News You Won't See, Updated - Protesting the War in Syracuse, NY
Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 08:36:07 AM PDT
Every day the drums beat louder. We are being asked for more money for Iraq and Afghnistan. Iran is being painted as a greater threat every day. Congress does nothing to rein in the administration - but it has plenty of time to condemn MoveOn for questioning Bush's latest tame general.
Did you know ~3,000 people marched in Syracuse yesterday? Did you know that Scott Ritter spoke in a phone interview before the rally, warning that what he'd seen in the run-up to Iraq is now happening with Iran as the target?
If there's any mention in the NY Times or the Washington Post, I couldn't find it. I'm guessing it won't come up on the Sunday morning talking head shows; they'll be too busy discussing how annoying Hillary's laugh is. (Even Frank Rich is picking up on that one. Click on the graphic by Rich's column to see how bold the Democrats are.) So, what have you heard from Syracuse or elsewhere?
The press is bound and determined to keep any news that shows anti-war sentiment deeply buried. Those that haven't been bought outright by the corporate agenda to always support Republican policies have been intimidated by years of right wing outrage on how the Leftist Media made us lose in Vietnam and wants it again in Iraq.
So, chances are you heard nothing at all from a panel discussion at Syracuse University about the real costs of the Iraq war and how well it is going.
Scott Ritter said:
"We love firefighters but we hate fire," Ritter said. "If we love our firefighters we wouldn't want to send them into a fire because that's where bad things happen." He asked the audience to cherish the service soldiers offer to their country by not sending them in harm's way. He said Americans practice fire prevention because they love their firefighters. So, to show love to the troops, war prevention should be practiced, he said.
Ritter said most of the violence against Americans and Iraqis is a direct result of the American military occupation. "There's only one solution," he said. "Bring the troops home now."
An Iraqi doctor told of what she has seen:
Dahlia Wasfi, a doctor who spent her childhood in Iraq and visited her family there in early 2004, identified the American invasion as the root of the problems in Iraq.
"Before we invaded illegally, Iraq had security, they had decent electricity, decent access to water. They had free health care and free education." She said now Iraq has none of those things and said anyone in Iraq would tell her they are much worse off now than before America invaded the country.
A veteran of the Iraq war (whom Rush Limbaugh would call a phony soldier) spoke:
Finally, a veteran of the Iraq war, Jim Massey, told the audience he wanted to bring the troops home immediately, take care of the troops once they get back and pay reparations to the Iraqi people for the damage the war has done. He also said every congressmen and senator who supported the war should be voted out of office.
"It's the responsibility of Congress to provide a checks and balance to the executive branch," he said. "We need to set a precedent so that our future Congress will take we, the American people, serious."
Several thousand people marching through an upstate New York city apparently isn't news worthy of national attention - but then this didn't get much attention either.
There were reports that active duty troops from up the road at Fort Drum were going to appear and speak, though I haven't found any reports that they were able to make it. They've formed a chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, which is doubtless going over well with the Petraeus crowd. The 10th Mountain Division was recently featured by an NPR series about their exploits in World War 2; today they are on the front page of the New York Times in a mission and a war that seems light years away from Italy and Mount Belvedere.
MAHMUDIYA, Iraq — On bases big and small south of Baghdad, the scrambled reality of war has become routine: an unending loop of anxious driving in armored Humvees, gallons of Gatorade, laughter at the absurd and 4 a.m. raids into intimate Iraqi bedrooms.
This is Iraq for the 3,300 soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division’s Second Brigade, and many have come to the unfortunate realization that it now feels more like home than home.
No brigade in the Army has spent more days deployed since Sept. 11, 2001, and with only a few weeks to go before ending their 15-month tour, the soldiers here are eager to go. But they are also nervous about what their minds will carry back, given the psychic toll of war day after day and the prospect of additional tours.
This is what Scott Ritter had to say back in 2002 before the invasion of Iraq:
Ritter predicted Saddam's government would quickly fall apart after the invasion. But he said there would be great destruction and loss of civilian life. He said a fierce guerilla resistance would rise up against the American occupation, resistance that would trigger years of bloodshed.
He said our military casualties would inevitably mount, while the invasion destabilized or alienated many American allies in the Islamic world. He said our servicemen and women would become a vulnerable occupying force in a violent place, with no way of getting out.
A Post-Standard column about the visit included this Ritter quote: "If we eliminate Saddam Hussein, we have no viable (Iraqi) alternative."
This is what Ritter has to say today:
The relevant question, Ritter said, is whether Americans believe he was right in his predictions on Iraq. If so, he asks fair hearing on what he is saying now:
The White House, he said, fully intends to send troops into Iran.
Ritter disagrees with the popular belief that the American military is stretched too thin and could not attempt the invasion. "There are enough troops, more than enough troops, to go to war against Iran," said Ritter, who noted how the Bush administration is seeking almost $190 billion from Congress in 2008 to finance military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, which border on Iran.
As for grass-roots opposition to expanding the war, he said much of the American public has already been drawn into perceiving Iran as a bigger threat than it really is. And he pointed out that the White House is certainly aware of how some Israeli officials have called for a Jan. 1 diplomatic deadline on efforts to get Iran to renounce its nuclear program.
To Ritter, that sets up early 2008 as the likely time for war. Congress, he said, has given the president "all the green light he needs" to present any attack on Iran as a pre-emptive strike in the war on terror.
That attack would be a devastating mistake, Ritter said. He said our all-volunteer military has the best-trained and most efficient forces in the world, "unbeatable in conventional battle." Yet he sees any occupation of Iran as placing our servicemen and women in another impossible situation.
Remember, you didn't hear any of this from the national media - and you probably won't.
UPDATE: From an e-mail I just got:
For our regular 6pm vigil at the Village Clock Park (Voorheesville, NY) we will have two special guests. Dr Dahlia Wasfi and Jim Massey. They spoke to a packed house at the Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University Saturday along with Scott Ritter, giving a people's response to the Petraeus Report. Dr Wasfi spent her early childhood in Iraq and has visited her extended family twice since the invasion. Her passionate testimony before a congressional committee began a long journey of speaking out for the Iraqi people and the reality of the occupation. Jimmey Massey is a 12 year veteran of the US Marine Corps, serving in both the Gulf War and the Invasion of Iraq. He left the service, and became one of the co-founders of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
We will vigil as usual from 6 to 7 pm on Tueday and then gather at the clock for a short get together with Dahlia and Jimmy.
Both will be speaking at the Albany Public Library on Monday night at 7pm as well.
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