The latest Harris telephone poll asking the question, “Do you favor keeping a large number of U.S. troops in Iraq until there is a stable government there or bringing most of our troops home in the next year?” of Americans “shows a clear 63% majority now favors bringing troops home in the next year,” as quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

Just 33% favor keeping troops in Iraq until a stable government is established. An increasing number of representatives, including Republicans, have called for a timetable to be set for withdrawal. Whenever President Bush or his spokesman is questioned about increasing violence or the possibility of withdrawal, he blabbers something about “our Mission,” never really explaining what that is.

Meanwhile, President Bush’s approval rating has fallen to below 50% amid the outbreak of the Downing Street memo, clearly showing his plans to invade Iraq well before any threats materialized.

What do you think? Is it time to bring the boys back home? Is Bush doing a good job? Dialogue is democracy. Let’s talk about it.

Plowshares is holding a conference on homelessness here and abroad, including concern for refugees April 21 and 22. April 21 will feature speakers, while on Friday the 22, there will be a sleepout in the quad. This week we are asking students to sign up and take a bag to class Thursday and Friday to collect money for Darfur. The money will go to the Mennonite Central Committee, which will buy blankets for families in Sudan.

Sign up in the Beamer Center tomorrow, April 12!

Strip mining is not as fun as it sounds.
(more…)

“What has happened here is that the GOP, famously the party favoring limited government intervention into people’s personal lives, has inserted the federal government squarely in the middle of an incredibly personal medical issue. And they’ve done it all in the name of making sure that some of their core voters stay with them” (Athens Banner-Herald, 3/22).

The Terri Schiavo case shows the utter hypocrisy and opportunism of the Religious Right. They mobilize Congress and the President to preserve a women in a vegetative coma against the wishes of her husband and the courts, but they don’t think twice about 100,000 dead civilians in Iraq. They don’t mention the thousands of children dying of hunger around the world every day, as if that is not our responsibility.

The situation has promted anti-poverty organizations to launch a new campaign called “Feeding Tubes for the Third World.”
“We’re entirely serious,” said FTTW Executive Director Jacqueline Padrone. “Thousands of people, including thousands of children, die every day for lack of food or medicine. The United States government supports economic and debt repayment policies, and trade policies, not to mention wars and occupations, that promote these deaths. The level of aid provided by the United States continues to shrink in relation to past contributions, and in relation to the growing problem, as well as in relation to the impact of these destructive policies. We’ve run out of answers. We’ve arrived at the solution of providing feeding tubes.”

This case is another example of right-wingers using personal tragedy for political gain.
The political manipulation of a personal life-and-death issue by right-wing leaders is shameful and morally repugnant. Make no mistake about it: President Bush, Tom DeLay and Bill Frist are no friends of the Schiavos. DeLay’s unprecedented attack on Terri Schiavo’s husband, Michael, was designed solely for political gain and represents a new low for the ethically challenged House leader. A memo distributed by Senate leadership to right-wing members called Schiavo “a great political issue” and urged Senators to talk about her because “the pro-life base will be excited.”

And reporters are now raising questions about a right-to-die law Bush signed as Texas governor, contradicting his position in the Schiavo case. Just last week, the law was applied for the first time, allowing doctors to remove a critically ill infant from life support against his mother’s wishes. According to the Houston Chronicle, this marks the first time in American history that courts allowed a pediatric patient to die against the wishes of their parent. As the Knight Ridder News service reports:

“The mother down in Texas must be reading the Schiavo case and scratching her head,” said Dr. Howard Brody, the director of Michigan State University’s Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. “This does appear to be a contradiction.” Brody said that, in taking up the Schiavo case, Bush and Congress had shattered a body of bioethics law and practice.”

“Coming at a time when crucial health care services are being slashed, it is particularly upsetting to see this kind of expensive grandstanding on the part of congressional Republicans over one high-profile case. This is not compassion: This is cold-blooded political calculation” (Charleston Gazette, 3/22).

Christians should take a real, consistent stand on life. Being pro-life and also pro-death penalty, pro-war, and pro-rich is counterproductive and removes any moral value from their argument.

sources:
http://www.mediachannel.org
http://www.moveon.org

“It remains to be seen how many people in our time will make that journey from war to nonviolent action against war. It is the great challenge of our time: how to achieve justice, with struggle, but without war.”
-Howard Zinn

To commemorate the second anniversary of the Iraq war I went to Chicago to join thousands of others in opposing the costly (in human and monetary terms) occupation of Iraq. Several hundred police officers were also with us.

We planned to assemble at Oak St. and Michigan Ave., then march down Michigan to the rally at Federal plaza. The police were at Michigan and Oak ordering everyone to disperse and herding them to a less prominent spot on Dearborn. There we stood until the police allowed us to march along Dearborn. At federal plaza we were surrounded by officers in riot gear, and they used horses to push us off the street.

Despite the police intimidation, there was a great spirit of peace and togetherness.
The liberal media barely reported the protests, and I was very nearly in a Chicago Tribune photo.

I read that eight people were arrested and one counter-protester attacked a police officer. Figures.

Another $82 billion has been allocated for the Iraq occupation. There are plans to build 14 permanant U.S. military bases. Over 1,500 U.S. soldiers have died, and according to a Lancet study 100,000 civilians may have been killed. But since the Pentagon doesn’t consider them important enough to count we don’t know the real number.

The BBC just reported that “The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq’s oil before the 9/11 attacks.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm

It’s time that all who are truly concerned with human life and dignity stood and opposed this illegal war based on false precepts.

This is not a war for democracy, and it is not a democratic war. The majority of the world’s population opposed it, including the populations of the Coalition nations. Polls show that 70% of Americans think the level of casualties is unacceptable. No timetable has been set, nor has any intent been shown by the administration for removal of troops.

I opposed this war before it started. I am a pacifist and don’t believe in violence, but it doesn’t take a pacifist to oppose this war. I knew Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, and there were no ties to al Qaeda. The liberal media has been very complacent, and did not see fit to question these false justifications. I knew Bush & Co. wanted to go to Iraq long before September 11. And I knew this war would not be beneficial for the majority of the population. Wars have always been fought for power and profit, and this one is no exception.