And a few more extraordinarily poignant cartoons from Jim Morin

New Tattoo

As a demonstration of my commitment to Iraq Veterans Against the War, I have decided to get an IVAW tattoo on my right forearm to mirror the USMC tattoo on the left. (see photo)

It reads:

For those who fight for it,
Life has a special flavor,
The protected never know.
USMC

I have an idea for what the IVAW tattoo would say that would be an expression of the philosophical ideals of IVAW, but I am open to suggestions. It should be approximately the same number of words or letters per line, and ideally in the same tempo. If anyone comes up with something better than what I have, I'll use it and put your name underneath. Just kidding! But you will at least get credit for it here and my eternal gratitude.

I will be posting suggestions as they come in, even if in the form of hate mail and good-natured joshing. Here is the first from Sholom Keller, IVAW member extraordinaire:

Goddamn hippies,
They say they want to change the world,
But all they do is smoke pot and smell bad.

All my blathering rendered obsolete by a cartoon:

The Rally in Philly

I went to the UFPJ rally in Philly this past weekend to hang out with some vets, talk to counter-protestors, and because, well, if not really that useful, big protests are fun! So since there was a caravan from Arlington Cemetery up to Philly being led by IVAW Bus (Yellow Rose of Texas Bus For Peace, driven by Jim “Captain Jim” Goodnow) I joined in with my Bronco. I would have ridden in the bus, but I was staying in Philly until Monday since I was speaking at Moorestown Friends School in New Jersey on Monday afternoon, and that gave me the chance to hang out with my IVAW buddies in Philly and check out the national office on Monday.

We pulled up in Philly as the march was “picking up the links in the human chain” about half way down its route and I snuck in front of the police escorts with the bus. After a while of driving at the pace of a peace march, I decided to ditch the Bronco in a garage, then run and catch up with the bus. I made it just as the bus was pulling up to the rally point.

The crowd was a bit disappointing, but still solid given the weather. I got to meet up with some friends from Veterans For Peace and some student organizers I’ve worked with just before Kelly Dougherty, the IVAW Executive Director, got on stage to speak. Despite having a very sweet demeanor and voice for an Iraq vet, she has a way of always getting people riled up and passionate about direct action, which she did.

I did a couple TV interviews when the caravan stopped in Baltimore to pick some people up at a church, and said that this day of protests was one for the movement, one for the people. We’re deliberately not doing something in DC because we are sick of asking for them to end this war. We the people have to stand up and stop this war for ourselves. Fortunately, I think this theme was reflected in a number of speakers, most notably Kelly, the Reverend Lennox Yearwood, and Desiree Fairooz of CodePink, who all strongly encouraged listeners to step up their game and rise to the occasion.

I was fortunate enough to catch one former Devil Dog who was there by himself and didn’t know about IVAW. He had come wearing his green digital blouse, clearly wanting to represent himself as an anti-war veteran, but having no idea what that meant. We chatted for a while about what he was going through in terms of PTSD and being home with his buddies, one of whom is missing his legs due to an IED, and is struggling with the idea of whether it was worth it or not, desperately clinging to the hope that it was.

Kelly came over, and organized as she is, had a membership application for him right there. He took it and said he would send it in when he got home. About an hour later, our paths crossed again as we were leaving. He had been walking back towards the protest when one of the cops started giving him a hard time. He made the right choice to walk away, but was a bit shaken when he ran into me. I told him it just comes with the territory, just part of the struggle. We all get used to it.




Me, Jim Goodnow, and Executive Director of Delaware Valley Veterans for America, Bill Perry

A REAL TWO-STATE SOLUTION FOR THE MIDEAST

By John Judge

Stage One – Define all areas where Israelis and Palestinians currently live and consider as their homeland, excluding other surrounding nation state boundaries and ceding those uncontested areas for a resolution, dropping all claims for the land by outside states.

Stage Two – Within the defined area, identify by satellite, ground reconnaissance, scientific exploration and common usage all useable and sustainable resources in the area, including water, arable land, amenable or untenable habitat, access to roads and various areas. Draw a clear map of those resources and the area.

Stage Three – Divide as practicably and fairly as possible all those various resources by drawing a line and building a very high wall separating the two states, create one secured gate along the wall, with no other openings, and install a metal detector which is linked to timed movement of impenetrable barriers at either side of the opening.

Stage Four – Isolate and disarm or destroy all weapons of mass destruction, long range weapons, large scale explosives and aircraft or large vehicles usable for warfare currently within the whole area, leaving small arms and munitions intact. Assign this task and future security in this regard to members of the Israeli peace and military resistance communities and Palestinians who also have worked for peace, with transparency and oversight.

Stage Five – Create two states on either side of the walled divide. One state will be made up of Palestinians and Israelis who are sick of fighting, and one state will be made up of Palestinians and Israelis who wish to continue fighting. Allow free choice at any time for anyone to choose or change states, using the single gate, but not allowing passage of weapons. That is the purpose of the metal detector.

Stage Six – Surround the entire area of both states with an international ground, water and air based peace keeping force which cannot enter, provide weapons or use weapons within either state, and whose purpose is to secure those borders from passage of any weapons or combatants into either state or persons who are not already part of the citizenry or legal immigrants based on ethnic heritage. Create a form of identification for both Palestinians and Israelis that will allow them to travel outside the two states freely, but not to return with weapons.

Stage Seven – Reach an agreement with the surrounding states and international community that no military aid of any kind can be sent to either state, and that all humanitarian aid be distributed and delivered at secured points into both states fairly and in response to real needs. Prevent any use of international banking or funding to create or support training, recruitment or support for any combatant.

Stage Eight – Support and assist the creation of a fully democratic society within the larger peaceable state area. If serious conflicts arise, offer both sides the option to cross the wall and settle their differences.

Stage Nine – When the final individual or small group comes to the single gate to declare a complete victory from inside the combative state, it will be verified independently from satellite and unarmed air reconnaissance, as well as any other practicable method. At that point, provide medals for the “winning” side, let them return to the peaceable state without weapons and upon agreement that they will not renew in or engage in combat or hostilities. Let them name the new country, then remove the wall and restore the infrastructure to allow settlement of all originally designated lands by both Israelis and Palestinians in a democratic society. Get back to business.

Stage Ten – Bring international pressure to bear for full recognition and peace treaties with all surrounding states, membership in the United Nations, any cooperative regional bodies and international support for the new state. Send the peacekeeping forces home. Restore trade and open borders and broader immigration into the new combined state with the provision that combative elements will immediately be deported.

Let peace live, for without it the planet will die and all of us with it.

Proposed by John Judge
The Real Democracy Project
PO Box 722
Washington, DC 20044

Jason Mattera interviews Adam Kokesh at GWU

This was a fun discussion I had with Jason Mattera last night outside of the "Pray for Peace" event after Horowitz spoke across the street. I have never said that Horowitz shouldn't be allowed to speak, but it's funny that people have taken it that way. Horowitz's whole shtick is to say "the left does this," and "the left does that." He has said repeatedly that white conservatives are under attack on college campuses. He's right. I'm a white conservative. Ned Goodwin who helped put up the fliers is a white conservative. Horowitz, a former communist himself, has accused us of being communists, liberals, leftists, and moonbats. He has called for us to be expelled. Apparently, Horowitz is attacking white conservatives! Ironic, isn't it?

IF YOU'RE IN DC FRIDAY NIGHT!

CBO estimates $2.4 trillion long-term war costs

Comments here courtesy of Mike Ferner:

Costs not included:
Long-term V.A. costs to care for the terribly wounded;
Survivors' benefits;
Medical, criminal justice and social costs when a vet with PTSD has problems 10 years later;
Loss of productivity of permanently disabled vets;
Broken marriages;
Health effects from exposure to depleted uranium;
Cost to society when the researcher who would've found a cancer cure, a youth leader, teacher, etc. are killed in their youth.

As Iraq Veterans Against the War says, "War is not a game."

REUTERS U.S.

CBO estimates $2.4 trillion long-term war costs http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2450753720071024?pageNumber=2#sl_CommentsInputAnchor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost taxpayers a total of $2.4 trillion by 2017 when counting the huge interest costs because combat is being financed with borrowed money, according to a study released on Wednesday.
With President George W. Bush indicating a large contingent of U.S. troops likely will be engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan for many years to come, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the total tab for the wars from 2001 through 2017.
CBO estimated that interest costs alone from 2001-2017 could total more than $700 billion.
So far, Congress has given Bush $604 billion for the two wars, with about $412 billion spent in Iraq, according to CBO, which is Congress' in-house budget analyst. In Iraq alone, the United States is spending about $11 billion a month, with costs escalating.
Bush is seeking another $196 billion for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30 and Congress is expected to debate that request over the next few months.
CBO estimated that between 2008 and 2017, the wars could cost slightly more than $1 trillion, assuming overall troop strength is cut to 75,000 by 2013.
Currently, there are about 170,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and another 26,000 in Afghanistan.
Finance charges for the money already spent on the war will total $415 billion from 2001 to 2017, according to CBO. For the next decade, "interest outlays would increase by a total of $290 billion over that 10-year period," CBO told the House Budget Committee, which is reviewing long-term war costs.
"To put it all on our credit cards with no accountability, with no plan to pay for it, I think is the height of irresponsibility," said Rep. James McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat who serves on the budget panel and is an outspoken war critic. "It will be just one more toxic legacy of this disastrous war we will have to leave our kids to clean up."
With national elections about a year away and public discontent with the Iraq war running deep, Democrats are highlighting the huge costs of the Iraq war as they seek $22 billion more than Bush wants for domestic social programs such as health care and education.
Bush has vowed to veto the added funding.
CBO estimated that of the $2.4 trillion long-term price tag for the war, about $1.9 trillion of that would be spent on Iraq.
© Reuters 2006

National Project to Defend Dissent & Critical Thinking in Academia

National Project to Defend Dissent & Critical Thinking in Academia put out an "URGENT call to support students opposing IFAW at GWU"

On Monday October 8, 2007, 7 students from George Washington University took the initiative to counter David Horowitz's "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week". As part of a creative effort to inspire an apathetic study body, they created satirical flyers of a "typical" Muslim terrorist. The bottom of the flyer clearly indicated their satirical intent, highlighting a link to The Power of Nightmares, a powerful BBC documentary exposing the politics of terror and the erroneous equation of Islam with terrorism.

This intervention was meant to raise awareness, reveal the faulty assumptions of Horowitz's divisive campaign, and motivate students to oppose the organized celebration of racism. With fervor that only right-wing interest groups seem able to muster these days, the protest action itself was condemned as "racist" and used as political fodder to suppress criticism of the week.

As a result, the students have been unfairly tried in the court of public opinion and this week face internal disciplinary charges by GWU's Student Judicial Services, while the sponsors of and speakers scheduled for "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" remain unchallenged.

Please circulate this call to your lists, and e-mail both the GWU President and Student Judicial Services, urging them to drop any punitive actions against the 7 students for their attempts to highlight the dangerous presumptions underlying Horowitz's campaign and asking President Knapp to join the many institutions around the country who have refused to support "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week".

GWU President Steven Knapp: sknapp@gwu.edu

Student Judicial Services: sjs@gwu.edu


Thank you for joining us in countering yet another attempt at silencing dissent.


And a great poem that appears on the sidebar of that page:

In Praise of Doubt

There are the thoughtless who never doubt.
Their digestion is splendid, their judgement infallible.
They don't believe in the facts, they believe only in
themselves.
When it comes to the point
The facts must go by the board.
Their patience with themselves
Is boundless. To arguments
They listen with the ear of a police spy.

The thoughtless who never doubt
Meet the thoughtful who never act.
They doubt, not in order to come to a decision but
To avoid a decision. Their heads
They use only for shaking. With anxious faces
They warn the crews of sinking ships that water is
dangerous.
Beneath the murderer's axe
They ask themselves if he isn't human too.
Murmuring something
About the situation not yet being clarified, they go to bed.
Their only action is to vacillate.
Their favorite phrase is: not yet ripe for discussion.

* * *

Therefore, if you praise doubt
Do not praise
The doubt which is a form of despair.

What use is the ability to doubt to a man
Who can't make up his mind?
He who is content with too few reasons
May act wrongly
But he who needs too many
Remains inactive under danger.

– Bertolt Brecht.