Domain: ivaw.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to ivaw.org.
Comments · 10
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Re:I never understood the principle.
Doesn't kill people, why would you say that?
White phosphorus victims looks like many dead to me, warning - very graphic.
And what about MK77 Napalm v2.0.
The American military used white phosphorus in Iraq, Fallujah. Perhaps Obama should deal with the extremes committed by his own military before killing thousands more innocent men, women and children.
And what's with using munitions that are radio-active, cue idiots claiming depleted uranium isn't dangerous.
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Re:Good on him
I'm a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). In the past, IVAW has conducted "Operation First Casualty" in a few major cities across the US. In war, the first casualty is the truth. Essentially this was street theater. These Iraq Veterans conducted a mock unmounted patrol through Manhattan, downtown Chicago and other pedestrian heavy areas to give Americans a taste of how things really are in Iraq. Here is a great video of OFC in Manhattan.
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Re:No Contest
We have one candidate that opposed the Iraq war from the beginning...
REALLY? Which candidate is that? Because Barack Obama has repeatedly voted to fund the war in Iraq and he plans to continue it indefinitely. He plans to keep open the giant embassy (bigger than the Vatican) from which we direct our puppet regime in Baghdad. He plans to keep open over a dozen massive military bases from which we routinely bomb innocent civilians. He plans to continue using lawless mercenaries like Blackwater. And the handful of troops he has proposed to maybe withdraw someday if the generals say it's ok? He wants to send them to Afghanistan—because both he and McCain agree on escalating that war.
Obama has proposed increasing military spending (from the already stratospheric level of $600+ billion Congress just passed for 2009) and he wants to increase the size of the military by over 90,000 troops. Obama has repeated the same blustery, discredited lies about Iran as Bush and has stated he's willing to bomb both Iran and Pakistan. There is virtually no difference between McCain and Obama on Iraq, except that McCain is more honest: he says he wants us to remain there for 100 years. Obama is a fraud because he is deceiving millions of voters into believing he's an anti-war candidate, when he clearly is not.
Obama has no problem with war—he just doesn't like losing. His plan for Iraq is not to end the war but to continue it in another guise—in effect, a repackaging and re-branding of the war. He's not running for antiwarrior-in-chief, he's running for commander-in-chief of the world's most powerful imperial army—and that is the role he's going to fill.
The Vietnam war was ended when widespread revolt among GI's meant that the US could no longer count on the military to fight the war. Open rebellion within the ranks is what brought that 12+ year war to an end. It will take nothing less this time around. Voting for a pro-war candidate like Obama will only serve as an endorsement of more war. If you really want to cast a vote against war then you need to vote for a genuine anti-war candidate like Nader or McKinney. Voting for the Democrats only tells them they can keep betraying us and pay no political price—it's as irrational as rewarding someone for misbehaving and then expecting a positive change in their behavior.
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Re:Just what every American high-school student ne
Have fun with those conspiracy theories and living in fear, man.
Not that this is likely to reach you, but I don't live in fear. And the Bush administration's plot to invade Iraq by at best heavily spinning and at worst outright manufacturing evidence is not a conspiracy theory, it's a matter of public record.
You don't appreciate what I did for you
I appreciate your desire to serve, and your courage in going into danger to do so. Unfortunately, it's your judgment that lacked. In your desire to "help" me, you participated in actions that caused the deaths of over 655,000 people, wasted hundreds of billions of dollars, and left the U.S. less safe and less free.
So, you know, don't do me any more favors...
If, maybe, somehow, a bit of this reaches you, makes you uncomfortable, starts you thinking, gets you to question whether you were misled; then you might want to check out Iraq Veterans Against the War.
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Re:No protesters at the DNC?
The group was the Iraq Veterans against the War. They were not trying to "prove that democrats did not care about veterans". Their three main goals are "Immediate withdrawal, full veterans benefits, and reparations for the Iraqi people". They had a statement in a letter they wanted read to the delegates during the convention.
Sure an Obama rep finally agreed to talk with them. However all they did was take the letter and said they would get back to them. They never did. So much for hope.
Nice trick to end the protest and get good press while actually doing nothing.
Remember Mohamed Ali's Rope a Dope? The new version is now Hope a Dope. I'm supporting Nader's campaign to stop corporate dominance of the government.
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Winter Soldier II hearings exemplar of MSM
The Winter Soldier II hearings ended yesterday. These hearings showcase soldiers telling their stories in their own words. They're riveting listening. The Mainstream media (MSM) wasn't present for them.
The MSM got the run-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq wrong and have yet to apologize. Reading their coverage it's a wonder anyone can understand how irrational it is to not hold war crime trials. The only Winter Soldier II coverage came from alternative news which uses the Internet extensively: Indymedia and Democracy Now!. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! reports that the MSM simply wasn't there. The Washington Post ran something small in their local section because the Winter Soldier hearings happened to occur near their offices. On today's DN! Seymour Hirsch briefly talked about how shameful the MSM war coverage was. He touched on both the run-up lies and Winter Soldier II non-coverage (they'll probably have their coverage, including Hirsch's rebuttal, online later today; check out The Internet Archive for copies of DN! as well).
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soldiers need to organize
Soldiers should form a union. The military treats them like garbage--they have no rights, inadequate health care, often inadequate equipment and are forced to perform immoral and illegal acts. When caught, it is *they* who go on trial and not the civilian and military leaders who ordered the crimes.
I'm sure plenty of people will argue that they shouldn't have a union because it will hurt "readiness" or something like that. After all, we need unquestioning killers to defend America, right? Wrong. I can't recall the last time the US military was actually used to defend America. Instead it is used around the globe to oppress and kill, and it only benefits our wealthy rulers to have their unquestioned obedience. If it actually came to defending the US from an invasion, the soldiers would have every reason to step up and defend their country. (But seriously, we spend more on our military than the entire rest of the world combined. What military would invade us?)
The Viet Nam war was ended because soldiers organized and refused to continue fighting the war. Already active-duty soldiers and veterans are organizing against the current wars. They deserve our support, and hopefully someday GI's will have some rights and real say in military policy.
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discussion is overly focused on techTunnel vision keeps people from seeing the whole picture. but we have not had a stock market run-up like in 1999-2000. So no, the impact of a forthcoming "burst" won't be nearly as bad. In the last 4+ years the U.S. has had something much worse than a stock market run-up: a giant housing bubble. Many regions saw rises of 100% or more in the selling price of a house. This bubble has already peaked, and is now collapsing in slow motion. People bought houses/condos/etc as an 'investment' in the bubble years with the belief that real estate always goes up.
Mike Sheldrake's blog is like a play-by-play tracking the demise of the real estate industry. The action has been fast and furious of late: collapse of two (er, now three) Bear Stearns hedge funds which invested in subprime mortgage debt and the sudden collapse of a non-subprime mortgage lender, American Home Mortgage.
This is more than a 'web 2.0' bubble: this is the final stages of the America bubble. The bubble started with the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913, grew through the first and second world wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, Gulf War I. Gulf War II and the "War of Terror" is the pin that popped the invincible American Military Machine - the military-industrial complex is trying to fight a 4th-generation war with 2nd-generation (superpower vs. superpower) tactics, according to one Iraq veteran.
I'm actually really optomistic about our future. The America Bubble has turned milions of Americans into miserable wage-slaves, or worse. There is an incredible amount of poverty here, in this land of plenty. The present economic restrutcturing is necessary, and so is the eventual politcal house cleaning. I look forward to the day that the Neo-Cons become Neo-Convicts. Hopefully GWB will get frog-hopped out of the whitehouse (that is, with feet and hands cuffed together)... -
Re:Exactly.
Some of us think differently: http://ivaw.org/
I'm a member. -
Re:If this is true
If you ask most of the dissenters in the military, they'll tell you that they would fight in Afghanistan which they believe is a just war over 9/11 but most consider Iraq an unjust war of aggression that isn't fighting for the benefit of America
Dead on. A friend of mine signed up for the Army right after 9/11. He was willing to sacrifice everything to fight those who attacked his country, but he was instead forced to fight Bush's war of choice in Iraq. He's now active with Iraq Veterans Against the War.