Teaching Vietnam (trailer)

When Vietnam ended this Entire Nation said we "Must Learn The Lessons Of That Conflict and Never Repeat Again"!!

War is an Absolute Last Resort!!

Instead those Lessons were twisted into Teachings of How To Defeat An Enemy, in their own country, in a Guerilla/Insurgent War, and as we see even those Lessons Missed, as you cannot Fight and Win a Guerilla War! Invasions only bring about Death and Destruction to the Invaded and Invaders that Continues with no Absolute Result!

Many Vietnam Veterans went into classrooms and school assemblies, giving first hand experiances, to speak of the Real Lessons, and some still do when given the chance.

But it wasn't enough and as we see now not enough learned the lessons for the Avoidance of Invasion Especially Based on Lies, as was Vietnam. Failed Foreign Policies, by Govenments/Businesses, long ignored by an Apathedic Society, resulting in Criminal Terrorists Attacks leading up to 9/11 and since has led this Country into Another Quagmire of Destructive Policy that can only Grow the Hatreds!

What this Trailer shows is what should have been going on since Vietnam to a Country in Denial and Short Lived Memory. Classes on Vietnam, including other Conflicts and reason for, with strong debate about the direction of our Governments Policies towards others that we wouldn't except ourselves.

Now we have another Generation living the Wrongs of War and Policies that Must Study and Debate, and if this Country isn't already being Destroyed from Within, Must find the Direction of Leadership, with Rethoric Matching Actions and Examples!

The long Denial of Vietnam must be brought to terms. The ball is now in the court of this Generation and must be carried to the Future Generations, which wasn't effective untill now. You can't Allow yourselves to become the 'Focus Groups' of the Future, you Must become the Leaders of Forward Policies of the Righteous Humanity we Preach but don't Practise!!

Gain A Perspective On Darfur

Insight/Educational

Online Game Peers into Life in Darfur Refugee Camp
Visit site link to listen to the short discussion on this Interactive Online Video Game, giving a better perspective as to the point of the endevor and the learning tool it offers, as to what is taking place in and around Darfur and why it must be Stopped!

In order to bring about Peace, Tolerance, Understanding, Democracy, Freedom and any other catch words or phrases one might want to use, One Has To 'Lead' by 'Example'!

This Country, and much of the World, are Ignoring that which is happening in Darfur, which is nothing new especially for this Country as to that part of the World. And the Direction, we here in the United States, have taken as to 'Example' is not 'Leading' but becoming the Major Destructive Power on this Planet, which others will just follow! We Leave Ourselves In The Position Of Hypocrisy Of Major Proportions, No One Will Listen To Our Empty Rethoric Of Catch Phrases That Stand For Nothing, For They Already Stopped Listening!

Visit the Online Interactive Video Game here:'Darfur Is Dying' Game

by Michele Norris

All Things Considered, May 5, 2006 · A new online, interactive video game gives players a glimpse of what it's like to be a refugee in the Darfur region of Sudan. In "Darfur Is Dying," players take on the role of refugees searching for food, shelter and safety, while avoiding the wrath of the murderous Janjaweed militia.
University of Southern California graduate student Susana Ruiz, the game's creator, talks to Michele Norris about the project, including the particular challenge she faced to create a game that would hold players' interest -- and stir their conscience.

Related NPR Stories
May 2, 2006 African Union Extends Mediation Talks on Darfur

May 5, 2006 Protesters Call for Intervention in Darfur

May 5, 2006 Tracking Darfur's Descent into Disaster

May 5, 2006 Darfur Refugees Face New Hardships

May 5, 2006 Darfur Talks in Flux as Rebel Groups Split

May 5, 2006 Darfur Rebels Sign Pact with Sudanese Government

"When your used up, where do you go?"

Last November 1, as the sun rose over a farm near Dover, New Hampshire the Eyes Wide Open crew once again began laying out more than two thousand pairs of boots representing the U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq. But this was not a standard stop on the nation-wide tour of AFSC’s acclaimed anti-war exhibit.

The boots were being prepared to play a role in a music video for blues musician Robert Cray’s poignant new song, “Twenty”, telling the story of a young soldier, who questions his mission in Iraq, but is killed before his deployment is up.








After Watching The Above....

Which will Tear your Heart Open, just looking at the Rows of Boots on that Hillside, as this Great Artist shows his Heart in Song!

There's a Real Good 'Rendition' Flash Video of 'Pinks' "DEAR MR pRESIDENT" using the Live performance of the song but with Photo's and written commentary!!

Kent State - May 4, 1970

An 'Excellent' Diary can be found: HERE

Or HERE

A Shorter Diary can be found: HERE


The Four Dead in Ohio

Neil Young Lyrics Analysis




Allison Krause, Age 19


William Schroeder, Age 19


Jeffrey Miller, Age 20


Sandra Scheuer, Age 20

The 32% {Pass It On}

Youngster Answering Those Who Have Threatened Her!!

Peace Takes Courage

4/27/2006
New Animation

The 32%

~~~~~
Goes Well With This:

Subject Line: Where The 'Repugnant' Base Comes From, and Their Candidates

Young Americans shaky on geographic smarts

Study finds that many fare poorly at finding Louisiana and Iraq on a map
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:52 a.m. ET May 2, 2006

~~~~~
A recent Diary on this Young Lady is why I decided to Post Up a Seperate Diary of her recent Flash, above.

You can read the Diary here:

Peace Takes Courage - 15-yr-old gets death threats for anti-war video

Since the Flash she produced, just below, that started the Rash of Threats,

4/02/2006
New Animation
WWJD?

she's been Rapidly Producing her Responses, note the dates. Leading up to the Last, at top. Lets give her our Support Folks!!!!

4/20/2006
New Animation
Impeach the 'Decider'

4/12/2006
New Animation
The Time is Now

4/08/2006
New Animation
Broken Promises






Oh and add to the Subject Line of the Article-'Party Power Brokers' as well.

Cut and Run? You Bet.

= Big money and big business, corporations and commerce, are again the undisputed overlords of politics and government. The White House, the Congress and, increasingly, the judiciary, reflect their interests. We appear to have a government run by remote control from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute. To hell with everyone else: Bill Moyers - PBS Commentator


Visit: "Aftershock"
{Working Title}
But first: Click To Play Sample Trailer


= The principal power in Washington is no longer the government of the people it represents. It is the Money Power. Under the deceptive cloak of campaign contributions, access and influence, votes and amendments are bought and sold. Money established priorities of action, holds down federal revenues, revises federal legislation, shifts income from the middle class to the very rich. Money restrains the enforcement of laws written to protect the country from abuses of wealth--laws that mandate environmental protection, antitrust laws, laws to protect the consumer against fraud, laws that safeguard the securities markets, and many more: Richard N. Goodwin - Speechwriter for John F. Kennedy


GI Special 4E2 The Republic In Danger.pdf


=“To initiate a war of aggresion…is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” - Nuremberg Tribunal


Baghdad Burning
... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
American Hostages...

As for news of the new Iraqi army, it isn’t going as smoothly as Bush and his crew portray. Today we watched footage of Iraqi soldiers in Anbar graduating. The whole ceremony was quite ordinary up until nearly the end- their commander announced they would be deployed to various areas and suddenly it was chaos. The soldiers began stripping their fatigues and throwing them around, verbally attacking their seniors and yelling and shoving. They were promised, when they signed up for the army in their areas, that they would be deployed inside of their own areas- which does make sense. There is news that they are currently on strike- refusing to be deployed outside of their own provinces.

= "The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their 'vital interests' are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the 'sanctity' of human life, or the 'conscience' of the civilized world." : James Baldwin - From chapter one of "The Devil Finds Work" (orig. pub. 1976)

Cut and Run? You Bet.

By Lt. Gen. William E. Odom
May/June 2006
Why America must get out of Iraq now.

First Paragraph

Withdraw immediately or stay the present course? That is the key question about the war in Iraq today. American public opinion is now decidedly against the war. From liberal New England, where citizens pass town-hall resolutions calling for withdrawal, to the conservative South and West, where more than half of “red state” citizens oppose the war, Americans want out. That sentiment is understandable.

Read Report To Fill In The Middle

Ending Statement

None of these prospects is possible unless we stop moving deeper into the “big sandy” of Iraq. America must withdraw now.

Lt. Gen. William E. Odom (Ret.) is senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and professor at Yale University. He was director of the National Security Agency from 1985 to 1988.
Add These Three To Above, As Must Reads:
Iraq veterans turn to VA centers to heal emotional battle scars

Number of troops needing help threatens to overwhelm Veterans Administration

Vets' mental health focus of conference




=The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on what should be said on the vital issues of the day : Theodore Roosevelt


Army Seeks Blood Donations for Iraq War
FORT KNOX, Ky. (AP) - A boyish Army recruit sits quietly in a plastic chair at Fort Knox and shields a wince from the stern gaze of a drill instructor while a nurse digs with a needle for a vein in his arm.
By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer


= The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them: George Orwell


If in or Near Portland OR:
The Veterans Peace Park - Portland OR, VFP Chapter 72


= Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind: George Orwell


VA Signs Research Partnership

Top officials of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) signed a partnership agreement last week with leaders of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas for research related to illnesses affecting some veterans of the Gulf War. Ailments ranging from fatigue, weakness and respiratory problems to sleep disturbances, skin rashes and persistent headaches are among those reported by veterans who took part in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm at rates significantly higher than those reported by veterans who did not serve in the combat zone.

= They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening : George Orwell

M.A.{?} Day

Mission Accomplished Day

By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 01 May 2006
May 1st, 2006, is the third anniversary of the end of "major combat" in Iraq. It was a glorious day when George Bush flew onto the deck of the Abraham Lincoln and was hailed by the rapturous throngs of toadie "news" persons like Chris Matthews ("And that's the president looking very much like a jet, you know, a high-flying jet star." "Hardball," May 1, 2003) and Bob Schieffer ("As far as I'm concerned, that was one of the great pictures of all time. And if you're a political consultant, you can just see campaign commercial written all over the pictures of George Bush." "Meet the Press," May 4, 2003). What a fast and clean war! G. Gordon Liddy was enthralled with the president's package ("All those women who say size doesn't count - they're all liars." "Hardball," May 7, 2003) and a new era free from terrorism was ushered in.
This is the faith-based fable of what happened almost exactly three years ago. The reality-based scenario goes something like this:
Over 2,400 American soldiers (including my son, who was killed almost a year after Mission Accomplished Day) have come home in cardboard boxes in cargo areas of planes in the secrecy of the night.


Thousands of our young people have been wounded, many grievously, and bused into Walter Reed and other hospitals in the dark of the night.


There are tons of rubble upon rubble in Iraq with inconsistent electrical power still and not much clean water, or chance of future power and clean water.


Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians are dead, being punished for the sins of a leader who was propped up, armed, and supported by many US regimes.
The Mission Accomplished Day (or Operation Codpiece) public relations dream for the presidential pelvic zone has turned into a frighteningly real nightmare for so many people around the world who have had sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and oftentimes entire families wiped out and devastated by the strutting and smirking terrorist who was feeling mighty "chipper" last night at the Washington Correspondent's annual dinner as the 2,400th soldier was being killed and as the 2,400th Gold Star Mother was falling on the floor screaming for her child. There are hundreds of thousands of people on our planet who will have a hard time ever feeling chipper again because of George Bush, no matter how good he looks in a flight suit.
Now that BushCo has done such a fantastic job with the invasion and occupation of Iraq that never should have happened - but now that it has happened and is extraordinarily evil in its scope and tactics - he is warning Iran that if it doesn't shape up, the US is going to come and impose freedom and democracy on that country. The rah-rah, "yes, sir" Congress, which has an easy job of approving everything that George Bush does, thereby eliminating critical thinking, debate, or any semblance of rational discussion, has voted for sanctions that will lead to an attack on Iran that will be devastating for our troops in Iraq and for that poor region that had the unfortunate luck to be built upon tremendous oil and natural gas reserves.
Only 21 Congress people voted "nay" on the Iran Freedom Support Act, which is incredible, considering what happened when they voted "yea" to give George Bush the green light for every sanction against Iraq and to invade it. I ran into one of the "yea" voters on the Iran Freedom Support Act, Rep. Major Owens, and I asked him why he voted that way. He said it was because he hated the "evil" regime of Iran. I asked him about our own evil, irresponsible regime! The radical President of Iran says very irresponsible and inflammatory things, but by all accounts is over a decade away from a nuclear weapon and is reined in by the mullahs and the young population of Iran that is very westernized. We are in trouble with our one-party system of government, which is the War Party.
Before we the people need to be subjected to another swaggering spectacle from George after he has bombed Iran back into the stone ages and has made we the people of the United States of America even more hated around the world, it is time to rein him in ourselves. Congress won't do it and the media is falling into lockstep behind the murderer again.
It is time to fire the warniks, whose bloodlust cannot be sated, and hire people who will finally use their wisdom, integrity, and non-violence to solve problems, and who won't create imaginary problems out of smoke and mirrors. We need a Congress that will hold George accountable, not one that is complicit in the war crimes.
Martin Luther King Jr. said: "We must live together as brothers, or perish together as fools." God protect us from the fools that we elected to protect us!
--------
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of American war victim Casey Sheehan, who was killed on 4/4/2004. She founded Gold Star Families for Peace and is the author of Not One More Mother's Child.
-------

Visit:

"Aftershock"

{Working Title}

But first: Click To Play Sample Trailer

Warfare As It Really Is

*= "My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the strongest...no country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak... Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism...true democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village." : Gandhi

*FOCUS | Bush Team Imposes Thick Veil of Secrecy
As the Bush administration has dramatically accelerated the classification of information as "top secret" or "confidential," one office is refusing to report on its annual activity in classifying documents: the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.



*=The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.: William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

*Jim Hightower | Bush's Imperial Presidency
Referencing past presidents and their various forms of suppressing dissent in times of war, Jim Hightower views the Bush-Cheney regime as pushing the most massive and rapid expansion of presidential might America has ever known.



*= "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.": Mussolini

*Details of Patriot Act Spying Revealed
The FBI issued thousands of subpoenas to banks, phone companies and Internet providers last year, aggressively using a power enhanced under the Patriot Act to monitor the activities of US citizens.



*= They (corporations) cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicated, for they have no souls: Lord Edward Coke


Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America's War? As Many As 250,000

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush's War 2400

The War in Iraq Costs $277,147,958,701 See the cost in your community


*REPORTING ON AMERICA'S MOST UNWANTED
(1 may 2006) "Immersion journalists" Sasha Abramsky and Steve Bogira
bring the lives of the impoverished, adjudicated, and disenfranchised
to life.

From: In These Times



*=It is part of the moral tragedy with which we are dealing that words like "democracy," "freedom," "rights," "justice," which have so often inspired heroism and have led men to give their lives for things which make life worthwhile, can also become a trap, the means of destroying the very things men desire to uphold. Sir Norman Angell (1874 - 1967), 1956.


*MAY 1 IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS BOYCOTT: ONLINE VIDEO CHANNEL
(1 may 2006) Footage from Monday's immigrants' rights boycott will be
aggregated on the Media Rights platform. Citizen journalists from
across the U.S. can self-publish their footage to the online channel.

From: Arts Engine, Inc



*= "When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law." Frederic Bastiat - (1801-1850) French economist, statesman, and author. Source: The Law, by Frederic Bastiat, 1850


*GI Special 4E1 They Were Not Mindless War Machines.pdf


Bob Herbert | Warfare as It Really Is
"In the first few moments of the documentary film 'Baghdad ER,' we see a man dressed in hospital scrubs carrying a bloodied arm that has been amputated above the elbow. He deposits it in a large red plastic bag," writes Bob Herbert. "This HBO production is reality television with a vengeance - warfare as it really is. And while it is frightening, harrowing and deeply painful to watch, it should be required viewing for all but the youngest Americans."

The Veterans Peace Park - Portland OR, VFP Chapter 72

If we build it, will you come? The Veterans Peace Park

by BOHICA
Sun Apr 30, 2006 at 04:18:06 PM EST

Veterans For Peace Chapter 72 broke gound this last week on a Peace Park in Portland, Oregon. An idea brought to the chapter by Brad Perkins, a realtor in PDX, who found out the City had a program where groups could adopt a piece of City property if the were willing to landscape and maintain it. He found the perfect spot, a 2 acre plot next to the Rose Quarter, (home of the Failblazers), and right next to the MAX (light rail) transit station. The land had a 75 foot circle of grass on the north edge.
On Sunday the 23rd we all assembled with shovels and rakes and implements of destruction to remove the grass from the circle and start prepping it for a grass peace sign.

Groundbreaking pics

All was going well until the rototiller we had turned out to be not up to the job and proceeded to throw its belt. Crap. The grass was a thick mat of roots so we quit for the day planning to retrun Tuesday with a rented BIG rototiller.
Tuesday arrives and we pick up a 13 HP tiller that was so big it had its own trailer. 7 hours later, we've got the circle tilled and ready for the prep of the ground to receive the sod we have ordered for this Saturday the 29th.
Saturday, again with shovels and rakes we arrive and start the hand work of smoothing out the path for the sod. Its all assholes and elbows as about a dozen vets for peace and others start raking and shoveling. With the peace sign smoothed out we proceed to use a roller to tamp it down and make sure the lines are straight and the ground is level. A beautiful 70 degree day in the Rose City.
At 3:00PM just as we are ready to start laying the sod, the wind picks up and the rain comes in sideways. Not to be put off (after all we are webfooted Oregonians) we spend the next 90 minutes in the pouring rain making what we believe is the largest grass peace sign within a major city, if not the world.



Just as we are finishing up the rain stops and the sun comes out. We did it! We were all soaked to the bones, but the smiles were everywhere.
This morning I took some pics which you can view HERE.

Our next work party ( May 6th 9AM) will be prepping the flower beds which will then be planted on May 20th. We plan on a dedication on memorial day May 29th.
If you live in Portland or the Metro area come down and check it out. You can find information and a map at the Peace Park web page.



If in Portland and want to help with the work, email info at: vfpchapter72.org .

Here's the mailing address for donations. Please note "Peace Memorial Park" in the memo line of any checks to help us keep track of directed donations.
Veterans for Peace Ch. 72
P.O. Box 40783
Portland, OR 97240-0783

WE ALL MUST HELP IN 'DARFUR'

A loss of hope inside Darfur refugee camps
Over two years, magnitude of crisis comes into view



Rebels reject draft Darfur peace agreements



UN SLASHES SUDAN FOOD RELIEF AS DARFUR ATTACKS ESCALATE
(28 apr 2006) Even as a spate of attacks in South Darfur state "seems
to constitute a new military offensive by the Sudanese government",
the UN World Food Programme said today that it is making drastic cuts
in food rations because of shortage of funds.
From: ReliefWeb UN OCHA




Thousands march to stop Darfur killing




Sudan rebels JEM demand changes to peace deal




Darfur's doomed peacekeeping mission




Watch/Listen to BBC News

Sacred Run

FOCUS: William Fisher | "The Worst of the Worst"


According to William Fisher, by not acknowledging their mistake in detaining prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the Bush administration seems hell-bent on continuing to shoot itself in the foot by clinging to the fading perception of its own hundred percent righteousness.

VIDEO | Dennis Banks: Sacred Run
A Film by Rebecca MacNeice


Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, organized the first Sacred Run across the country 28 years ago. The run is a staggered event that covers the country by foot between February 11th and April 22nd, ending in Washington, DC, on Earth Day. Along the way, the core group of runners is joined intermittently by other walkers and runners. This year's closing ceremony was held at the Lincoln Memorial. Banks has always been accompanied by Buddhist monks from the Nipponzan Myohoji sect.

Nancy Lancy Peace In The World


Jonatha Brooke War