Peace and War

By David Swanson

I posted a blog recently comparing the occupation of Iraq to rape. I later deleted it.

Over at Shakesville there’s a whole discussion about that fact, to which I just contributed this comment:

Response from David Swanson. Actually you don’t write letters, because you never sent me a letter or a fax or an Email. But I did just find this. I took the post down because of a misunderstanding related to racism that I thought was crazy until I saw this misunderstanding related read more

By David Swanson

I’ve got no strings
To hold me down
To make me bow to Cheney’s crown
I had strings
But now I’m free
I’m Nouri al Maliki

Nouri Kamel Mohammed Hassan al-Maliki, the puppet Prime Minister of Iraq, represents me and the people of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District better than Congressman Virgil Hamlin Goode [rhymes with lewd], Jr. This is not an idiosyncratic opinion so much as a measurable fact.

Virgil Goode voted Presente! on the war money three read more

By David Swanson

Something called the “GI Bill” passed both houses of Congress with large majorities in recent weeks. It really would provide educational benefits to veterans, but it’s not a bill. It’s an amendment. It could be introduced as a bill, pass again with large majorities, and probably even override a veto. Or it could die from repeated vetoes after being passed repeatedly, a goal the Democrats have treated as their ideal dream outcome for all sorts of other read more

1. Don’t announce that you’re coming, because the war criminal will escape.

2. Pick your war criminal. Here are their names, where to find them, and some of the charges against them.

Note: War Criminals travel frequently. Watch http://convictbushcheney.org for notice of when they’ll be appearing publicly near you. Below are their home locations.

CALIFORNIA

John Yoo: Professor of Law at Boalt Hall School of Law in Berkeley, California, (but a lawyer with the Pennsylvania read more

By David Swanson

One of the best outlines I’ve seen of a post-Bush-Cheney foreign policy that makes sense and could make us all more safe, more free, and more prosperous can be found in a short new book called “Re-Engage: America and the World After Bush,” by Helena Cobban. Like Thomas Jefferson and most people with useful ideas for the world, Cobban lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, where we work together on the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice. She also writes read more

By David Swanson

An In These Times article by David Sirota gets the peace movement dramatically wrong. Sirota addresses the real peace movement, the organizers working for peace in every way they can, in his opening lines, just clearing his throat really, and dismisses everyone involved as creating a fringe image because not all participants brings the same signs and posters to marches. Sirota doesn’t talk to anyone involved, and gets his take on the peace movement from the corporate media. read more

David Murfee Faulk was a translator in the Navy, working in Arabic and Iraqi dialect. In April 2004 he began working for the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Gordon outside Augusta, Georgia. (He now writes, under the name Murfee Faulk, for the Metro Spirit newspaper in Augusta, but he has never written about what he did for the NSA.)

Faulk says that in May 2004 he found an extremely large text file containing grid coordinates for alleged chemical weapons sites in Iraq. Faulk showed it read more

By David Swanson

Tonight, May 20th, from 8-9 p.m. ET, I’ll have the pleasure of interviewing, with your help, Board Member of Iraq Veterans Against the War Jason Lemieux. Go to: http://thepeoplespeakradio.net to learn more. Go to http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/listen-live to listen live. read more

By David Swanson

As an alumnus of the University of Virginia, I receive its magazine in the mail, a magazine that always makes me question how I can have received as good an education at UVA as I think I did, when the people who produce this magazine seem not to have received the same. The Summer 2008 issue contains an article called “Stories from Iraq”, which contains not a single story of a single Iraqi, coincidentally read more

By Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.)

Cindy Sheehan, a peace activist and candidate for Congress in California’s 8th District, will speak at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel on May 22.

The event will last from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Preston Room. Tickets will be available at the door and cost $10 for students; $20 for general admission; $50 for admission and a photo with Sheehan; and $100 for admission, a photo with Sheehan and priority seating. Free parking will be available at the Omni for people read more