GlobalResearch
Moving Lyrics: US-UK War Crimes in Iraq
by James Blunt and Billy Pilgrim
James Blunt - No Bravery Lyrics
There are children standing here,
Arms outstretched into the sky,
Tears drying on their face.
He has been here.
Brothers lie in shallow graves.
Fathers lost without a trace.
A nation blind to their disgrace,
Since he's been here.
And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.
Houses burnt beyond repair.
The smell of death is in the air.
A woman weeping in despair says,
He has been here.
Tracer lighting up the sky.
It's another families' turn to die.
A child afraid to even cry out says,
He has been here.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Friday, May 26, 2006
Terrorism Knowledge Base
MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base is your one-stop resource for comprehensive research and analysis on global terrorist incidents, terrorist organizations, and terrorism-related trials. TKB newsletters alert our users to new features and additions.
NEW TKB TERRORISM TRENDS MAP NOW AVAILABLE IN PDF AND PRINT AT NO COST
The TKB team is proud to announce the release of our official TKB Terrorism Trends 2005 map poster. Complete with in-depth information on terrorism throughout the world, this large, colorful map is a must-have for analysts, law enforcement, researchers, or others interested in terrorism.
The poster lists the most active groups, most frequent targets and tactics, and the most lethal attacks for 2005. It also offers comparison graphs for several terrorism hotspots.
Users can download a PDF copy from the TKB homepage. For a 24” x 34” hard-copy version, simply email your name and mailing address to TKBsupport@tkb.org and we will ship you a copy at no cost. Supplies are limited.
ACCESS THE 2005 STATE DEPARTMENT COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM
For users interested in official U.S government information on terrorism, the 2005 State Department Country Reports on Terrorism is now available on TKB.
The State Department report focuses country-by-country on developments in terrorism-related issues, and also contains specific sections on terrorist havens, state-sponsored terrorism, and the global challenge of WMD.
NEW FEATURES ON COUNTRY PROFILE PAGES
The TKB team is always looking for ways to improve our data and analysis tools and aid users in their research. In that vein, we are pleased to announce two new features recently added to our country profile pages.
Our first new feature is a direct link that gives instant access to our sophisticated GIS mapping system for every country in the TKB system. A click of the mouse is all it takes to gain access to high-tech satellite overlays, incident filters, and key infrastructure plots for every region of the globe.
Our second new feature is a series of population pyramids, which give a demographic
snapshot for each country in the world. Population demographics are useful for comparative analysis and may be a predictor of future unrest. These pyramids are a simple way to visualize this important information.
Thanks to the praise and outreach of TKB users, TKB continues to serve many government analysts, emergency responders, academicians, journalists, and other terrorism researchers. Please continue to your help us grow by spreading the word through website links, citations, blog postings, and word of mouth. Send us your comments to let us know how the TKB helps you, and remember kudos keep this system available.
Thank you for your interest in the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base.
MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base
TKBSupport@tkb.org
1-800-991-4852
A Podcast From Camp Anaconda, Iraq
“Shitty Imperial War
+ GI Resistance +
Modern Technology = Antiwar GI Podcast!”
[This Is A Podcast From Camp Anaconda, Iraq.]
A weekly show by a soldier in Iraq
May 14, 2006 10:01PM
Back on the regular schedule with an episode about a hero of mine, Dave Rabbit, the much celebrated pirate radio DJ of Saigon. Also in the mix, a segment about the movie "Sir, No Sir!", the story of the GI anti-war movement of the same period.. Enjoy.
Listen
+ GI Resistance +
Modern Technology = Antiwar GI Podcast!”
[This Is A Podcast From Camp Anaconda, Iraq.]
A weekly show by a soldier in Iraq
07 Watch It Burn
May 14, 2006 10:01PM
Back on the regular schedule with an episode about a hero of mine, Dave Rabbit, the much celebrated pirate radio DJ of Saigon. Also in the mix, a segment about the movie "Sir, No Sir!", the story of the GI anti-war movement of the same period.. Enjoy.
Listen
HERE
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Everyday Heroes in a Tragic Place
Posted on Wed, May. 24, 2006
Ambulance crew shows there are everyday heroes in a tragic place
By Leila Fadel
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Hassan Abdulrazak, KRT
Arkan Ali, a Kurdish paramedic, prepares for a patient inside the ambulance while Raed Sadaq Karim, the Sunni Arab driver looks on.
More photos at site
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Over the loudspeaker, ambulance driver Raed Sadaq Karim's voice boomed out over the barely moving cars clogging one of Baghdad's main thoroughfares. "Clear the road! Give me room. Please give me room," he pleaded.
Drivers barely took notice, in spite of the white ambulance's wailing siren and flashing lights. Karim's eyes searched for space, then he swerved through small openings between cars, finally arriving at the apartment building where a woman was having a heart attack.
Fortunately, the patient was still alive. Often, Karim and the two paramedics who ride with him aren't so lucky.
Traffic is just one of the worries that beset Baghdad's small coterie of ambulance crews. There are about 300 ambulances in this city of 6 million. Insurgents often want to kill the crews, American troops distrust them, and every run brings fear that at the end they'll find a trap.
Still, Karim, Ali Jassim Obeid, and Arkan Ali often make a dozen runs in a 24-hour shift in a desperate effort to save lives in one of the most violent cities on earth. They form a team that defies the rampant sectarianism that's claimed hundreds of victims in recent months and reaffirms the idea that even here there are everyday heroes.
Karim is a Sunni Muslim, Obeid is a Shiite Muslim, and Ali is a Kurd. Elsewhere in Iraq, they might be at one another's throats. But in the sterile ambulance, they depend on one another to survive the shift and stay safe.
They pick up the wounded from bombings by the Sunni-backed insurgency. They collect the dead from Shiite militia attacks. They talk about severed hands and heads.
Sometimes they have to retrieve one of their own.
They remember the run they made five months ago to recover a dead colleague on the airport road. He'd been shot at 2 a.m. by an American soldier as he rushed up and down the road looking for the meeting point described by the caller, they said.
"I've never felt so helpless," Ali said.
After recounting the tale, he climbed up the stairs of the apartment building and helped his colleagues load a large, breathless woman onto a stretcher. Back in the ambulance, Ali held onto a steel handrail installed in the roof as he kept an oxygen mask glued to the woman's face.
At Kadhimiya Hospital in north Baghdad, his eyes twinkled and he smiled.
"We saved a life," he said.
Often, it doesn't go so well. In April, they were called to a Sunni Baghdad neighborhood by a report that a woman was in labor. It was nighttime. As Karim pulled up, he saw men with rifles waiting. He swerved away. On the ambulance call log they wrote "failure."
Dr. Hashem Jabar, the head of ambulance services in northeast Baghdad, laments his men's low pay.
Drivers make $80.56 to $101.56 a month, and paramedics make $100 to $300. Police officers, by comparison, make $440 to $812 monthly.
Jabar's phone rang in the middle of his complaints.
An ambulance driver has been killed by Americans, he was told. A homemade bomb targeting a military convoy exploded on one side of the road. By chance, an ambulance carrying a sick child was rushing against traffic, trying to avoid the blocked road. A soldier fired a single shot. The driver died.
Ambulances have been rigged as bombs before, in Yousifiya, a Baghdad suburb in the Sunni triangle of death, and outside the Sunni city of Fallujah. Now, if ambulances speed near military checkpoints or convoys, they become targets.
Jabar struggles to prepare the ambulance teams for the violence. Ali and Obeid were military paramedics during the Saddam Hussein regime, but many others are untrained. Ten men are in training at an American military hospital. They will return to train others.
The ambulances "are just taxis right now," Jabar said. "They scoop and run and wait and see."
The crews are unprotected. Their ambulances aren't armored, and the men don't carry weapons or wear armored vests. Drivers are reimbursed for only half the gasoline they buy.
Many won't respond to some calls. After the midnight curfew, insurgent-infested neighborhoods such as Amariyah and Dora are simply too frightening.
Between calls, Ali, Obeid and Karim take naps on bunk beds in a small room of their station in central Baghdad. They drink sugary tea with their colleagues and make lunch in a small tiled kitchen. They watch action movies and belly dancers on a television attached to the wall to distract themselves from what they've seen on the streets.
When their next call comes in, they pray, "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his messenger" and hope faith is enough.
Of the horrors they've seen, Ali is stoic. "We just come back, wash our hands and eat lunch. We are ambulance men."
Fadel reports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Ambulance crew shows there are everyday heroes in a tragic place
By Leila Fadel
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Hassan Abdulrazak, KRT
Arkan Ali, a Kurdish paramedic, prepares for a patient inside the ambulance while Raed Sadaq Karim, the Sunni Arab driver looks on.
More photos at site
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Over the loudspeaker, ambulance driver Raed Sadaq Karim's voice boomed out over the barely moving cars clogging one of Baghdad's main thoroughfares. "Clear the road! Give me room. Please give me room," he pleaded.
Drivers barely took notice, in spite of the white ambulance's wailing siren and flashing lights. Karim's eyes searched for space, then he swerved through small openings between cars, finally arriving at the apartment building where a woman was having a heart attack.
Fortunately, the patient was still alive. Often, Karim and the two paramedics who ride with him aren't so lucky.
Traffic is just one of the worries that beset Baghdad's small coterie of ambulance crews. There are about 300 ambulances in this city of 6 million. Insurgents often want to kill the crews, American troops distrust them, and every run brings fear that at the end they'll find a trap.
Still, Karim, Ali Jassim Obeid, and Arkan Ali often make a dozen runs in a 24-hour shift in a desperate effort to save lives in one of the most violent cities on earth. They form a team that defies the rampant sectarianism that's claimed hundreds of victims in recent months and reaffirms the idea that even here there are everyday heroes.
Karim is a Sunni Muslim, Obeid is a Shiite Muslim, and Ali is a Kurd. Elsewhere in Iraq, they might be at one another's throats. But in the sterile ambulance, they depend on one another to survive the shift and stay safe.
They pick up the wounded from bombings by the Sunni-backed insurgency. They collect the dead from Shiite militia attacks. They talk about severed hands and heads.
Sometimes they have to retrieve one of their own.
They remember the run they made five months ago to recover a dead colleague on the airport road. He'd been shot at 2 a.m. by an American soldier as he rushed up and down the road looking for the meeting point described by the caller, they said.
"I've never felt so helpless," Ali said.
After recounting the tale, he climbed up the stairs of the apartment building and helped his colleagues load a large, breathless woman onto a stretcher. Back in the ambulance, Ali held onto a steel handrail installed in the roof as he kept an oxygen mask glued to the woman's face.
At Kadhimiya Hospital in north Baghdad, his eyes twinkled and he smiled.
"We saved a life," he said.
Often, it doesn't go so well. In April, they were called to a Sunni Baghdad neighborhood by a report that a woman was in labor. It was nighttime. As Karim pulled up, he saw men with rifles waiting. He swerved away. On the ambulance call log they wrote "failure."
Dr. Hashem Jabar, the head of ambulance services in northeast Baghdad, laments his men's low pay.
Drivers make $80.56 to $101.56 a month, and paramedics make $100 to $300. Police officers, by comparison, make $440 to $812 monthly.
Jabar's phone rang in the middle of his complaints.
An ambulance driver has been killed by Americans, he was told. A homemade bomb targeting a military convoy exploded on one side of the road. By chance, an ambulance carrying a sick child was rushing against traffic, trying to avoid the blocked road. A soldier fired a single shot. The driver died.
Ambulances have been rigged as bombs before, in Yousifiya, a Baghdad suburb in the Sunni triangle of death, and outside the Sunni city of Fallujah. Now, if ambulances speed near military checkpoints or convoys, they become targets.
Jabar struggles to prepare the ambulance teams for the violence. Ali and Obeid were military paramedics during the Saddam Hussein regime, but many others are untrained. Ten men are in training at an American military hospital. They will return to train others.
The ambulances "are just taxis right now," Jabar said. "They scoop and run and wait and see."
The crews are unprotected. Their ambulances aren't armored, and the men don't carry weapons or wear armored vests. Drivers are reimbursed for only half the gasoline they buy.
Many won't respond to some calls. After the midnight curfew, insurgent-infested neighborhoods such as Amariyah and Dora are simply too frightening.
Between calls, Ali, Obeid and Karim take naps on bunk beds in a small room of their station in central Baghdad. They drink sugary tea with their colleagues and make lunch in a small tiled kitchen. They watch action movies and belly dancers on a television attached to the wall to distract themselves from what they've seen on the streets.
When their next call comes in, they pray, "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his messenger" and hope faith is enough.
Of the horrors they've seen, Ali is stoic. "We just come back, wash our hands and eat lunch. We are ambulance men."
Fadel reports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
HONOR THE FALLEN - FINALLY
Return of the Fallen - Visit Site for more links than those below
PENTAGON RELEASES HUNDREDS MORE WAR CASUALTY HOMECOMING IMAGES
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT FORCES OPENING OF 360 NEW PHOTOS
CONFIRMS WAR CASUALTY HONOR CEREMONY IMAGES BELONG IN PUBLIC
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 152
April 28, 2005
Defense Department redactions obscure the faces and insignia of honor guard members in many of the war casualty images.
Gallery
The Complete Set of Honor Guard Ceremony Images
Requires Macromedia Flash Player
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Veterans Stolen Private Data - Pass It On - Find More Pass That As Well!!
VA Data Stolen: Statement of VVAF
The news of this security breach is a wake up call to the VA and all federal agencies that are responsible for protecting citizens' personal information. Questions about VA data accuracy and security should be raised and examined. It appears that the VA did not have adequate measures in place to prevent an incident like this from happening. This pattern of lack of planning by the VA is troublesome and produces serious questions with implications far beyond this serious breach. The millions of veterans who have served our nation and the more than a million men and women who are currently fighting the Global War on Terror deserve an explanation and the assurance that the VA is up to the task of serving our veterans
Personal Data on Veterans Is Stolen: Burglary Leaves Millions at Risk Of Identity Theft
As many as 26.5 million veterans were placed at risk of identity theft after an intruder stole an electronic data file this month containing their names, birth dates and Social Security numbers from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, Secretary Jim Nicholson said yesterday.
Veterans want VA to pay for credit checks after data theft
A leading veterans group wants the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay for every single veteran to obtain a credit check after personal data on 26.5 million veterans was stolen earlier this month.
Source: Theft of vets' data kept secret for 19 days
Buyer to investigate VA data breach
VA didn't disclose theft for 2 weeks
Calling the government's VA Data Theft Hotline
The news of this security breach is a wake up call to the VA and all federal agencies that are responsible for protecting citizens' personal information. Questions about VA data accuracy and security should be raised and examined. It appears that the VA did not have adequate measures in place to prevent an incident like this from happening. This pattern of lack of planning by the VA is troublesome and produces serious questions with implications far beyond this serious breach. The millions of veterans who have served our nation and the more than a million men and women who are currently fighting the Global War on Terror deserve an explanation and the assurance that the VA is up to the task of serving our veterans
Personal Data on Veterans Is Stolen: Burglary Leaves Millions at Risk Of Identity Theft
As many as 26.5 million veterans were placed at risk of identity theft after an intruder stole an electronic data file this month containing their names, birth dates and Social Security numbers from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, Secretary Jim Nicholson said yesterday.
Veterans want VA to pay for credit checks after data theft
A leading veterans group wants the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay for every single veteran to obtain a credit check after personal data on 26.5 million veterans was stolen earlier this month.
Source: Theft of vets' data kept secret for 19 days
Buyer to investigate VA data breach
VA didn't disclose theft for 2 weeks
Calling the government's VA Data Theft Hotline
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Iraq War Provoking Terror
FOCUS | William Fisher: A Double Standard for People in Pain?
Dahr Jamail | Easily Dispensable: Iraq's Children
Hawks For Withdrawal
Iraq War Provoking Terror: Amnesty International
After Hearing Hueys And A Hunter In The Woods
By David Connolly
David Connolly served honorably in Vietnam with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. He takes pride in having been, and continuing to be, a Vietnam Veteran Against the War. His collection of poems, LOST IN AMERICA, was published by Viet Nam Generation, Inc.& Burning Cities Press in 1994.
After Hearing Hueys And A Hunter In The Woods
His children urged him
so he went walking
in the almost nude,
late November woods,
flashing,
on what was a jungle
before the planes,
that he walked through
with other children once,
and still does some nights.
He knew he would hear them
even before he did
but that didn’t help.
The other noise,
unconnected,
but inseparable to him,
started also.
Not the innocuous “KPOW”
that we used as children
but the “KUSSSH” that killed,
that looked for us
in woods like these.
He doesn’t know how many times
his oldest said, “Dad,”
or how long the little one cried,
as he ran, low and loping,
dragging them along,
away from the danger in his mind.
The older one, at ten, knew,
and comforted him
as if he were her child.
“It’s OK, Dad, really.”
The younger one, at seven,
didn’t know,
but without his explanation said,
“I was scared cause you were scared,
but I wasn’t scared of you, Dad.”
William Fischer wants to know why a victim of multiple sclerosis is serving 25 years in prison for the same crime that Rush Limbaugh will not be incarcerated for. In the opinion of a man who has every reason to know, the two cases reveal a scary double standard being applied to people who suffer from chronic pain - and the doctors who treat them.
Dahr Jamail | Easily Dispensable: Iraq's Children
Dahr Jamail implores us to understand: "That women and children suffer the most during times of war is not a new phenomenon. It is a reality as old as war itself. What Rumsfeld, Rice and other war criminals of the Cheney administration prefer to call "collateral damage" translates in English as the inexcusable murder of and other irreparable harm done to women, children and the elderly during any military offensive."
Hawks For Withdrawal
Tom Hayden
A centrist Dem proposal on Iraq reveals a significant acceptance of the peace movement's message.
Iraq War Provoking Terror: Amnesty International
"The war on terror and the way it has unfolded is actually premised on the principle that by eroding human rights you can reinforce security," said Amnesty International's Secretary-General Irene Khan. "And that is why as part of the war on terror we see restrictions being placed on civil liberties around the world."
After Hearing Hueys And A Hunter In The Woods
By David Connolly
David Connolly served honorably in Vietnam with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. He takes pride in having been, and continuing to be, a Vietnam Veteran Against the War. His collection of poems, LOST IN AMERICA, was published by Viet Nam Generation, Inc.& Burning Cities Press in 1994.
After Hearing Hueys And A Hunter In The Woods
His children urged him
so he went walking
in the almost nude,
late November woods,
flashing,
on what was a jungle
before the planes,
that he walked through
with other children once,
and still does some nights.
He knew he would hear them
even before he did
but that didn’t help.
The other noise,
unconnected,
but inseparable to him,
started also.
Not the innocuous “KPOW”
that we used as children
but the “KUSSSH” that killed,
that looked for us
in woods like these.
He doesn’t know how many times
his oldest said, “Dad,”
or how long the little one cried,
as he ran, low and loping,
dragging them along,
away from the danger in his mind.
The older one, at ten, knew,
and comforted him
as if he were her child.
“It’s OK, Dad, really.”
The younger one, at seven,
didn’t know,
but without his explanation said,
“I was scared cause you were scared,
but I wasn’t scared of you, Dad.”
Monday, May 22, 2006
IVAW Vets Back Murtha
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
IVAW
P.O. Box 8296
Philadelphia, PA 19101
Phone: 215-241-7123
E-mail: ivaw@ivaw.net
Iraq vets back Murtha on Haditha massacre revelations
IVAW
P.O. Box 8296
Philadelphia, PA 19101
Phone: 215-241-7123
E-mail: ivaw@ivaw.net
Iraq vets back Murtha on Haditha massacre revelations
He Was Swallowed By Pain
Hamas Or Chaos?
by Nathan J. Brown, TomPaine.com
Before trying to collapse the Hamas government, Israel and America should consider what would replace it.
~~~~~
Posted on Mon, May. 22, 2006
His photo is an icon, his life a shambles
At home and suffering from stress disorder, ex-Marine has turned against Iraq war
BY DAVID ZUCCHINO
Los Angeles Times
~~~~~
Iraq War Veteran's Suicide - He was Swallowed by Pain
Mehul Srivastava
Jeffrey Lucey joined the Reserves to help pay for college; he wasn't prepared for what happened next
~~~~~
Did You Watch HBO's 'Baghdad ER'!!!
If you did it was a Great, and Sad, Tribute to those who are Serving, Not For Country, But By Being Sent They Watch Each Others Backs Hoping Against Hope Of Getting Out Of There ALIVE!!
But I ask the question/statement for another reason. Did it strike you that most of those profiled with injuries were 'National Guard Troops'?
Think who else is a known National Guard, at another time, in another space, but Avoiding The Debacle Of That Time, through a Duty 'Never Finished'!!!!!
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Immigrants - Not Yet Citizens - Fighting America's 'Illegal' War
Vanessa Gamboa, an Iraq war veteran of the U.S Army and single mother, holds up her new U.S. Citizenship documents after being sworn in as a U.S. Citizen in downtown Brooklyn, New York, May 19, 2006. The 24-year-old single mother originally from Guatamala who was discharged in April, after her second tour in Iraq, returned to New York, had little money, no place to live, and became homeless. Gamboa is part of a small but growing trend among U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- homelessness. On any given night there are 200 to 250 of them in America, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) says. They are among nearly 200,000 homeless U.S. veterans, largely from the Vietnam War.
REUTERS/Mike Segar
"Taking The Long Way"
Listen To: "Not Ready To Make Nice"
Dixie Chick: Bush owed ‘no respect whatsoever’
Maines takes back apology for ’03 remarks she made about president
Casey's Mother's Day Gift
By Cindy Sheehan
I awakened last Sunday morning with an enormous pain in my heart. Every morning I wake up, as soon as I come to consciousness and figure out where I am, my first thought is of Casey and April 04, 2004, the day he was killed in BushCo's war for corporate profit. Some days, like Mother's Day, are worse than others.
That Sunday morning, I was in Washington, DC—a city that I love as an exciting, energetic and supportive one—on the other hand, the corruption seeps into my soul and I can't spend too many consecutive days there. I am also comforted by the constant police presence as I am followed like a hawk by a paranoid force that is afraid I am up to something--which is usually true, but that's beside the point, everything I do is legal--and paranoid that I may expose another t-shirt with the truth written on it.
After breakfast with my sister, a Camp Casey friend from Texas, Randi Rhodes, Susan Hathaway from NYC, and Annie Nelson (Willie's wife), we headed down to Lafayette Park where Code Pink was sponsoring a "Mothers Say No to War" vigil where hundreds of male and female matriots gathered together to loudly, stridently, courageously, reverently, and oftentimes joyfully proclaim to the world and the illicit administration that we have had enough of the world's children being killed for no reason other than to garner obscene profits for the war machine.
We had a wonderful day opening with a prayer/memorial service for all of the people, including innocent Iraqis, that have been lost to Bush's gigantic ego and bottomless greed. At one point, I laid my head in my friend Hillary's lap and sobbed for the chasm of emptiness that is present in my life on a daily basis. Not only do I miss Casey, but I miss my other children. I miss the life we led before Casey was killed: A life that was dominated by the children and their activities. Now I am separated by a dimension from Casey and by distance from my others. I do this so they and the worlds' children won't have to go to war and die for a racket that is as old as time. It is a hard life that I have chosen but sometimes I feel that it has chosen me.
One of my new friends whom I made this weekend is Dr. Patch Adams who is a remarkably cheerful and loving person who has devoted his life to the pursuit of love and laughter. Until I met him, I was wondering who in the heck the gigantic man was in a pink wig and pink flowered dress! When I introduced myself, he put me in a bear hug that fed my heart and soul. We had long conversations about using humor and love to change the world and talked about a "Cindy and Patch Peace Tour."
After Casey's movie mom, Susan Sarandon arrived; we were treated to a surprise guest: Dick Gregory. Dick had been on his way to Cleveland to an engagement when he saw the Code Pink protest on the news and he changed direction and he came to DC to join us. He decided to go on a fast on the way to the event. He asked me what my heart's dream was. I replied: "Troops home, now," without a second thought or a second's hesitation. He said: "So be it, I am fasting until the troops come home!"
After a particularly emotional time, Randi came up to me, crying, and asked: "How do you do this, Cindy?"
Great question. I looked all around me. At my dear friends, Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans and Gael Murphy who founded Code Pink Alert: Women for Peace and who have been my constant cheerleaders and co-conspirators for peace longer than most people. I saw Hillary and Desiree, two Code Pinkers from Dallas who spent the night with me that first harrowing night in the ditch. I glimpsed Diane Wilson who just got out of a Texas jail after spending six months there for chaining herself to a Dow Chemicals tank. My nearly constant companion on my journeys around the country, Col. Ann Wright, was not too far from me. She resigned her job at the State Department after George Bush invaded Iraq and she runs Camp Casey each time with a competent and loving hand. Tiffany, one of my Camp Casey assistants was running around the park organizing things and wearing a picture of her "brother" Casey around her neck. I saw hundreds of Americans who came from all over our country to show George Bush that we repudiate him and his crimes against humanity.
I looked at Randi with tears streaming down my face. In answer to her question, I replied: "Casey brought all of us together. I am not doing this alone. Casey gave all of you to me to help me through this."
Casey would not allow me do this alone. He has given us the gift of lasting friendships that are not only enriching us but changing the world. He has brought the peace movement together by his unnecessary sacrifice.
George Bush could never meet with me and tell me what noble cause he killed Casey and so many others for: First of all, because war for empire and profit is not noble, secondly because the man is a coward.
~~~~~~~~~~
Mothers Day - Flash Video
I awakened last Sunday morning with an enormous pain in my heart. Every morning I wake up, as soon as I come to consciousness and figure out where I am, my first thought is of Casey and April 04, 2004, the day he was killed in BushCo's war for corporate profit. Some days, like Mother's Day, are worse than others.
That Sunday morning, I was in Washington, DC—a city that I love as an exciting, energetic and supportive one—on the other hand, the corruption seeps into my soul and I can't spend too many consecutive days there. I am also comforted by the constant police presence as I am followed like a hawk by a paranoid force that is afraid I am up to something--which is usually true, but that's beside the point, everything I do is legal--and paranoid that I may expose another t-shirt with the truth written on it.
After breakfast with my sister, a Camp Casey friend from Texas, Randi Rhodes, Susan Hathaway from NYC, and Annie Nelson (Willie's wife), we headed down to Lafayette Park where Code Pink was sponsoring a "Mothers Say No to War" vigil where hundreds of male and female matriots gathered together to loudly, stridently, courageously, reverently, and oftentimes joyfully proclaim to the world and the illicit administration that we have had enough of the world's children being killed for no reason other than to garner obscene profits for the war machine.
We had a wonderful day opening with a prayer/memorial service for all of the people, including innocent Iraqis, that have been lost to Bush's gigantic ego and bottomless greed. At one point, I laid my head in my friend Hillary's lap and sobbed for the chasm of emptiness that is present in my life on a daily basis. Not only do I miss Casey, but I miss my other children. I miss the life we led before Casey was killed: A life that was dominated by the children and their activities. Now I am separated by a dimension from Casey and by distance from my others. I do this so they and the worlds' children won't have to go to war and die for a racket that is as old as time. It is a hard life that I have chosen but sometimes I feel that it has chosen me.
One of my new friends whom I made this weekend is Dr. Patch Adams who is a remarkably cheerful and loving person who has devoted his life to the pursuit of love and laughter. Until I met him, I was wondering who in the heck the gigantic man was in a pink wig and pink flowered dress! When I introduced myself, he put me in a bear hug that fed my heart and soul. We had long conversations about using humor and love to change the world and talked about a "Cindy and Patch Peace Tour."
After Casey's movie mom, Susan Sarandon arrived; we were treated to a surprise guest: Dick Gregory. Dick had been on his way to Cleveland to an engagement when he saw the Code Pink protest on the news and he changed direction and he came to DC to join us. He decided to go on a fast on the way to the event. He asked me what my heart's dream was. I replied: "Troops home, now," without a second thought or a second's hesitation. He said: "So be it, I am fasting until the troops come home!"
After a particularly emotional time, Randi came up to me, crying, and asked: "How do you do this, Cindy?"
Great question. I looked all around me. At my dear friends, Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans and Gael Murphy who founded Code Pink Alert: Women for Peace and who have been my constant cheerleaders and co-conspirators for peace longer than most people. I saw Hillary and Desiree, two Code Pinkers from Dallas who spent the night with me that first harrowing night in the ditch. I glimpsed Diane Wilson who just got out of a Texas jail after spending six months there for chaining herself to a Dow Chemicals tank. My nearly constant companion on my journeys around the country, Col. Ann Wright, was not too far from me. She resigned her job at the State Department after George Bush invaded Iraq and she runs Camp Casey each time with a competent and loving hand. Tiffany, one of my Camp Casey assistants was running around the park organizing things and wearing a picture of her "brother" Casey around her neck. I saw hundreds of Americans who came from all over our country to show George Bush that we repudiate him and his crimes against humanity.
I looked at Randi with tears streaming down my face. In answer to her question, I replied: "Casey brought all of us together. I am not doing this alone. Casey gave all of you to me to help me through this."
Casey would not allow me do this alone. He has given us the gift of lasting friendships that are not only enriching us but changing the world. He has brought the peace movement together by his unnecessary sacrifice.
George Bush could never meet with me and tell me what noble cause he killed Casey and so many others for: First of all, because war for empire and profit is not noble, secondly because the man is a coward.
The noble cause is peace.
Thank you, Casey, my son and my hero.
~~~~~~~~~~
Mothers Day - Flash Video
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