What About Iraq?

In his NYT op-ed column on June 18th, Thomas Friedman writes:

"Iraq has become one of those subjects that so many people now come to with so much emotional scar tissue that it is very hard to have a sober discussion about the actual situation there today. So much is colored by how you feel about George Bush or whether you were for or against the war. As a result, what we do next in Iraq — how and why — is barely getting discussed in the presidential campaign."

According to a CNN report from late last month:

Notable progress" has been made in Iraq despite persistent problems, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday at an international summit to promote peace in the violence-wracked country.

"If we were asked to use just one word to describe the situation in Iraq today, I would choose the word 'hope,' " Ban said at the Stockholm, Sweden, conference. "Iraq is stepping back from the abyss that we feared most."

Yet Iraqis continue to suffer from terrorism, sectarian violence and criminality, he said, and "essential services are still sorely lacking.

Forced displacement and human-rights violations remain problems, particularly for women and minorities, he said, but the level of violence has declined from that of 2006 and part of 2007.

"There is new hope that the people and government of Iraq are overcoming daunting challenges and working together to rebuild their country after years of war, neglect and dictatorship," Ban said.

Confusing leadership in the United States has been a problem since the war began. American citizens were asked to sacrifice nothing. Life went on in this nation as if nothing was happening of any great significance on foreign soil. Public protests and critics of the Bush administration's rush to war were either ignored or buried in the back pages of American newspapers. There was enough guilt to go around. Factors involving mainstream media, certain bloggers willing to sacrifice truth and reality to score cheap political points, extreme partisanship and fear-mongering in the halls of Washington, D.C, the discouraging rubber-stamps and roadblocks from so many Republican Senators and House Representatives...each played a part in the emotional scarring that Mr. Friedman, whose own judgment disappointed me many times over the past few years, now humbly talks about.

None of it was a U.S. soldier's doing nor was any mistake a soldier's fault.

There has been a disturbing lack of leadership at the very top - from those in the U.S. Executive branch who were charged with solemn responcibilities to the American people and who failed miserably. For these past five excruciating years during which our soldiers have sacrificed life and limb in Iraq, the Bush administration - often adamantly - failed at every step to reasonably explain to the American public what victory might look like when it was achieved. Seeing them making excuses and moving the "victory" goalposts at every convenient political juncture for the sake of empowering one political party is, for me, unforgivable.

Why did the Bush administration take the American public for fools?
Didn't they realize that you can only fool the people for so long?

Bottom line, Mr. Friedman is right.

It's high time Americans got a glimpse of the reality on the ground in Iraq and it's high time our leaders trusted and respected the intelligence of each and every American and start talking about Iraq in a way that intelligent people can actually understand. President Bush has appealed to the pariotism in each of us in a disrespectful manner in that he's asked us citizens to take too much on faith alone. This isn't a church. It's a nation of people who, from the time of our nation's founding, has existed on the basis of each soul having an opportunity to make crucial and informed choices. As Robert McClure, Senior Associate Dean of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University said in 2001 about being an intelligent patriot:

"If democratic citizenship involves both rights and responsibilities, then patriotism is found on the responsibility side of the equation. Patriotism is a citizen’s duty—a debt owed—to the larger community, ….not an individual prerogative reserved for personal use. In a democracy, patriotism is part of our responsibility to protect and defend one another, because — if for no other reason than the most self-interested of reasons — it is the national community that bestows and protects our individual rights."

In my own activism, I've acted because I owe a debt to the soldiers who've taken and followed the command of their Commander-in-Chief on faith and in loyalty to the larger American community and the U.S. Constitution. A quote was on my blog's sidebar from the time the Iraq war began: "This blog, out of love and respect for our citizens who serve in the armed forces, supports the brave men and women who do their duty for this nation. This blog does not support the current policies of G.W. Bush. May Providence grant us all the wisdom to know the difference. "



AP photo from March, 2004 - Yes, that's our President George Bush mockingly looking for WMD under his desk. The old joke has gone rancid. He doesn't seem to know it yet.

Iraq is more than just a mess that our poor and deceptive leaders got us into. And it certainly isn't a joke.

I was floored to learn, thanks to Dan Froomkin, that, even after being criticized for other times he's done it, President Bush still considers the absence of WMD in Iraq as some kind of a joke:

"...in an interview [today] with Ned Temko of Britain's Observer, [President] Bush actually joked that he was "still looking" for the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that were the main reason he gave to the public for going to war.

I believe that Barack Obama and John McCain are going to have to talk about the gains achieved because of the surge in Iraq. I want to hear no political posturing from either side because, after shock and awe in 2003, there was a four-year blunder of historic proportions and Obama's claim to having been against the war from Day One, although noble in its own light of judgment, doesn't really matter anymore, to be quite honest. We are where we are. John McCain should take no great pride in having championed this war, voting with the Republicans for the four years for which his party can only claim a wrong course of action in U.S. Foreign policy. Fast-forward to "the surge" and some gains can be claimed...but for how long? Is maintaining the few gains achieved in the past eight months considered to be what victory looks like as we amble toward an end game (still with no time-frames in legislation)? Are those gains enough? We know, from experience, that whenever we've left a city like Mosul or Basra or Fallujah, we've left a vacuum for militia groups and oil smugglers to fill. If we pull our soldiers out one brigade at a time, how long will it take for the vacuum caused by their leaving to be filled with those who would cause the Iraq government to lose a grip on their fragile situation?

How long do we keep this up?

I am expecting to see a meaningful and respectful debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Anything less will surely disappoint.

Iraq/Recession Campaign

At the MoveOn.org website today, you'll see this:

As long as we keep pouring that money down the drain in Iraq, we’ll never solve our economic woes. We won’t have the money to take care of people hurt by the economic downturn, or to invest in making our economy more competitive.

That’s a message that pundits and politicians need to hear.

A polling by USAction.org has shown that, 69-to-25, U.S. swing voters have expressed their strong support for ending spending for the Iraq war.

This morning, former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth Edwards joined top anti-Iraq war leaders to announce the launch of a new nationwide, multimillion dollar campaign aimed at shining a light on the cost of war in Iraq. The new Iraq/Recession Campaign was launched with a teleconference. Along with the Edwardses on the teleconference were John Podesta, CEO of the Center for American Progress, Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org; Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change, Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org, among others.

As economic concerns weigh heavily on the minds of Americans, opposition to President Bush's reckless war in Iraq continues to grow. The massive cost of the war in Iraq- hurtling toward one trillion dollars - has increased demand for a strategy to bring U.S. troops home. The Iraq/Recession Campaign will highlight the majority of Americans who want to see leadership on investing in critical priorities at home and establishing real security throughout the world.

Speaking from her home in North Carolina, Elizabeth Edwards gave a reason why she was lending her name to this campaign. She said that it's important for the American people to understand, if they feel that the economy is their 'Number One issue,' that ending the war in Iraq should be their 'Number One issue.' Her husband, 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards agreed, saying that, wherever he went in this country over the course of his now-suspended campaign, there was great angst expressed among voters about their personal economic security. Issues like gasoline costs, healthcare costs and availability, rising college costs, and mortgage foreclosure crises loomed heavily on voter's minds. Former Senator Edwards stressed that voters will have a clear choice this Fall, the choice being between a Democrat who will end the war and focus on the economic anxiety that exists and a Republican - which will likely be John McCain - who will continue the Iraq war and the failed foreign policy of the Bush administration. [See Ryan Teague Beckwith's Edwards: Iraq, economy tied, NewsObserver.com]


Incidentally, John McCain said, just today, that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can't, he said... "Then I lose. I lose." [AP]


John Podesta of the Center for American Progress cited the falling dollar, the price of oil at times exceeding over $100 per barrel, the staggering federal IOU's due to the need to restore a nearly broken military and to take proper care of our nation's veterans, huge deficits, and stagflation the likes of which have not been seen since the 1970s as reasons for voter anxiety and deep concern about the millions the taxpayers are forced to spend each and every day that we remain occupying Iraq.

_____________



On other media websites, the word is.....

The Hill puts an Obama-spin on the new Iraq Recession campaign, but not one spokeperson involved on the campaign has said this morning that the Iraq/Recession campaign is about Obama or Clinton or even strictly about Democrats. It's about the American people and their economic priorities. See: Edwards joins Obama supporters in new anti-war effort by Walter Alarkon, The Hill


John Nichols at the Nation is still wondering if Edwards will endorse either Democratic candidate and he also talks about how Edwards is defintely not waiting around for inspiration to strike, but is instead "endorsing" an approach to the 2008 race.

CBS' Vaughn Ververs provides us with: Edwards Joins Effort To Link Iraq, Economy

The Guardian's Elana Schor tells us that Edwards speaks out against Iraq war spending, calling the group of anti-Iraq-occupation campaigners "natural allies for either Clinton or Obama during a general election race against McCain."


The Swamp at the ChiTrib has more. (and this philosophically relates to the quote I use from MoveOn's Eli Pariser at the very end of this blogpost.)





Send a Letter to the Editor

At MoveOn.org, you can easily send a Letter to the Editor: The cost of the war and urgent needs at home



Questions for John McCain

During the January 24, 2008 Republican presidential debate, a question taken from an audience-member summarized what some are calling the Iraq recession -- the connection between the US's presence in Iraq and recession back home.





VoteVets.org has a question for Senator and likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain:




CNN's Political Ticker Showcases the VoteVets.org ad today.
See: Votevets.org targets McCain on Iraq

The Caucus [Leslie Wayne,NYT Political Blog] talks about the ad.

Marc Ambinder on McCain's "100 Years" in Iraq. Listen to Senator McCain trying to clarify '100 years' here.


______________


Recession and Iraq

Some will likely debate and perhaps dispute the connection between economic recession and the war in Iraq. This posting by NYT columnist Paul Krugman isn't directly related to the new Iraq-Recession campaign, but he gave an opinion in late January about the talk of economic recession and how the Iraq War relates (and doesn't relate) directly to U.S. economic woes. One very important point Mr. Krugman makes is that Iraq would be exporting more oil now if we hadn’t invaded — a million barrels a day, perhaps — and that would have kept today's high oil prices down somewhat.




Have You Heard About the Bush-Legacy Bus?

One new bit of information I got this morning (and what I thought to be rather amusing for some reason) is Brad Woodhouse's explanation of the "Bush Legacy Bus" project. The Washington Post has explained the project, virtually a rolling museum, as only part of an ever-growing effort for critics to chip away studiously at the legacy of the President who has said, time and time again, that he believes history will judge him ever-so-kindly when the smoke of the many unnecessary fires he's created has dissipated to somehow magically reveal a transformed Middle East.

A negative verdict on Bush also animates the work of the Bush Legacy Project, launched recently by the liberal advocacy group Americans United for Change, which announced plans to spend $8.5 million over the next year to keep the public focused on what it considers the administration's many failures. [WaPo, Michael Abramowitz, February 4, 2008]

I guess it's the name "Bush Legacy Bus" that's caused me to mentally visualize a short yellow bus carting around all of the simpleton-like Bushisms and pathetic misleadings that have passed from the President's clumsy lips over the past eight years.


The Wall Street Journal's Susan Davis says,

Americans United for Change will spend an estimated $8-$9 million on their Bush Legacy Project, a "national multi-faceted effort to define President George Bush’s legacy," and seeks to define McCain as an extension of that. Additionally, USAction said they will spend $10 million on their campaign that includes Iraq, health care, the budget and education. Jeff Blum, executive director of the group, discussed a recent USAction-commissioned poll that showed 74% of respondents stating the country is on the wrong track and that the war and the economy are top issues of concern. "The results show people are angry. They want to get out of Iraq to invest in America’s future," he said.

_____________



Progressive Voters Give John and Elizabeth Edwards Credit and Thanks

NCDem blogs about the new campaign at the website Daily Kos. See: Edwards and Obama Endorsers, MoveOn & SEIU, Launch "Iraq/Recession" Campaign

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
A February 19, 2008 quote from Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org:

As of today, we've spent over $495 billion in Iraq.

With the economy in the tank, think about what that money could do here at home: Cover millions of kids who don't have insurance, or help folks who're losing their jobs and homes. Instead, it's supporting a failed occupation in Iraq. More and more Americans are making the connection between the billions we've spent over there and the crumbling economy here at home. In fact, a new AP poll shows that most Americans think ending the war is the best way to help the economy.

But pundits still talk about the war and the economy as two unrelated things. That's why we're launching our "Iraq/Recession" campaign—our push to make sure that politicians and pundits understand what voters already know: As long as we keep pouring that money down the drain in Iraq, we won't have the money we need to solve our economic woes.

What Is Success In Iraq? Has Petraeus Won the War?

In Howard Kurtz's latest column, he quotes Christopher Hitchens as saying that the American left does not want to see U.S. success in Iraq. As a citizen who leans decidedly left in the Iraq War and can go on record as firmly supporting our troops - if not their neoconservative-flavored mission - I find this kind of statement to be personally defamatory and intellectually dishonest. I'm all for a nation that works together with a clear and informed eye in the hopes of formulating a better direction in our foreign policy. The divisive commentary of Mr. Hitchens is not welcome in my world. Every straight-thinking individual understands that any measure of overall American success in Iraq, in the end, will have been destined to be "in the eye of the beholder" and won't have been measured by any one benchmark met or by any one particular military surge in one isolated area of Iraq. Hitchens saying that anyone leaning (understandably, in my view) left on the Iraq war 'doesn't want success' says more, in my opinion, about Mr. Hitchen's political disdain for the left on the subject of a failed policy he's championed, embarrassingly at times, than it says for reality-based psychology on the left regarding U.S. foreign policy in Iraq.




There Are Wars and Rumors of Wars Yet to Come Within Iraq


Look at Iraq as it stands today. Kirkuk remains a powderkeg, its rich oil resources stuck in the focus of the lusting pupils of the oil companies. The Kurdish question hangs over us like a descending balloon made of more lead than a Chinese toy. A recent New Yorker piece titled 'Letter from Iraq: Inside the Surge', by Jon Lee Anderson forewarns us that there is a Shia-on-Shia civil war likely yet to come - fueled by the United States in their covert war with Iran for which the word "dipomacy" has fallen flat and the resulting and damaging influence of extremism in the region has been a result. This is far from over. Iraq will take decades to work themselves toward a government and political solution of their choosing. I suspect there will be years of civil war and political upheaval. The important thing is helping our leaders to understand that we believe real success will come only when we end our occupation and engage, encourage and convince all nations in the region to eschew extremism.




In the Face of Today's Realties in Iraq, Americans Deserve Better Than An MSM Good-News Surge

The facts and figures with which the mainstream press, including the influential New York Times, is barraging the American public in a recent 'good-news surge' has me remaining rationally skeptical. I watched the New York Times, wittingly or not, politically help the Bush administration to reach a tipping point on favorable public opinion in regard to making pre-emptive war in Iraq in 2002. That unfortunate cheerleading-warm-up-by-media is now and will likely remain a decided black mark on the Times' (and most of their media followers') record for investigative credibility.

Tell me why I should trust the New York Times headline telling me that things are better now when I know that, even if U.S. combat troops were pulled out in six months to a year (and I think there's no better alternative), that there has been careful deception played out on the army of General Petraeus by those who have tribal vendettas to settle in the name of supporting U.S. troops in places like Ghazaliya - these vendettas having nothing to do with al Qaeda in Iraq. Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker recently told the story of just one new Iraqi recruit who decided to support the U.S. so that he could cut body parts off the remains of 100 men from the Mahdi Army he'd sworn to kill in order to avenge his dead brother.

When I think about success in Iraq, I could never wrap a moral fabric around what I see is the advantage of using the culture, the anger, and the sorrow of those embroiled in a civil war of which my own countrymen have no complete cultural knowledge and of which, regarding foreign policy, my country is implict in fomenting civil war in order to achieve politically-sought acceptance of the so-called success.


Political Success? What Political Success?


Bear in mind that we haven't even begun to talk about the absence of political success here. That's another story altogether.. and most recently was discussed last night by Juan Cole and Feisal Istrabadi on Jim Lehrer's News Hour on PBS.



Newsroom Editors Should Be Capable of Asking Readers to Think More Critically Than the Bush Administration Asks of the Public

How does a mainstream news editorial staff put this kind of hard truth down in an editorial? How do they resist becoming the stenopads they allowed themselves to become in 2002? Do they exist and do their jobs exist only to make this war as morally palatable as possible? Do they realze that the many of the Sunnis we praise today for their support in the surge want to see the Shi'ites cleansed from Baghdad? Do they make the public understand that the Bush administration is so worried about the Republican party maintaining control in the 2008 presidential election that their need to find the cheapest kind of success is urgent to them? To be able to draw down troops in time for the next big election, they're all too willing to allow the military to accept their newfound Sunni allies in the surge at face value..without adequately checking their backgrounds? Have we forgotten about a man named Curveball, the shady character of whom the Bush administration all too willingly allowed to lead the way with false intelligence in the rush to war in Iraq?



But Really - What's Reality, Anyhow?

Howard Kurtz points to a blogger at RedState named Pejman Yousefzadeh who wonders out-loud,

..why it is that the 'reality-based community' hasn't taken much notice of these improvements. Or why it wants once again to short-circuit them with yet another debate over withdrawal that is destined to fail being planned in Congress."

I'd suggest to Mr. Yousefzadeh that reality, in the end, is not always easy to face when anyone, including himself, has a ideological log ripping out their eye. He seems to see the debate about U.S. troop withdrawal as the old red-herring (enforced by too many false-framers) called 'surrender and disengage.' That's the farthest result that I'd expect a new and clear-eyed focus on a change of course on U.S. foreign policy would have the capacity to achieve. Where Mr. Yousefzadeh sees the glass as empty on a new foreign policy focus on Iraq, I see it as full of chances for a more lasting and socially just success - not only for Iraq and the United States, but for the better interests of the entire region.

Temporary stability has been achieved by General Petraeus in such a way that his men and women can do their best to say, with pride, that they found a way to succeed for their Commander in Chief. What they're doing has been done so that they can come back home with honor. General Petraeus has my respect, and I understand that he's had a tough job to do and that the policy that has failed to bring about an Iraqi political solution has never been his foreign policy.




He Did What Was Asked. Now Let's Put People Like Petraeus Where They Can Be of Best Use..With the Best Civilian Leadership

I long to see General Petraeus in a place where he can make the best difference for all of us, and I don't think it's where he is today. I somehow trust that he'd agree with me on this point where many decidedly misguided right-leaning bloggers would not. My words stand in black and white before my readers. I'm secure in knowing that General Petraeus - and others like him - are out there. They deserve new and wiser civilian leadership with an eye on true, meaningful, and lasting success.

Zogby Urges Return to Iraq Study Group Recommendations

Dr. James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute in Washington, DC, believes that the war in Iraq is far from over - and may soon get worse. He says it could and should have been foreseen. All the warning signs were there. In Northern Iraq, the file of historical grievances of the Kurdish people has been opened and it won't close anytime soon.

Over the past decade, Iraq's Kurds have prospered under a US-protected umbrella. With the collapse of the regime in Baghdad, Kurdish hopes of expanding their autonomy grew, and with it, their ambition as well. The Kurdish Provisional Authority (KPA) has become, for all intents and purposes, a state within a failing state. With its own flag and military, and its own Washington representation, the KPA is moving inexorably towards independence.

When Dr. Zogby refers to the KPA's "own Washington representation," this story (from the WaPo) is a good part of what he's talking about. I have written [in 2005, in 2006, in 2007] about my deep concerns about the conflict of ethics and interest when well-paid K-Street lobbyists become de-facto U.S. diplomats in war-torn regions. It's akin to letting Blackwater fight our nation's wars. It's against every democratic principle intended by the Founding Fathers to keep our Republic from falling into a state of corruption and oligarchy.

Dr. Zogby revisits the Iraq Study Group recommendations, surely making neoconservatives shiver as he invokes the name of their Straussian devil known as the U.N. This idea acknowledges an interdependent world, but threatens the hijack-hold the neocons still have on U.S. foreign policy, thanks to the Presient's delusions of one-day historic greatness, and the intellectual shortcomings and raw partisan ambitions of the Bush administration and the U.S. Republican party:

With Turkey and Iran both bombing Kurdish positions within the KPA and threatening an even greater response if the insurgent groups are not controlled, the US sees the possibility that its one Iraqi success story may give way to the opening of a new front in what will become an even more complicated war.


This all should have been understood before the war began, but was not. And that is why one of the principal recommendations of the Iraq Study Group is as valid today as when it was written. And that is the necessity of creating a regional security pact to bring together all the component groups inside Iraq, along with Iraq's neighbours, under the auspices of the UN, so that problems of this sort are not tackled piece meal. Iraq's neighbours have a direct stake in the stability and unity of Iraq and are better made partners towards that goal than a collection of allies and rivals.

There is a new framework from which the UN could be instrumental in resolving the Kurdish question. Recently passed (without a 'YES' vote from the United States) was the Human Rights Council Resolution on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [pdf]. It's a declaration that could give indigenous peoples like the Kurds a valuable tool even though, still imperfect, the agreement’s non-binding nature leaves indigenous peoples to rely upon the political will of nation states as each respective state creates a framework for working with their indigenous populations. A great leader would take Dr. Zogby's advice and go back to the Iraq Study Group recommendations and implement the new UN Declaration framework in a way that would bring an end to U.S. occupationand bring peace to the region and fairness to the Kurds by involving and placing responsibility with all of Iraq's neighbors.

Of Patriotism and the Army of a King

Just imagine for a moment, if you will, being asked to honor the veterans of a King's private and enriched army in your own country where the ones we've long honored have looked like these men and women.

Photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

At Frameshop, Jeffrey Feldman speaks out about Blackwater and the telltale signs of President Bush setting up the kind of army that acts as if it is his own. What does "patriotism" mean when you can clearly see the American tradition of constitutional power being turned over, as a farmer treats the fallow soil of his fields, and the seeds of a privatized army loyal only to a President and his particular foreign policy are sown?

To whom and to what do we owe our patriotism? Do we owe it to longstanding American and democratic tradition ... or do we owe it to the army of one man who appears to deem himself king over a land that has adopted freedom through a careful system of checks and balances as its hallmark of continuity?

Excerpt:

Blackwater and its kind are different. They are not just soldiers, not just police. They are lines of loyalty bought, paid for and hidden from public view by the obfuscating jargon of Federal budgets. Their loyalty is sternly vertical, extending through the CEO to the President in a perfect reinvention of vassal obligation.

Blackwater may be 'boots on the ground' in Iraq or Katrina, but in political terms they are an extension of the king's body.

Royal power extends from the king to the people, from top down, but it cannot unfold if the army belongs to the people and not to the king. As Machiavelli described it, mercenaries and auxiliary armies can help extend rule for a short period of time, but for the will of the prince to become the will of the state, the king must make the army 'his own.'

Jeffrey Feldman, Frameshop: The Prince

Edwards & Gore on Iraq at Current.com (Current comes to Converge South)

Former VP Al Gore and 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards have made videos for Current.com where they've expressed their opinions about the Iraq War.


Related:

Current.com comes to Greensboro, N.C.



Saskia Wilson Brown of Current.com




Current's Brandon Gross (on right) with co-panelist Jason McHugh (CrapTV)


Saskia Wilson-Brown and Brandon Gross of Current.com appeared at the 2007 Converge South conference held at North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro this past weekend. Photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell (Iddybud).



My set of photos from Converge South
Go to the link to see larger versions of the photos below.

ConvergeSouth 2007 Flickr Group
Technorati Results for ConvergeSouth2007
Anthology of Converge South postings [by David Beckwith]
Posted at Current.com by Saskia Wilson-Brown

Syracuse: Soldiers Magnetize Thousands to Denounce Iraq War

I want to take an opportunity to show you the faces of soldiers who have served our nation in Iraq and who do not agree with the Bush administration's policy on Iraq. Nothing phony about these men and women. Nope. They're the real deal. Their courage was a virtual magnet that drew thousands to a September 29th march in Syracuse, N.Y. where soldiers and citizens denounced the Iraq War.

The people in our Upstate New York communities support these (very real) servicemen and women. I want to take an opportunity to show you some (very real) photos of (very real) citizens from diverse walks of (very real) community life in Syracuse and Upstate New York who took a Saturday afternoon on a halcyon September day to tell George W. Bush what they think of his administration's (all-too real and disastrous) Iraq policy.


The Bring the Troops Home Now rally in Syracuse was a booming success for those diverse community groups who'd worked hard to organize it. Three thousand people filled the plaza behind the Everson Museum in downtown Syracuse where they rallied and filled the streets as far as the eye could see, marching together over a mile to Walnut park near the Syracuse University area.




They were there to support Iraq vets who are conscientiously courageous enough to face their communties and tell the citizens back home why they think this war is morally and legally wrong. Bringing about a pivotal moment - a tipping point for campus/community-protest of the Iraq war, there was, for the first time, active-duty military presence from Fort Drum (near Watertown, N.Y.) in the Syracuse march.




The day's events culminated in a gathering for a discussion panel/Q & A at Hendricks Chapel on the Syracuse University campus with Scott Ritter (Former Marine and UN Weapons Inspector), Jimmy Massey (IVAW), and Dahlia Wasfi (an anti-war activist who was born in Iraq and has visited her native country twice since the invasion). I'll blog more about what took place during the Discussion Panel in other diaries.






3000 people. For a city the size of Syracuse, that was a remarkable turnout. Signs everywhere.






The sounds of chanting, rallying, drumming, and music.




There were skateboarders for peace.




There were poets for peace. (This poet is Arthur Flowers, Syracuse University professor).




There were musicians and citizens of faith for peace. (Singer Colleen Kattau of Truxton, N.Y. and activist Magda Bayoumi of Syracuse).





Citizens for peace.
(The woman in the black t-shirt on the end (right) is a Gold Star mother, Lorene Davey, who lost her son Cpl Seamus Davey in Iraq. Onstage at the post-march rally in Walnut Park, Seamus' father Derek Davey, who wore a T-shirt that said "Honor the Warrior - Not the War", watched his wife with a palpable and heart-wrenching sense of love and pride as she read a poem she'd written in honor of their own fallen warrior:

My Baby Boy

They told him,"Freedom isn’t free"
He said, "Mom, it’s up to me.
I want the opportunity
For them to share our liberty."

He didn’t see the things we saw:
The lust for oil, disdain for law,
Abuse of youth, so green, so raw,
Absurdity of "shock and awe".

The idealism in his eyes
Could not comprehend the lies
So evident to the old and wise.
This is why a warrior dies.

He couldn’t tell me what he’d do,
Couldn’t share what he’d view.
"It’s awful, Mom." He knew I knew.
"I love you, Boy, and God does, too."
That was the last time that we spoke,
Except the night that I awoke
To his strong voice. I got to stroke
His hair, and share one final joke.

"I love you ,Mom, and I’m alright,
But I have to go back tonight."
He swung me round, embrace so tight,
His smile so wide, his eyes so bright.

Then came my friend in his dress blues
Bringing me the dreaded news.
I should have recognized the clues
But, we believe the things we choose.

A hero you say, he always was
And honor is as honor does
And I will speak the truth because
He was my baby boy



Lorene Davey
Copyright 2006 All Rights Reserved

When I took the photo of the parents of Cpl Seamus Davey, I could barely see them through the lens but for the tears that were flowing from my eyes.









I'd say this was a healing form of comic relief if this whole (very real) disaster wasn't so damned shameful for our nation.










There was certainly no shortage of citizens of faith at this rally. It's great to see representatives of our community churches speaking out.






The college campuses were also well-represented. Here are just a few of the schools whose students were speaking publicly against the war:




Hamilton College



Syracuse University




RIT (with the amazing Andriano on the bullhorn).






Labor had a solid presence at the rally. Here are some SEIU-1199 members with their message (Healthcare / Not Warfare):










One rally-theme that rang out for me was the suffering of our own domestic front for the hundreds of billions of dollars misspent on the Iraq War.






When I saw our veterans and active-duty troops passing rundown homes, the message hit me as it never did before.








While we squandered the world's trust and blew through so much national treasure (not to mention the staggering and unnecessary loss of life we've brought about in Iraq), the people on my own city's streets have been suffering....waiting..wondering why their country abandoned them.





What's happened to the America where the People were represented by their government? When did it become acceptable for the government to ignore the will of the People?




The answer is that it has never..and will never... become acceptable for the U.S. government to ignore the will of the People!








The older generation's will must be heard.






The younger generation's will must be heard.





Every generation was represented at the Syracuse rally and march.






Most every faith..every ethnicity...






Artists....




Musicians....




Dancers...




Actors...




Soldiers....





Soldiers' mothers and fathers....







A perfect relection of what the majority of America is feeling like at this very moment in time. The familiar rally-chant rings out:

"Show me what democracy looks like."

"This is what democracy looks like!"

The harmonious face of our entire community was shown to us... beautifully vocal...one in purpose.








I want to commend the Syracuse Police Department for keeping marchers safe and doing their part to extend the spirit of mutual respect and cooperation at the rally.







Here's Iraq vet Matt Howard (IVAW) enjoying the Mother McCrees at Walnut Park after the march.





Activist Dahlia Wasfi said that, up intil now, her most memorable moment in her own personal history of anti-war activism was standing up onstage with those IVAW soldiers. She hopes to take them back as part of a peace delegation to her native Iraq someday, people-to-people, to heal some of the the resulting wounds of a failed U.S. policy.





Walk On.......





All photographs in this diary are the copyrighted product and property of Jude Nagurney Camwell, all rights reserved.