Peace and War

By David Swanson

Two years ago, Moveon.org dropped out of the anti-war movement because Democrats had taken over Congress, and David Sirota dropped out with them. He came back, and someday they might too. But Sirota’s announcement today that Moveon is back in the peace business seems a bit premature. As you begin reading it, once you get past Sirota’s revisionist history read more

On Tuesday, many of us marched and protested and went to jail asking Congress to end wars. Many members of the media were there to see us. Few of them saw their reporting make it on air or into print. One exception, as always, is Bill Moyers Journal on PBS. This uniquely decent and democratic program will be airing an “essay” on Friday night (often replayed on Monday too) that will include coverage of our actions. I haven’t read more

By David Swanson

As the 111th Congress was being sworn in on Tuesday, a seemingly endless line of figures dressed all in black with stark white masks slowly marched single-file around Capitol Hill. Each wore a placard bearing the name of someone who had died in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine, their age, and the date of their death. This March of the Dead (video) was intended to remind yet another Congress that we elected it read more

WHAT: A long column of figures dressed all in black with white death masks and bearing the names of those killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. The march will be followed by a dramatic nonviolent action intended to awaken Congress to the need to end the wars.

WHEN: March from noon to 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. Additional dramatic action 2:15 p.m.

WHERE: The march will approach the U.S. Capitol on Pennsylvania Ave. SE and turn north on 1st Street to pass between the Capitol read more

By David Swanson

Congress will be greeted on day 1 this year by a march of war dead on Capitol Hill.

The word epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning to manifest or to show. In Christian tradition the Feast of Epiphany is celebrated on January 6th, marking the day when the three wise men from three foreign lands visited the baby Jesus, the last of the 12 days of Christmas. Epiphany is also used to mean a sudden realization, comprehension, or inspiration.

This January 6th may be the 12th day of read more

By David Swanson

New Year’s resolutions come in a lot of shapes and sizes. I don’t think New Year’s 2009 is a year to aim low. So, I’m resolving to create peace on earth. And I intend to follow through. The catch, of course, is that unless a couple of million other people make the same resolution and really commit to it, then I will have been a liar.

I do think just a couple of million people would be enough, especially if they are heavily concentrated in the United read more

By Bob Fertik and David Swanson

As George Bush prepares to leave office, he and his aides are trying desperately to rewrite history, especially on Iraq. Nearly six years after invading Iraq on the basis of lies that were manufactured inside the White House, the Bush Administration adamantly insists the lies were all innocent mistakes. Were they?

Originally, the invasion of Iraq was justified primarily on grounds that Iraq had substantial quantities of chemical and biological weapons and had “reconstituted” read more

By David Swanson, PDA
December 15, 2008, Chicago, IL

Saturday night in Chicago, national and state leaders of Progressive Democrats of America met to strategize and discuss the progress of the Healthcare Not Warfare campaign. The meeting was held at the same hotel where PDA members were participating in a three-day United for Peace and Justice national assembly.

The UFPJ assembly and the PDA meeting were both extremely encouraging, and harmonized well. UFPJ not only endorsed PDA’s Healthcare read more

By David Swanson

Given the fates of the other two members of Bush’s axis of evil, some would argue that the best defense Iran could have would be a nuclear bomb. They would, however, be wildly wrong. The best defense Iran could have would be awareness in the minds of Americans of who the Iranian people are, a people with great love and affection for the American people, great generosity toward others, and great commitment to peace. The best way I know that this defense could be created read more

By David Swanson

This is the question now raised in Iraq: If they throw shoes at your face are you a combat troop or a noncombat troop? The answer may be important in helping to guide President Elect Obama’s strategy of reducing but continuing the genocidal occupation that has made a shoeless journalist one of the most beloved, if little known, people in the world overnight.

A related dilemma is this: If shoes become weapons, were the metal detectors, searches, and bribes to phony journalists read more

By David Swanson

United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), the largest coalition of peace organizations (over 1,400 of them) in the United States, held a national assembly in Chicago December 12-14, and drafted documents establishing the movement’s agenda for the coming year.

Proposals to work for the prosecution of high officials guilty of war crimes, including the crime of launching an aggressive war, were approved and written into all three of UFPJ’s key documents, which are revised from read more

Open for video.

By David Swanson

Imagine that you took your family to the White House for a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, and you were all standing in the front row as the president made some brief remarks, you and your spouse and your two children, a little girl and a little boy. And imagine that after talking for a few minutes the president turned to his chief of staff, handed him a knife, and said “Would you mind grabbing that little girl out of the front row and bringing her up here and slitting read more

For the past two years, Congress has pretended that ending a war requires passing a bill and blamed its failure to pass a bill on Republican filibusters and presidential vetoes. The veto excuse is gone. But the pretense that a bill is needed is firmly entrenched, and the filibuster excuse lives. The Democrats will have, at best, 59 senate seats in their caucus, unless Obama appoints a Republican senator to a plum position or Congress provides the people of Washington, D.C., with representation read more

Pick up some “ARREST BUSH & CHENEY” sweatshirts and t-shirts for the holidays and to join us in front of the FBI building during the January 20th inauguration parade! Our friends have a permit for 3,000 people wearing or carrying this message. I guarantee we’ll have more fun that anybody dressing for prom and taking out a high-interest loan to buy a ticket to a formal ball.