't been updated since July...

Does anyone have a link that leads to more info about a "Summit"?

Thanks

"I was in despair over the fact that the movement had been unable to stop anything because of the egos and the infighting."

Neither ego nor infighting is the problem (doN'T think for a millisecond the right-wing, i.e., the rich and/or powerful are devoid of egos and infighting). Professor Howard Zinn said it best in his book Failure to Quit (note the title, Cindy): Zinn said free speech is not just a quality, it's also a QUANTITY. In other words, it's not just about spoiled Americans patting themselves on the back while claiming, "We have the First Amendment [FOR NOW] and Castro's Cuba doesn't." It's also about HOW MUCH free speech do you have?

Remember at the county fair when you stood to win a prize if you could guess how many beans were in a jar? Well, guestimate the following: What's watched by MORE people? Democracy Now or FOX News? Who's MORE famous? Professor Noam Chomsky or Rush Limbaugh? Cindy Sheehan or Britney Spears? I don't care how often it's been said, it's still not acknowledged that a handful of corporations own every MAJOR, MASS media outlet there is, and as Mark Twain said, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."

Now, here's the good news: America is similar to South Africa circa 1980 in that the bad guys are in the minority. Dr. Peter Phillips is a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University and the director of Project Censored. Well, right after the 2004 election he stated that "over 80 million eligible voters" refused to participate.

Now juxtapose the aforementioned information with what was reported in the Nov. 4, 2004 Toronto Star: "The overall turnout, steadily going down for decades, shot up to 60 percent."

All this tells me that Dubya only has a little more than 30 percent of "the will of the people," since Kerry carried about half of the electorate. That ain't a mandate -- not if more than 100 million voters either voted against Dubya or simply didn't vote.

Thirty measly-ass percent. And whereas the D.L.C. is making the mistake of trying to pander to them, all we the people need to do is overwhelm them -- and there's so many of US, we don't need to be "unified" in order to do it ... Believe it or not, the movement's better than ever ...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0321-03.htm

Comparing the two movements, Frida Berrigan [a board member of the War Resisters League and daughter of the late peace activist Philip Berrigan] suggested today's protesters perhaps have a broader sense of compassion and global awareness. "A lot of the opposition to Vietnam was motivated by people's fear of going to war -- maybe it was pretty self-centered," she said. "With this movement, maybe it's not as big, but it comes from a deeper place than 'Hell No, We Won't Go.'"

We really mist have the media and some major newspapers to give you fair coverage Cindy. They are perhaps the key element for getting the American public together on your exceptonally brave efforts.

I won't say keep fighting, you don't need any urging, you would fight the devil himself___ alone if necessary.

I found another post about this on "The Nation":

Dave Cline Memorial Peace Summit
San Francisco, CA.
Cindy Sheehan is organizing a "Peace Summit" to bring together delegates from peace and justice organizations from all over the country. The objective will be one of working together on healing and strengthening our movement so that we can go forward together to work on ending the war and ocupation in Iraq and to prevent a war in Iran. We hope the end result will be a unified mass mobilization in Washington DC the weekend of March 13 to 15, supporting our brothers and sisters in IVAW who will be having a "Winter Soldier" event. Of course, one of our hopes is to have UFPJ and ANSWER work together. For more information contact Jamilla El-Shafei. jamillaelshafei@yahoo.com

One more and I'll stop:

http://www.peaceactionme.org/dave-cline-memorial-peace-summit

Ms Sheehan writes:

'Millions of people marched against the impending invasion all over the world on February 15th, 2003 in one of the most touching and amazing shows of solidarity against global aggression ever seen. '

I wonder is she was one of the marchers? She has bee quoted as saying she and her son knew the war was illegal, but he did not hesitate when his Commander in Chief called. Nuremberg's 'supreme international crime'. Some Commondreams readers will know I have a bit of a bee in the bonnet about this.

As for the fragmented peace movement. This is a bit of an insult from a new comer. We all strive for peace in different ways with different projects. But we all pull in the same direction. At the 365 day protest at Fastlane in Scotland against Trident renewal, there were ladies in their 80's who locked themselves to fences Ladies who had been fighting for peace for sixty plus years. Still fighting never giving up. America has their wonderful Raging Grannies.

There are those world wide who have died and are dying for peace, risking their very lives.

We need no lessons, no patronisation.

Hi Cindy,

Why don't you come out and support Senator Mike Gravel's bid for the presidency? His is truly the only "We the People" platform. Check out his National Initiative.

Thanks.

Heads up for those interested in what Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich have to say.

There will be a live debate broadcast with all eight Democratic Presidential candidates on HDNet.com Saturday at 4:30 pm PST and 7:30 pm EST hosted by Dan Rather and streaming live online. It should be interesting to see how Kucinich and Gravel are treated, compared to the MSM. Remember, this is the network owned by Mark Cuban, the Executive Producer of "Redacted" and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

I support Kane Jeeves' comment to encourage Cindy Sheehan to try to get the Iraq Veterans to testify on war crimes in Iraq ASAP!

I would like to see Cindy be a Calif Senator.
If she only would! We are so in desparate need of honest people. We need a represenative of "us", of we who are in terrible angst over what has been done in the name of our United States.

Daisy,

Maybe she can run for the CA legislature after her long career in the US House of Representatives is over:

cindyforcongress.org

ianjohnsa

We need a People's Movement for Peace and Justice.
All peace organizations, progressive political parties and social movements, while retaining their individual identity, they must move together in the same direction under the banner of peace. I hope Cindy will play a decisive role to that end.

Abbeybwood: Thanks for the info!

I hope Cindy doesn't get elected. She will be made ineffective and run out of office just like Miss McKinney. The dems wouldn't even get her a hand. Who in D.C. would give a hand to Senator Sheehan. They can marginalize her just like they do to DK. I think Cindy can do better if she remains outside the political arena. Look how effective CODEPINK is being with many issues. They get a lot of positive press and encourage a lot of others to think up. There are no allies for "we the people" in D.C. We have been replaced by lobbyists.
Hoa binh

I think we shouldn't be suprised by the lack of unity in the antiwar movement compared to Vietnam. The probelm isn't egos, the probelm is, for a movement to be successful, it needs a central, organizing ideology, or even in at least a limited way, certain religouss and moral convictions in common among all actors.

In the case of those currently resisting US imperial hegemony in the middle east, it is a militant form of the Muslim religion, in the case of the anti-Vietnam war, the various anti-US, movements in Latin America, and even the Arab nationalist movements that militant Islam replaced, it was near universal belief in socialism.

But today, opposition to the war ranges from:

1. Friedman/Ayn-Randite libertarians like Ron Paul and antiwar.com

2. Old-school conservatives like Buchanan or Paul Craig Roberts,

3. Mainstream liberals, and Democrat-party clinger-oners,

4.Nation-reading left-liberals - including formerly pro-war cruise-missle leftists like David Corn,

5. Monthly Review-reading old-school Marxist-socialists;

6. Z-Magazine reading of the new-new socialists and par-econ-ists,

7. Quaker and catholic pacifists who decry even raising one's voice

8. labor-leftists like the UE, and the IWW anarcho-syndicalists

9. to all the flavors of anarchists, including those who close the circle by being indistinguishable from the libertarians at the top of this list.

Whew!

Then, haunting this whole long list the zeitgeist of postmodernism that declares that everything is subjective and no idea is better than any other one - especially if it isn't your own!

So, is it not suprising we can't get our act together.

Meanwhile, on the other side, things are much simpler. We have just two factions:

1. People who are unified by simple abiding faith that the Unites States is the world's great father, stern and just; one nation Under God and under Bush - his will be done.

2. those who's onlt concern is the Coors Lite that their home-theater TV set told them to drink, the buck they shot this week, their new polaris "quad", their shiny new crew-cab pickup, the price of gasoline, and the next "Stillers" game.

I can't think of any good solutions, but Cindy's is as good as any.

Cindy,
If I may add my two cents to your hope for a united paece movement...

You can't expect an anti-war movement that preaches to the choir and exhausts its over-marched loyal people to ever bring about change by continuing the same old, same old. The average Joe Shmoe American doesn't want more marches, more protests, more demonstrations, more speeches because his information about the reasons for war in the first place has been manipulated by both the powerful political elites and the corporations that prop up those same politicians. Not because the war in Iraq or any military action for that matter doesn't affect him. It does... right down to his wallet. The problem is and will continue to be the fact that the anti-war/peace movement either takes for granted that Joe Shmoe 1) knows he's being duped and is ready to jump up from the couch and march or 2) is so "Fox news brainwashed" that he looks at anti-war as being anti-American. What the anti-war/peace movement needs to zero in on is the simple fact that Joe Shmoe needs to be educated about how he's being screwed. Until you have the average American properly informed and on your side you will never see change for the better coming in this country. We are subjected to war by BOTH corporate parties! And as long as those two corporate parties remain in power, demonstrations will forever be played down, dismissed or co-opted by the very people who screw Joe Schmoe. Circumvent the corporations and bought off politicians. Save your feet. Use your creativity instead. Educate the masses through advertising and marketing... the very same tools that they use against us. Direct mailings comes to mind. Once they are informed, the streets will fill up.

You are correct. Direct mailing is better than TV if brief well targeted and very well written.

GREAT IDEA CINDY. I HOPE YOU WILL BE RE-PLACING PELOSI. I NO LONGER VOTE IN CA. , ALTHOUGH MY DAUGHTERS IN SAN JOSE WILL BE VOTING FOR YOU. IT WOULD BE NICE TO SEE MORE PEOPLE ACTIVE IN THE PEACE MARCHES. MY HUSBAND AND I MARCHED IN SAN FRANCISCO ON FEB. 2003 AND MANY AFTER. THE DANCER

JASSIM, are you by any chance a troll for the neo-cons? Cindy has answered explained your questions, your charges, and negitive comments many times, in full detail. Instead of accusations, why not ask about your assumptions, thoughts and personal beliefs if you are uninformed? Or don't you care?

But PJD, you should check out the ways Quakers have been raising their voices, for hundreds of years.

Maybe we should all rally round the peace candidate, Dennis Kucinich. We can get the animal activists (maybe the Humane Society US?), the peace activists, and Kucinich all involved in a huge movement. Why not pool our all efforts toward one goal: peace (and DK getting elected is pretty essential to this cause).

http://www.kucinich.us

There will come a time when you find yourself in a position to make a decision, just make sure you make the right decision.

If you witness the rights of someone trampled on what would you do?
If you see police tasing somebody who you know didn't deserve it, what would you do?

Do you keep your politics quiet in certain company?
Do you challenge people who espouse bullshit?

We live in a mad house of a country where up looks down and down up. Everyone's a salesperson trying to get you to buy who they are, and screw you of you don't.

It erodes the soul to live in such a country where by going to work, paying bills, and trying to have leisure time to spend with your family; comes at the expense of thousands of lives and the health of the planet; and yet you have tried to hurt no one.

How can you blame yourself? And at the same time how can we not?

We don't all need to become activists, but we all do need to recognize that the inherent contradiction of life as Americans is not easy to shoulder.

And the time will come when you are asked to turn a blind eye, provide information, or stand by while injustice takes place, before your eyes.

In this moment you will condemn or redeem yourself.

And it is moments like these when the right decision is made that start revolutions.

The currant peace movement is very fragmented at the moment and therfore, no real threat to the power that be. Personaly, I am hoping for a major event (THE MILLION PATRIOT MARCH) or something simular to trigger (a poor choice of words) a more aggressive stance. Trust me, we will have to get their attention before anyone will listen.

War = Peace: You raise points and insights I confront on a regular basis. I call it "living in a state of paradox," for there is the spiritual realization that life is a blessing and it would insult Creator to not acknowledge that. At the same time, in recognizing the blessing of my life, knowing that using my car or being part of a nation that has misappropriated the perceptions of enough to run this slick dog and pony military campaign on other lands, makes me sick. On some level what is being done in our names renders us complicit, although arguably by degrees, a metaphysical version of Mens Ria. Jesus was purported to do miracles, Moses saw the Red Sea open to assist his efforts at liberating a people; maybe we really DO need a miracle. Perhaps if enough minds believed in help from higher realms, a path would emerge... 21st century version of the sea of blood opening for safe passage for all those being trampled otherwise.

War=Peace: That is one of the best posts I have ever read. Thank you!

newageartist: nice post. We, the properly informed, must become OUR OWN MASS MEDIA and change will follow.

keep networking

WAR=PEACE -- Excellent and profound insight as to the moment I would define as when everyone's vote really does count.

SIOUX ROSE -- I agree that we will confront the paradox of our existence (aka the dark night of the soul), and transformation may be ignited or quenched.

And clearly one's own vote is no longer vaguely external and impersonal (even anonymous), and as you simply state: "you will condemn or redeem yourself"

Consider various scenarios (in advance, as time will be streaming by fast. How do decide what has the highest value? Will we realize that personal freedom, and/or family survival is crucial, or weigh those unknown against a neighbor's family?

The glowing LIGHT within is at its most vulnerable, but can also grow magnificently in common need and service for the greater good. Perhaps a miracle, as SIOUX ROSE says, will "open to assist … efforts at liberating a people … Perhaps if enough minds believed in help from higher realms, a path would emerge"

History has marked this, and as WAR=PEACE says, "it is moments like these when the right decision is made that start revolutions."

What we decide, if this moment comes for us, will have direct and immediate physical and spiritual ramifications for those we love and honor, and ourselves. Unconditionally of our LOVE will be given the ultimate test, and either way, our lives will forever be changed.

Namaste … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is enough to meet everybody's need, but there is not enough to meet everybody's greed »

Speaking of history, did anyone besides me notice McCain's blunder the other night claiming the U.S.'s isolationist and appeasement policies were the direct causes of Hitler's rise to power?

Two years ago, when I lived in a heavily militarized area in the US, I stuck a "War is Not the Answer" sign up in front of my house and some non-confrontational pro-peace bumper stickers on my car. I was amazed at the result. I did not have one negative reaction. However, people did approach me both at my home and in parking lots and whisper (yes, they whispered!), 1) "Thank you so much--it's good to know that someone else feels the same way I do", and 2) "Aren't you afraid that you're making yourself a target?"
Pretty damned sad, to realize how intimidated people are--but also it was touching to realize how doing something so small could encourage another closet progressive.
Consider putting your convictions out where they can be seen--not to convert the opposition--but to attract and encourage those who share your beliefs. Of course, Walmart and 7-11 don't sell our kind of bumper stickers, do they? Here's a good source of anti-war/environmental/social justice paraphenalia: [url]http://syracuseculturalworkers.com/aboutus[/url] and here's the connection to order the Friends National Legislation Committee (Quaker) "War is Not the Answer" bumper stickers and yard signs: [url]http://www.fcnl.org/forms/forms.php?type=wina[/url] Think about ordering extras to share with like-minded friends.

The nation is no longer anything other than a combine of companies that produces nothing other than violence and war. There are auxiliary activities going on, even those which are aimed at trying to create something else; but the US government will wage wars externally until it collapses and wages direct war internally. Its officials have been preparing to do so, and will stop being coy about it, probably not during the current reign of terror, but under a subsequent one. At that point, we will need more than ever those veterans who've turned against empire & grasp its unyielding nature.

We are not going to "get back to the country we used to be", which is as mythical as Asgard; and mere numbers are not sufficient to alter a structure which is inimical to anything except its own perpetuation. It no longer admits of anything except deterioration and destruction. If it COULD have changed, it WOULD have changed.

I applaud the Peace Summit, tho', because its futility will oblige even more people to conclude that peace is an impossibility for the rulers & their myrmidons.

Perhaps a change in our perspective might give us all some hope-----our nation and our world seems in an extremely chaotic state. Natural and man-made systems seem frighteningly unstable.

Perhaps if we can begin to see this, if not as a "good" thing, at least view it as a necessary precursor to restoring a better and more complex harmony and balance. The old order no longer serves the LIFE, so it has to completely break down or be dissolvedso that something new and better can emerge. We know that the system of maldistribution of wealth/resources is unsustainable. It cannot work indefinitely because the intrinsic imbalance holds the seed/potential of its own collapse.

But it is out of chaos that the raw material of creativity emerges. It is not a comfortable time, clearly, but it is a time of powerful energetic motion. Hang on, and visualize a New Earth.

staroftheresa said

"..it is out of chaos that the raw material of creativity emerges"

This is a valid concept. While the years of the empire and many "wars" based only on greed and corruption (far longer than only the last six ) have steadily led to our present condition, the house of cards is shaking at its base. The dollar is basically in slow motion free fall. Grassroots efforts in communities all over the nation for "slow foods" and an end to industrial scale agriculture, backlashes against "corporate personhood" and "free trade" in the absence of fair trade, a greater understanding of the impact of our ever increasing consumerism on the sustainability of the planet and the disconnect between the institutions that support the empire's status quo and the will of the people to make a change in our core values is reaching a tipping point.

There is a vision in our small communities, our urban neighborhoods, and even in some of our local governments that contradicts the will of the empire. The peace movement is a very important part of this vision. We have been rebuffed by most of our elected officials, we have been tormented by members of the ruling elite as well as members of the uninformed sheeplings of society, but there is no mistake that the movement is strong and the empire is perched on a base that is being cut out from under it a little more every day.

When the empire falls, (and fall it will!) many will be injured in the crumbling debris, but out of the dust of chaos will grow the seedlings of the common vision now being planted in hamlets, neighborhoods, organizations, homes, and minds throughout this country.

This vision includes the peace we all desire, a work life that prioritizes relationships over productivity and passion over materialism, a slower and sustainable lifestyle where all generations of family and neighbors support each other, an end to the processed, indoctrinated culture of exploitation and consumerism and a new direction for coming generations to live a simpler, healthier and more compassionate lifestyle.

If you haven't seen the elements of these changes in your own communities you haven't looked deeply enough. This is where you can focus your efforts for real change. This is where the groundswell that shakes the empire begins. Keep pushing! The empire will topple but we must be prepared with the vision to replace it or the scavengers waiting in the wings will fill the vacuum and the sheep will follow like always.

Take heart; be the change you want to see.

Cindy Sheehan has been a hero in this movement. She has gone from voiceless worrier to passionate warrior. She has met the face of the empire, tried to work with it's softer side for change and found out that its two faces are both liars and both just as corrupt and dedicated to the same agenda. She toughed it out and found new life as a wedge to tip the empire. Now she needs help from those of us preparing for life beyond the empire to bring its fall and begin the new vision we really all want to see but only some of us are willing to step off the treadmill to create.

Mock the empire. It's now only a shadow with military might. Take away its military capabilities and it ceases to exist. Now is the time to pull out the rug on the Department of WAR and watch the shadow fade.

Life is a supreme value. To me one cannot be pro-abortion and anti-war. That simple twisted logic effectively cancels one's anti-war efforts. Unity of action requires unity of thought. How bad do you want to end the war? Life is not something that one gets to pick from, it's all or nothing. First respect all life and your efforts to end the war will bear fruit. This is my belief. Until our women, the givers of life, once again learn to respect and protect all life, there will never be peace. It's all in the natural balance.

D & G,
It's not quite that cut and dried. Being anti-abortion can be anti-life in many ways that I think you already know about, some overt, some subtle. Yours is a pollyannaish vision where unintended pregnancy will always result in the greater enhancement to spirit and life, and abortion is always a selfish indulgence. Or do you also imply the abolution of "unintended" pregnancy? If you know something the rest of humanity through the ages overlooked...
If you aren't aware of what life was like for some women pre- R vs. W, ask someone older than you.

I share Cindy's revulsion at the naked criminality and hubris of our political leaders. Nevertheless, there are reasons to be less pessimistic than she is about the peace movement. To briefly encapsulate:
- Egos and in-fighting are endemic to social movements because they are coalitions of different actors, not top-down structures like business or religion in which people can (in theory) be ordered to be the same.
- Past social movements (abolition, suffrage, civil rights, etc.) succeeded despite their built-in inefficiencies.
- Today's peace movement was organized faster and better than its VietNam-era counterpart. It also has broader appeal.
- The bad guys have also learned from history and are taking full advantage of their control over media and politics, including the effective absence of opposition. Of course this makes decent, civilized folk feel isolated.

The January Peace Summit is a good idea. Any act, large or small, that fights the madness is a good idea.

Cindy (knowing you read-here),
As a 'admirer', and someone with similar-loss of a son [and so well-aware of how that loss can trigger 'personal-change'], I need to suggest you consider 'backing-down' before you meet such a sad-fate as Cline's&King's. Being so-suddenly 'out of your element', and continuing to stand as-Target/agitator or succeeding in unseating-Pelosi, you MAY someday 'get the-Talk' that all-Outsiders receive when they slip-through-cracks and accrue real-Power -- but its more-likely that as a loose-cannon you'll be 'brought-down' for expedience.
It isn't madness or greed or mere criminal-conspiracy driving the Events you decry so effectively, Cindy. Can't you "trust in that" (I know you Sense it, by now)? Only the 'tip of the iceberg' is visible to you, what will sink-you lies beneath...and the Forces propelling it are very old and unimaginably-powerful, and well-aware of and guided-by much that you, simply, are-not.
Perhaps you yet have-time to 'study the Beast', and thereafter work effectively from-within -- but more-likely you should simply "let-go, and allow yourself to grieve&heal" as a personal-priority? ['Useless'-Martyrdom is unpleasant to watch...and more-so to experience?]

Best-of-luck in whatever you decide, of course...your Intents are much appreciated...

ME ALSO TOO. Are you so sure of your opinions?

Why should Cindy back down as you suggest? If she does, wouldn't that signify that she has been wrong with her opinions, that the war in Iraq was wrong and would be admitting that Pelosi and Conyers have been correct to not begin the impeachment process?

If you are correct, then Dennis K and all who support him should back down also. I will agree, she has taken on the establishment and is fighting city hall. __ So did Rosa Parks, so did Nathan Hale and Patrick Henry. I fear for Cindy also, she is in the lions den and politics is dirty busness, ___ for any who are honest. Her son died for nothing in a conflict we started, which is and never was morally right or justified. Cindy is fighting to prove that is so and fighting to change a corrupt system. I would never plant the seed to urge her to quit, none of us should quit.
She may be hurt in any of several wys before all is said and done. But as you know, she has already suffered a hurt with a wound which never fully heals, and any future hurts are but pin pricks in comparrison. Never give up when you are right.

Kem Patrick...6:04 PM...I totally agree...Of what in the world does Jassim speak? Can you follow the train of thought? I would hardly call Cindy a newcommer...she's paid her dues many times over. Due respect, jassim, but I don't get you.

Our "representatives" don't represent us. They represent the big corporations, the military-industrial complex and the Israeli lobby.

... doesn't matter whether we are talking about our Repub or Dem "representatives"

Kem Patrick and willybill,

Where I come from is this. Thirteen years of travelling to Iraq numerous times during the embargo, when the numbers of children who died of 'embargo related causes' (UN) as a result of the US-UK driven embargo rose to an average of 6,000 a month. I have watched too many times to even begin to describe, life draining from a small life for want of often basic medications. (In context Iraq imported broadly 70% of everything, after all the pharmacetical and even syringe factories were bombed in 1991, the country was literally subject to an old fashioned siege. No trade and everything vetoed.)

I have had desparate parents (as have all those who visited during those years) without even asking where one was from knowing anything of one's background thrust babies, young children, in to my arms, begging me to take them, to make them better in a country where there was adequate medical treatment. They asked not where one would return to or for their child back, just that one would give it a future. It was of course impossible. Prior to the embargo Iraq had the finest medical facilities in the Middle East, Boston standard.

I have visited families whose children, parents, relatives have been blown to bits by the US and UK patrolling the 'safe havens' , bombing and illegally patrolling for thirteen years. I have twice come within minutes of being blown to bits myself. I repeat there was no legality for this whatsoever and the searing grief witnessed haunts for all time.

I have witnessed the terror of the children (nearly half the population is under 15 or 16 depending on which figures one takes) in raid after raid literally soiling themselves with terror knowing there is no escape. I have been to schools where even blackboards were vetoed (with books, pencils, paper ...) this in the country which brought the world writing, mathematics algebra, the wheel the first domestic laws before Christ walked the earth.

I have experienced a kindness and generosity from a people my people were decimating, that cannot be imagined. I could go on.

The 'democratic' Iraqi government Ms Sheehan lauded and looked forward to working with when she met them in Amman, are those with the IS and UK troops, overseeing the slaughter of these wonderful people. And by the way, have allegedly threatened anyone who returns, who travelled there during the embargo years (including Iraqis) with a pretty nasty end. Note that those with a voice: journalists, academics and aid workers have been targetted and killed in their hundreds.

So this is the country of which Ms Sheehan is quoted as saying that she and her son, both knew the attack upon was illegal. Grieving, near starving, brave, inventive, wonderous and a threat to no-one. This attack was not alone the 'supreme international crime', but the supreme wickedness.

This is too long and there is much, much, more. And the carnage we have brought, exceeds even the embargo's silent holocaust (an estimated 1.5 million.) Ms Sheehan spends a lot of time talking of her exhaustion, she has been at this for just three years. Try being an Iraqi.

In overwhelming sorrow,
j.

"If you are correct, then Dennis K and all who support him should back down also. I will agree, she has taken on the establishment and is fighting city hall. __ So did Rosa Parks, so did Nathan Hale and Patrick Henry."

KEM, you've read enough from-Me to know my 'surety of Opinion', and upon what they are based...
It happens that I knew Rosa Parks -- and trust-me, she was no Hale/Henry (she was thrust into the limelight due solely 'sore-feet', and a lifetime of grief and misdirected-'attention' followed). Ironic you should mention-Rosa. I could draw many-parallels betwixt her and Cindy (and myself and Cindy, for that-matter), but my advise to her 'stands', and is motivated with the same-sincerity and humanistic-intent that has compelled her to-date. She (nor you) need not understand where I am 'coming-from' (or know what I Know) to see some wisdom and applicability to the offered-advice. [The same may-well apply for either Kucinich, or perhaps-you]

I'll go further than that, and repeat some advice I once 'failed to heed', and to my later-regret:
"If you leave here today, regardless your politics/class/religion or culture, and you should happen-upon something as universally-evil and foul as a Giant-Troll, smashing down his massive-Hammer upon any-and-all other students innocently crossing this campus -- and while you debate and decide 'what, properly, to do' about this obvious-Evil...DO NOT STAND UNDER THE HAMMER."
That, from a former-Platonic and once-Sophistic professor of Educational-Philosophy at WSU -- had I only 'listened-then'...

JASSIM. ___Sorry but I cannot see why you wish to condemn or chide Cindy for her actions and attempts to stop the killing and unjust war in Iraq. In fact, I cannot see why, after reading your last fine post, why you would not wish to support her, one of the very few in America who is doing anything like what she has initiated to end the unjust insane war. She never ever did support the war, she did not agree with her son, her son was of age and made his fateful decision.

Would you prefer none of us did anything to stop the Bush administration? Or is it just Cindy Sheehan you have umbridge with?

ME ALSO TOO, If I read you correctly, if any have placed themselves in the danger of being smashed, they should heed your advice and back off from fightng evil. Rosa Parks did not back off, she'd had enough of our white supremecy. I always felt she was one of the most heroic people America ever has had the privelage of having. Her act was simple enough, she just said NO and refused to budge. She was well aware that that simple act in that city, could be the end of her life.

Her simple selfless act, ignited a peaceful revolution that is still being fought for liberty and justice for all and to prove for all time, that all truly are created equal. But Rosa Parks faced the hammer and did not back down. I feel Cindy is the same type of courageous fighter and should stand her ground as long as SHE desires and no one should ask her to back off, not publically anyway. If close friends, or family, or her own thoughts wish to advise her in private to back off, that is none of my business. What any of us post here at CD, becomes everyone's business and any can offer a diverse opinion.