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U.S. Peace Movement Responds to Bush's Speech
U.S. PEACE MOVEMENT PLANS TO "ESCALATE" STREET PROTESTS
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Subscribe: http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=Fu7YDmfrqDPRHADNALsMsA..
**********************
*For immediate release*
National (DC) press contact: Sarah Sloan,
Office: 202-544-3389; Mobile: 202-904-7949
New York press contact: Ed Felton,
Office: 212-694-8720; Mobile: 917-806-5867
**********************
U.S. PEACE MOVEMENT PLANS TO "ESCALATE" STREET PROTESTS
The ANSWER Coalition Responds to Bush's War Speech of January 10, 2007
ANSWER Coalition Statement:
Unwilling to accept the failure of his war of aggression in Iraq, his
"war of choice," Bush announced tonight a plan that will succeed only in
sending thousands of Iraqis and U.S. soldiers to their graves in the
next year.
What Bush is really proposing is using thousands of additional U.S.
soldiers in a planned reign of terror in the streets and neighborhoods of
Baghdad against those who want the U.S. to leave. Bush chose to use a
euphemism about the planned reign of terror when he stated that one of
the past "mistakes" of the U.S. military operation in Baghdad was that,
"there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have." The blood
will flow just as Bush promises but this plan will fail just as badly
as every announced initiative since Bush arrogantly taunted the Iraqi
resistance with his infamous "Bring em on" speech back in 2003.
Bush gave the people of the United States a warning that they should
expect the coming year will be "bloody and violent," with "tv screens
filled with images of death and suffering." He tried to innoculate
himself from responsibility for this carnage although his plan makes it
inevitable.
Bush's aspiration to salvage his "legacy" and his place in history
isn't worth one more life. Every mother and father of a U.S. soldier, every
family member who has a loved one in the U.S. armed forces should make
it crystal clear that the lives of their family members are too
precious to be sacrificed for such an ignoble cause.
The deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis since March 2003 (see
Lancet medical journal 10/06), proves beyond a reasonable doubt that
Bush's claim that his invasion was for the liberation of the Iraqi people is
a complete and utter lie.
"Clearing and holding neighborhoods in Iraq" is not the duty or right
of members of the U.S. military. The people who live in those
neighborhoods lived in peace before the arrival of the occupation forces. The
occupation is illegal and the order to stiffen the occupation is illegal
too. U.S. soldiers have the right and duty to disobey illegal orders.
Neither one more Iraqi nor one more soldier should die so that the
politicians, who inaugurated a criminal "pre-emptive" invasion of a country
that posed zero threat to the people of the United States, can postpone
the verdict of history.
For their part, the Democrats in Congress are involved in a slightly
more complicated dance. They want to posture as opponents of Bush's
escalation and so-called surge without taking responsibility for bringing
the war to a close. They could cut funding for the war which is their
exclusive Constitutional prerogative. But they will absolutely refuse to
take this responsibility. They are merely posturing for the 2008
elections hoping to take advantage of the well deserved public disgust for
Bush and the Iraq war.
The issue right now for the anti-war movement is not either opposition
to a surge or an escalation: the issue is the war itself. The troops
must be brought home now. As in Vietnam, that is the only solution. Those
who initiated the war and who funded the war should be held accountable
for one of the great crimes of the modern era.
Everything that Bush has said about the Iraq has proved to be a lie.
This was always a war for Empire in a strategic area that possesses two
thirds of the world's oil supply. He proclaimed tonight that, "failure
in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States." If Bush fails in
Iraq the people of the United States lose nothing. It is not our Empire.
On March 17, 2007, the anniversary of the start of the criminal
invasion of Iraq, tens of thousands of people from around the country will
descend on the Pentagon in a mass demonstration to demand: U.S. Out of
Iraq Now! 2007 is the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 anti-war march
to the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. The message of the 1967 march
was "From Protest to Resistance," and marked a turning point in the
development of a countrywide mass movement.
Thousands of organizations and individuals are mobilizing for the
upcoming March on the Pentagon:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=4Z-l8p_EBV03njxvkVd8ZQ..
Organizing committees and transportation centers are being established
to bring people to the March on the Pentagon.
Tomorrow, January 11, there will be emergency demonstrations protesting
Bush's planned escalation of the war in Iraq. A schedule of the
demonstrations can be found by clicking here:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=BUoxgBcr5Zr4Mbv6-uon3Q..
The March 17 demonstration will assemble at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Constitution Gardens) at 12 noon in Washington, D.C.and march to
the Pentagon.
There are more than 1,000 endorsers for the March on the Pentagon
including:
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
Alice Walker, Pulitzer prize winning author
Cynthia McKinney, Congresswoman
Cindy Sheehan, co-founder Gold Star Families for Peace, author
Ron Kovic, Vietnam Veteran, author, Born on the 4th of July
Malik Rahim, Founder, Common Ground Collective, New Orleans
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
Paul Haggis, Director of Crash, 2005 Academy Award for Best Picture
Elias Rashmawi, National Coordinator, National Council of Arab
Americans (NCA)
Howard Zinn, Author, A People's History of the United States
Rev. Luis Barrios, Iglesia de San Romero - UCC
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild
Chaplain James Yee, former Army chaplain, Guantánamo Detention enter
Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American Society Freedom
Foundation
Father Roy Bourgeois, Founder, School of the Americas Watch
Leonard Weinglass, Attorney for the Cuban Five
Eric LeCompte, National Office, School of the Americas Watch
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-founder, Partnership for Civil Justice
Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Mounzer Sleiman, TV commentator and Vice Chair, National Council of
Arab Americans
Ben Dupuy, Co-Director, Haiti Progres
Juan Jose Gutierrez, Executive Director, Latino Movement USA
Calvin Gipson, Former President, San Francisco LGBT Pride Committee
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church,
Washington D.C
Kay Lucas, Director, Crawford Peace House, Crawford, TX
Chuck Kaufman, Co-coordinator of the Nicaragua Network
Al Garcia, Alliance for a Just & Lasting Peace in the Philippines
Macrina Cardenas, Mexico Solidarity Network
Eugene Puryear, Howard University, student leader
Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, National Committee to Free the
Cuban Five
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development
KAWAN: Korean Americans Against War and Neoliberalism
Justice Committee
Ed Asner, Actor
Shirley Knight, Actor
Debra Sweet, National Coordinator, World Can't Wait -- Drive Out the
Bush Regime
Jennifer Harbury, Human Rights Lawyer, author
United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA)
Jim Lafferty, Director, National Lawyers Guild - Los Angeles
Iglesia de San Romero - United Church of Christ
Mimi Kennedy, Actor (Dharma & Greg)
-30-
**********************
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.answercoalition.org
info [at] internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
Subscribe: http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=Fu7YDmfrqDPRHADNALsMsA..
**********************
*For immediate release*
National (DC) press contact: Sarah Sloan,
Office: 202-544-3389; Mobile: 202-904-7949
New York press contact: Ed Felton,
Office: 212-694-8720; Mobile: 917-806-5867
**********************
U.S. PEACE MOVEMENT PLANS TO "ESCALATE" STREET PROTESTS
The ANSWER Coalition Responds to Bush's War Speech of January 10, 2007
ANSWER Coalition Statement:
Unwilling to accept the failure of his war of aggression in Iraq, his
"war of choice," Bush announced tonight a plan that will succeed only in
sending thousands of Iraqis and U.S. soldiers to their graves in the
next year.
What Bush is really proposing is using thousands of additional U.S.
soldiers in a planned reign of terror in the streets and neighborhoods of
Baghdad against those who want the U.S. to leave. Bush chose to use a
euphemism about the planned reign of terror when he stated that one of
the past "mistakes" of the U.S. military operation in Baghdad was that,
"there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have." The blood
will flow just as Bush promises but this plan will fail just as badly
as every announced initiative since Bush arrogantly taunted the Iraqi
resistance with his infamous "Bring em on" speech back in 2003.
Bush gave the people of the United States a warning that they should
expect the coming year will be "bloody and violent," with "tv screens
filled with images of death and suffering." He tried to innoculate
himself from responsibility for this carnage although his plan makes it
inevitable.
Bush's aspiration to salvage his "legacy" and his place in history
isn't worth one more life. Every mother and father of a U.S. soldier, every
family member who has a loved one in the U.S. armed forces should make
it crystal clear that the lives of their family members are too
precious to be sacrificed for such an ignoble cause.
The deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis since March 2003 (see
Lancet medical journal 10/06), proves beyond a reasonable doubt that
Bush's claim that his invasion was for the liberation of the Iraqi people is
a complete and utter lie.
"Clearing and holding neighborhoods in Iraq" is not the duty or right
of members of the U.S. military. The people who live in those
neighborhoods lived in peace before the arrival of the occupation forces. The
occupation is illegal and the order to stiffen the occupation is illegal
too. U.S. soldiers have the right and duty to disobey illegal orders.
Neither one more Iraqi nor one more soldier should die so that the
politicians, who inaugurated a criminal "pre-emptive" invasion of a country
that posed zero threat to the people of the United States, can postpone
the verdict of history.
For their part, the Democrats in Congress are involved in a slightly
more complicated dance. They want to posture as opponents of Bush's
escalation and so-called surge without taking responsibility for bringing
the war to a close. They could cut funding for the war which is their
exclusive Constitutional prerogative. But they will absolutely refuse to
take this responsibility. They are merely posturing for the 2008
elections hoping to take advantage of the well deserved public disgust for
Bush and the Iraq war.
The issue right now for the anti-war movement is not either opposition
to a surge or an escalation: the issue is the war itself. The troops
must be brought home now. As in Vietnam, that is the only solution. Those
who initiated the war and who funded the war should be held accountable
for one of the great crimes of the modern era.
Everything that Bush has said about the Iraq has proved to be a lie.
This was always a war for Empire in a strategic area that possesses two
thirds of the world's oil supply. He proclaimed tonight that, "failure
in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States." If Bush fails in
Iraq the people of the United States lose nothing. It is not our Empire.
On March 17, 2007, the anniversary of the start of the criminal
invasion of Iraq, tens of thousands of people from around the country will
descend on the Pentagon in a mass demonstration to demand: U.S. Out of
Iraq Now! 2007 is the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 anti-war march
to the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. The message of the 1967 march
was "From Protest to Resistance," and marked a turning point in the
development of a countrywide mass movement.
Thousands of organizations and individuals are mobilizing for the
upcoming March on the Pentagon:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=4Z-l8p_EBV03njxvkVd8ZQ..
Organizing committees and transportation centers are being established
to bring people to the March on the Pentagon.
Tomorrow, January 11, there will be emergency demonstrations protesting
Bush's planned escalation of the war in Iraq. A schedule of the
demonstrations can be found by clicking here:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=BUoxgBcr5Zr4Mbv6-uon3Q..
The March 17 demonstration will assemble at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Constitution Gardens) at 12 noon in Washington, D.C.and march to
the Pentagon.
There are more than 1,000 endorsers for the March on the Pentagon
including:
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
Alice Walker, Pulitzer prize winning author
Cynthia McKinney, Congresswoman
Cindy Sheehan, co-founder Gold Star Families for Peace, author
Ron Kovic, Vietnam Veteran, author, Born on the 4th of July
Malik Rahim, Founder, Common Ground Collective, New Orleans
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
Paul Haggis, Director of Crash, 2005 Academy Award for Best Picture
Elias Rashmawi, National Coordinator, National Council of Arab
Americans (NCA)
Howard Zinn, Author, A People's History of the United States
Rev. Luis Barrios, Iglesia de San Romero - UCC
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild
Chaplain James Yee, former Army chaplain, Guantánamo Detention enter
Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American Society Freedom
Foundation
Father Roy Bourgeois, Founder, School of the Americas Watch
Leonard Weinglass, Attorney for the Cuban Five
Eric LeCompte, National Office, School of the Americas Watch
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-founder, Partnership for Civil Justice
Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Mounzer Sleiman, TV commentator and Vice Chair, National Council of
Arab Americans
Ben Dupuy, Co-Director, Haiti Progres
Juan Jose Gutierrez, Executive Director, Latino Movement USA
Calvin Gipson, Former President, San Francisco LGBT Pride Committee
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church,
Washington D.C
Kay Lucas, Director, Crawford Peace House, Crawford, TX
Chuck Kaufman, Co-coordinator of the Nicaragua Network
Al Garcia, Alliance for a Just & Lasting Peace in the Philippines
Macrina Cardenas, Mexico Solidarity Network
Eugene Puryear, Howard University, student leader
Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, National Committee to Free the
Cuban Five
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development
KAWAN: Korean Americans Against War and Neoliberalism
Justice Committee
Ed Asner, Actor
Shirley Knight, Actor
Debra Sweet, National Coordinator, World Can't Wait -- Drive Out the
Bush Regime
Jennifer Harbury, Human Rights Lawyer, author
United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA)
Jim Lafferty, Director, National Lawyers Guild - Los Angeles
Iglesia de San Romero - United Church of Christ
Mimi Kennedy, Actor (Dharma & Greg)
-30-
**********************
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.answercoalition.org
info [at] internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
Add Your Comments
Comments
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General Wants Gay Ban Lifted
Military.com | January 03, 2007
In an op-ed published in Tuesday's New York Times, John M. Shalikashvili, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says Congress should give "serious reconsideration" to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the ban on openly lesbian, gay and bisexual military personnel. Shalikashvili, who supported the ban on open service in 1993, writes that "I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces," and goes on to say that "Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job."
"'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is out of step with both the American public and those within our armed forces," said C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). "The counsel of military leaders increasingly supports repeal of the law. Congress must, as General Shalikashvili urges, consider the overwhelming evidence of the past fourteen years. If they do, the clear answer is that we must lift the ban."
Shalikashvili, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs from 1993 to 1997, joins other senior retired military officers who have called for repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." In May 2006, Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, USA (Ret.), the first female three-star officer in Army history, called the law "a hollow policy that serves no useful purpose." Lieutenant General Daniel W. Christman, former superintendent of West Point, recently told The New York Times that "It is clear that national attitudes toward this issue have evolved considerably in the last decade. This has been led by a new generation of service members who take a more relaxed and tolerant view toward homosexuality." Retired Admiral John Hutson, who currently serves as Dean of Franklin Pierce Law School, also recently wrote that "It would be a great tragedy if we didn't take advantage of (the) chance to correct a flawed policy."
In 2003, two retired generals and an admiral 'came out' in the New York Times, and in November 2006 fourteen senior retired military officers urged the First Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ban. They wrote that the law "undermines the military's ability to fulfill its primary mission of providing national security by discouraging the enlistment of gay persons qualified to serve their country and by expelling from the military those who have served with honor."
In today's op-ed, General Shalikashvili writes that "Last year I held a number of meetings with gay soldiers and marines, including some with combat experience in Iraq, and an openly gay senior sailor who was serving effectively as a member of a nuclear submarine crew. These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers."
A December 18th Zogby poll also found that 73% of military personnel polled were comfortable with lesbians and gays.
"General Shalikashvili's statement is the first by a Joint Chiefs Chairman to call for repeal, and as such is enormously significant," said Osburn. "The Pentagon has dismissed more than 11,000 men and women under this law. It is clear that enforcement of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is arbitrary. We continue to lose critical personnel who happen to be gay. As General Shalikashvili points out, continuing to keep this law on the books is detrimental to our national security."
Military.com | January 03, 2007
In an op-ed published in Tuesday's New York Times, John M. Shalikashvili, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says Congress should give "serious reconsideration" to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the ban on openly lesbian, gay and bisexual military personnel. Shalikashvili, who supported the ban on open service in 1993, writes that "I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces," and goes on to say that "Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job."
"'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is out of step with both the American public and those within our armed forces," said C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). "The counsel of military leaders increasingly supports repeal of the law. Congress must, as General Shalikashvili urges, consider the overwhelming evidence of the past fourteen years. If they do, the clear answer is that we must lift the ban."
Shalikashvili, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs from 1993 to 1997, joins other senior retired military officers who have called for repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." In May 2006, Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, USA (Ret.), the first female three-star officer in Army history, called the law "a hollow policy that serves no useful purpose." Lieutenant General Daniel W. Christman, former superintendent of West Point, recently told The New York Times that "It is clear that national attitudes toward this issue have evolved considerably in the last decade. This has been led by a new generation of service members who take a more relaxed and tolerant view toward homosexuality." Retired Admiral John Hutson, who currently serves as Dean of Franklin Pierce Law School, also recently wrote that "It would be a great tragedy if we didn't take advantage of (the) chance to correct a flawed policy."
In 2003, two retired generals and an admiral 'came out' in the New York Times, and in November 2006 fourteen senior retired military officers urged the First Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ban. They wrote that the law "undermines the military's ability to fulfill its primary mission of providing national security by discouraging the enlistment of gay persons qualified to serve their country and by expelling from the military those who have served with honor."
In today's op-ed, General Shalikashvili writes that "Last year I held a number of meetings with gay soldiers and marines, including some with combat experience in Iraq, and an openly gay senior sailor who was serving effectively as a member of a nuclear submarine crew. These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers."
A December 18th Zogby poll also found that 73% of military personnel polled were comfortable with lesbians and gays.
"General Shalikashvili's statement is the first by a Joint Chiefs Chairman to call for repeal, and as such is enormously significant," said Osburn. "The Pentagon has dismissed more than 11,000 men and women under this law. It is clear that enforcement of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is arbitrary. We continue to lose critical personnel who happen to be gay. As General Shalikashvili points out, continuing to keep this law on the books is detrimental to our national security."
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