Iraq

I've always admired the Quakers. Over the years, I've read about how this group is always in the forefront of social issues in the last 200 years of American history: they were in the forefront of the abolitonist movement, the right of women to vote, the antiwar movement. I attended 2 Quaker services about 3 years ago and was impressed with the spirituality and quietness of their service.

Today in my Sunday service at St. Thomas, we were given the names of soldiers who served in Iraz and Afganistan to pray for and honor. These are the soldiers that I was given to honor for their service to our country.

Omar M. Albrak, 21, Army Reserve Specialist, May 9, 2009 Chicago, Illinois

Steven Hutchison, 60, Army Reserve Major, May 10, 2009 Scottsdale, Arizona

Jacob D. Barton, 20, Army Specialist, May 11, 2009 Lenox, Missouri

Christian E. Buenos-Galdos, 25, Army Sergeant, May 11, 2009 Paterson, New Jersey

Matthew Houseal, 54, Army Major, May 11, 2009 Amarillo, Texas

The number Of Iraqis slaughtered since the U.S. invaded Iraq is 1,320,110. [1]

The number of U.S. military personnel whose mothers will never see them again live has been officially acknowledged at 4,284. [2]

So far, the War in Iraq has bled $667,095,136,653.00 from USA tax payers wallets.

The genesis of Mother's Day in the U.S.A. began when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community and fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace.

As mothers bear the loss of human life more acutely than anyone else, in 1870, Julia Ward Howe wrote the first Mother's Day Proclamation, from which I excerpt:

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor; nor violence indicate possession. At the summons of war let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Is Bob Barr a "Looney Tune"? I don't think so. He may be a nasty attack dog for the manner in which he went after the Clintons, but that's personal ugliness, which is matched by other ugly aspects of his personal life. (You could look it up.) However, in terms of policies, I perceive some good stuff in his very brief issues statements. Some of it sounds more progressive than what Obama has proposed.

My main problem with the Libertarians is that I think they completely misunderstand the nature of our corporate-based economic and political system. Therefore they buy into the notion that we have a "free market". They assume that this hypothetical free market will always work its magic. Always for the good. Just get Big Government out of the way.

Nevertheless, despite seeming to be oblivious to the problem of corporatism, Barr and the Libertarians aren't conscious corporatists. They hate taxes so much that they want to end "corporate welfare". However, they're corporate-enablers in that they want government to get out of the way and let the high rollers play.

The part of the "Cut Big Spending" section of Barr's platform that refers to the military reads like this:

* The federal government must take the lead in making significant cuts in spending.
Focusing on earmarks risks distracting attention from the broader problem of a

Our top Iraq War general is testifying to Congress again today, but you already know the storyline, right?

General Petraeus: "We still need to keep soldiers in Iraq, no telling when they can leave."

Democrats: "It seems like we should think about leaving sometime?"

Republicans: "Withdrawal is surrender!"

Coming up next: Both sides agree to pour billions more dollars into a war Americans don't want.

Well there IS another way. A group of Congressional candidates have come up with a responsible plan to get our nation out of this nightmare, and scores of them have already agreed that if elected they will actually carry out the plan, not just keep holding hearings while continuing the war.1 Some sitting representatives are beginning to come along, too, and it's been endorsed by military leaders.

Sign on to the Responsible Plan today:
http://www.truemajority.org/IraqPlan

We know that most of our fellow citizens want this -- a clear, ethical path out of Iraq.2 But our anti-war champions in Congress are frankly still outnumbered, so the political games continue.

Sign on to the plan, and in the weeks ahead we will together recruit more candidates and elected officials to join us. Let the people lead the leaders.

The "Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq" includes clear steps to:

1. End U.S. Military Action in Iraq
2. Use U.S. diplomatic power

==========
Dead:
4,000 Americans;
Only God knows
how many Iraqis
===========

The Shalom Center encourages you to take two actions:

(1) Whatever your religious or spiritual community, to use this prayer for life and peace in the face of death and violence (based on the Jewish Mourners Kaddish) in concert with all who mourn this senseless bloodshed;

(2) To write the three candidates for President, demanding they themselves take swift action in the Senate to end this war. To do this, click to –-

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/602/t/4180/campaign.jsp?campaign_KE...

MOURNERS' KADDISH
IN TIME OF WAR & VIOLENCE

May Your Great Name, bearing all the names of all the beings in the universe, through our deeper awareness and our fuller action, lift Your Own Self to become still higher and more holy --

--- Throughout the world that You have offered us, a world of majestic peaceful order that gives life through time and through eternity ---- And let's say, Amein

So may the Great Name be blessed, through every Mystery and Mastery of every universe.

May Your Name be blessed and celebrated, Its beauty honored and raised high, may It be lifted and carried, may Its radiance be praised in all Its Holiness –-- Blessed be!

March 19 is the 5th anniversary of the tragic invasion and occupation of Iraq. And after 5 long years, the war is now creating two tragedies: Nearly 4,000 American soldiers have been killed—along with many more Iraqis. And the economy is sinking, but the resources we need to turn it around are being squandered in Iraq.

So this year, we're marking the anniversary by gathering at hundreds of "New Priorities" Vigils. We'll honor the fallen, and call for an end to the war. But we'll also send a new message to the politicians in Washington: to heal our ailing economy, we need to end the occupation in Iraq.

It's a powerful message—if we can make it heard throughout the country, we'll force our leaders to start bringing our troops home and start investing resources here instead.

Click here to sign up to host your March 19 New Priorities Vigil on the 5th anniversary of the war:

My church always has a stack of voter’s guides from the California Pro-Life Council. The guides are based only on whether a candidate is anti-abortion or not. However, being a pro-life candidate means supporting legislation that helps people in all stages of their lives. A true pro-life candidate should want to end the occupation of Iraq and provide healthcare for all Americans.

Ending the occupation of Iraq

The online publication, Just Foreign Policy estimates that over a million Iraqi civilians have been killed by U.S. troops since the beginning of the war in 2003. Last month, on January 16, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008 which continues to fund the occupation of Iraq.

Only forty-six representatives voted against the Act, including former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.

Providing healthcare for all Americans

“Every other industrialized nation in the world provides universal health care to its citizens” Rep. Jim McDermott (D) of Washington says on his website. The U.S. is in fact the only industrialized country which does not provide a form of universal health coverage.