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Today Marks Two Year Anniversary of The Iraq War
I have just returned soaking wet from a four hour march to commemorate the 2nd anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. I am a little saddened at the need to do this once again, but also feeling proud of my city. I wished that I'd taken more than one battery, as I've been photographing political events since I was a teen during the Vietnam war and like to be able to shoot and shoot. Some of us even used umbrellas today. I was ready with my portable caffeine.
My favorite sign was "I will never be able to retire, thanks to Bush!" Our rally started at the Seattle Center and we were then joined by feeder marchers from all over the city and headed downtown and back, approximately 3 miles in rain. We got a uniformly good reception, with lots of peace signs and thumbs ups. We had all age represented from babes in arms to grandparents, and punks, vets, teachers - all walks of life.
In Seattle we were very civil, and the police contingent was small with mostly bicycle cops and a few motorcycle cops. I did not see any riot gear nor did I feel any hostile energy as I have at times in the past. The event was emotional, intelligent, festive and mellow at the same time. One of the most impressive speakers was an Afghan war vet who had been a backer for the "war on terror" until he came to realize the real motives for the war and the extent of the lies. We had our giant globe that shows up at these marches and our big Backbone with progressive platform components written on each vertebrae. We had our drums and beautiful umbrellas and did not mind the rain. My crowd estimate was about 10,000.
I have summarized information about other rallies. I checked Associates Press and IndyMedia sources, but usually take crowd estimates with a grain of salt unless they have been checked aerially by helicopter. More than 725 rallies took place today, more than double the number from last year. The events that preceded the war were very large, with 11 million in one day on 2/15/2003.
In San Francisco thousands of protesters rallied and some held up photographs of dead American soldiers. A protester dressed in a prison hood was surrounded by people wearing neocon masks and dancing to "Shout" by the Isley Brothers.
Police with batons lines the streets but reported no problems. San Francisco rallies are always highly theatrical.
In Chicago, hundreds of police escorted about a thousand marchers to a rally at the Federal Plaza. There were no arrests, unlike two years ago when there were hundreds. Seattle rallies can be ominous.
In New York, activists stopped traffic by lying down alongside coffins and there were some arrests for civil disobedience. They listened to anti-war speeches at the United Nations across Manhattan to Times Square, where police penned them in.
In Pittsburgh, more than 1,000 marched through Pittsburgh, including many who initially supported the war but have since changed their minds, according to a protest organizer. "I think people realize the tide is turning" and that to protest isn't seen as unpatriotic, he said.
In Ft. Bragg, NC about 3000, with many veterans and military families, protested against the war, hoping to help bring the troops home more quickly.
Main sponsors of that protest include Veterans For Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Military Families Speak Out.
In the small town of Cottage Grove, Ore., about 230 protesters walked two-by-two through the streets, some holding a half-mile-long chain of flags bearing the names of American troops and Iraqi children killed during the war.
About 300 demonstrators also gathered in front of the New Mexico National Guard Armory in Albuquerque, where pieces of paper featuring the names and faces of dead American soldiers were glued to the sidewalk.
In London, 100,000 protesters marched from Hyde Park past the American Embassy to Trafalgar Square. Security was heavy outside the US Embassy with barricades. Former British soldiers placed a cardboard coffin bearing the words "100,000 dead" outside the embassy. British elections will occur in May so this added some charge, as Blair's backing of the war has dented his popularity.
In Rome, marchers with banners called for the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq. "Iraq to the Iraqis!" read one banner
In Istanbul, Turkey, 15,000 people marched to protest against the US presence in Iraq. Two marchers dressed like US soldiers pretended to rough up another, who was dressed as a detainee with a sack on his head. In southern Turkey, near a US base, protesters laid a black wreath in front of the US Consulate.
In Poland, which has 1700 troops in Iraq, protesters held banners reading "Pullout of Iraq Now" and "Poles Back to Poland." In another city, a person dressed as a blindfolded Statue of Liberty urged the US and Britain to leave Iraq.
Demonstrations were also planned in nine Spanish cities.
In Athens,trade unionists, peace groups and students, brought the city to a standstill for about three hours as they marched to the US Embassy.
In Sweden, protesters filled the main square in downtown Stockholm, chanting: "USA, out of Iraq!"
In Norway, about 400 people rallied to demand that the 10 Norwegian officers in Baghdad be sent home. Norway has previously withdrawn 150 soldiers from Iraq.
The protests were not as big as those in February 2003, just before the war when millions marched in cities around the world to urge George Bush and his allies not to attack Iraq. Nevertheless, support for the war has not grown and it drags on and on. People of conscience need to voice their dissent.
Here is the transcript of an Amy Goodman interview. More than 725 anti-war protests and events were scheduled across the country on March 19th to mark the second anniversary of the invasion Iraq and she interviewed some of the organizers.
AMY GOODMAN: Yesterday, Yoruba Richen, one of our producers, spoke with organizers around the country to get a sense of what was happening in their communities.
LOU PLUMMER: My name is Lou Plummer, and I'm a member of Military Families Speak Out. I live in Fayetteville, North Carolina, right outside of Ft. Bragg. On Saturday, March 19, we are having a rally that's sponsored by Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and the Gold Star Families for Peace. This will be a rally, of course, marking the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and there are approximately 20,000 to 25,000 people from our community who have been in Iraq. A great many of them were -- didn't come away with that, with a big warm, fuzzy feeling inside, so we organized this event as veterans and members of military families to give people an opportunity to speak their opposition with the added ingredient that there are people who have been to Iraq and who have seen what's going on there firsthand.
BOB KRZEWINSKI: My name is Bob Krzewinski with Veterans for Peace for Southeast Michigan. We're going to have our Arlington Midwest display of one cross for every dead soldier killed in Iraq. It'll be on Saturday at Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit. This is Bob Krzewinski of Veterans for Peace of Southeast Michigan. We're going to be having our Arlington Midwest display of one cross for every soldier killed in Iraq. This will be in downtown Detroit at Grand Circus Park on Saturday and in Ann Arbor at the university central campus on Sunday.
BILL HACKWELL: My name is Bill Hackwell. I'm with the ANSWER Coalition in San Francisco. On the 19th, this Saturday, which is the second anniversary of the illegal war against Iraq, tens of thousands of people are expected in San Francisco. We're having an opening rally at the Dolores Park, the traditional spot of anti-war rallies in San Francisco in the Mission. After that, we'll be marching down to the Civic Center where there will be a following rally. Significant in this year is that we're starting to see sort of a groundswell of grassroots organizations who haven't always come out for the anti-war marches, maybe have supported it, but haven't come out in numbers.
FRIDA BERRIGAN: I'm Frida Berrigan. I'm with the War Resisters League, a local organization in Manhattan and Brooklyn. And we're organizing funeral processions to recruiting stations around the city. In Manhattan, we'll be meeting in the morning at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza and carrying coffins representing Iraqi and American victims of the war. We'll be carrying those coffins along 42nd Street to the Times Square recruiting station where some of our participants will commit civil disobedience and block the doors of the recruiting station. Simultaneously, actions will happen in Brooklyn on Flatbush Avenue and in the Bronx on Fordham Road. In both locations there are military recruiting stations, and activists will be carrying coffins and photographs of Iraqi and American victims of the war.
PHUNG VO: This is Phung Vo. I'm calling from Toledo, Ohio. On the anniversary of - the second anniversary of the Iraq war, the organization Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition is going to set up an event called Arlington Midwest at the University of Toledo, where we put over 1,500 tombstones with the names of the American fallen in Afghanistan and Iraq at the campus of University of Toledo.
BRIAN STEWART: Hi, this is Brian Stewart. I'm with Work for Peace in Downeast Maine, and on Saturday, we're doing a teach-in at the university. And Sunday, we're putting up 100-mile memorial along the highways of Downeast Maine, remembering the names of people who have been killed in Iraq.
EDWINA VOGAN: This is Edwina Vogan from Phoenix, Arizona. And there are two events, two of several, actually, but one is Saturday morning by the Department of Peace in downtown Phoenix; and then, the other one is Saturday afternoon between 5:00 and 7:00, and it's by the Arizona Alliance of Peaceful Justice, and it's a candlelight vigil and memorial service. And it's to remember the war dead in Iraq, and that's because it was an illegal war based on lies and deception.
LEE HUGHES: Hi. This is Lee Hughes. I'm from Act Now, which is in Australia in Cambra, and this Saturday, on March 19, we'll be protesting against, you know, the war in Iraq and reminding people that two years on from the invasion, Australians still oppose the war. We think that with 100,000 Iraqis dead, and the U.S. just moving further and further away from actually bringing democracy to Iraq, we should bring the troops home and, you know, we should let Iraqis rebuild their own country.
AMY GOODMAN: Voices of dissent on this eve of the invasion of Iraq, the second anniversary of the invasion.
Thanks for the excellent article on how the Iraq war is being protested around the world. And yes, if the US had a few more cities like Seattle (like maybe one in Ohio?), our lives might be a lot different about now. Keep up the good work.
Jim
I think this whole Schiavo case serves some very convenient purposes for the Repubs:
*First and foremost, they get to toss a bone to their pro-life/anti-gay constituency who has been feeling a bit dissed lately.
*Pushes the Iraq War anniversary to Page 2
*Takes Tom "Hot Tub" DeLay's problems off the radar.
Just a little story about suburban Chicago candle light vigil
Approximately 100 people showed up (much better than the 50 expected) and we stood on four corners of one of the main intersections of the village. On one of the corners is a restaurant. People were enjoying their Saturday evening dinner, and one diner decided to see what was happening outside of the restaurant. He approached us and asked what was going on? Some of us explained and he got a broad smile across his face. He asked if we had any information. We gave him our literature about voting reform and the flyer I made about the DCP. As a matter of fact, I gave him four flyers to share with his dinner companions. I passed out a total of forty flyers.
Also an elderly woman driving in the passenger seat of a late model white Cadillac gave us the thumbs up sign. Many drivers in the town also honked in support.
By the way, Henry Hyde is our town's congressional rep.
DiAnne: Thanks for the report! I think that we should try to emulate San Francisco a bit more in our street presence:The theatricality that Bay Area "manifestations" always contain have the appeal to win a lot of hearts and minds, and are a lot of fun to be part of. (Is anyone else here old enough to remember the anti-Vietnam focus of some of the 'Bread and Puppet Theatre' productions?' Something like that would be entertaining and enlightening.) Sorry I had to work today and miss the march. In your photos of the crowd, Photoshop in a dotted outline for me as a "not pictured" participant- I was there in heart.
Oh here's a lovely way to win friends and influence people around the world, and especially in North Korea... And here's thre real reason why Miss Condi is in the far east...
U.S. Misled Allies About Nuclear Export
N. Korean Material Landed In Pakistan, Instead of Libya
n an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.
But that is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold the material to Libya. The U.S. government had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction.
Pakistan's role as both the buyer and the seller was concealed to cover up the part played by Washington's partner in the hunt for al Qaeda leaders, according to the officials, who discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity. In addition, a North Korea-Pakistan transfer would not have been news to the U.S. allies, which have known of such transfers for years and viewed them as a business matter between sovereign states.
The Bush administration's approach, intended to isolate North Korea, instead left allies increasingly doubtful as they began to learn that the briefings omitted essential details about the transaction, U.S. officials and foreign diplomats said in interviews. North Korea responded to public reports last month about the briefings by withdrawing from talks with its neighbors and the United States.
In an effort to repair the damage, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is traveling through East Asia this weekend trying to get the six-nation talks back on track. The impasse was expected to dominate talks today in Seoul and then Beijing, which wields the greatest influence with North Korea.
--snip--
The United States briefed allies on North Korea in late January and early February. Shortly afterward, administration officials, speaking to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, said North Korea had sold uranium hexafluoride to Libya. The officials said the briefing was arranged to share the information with China, South Korea and Japan ahead of a new round of hoped-for negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program.
But in recent days, two other U.S. officials said the briefings were hastily arranged after China and South Korea indicated they were considering bolting from six-party talks on North Korea. The talks have been seen as largely ineffectual, but the Bush administration, which refuses to meet bilaterally with Pyongyang, insists they are critical to curbing North Korea's nuclear program.
The White House declined to offer an official to comment by name about the new details concerning Pakistan. A prepared response attributed to a senior administration official said that the U.S. government "has provided allies with an accurate account of North Korea's nuclear proliferation activities."
--snip--
Two years ago, U.S. officials told allies that North Korea was trying to assemble an enrichment facility that would turn uranium hexafluoride to bomb-grade material.
But China and South Korea, in particular, have been skeptical of those assertions and are becoming increasingly wary of pressuring North Korea.
The National Security Council briefings in late January and early February, by senior NSC officials Michael J. Green and William Tobey, were intended to do just that by keeping the spotlight solely on North Korea.
Pakistan was mentioned only once in the briefing paper, and in a context that emphasized Pyongyang's guilt. "Pakistani press reports have said the uranium came from North Korea," according to the briefing paper, which was read to The Post.
After initial press reports about the briefing appeared last month, Pyongyang announced that it possessed nuclear weapons and would not return to the six-party talks.
Pritchard said North Korea's reaction was "absolutely linked" to the Green-Tobey trip.
The United States tried to persuade North Korea to return to the talks, but without success. The North Korean leadership responded with a list of conditions, including a demand that Rice apologize for calling it an "outpost of tyranny."
During the first stop on her Asian tour, Rice used noticeably softer language on North Korea, telling a Tokyo audience that the U.S. offer was open to negotiation, and that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il should grab the opportunity.
Read the whole article at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50241-2005Mar19.html
I think this whole Schiavo case provides yet another opportunity for the right to campaign. It is absurd, and yet the right exploits this young lady, and her husband and parents by making it a moral case used as progagana If Bush
is present I woud hope John Kerry would present our case with moral clarity, using more values frames. John has "it":personality, looks and action. Terry Shiavo is now nothing more than a pawn in a powerply. Look for more distrations to come with alot of the terms killers, welfare babies, to name only a few, coupled together with shots being taken at Dem's morality values .
DiAnne--
Much gratitude for such comprehensive coverage of today's protest marches. It is uplifting to know that the war is not universally accpeted and applauded in the 'real world'
As expected, coverage by the former main stream media was over shadowed by the events surrounding Terri Schiavo. How very convenient. And sad, too.
While we are at over 1500 dead in Iraq, we have yet to hear about how the 'culture of life' is respected in an unjust war.
I cringe at how the children of the future will look back at this time in our lives. Because there will be so little archived in the annals of television to give an honest reckoning to those children, I'm thrilled that there will always be the 'internets' who are storing honesty.
I want some child of the future to be able to read that we never gave up, never gave in, and never closed our eyes to the truth. When this ugly regime is finally boxed up, we can say that we were there for their day of reckoning.
Since I don't watch mainstream media, my exposure to the TS case was this blog & a Wired article that I read. I like to know what's going on, but with perspective, & not to let the mainstream media dictate which stories they think are important. I consider them propaganda and as I've said many times, I quit watching them in 1991. I have had so much more time, sanity and perspective.
One consolation is that some people don't see the biased "news" because they change the channel from "infotainment" to sports, cartoons or drama.
But then they don't know what's going on at all. I know people like this who have advanced degrees - sad.
My mom said she was happy to find out that there was a pretty good sized antiwar rally in Fargo, North Dakota.
So a local teenager goes to Washington Dc for a week of learning baout Government and meetings and presentations.
They meet with new local Senator, Randy Kuhl, who tells them about his breakfast meeting with the President and how important his work is and how important everyhting they are doing is and all attendees of the President's breakfast get a gift to remind them of the number one concern of the American public.
What gift did the Senator receivefrom the President?
A gas mask.
The Peace Movement
How Americans are fighting back against war and violence.
By Katherine Brengle, AlterNet.
A little over a week ago, I wrote a letter to the editor to my local newspaper in response to yet another right-wing clone carping about how Bill Clinton "gutted" the United States military.
Today, another neocon responded to my letter, saying, "the same sappy and anti-Bush canards made in recent letters to the editor, i.e., Bush is in favor of torturing prisoners and incarcerating innocent people, were made ad nauseam during the political campaign, and the American people had the good sense to reject them and re-elect President Bush."
The man who wrote such deriding comments about my letter also referred to Democrats as "liberal, pacifist, anti-military" ideologues.
Aside from the "ideologue" aspect of that, he couldn't be more right – I am a liberal. I am a pacifist. I am against the military-industrial complex.
What are the alternatives? To be a conservative, warmongering, overzealous capitalist? I'll take my chances holding onto a little idealism.
The wars that are fought on this beautiful planet are always about one thing – money. You can argue that wars are fought over human rights violations, to protect people in harm's way, and to overthrow tyrants, but you would be wrong.
When you boil down war to its essence, to the reasons why the powerful have chosen it, you will find the almighty dollar.
This is the difference between being a "liberal, pacifist, anti-military" activist, and being willing to shut your mouth because you believe everything the government and your ninth-grade history teacher have ever told you.
continue~
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/21533/
____________________________
Study: Media Self-Censored Some Iraq Coverage
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ep/20050318/en_bpiep/studymediaselfcensoredsomeiraqcoverage
or
http://tinyurl.com/3sk6e
________________________
Turn off fake news
Last year, at least 40 TV stations across the USA carried reports by Karen Ryan about the new Medicare drug benefit. It was all happy news — nothing about the bill's expense or the controversy over the pharmaceutical industry's role in getting it passed. That's because Karen Ryan wasn't a reporter. She was imitating a reporter for federal agencies preparing fake news broadcasts.
At his press conference Wednesday, President Bush defended his administration's practice of sending these sorts of taxpayer-financed “news” stories to local TV stations. No wonder. To the White House, the fake-news programming generated by at least 20 government agencies looks like a winner. In video news releases, the administration gets to sell voters on its Medicare benefit, its policy in Iraq and the No Child Left Behind education law without the annoying objectivity a real reporter might bring to the subject.
Hundreds of stations have aired these packaged releases and, according to The New York Times, some have tried to pass the government “reporter” off as one of their own.
This cozy arrangement works for the White House, which gets to spread its spin, and for unethical TV stations, which get free material to fill their broadcasts. But it doesn't work for the public, which pays to have itself fed propaganda — a practice better suited to a banana republic dictatorship.
snip~
Jon Stewart likes to bill his satiric Daily Show as “the most trusted name in fake news.” He shouldn't have competition for that honor from the federal government — or from local broadcasters.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050318/edtwo18.art.htm
___________________________
Enron: Patron Saint of Bush's Fake News
By Frank Rich
The New York Times
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/031805H.shtml
We saw the protests in US yesterday on TV and the biggest one in Europe took place in London.
The Shciavo case has been reported too, and we know that Bush interrumpted his week-end in order to be in Washington if he has to sign the law prohibiting euthanasia.
The same kind of case, 2 years ago, started a very high debate in France that ended up in a pro euthanasia law. But there is a big difference, it was grounded on ethics not on religious believes.
Our 1905 law definitely separating church from state makes it impossible to get things mixed. It's like a China wall, laws belong to the public field and religions to the private one.
it's because of that very law that fundamentalists and born again automatically fall in the "sects" category...that are prohibited.
Thank God, if i may say so!
~a good read with your Sunday morning coffee~
Slogans: Good. Policy: Bad.
By Will Durst, AlterNet.
Will Durst offers U.S. foreign policy extreme makeover slogans.
"You Keep the Sand, We’ll Take the Oil"
President Bush tapped Karen Hughes this week to be his extra special super secret advisor whose mission, should she choose to accept it, is to repair the image of the U.S. overseas, particularly in the Arab world.
snip~
It’ll be interesting to see what measures Ms. Hughes takes when she finds out the problem isn’t so much our lousy public relations but our lousy foreign policies. You want to improve America’s image, I’ll tell you how to improve America’s image. Put a leash on Rumsfeld and stop treating the rest of the world like it smells funny and made a doo doo on the shag rug in front of Mother Teresa’s holier sister on Easter.
I got to say, creating the position of Spinmeister General does makes sense; at least we’re playing to our strengths. As a country we have always excelled at selling the sizzle over the steak. Just last fall, this nation’s veterans chose a borderline deserter over a decorated war hero. And the responsibility for that feat can be laid directly at the altar of advertising. There you go: enlist the Swift Boat Veterans to launch an international campaign finally revealing the truth about Osama’s chronic bed wetting.
If Karen Hughes plans to craft a cuddlier image for us, she’s going to need a little help. OK, she’s going to need a lot of help. An aircraft carrier group of help. And I’m thinking some snappy slogans could come in handy. Quick. Simple. Buzz-worthy. So, in the interest of patriotism, I’m offering up a few. Gratis. Don’t thank me, I’m here to help.
U.S. FOREIGN POLICY EXTREME MAKEOVER SLOGANS:
* When Democracy Reigns, It Pours.
* America: Just a Big Red White and Blue Teddy Bear With a Whole Lot of Guns.
* Snap. Crackle. Pow. Thud.
* Be All We Think You Should Be.
* Tastes Great. Less Torture.
* They Don’t Call Us The GREAT Satan For Nothing.
* America 2.0. Now With Improved Press Suppression.
* What’s So Bad About Bread And Circuses Anyway?
* John Wayne: Not Just an Actor. A Way Of Life.
* Don’t Like Us? Get in Line.
* I’d Walk A Mile For A Camel.
* The US: The Ultimate Lying Machine.
* Wouldn’t You Really Rather Have A Republic?
* Badges, We Don’t Need No Stinking Badges.
* Friendly Fire R Us.
* Democracy: Just Do It.
* You’re In Good Hands With Our State.
* You Keep the Sand, We’ll Take the Oil.
* Sometimes You Feel Like a Crazed Tyrannical Despot, Sometimes You Don’t.
* Freedom: Breakfast of Champions.
* We’re Everywhere You Want To Be. Deal With It.
* The New Improved Low-Carb, Atkins-Friendly America.
* Got Grenades?
* Don’t Leave Home Without It. No, Really. Stay in Your Homes.
* I Can’t Believe I Invaded The Whole Peninsula.
* Autonomy: Its the Real Thing.
* The Best Part Of Waking Up Is No Dead Bodies On Your Doorstep.
* Aren’t You Glad You Use a Free Market Economy? Don’t You Wish Everybody Did?
* Better Living Through Sovereignty.
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/21528/
Our very own DCP blogger oncall and his peace vigil made the Chicago Tribune...
Protesters mark 2 years of war in Iraq
--snip--
In DuPage County, more than 100 people braved the cold and drizzle to hold a candlelight vigil in downtown Glen Ellyn. As one woman passed by the peace activists, she commented that opponents and supporters of the war all want the same thing.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0503200026mar20,1,6971821.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=3&cset=true
Thousands rally to protest Iraq war
Seattle Times
As military families go, Lietta Ruger said, she is as red, white and blue as any proud mother.
But how could she reconcile her loyalty to the armed forces with her disdain for the Iraq war?
For months, she kept silent — until her son-in law faced mortar attacks every night at his Baghdad compound. That's when the Episcopal preacher in her came out.
Ruger, 53, of Bay Center, Pacific County, spoke out against the war on PBS' "The NewsHour" with Jim Lehrer last fall and to her congregation at St. John's Episcopal Church in South Bend, Pacific County.
And again yesterday: On the second anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, she gave an impassioned speech explaining why she believes the war in Iraq is unjust, before a crowd of anti-war protesters at Seattle Center. Organizers put the number of participants at 5,000.
The Seattle protest, put together by the Church Council of Greater Seattle, Washington State Jobs with Justice and Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War, was part of a worldwide movement designed to place pressure on the military and get attention from Washington, D.C.
More than 700 marches, rallies, peace vigils and protests were held in communities from California to Illinois to New York, twice the number as last year, according to national organizers.
Thousands joined similar protests in European cities — 45,000 in London, according to The Associated Press. On both sides of the Atlantic, the protests were passionate but largely peaceful. Seattle police made no arrests.
In Seattle, Ruger, whose son-in-law and nephew are about to serve their second tour in Iraq, and who herself was raised in a military family, addressed the crowd knowing that "a lot of military [families] are not very happy with my message."
But, she said, "You should not let someone else define patriotism for you."
After the rally, the crowd marched in the rain from Seattle Center to Westlake Park and back. Several groups of students and political activists who had rallied elsewhere earlier in the day joined in the 90-minute march.
Among the marchers were church groups, labor unions and campus clubs, veterans and military spouses, organizers said.
There were protesters such as retired Lt. John Oliveira, 39, of Darrington, who told the Seattle Center crowd that he resigned from the Navy last year because he didn't want to continue pitching a war he didn't believe in.
Two years ago, Oliveira said, he looked into the cameras of several television networks and "sold this war as a war on terrorism, removing weapons of mass destruction and the Iraqi nuclear threat.
"Well, we have found out that that was the biggest lie ever perpetrated on the American people," he said.
Ruger feels more at peace now that she is expressing her displeasure over the war and what it is doing to her family, she said. While her son-in-law served 15 months in Iraq, she had to console her daughter and help out by baby-sitting her three grandchildren.
Ruger declined to give her son-in-law's name but said "He will do his mission, but his preference is to be home." He is a 25-year old Army sergeant. "If I could do it, I would go in his place," she said.
The woman who once stayed silent now lobbies Olympia lawmakers to get the Washington National Guard out of Iraq and has joined a military-family group against the war.
Ruger, who grew up on a military base in Japan and 11 years ago married a Vietnam veteran, Arthur Ruger, 57, said, "I have absolute pride in the military."
Her husband also gave the crowd some advice: "You can be against the war, you can disagree with Bush and still be a patriot."
Media Downplay Historic Day of Protests Truthout
Fayetteville, NC -- The second anniversary of the war was the impetus for major demonstrations throughout the world. In the United States, over 800 communities held events calling for an end to the occupation.
CNN, however, reported that in the United States "barely a ripple was made while large protests took place in Europe." The New York Times reported that protests in the United States ranged from 350 people in Times Square to thousands in San Francisco. Later in the same story, the Times reported that several thousand marched from Harlem to Central Park. If thousands marched in New York, why did the Times highlight the 350 in Times Square?
CNN's report was worse … nothing about US protests. While they only saw a ripple, a huge wave passed them by. If CNN had been in Fayetteville, North Carolina, they would have seen what could be a major turning point in the anti-war movement. The largest Anti-war protest ever in this heavily military town took place.
The march was led by two banners carried by family members of soldiers who died or served in Iraq. The first banner said "The World Still Says No to War" and the second banner was "Bring the Troops Home Now." A few feet behind was a banner carried by Veterans of the Iraq War. One of those veterans, Sergeant Camillo Mejia, recently served 9 months in jail for refusing to return to Iraq after leave. Mejia told the crowd: "After going to war and seeing its ugly face, I could no longer be a part of it."
Following the Iraq Veterans was Military Families Speak Out. "I can't remain silent on these issues, slap a yellow ribbon on my car and call it supporting our troops," said Kara Hollingsworth, the wife of a soldier serving his second tour of duty in Iraq. "I support our troops by making sure they are not put in harm's way unless absolutely necessary."
Many veterans of past wars were also among the ranks. Sections of the march resembled army units marching in formation calling cadence.
Speaker after speaker told stories of loved ones they had lost during the war and the now 2-year-old occupation of Iraq. Flag-draped mock coffins were carried by many.
Congresswoman Lynn Woosley of California called on the crowd to lobby Congress in support of House Concurrent Resolution 35, calling on the President to bring U.S. troops home.
The March was part of a series of events aimed at breathing new life into the anti-war movement. The first-ever Iraq Veterans Against the War national conference is also taking place, along with a Conference of Military Families Speak Out. A third major conference of Southern anti-war organizers is also taking place in Fayetteville.
CNN missed the boat … perhaps a good thing for them, since they were only prepared for a ripple and not the giant wave that formed in Fayetteville.
This is the text of an article my friend will soon put up on St Paul Mpls IndyMedia:
Star Tribune shows Photo of Bush-Cheney supporter at War Protest
Abstract (photo will show woman with hot pink underwear that says "Expose Bush" on it)
More than 1000 persons in Minneapolis at about midday protested to mark the second anniversary of the Iraq war. Roughy 350 persons protested later that evening in St Paul. There was very little coverage in the corporate media. View the images on this site to see what the media are hiding from their readers and viewers.
Main Story
I know, we are supposed to be ecstatic about the elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, but is everything going so smoothly that Americans and the world should feel good about the US war machine? According to a Washington Post/ABC news poll, 54% of Americans believe the Iraq war was not worth fighting. World opinion is even tougher. Many wonder whether Bush has opened the gates of democracy or the gates to hell.
The administration, especially President George W. Bush, keeps citing the elections in Iraq and Afghanistan as hallmarks of success in those two countries. But what is the reality?
1) In Afghanistan, President Karzai is called the mayor of Kabul because his government has little or no control outside the capitol. It’s no wonder that Afgahanistan is now responsible for 87% of the worlds’ opium crop. The Taliban had many negative traits but they were able to nearly eliminate the opium crop. By contrast, this newly elected “democracy” is judged to be a “threat to world stability” in a report delivered recently to congress by Secretary of State Rice. Is international dominance in the drug market a mark of success for a capitalistic democracy?
2) Iraq is in chaos. Law and order is nonexistent and the major cities are controlled by terrorists and thugs. Elections were held but a government has still not been formed. . Newly elected officials have met one time in the Green Zone, the only place that is safe for them to gather. Many Iraqis are questioning why they risked their lives to vote. Iraqis and US soldiers continue to die each day which only adds to the massive death statistics. Estimates are that over 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died.
Many US citizens are concerned that their tax dollars are going toward the Iraq war, a war that was justified based on lies about WMD. So why did the Star Tribune when it covered the anti-war rally elect to feature one pro-war supporter holding a Bush-Cheney 04 sign in the only photo related to the article? The photo also showed in the background an anti-war protester holding a “stolen elections” sign. Is it because they don’t want its readership to think about the difficult issues? Would they rather frame the debate as one related to partisan politics?
One thing the media do cover well is sports events, celebrity trials, and gory kidnappings and child murders. A recent focus of our national legislators has been drug use by professional baseball players. The press, the congress and the president, are intent on saving the life of a brain-dead woman. This brain-dead woman is judged not to have functioning cerebral cortices, the parts of the brain responsible for cognition. Without a cerebral cortex, a person is not much different than a potted plant. Too bad the congress isn’t as enthusiastic about passing legislation that would provide medical care to sick US citizens with a cerebral cortices who are dying because they are unable to pay for treatment of their diseases. Too bad, too, that the media are focusing on celbrity trials while US legislators just passed a budget bill that cut education and health care while providing millionaires with additional tax breaks.
If you want to hear more about the Michael Jackson trial join the potted plants in homes throughout the nation and tune in to your TV. But if you want to know what some of the real issues are related to the war, look at the photos I took of the protesters. Hopefully, these photos will help to, as one protester put it, "expose Bush."
I would also like to urge you to call the Star Tribune and tell them you are disappointed in their coverage. I plan to cancel my subscription.
from Bert at MN Vets for Peace:
Soldiers' Families to Hold Anti-War Rally at Ft. Bragg
Military families and veterans are helping organize a major anti-war rally outside Fort Bragg in North Carolina that could draw
several thousand people Saturday, the second anniversary of the Iraq war.
Groups such as Iraq Veterans Against The War and Gold Star Families for Peace, whose members have lost relatives in Iraq, will play a prominent role.
"We figured if we formed and used our grief in a positive way that could be very powerful," says Cindy Sheehan, a member of Gold Star Families For Peace from Vacaville, Calif., near San Francisco.
Sheehan says U.S. soldiers in Iraq need to come home, but she knows her son will not be among them. Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old
Army specialist, was killed in April during an ambush in the Sadr City section of Baghdad.
Groups like Gold Star Families For Peace, made up of 60 families, and Iraq Veterans Against the War, with nearly 200 members, were formed within the last nine months. The members were brought together by grief and opposition to the Iraq conflict. More than 1,500 U.S.
servicemembers have died in Iraq.
These new groups are one component of a national anti-war effort, says Andrew Pearson of the North Carolina Peace and Justice Coalition, one of the march's organizers. Since the November
elections, there has been "a strategic reorientation for the anti-war movement. And a lot of it coming from the direction of leadership of military families and veterans," he says.
Nancy Lessin of Military Families Speak Out says the march outside Fort Bragg this weekend could draw several thousand people to nearby Fayetteville, N.C. The Army base is home to the 82nd Airborne Division and has 46,000 active-duty soldiers. Fifty-three soldiers from the base have died in Iraq.
"We're showing folks all over the country and the world that even in the military community, there's huge opposition to the continuation of the Iraq war," Pearson says.
A similar rally in Fayetteville on the first anniversary fell short of the 2,000 people predicted, city spokesman Jason Brady says.
He said the local police are working with this year's organizers "to make sure it works out smoothly."
Lessin, of Boston, says military families calling for an end to the U.S. presence in Iraq are battling the notion their stance is disloyal. "There's a code of silence we struggle with that says we shouldn't be speaking out," Lessin says. For many people, supporting the troops means supporting the war, she says.
Her group's 2,000 members have met with members of Congress, held educational forums and will be speaking at protests throughout the
country.
"Real support is to bring them home now," Lessin said of the troops in Iraq. "We fully recognize you don't bring 150,000 troops out overnight, that this is going to take some months to do safely, but that's really what needs to happen."
Others disagree. "I think what they're doing is reprehensible," says Kristinn Taylor of the Washington, D.C., chapter of Free Republic, a national group dedicated to conservative causes that plans to have counter-demonstrators at the North Carolina rally. "They're working to undermine the morale of the families and
the soldiers."
United For Peace and Justice, a coalition of anti-war groups, says various organizations are planning protests beyond the anniversary and workshops to counter military recruiters.
About 500 people from more than 270 anti-war groups met in St. Louis the weekend of Feb. 19 to plan educational campaigns and counterrecruitment seminars, says Bill Dobbs of United for Peace and
Justice.
In Vermont, 49 of 57 communities approved non-binding resolutions March 1 - the state's Town Meeting Day - calling for withdrawing U.S.
troops from Iraq. Most of the resolutions also call for an assessment of how the state is being affected by the high deployment of its National Guard.
Tiny Vermont has the highest per capita death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq. And on a per capita basis, the Vermont National Guard has
the second highest deployment of troops overseas, says Lt. Veronica Saffo, spokeswoman for the state's National Guard.
"I think more and more people are beginning to understand that the costs of the war extend beyond the horrible number of deaths ...occurring in Iraq," says Joseph Gainza of the American Friends Service Committee, which helped lead the petition drive.
Anti-War Youth Activism Explodes
Alternet.com
As goes Greensboro, so goes the nation.
Don't believe me? Greensboro, N.C. is a bellwether for the pulse of students across the country. This southern city has seven colleges
and universities in its metropolitan area. These schools range in size and political temperament from the small and liberal Guilford and Bennett Colleges to larger, more conservative institutions such as Elon University and University of North Carolina-Greensboro
(UNCG). As a whole, Greensboro and Guilford County are also a good microcosm of the country. Mostly rural North Carolina voted for Bush,
but more urban Guilford County and Greensboro narrowly voted for Kerry. Greensboro also attracts lots of out-of-state students - for
example, two-thirds of Guilford College's students are out of state, letting us have our finger on the pulse of the nation.
And something's happening here. I'm a sophomore at Guilford and there's an energy here that I haven't seen in nearly two years of
organizing on this campus. Since late January, our campus has been consumed by organizing for a large demonstration against the Iraq War
in nearby Fayetteville (home of Ft. Bragg) on March 19. In our first two days of tabling, we signed up 80 students to attend the march.
Students are engaged and determined to take action on Iraq.
This specific demonstration that we're working toward is unusual as well. It will bring together military families, veterans, and their supporters for a rally calling for the United States to bring the troops home and end the war. That's unusual because most in our activist community don't identify with military families and veterans, for several reasons. First, Guilford is a Quaker school, and many in our activist community are pacifists. Cultural and class conflicts have often made our organizing more fragmented than it should be. Yet, a higher number than usual of our students (compared
to other actions) are not only committed to going to the demonstration, but are actively organizing on our campus as well.
For example, we are reaching more and more students who are natives of the South. Some of the main leaders of our organizing committee for the March 19th action were born and raised in
Greensboro. A specific person who signed up to get involved recently stands out in my mind - this guy, an adult education student at Guilford, is a native of North Carolina who is a semi-retired 11-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps and drives race cars for a living. You don't get much more "red state" than that.
His and other veterans' involvement in the movement reflect a main theme of thedemonstration that is set for March 19. The peace movement is generally seeing more people who are directly affected by the war, namely veterans and their families, speaking out.
Anecdotes from Guilford are, of course, not the best determinant of the level of student activism in Greensboro. After all, Guilford
is a Quaker school with a strong history of progressive political action. Yet, something is happening across Greensboro as well. Students are organizing on all seven campuses for this demonstration. For the first time we are actively coordinating our work by forming the Greensboro Student Action Coalition (GSAC). The coalition's first big event, a teach-in connecting student activism to the peace work of military veterans, drew over 50 student activists from across
Greensboro to network and strategize around ending the war. This event also attracted widespread attention from local media, which
doesn't often happen at progressive events in Greensboro.
"It's been really incredible," notes Liz Nemitz, a senior at Guilford who has been involved in the coalition since its inception. "We're doing work with kids at University North Carolina-Greensboro, Bennett, and Agriculture and Technical University in Greensboro that we never had worked with before, and it's brought a whole new perspective to our organizing - we see ourselves as a college town rather than in individual bubbles."
I've seen what Liz says is true - for the first time, I've found myself leaving Guilford's campus to go do outreach on other, more conservative campuses where organizers are needed. It's brought me a whole new level of respect for activists on those campuses, activists who work hard under difficult circumstances.
Some of the work in Greensboro has come about as a result of local organizing by the Beloved Community Center, a group that works on economic and racial justice issues. Trends nationally, however, point to increasing concern and student activism around Iraq. For example, many thousands of young people turned out to protest President George W. Bush's inauguration on Jan. 20. Thousands more participated in a massive nationwide student strike that occurred in
a diverse group of schools including Seattle Central Community College, Paideia High School in Atlanta, Ga., and Boulder High in Colorado.
I may be only 20 years old, but I've been an organizer since 2002. Speaking from my experience in organizing for the Jan. 20 demonstration, I found that folks who had not been active politically before were motivated to demonstrate. Polling also suggests that youth are fearful of a draft (when the question is asked, about 80
percent of young people are against reinstating conscription) and turning against the war in droves.
Student activism around Iraq is not new. Students played a key role in the peace movement prior to the invasion of Iraq, with the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition organizing a major student strike on March 5 of 2003. After the invasion, however, student activism seemed to drop off a bit. Organizations like the National
Youth and Student Peace Coalition that had worked on the student strike got less press attention that they did before the war, even when compared to the attention that was given to other peace groups like United for Peace and Justice during the same period after the invasion. According to an article by Richard Moreno for Z Magazine,
most of the schools that had large walkouts on Jan. 20 of this year were not the same schools that had seen large protests on March 5, 2003. Moreno goes on to correctly note that one fact this trend shows is that much of the work that happened before the war did not sustain itself, or resurface until this year.
So why now are more students getting involved in Iraq-related issues? There are several reasons why student activism is bubbling up now. Many of the reasons are pretty obvious: for example, it has become clear that the Bush administration lacks an exit strategy in Iraq , and young people fear a draft. However, I believe there is one
major reason that youth have turned to acting against the war that has been overlooked by many commentators: the 2004 election.
For some political analysts and activists, there were no positive long- or short-term outcomes of the 2004 elections as they relate to
the antiwar movement. Such analysts particularly decry the involvement of youth in the campaigns of Kucinich, Kerry, and Dean. Cat Geary, student outreach coordinator for March 19, argues, "Young
activists began to silence themselves, instead expending their energy campaigning for Kerry, a pro-war candidate. This left the mainstream
debate without an anti-war position." What activists such as Geary fail to see is that youth activism around the election prepared a shift in youth culture that will greatly benefit the peace movement.
Unlike many activists on the left, however, youth did not despair in the dark winter of December 2004. There was no talk of running to
Canada, or giving up on politics altogether. Instead, we kept up the energy that had grown in 2004 and looked for other places to put it.
Many went back to their work in soup kitchens and homeless shelters, but with a new sense that advocacy and politics matter. John Wilson Irwin, a Greensboro student who hails from a low-income
neighborhood in Memphis who now is an activist with the Greensboro Housing Coalition, notes, "I see connections between the fact that people in Greensboro don't have adequate housing and the fact that we're spending billions of dollars on a pointless war."
The 2004 elections were, in many obvious ways, a defeat for the left. But pessimistic analysts who see it as a total defeat are
ignoring cultural shifts and long-term trends that are poised to benefit the peace movement and the wider progressive political community. In particular, youth activism around the election prepared a shift in youth culture that will greatly benefit the peace movement in 2005 and beyond.
Tens of Thousands March Through London in Iraq War Protest
LONDON - Tens of thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday, the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, calling on Prime Minister Tony Blair to get British troops out of the country.
Police guard the U.S. Embassy as demonstrators walk past during an anti-war demonstration in central London to mark the second anniversary of the start of war in Iraq, March 19, 2005.
Police said 45,000 people were taking part in the march which wound from Hyde Park Corner past the U.S. embassy to a rally in central London's Trafalgar Square.
Organisers, the Stop the War Coalition, said they hoped that eventually 250,000 people would join the march, one of many being held around the country and across the world to mark the second anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
"It is peaceful. There have been no incidents and no arrests," a police spokesman said.
The protesters placed a black cardboard coffin with the slogan "100,000 dead" scrawled across the daffodil-strewn lid against a tree outside the U.S. embassy.
As the coffin was laid down, the crowd chanted: "George Bush ... Uncle Sam. Iraq will be your Vietnam."
The organisers said they had tried but failed to deliver a letter to the embassy insisting that Bush and his ally Blair to pull their forces out of Iraq.
"We demand that you set an early date for the swift withdrawal of our troops from occupied Iraq as the Italian government has been forced to do and restore full and unconditional sovereignty to the Iraqi people," the letter said.
Italy, Ukraine, Poland and Bulgaria have recently signalled they were eager to scale down their presence in Iraq.
The United States has some 150,000 troops in Iraq, the biggest contingent in the country, while Britain has the second largest with 8,600.
Blair said on Wednesday he had no intention of an early withdrawal of British troops.
The Stop the War letter also called for an end to support for Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Blair, expected to call a general election within two months, has seen his once sky-high popularity plummet since the deeply unpopular invasion in March 2003 and an ensuing series of revelations on how the case for war was exaggerated.
The final grudging admission that Saddam Hussein did not have any of the feared weapons of mass destruction which formed the backbone of the case for war, as well as daily pictures of death and destruction has kept Iraq in the headlines.
More than one million people marched through London in February 2003 to protest against the imminent invasion of Iraq.
Stop the War said it wanted to make sure that the invasion and occupation would be a feature of the election, widely expected to be called for May 5 and which Blair's Labour Party is expected to win -- albeit with a reduced majority.
Protest Stories:
http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/21/9466/08728