Peace and War

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