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| (Last Week: April
17, 2008) Peace on EARTH
April 22 is celebrated
as Earth
Day, in Texas and around the planet. From
tending trees in Austin's "Peace Grove"
(Zilker Park) and attending the Living
Green Festival to Mothers
for Clean Air 5K in Houston, tens of thousands
of Texans will celebrate our planet this weekend.
Plenty more will be out enjoying wildflowers, sunshine
or tending to gardens. Everywhere people are searching
for better ways to be good stewards of nature.
On this day, we are pleased
to bring you the following essay to reflect (and act)
upon:
On
Earth Day, by Alex
Steffen, executive director of World
Changing
Green is the new black.
No buzz-phrase better sums up both the excitement
many of us feel about the blooming environmental and
social consciousness around us and the essential hollowness
of the answers being promoted by many newly-minted
eco-pundits.
The flood of environmental
magazine cover stories, documentaries and advertisements
has pushed us over a public-opinion threshold, which
is great. But the solutions being touted by many of
our new-found allies are themselves creating a new
kind of problem -- people who should know better are
selling a muddle-headed, style-over-substance, "lite
green" environmentalism at a time when we need
to be rebuilding our civilization to avoid disaster.
To be blunt, we're being sold out.
People are being told to
buy organic cotton T-shirts, keep their tires inflated
and recycle their beer bottles. But the reality of
the situation is that the impacts of these sorts of
actions are totally out whack with the magnitude of
the planetary problems bearing down upon us. Those
of us who care about the future of the planet need
to reclaim this moment from those who would have people
think that our biggest challenge is picking the most
stylish vegan shoes.
With every passing day, we are discovering
that things are worse than we thought. Our climate
is ripping apart at the seams at a rate that's surprising
even the so-called alarmists. Natural systems are
collapsing. The
ocean seems headed towards a series of catastrophic
tipping points. Economic inequity is producing
a planet of billionaires and a billion desperate people.
Our political systems are suffering a massive crisis
of legitimacy, while
insane fundamentalists, violent criminals
and
two-bit dictators (wearing both uniforms and
Armani suits) are stealing or destroying everything
they can get their hands on. Everywhere on the planet
we find an empty consumer culture so accepted we barely
speak of it, except perhaps to make an ironic joke.
We have placed a Great
Wager on the future of humanity, and the odds
are getting worse.
In the face of this reality, recycling
a bottle is an act so insignificant as to be merely
totemic. Paper or plastic? Who the hell cares?
In the developed world, few of us, essentially
none of us, currently live a "one-planet
life." The vast majority of us, even
of those of us who have committed ourselves to change,
consume more resources and energy than our sustainable
share: indeed, it is very, very difficult to live
an individually sustainable life, because the very
systems in which we are enmeshed -- which enfold and
make possible our lifestyles -- are themselves insanely
unsustainable. We're driving our hybrid
SUVs down the highway to the Collapse.
Most of the harm we cause in the world
is done far from our sight, created through the workings
of vast systems whose workings are often intentionally
hidden from us, and over which we have very little
influence as single individuals. Alone, we are essentially
powerless to change anything that matters. We can't
shop our way to sustainability.
I believe we are bombarded with messages
encouraging us to take the "small steps"
precisely because those steps are a threat to no one.
They don't depress sales of fashionable
crap we don't need. They don't bring people
into the streets or sweep corrupt politicians from
office. They certainly don't threaten the powerful,
entrenched interests who
are growing fantastically rich off keeping
us locked into the systems that make our lives such
a burden on the planet and
impoverish our brothers and sisters elsewhere.
Buying a hemp hoodie is not a blow for
better world, it's at best a mere gesture towards
the idea that the world ought to better. And, here
in the Green Spring of 2006, we must finally admit
to ourselves that gestures are no longer enough. That
to be focused on lifestyle tweaks and attitudinal
adjustments at this moment in history is like showing
up with a teaspoon to help bail out a sinking ship.
If the New Green degenerates into handing out more
stylish spoons, we're screwed.
We don't need more carpool lanes.
We need to eliminate fossil fuels from our economy.
We don't need more recycling bins. We need to create
a closed-loop, biomimetic, neobiological industrial
system. We don't need to attend a tree-planting ceremony.
We need to become expert at
ecosystem management and gardening the planet.
We don't need another unscented laundry detergent.
We need to ban the vast majority of the toxic chemicals
upon which our livestyles currently float and invent
a completely
non-toxic green chemistry. We don't need lite
green fashions. We need a bright green revolution.
To really change the world we need to
hand out real tools: rugged, free, collaborative tools
for understanding the world and our role in it, for
seeing the systems in which we are trapped; tools
for learning how to work together to either transform
those systems or destroy them completely and bioremediate
the rubble. Tools that help us as people make meaningful
changes in both our own lives and the world. We need
to make people participants, not consumers. We need
answers that address peoples' lives, not their lifestyles.
We need to
take back the ballot box. With the exception
of a couple small nations like Finland, most governments
on earth are now seething messes of corruption, oppression
and entrenched privilege, and our government here
in the U.S. is worse than many. We need transparency,
accountability, genuine equity, real democracy and
human rights. No environmental or social issue transcends
the need for worldwide political reform, and none
of our huge planetary problems can be solved without
it.
We need to seize the trading floor.
Most large corporations, and most of the markets
we've established through regulation, incentive and
tradition, demand that we participate (as
employees, consumers or investors) in ecological destruction,
unfair labor practices and an assault on the public
realm. We need to grab hold of these economic systems,
strip them down to their component parts and rebuild
them anew. That means supporting (or becoming) clean
energy entrepreneurs, green builders, sustainable
product designers, socially-responsible investors,
and so on. We need a new generation uncompromisingly
innovative and determined regulators, planners, bankers,
insurers. We need to take back business as a realm
of service and do away with the dinosaurs who dominate
it today, and we need an army of people ready to put
their careers and investments on the line to do it.
We need to share. There is no sustainable
future without a vigorous and lively public realm.
We need to defend the commons, from the air we breath
to the culture we create together. That commons is
everywhere under attack from those who would privatize
it for profit and stifle innovation to protect the
status quo, the way, for instance, that the music
and film industries are trying to take away our ability
to freely (and legally) share our own music and videos,
because they're worried not only that someone might
illegally share some of their music or videos, but
because the explosion of free music and video we're
seeing threatens their out-of-date business models.
We must counter-attack, supporting open culture and
public ownership, and working everywhere to redistribute
the future.
We need better mousetraps. The stuff
that surrounds us is crap: toxic, wasteful, unjust,
ugly. We need innovation everywhere, real innovation,
stuff that isn't just marginally better or superficially
green, but stuff that is actually, right now or as
soon as possible, an order of magnitude more efficient,
completely non-toxic and closed-loop. We need to support
the folks out there trying to design these things.
We need to laud their efforts, invest in their inventions,
and generally do everything we can to get better design,
technology and thinking applied to every aspect of
our lives. Then we need to help regular people separate
the bright green from the
greenwashed.
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We need to grow new systems. The systems
which surround us are awful. Some of them we can hack.
Some of them simply need to be replaced.
Suburban sprawl, for instance, is simply wrong:
there's no way to make it sustainable. We should simply
bring it to a halt. Farming, on the other hand, needs
to be reformed -- and through conscious buying, political
activism and ethical leadership, we can help steer
agriculture away from petrochemical factory farming
and towards innovative local sustainable farms. Some
of our choices nurture changed systems -- those are
the choices we need to show people how to make.
We need to help each other. Consumer-based
approaches and "simple things" lists tend
to reinforce our sense that the only sphere in which
we can act is our own little private lives, and that
isolates us. But the isolation we all sometimes feel
in the face of the magnitude of the problems is itself
a major part of the problem. None of us can change
the world single-handedly: as Wendell
Berry says, "to work at this work alone
is to fail." We need to organize, mobilize, join
together, act in concert. We need to seek out our
allies and get their backs when they need us. That
happens through applied effort, not impulse buying.
We need to admit that we're at war over
the definition of the future. There are a lot of powerful
interests spending a lot of money to keep people ignorant,
make them uncertain, postpone action, encourage cynicism
and apathy, and lock them in the mental prison of
thinking that no better future is possible. To the
extent they are successful, nothing we advocate can
happen. We need to fight back. We need to speak clearly,
intelligently, and, if possible, with humor and passion.
We need to label our opponents (from climate denialists
to apologists for the status quo) what they are --
enemies of the future. We need to make the nature
of our times crystal-clear for all to see. We need
to hew to the demanding standards our actual real
situation imposes on us -- that we achieve measurable
sustainability, honest-to-goodness one-planet living,
for everyone, within our lifetimes -- and scorn the
mental tyranny of small goals. We need to break through
the meaningless chatter around environmental and social
issues, and point to genuine alternatives, hold real
conversations, and create a culture that speaks to
the soul of our times.
We need, above all else, to show
that another world is possible, indeed, it's
here all around us, though we do not see it. We need
to inspire not only our fellow citizens but ourselves
with visions of what we're beginning to accomplish
together, visions of what a planet brought back to
sanity will look and feel like, visions of how we
will live in a bright green future. That future should
be beautiful and stylish, dynamic and creative, but
it must before all else be genuinely sustainable,
or it's not much of a future at all, is it?
The world is listening. It's our obligation
to tell it a better story.
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Dallas building greener
Dallas has joined the short list of
major American cities to pass comprehensive environmental
building standards for both residential and commercial
construction.
On April 9, the City Council unanimously adopted a
green construction ordinance aimed at reducing energy
and water consumption in all new houses and commercial
buildings.
The newly enacted ordinance will be
implemented in two phases beginning in 2009. The first
phase requires that homebuilders construct their homes
to be 15 percent more efficient than the base energy
code and meet four out of six high-efficiency water
reduction strategies. For commercial projects, Phase
1 of the new ordinance requires buildings smaller
than 50,000 square feet to be 15 percent more efficient
than the base energy code and use 20 percent less
water than required by the current Dallas Plumbing
Code.
El Paso Catholics urge Pope to create
"peace shield" for Iran
Catholics in El Paso, concerned about
a possible U.S. attack on Iran, have issued a call
to Pope Benedict XVI to go to Iran, and invite other
dignitaries to join him, to set up a Peace Shield.
"Iraq has already been devastated. Over 4.5 million
people have been forced to flee their homes. Will
we launch another unjust war in this already troubled
and unstable region? We must not!" the Christians
say.
The initiative for
this urgent, prayerful call began with the Catholic
peace community in St. Louis, Missouri where
the Massive Ordinance Penetrator bomb is made and
recently was delivered to the military. This call
has been sent to Catholic peace communities in New
York and Washington, D.C. where the Pope will be visiting
and giving talks in the following days. It recently
became a focus for El
Paso's Border Peace Presence as well.
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May 1 - Day Off for "Silent Majority"
Americans, disatisfied with the state
of national and international affairs, are urging
one another to take a day off from work, school and
shopping on May 1 -
the "real" Labor Day. This "silent
majority" is concerned about poor labor
conditions and wages, Administration torture policies,
rising gas prices and taxes, racist immigration bashing,
the War
in Iraq, and other issues.
"We need to visit our congressmembers'
local offices at high noon," says David Swanson
of After
Downing Street, "and demand change."
Other groups joining the call include: Immigrant
Solidarity Network, American
Postal Workers, West
Coast Longshormen, Stop
ICE Raids, and a
possible trucker shutdown across the U.S.
Evironmental laws ignored on border
wall
The Bush Administration has announced
that it will ignore some 30 environmental laws and
regulations in order to accelerate its project to
wall along the Texas-Mexico border by the Department
of Homeland (in)Security (DHS). The
border "fence" is one of those harebrained
schemes that might be funny if it weren't so cynical
and racist.
Passed by the House and Senate in September
2006, the Secure
Fence Act mandated the construction of a barrier
stretching along a 700-mile portion of the 1,969-mile
U.S.-Mexico border. Aside from the fact that wall
a costly mess of a project that has angered people
across the political spectrum, the administration
has infuriated local municipalities by systematically
overriding their say in what happens in their own
backyard - including protecting the fragile environment
along the Colorado River.
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| (ARCHIVES: April
2, 2008) Paying for War
By the time President Bush
leaves office, Americans will have already spent more
than $1 Trillion on war - more
than the entire costs of the Korean and Vietnam wars
combined - and an additional $5 Trillion on
other "defense" and "security"
projects.
Who is funding this? You
and me.
Of the nearly $3 Trillion
annual U.S. federal budget, a
full 54% ($1,449 Trillion) is now going to pay for
present, past (including interests) and future wars.
America accounts for more than half
of military expenditures worldwide.
It now takes nearly four
months of labor, for the average worker, to pay one's
tax burden as government grows and continues to dominate
daily life. "Americans
will still spend more on taxes in 2008 than they will
spend on food, clothing and housing combined,"
says Tax Foundation president Scott Hodge.
The costs of war had risen
to $2.5 Billion per week and the White House was asking
for hundreds of billions more. Newly appointed Defense
Secretary Robert Gates was afraid to venture
outside the walls of the Green Zone.
Wise men and women long
ago noted that where people put their treasure is
where the heart lies. Martin Luther King, Jr. echoed
that sentiment in describing the richest and most
powerful country in the world. "America
would never invest the necessary funds or energies
in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures
like Vietnam (Afghanistan and Iraq) continued to draw
men and skills and money like some demonic destructive
suction tube." Since he spoke those prophetic
words, U.S. military expenditures have continued to
climb and militarism and profit motives continue to
outpace human development.
GSD&M, a creative and
talented agency in Austin, this week heralded its
award of
a 10-year $372 Million advertising contract from the
U.S. Air Force. This comes at the same time
that the USAF is accused of committing
daily war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
During the past two weeks, airstrikes in those countries
have
killed and injured dozens of women and children
as they targeted residential neighborhoods and homes
- a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions. Tyler
refiner, Delek, will see a tripling in Defense
contracts for aviation fuel. Shell Oil, in Deer Park,
will receive $883 Million and
San Antonio's Valerio $397, also from the
USAF.
Amarillo and Fort Worth business leaders
are crowing at $10
Billion in new contracts for their local community.
Even small towns, like New
Braunfels, get in on the action. Meanwhile
in Houston, Halliburton's former subsidiary KBR -
the single largest defense contractor -
is implicated in another rape. These are only
a few of your Texas neighbors who profit from death
and destruction.
And where does the money come from?
You and me of course, if we pay taxes.
However, there are growing movements
to change the equation, to redirect taxes into peaceful
pursuits or refuse to pay them at all.
The National
Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund has been working
for passage of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund
Bill (currently H.R. 1921) which would allow federal
taxes of designated conscientious objectors will be
placed in a non-military trust fund. The bill has
32 congressional co-sponsors but faces an uphill battle
against the military-industrial complex that gorges
on the country's treasure.
Another movement, the Campaign to establish
a U.S.
Department of Peace, is working to create
a federal department which would be funded by 1% of
the Department of Defense (DoD) budget. It currently
has 69 co-sponsors. Texas DoP groups plan "Peace
of the Pie" actions on Mother's Day.
A more historic, but fast growing, movement
is of war tax resistance.
In 1202 King John of England imposed
the first income tax to pay for a war with France,
infuriating local landowners (Barons) who marched
on London - and in 1215
the Magna Carta was born. In 1709 Quakers
refused
to pay for an expedition into Canada, replying
"it was contrary to their religious principles
to hire men to kill one another". During the
American Revolution many Quakers were jailed or had
their property seized for their war tax resistance.
Henry
David Thoreau was briefly jailed in 1836 for
refusing to pay taxes in protest of the Mexican-American
War. His "On
the Duty of Civil Disobedience" became
a seminal part of American literature and social action.
In his Autobiography Martin Luther king said of Thoreau's
work: "As a result of his writings and personal
witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative
protest". Mahatma
Gandhi noted that "Withholding payment
of taxes is one of the quickest methods of overthrowing
a government."
During WWI in England, there were so
many war resisters that the British government added
a 'the conscience clause' to the 1916 Conscription
Act. Over
16,000 men claimed the right to military exemption
in that country.
Up until WWII, most war tax resistance
in the U.S. primarily manifested itself among members
of the historic peace churches - Quakers, Mennonites,
and Brethren - but after than time it began to spread
to other faith and non-religious groups. War tax refusal
succeeded in achieving nationwide publicity
in 1949 when forty-one peacemakers from Chicago refused
to any longer pay income tax (six were eventually
imprisoned). In 1963 the Peacemakers published the
first handbook on war tax resistance, appropriately
titled Handbook on Nonpayment of War Taxes.
During Vietnam,
Joan Baez announced in 1964 her refusal to
pay 60% income taxes because of the war. By the 1970's
nearly 20,000 joined in.
Today, war tax resistance has grow into
a nationwide movement. The National
War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC).
They have called for all taxpayers who oppose the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to "join together
in nonviolent civil disobedience and show Congress
how to cut off the funds for this war and redirect
resources to the pressing needs of people," by
refusing to pay at least a portion of taxes. More
and more information on methods can
be found all over the Internet. and in many
cities, people will conduct "penny polls"
in front of IRS facilities and post offices. There
will be other
tax day protests.
While pundits and presidential candidates
discuss some future state (what's wrong with taking
action now Senators Clinton, McCain and Oboma?), of
the U.S. government and its relationship to the citizenry
and the world economy, the war in Iraq grows by $12
Billion every month.
It could eventually cost between $2.4 and $3 Trillion
- all monies that could have been spent on the betterment
of people at home and abroad.
Paying for war has become an institutional
part of every American's life and we are burdening
our children and grandchildren with the dept of the
folly of past decades. The militarization of our society
(mil·i·ta·rism
n. Predominance of the armed forces in the administration
or policy of the state) continues as more
and more citizens suck at the teet of a golden cow.
As our society militarizes and more
citizens suck at the teat of camo cow, we need to
demonstration that these are our earnings - not theirs
- and we will decide how they are spent. Together
we can reset the priorities for our family, nation
and world. "We must move past indecision to action,"
said Dr. King, if we are to find new ways to speak
for peace and justice in our world. And, we must do
it today, before we are "dragged
down the long dark and shameful corridors of time
reserved for those who possess power without compassion,
might without morality, and strength without sight."
What will it take to make a change?
You and me.
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40th Anniversary of MLK's Assasination
Remembered
Throughout Texas - from Amarillo
to Austin
and the world, the 40th anniversary of the assination
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was honored in song,
marches, vigils and other events. MLK, America's foremost
peace and justice leader, was killed on April 4, 1968
in Memphis.
King was a champion of nonviolent protest
for social change, and his writings and speeches still
stir followers. "The world still listens to Martin,"
says Rev. C.T. Vivian, a former King associate. "There
are people who didn't reach for him then who reach
for him now. They want to know this man. What did
he say? What did he think?"
Texan elected to Nt'l CAIR board
A Muslim peacemaker from San Antonio,
Sarwat
Husain, was recently elected to the board
of the National Council on American Islamic Relations
(CAIR). Sarwat, publisher of Al-Ittihaad
Monthly, came to the U.S. from Pakistan
more than thirty years ago.
Since that time, she has become an instrumental
leader in San Antonio and throughout Texas - becoming
particularly active after 9-11. "I thought, What
will happen to Muslims in this country? It will never
be the same. My whole self changed." She is now
invited to give talks on American Muslims and minority
media around the country.
New El Paso office for TX Civil Rights
The
Texas Civil Rights Project is inviting everyone
to the grand opening of their new office in El Paso,
on April 17. The TCRP promotes racial, social, and
economic justice through education and litigation
and the new "Paseo del Norte" will be the
first civil rights office in that city.
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Texas deadly for children
Children living in Texas are
up to three times more likely to die before adulthood
than elsewhere in the U.S. Anew study that
puts Texas among the bottom 10 states in the nations
for child well-being.
Lack of pre-natal care, access to healthcare,
and poverty are just some of the failiings to children
in one of the richest places on earth. In Texas, a
child is five times as likely to be uninsured as a
child in Rhode Island. And, Texas' teen birth rate
is 3.5 times that of New Hampshire's, according to
"Geography
Matters: Child Well-Being in the States,"
by the Every Child Matters Education Fund
Failed High School? - Work for the
U.S. govt.
Don't have a college degree and worried
about getting a job? Worry no more. The Department
of Homeland Security has reduced requirements that
its agents (carrying a badge and guns) need to have
a high school diploma or a GED. The
only major qualifications for the job are that you
are younger than 40, a US citizen (they're considering
eleminating this provision), possess a driver's
license and pass tests. You don't even need
a worry about a record by the FBI, security checks
have been outsourced!
In May 2006, President Bush outlined
a plan to increase the border protection force by
50 percent, from 12,000 agents to 18,000 and to further
militarize Texas. Equipping agents
is expected to cost $2 Billion. Recently
border
control officers and customs agents have been accused
of bribery, drug trafficking, and immigrant smuggling.
Be careful the next time you get stopped while traveling
in South Texas.
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(ARCHIVES: March10,
2008) 5 years later, Iraq is still a "Red
Zone"
PART 3 - The war surges
on (2007- March 2008)
and so the war grew.
As the fifth year of war
opened, things looked worse than ever. Violence was
reaching record highs and conditions looked like they
were headed for all out civil war. More than 3,000
American soldiers were reported dead bringing
to 25,000 the total of American dead or wounded in
the current war.
IThe Iraqi Health, Defense
and Interior Ministries reported that
13,896 Iraqi civilians, police officers and
soldiers died during 2006. Of these, 12,000 were civilians
caught in the crossfire of war. Iraq was also the
deadliest country in the world for journalists, with
32 killed the prior year.
The costs of war had risen
to $2.5 Billion per week and the White House was asking
for hundreds of billions more. Newly appointed Defense
Secretary Robert Gates was afraid to venture
outside the walls of the Green Zone.
Nearly at wits end, President
Bush
announced a major escalation in the war. He
planned to send a "surge" of as many as
30,000 additional troops with the first waves to focus
on neighborhood deployments in Baghdad and Fallujah.
Baghdad, in 2007, began
to look more
like Fallujah of 2004 as residents began fleeing
the capital in large numbers. Door-by-door searches
of home, detentions of thousands of Iraqs and airstrikes
on civilian neighborhoods became a daily occurrence
with intense fighting throughout the urban area. Hundreds
were being killed and injured each week. Critical
infrastructure was being destroyed at a rapid pace.
From bridges over the Tigris, to the bombing of the
Iraqi Parliament, nowhere seemed safe from
the battle between Iraqis and coalition forces. Baghdad
neighborhoods were turned in to "gated communities"with
concrete blastwalls and biometric checkpoints. Civilian
movement was heavily restricted and curfews became
the norm. The number of refugees fleeing the country
rose to 60,000 per month.
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As residents fled Baghdad, violence
continued to rise in other parts of the country. From
Tal Afar to Basrah, bombings and killings grew. In
April, Twenty-nine
members of the U.S. 82nd Airborne were killed and
injured in a single attack on their patrol base in
Diyala province. Sixteen helicopters were
destroyed when mortar rounds hit Taji Air Force base.
The total of U.S. troop casualties (dead and injured)
climbed to more than 800 and Iraqi casualties rose
to over 15,000 for the month of May.
Reports of "war crimes" being
committed by U.S. troops continued to grow, particular
in cases where airstrikes and artillery barrages were
called in on civilian neighborhoods and villages.
Air Force and Navy aircraft dropped
437 bombs and missiles in Iraq in the first
six months of 2007, a fivefold increase over the 86
used in the first half of 2006, and three times more
than in the second half of 2006, according to Air
Force data. In Husseiniya
said U.S. helicopters attacked three houses in a four-hour
period, killing at least 18 people and wounding 21
more, including women and children.
The number of detained Iraqis rose to
28,000 in U.S. prisons and thousands more by the Iraq
military. The two remaining minarets
of the Samarra Mosque were destroyed in a
repeat of the bombing that shattered its famous dome
in 2006. Hundreds of residents marched through the
streets of Sadr City, Kut, Diwaniyah, Najaf and Basra.
Intense military operations continued throughout the
summer. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq,
admitted that Baghdad residents could count on only
"an
hour or two a day" of electricity.
Things began to look better in September,
after a surprise announcement by Moqtada
al-Sadr for a complete ceasefire. The decision
was to halt all armed action in Iraq by the Mehdi
Army, including attacks on American troops, for six
months while it cleaned out 'rogue elements'. After
that, there was a significant fall in the number of
daily attacks. By
December, the number of monthly U.S. troop deaths
was down significantly, although the total for 2007
- 899 servicemen and women dead - was the highest
of any year since the invasion began.
Oil prices hit $100 per barrel. UNICEF
reported that "around 2
million Iraqi children continue to face threats
including poor nutrition, disease and interrupted
education." The Iraqi Minister of Defense, Abdul
Qadir, speculated that the U.S. would need to remain
ten more years
until 2018.
There were some signs of improvement,
particularly in the Baghdad area. Fallujah and Ramadi
were returning to somewhat normal life but were still
occupied by more than 5,000 U.S. Marines and had been
partitioned into 10 "security zones". Baghdad's
scenic Abu
Nawas Street was finally reopened to traffic
and life returned to some of the restaurants along
the boulevard, but many residents were unable to travel
freely throughout the city due to security restrictions.
The Iraqi government made some progress on security
and reconciliation issues. Najaf worked to bring in
more tourism. Basra, despite its troubles, remained
relatively peaceful.
The American presidential elections
began to take more of the media's attention as 2008
opened, and Iraq fell from the front pages. As violence
diminished in Baghdad, it continued to grow in from
one end of the country to the other. Mosul was unraveling
and Baqouba remained a major hot zone. Turkey began
bombings in the Kurdish north.
Is the Surge Working?
No. Administrative and Military propaganda
continues to tout the line that the "surge is
working". This refrain is taken up by much of
the uncritical American press to justify inaction
in the midst of a political election year.
In
actuality, the situation on the ground in Iraq is
as bad, or even worse, than it was during 2004-2005.
Both military and civilian deaths, despite
the continued ceasefire by the Medhi Army, remains
at critical levels. Here is the tally during the first
two and one-half months (through March 10)
*
U.S. Dead 70
* U.S. Injured 223
* Iraqi Dead 1,574+
* Iraqi Injured 4,000+
In addition to the fighting, many Iraqis
are still without electricity, heating fuel, jobs,
and medicine. In January the government reduced spending
on food rations and hunger
is a growing problem for much of the country.
One third of students no longer attend school. Many
parts of Baghdad resemble a ghost town.
In Basra, only 2% of the population have access to
improved drinking water. The number of refugees
continues to grow.
Reconstruction continues, but at a pace
too slow to rebuild the infrastructure that is damaged
during the fighting. The Iraq economy, is recovering
slowly, but unemployment is still above 50%, even
with millions of dollars given to "Awakening
Councils" to patrol local neighborhoods and villages.
The oil industry is barely functioning.
Major military offenses in Mosul, Diyala
Province and the Kurdish areas are resulting in the
emptying of small villages.
War crimes continue to surface. Ambassador
Crocker and General Petreaus have both announced that
they are returning to the U.S. At least one young
American will die and another two will be injured
in Iraq, on average, every day of 2008.
While America enjoys the luxury of selecting
presidential candidates, the world suffers the agony
of a fifth - and upcoming sixth - year of war in the
land between the two rivers.
and so the battle of Iraq continues.
Get the
FACTS ABOUT IRAQ - and share with your friends.
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'Lifetime Achievement' for Sissy Farenthold
Sissy Farenthold has made
her life an achievement for social justice and the
rights and knows the struggle herself. She
was one of only three women in her law school graduating
class and later went on to become an attorney for
the ACLU and served as a legal aid director. She and
Barbara Jordan were also among the two first women
to serve in the Texas Legislature.
In 1972 she was the first U.S. women
ever nominated for a spot on a presidential ticket
(McGovern). During the past several decades, Sissy's
thirst for social justice has taken her around the
world where she works tirelessly for the rights of
women and other humanitarian causes.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
of Texas award Sissy with the Molly Ivins lifetime
achievement award
at their annual banquet in March.
Record Texas primary turnout
Many areas of Texas reported record-breaking
primary turnouts on March 4. In Harris
County (Houston) more than 1/2 million Texans
joined with their neighbors in an exercise of Democracy.
North Texans were
still tallying caucus results a week after
the primary. Long lines didn't deter voters from El
Paso to Beaumont.
All in all, more
than 5 million Texans voted in either the
Democratic or Republican primary for 2008 to select
local and national candidates to run in the Fall alongside
Libertarian, Green, Consitution and Socialist and
Independent candidates.
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Winter Soldiers march on D.C.
Soldiers who have returned from the
war in Iraq, along with their vietnam-era brethren,
will march and testify in Washington, D.C. From March
13-16th, These veterans will participate in Winter
Soldier by testifying in Washington about what is
really happening day in and day out, on the ground
in these occupations. The four-day event will
bring together veterans from across the country to
testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan
- and present video and photographic evidence.
Many other organizations are planning
protests in D.C. next week to draw attention to the
end of the 5th year of war in Iraq -
5 Years Too Many! However, members of Congress
will be back taking a "break" in their local
districts.
Col. Wright continues to speak out
Col. Ann Wright
resigned her post with the U.S. State Department in
March 2003, in protest of the Bush Administration's
decision to invade Iraq. Since that time she has been
an active war resister and helped many returning veterans
to deal with the issues faced in Iraq.
Ann will be in Austin this week and
will be promoting her new book
"Dissent: Voices of Conscience".
Ann Wright and Susan Dixon tell the stories of government
insiders and active-duty military personell who risked
careers, reputations, and even freedom out of loyalty
to the Constitution and the rule of law.
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(ARCHIVES: February
19, 2008) 5 years later, Iraq is still a "Red
Zone"
PART 2 - An escalating
crisis (2004-2006)
As the year 2004 dawned
in Iraq, it became abundantly clear the Administration
had not planned well for the occupation and reconstruction
of the country. Colossal mistakes in judgment were
being made at every leve. Bremer,
Rumsfeld
and Wolfowitz
particularly refused to heed the advice of experts
and the reality of the situation on the ground and
instead relied on their own pre-conceived notions
of war and "nation building". The interim
(i.e. puppet) government
in Iraq was staffed primarily with Iraqi expats who
parroted
their masters in D.C.
It was already clear that
unless improvements were made in Iraq's economic and
social sectors, that the situation could quickly unravel.
The U.S. Army's 1st
Cavalry Division was to take over operations
in the Baghdad area and prepared to embark on a strategy
of civic reconstruction and economic development.
General
Chiarelli had the 1st Cav team work the City
of Austin to better understand the operational needs
of a large city (water, sewer, waste removal)
and with the University of Texas to prepare an economic
development plan for Baghdad. [It should be noted
that Casey
Sheehan, son of Cindy
Sheehan, was part of 1CD and had not yet been
sent to Iraq]
Since I had just returned
from Iraq, and also had a background in economic development,
I was asked to lead the team from U.T. The result
was a plan that focused on meeting the basic needs
of Baghdad - economic and social - through a set of
"momentum shifter" activities: job creation,
family health care, residential renovation, agricultural
repairs, public schools, and other improvements.
1CD arrived in Iraq with
high expectations, but soon had their mission undercut
by orders from Washington and the worsening security
situation. Young
soldiers from middle America suddenly found themselves
confronted with killing or being killed.
In January, more than 100,000
Iraqis marched in the streets of Baghdad protesting
U.S. handover plans and calling for direct elections.
After being ignored, attacks on U.S. and contractor
forces began to spread throughout the country. In
April, four
Blackwater contractors were ambushed and their
bodies hung in public display in Fallujah. Rumsfeld
ordered an aggressive operation
to pacify Fallujah that resulted in
the destruction of at least one-third of the city
of 450,000, hundreds
killed and injured, large waves of refugees
and reports
of use of WMDs by American forces.
Then the abuses
at Abu Ghraib prison began to surface in the
public media. For months, there had been rumors of
abuse of the 28,000 Iraqis who were imprisoned by
coalition forces. Once the story,
along with photos of physical and sexual abuse,
broke in the American press, a firestorm erupted around
the world. It was clear that coalition troops were
guilty of war crimes and purported aims of
"democracy and freedom" were at risk.
The result was that many Iraqis - Sunni,
Shiite and Christian - began joining the "insurgency"
in big numbers and many reconstruction projects ground
to a halt as violence surged.
The summer and fall saw major fighting
in other cities, including Kerbala, Najaf and Sammara.
A
second assault on Fallujah involved a force
of 10,000. The Green Zone is bombed and Margaret
Hassan, British-Iraqi director of CARE International,
is abducted in Baghdad. She is later presumed dead.
Troop and civilian deaths continued
to rise as the insurgency grew and the crisis accelerated
into 2005, including the death of Marla
Ruzicka a peace activist from California.
Iraqis began to see glimmers of political
success in mid-2005.
An election for a 275-seat National Assembly
went ahead as scheduled and was broadly supported
by the people, despite a boycott by some. Since this
was the first popular election after the invasion,
and would lead to a
new Constitution, Iraqis began to hope that
they would soon be out from under Washington's control
and occupation by foreign troops.
In late 2005 I returned to Iraq once
again. This time I was looking forward to seeing the
progress of rebuilding efforts and learning if circumstances
had improved. I knew that the telecommunications area
was growing, many water and sewer systems had been
repaired, new schools were opening and that many Iraqis
had returned to help with projects. Coalition forces
had obtained a truce with the Medhi
"Army". This was good news.
Much to my chagrin, I found that other
areas had actually worsened since my last visit and
it was much more dangerous to be an American in Iraq.
Infrastructure - electricity, petrol,
manufacturing - had declined. There was a growing
refugee crisis as hundreds of thousands of Iraqis
were forced from their homes in all parts of the country.
U.S. reconstruction efforts were being mismanaged
and there was little evidence of international assistance
- governmental or non-profit. Stories of new
prison abuses and activities of "dark
forces" were growing.
During this trip I visited Baghdad's
only electricity plan and refinery,
both in al-Doura, to speak directly with officials
there about the lack of electricity and fuel. Both
pointed to the lack of oil and the fact that much
of their supply was being siphoned off for use by
the coalition (Green Zone and other operations) leaving
little for Iraqis. The facilities that we toured were
in terrible disrepair, short of money and lacking
foreign assistance.
Our team also made the harrowing trip
to Kerbala and Najaf to investigate the situation
in those cities. Despite the security risks we were
able to meet with humanitarian, civic and religious
leaders, visit with refugees, tour the world's
largest cemetery and get lost in the souks
(marketplace). Some of us also met with Muqtada
al-Sadr, one of Iraq's religious politicians.
In Baghdad we met with Patriarch
Emmanuel III Delly, head of the Chaldean Catholic
Church (who was recently elevated to Cardinal), key
Shiite leaders, and the Association
of Muslim Scholars, the largest Sunni group
and other leaders. During our meetings it was pointed
out that Iraqis watched the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina on television, viewing the same images
- and lack of government response - that the rest
of the world saw. After then, confidence in America's
ability to help Iraq had diminished even further.
As one leader put it, "Bush can't even take care
of his own people, what does he care about ours?"
Unlike my previous visits, during this
trip I was unable to attend mosque services or to
visit the homes of many of my friends and families,
due to the danger (to both myself and them). We were
no longer allowed to wander around university campuses
on our own, visit parks, or walk on foot through some
areas of Baghdad. Even our routes and methods of getting
around Iraq were much more circumspect than before,
especially when it came to encountering U.S. troops,
for fear that we might accidentally be fired upon
or become victims of an IED attack.
We did make one brief trip into the
Green Zone, to meet with fully-armored U.S. commanders
(even inside the Green Zone) on the topic of Iraqi
civilian deaths and compensation. They tried to impress
us with their slideware, but admitted that few Iraqis
received compensation due to the barriers that were
presented to the process.
Despite the risks, we briefly ventured
out on
our own to nearby stores and Internet cafes during
our time in Iraq, always trying to generate as little
attention as possible. Where before children
would greet us on the street this time they had obviously
been told to keep away from "the foreigners".
Shop owners were anxious to have us gone quickly.
I defied my colleagues by wearing a bright yellow
"End the War in Iraq" t-shirt in
plain view of Green Zone security snipers on September
24, in solidarity with the antiwar marches in Washington.
As before, I returned to the U.S. concerned
that policymakers in Washington still did not understand
the forces in Iraq. It appeared that the military
was becoming much more attuned to the reality, but
was constrained by their own focus on security and
decisions made thousands of miles away.
One month after my return, four
members of the next delegation were on their way to
the Association of Muslim Scholars when their car
was pulled over and they were taken into captivity.
I received news of the kidnapping almost immediately
as CPT began to scramble a response and called upon
Texans for Peace to help with manage the media. Alyssa
Burgin, took the lead in this area and quickly began
advising on how to keep the lid on the situation (needed
at first to protect the hostages) while anticipating
and responding to media inquiries.
The hostage crisis was to
consume the next several months (from November
to March) as James Loney, Norman Kember, Harmeet Singh
Sooden, and Tom Fox were held hostage. Rush
Limbaugh announced that "part of me likes this."
He explained: "Well, here's why I like it. I
like any time a bunch of leftist feel-good hand-wringers
are shown reality," after first suggesting
that the entire kidnapping "could all be BS ...
could all be a stunt."
Tom
Fox's daughter went on Al Jazeera television and pleaded
for the hostage's release, but efforts to
communicate with the hostage takers proved fruitless.
The body of Tom Fox, a Quaker and former Marine, was
found dumped in Baghdad on March 10, 2006, raising
fears that all of the hostages might have been killed.
[I
still remember my conversations with Tom, about this
sort of situation, as we cooked dinner together in
Baghdad]
Two weeks later a tip led coalition
forces to the site where the three remaining hostages
were being held. The hostage takers were gone, creating
suspicion that the entire kidnapping and the motives
of the agencies behind it.
While the hostages were being held,
Iraqis watched in horror as a clandestine operation
bombed
the golden-domed Mosque of Samarra. Iraqis
of all types were incensed at the pointless destruction
of a cultural icon by agents obviously trying to foment
religious and ethnic divisions. During the next few
months attacks - against Iraqi and U.S. Forces and
on civilians - became even more furious and the country
appeared to veer towards complete anarchy.
More and more stories of atrocities
committed by troops surfaced (as the Haditha
Massacre) as the toil of ongoing occupation
and war affected soldiers - some who were on their
second or third tours. By now, U.S. casualties had
reached nearly 3,000 dead and 20,000 injured as attacks
reached 960 per week. A report by the British medical
journal The Lancet
declared that 655,000 Iraqis or more had been killed
since the invasion of 2003.
A bipartisan report prepared by the
conservative Iraq
Study Group recommended major changes to U.S.
strategy to the "grave and deteriorating"
situation in Iraq. However, it was rejected by President
Bush and his policy team who refused to be "caught
in a mission that has no foreseeable end."
NEXT WEEK: Five Years Later, Iraq is
still a "Red Zone" Part 3 ( Iraq Today 2007-Feb
2008)
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Presidential races heat up in Texas
It's been a long time since Texans have
had an opportunity to play a pivitol role in national
primaries, but on March 4 Texas voters will cast their
votes to select Huckabee, McCain or Paul, or Clinton
or Obama in respective party races and to select from
among many local candidates for other offices. Austin
is in a frenzy as more than 20,000 signed up for a
chance to see Obama and Clinton debate. Only
100 tickets to the Thursday event available
and will drawn by lottery. In addtion to the Democratic
and Republican primaries, there will be candidates
from other parties on the national ballots in the
fall.
Election officials are already predicting
a record-breaking turnout for the election. The Secretary
of State's office and the state party officials are
working to make sure that local officials are ready
with plenty of ballots and voting equipment for their
precincts.
Texans for Peace is a non-partisan organization
for ALL Texans and does not endorse or recommend any
particular candidate. Instead we are calling for volunteers
to attend political events wearing "End the War
in Iraq" t-shirts and hand out "Another
Voter for Peace" stickers to draw attention to
ongoing occupation of Iraq.
Polluter granted new permit
Hundreds of citizens, including the
mayor, of El Paso trecked to Austin last week to speak
against a new permit for the
polluter-company Asarco at the hearing of
the Texas Commission Enviromental Quality (TECQ).
Asarco a copper mining smelter operates some of the
largest open pit mines in the world.
Asarco received permission to restart
its smelter, idled nine years, after a near two-hour
discussion by the TCEQ.Immediately after the decision,
some
members of Texans stepped to the front of the hearing
room and demanded Asarco and the TCEQ explain itself
for the years of illegally burned hazardous waste.
Mayor John Cook said he was "not
surprised" by the ruling, bu the city would not
stop its battle to stop Asarco. Opponents of the permit,
including El Paso city officials and an area legislator,
have long argued that allowing Asarco to restart smelter
operations in El Paso would pose a serious health
risk to residents in El Paso, Ciudad Juárez
and Sunland Park NM.
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Iraq Veterans Against the War Fundraisers
Your help is needed to support brave
soldiers who have returned from Iraq and said "no"
to continued war. From March 13-16th, U.S. veterans
who served in Iraq and Afghanistan will participate
in Winter
Soldier by testifying in Washington about what is
really happening day in and day out, on the ground
in these occupations. The four-day event will
bring together veterans from across the country to
testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan
- and present video and photographic evidence. They
need your financial support. Benefits for
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) Texas chapters
are planned throughout Texas:
Austin - February 22 8:30pm House Party
with Scott
Ritter at 4107 Wildwood Road with music by Bill Passalacqua
Houston - February 23 3 pm Dan
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