A revolt is taking place within the ranks of the US military as a growing number of soldiers refuse to fight in Iraq and are increasingly vocal in their opposition to a war they consider illegal and immoral. They are today's generation of war resisters.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/730/in4.htm


From Information Clearing House

U.S. troops in Iraq are only trying to buy time:
http://207.44.245.159/article8134.htm

Why Go to College, When You Can be Cannon Fodder?

Do You Know What Your Kids Are Watching on "Educational" TV at School?

By Dr. Teresa Whitehurst

I learned something new yesterday. Channel One News, the "educational" TV show that my daughter Isa and millions of other American kids watch every morning at school, is busy recruiting our teenagers into the military.

http://207.44.245.159/article8125.htm

Teresa Haddix, the mother of injured Marine Lance Corporal Chris Shotwell, said a Twentynine Palms medical official turned her son down for medical care, directing him to the VA instead. Four more months would pass before he was discharged. "Once [my son] got that letter showing he would not be able to carry a gun, [the Marines] were done with him," Haddix said.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2862

Korean War Combat Veteran: Post-traumatic stress disorder needs to be taken seriously

From a letter to the editor: For the rest of you, take those stupid metallic ribbons off the back of your cars. If you want to show your support for our combat veterans of any war, the next time you see one, look him in the eye, give him a firm handshake and just say "Thank you for serving your country." It's the best medicine I know for someone who is living with this horrible problem.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2861

The national press fails to report that service members are voting with their feet, thus confirming low moral and raising serious questions about the U.S. - Iraq War: "Between 5,000 and 6,000 U.S. military personnel are listed as deserters by the armed services, typically meaning they have been absent without leave from their unit for more than 30 days."

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2860

More than 412,000 Guard and reservists have been called up nationwide since Sept. 11, 2001, and 185,432 remain on active duty. One group, Employer Support reported that since April, it has received 6,462 queries [complaints by Reservists that their employer won't hire them back, as required by law], of which 5,739 have been successfully mediated between reservist and employer.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2863

The author of the article below is attending a gathering of delegates from the almost 1,000 member groups of United For Peace and Justice in St. Louis, Missouri to set a course for the anti-war movement for the next eighteen months. They will meet from February 19-21 to plan a strategic direction, develop a common program of work, and elect national leadership. Danny Glover and Tom Hayden are headlining the conference. For more info on that, go to http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0215-10.htm


Shelter Under the Anti-war Umbrella

by David Solnit, AlterNet. Posted February 18, 2005.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/21298/

EXCERPT - The world seems to be waiting for those of us in the U.S. – and millions of us here are ready – to really stand up to the Bush administration and the bipartisan policies of empire. But it's hard to mobilize against the war and occupation when there is no clear logic to where our efforts are headed. What will another march or even nonviolent direct action add up to? How will we actually stop the war and occupation? Where is a strategy that could work?

The anti-war movement needs a strategy of how we are going to stop the war and occupation of Iraq.

The solution is written in last month's mountain road blockades and the citywide shutdown of El Alto, Bolivia that kicked out water privatizing transnational corporation Suez from devastating their water system. It's also in our own re-written history. It's called people power.

In 2003 we tried almost everything to stop the invasion of Iraq, and in 2004 we tried to un-elect the invader. Both times, incredible groundswells of grassroots activism from most nearly every sector of society hit the streets and doorsteps of America and won important, less visible victories, but failed on both counts.

We have clearly and massively exhausted the established channels of change; political pressure, lobbying and elections have not worked. It's time for a different approach.

People power is an assertion of real democracy. It can assert the democratic will of communities and movements to change the things that matter when the established so-called democratic channels turn out be little more than public relations for elite rule. Every successful movement in U.S. history, from the workers and civil rights movement to today's farmworker-led Taco Bell boycott, and every dictator toppled in recent history have relied on people power methods.

A people power strategy that identifies the key pillars that support the Iraq war and occupation and wages a determined campaign to weaken and eventually remove those pillars can stop the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq. It can also take a major step in weakening the systemic pillars of empire at the root of so many problems in our communities and in the world. Do we have the guts and imagination? [READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/21298/]


"We must address the root causes of terrorism -- poverty, ignorance and injustice -- rather than responding to violence with violence." - from the Statement of the 5th Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, 11/12/2004


Lourdes Leger

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/02/09/national/w151431S61.DTL


Informant: Frank Gonzalez