We've read numerous diaries on the use of white phosphorous in Fallujah. It's time to take action.
If we only read and cry about it, if we only talk amongst ourselves about it, we are complicit in the eyes of the world, permitting this to go unquestioned.
I don't know about you, but my soul cannot bear complicity in something this evil. Join me now in taking action if you feel the same way. Next steps after the jump.
I haven't thought this through entirely, but I have to start somewhere, just as we did with the Downing Street Memos. After reading these DKos diaries,
Italian Satellite TV to Broadcast Evidence of US Use of Chemical Weapons on Civilians by paper tigress
The Alleged Use of White Phosphorus in Falluja by spoon or no spoon
More on the Use of Napalm in Iraq - the story that won't die by dbnkr
I know I can't just sit idly by and do nothing. I should have done something when we first heard about it during and following Fallujah.
First, let's begin by contacting all the members of the Senate Armed Forces Committee -- they are:
* John Warner, (R-Virginia), chairman
* John McCain, (R-Arizona)
* James Inhofe, (R-Oklahoma)
* Pat Roberts, (R-Kansas)
* Jeff Sessions, (R-Alabama)
* Susan Collins, (R-Maine)
* John Ensign, (R-Nevada)
* James Talent, (R-Missouri)
* Saxby Chambliss, (R-Georgia)
* Lindsey Graham, (R-South Carolina)
* Elizabeth Dole, (R-North Carolina)
* John Cornyn, (R-Texas)
* John Thune, (R-South Dakota)
* Carl Levin (D-Michigan), ranking minority member
* Edward Kennedy, (D-Massachusetts)
* Robert Byrd, (D-West Virginia)
* Joseph Lieberman, (D-Connecticut)
* Jack Reed, (D-Rhode Island)
* Daniel Akaka, (D-Hawaii)
* Bill Nelson, (D-Florida)
* Ben Nelson, (D-Nebraska)
* Mark Dayton, (D-Minnesota)
* Evan Bayh, (D-Indiana)
* Hillary Rodham Clinton, (D-New York)
You can find contact information at http://www.congress.org for each of these Senators. Alternatively, you can click on this informational link about the Committee, drill down at that site to each Senator's website for their contact information. You may want to draft a single letter to the Chair and to the Ranking Minority Member (our beloved Carl Levin), cc'ing each of the other Committee members and send the same letter to each of them.
Secondly, if your Senator isn't a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, contact them anyway.
I do NOT recommend emails, although something is better than nothing. I recommend FAXING your handwritten letter to each Senator; I've been told by Senate aides that handwritten messages receive higher priority attention than emails. You'll also know more quickly whether you've gotten through to their offices (successful fax) versus email (not all Senators have autoreply confirmations of receipt).
Thirdly, print out this bill and post it in public places like the local library. If you can't do color, use black and white -- but yellow on black will get more attention. We need to encourage other Americans to take action, become more aware at a minimum:
You can expand this image to 8-1/2" x 11" landscape or create a similar document of your own.
If you have a blog, you might want to post this bill on your site as well to capture attention.
Fourthly, write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Ask them why they haven't covered the use of White Phosphorus in Fallujah (might as well ask why they haven't provided much coverage of the Downing Street Memos, or the Wilson-Plame story until this past couple of weeks); ask them when they'll start doing their job, reporting the news, or if they're comfortable being complicit and okay with their slid into irrelevancy.
Lastly, if you have a suggestion on how else we should take action, please share it here.
I refuse to be complicit with a culture of corruption. I refuse to be an accessory to crimes against humanity. And I refuse to allow God and the world to believe otherwise by failing to take action.