A CODEPINK member, a 71-year old named Chloe Jon-Paul is arrested at a Washington, D.C.
Independence Day Rally for Troops Home Fast. She attempted to enter the march with her sign after an Iraq war veteran was arrested, and she was also arrested by the police. While she was being arrested, Jon-Paul said to the police, “I’m a 71-year-old woman. I don’t want to be arrested. But if you’re preventing our veterans from speaking for peace by arresting them, well, you’ll have to arrest me too.”
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The pace of peace sentiment in the United States has been accelerating, as Tom Hayden points out in a blogpost called Shifting Winds on Iraq.
He says the Iraqi government we've called "puppets of the U.S." will soon be taking on a new role as the peacemakers in their own country, and he warns the American peace movement to keep a "withdraw now" message without a counter-productive demand for arbitrary timelines. If anyone calls the new Iraqi government "soft on terror" for attempting to achieve some level of peace in the nation that the U.S. occupation has turned into a chaotic killing field, remember that the toughest hawks who have cried "stay the course through it all will soon be looking mighty hypocritical.
Many American officials, past and present, are worried over the strain a prolonged occupation would have on the armed forces--especially because a draft is a political impossibility. They are intensely worried also about the increasing power of Iran to support its Shiite allies in Baghdad. The "Iran factor" as well as the insurgency account for the recent tilt of the US embassy toward empowering the Sunni minority to balance Teheran's influence throughout the Iraqi government and security forces. Some in the security establishment, perhaps even US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilizad, himself a Sunni, may think a deal fortifying the Sunnis is better than allowing so much of Iraq to fall peacefully to Iran. The contradiction is between renegotiating empire and attempting to expand it by force.
The American peace movement will have to carefully evaluate these events, including the actual content of any peace proposals, before issuing demands any broader than "withdraw now." The time seems at hand for Americans to at least support the Iraqis' own peace process, especially if it includes timelines, interim cease-fires, prisoner releases, reconciliation and compensation.
The Iraqi government, in pursuit of peace, will release prisoners who've killed American soldiers and demand extradition for more and more American military members who have allegedly murdered innocent Iraqi citizens. Perhaps US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilizad may think a deal fortifying the Sunnis is better than allowing much of Iraq to fall so easily to Iran. To prevent any more slaughter under occupation, it's inevitable that the Iraqis may have to set the timetable and tell the U.S. to get out. Bush and the rubber stamp hawks will find a way to try and make that morally and ethically palatable.
War knows no morality except its own brand - totally remote from a civil society's code of mores and ethics. Talking points will change with every change of course to make it seem that there was never a change in the course. Most Americans now believe that U.S. soldiers never belonged in Iraq. It's clear that we're only there because we owed some old debt to one of the many non-democratic (or pseudo-democratic) regimes in the Middle East with whom we've been co-dependent while George W. Bush is still boasting, in all his buffoonery, about the way that we are "speading democracy" throughout the Middle East. Meanwhile, the U.S. government, under his watch, has done virtually nothing to tackle the real problem of energy/oil dependence. It's a great farce, and the American people have finally begun to understand it. We agree that we have to get our troops the hell out of Iraq and pay, with honest international cooperation and good faith, the price to make up for the wrongs the Bush administration has done. Above all, we agree that we want no new unnecessary wars planned for our sons and daughters.
Mr. Hayden credits the American Peace Movement for the work they've done, but laments that the Kerry-Feingold Democrats have not been a force that has gotten much farther ahead, in terms of peacemaking, than the Iraqi government on their own. It looks as though the Irai government may be the ones left alone to press for timelines. This has been a source of disappointment for many Americans who oppose the war in Iraq and would like to see an immediate beginning to troop withdrawl - all the while hoping the Democrats could have asserted the appropriate pressure by presenting a united front - getting themselves out ahead of the Iraqi government and looking like the leaders they'd like to be. Citizens for peace are truly the leaders for whom they've been waiting and they need to keep up the pressure on the hawks to put an end to the occupation (and any plans for permanent bases in Iraq) at once. Of course, it's never too late for Democrats to get together on this rather than worrying about who's going to be the next Democratic presidential candidate. There's a lot of respect being lost out here that could be regained if someone in the Democratic party could take a convincing lead and worry less about "positioning" themselves.
Mr. Hayden says:
...clearly antiwar forces have been a significant factor in limiting the Administration's options as the November elections approach and with presidential politics already under way. At this point, it appears that the Kerry-Feingold Democrats are barely ahead of the Iraqi government, if at all. Hawkish Democrats and Republicans, on the other hand, might wind up staying the course, while the Iraqis themselves press for a timeline to prevent any more slaughter under occupation.
Medea Benjamin of Code Pink appeared on Democracy Now today to talk about the new Troops Home Fast campaign.
The fasters are are demanding that we bring our troops home from Iraq. They want the White House and Congress to call for:
The withdrawal of all U.S. from Iraq;
No permanent bases in Iraq;
A commitment to fund a massive reconstruction effort but with funds going to Iraqi, not U.S., contractors.
At an Independence Day rally for Troops Home Fast, a 71-year old and a 25-year old Iraq war veteran were arrested. From D.C. IndyMedia:
Geoffrey Millard, 25, an Iraq War veteran who served on active combat duty for 13 months, walked into a break in the parade with a sign that read: “Support the Troops, Bring Them Home Now.” He was dressed in his military jacket with “Iraq Veterans Against the War” on the back and his many medals pinned to the front. He was stopped by the police, and when he tried again to enter the parade with his anti-war message and was subsequently arrested. As he tried to explain to the police that he simply wanted to march in the parade with his message, the crowd chanted “He earned the right!” and “Let the vets in!” behind him.
“When I was in Iraq, I used to dream of going home, getting on with my life. But I can’t be silent now, knowing the horror of what is going on over there,” said Millard. “It is my duty now to speak out against this immoral, illegal war. That’s why I felt it was my right and my duty to march in the 4th of July parade.”
If you're a non-faster, you can still help. You can sign the Voters Pledge that says you will only vote for candidates who call for a speedy withdrawal from Iraq, and to sign the Declaration of Peace, saying that if we do not have such a plan by September 21, you will participate in a week of nonviolent actions against the war.
Want to see who's fasting?
Code Pink blogger Sam Joi is beginning to take information from willing participants for a planned documentary.
cross posted at American Street
