HonestE-The DJ of Truth: Let's Dance, Feds!

“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man." ~George Washington_____________ “Loyalty is the realization that America was born of revolt, flourished in dissent, became great through experimentation. Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past while we silence the rebels of the present.” ~Henry Steele Commager, Historian

Name:

Ex-US Army Paratrooper and Infantryman, Veterans for Peace, Chapter 69, San Francisco, CA. Graduate: The Colorado College, May 1996. Sower of hope; Farmer of ideas; Guardian of the Republic; I live and work in San Francisco, California. Formerly, I owned a business building marketing-style-relational-databases. Currently, I am employed with a company in San Francisco. In 1989 I volunteered for service in the United States Army Airborne (paratroopers) where I took an oath to uphold and defend the U.S. CONSTITUTION against all enemies foreign and DOMESTIC and that is exactly what I aim to do. My intent is to keep writing and publishing openly and widely waging peace in defense of my brothers-in-arms in Iraq and Afghanistan to bring them home. BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!! Politically, my inner stars shine brightly progressive yet I also bear strong libertarian stripes. I love writing, activism, working hard, music, art, reading, truth-telling with realism, speaking out for peace and speaking out for justice in defense of the highest ideals upon which our country was founded. I consider myself a principled patriot.

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Saturday, September 04, 2010

WHY DID WE INVADE IRAQ? WHY DOES IRAQ THE WAR CONTINUE? WHAT DID IT COST? (WHY DOESN'T CORPORATE MEDIA QUESTION FOREIGN POLICY?)

All governments lie.   Our government is no different.   The US government lies.  Question the lies.

President Obama’s speech on Iraq: 
I’ll give the President credit where credit is due, 100,000 troops have been pulled out of Iraq and that’s definitely good news and a big step forward in the right direction but we still have 50,000 more troops to go.  I am glad he mentioned, though briefly, a few of the costs of the war:  over $1 trillion and over 4416 troops dead.    And I was glad that when he listed the areas American troops have fought in past wars when he used the phrase “from Khe-Sanh to Qandahar” thus cleverly linking Vietnam to Afghanistan.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzO9LZzZoOk

Politicians are like footballs, folks.  They generally don’t move on their own unless they are thrown or kicked.  The best way to get a politician to move is to give them a good, swift kick-in-the-ass.  And that is exactly what we need to keep doing if we want to bring the other 50,000 troops home and begin to end the American troop presence in Afghanistan.   Our chief allies in achieving our common objective to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan lies in our perseverance, our patience and our common purpose.   Don’t stop now, folks, we are halfway to our objective so suck-it-up, drive-on and keep protesting.

I have given credit where credit is due and now I am going to give criticism where criticism is due:
The end of the war in Iraq?   What is that like the 3rd time or the 4th time the war has ended in Iraq?  For the 50,000 troops still in Iraq it is certainly not the end of the war for them else why would they still be there?   For now, the war continues unabated albeit with fewer combat troops.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

~President Abraham Lincoln

Wow!! Finally, real-news-standards from the mainstream media.  Good job, Associated Press:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/03/ap-memo-iraq-war_n_705446.html

Why does the Fawning Corporate Media parrot the government’s lies?  Corporate media seems to often engage in parroting the propaganda of the State than delivering real news.   Why?  The Corporate Media sources like MSNBC, Fox, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC as we all witnessed during the run-up to the war in Iraq, seem more bent on cheerleading the policy positions of the State and failing to ask truly investigative-reporting style questions than delivering real news to the American people.   They do same now by parroting information that Obama has issued—that the Iraq war is over, when in fact, it is not over.    Now, to be fair, the media does pepper the news with actual real news stories just enough to make their profession seem credible.     But to simply offer up as ‘news’ the story offered up by the government is ridiculous……….all government’s lie.   The U.S. government is no different…it lies too and those lies should be questioned.

The reality, as I see it, folks, is that you have to understand the way Corporate News works……. it’s all about ratings because ratings determine advertising dollars and so Corporate News networks will do virtually anything and say virtually anything for its inherent shock-value and package it as real news which helps drive up ratings.    Furthermore, you also have to understand that the parent companies that own most media outlets are also major Military-Industrial-Complex corporations.   Thus, the military-industrial-complex controls the purse and the strings to all the major news that is reported in the country and as such, the so called ‘objective’ news is definitively skewed in favor of the positions of the War Party.   This is not to say that all programming offered on TV news programs is propagandized, because  not all of it is, some of it is credible and some of it is just trivial……like all the news stories about a murder in one part of the country or a child kidnapped in another part of the country or what happened to some motorist along some highway somewhere distant……….this all gets conveniently packaged as ‘national news’ so that they can avoid telling the American people the truth about real news stories say for example like the drone strike in Pakistan last week that killed 20 people including innocent women and children.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/08/23/us-drone-strike-destroys-house-full-of-children-in-pakistan/
http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/09/03/michael-scheuer-12/

Therefore, my suggestion to you, my fellow Americans, is simply to turn your television off and instead turn on your computer because what you invariably find on corporate TV news channels is anything but objective and seems to be more about war-favoring-propaganda and ratings-driven broadcasting than real objective news reporting.    That said, however, I watch TV too but I don’t spend too much time anymore on the corporate news channels such as MSNBC, Fox, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC.   I get almost all my news from the Internet alone although I think the liberal-leaning Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann provide some element of worthy analysis and explanation.

This is a must read:
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/09/01-0
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/08/30/white-house-plans-another-fake-end-to-iraq-war/
http://original.antiwar.com/paul/2010/08/30/iraq-an-end-or-an-escalation/
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/090110b.html
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100903/COLUMNISTS91/9030306/1014/OPINION
http://www.truth-out.org/flying-flag-faking-news62920
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/03-6
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=190064
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/09/02/us-commander-predicts-new-iraqi-govt-to-ask-troops-to-stay-past-2011/
http://www.thenation.com/blog/154424/unstable-iraq-may-draw-obama-back-war
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/09/03/as-iraq-war-continues-a-surge-in-contractors/
What people want to believe--what they tell themselves to feel better--often conflicts with reality:
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/09/03/poll-suggests-americans-buying-end-of-war-in-iraq/

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/01-6
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/08/31/acts-of-contrition/
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/31-4
http://www.truth-out.org/after-saddam-americas-next-fake-enemy-deficits62818
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/01-0
http://www.heraldnews.com/opinions/x128157727/GUEST-OPINION-The-Internet-trends-toward-truth
http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2010/08/30/the-dog-ate-my-exit-timeline/
http://original.antiwar.com/thomas-knapp/2010/09/01/iraq-the-never-ending-story/
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/08/31/world/middleeast/iraq-drawdown.html?ref=global-home#0
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/31/burns/index.html
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/31-10
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/01-1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/31/trillion-dollar-catastrophe-iraq-war
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/foreign-policy/4446-boondoggles-in-baghdad-basra-and-beyond
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/world/middleeast/31legacy.html?_r=1
http://www.truth-out.org/military-moms-still-fighting62835
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/08/31/obama-lauds-fake-end-to-iraq-war-as-historic-moment/


According to the idiot politicians in Washington, however, we won the war in Iraq so hooray for us apparently. 
But there are two key questions left unanswered from Obama’s speech:   
1) Why did we invade Iraq in the first place?   That is, why did we wage an unjust war on a country that posed no threat to the United States at all? And the second question is,
2) How much have we lost by waging this unjust war upon the nation of Iraq?

“Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself.”
~Mark Twain

“Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.”
~Thomas Jefferson


So to question # 1, why did we invade Iraq? 
Well, I could write on and on and on but I think David Michael Green sums it up best:
This is a must, must, must read:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/28-0
As does Joseph Palermo:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/an-unsanitized-look-at-th_b_701386.html




Now to question # 2, how much has the war on Iraq cost us?

Why did we need over 4400 troops to die for a lie?

Why did we need to spend over $1 trillion dollars in the war on Iraq?

Why did we need to murder at least one hundred-thousand innocent Iraqi persons if not more?

Why did we need to turn the world against us?

Why did we need to turn Iran into a regional powerhouse by eliminating the balance of power in the Middle East?

Why did we need to first secure the Ministry of Oil while letting the museums get looted?

Why did we need to spend this much?
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/01
http://original.antiwar.com/roberts/2010/09/02/the-true-cost-of-the-war/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War


Let us consider the costs, courtesy of the Center for American Progress:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/05/iraq_war_ledger.html

Human costs
•    Total deaths: Between 110,663 and 119,380
•    Coalition deaths: 4,721
•    U.S. deaths: 4,403
•    U.S. wounded: 31,768
•    U.S. deaths as a percentage of coalition deaths: 93.25 percent
•    Iraqi Security Force deaths: At least 9,451
•    Total coalition and ISF deaths: At least 14,163
•    Iraqi civilian deaths: Between 96,037 and 104,7542
•    Non-Iraqi contractor deaths: At least 463
•    Internally displaced persons: 2.6 million
•    Refugees: 1.9 million

Financial costs
•    Cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom: $748.2 billion
•    Projected total cost of veterans’ health care and disability: $422 billion to $717 billion

Strategic costs

The foregoing costs could conceivably be justified if the Iraq intervention had improved the United States’ strategic position in the Middle East. But this is clearly not the case. The Iraq war has strengthened anti-U.S. elements and made the position of the United States and its allies more precarious.

Empowered Iran in Iraq and region. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the primary strategic beneficiary of the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq. The end of Saddam Hussein’s regime removed Iran’s most-hated enemy (with whom it fought a hugely destructive war in the 1980s) and removed the most significant check on Iran’s regional hegemonic aspirations. Many of Iraq’s key Iraqi Shia Islamist and Kurdish leaders enjoy close ties to Iran, facilitating considerable influence for Iran in the new Iraq.

Created terrorist training ground. According to the U.K. Maplecroft research group, Iraq is the most vulnerable country in the world to terrorism. The years of U.S. occupation in Iraq created not only a rallying call for violent Islamic extremists but also an environment for them to develop, test, and perfect various tactics and techniques. These tactics and techniques are now shared, both in person and via the Internet, with extremists all over the region and the world, including those fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Loss of moral authority. While abuses are perhaps inevitable in any military occupation, the images and stories broadcast from Iraq into the region and around the world have done lasting damage to the United States’ reputation as a supporter of international order and human rights. Gen. David Petraeus acknowledges the damage done to the U.S. reputation by Abu Ghraib is permanent, calling it a “nonbiodegradable” event.

Stifled democracy reform. A recent RAND study concluded that, rather than becoming a beacon of democracy, the Iraq war has hobbled the cause of political reform in the Middle East. The report stated that “Iraq’s instability has become a convenient scarecrow neighboring regimes can use to delay political reform by asserting that democratization inevitably leads to insecurity.”

Rising sectarianism in region. The invasion of Iraq replaced a prominent Sunni Arab State with one largely controlled by Iraq’s Arab Shia majority. While the end of the oppression of Iraq’s Shia majority is a positive thing, this shift has exacerbated regional tensions between Shia and Sunni, including in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon, and Bahrain (where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based.) Lingering disputes in Iraq between Sunni and Shia Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen also continue to invite exploitation by both state and nonstate actors.

•    Total U.S. service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan: At least 2 million
•    Total Iraq/Afghanistan veterans eligible for VA health care: 981,831 (through May 2009)

—Active component veterans: 504,962 (51 percent of total)
—Reserve/National Guard veterans: 476,872 (49 percent of total)
•    Total Iraq/Afghanistan veterans who have used VA health care since fiscal year 2002: 425,538 (43 percent of eligible veterans)

—Active component veterans: 224,232 (44 percent of eligible veterans)
—Reserve/National Guard veterans: 201,306 (42 percent of eligible veterans)
•    Total Iraq/Afghanistan veterans with PTSD: At least 101,882 (Veterans Health Administration data only; does not include Vet Center or non-VA health care data)
•    RAND study PTSD estimates: 13.8 percent (276,000 given 2 million deployed soldiers)  RAND study traumatic brain injury estimates: 19.5 percent (390,000 given 2 million deployed soldiers)

Also worth mentioning is the cost to the Iraqi people:  With so many Iraqi's and American troops killed in the war, with so much ongoing civil violence since removing Saddam Hussein, with such ongoing everyday turmoil and with everyday Iraqi's still lacking basic services or electricity, can we really even say that toppling Saddam Hussein was a good idea? I don't think so. The ruthless dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, for all its ills, did keep that country together, kept the lights on and kept basic services in operation so I think that the war in Iraq is a complete, total failure and waste. A difficult truth is that sometimes dictatorships, despite their ruthless ways, do keep the peace and society functioning.

Was the war worth all that?  So, now to you, how much more in taxes did you have to pay because of the wars?  Oh, sorry, what’s that? You didn’t pay any higher taxes for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?    So tell me, how does it feel to have screwed your children and your grandchildren by passing the costs of these wars onto them?  You can thank the borrow-and-spend politicians in Washington for that.

As far as some Republican leaders proclaiming that we should extend a thank you to former President George W. Bush for all his valuable work from his vacation home in Crawford and for his ever-consistent lies about getting us into the disaster in Iraq, well sure why not?  I say we send Mr. Bush on a fabulous Caribbean cruise.…..we’ll just strip him down to his underwear, chain him face-down to a barrel of oil and set him afloat somewhere off the Florida Keys.   Bon Voyage, Dubya, bon voyage…..and yo, don’t worry about that dark slime in the water, sir…….according to your buddies at BP it will protect your skin from those really, really hot ultraviolet rays, so just hang on tight, Dubya, to that barrel of oil that so many good troops died to provide you.   Bon Voyage, sir, Bon Voyage!!!!   We definitely won’t ‘misunderestimate’ your ability to enjoy a fabulous Caribbean cruise with your better side up.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/01/iraq-war-architects-credit/
http://www.lobelog.com/the-shaky-logic-of-iraq-revisionism/
On shattering the moronic, idiot, jackass idealist (not realistic) ideas offered up by the Neocons:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2999630.htm
http://thinkprogress.org/iraq-timeline/
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/03-3


The only ‘surge’ that worked in Iraq was the surge of anti-war sentiment that led to the proposed withdrawal date of December 2011.  Again, as in wars past, the anti-war movement is saving lives by getting the troops out of harm’s way and out from under an unjust, unwinnable war:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/02-0

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/world/01military.html?_r=1&nl=us&emc=politicsemailema1
http://blogs.forbes.com/brianwingfield/2010/08/31/as-u-s-troops-move-out-of-iraq-oil-companies-move-in/?boxes=Homepagechannels

 “If a thousand people were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood.”
~Henry David Thoreau, 1848

"Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides."
~Rita Mae Brown


Be a good patriotic citizen and share these websites, pass them along to all of your friends and family.

http://www.amconmag.com/
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/
http://www.lewrockwell.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org
http://www.fff.org
http://www.antiwar.com/
http://www.wikileaks.comhttp://www.wikileaks.com (the best way to disinfect is to shine light upon the filth)
http://www.bradleymanning.org/
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/090210c.html


"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
~John Adams

http://the-diplomat.com/
http://www.consortiumnews.com
http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.thenation.com
http://www.buzzflash.com/
http://www.tompaine.com/
http://www.truthout.com/
http://www.motherjones.com/
http://www.alternet.org/
http://www.thinkprogress.org/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
http://www.democracynow.org/
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/
http://www.fpif.org/
http://jstreet.org/
http://www.truthdig.com/
http://www.dailykos.com/
http://www.tomdispatch.com/
http://www.counterpunch.com/
http://www.veteransforpeace.org
http://www.ivaw.org
http://honeste--djoftruth.blogspot.com/2006/10/websites-to-help-you-stay-informed.html

Our common cause:
Our common cause is to save lives, ours and theirs, from dying for nothing in a useless war and occupation--both of them.
Secondarily our common cause is to save the cause of liberty in our own country and save our country from moral and financial ruin.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/14-6
This is a must read:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski255.html


"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak."
~John Quincy Adams


"Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty."
~George Washington

http://www.meetup.com/Complete-Liberty/calendar/14527080/

Other issues related to the war:

I hope they sue the pants off Prudential……..this is a disgrace and an outrage:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/us/30prudential.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hpw
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-30/prudential-veterans-insurance-lawsuit-is-expanded-with-new-fraud-claims.html

On tolerance:
http://www.myfaithmyvoice.com/


It is irrelevant how many people favor re-locating the Islamic Community Center…….we are a Constitutional Democracy which is intended to prevent tyranny of the majority by hard-coding particular values embodied in the U.S. Constitution--Bill of Rights.   Don’t ever accept the notion that the majority always rules…..it does not…..the majority only rules if what they rule passes Constitutional muster.  Religious freedom is embodied in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and so if building the Community Center in a certain location upsets some people, well that’s just too bad, they’ll get over it.

Stand on principle even if the majority opposes you.    Principles always trump politics and popularity.
"We must do what is right, not what is easy."
~Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York on the building of the Cordoba House controversy
http://wire.antiwar.com/2010/08/24/ny-mayor-stopping-mosque-compromises-terror-fight/

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Election-2010/Vox-News/2010/0903/Mosque-near-ground-zero-controversy-simmers-with-media-help?sms_ss=email
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/30-3
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/28
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/083010a.html
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1008f.asp
http://www.mpnnow.com/opinions/x861572433/Online-Only-Reality-Check-Ground-Zero-is-not-hallowed-ground
http://www.thepoliticalcarnival.net/2010/08/video-they-burned-down-one-theyll-burn-down-another-one/
http://www.truth-out.org/the-pentagons-double-envelopment-president-barack-obama62876
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/aug/28/common-threads/
http://pr.thinkprogress.org/2010/08/pr20100831/index.html
http://www.truth-out.org/ej-dionne-jr-whats-obamas-next-page62888
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/08/ten_things_i_know_about_the_mo.html
http://original.antiwar.com/levesque-alam/2010/08/30/a-specious-compromise-on-cordoba/
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/30/new.york.islamic.center.campaign/?hpt=T2

One of few principled politicians, Ron Paul:
http://original.antiwar.com/paul/2010/08/22/mosque-demagoguery-is-bipartisan/
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/religion/115535-ron-paul-speaks-truth-to-hate
http://freedomsyndicate.com/fair0000/latimes00302.html
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/08/23-0

Another principled politician, Dennis Kucinich:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100901/pl_afp/uspoliticsmilitaryiraqunrestdemocrats
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/18-7
http://www.caivn.org/article/2010/07/26/dennis-kucinich-and-ron-paul-unite-bid-challenge-obamas-war-expansion-pakistan
http://www.truth-out.org/confusion-iraq-troops-and-contractors-march-into-new-era62719

On giving the extremists exactly what they want:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/30/taliban-using-mosque-controversy-to-recruit.html

I like the concept of voluntary unity:
http://onenationworkingtogether.org/?page_id=4

On war-profiteering:
http://www.truth-out.org/war-profiteers-corner-steven-r-loranger62704
If it were up to me, we would mandate that ALL profits made by war-profiteering-corporations and the billionaires behind them, be required to donate all those profits to pay the costs of all injured troops including those suffering from PTSD, be given to families of dead troops and pay reparations for all the innocent Iraqi civilians we murdered.  We could then cleverly name this legislation the ‘policy of shared sacrifice.’  I bet then that there would be fewer useless, unjust wars.
http://www.thenation.com/article/154459/unequal-sacrifice

This is a must read:
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/09/01/somebodys-son-or-daughter-is-our-tragedy/

How much blood for oil?   This much blood for oil:
http://honeste--djoftruth.blogspot.com/2006/10/in-memory-of-fallen.html

The government should be challenged on many fronts:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/30-6
http://original.antiwar.com/s-hunter/2010/08/30/the-limits-of-force/
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1009a.asp
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/us/politics/01legal.html?_r=2&ref=us

Veterans for Peace:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/29-0
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/commentary_2010-08-25.html
http://www.vfpnationalconvention.org/

Why are we in Afghanistan?
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/083110a.html
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/09/01/2010-already-deadliest-year-for-us-troops-in-afghanistan/
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/09/01-5
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/090210a.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LH31Df02.html
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/28-3
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/09/02/come-home-america/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/opinion/31herbert.html?_r=1&ref=columnists

Few remember the Great Society Lyndon Baines Johnson envisioned while most remember how LBJ kept escalating an unwinnable war.  He kept escalating that war because he wanted to appear strong, not weak.  He wished not to preside over a lost war.  Yet, ironically, it was that very desire to control perception that was his undoing and is what ultimately made him truly weak.   Afghanistan is lost.   The strong, true and real statesmen can recognize the truth and deal with reality.  The coward runs from it, or worse, escalates a war they know is lost and for which good people die simply to maintain a delusion.

On restoring American honor by closing Guantanamo:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/28-4
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1092

I strongly condemn in harshest of terms the violent-extremists of Hamas who murder innocent civilians.   Just on the eve of peace the extremists always seem to rear their ugly heads.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/31-7

I hope the extremists do not yet again derail the prospects for peace.  Promote hope not skepticism.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/08/31/hebron-shooting-threatens-to-derail-peace-talks/
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/09/02-4
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3948637,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/world/middleeast/03diplo.html?_r=2&th&emc=th
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/09/03/settlers-vow-to-ignore-freeze-launch-mass-construction-projects/
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68247I20100903
http://politicalcorrection.org/fpmatters/201009020003
http://www.jstreet.org/blog/?p=1209

Bravo to Israeli artists taking a stand against the Occupation:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/30-2

Criminalizing non-violent protest isn’t very democratic, is it?
http://www.truth-out.org/palestinian-gandhi-convicted-protesting-us-silent62807
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/03-5

I encourage all activists to engage in non-violent protest anywhere….whether it is lawful or not.

This is a must read:  The Israeli writer, David Grossman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/david-grossman-israel-hezbollah-interview
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/opinion/31tue1.html?_r=1&ref=editorials
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/03-0
http://www.jstreet.org/


 “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”
~Mark Twain



“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and row brave by reflection.  'Tis the business of little minds to shrink but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”
~Thomas Paine



“It is curious-curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.”
~Mark Twain



“Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”
~Thomas Paine



“The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit.”
~Mark Twain



“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
~Thomas Paine



“And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.”
~Thomas Jefferson



“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”
~Thomas Paine

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1087

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.”
~Thomas Jefferson



“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.”
~Benjamin Franklin



“After much occasion to consider the folly and mischiefs of a state of warfare, and the little or no advantage obtained even by those nations who have conducted it with the most success, I have been apt to think that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or a bad peace.”
~Benjamin Franklin



“The pen is mightier than the sword.”
~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton


FROM THE LEFT, FROM THE RIGHT, FROM THE CENTER---UNITE TOGETHER AND HOLD THE LINE!!!!!!!  FORWARD, MARCH!!!!      MARCH TOGETHER FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE TO BRING THE TROOPS HOME!!!!  UNITE, KEEP FREE-SPEECHING AND KEEP PROTESTING, OUR COMMON CAUSE IS TO SAVE LIVES!!!!!!!!!!

So long as troops die for nothing in wars that are already lost, I promise to keep speaking out against these useless wars at whatever cost to me and at whatever cost to the politicians of either party!!!!  The cost to me is incredibly small in comparison to the cost that has been paid by those like in the picture below.    So when you take a look at the picture below remember to multiply by 4416 for the troops slain in Iraq, by 1273 for the troops slain in Afghanistan, and by over 100,000 for the innocent number of Iraqi’s slain in our unnecessary war of aggression upon Iraq and then ask yourself, does it break your heart like it breaks mine?   If you care, then do your duty as a citizen-patriot of this nation and keep speaking out with courage and determination!!!    UNITED TOGETHER WE SHALL PERSEVERE!!!!!!!

WAGE PEACE!!!!!


http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/08/31/world/middleeast/iraq-drawdown.html?ref=global-home#35



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