Peace and War

By David Swanson

United for Peace and Justice held a workshop at the US Social Forum in Atlanta on Thursday, at which several speakers made some pretty amazing statements.

Adrienne Kenney of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) described her work serving stateside with the NSA of listening in on foreigners. Prior to 9-11, she said, they never listened to Americans. Post 9-11 she says, they were given a waiver to listen to Americans, and not Americans with ties to terrorism, but American journalists. read more

By David Swanson

The most creative, energetic, and effective peace activists in the United States right now are women organized explicitly as “CODE PINK: Women for Peace.” While CODE PINK welcomes the participation of men (and when I’m in DC I stay at the CODE PINK house), the group is organized around the idea that women have a special role to play in working for peace. So, every once in a while I ask a bunch of Code Pinkers “Why don’t we have a group of Men for read more

By David Swanson

The new film “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” makes arguing against wars easy. If you get into a debate about war, just make the points made so clearly in this film, or – better yet – convince a war supporter to watch the film. Best of all would be to persuade every American to read Norman Solomon’s book of the same title, on which the movie is based.

The book has the greatest depth, but the movie has much to read more

By David Swanson

PHOTO: Rep. Lynn Woolsey, interpreter Aseel Al-Banna, Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union President Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein

Americans should keep lobbying Congress to end the occupation of Iraq, but should also try lobbying the Iraqi government, which appears more open to listening.

Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union President Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein (through interpreter Aseel Al-Banna) met with a number of U.S. Congress Members on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and spoke read more

By David Swanson

I picked up a pamphlet the other day that said “Just for You” at the top, so I assumed it was just for me. Much of the front page contained an image of soldiers marching, and next to them the words “What’s your exit strategy?” That’s easy, I thought. Impeachment, removal, indictment, and conviction. But was this really a pamphlet about peace? I read the text at the bottom of the front page:

“In the 1960s and 1970s, the United States read more

By David Swanson

Over the past two months of repeated Congressional votes to fund the occupation of Iraq, culminating in President Bush’s signing the bill on Friday, what – if anything – have we learned? Have we learned anything about individuals or political parties or activist organizations to trust or despise, or have we learned better what to demand of them regardless of such emotions? Have we learned anything about policies to support, battles to lose, pyrrhic victories, or how read more

By David Swanson

Here it is, yawn, on the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend and on the day after a war debate in Congress, all 229 pages of it, and as riveting as a phone book: the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on Bush and Cheney’s war lies. This is what we’ve waited all these years for? Nancy Pelosi shaved her legs for THIS?
http://intelligence.senate.gov/prewar.pdf

We elected Democratic majorities in November of 2006 so that they could end the occupation and hold accountable read more

Catch David Swanson discussing Congress and the war at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, March 22, on 1200 a.m. in Detroit or streaming online at http://www.wchb1200.com

By David Swanson

On Wednesday morning, the U.S. Senate voted on a proposal from Senator Russ Feingold (D., Wisc.) to end the war by next March. The amendment would have really ended the war, in so far as it would have cut off funding to illegally continue it. But the amendment included loopholes and exceptions, so that US imperial control of Iraq and its oil was not seriously threatened. And, remember, this was to end the war – or at least scale it back – by March 31, 2008. Hardly the swift read more

By David Swanson

The new war money bill passed by the House on May 10 does not include even a nonbinding end date for the war. It does fund the war for a shorter period of time at one shot, but the Senate doesn’t like that idea, and the bill must be reconciled with whatever the Senate passes. So, what’s left in the bill that Bush doesn’t like? Benchmarks!

But there are two problems with this. Bush DOES like them. And they’re NOT benchmarks. A benchmark is a standard read more

By David Swanson

President Bush vetoed a war spending bill because it included a deadline for ending the war, albeit a non-binding one. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has proposed to hold a vote on Thursday on a new bill that will not include even a nonbinding “timeline.” The media and even activist groups have almost immediately and almost unanimously described this as standing tough and refusing to give in to Bush.

In fact, most of the media coverage has dropped any mention read more