SOTU: THE BUTTON Part 2

Last night I placed a post, just below this, with this photo and the letter that accompanied THE BUTTON, and abit more.

A little refresher, THE BUTTON and the letter to the House and Senate members:

January 24, 2008
Dear Senator,
It is with great pleasure that I am able to present you with this limited edition “I am a Bush Republican” commemorative button on the occasion of President Bush’s final State of the Union Address. It would be a shame to let this event pass without a show of solidarity among those who have stood by him and enabled his legacy to be established on so many issues.
Without your steadfast support of President Bush’s domestic, foreign and economic policies, there is no doubt America would not be in the position it is in today. Please wear this button on Monday evening to show your constituents that you support President Bush, his policies and how proud you are of your contribution to his legacy.
Sincerely,
Brad Woodhouse
President
Americans United for Change

Well today they have a Video to view:

AUFC I’m a Bush Republican Button Challenge Video


And some more.

They've put together an ad as well.

With President Bush's last State of the Union just days away, Americans United for Change released the following ad:

Now on their site page with this YouTube Video right now One Lone response can be found:

Your message is of hate and bleeding liberalism. You are what’s wrong with the country. This country could not have been founded by hand-out promisers like yourselves. Stand on your own two feet. Quit looking to the government to provide for you. Or are you too stupid to rely on yourself??
Don’t have a life? Get one....
or go live in another liberal bastion of the world…
One pissed off American in All over America | Friday, January 25 at 11:51 AM

That's it folks!

Reading it I get the Impression, from the language choices and sig, the Vid was visited by jr. bush, what'd'ya think, jr prince or a patriot?

They also have a site link The Bush Legacy Project. Upon entering you are asked to answer this question:

President Bush Will Be Remembered As:

Take a trip over and give your answer so the bush can begin the Legacy Building with the help of his fellow citizens, better do it before we loose more of our freedoms, once we do someone will want to come to our Homeland and Destroy and Kill so they can bring us to Freedom and Democray!

After you help bush with his legacy you can enter the site and view another Video:

The Real State of the Union...
Call Bush's Bluff

I'd place it, but than you might not help the whittle bush with his Legacy, so go on over!

There's also a wealth of links to some power points and more.

Oh by the way, lets not disturb the intelligent response by One pissed off American in All over America, it deserves to stand alone!

Question: Why are there Primaries on Saturday, while when we Actually Vote, The Whole Country, it's done on one day during the week, and not even a Holiday?

Lets See if They Wear THE BUTTONS

Lets see how many Own Up to their Lockstep Support of the Policies Set Forth and they Readily Backed!!!

I received the follow from Americans United For Change.
This is what they passed out to Republicans in the House and Senate and their Press Release.

Americans United for Change began delivering these “I’m a Bush Republican” buttons to all of the Republicans in the House and Senate today in advance of Bush’s Final State of the Union Address on Monday with the message: “your votes helped build his legacy; you should show your support for him by proudly declaring that you’re a Bush Republican.” On Monday, as cameras scan the House Chamber during the State of the Union Address, we’ll see how many Republicans – those who have voted for Bush’s policies on Iraq, the economy, energy and health care – are willing to put their lapels where there votes have been and wear a button with this simple message: “I’m a Bush Republican.” The buttons were attached to the letter below.

And here's the letter that accompanied the buttons:

January 24, 2008
Dear Senator,
It is with great pleasure that I am able to present you with this limited edition “I am a Bush Republican” commemorative button on the occasion of President Bush’s final State of the Union Address. It would be a shame to let this event pass without a show of solidarity among those who have stood by him and enabled his legacy to be established on so many issues.
Without your steadfast support of President Bush’s domestic, foreign and economic policies, there is no doubt America would not be in the position it is in today. Please wear this button on Monday evening to show your constituents that you support President Bush, his policies and how proud you are of your contribution to his legacy.
Sincerely,
Brad Woodhouse
President
Americans United for Change

This is great, now I'll have something to do as I not listen to how much More Damage the whittle prince plans to do to this country and It's National Security, economy already tanking and has been as he's given everything our old buddy binny wanted!!

Thought I'd pass this on so others can occupy there time as he reads the words of others!
Although we could just change the channel, or turn the damn thing off, and hope their counting the non-viewers.

Some Powerful Articles like 'Pentagon Breaks with White House'

Greyhawk had this posted at ePluribus about the Military breaking ranks with the White House on the propaganda about the Successful Surge with only this one snippet

"Don't let the quiet fool you," a senior defense official says. "There's still a huge chasm between how the White House views Iraq and how we [in the Pentagon] view Iraq. The White House would like to have you believe the 'surge' has worked, that we somehow defeated the insurgency. That's just ludicrous. There's increasing quiet in Iraq, but that's happened because of our shift in strategy - the 'surge' had nothing to do with it."

And just a few sentences, so I followed the link. Here's abit more to hopefully get you to drop over to the Asia Times online and read the rest.

According to them this is Part 1

and we also find this

Moreover, these officers contend, the insurgency might not have put down roots in the country after the fall of Baghdad if it had not been for the White House and State Department - which undermined military efforts to strike deals with a number of Iraq's most disaffected tribal leaders. These officers point out that the first contact between high-level Pentagon officials and the nascent insurgency took place in Amman, Jordan, in August of 2003 - but senior Bush administration officials killed the talks.

A second round of meetings, this time with leaders of some of al-Anbar province's tribal chiefs, took place in November of 2004, but again senior administration officials refused to build on the contacts that were made. "We made the right contacts, we said the right things, we listened closely, we put a plan in place that would have saved a lot of time and trouble," a senior Pentagon official says. "And every time we were ready to go forward, the White House said 'no'."

I'll leave you with those, the rest you can find here

After you come back from the above report you might want to pay a visit to this Counter Punch editorial by By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS The Empire That Must Be Obeyed asking this question "What Gives the US the Right to Claim a Moral Monopoly Over the World?" and leading off with this:

"The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction."
Five Western military leaders.

I read the statement three times trying to figure out the typo. Then it hit me, the West has now out-Owellled Orwell: The West must nuke other countries in order to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction! In Westernspeak, the West nuking other countries does not qualify as the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Got ya wondering? Than trip on over and read, he's also got a link to the statement by these five western military leaders!

Then there's a great writeup on the upcoming Iraq Veterans To Testify at Their Own 'Winter Soldier'
Organizers Model Event After Vietnam Investigation


Vietnam veteran John Kerry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971.

But while the investigation itself may have made little immediate impact, its disclosures would reverberate for decades. “We learned the meaning of free fire zones, shooting anything that moves, and we watched while America placed a cheapness on the lives of orientals,” a 27-year old Navy veteran, John Kerry, told the Senate about what Winter Soldier uncovered. The bitterness that testimony sowed in other Vietnam veterans, who felt betrayed by Winter Soldier, stayed alive through 2004, when the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth falsely maligned Kerry’s service record as payback. Now, with another intractable conflict proving to be another defining moment in American history, some veterans of the Iraq war intend to take up the Winter Soldier banner. On March 13, Iraq Veterans Against the War, an organization inspired by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, will convene at the National Labor College just outside of Washington to say, in so many words, that it’s all happening again.
“What’s happening now is no different than over the past five years,” said Geoff Millard, 27, the president of the group’s Washington chapter. “It’s the result of systematic problems in the way we fight an occupation. It’s not that we’re going to outline these huge atrocities. It’s how the systematic nature of occupation is oppression.” This time around, Winter Soldier will have what its predecessor didn’t: digital video to back up the charges.

Organizers estimate that perhaps 45 to 55 Iraq veterans, and some from Afghanistan, will testify to such “terrible things” at Winter Soldier. Liam Madden, 23, a Marine veteran of Iraq who’s now a student at Northeastern University, came up with the idea for a second Winter Soldier in late 2006 with his fellow IVAW members Aaron Hughes in Chicago and Fernando Braga in New York. “The people I’ve talked to who are testifying are going to talk about their experiences in Iraq, how they’re put in positions to harm the people of Iraq and harm the image of America because of the position they’re put in, and the complete injustice involved in that,” Madden said. “Other people will talk about how a run-of-the-mill day in Iraq is. It adds up to a checkpoint here, a house raid there, a house raid there, a house raid there, to a population of Iraqis who can’t tolerate you any longer.”
The project’s interview and verification committees are just getting started. But glimpses of the expected testimony are beginning to emerge. One of the early interviewees, a medic, told IVAW about treating a two-year old shot in the thigh by U.S. soldiers, and witnessing “the mutilation of the dead,” according to Jose Vasquez, 33, a former Army sergeant who heads Winter Soldier’s verification team. The public should expect to hear about “unnecessary killing of noncombatants on the battlefield,” said Vasquez, an anthropology graduate student at the City University of New York. (Vasquez himself filed as a conscientious objector after finding himself unable to participate in the Iraq war.) Indeed, a frequent theme among group members in interviews has been the intensity of manning checkpoints, where Iraqi civilians can die for simply not approaching a checkpoint slowly enough to reassure an apprehensive soldier who doesn’t speak their language.

Now the organizers have this to say:

Yet the organizers of Winter Soldier will consider the event a failure if it appears to blame soldiers and Marines for the war.

It's the Occupation not the Military Personel, except for the Extreme Few, as it was in 'Nam and any Conflict, many devestating incidents are Not Atrosities or War Crimes, but it really doesn't matter how We Define Anything after we invade and occupy, it's the Perception of those we Invaded and their lands we Occupy, just as it would be if it were us!

This report gives you an insight to both sides of thought about this upcoming event of Winter Soldier, you can also get more over at Vet Voice in a post by ArmySergeant, he's Active Duty and one of the organizers.

While you're over there you might want to read this one as well PTSD Is Brought On By Days Like These, it's of an incident that might just bring a shiver to your spine!

And don't miss this one at Vet Voice as well Homeless and Facing Prison: An American Tradition, as a matter of fact you should pay a daily visit for some Great insight from Active Military personal and Veterans, this sight is growing and many of the reads are well worth it.

Change?
Real Change
By William Rivers Pitt
I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.
- George Carlin

Also if you have a Blog or Website you may want to add An Eternal Flame Widget to it:

Follow This Link
to the Eternal Flame that you can leave on your blogs or sites Until The Troops Are Home and All Are Taken Care Of.

It was made by "notlightnessofbeing" who posts at a few of these sites as well as maintaining a blog.

Visit link and Copy the Code to Paste into your sites, as I put it on mine and our VFP Chapter site, and that's where it'll sit, Till We Bring Them Home and Take Care Of Them!!

Iraq Veterans To Testify at Their Own 'Winter Soldier'

Organizers Model Event After Vietnam Investigation


Vietnam veteran John Kerry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971.


If they were sent to fight, they are too few. If they were sent to die, they are too many!

Is 'Funding' Really For Troops?

What Happened To Funding and Oversite For Military/Veteran Care In Previous Congresses?

Colbert's Civil Rights MLK Day

Stephen Colbert is a great entertainer, but the reason he has resonated so strongly with audiences particularly during this administration is because he has a core of earnestness that deeply reflects a strong moral sense and a desire to educate, illuminate, and do good works. If you think I'm being overblown, all you need to do is watch last night's episode of The Colbert Report, which was uniquely inspiring, edifying and touching — all while still managing to be completely hilarious.
SNIP

Read Rest Here

But before you go view the Videos, also can be seen at link, from Stephens Show:

As Kathie Costos, 'Nam Guadian Angel says: File this one under WTF were they thinking‏

Kathies site , you can find her post about this here.

Bill would clear vets’ estates of VA debt


By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 22, 2008 17:26:38 EST

A bill that would block the Department of Veterans Affairs from trying to collect money from the estates of service members who die in combat was introduced Tuesday by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
Her bill, S 2536, applies only to debts to the VA, and not to money owed to private-sector creditors or other federal agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service.
Hutchison is asking Senate leaders for quick passage of the bill, hoping to bypass the normal process in which new bills are sent to committee for consideration.
She could get high-level support. VA Secretary Dr. James Peake is expected to write a letter to the Senate endorsing her call for expedited passage of the bill, according to Senate sources.
VA officials said they supported the bill but did not confirm that Peake would write a letter.
Waiving normal procedures would require the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, on which Hutchison serves, to allow the bill to proceed without its involvement. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the veterans’ affairs committee chairman, would have to approve the move. Akaka aides said the committee staff would study the measure first.
Few people die owing VA money, but Hutchison aides found that VA has collected more than $56,000 from the families of 22 deceased soldiers, mostly National Guard and reserve members called to active duty who received overpayments of GI Bill education benefits.
Her bill would be retroactive to Sept. 11, 2001, allowing families or estates that paid a debt to VA to receive a refund of any payment made since that date.
Hutchison spokesman Matt Mackowiak said few people may be affected, but Hutchison considers it improper for any family of a service member who dies in combat to be contacted with a demand for money.
Current law requires contacting a family or estate if there is any outstanding debt to VA at the time of death. A family has 180 days to file a grievance, with the VA secretary permitted to waive the debts.
“This bill is about honoring our fallen heroes by treating the families they left behind with dignity and by showing them we mean it when we tell them our nation is truly grateful,” Hutchison said in a statement. “The fact that VA is forced to collect a few hundred dollars from bereaved mothers and fathers for something as simple as a small debt for education benefits is ludicrous.”
Of the 22 cases, three involved Texans, Hutchison aides said. One was an Army soldier killed by a sniper while on his third tour to Iraq whose family repaid the government for a $389 overpayment of GI Bill benefits.
The family of another Army soldier was billed for $2,282 in outstanding loans after the sergeant, who was married with four children, was killed in an explosion on his second tour in Iraq. The third Texas case involved a Marine Reservist killed by an explosion in Iraq who owed VA $845.
Hutchison aides said their review found similar cases in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin.

VCS Releases New VA and DoD Fact Sheets

This week Veterans for Common Sense releases updated versions of our popular VA and DoD Fact Sheets. The statistics are very disturbing.

The Pentagon officially reported 72,043 battlefield casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan through Jan. 5, 2008 - PDF.

VA hospitals and clinics have already treated 263,909 unplanned patients from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - PDF. On top of that, VA reported 245,034 unanticipated disability claims from veterans of the two wars.

VCS issued warnings about this growing problem. On Veterans Day in 2007, VCS posted an editorial about how we believe VA and DoD mask the true costs of the two wars.

To assist you with making sense of the new Fact Sheets, a VCS analysis shows that between June 2007 and November 2007:

* The number of PTSD claims approved rose 80 percent (from 19,015 to 34,138), while the veteran population rose only 16 percent. The incidence of PTSD is dramatically rising, or VA is finally starting to take this problem more seriously, or both.

* 100 PTSD claims were approved every day. VA can expect tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands more PTSD claims from our new war veterans as more service members deploy to the war zone and then begin to return home.

* Veterans who served in the National Guard or Reserves were nearly three times as likely to have their VA disability compensation claim rejected (14% compared to 5%). VCS remains concerned about the apparent unequal treatment faced by our veterans who were ordered to active duty in the war zone from the National Guard and Reserves.

While the PTSD claims situation may be improving slightly due to intense pressure brought about by the VCS and Veterans United for Truth lawsuit against VA, there are still nearly 18,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans diagnosed by VA with PTSD who are not yet receiving VA disability payments.

VCS believes that VA is still not properly reviewing and approving PTSD claims for veterans already diagnosed with PTSD by VA doctors. This means VA continues to deny and delay essential disability payments for our veterans that could be the difference between paying the rent or becoming homeless.

Wounded Warrior Update: Last week, the House voted to include the "Dignity for Wounded Warriors Act" (formerly S 1606 and then HR 1585), in the new Defense Bill, HR 4986. Now we are waiting on the Senate to approve the bill. Sadly, the provision allowing our Gulf War veterans tortured by Iraq to sue the new Iraqi government was watered down.

Please share the critical information in your VCS Update with your friends, reporters, and elected officials so that they know the facts about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Please donate generously to VCS so we can keep reporting the accurate and complete facts about the human consequences of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. We appreciate your support so we can provide the policy advocacy that all our veterans need.

Thank you,

Paul Sullivan
Executive Director
Veterans for Common Sense

Dave Cline 1947-2007

Red Hill Films
54 min 25 sec - Jan 15, 2008

RIP Brother


A Documentary film on the life of peace activist Dave Cline by Andrew Courtney and Emily Perry Red Hill Films

You can find out more about Dave, that I have put together Here, collected from various sources after Dave passed away.

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan

Once Again, Our Country Needs Winter Soldiers



War crimes "encouraged?"
WATERTOWN, NY - "I was messed up in the head. It was okay for me. I laughed afterwards. We all did. It's just the way things go."
SNIP

But Turner says it wasn't his choice to be encouraged to do it from higher ranking officers. He and three other veterans speaking out Saturday at the Different Drummer Cafe in Watertown said committing war crimes is not only the way things go, but it's unofficial policy.
SNIP

You can read the rest at above link, along with catching the News 10 Video there as well.

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan
IVAW - Iraq Veterans Against The War - Winter Soldiers

Winter Soldiers, according to founding father Thomas Paine, are those who stand up for the soul of their country, even in its darkest hours.

A group of Iraq war veterans are planning a gathering in Washington D.C. in March to talk about war crimes they've seen or committed during their tours of duty.

4543 people have signed the Statement of Support - Add Your Name Now

***************

Also, an Important 'Shout Out' for Action from Military Spouses For Change

Please contact both of your Senators regarding S38.
Veterans' Mental Health Outreach and Access Act of 2007
Ask them to co-sponsor this bill. At this time, it has 13 co-sponsors.

S38 - 'A bill to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a program for the provision of readjustment and mental health services to veterans who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, and for other purposes.'

About This Legislation:

5/23/2007--Introduced.
Veterans' Mental Health Outreach and Access Act of 2007 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a program to provide to veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, particularly veterans who served in such Operations while in the National Guard and reserves: (1) peer outreach and support services; (2) readjustment counseling and related services; and (3) mental health services. Directs the Secretary to also provide to immediate family members of such veterans, during the three-year period following the return of the veterans from such a deployment, education, support, counseling, and mental health services to assist in: (1) readjustment to civilian life; (2) recovery from an injury or illness incurred during such deployment; and (3) readjustment of the family following the veteran's return.
Authorizes the Secretary to contract with community health centers and other qualified entities to provide such services in areas not adequately served by health care facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Requires the Secretary to: (1) contract for a program to train veterans to provide the peer outreach and support services; and (2) conduct a training program for clinicians of community health centers and entities contracted to provide such services.
Extends the eligibility for hospital care, medical services, and nursing home care for veterans who served on active duty in a theater of combat operations from two to five years after their discharge or release from such duty.

Congressional Legislation S38

AMEN Bob Schieffer, AMEN!!!

Schieffer On Gen. Tommy Franks

Click To Play

The Follies Of Fundraising

A Retired General Charged A Fee To Use His Name To Raise Money For Wounded Troops

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20, 2008

Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

View it again with their Player the traffic will show him you Care!

Peace History - This Past Week

Below you will find abit about the History of this Planet that makes for such a turbulent World to live in, from one of the many sites, found on the web and before that, and still, in the many history books written to supposedly help us humans remember and not repeat the failed policies and actions of the past.

These track the importance of what man does, the failures and the recognition, leading to the actions, or lack of, of many trying to right the wrongs to bring about a better World to exist in and leave a better World for those that follow.

We Fail Miserably in the study of the past, as we repeat the wrongs, more than the rights, over and over, while creating more wrongs!

One of the reasons for this post is a day, listed below, that is just one of the many wrongs that has led us to what is happening in the most reason history to the present. I'll point that day out at the bottom.

The little button with a BIG message

This Week in History is a collection designed to help us appreciate the fact that we are part of a rich history advocating peace and social justice. While the entries often focus on large and dramatic events there are so many smaller things done everyday to promote peace and justice.

To the real peace advocates - YOU!

This week at a glance.

Monday
Jan 14
•Treaty of Paris
•Draft found constitutional
•Rights and jobs for blacks
•Elected state rep refused his seat
•Ukraine shuns all nuclear weapons
•ELF Project protest arrests

A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (and widely considered de facto chief spokesperson for the African American working class) called for a march on Washington, demanding racial integration of the military and equal access to defense-industry jobs.
"On to Washington, ten thousand black Americans!" Randolph urged. He said in the fight to "stop discrimination in National Defense...While conferences have merit, they won't get desired results by themselves."

Tuesday
Jan 15
•Happy Birthday, Martin
A day on, not a day off
•Jeannette Rankin Brigade
•Fish-in trial

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. The son of a Baptist pastor, he followed in his father’s footsteps, then went on to lead the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and '60s, and to speak out against the Vietnam war.
In 1955 Dr. King organized the first major protest of the civil rights movement: the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. Influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, he advocated nonviolent civil disobedience to end racial segregation. The peaceful protests he led throughout the American South were often met with violence and arrest, but King and his followers persisted.
His inspiration, leadership and eloquence helped tens of millions claim the fundamental rights of citizenship, and changed the face of a nation.
A selected bibliography on and about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Since 1986, the third Monday in January has been designated a federal holiday honoring the greatness and sacrifice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A chronology:
April 4, 1968 Dr. King was assassinated. Shortly thereafter, U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) introduced legislation to create a federal holiday to commemorate Dr. King’s life and work.
January, 1973 Illinois became the first state to adopt MLK Day as a state holiday.
January, 1983 Rep. Conyers’s law was passed after 15 years
January, 1986 The United States first officially observed the federal King Day holiday.
January, 1987 Arizona Governor Evan Mecham rescinded state recognition of MLK Day as his first act in office, setting off a national boycott of the state.
January, 1993 Martin Luther King Day holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time.
Brief biography of Dr. King

Wednesday
Jan 16
•Joan Baez
sentenced
• Shah forced into exile
•El Salvadoran civil war ends
•Greenpeace acts for nuclear-free oceans

Faced with strikes, violent demonstrations, an army mutiny and clerical opposition to his repressive rule, the Shah of Iran, its hereditary monarch since 1941, was forced to flee the country. He had been installed in a CIA- and British-engineered 1953 coup which overthrew elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq. Mossadeq’s government had voted to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, displacing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
The U.S. gave substantial and continuous military and intelligence support to the Shah throughout his regime. Despite having imposed martial law the previous October, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi fled the Peacock Throne for Egypt and, later, the U.S. for medical care. Following the subsequent revolutionary overthrow, an Islamist state under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was established.
Chronology of Iran in the 20th century
more about the Shah

Thursday
Jan 17
•U.S. takes control of Hawaii
•100 years of U.S. control
•Ike gives fair warning
•La Raza Unida
•Half million say no to Iraq War

In frigid temperatures, 500,000 converged on Washington, D.C. to oppose the U.S. war on Iraq – the largest U.S. peace demonstration since the Vietnam era.

Friday
Jan 18
•WWI Paris Peace Conference
•The smell of Agent Orange in the morning
•McGovern runs against Vietnam war
•U.S. refuses to face World Court

U.S. began spraying herbicides on foliage in Vietnam to eliminate jungle canopy cover for Viet Cong guerrillas (a policy known as "territory denial"). The U.S. dropped more than 20 million gallons of such defoliants, sparking charges the United States was violating international treaties against using chemical weapons. Many of the herbicides, particularly Agent Orange, manufactured by Dow Chemical, Monsanto and others, were later found to cause birth defects and otherwise rare forms of cancer in humans.
Agent Orange: An Ongoing Atrocity

Saturday
Jan 19
•Julian Bond refused his seat
•March against 1st Gulf war

The Georgia State House of Representatives refused to seat black state representative Julian Bond despite his election the previous November.
Their stated objection was his endorsement of a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee statement accusing the United States of violating international law in Vietnam.
In December 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Bond’s exclusion unconstitutional, and Bond was finally sworn in the following month.

Sunday
Jan 20
•ACLU founded
•“ Final Solution”
•Bush II inauguration protest

Nazi Party and German government officials arrived at what they called the "final solution to the Jewish question in Europe."
They developed plans for the coordinated and systematic extermination of all Europe's Jews during a meeting at a villa near Lake Wannsee in Berlin. Notes of the meeting recorded by Adolf Eichmann used vague terms such as "transportation to the east" or "evacuation to the east" (nach dem Osten abgeshoben). But at his trial for genocide Eichmann testified of the meeting that "the discussion covered killing, elimination, and annihilation."
More on the Wannsee conference

You can look at the list above and find many comparisons to things happening today, or in the recent past.

I won't give the History of what led up to this day, January 16 1979, I leave it to you, if you don't know, to research on your own. But scroll back up and find out more about our failed policies concerning the installation of our wants into anothers country, taking down a Democratically Elected leader, and Installing the Shah of Iran!

While you research the Shah, or before, you may want to view this video of our Good Friend, Saddam, Thanks For The Memories. This was put together by Eric, over at Bush Flash, it now seems so long ago, directly after our Illegal Invasion of an Innocent Country, well before the YouTubes though. Oh you can research the information Eric put together as well, it's History.

You also should study more about the Mujahadeen and their fight against the Illegal Invasion, by the Soviets, into Afganistan. As the U.S. were their major Arms Dealer of Weapons of Mass Destruction helping them Defeat the Soviet invasion, the invasion and bloody war helping in the final collapse of that union, and what the U.S. promised but never delivered once the Soviets left.

Many should also Study the complete History of the Whole Region, especially as to how these Nation States came about to their present forms!

History repeats and repeats and repeats................, only the names change, lessons never learned, as the few try to better the past players!