May 29, 2004
1. Words to ponder from Wendell Berry
2. Influence of Apostolic Christians on foreign policy vis a vis
Israel
3. More on the upcoming draft
4. The latest from Ret. Gen Anthony Zinni
5. The Damage Done
6. Voting with their feet
7. A new name to add to the list of Bushites to watch
**************************
1. "Much protest is naive; it expects
quick, visible imporvement and despairs and gives up when such
improvement does not come. Protesters who hold out longer have perhaps
understood that success is not the proper goal. If protest depended
on success, there would be little protest of any durability or
significance. History simply affords too little evidence that anyone's
protest is of any use. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a
hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of
preserving qualities of one's own heart and spirit that would be
destroyed by acquiescence."
Wendell Berry, "A Poem of
Difficult Hope", in "What are People For", p. 62
2. Apparently this Apostolic group has an
in with the Bush Admin, and they are trying to (perhaps succeeding)
influence our policy toward Israel, based on their understanding of
scripture and what is required in order for Jesus Christ to return.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18780
3. They are definitely ramping up for a
draft next year - this needs to get out to everyone you can think of.
Though the Snopes Urban legend page downplays this as semi-myth, I've
read enough over the last year or so to believe there is more truth
than fiction here.
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=5834001&content_dir=ua_congressorg
<http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=5834001&content_dir=ua_congressorg>
4. Zinni doesn't mince words regarding the
massive screw up of Rumsfeld and Co.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/21/60minutes/main618896.shtml
5. Piece from Mother Jones about wounded
soldiers - has their photo and a short statement from each of them.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/03/03_100-8.html
6. A little piece from David Hackworth
regarding troop morale and departures from the ranks.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target%20Homepage.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=67&rnd=812.2739461337202
<http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target%20Homepage.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=67&rnd=812.2739461337202>
7. Stephen Cambone is Rumsfeld's right
hand man on military intelligence - read all about his checkered past.
He is currently on the hot seat in the abuse scandal investigations.
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/cambone/cambone.php
May 23, 2004
1. Kurt Vonnegut article
2. Leading up to the Iraq torture
3. An interview with a Marine who quit
4. A bit of good news on the free speech front
5. These Daily Reckoning folks have some scary things to say about the
economy
6. A Buddhist take on how to respond to Bush
**********
1. Some astute observations from Kurt Vonnegut.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/cold_turkey/
2. This article gives some background on
how the post-9/11 attitudes toward the "detainees" contributed to the
abuses in Iraq.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4989481/
3. This interview is very powerful in the
way it illustrates how the killing is so damaging to the killer as
well as the victims. I expect we'll see more of this as time goes on.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/9316830p-10241546c.html
4. A win for the people and a defeat for
Ashcroft and Co.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0519-11.htm
5. I remember reading something about the
three bubbles that were about to burst - stocks, housing and dollar, I
think. These folks are predicting upcoming bubble bursts, the likes
of which I certainly hadn't imagined. I don't really know what to do
in response though I have figured out that minimizing debt and not
loaning money to anyone are good things to do right now. If Al Qaeda
really wanted to take us down, they'd be focusing on the economy, and
maybe they are.....
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/home.cfm?loc=/body_headline.cfm&qs=id=3931http://www.dailyreckoning.com/home.cfm?loc=/body_headline.cfm&qs=id=3931
<http://www.dailyreckoning.com/home.cfm?loc=/body_headline.cfm&qs=id=3931http://www.dailyreckoning.com/home.cfm?loc=/body_headline.cfm&qs=id=3931>
6. From the NY Times re: Michael Moore's
new film - sounds like a must see, maybe we should give away free
tickets to the movie to all our undecided independent friends and
disillusioned Republicans!
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/arts/23RICH.html?pagewanted=print&position
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/arts/23RICH.html?pagewanted=print&position>
7. It can be a struggle, trying not to
feel hateful toward Bush and his crowd. This article attempts to
illustrate an appropriate Buddhist response to Bush, and the
possibility of four more years of Bush and Co. Even for us
non-Buddhists, these can be useful ideas.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18717
May 14, 2004
1. A website for analysis of
economic news
2. A child of Vietnam speaks out
3. Some good resource info on "revenge"
4. Here's what the Army Times says about the prisoner abuse scandal
5. Code Pink for President!
6. Some of the latest poll results - not good for Bush
*************
1. If you don't know much about economics,
it's probably hard to decipher and interpret some of the economic news
coming out of Washington. This website is a great resource for those
of us who are economically-challenged (and I don't mean unable to
balance our OWN budgets!)
http://www.cepr.net/pages/Economic_Reporting_Review_Page.htm
2. This woman lost her dad in the Vietnam
war and speaks about the impact of lost fathers (and mothers). Hope
the link is still good.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/21/opinion/21ZACH.html?ex=1083580285&ei=1&en
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/21/opinion/21ZACH.html?ex=1083580285&ei=1&en>
3. This site has lots of interesting
material, including this compilation of readings etc on the issue of
"Revenge". They draw from a variety of faith traditions.
http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/items/newsitem/item_8418.html
4. The Army Times is right on with this
editorial, in my view.
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2903288.php
5. There's going to be a reality show on
Showtime this summer called the American Candidate. Medea Benjamin
from Code Pink is trying to qualify, so if you want to see a peace
candidate among the 12 finalists, go to this link and vote for her!
http://www.americancandidate.com/candidate_homepage.php?id=461
6. There is hope - an overwhelming
majority of those polled said they do not believe the abuse is
acceptable in any circumstances. Other poll results don't bode well
for Bush, but it is still early.
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=2566
May 11, 2004
1. If you're Bush, you know you're in
trouble when even the conservatives disagree with you on Iraq.
2. If you're in the peace movement, you have to be frightened by
articles like this one.
3. Interesting development of a new Iraqi political group
4. A message from Yasmin, an Iraqi woman who lives here in NH
****************
1. This writer for the American Conservative says the anti-war folks
have been vindicated, and the US needs to cut its' losses and get out.
http://amconmag.com/2004_05_10/cover.html
2. In this article, the author references
the National Review, which just recently carried an article suggesting
that US success in Iraq is only possible if we start treating the
Iraqis the way Saddam Hussein did. If that isn't the most twisted
approach to this mess I've seen so far, I'll eat my dirty hiking
socks.
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=2455
3. This group includes Shiia, Sunni, and
Kurdish representatives. Could be a sign of democracy in action, at
least from the process standpoint, though no telling what form of
government might emerge.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F250B5AD-D891-4585-B702-2A7683F96C4C.htm
4. Though we can't say Yasmin speaks for
all Iraqis, we can be certain there are many more who feel just as she
does.
A week of vacation has just passed, in
Portsmouth NH. Getting my kids back to school, I was greeted by other
Moms. "Did you have a nice week?"; they asked! A very inappropriate
question, by well meaning Moms. This is like asking New Yorkers a week
after Sept. 11 if they had enjoyed their week.
I know that asking some Americans to listen to five minutes of news
each day, would be too much. But, do they not want to know what their
own boys, whom were sent by their own government across the seven
seas, are doing in other people's country? If the good people of
America aren't interested in knowing what's going on with their armed
forces occupying another country , then this is a huge part of the
problem.
For days now, I've been doing nothing but reading all I can, English
and Arabic reports from more than 30 sites, watching interviews with
some of the prisoners who were subjected to this torture on Arabic TV
channels, trying to get hold of what's going on in Abu Ghrabe prison.
I have learned so many things.
The most important thing is that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
More information about the torture is coming out, every day. A
thousand more pictures, like the ones we saw on TV and worse,showing
naked Iraqi men and women in prison, were being circulated among the
prison soldiers, now the Washington Post has them, as they've
announced to the world, today.
These are not isolated cases, like Rumsfeld wanted us to believe, but
rather these are the routine procedures, used by the American soldiers
and by private American companies on Iraqi civilian prisoners, men and
women alike, to break there will, before interrogating them. Abu
Ghrabe is not the only prison using this criminal act against Iraqis,
but rather it is used in prisons all around Iraq.
I heard one testimony after the other, from different Iraqi prisoners
talking in shame about their torture. So much in shame, that some of
them did not inform their own family about what's happened to them
while they where imprisoned.
I was hearing the same testimonies from different Iraqis, again and
again, that the American soldiers would handle a group of Iraqi
prisoners at the same time, and after putting bags over their heads
and tying their hands; they tore their clothes off using knives or
cutters. Then, (an Iraqi, ex prisoner said): "We could hear that many
more soldiers came after there were only a few, and every soldier held
an Iraqi. They started holding us, heads covered and not knowing where
were we going, running with us until they smash us against a wall or
the Iron bars. They kept on repeating this, until we thought that we
were going to die." Then they asked them to stand in different poses,
like the photos the whole world watched in horror on TV, and if they
refuse to take these poses then the soldiers will start kicking them
and hitting them with heavy sticks until they fall unconscious. After
that, each man and woman was placed in a different prison cells. Then
they were splashed with cold water and left for three days, naked with
a bag over their head and their hands tied, lying on the ground in a
puddle of cold water, with no food and no toilet usage. For three
whole days!
Only then, they take them into interrogation. This was only the
beginning.
I wasn't shocked that the American soldiers were torturing Iraqi
prisoners. By now, Iraqis know more than anyone else that many of
these soldiers are capable of doing almost anything. But I was shocked
because of the fact that almost all of these Iraqis imprisoned in Abu
Ghrabe are civilians, taken not in combat, but rather in
demonstrations or taken during night raids while they were asleep in
their own homes. They are not even Iraqi resistance! Why?
Letters were coming out from women prisoners asking the Iraqi
resistance to bomb the prison even if it kills them, because they were
being tortured and raped. They were begging to be bombed with the
soldiers.
I know that not all soldiers are like that, but many of them are. They
have no business being in Iraq. We want them out, now.
I don't want to hear any apology from any American official. Nothing
they will say can improve on the way they are looked at by the Iraqis,
the Arabs, the Muslims and by many people around the world.
Their real face is exposed.
I know for sure that many of my American friends along with many
American people are hurt as much as I am by all the crimes committed
against the Iraqis, for they believe that PEOPLE ARE ONE.
The first assault and abuse to the Iraqis took place when the Bush
administration decided to attack Iraq after 12 years of sanctions.
Iraqis' lives have been destroyed day in day out, even without being
imprisoned, by the presence of the US forces in Iraq.
Inside prisons, this torture has been taking place systematically,
since the summer of last year, just after the fall of Baghdad.
Now, we know for sure that there were reports that made their way to
the pentagon, at least since Jan 04, and no one did anything to stop
it until these horrific photos showed up on TV around the world.
Who is responsible for this?
As one of the great thinkers said, that by releasing monsters into a
town, sure the monsters will commit vicious acts, but the real
criminals will be those who released the monsters in the first place.
American officials. Apology, not accepted.
We don't care if Rumsfeld resigns. Maybe his mother will care, but
certainly not Iraqis. And it's not good enough to punish six soldiers
by relieving them from their duties or ten or even a thousand.
We want real actions and not cheap words, too little too late.
Enough is enough.
Take your hands off Iraq and we want all of the US out of Iraq, NOW.
In Peace.
Yasmin.<