Tuesday, June 26, 2007

THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY THINKS HE'S LEO!

 
"I'M THE FOOL OF THE WORLD!" BULLY BOY EXCLAIMED PROUDLY FROM THE ROSE GARDEN.
 
SECRETARY OF STATE AND ANGER CONDI RICE PULLED THESE REPORTERS ASIDE AND EXPLAINED THAT SHE HAD JUST INFORMED HIM THAT REPUBLICAN SENATORS
 
"TOSS THEM LIFE PRESERVERS!" HE INSISTED.  "OR I GOT THESE FLOATIES I WEAR WHEN I GO DOG PADDLING AND I COULD GO GET THOSE."
 
SECRETARY RICE TOLD THESE REPORTERS SHE TRIED TO EXPLAIN THAT  THEY WERE CALLING FOR U.S. TROOPS TO BEGIN COMING HOME BUT THAT ONLY CONFUSED HIM MORE.
 
"SO I EXPLAINED THAT THIS WAS LIKE THE MOVIE TITANIC WHEN THE SHIP SINKS AND HE SAID IT COULD SINK UNTIL HE GOT TO YELL FIRST," SECRETARY RICE DECLARED SHAKING HER HEAD AND TWIRLING ONE FINGER AROUND THE RIGHT SIDE OF HER HEAD REPEATEDLY.
 
 
Starting with news of war resistance.  Eli Israel is an Army Specialist resisting the illegal war while stationed in Iraq.   Iraq Veterans Against the War and Courage to Resist (among others) have been getting the word out on the 26 year-old who "told his commanding officer and sergeants that he will no longer be a combatant in this illegal, unjustified war."  Courage to Resist notes that he did have a MySpace blog until the military cracked down on that and includes these statements:
 
I want you all to know, that most of us that are over here, came to Iraq, with the very best of intentions, and really thought that the Iraqi people wanted us here.  Now that I'm here, I realize that they want to work it out themselves, and I know we should respect that.
 
We'll return to that later on, for now note the wisdom -- far more wisdom than some paid for 'insight' can manage.  Resisting the war takes courage and the stand not only results in attacks from the right, it leads many on the left and 'left' to play mute.  But covered or not, it remains an important action.
 
The movement of resistance within the US military grows and includes Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

 
In addition to highlight Eli Israel's brave stand, Iraq Veterans Against the War are also launching a new action --  a summer base tour and have already visited Washington DC (June 23), Norfolk, VA (June 24).  Next up?  Camp Lejune in Jacksonville, NC on June 27th at 7:00 pm; Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina on June 18th 7:00 pm; the US Social Forum in Atlanta, GA on June 30th at 7:00 pm; Fort Benning in Columbus, GA on July 1st at 7:00 pm; a fundraiser in Philadelphia on June 3rd at 6:00 pm; a fundraiser in NYC on July 5th at 7:00 pm; the Naval Sub Marine Base in Groton, CT on July 6th at 7:00 pm; and concluding at Fort Drum in NY on July 8th at 4:00 pm. 
 
In addition to the bus tour, Iraq Veterans Against the War continue to fight the US military brass that is both (a) scared of them and (b) attempting to silence them.  Liam Madden, Cloy Richards and Adam Kokesh have all been targeted.  At his site, Kokesh gives a heads up to the latest on Madden via Madden's reply to Lt Col Blessing:
 
This letter is in response to the offer of the Marine Corps Mobilization Command relayed to me via my military appointed attorney.  I am prepared to accept the settlement proposed in which the Marine Corps agrees not to continue with the discharge proceeding regarding my alleged disloyal statements and protest activity.  I understand that this is contingent on my oral promise not to engage n further political protest while wearing articles of my Marine uniform.
I will make such an oral agreement and stand by my good word if the Marine Corps is prepared to meet the following condition. 
I will orally agree to not wear my military uniforms while engaged in any political protests, hell, I'll have it carved into stone if you'd like, upon receiving a signed, written statement on official USMC letterhead acknowledging that my statements in question were neither disloyal nor inaccurate.  If the Marine Corps issues this statement, apologizing for erroneously (or possibly vindictively) accusing me of disloyalty to my country, I will not share it with another living soul.
 
 
Turning to Iraq and focusing on trends of violence, in yesterday's New York Times, Alissa J. Rubin noted, "Farther north, in Mosul, a policewoman was shot to death by gunmen as she left home for work.  A 35-year-old Iraqi journalist was also shot to death on her way home from work in Mosul, The Associated Press reported.  The journalist, Zeena Shakir Mahmoud, had been writing about women's affairs for the newspaper Al Haqiqa."  Ellen Massey (IPS) reports on the "one important group that has largely been left out of the process: women.  But they are refusing to be left behind.  With little international support or media attention, a network of more than 150 women's organisations across Iraq is fighting to preserve their rights in the new constitutional revision."  And, Massey reports, they are attempting to enlist support from US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.  Not all have been silent on the attacks on women and women's rights.  In March, MADRE issued "Promising Democracy, Imposing Theocracy: Gender-Based Violence and the US War on Iraq" (which can be read in full in PDF format or, by sections, in HTML).   RadioNation with Laura Flanders' Laura Flanders (writing at The Huffington Post) observed: "Call me crazy but it still gets my goat that the entire Iraq debate takes place without the input of the female majority."   Flanders also interviewed MADRE's Yanar Mohammed on RadioNation with Laura Flanders in December (December 9, 2006).
May 14th, Amy Goodman spoke with Yanar Mohammed (Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq).  In April, Bay Fang's "The Talibanization of Iraq" (Ms. magazine, spring 2007 issue) addressed the issue.  Yifat Susskind, author of the MADRE report, wrote, at CounterPunch, a very realistic look at the attacks on women and their rights in Iraq and notes: "The US has empowered Islamist political parties whose clerics promote 'honor killing' as a religious duty.  The US has empowered Islamist political parties whose clerics promote 'honor killing' as a religious duty. . .  The US also destroyed the Iraqi state, including much of the judicial system, leaving people more reliant on conservative tribal authorities to settle disputes and on unofficial 'religious courts' to mete out sentencing, including 'honor killings'."  To be fair, those and others have noted to attacks on women.  Most media has sat out (big and small) but it's equally true that so have the faux think tanks.  Women are also facing other problems created by the US war and occupation (illegal war, illegal occupation).  Last month, Katherine Zdepf (New York Times) examined life for Iraqi demale refugees and found . . . prostitution.  Nihal Hassan (Independent of London) addressed the topic this week and noted, "There are more than a million Iraqi refugees in Syria, many are women whose husbands or fathers have been killed.  Banned from working legally, they have few options outside the sex trade.  No one knows how many end up as prostitutes, but Hana Ibrahim, founded of the Iraqi women's group Women's Will, puts the figure at 50,000."  In a further sign of how bad things are for women in Iraq, the US military reports that an Iraqi women "safely delivered a newborwn thanks to the efforts of Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soliders and the Iraqi Army."  A pregnant woman nows needs "the help of troops from 2nd Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division" in order to avoid a home birth. Speaking in Chicago last week, Dahlia Wasfi (via the US Socialist Worker) summed the situation up: "Women have all but disappeared from their roles in the workforce.  Once contributors to Iraqi society as teachers, judges, lawyers, doctors, engineers, traffic police and more, the threat of violence and kidnapping now imprisons many women in their homes.  But even there, they are not safe from the terrorism of daily house raids by American soldiers and their subordinate Iraqi police."
 
 

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