SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
February, 17 2010, 02:49pm EDT
Contact:
Cindy Sheehan (National Executive Director) 707-301-6177
cindy@peaceoftheaction.org
Joshua Smith (National Operations Director) 214-566-2137
josh@peaceoftheaction.org
Robby Diesu (DC Coordinator) 631-241-6966
robby@peaceoftheaction.org
Peace of the Action's 'Camp OUT NOW' Comes to Washington, DC
Civil Resistance to War and Empire Planned in Nation's Capitol
NATIONWIDE
Enough is enough! It's time we up the ante and demand that our
voices be heard and heeded. It's time that the logical and rational
voices of reason get a Peace of the Action.
While the wars in Central Asia and the Middle East rage hotter and
hotter, and while the suppression of our civil liberties here in the
U.S. continue, Peace of the Action is demanding an immediate cessation
to U.S. hostilities.
Peace of the Action will be establishing Camp OUT NOW on the lawn of
the Washington Monument (with or without governmental permission) on
Saturday, March 13th, (exactly 23 days from today), to be a base of
operations from which we will organize and direct daily acts of Civil
Resistance throughout the DC area and until our demands are officially
recognized.
The first week of Camp OUT NOW, we will be holding non-violent Civil
Resistance training, hosting Peace notables and being invigorated by
musicians as we start building the community that we are going to need
in order to help each other through the planned sustained actions.
All persons, who have had enough of "business as usual" in DC and
are willing to put our anti-war, pro humanity principles into practice,
are invited to come out to Camp OUT NOW and stay with us for as little
or as long as you have available.
Direct acts of non-violent Civil Resistance will begin Monday, March
22nd after we have joined ANSWER Coalition in its "March on Washington"
on Saturday, March 20th.
For more information please visit www.peaceoftheaction.org, call or e-mail us.
Peace Action is the United States' largest peace and disarmament organization with over 100,000 members and nearly 100 chapters in 34 states, works to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs and encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights.
LATEST NEWS
Another Senator Backs Platner, Saying 'Democratic Party Needs to Win Back Working People'
New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich said the Mainer is "building a movement around folks who work hard for their family and community."
Mar 10, 2026
US Senate hopeful Graham Platner's momentum continues to grow, with yet another senator bucking the Democratic Party establishment to endorse him in Maine's June primary.
"Graham Platner is focused on delivering for Mainers, not billionaire donors,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) on Tuesday in comments reported by Politico. “And he’s exactly the person the Democratic Party needs to win back working people.”
Polls show Platner, the progressive 41-year-old Marine-turned-oyster farmer, comfortably ahead of Maine's centrist Democratic Gov. Janet Mills for the right to challenge the state's five-term Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in November.
The seat will be an essential pickup if Democrats hope to retake the chamber in 2026.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has pushed for Mills to get the nomination over Platner. This is despite polling last week from Quantus Insights, which showed Mills trailing Collins by over 1%, and Platne leading the Republican by more than 5% among likely voters.
Platner—a backer of Medicare for All and a billionaire wealth tax who has fiercely opposed aggressive US military interventions—first received the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Earlier this month, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) became the first Democratic senator to endorse Platner, in defiance of party leadership, calling him "the candidate that can win."
Heinrich, who has emphasized the necessity of making the Democratic Party a "bigger tent" and bringing in “new" and "younger" leadership, has admired Platner's candidacy from afar for months.
Responding to Platner's campaign launch video, in which he declared that "the enemy is the oligarchy," Heinrich wrote on social media in October, "We need more candidates like this."
New Mexico's three-term senator is now the third member of the chamber to endorse Platner, who said he was "honored" to have him as a "future colleague."
"He's building a movement around folks who work hard for their family and community—folks who deserve a Senator fighting in their corner," Heinrich said. "I’m proud to endorse and help send him to the Senate in November."
Keep ReadingShow Less
While Praying to 'the Lord,' Hegseth Threatens 'Most Intense Day of Strikes' in Iran
“Pete Hegseth is a very dangerous person. He’s a white Christian nationalist and has the arsenal of the United States government at his disposal."
Mar 10, 2026
President Donald Trump's top defense official appeared resolute Tuesday in pushing for continued chaos in the Middle Eastern country—and intensified concerns that the Trump administration is waging a religious "crusade" against Iran by praying at a press briefing.
After telling reporters that Tuesday would "be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth bowed his head in prayer and said he was "drawing strength from Psalm 144."
"Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle," said the defense secretary, who has backed Trumps' assertion that the Department of Defense is called the Department of War. "May the Lord grant unyielding strength to our warriors, unbreakable protection to them and our homeland, and total victory over those who seek to harm them."
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recited a prayer for US troops attacking Iran, asking for strength and protection, during a Pentagon briefing.
American and Israeli officials have been criticised for pushing rhetoric suggesting that the campaign against Iran is a religious war. pic.twitter.com/JNZnZZ1yQy
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 10, 2026
Hegseth and Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, made no mention of efforts to return to diplomatic talks, which were reportedly making significant progress toward a deal on Iran's nuclear program late last month when the US and Israel began bombarding Iran—striking civilian infrastructure including schools and healthcare facilities and killing more than 1,300 people so far, according to Iranian officials.
Hegseth said Trump has "maximum options" to conduct the war and said it is up to the president to determine whether “it’s the beginning, the middle, or the end" of the conflict, which has spread to Lebanon and other surrounding countries while the administration's explanation of its objectives in Iran have shifted.
The defense secretary's religious display came a week after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) said it had received more than 100 reports from noncommissioned officers who said commanding military officers have spoken about the war on Iran as though it's a religious conflict.
The Pentagon has long-established rules prohibiting proselytizing within its ranks, but MRFF president Mikey Weinstein said commanders have appeared "especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be, zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100% accordance with fundamentalist Christian end-of-the-world eschatology.”
Hegseth has prayed at military briefings previously and invited Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson to preach at the Pentagon.
On Monday, MS NOW's Ali Velshi posited that without a clear objective or the support of a majority of the American public, observers are left wondering whether the religious displays of Hegseth and military commanders make clear what the goal of attacking Iran is: a religious battle led by Christian nationalists.
"It wasn’t that long ago that groups in parts of the Middle East invoked extremist interpretations of Islam to justify violence against the West... But that religious extremism did not arise in a vacuum. Crucially, it was sustained by a political bargain," wrote Velshi. "Something eerily similar is now unfolding right here at home, and it has been building for some time."
He continued:
More than two centuries after the framers warned about the dangers of merging faith with political power, we are now seeing a version of that same dynamic take hold at the highest levels of American government. It’s not just creeping in; it is actively shaping how this war is being understood and justified—from those advising the president to military commanders briefing troops before their deployment.
[...]
The US military was never meant to fight for a religious prophecy. In fact, the founding fathers were so concerned about the line between church and state—which includes the military—that they included it in the Bill of Rights.
But today, under Trump, Hegseth, and the Christian nationalist movement that surrounds them, that line is being erased in real time.
The price of that erasure will be paid for with the lives of innocent civilians abroad. It may be paid for with the lives of innocent civilians here at home. And it will surely be paid for by American soldiers, sailors and airmen and women, many of whom are being told they are carrying out God’s command.
At The Guardian on Sunday, David Smith emphasized how Hegseth has combined "bombastic" threats—asserting that Iranian leaders "are toast" and bragging that "we are punching them while they’re down" as evidence emerged that the US was behind a strike on a girls' school—with his displays of Christian nationalist beliefs.
“Pete Hegseth is a very dangerous person," Janessa Goldbeck of Vet Voice Foundation told Smith. "He’s a white Christian nationalist and has the arsenal of the United States government at his disposal and a permission slip from President Trump to deploy carnage wherever he wishes against whomever he wishes.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Mike Johnson Defends GOP Colleague's Bigoted Attack on Muslims
"If a member of Congress said that Jews shouldn't be let into America, would Mike Johnson reply by saying... there's a lot of problems with the Talmud?" said one critic.
Mar 10, 2026
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday defended a Republican colleague who made an explicitly bigoted attack on Muslims.
During a press conference at the US Capitol, Johnson (R-La.) was asked about remarks made by Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who wrote a social media post on Monday declaring that "Muslims don't belong in American society."
Johnson indicated that he took issue with the tone of Ogles' statement, but defended its underlying sentiment.
"Look, I've spoken to those members, and all members, as I always do, about our tone and our message and what we say," Johnson began. "Look, there's a lot of energy in the country, a lot of popular sentiment, that the demand to impose Sharia law in America is a serious problem. That's what animates this."
Mike Johnson on House Republicans' Islamophobic rhetoric: "There's a lot of energy in the country and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose Sharia Law in America is a serious problem" pic.twitter.com/TmPrxMZmiA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 10, 2026
Johnson provided no evidence that backed up his assertion that the potential imposition of Sharia, which is the legal system based on Islamic scriptures, is a "serious problem" in the US. The number of cities and states in the US that recognize the authority of Sharia is zero and there is no movement pushing to change that.
Johnson went on to say that Ogles "used different language than I would have used" when he said Muslims "don't belong" in the US, but he reiterated that the fears animating Ogles' remarks were "a serious issue."
"Sharia law, and the imposition of Sharia law, is contrary to the US Constitution," Johnson said, without offering any examples of Sharia being imposed in the US. "When you seek to come to a country and to not assimilate, but to impose Sharia law... that is the conflict that people are talking about. It is not about people, as Muslims, it is about those who seek to impose a different police system that is in direct conflict with the Constitution."
In fact, Ogles' post did not specify he was only opposed to the imposition of Sharia law. Rather, he flatly declared that "Muslims don't belong in American society."
Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief of Zeteo News, expressed disgust with Johnson's evasion about Ogles' bigoted statements.
"Rep. Ogles said Muslims don't belong in America," he wrote. "And this is all Speaker Mike Johnson can bring him to say in response??"
Journalist Laura Rozen was baffled by Johnson's attempt to justify Ogles' views.
"Who is demanding imposing Sharia law in America?" she asked.
Journalist Zaid Jilani conducted a thought experiment where he tried applying Johnson's defense of Ogles' attacks on Muslims to attacks on other religious minorities.
"If a member of Congress said that Jews shouldn't be let into America," Jilani wondered, "would Mike Johnson reply by saying, well I wouldn't use those words, but there's a lot of problems with the Talmud?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular