Iraq

“Lots of Iraqi kids up here” says Christina-Taylor Green in email from Heaven

February 3, 2011 by Dixon Guizot
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In an email recently reviewed by The OB Rag, nine-year-old Tucson shooting victim Christina-Taylor Green confirmed that she is in Heaven and described life on the other side of the Pearly Gates. “I’ve been learning lots of games from the Middle East, because there’s lots of Iraqi kids up here,” Green wrote. “They’re everywhere in […]

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December 16: Daniel Ellsberg and others arrested at White House anti-war protest

December 16, 2010 by Frank Gormlie
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Update: Up to 134 people were arrested at the White House fence.
Today in the midst of a snow storm, dozens of Veterans for Peace and their supporters gathered against the White House fence in acts of civil disobedience to protest the wars this country is fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. … Daniel Ellsberg and other protesters were arrested (details are still slight). There is one report that 124 people were arrested. (Tip o’hat to Barbara Cummings)

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Why aren’t we celebrating? It’s the end of US combat in Iraq, isn’t it? – Voices from San Diego’s peace movement

September 1, 2010 by Frank Gormlie
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Candidate Barack Obama pledged to end the war in Iraq. More than any other Presidential candidate during that long, long campaign – Obama was the most poised to declare himself as the anti-war candidate. And he did. And the peace movement and the left in general ate it up – for good reason.

The peace movement had been in the streets protesting the Iraq invasion, war and occupation by Bush for 6 long years, since the Fall of 2002. Every year – in March – on the invasion’s anniversary, the peace movement would take to the streets. We welcomed a candidate of Barack’s stature joining our side. And we joined him as well, shooting his popularity up, beyond Edwards, Kucinich, Clinton, … and ultimately beyond John McCain.

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What Obama Won’t Say Tonight

August 31, 2010 by Source
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By Ray McGovern

President Barack Obama’s aides say his speech this evening marking the end of “combat operations” in Iraq will avoid the vainglorious aspects of President George W. Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech in 2003. We’ll see.

On the chance Obama might be open to pivoting away from the reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq and addressing honestly the worsening quagmire in Afghanistan. I have offered him the following text:

My Fellow Americans,

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The War Is Making You Poor Act

May 26, 2010 by Source
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By Congressman Alan Grayson /MichaelMoore.com / May 21, 2010

Next week, there is going to be a “debate” in Congress on yet another war funding bill. The bill is supposed to pass without debate, so no one will notice.

What George Orwell wrote about in “1984” has come true. What Eisenhower warned us about concerning the “military-industrial complex” has come true. War is a permanent feature of our societal landscape, so much so that no one notices it anymore.

But we’re going to change this. Today, we’re introducing a bill called ‘The War Is Making You Poor Act’. The purpose of this bill is to connect the dots, and to show people in a real and concrete way the cost of these endless wars.

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Focusing on Ft. Hood Killer’s Beliefs Are an Easy Out to Avoid the Deeper Reasons for the Massacre

November 6, 2009 by Source

By Mark Ames / AlterNet / November 6, 2009

It’s hard to pinpoint what’s the most shocking thing about Major Malik Nadal Hasan’s shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas. I’ll start with this: there’s nothing all that ground-breaking about it. Happens all the time, it’s just that we’re a nation of amnesiacs who forget all the unpleasantries, and refuse to learn the valuable lessons.

For starters, Fort Hood is located in Killeen, Texas — where one of the deadliest rampage shootings in American history took place in 1991, when an unemployed ex-Navy enlistee ….

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Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

August 5, 2009 by Source
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By Jeremy Scahill / Peace Resource Center / August 4, 2009

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia.

The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.

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A Secret History of Dissent in the All-Volunteer Military

July 1, 2009 by Source
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In a study published in the Armed Forces Journal in 1971, it was reported that the U.S. military in Vietnam was at that moment at the edge of chaos.

In fact, statistics flowing back to Washington about the American war machine in Vietnam then pointed toward an unimaginable nightmare. Drug use was rampant; desertions stood at 70 per thousand, a modern high; small-scale mutinies or “combat refusals” were at critical, if untabulated, levels; incidents of racial conflict had soared; and strife between “lifers” and draftees was at unprecedented levels.

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Is the Pentagon subverting Obama’s plan to have US troops leave Iraq?

May 27, 2009 by Source
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Former Congressman Tom Andrews, National Director of the Win Without War Coalition, released the following statement today:

Yesterday’s comments by Army Chief of Staff General George Casey that the Pentagon needs to begin planning to leave U.S. combat troops in Iraq for another decade …

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IRAQ – 6 YEARS of WAR and OCCUPATION MARCH & RALLY, San Diego, Saturday March 21, 2009

March 20, 2009 by Patty Jones
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MARCH & RALLY, Saturday March 21, 2009

2:30 PM Rally at the War Memorial building on Park Boulevard
Sponsored by The San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice (SDCPJ)

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Blackwater Changes Its Name

February 14, 2009 by Source
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Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticised work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe. The parent company’s new name is pronounced like the letter z.

Blackwater Lodge & Training Centre – the subsidiary that conducts much of the company’s overseas operations and domestic training – has been renamed US Training Centre Inc., the company said today.

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A Whitewash for Blackwater?

December 9, 2008 by Staff
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The federal manslaughter indictment of five Blackwater Worldwide security guards in the horrific massacre of more than a dozen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad may look like an exercise in accountability, but it’s probably the exact opposite — a whitewash that absolves the government and corporate officials who should bear ultimate responsibility.

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Frankenstein in Mesopotamia

November 19, 2008 by Staff

Tom Hayden: The pact being negotiated between the US and Baghdad governments includes a direct rebuff to president-elect Barack Obama’s promised policy of withdrawing American combat troops in 16-18 months.

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‘Bush’s Way of Waving Goodbye to Syria?’

October 28, 2008 by Staff

World Condemns U.S. Action –  Iraq Rejects American Move Into Syria by Josh Ward / Der Spiegel / October 28, 2008 BERLIN. The US says its cross-border raid into Syria killed a top terrorist. Still, international reaction has been intense and critical. While the German government has kept silent, media commentators haven’t been shy about […]

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Syria says U.S. raid is ‘terrorist’ act

October 27, 2008 by Staff

Al Jazeera English / October 27, 2008 The Syrian foreign minister has described a deadly raid on a village near the border with Iraq, allegedly carried out by the US, as a planned act of “terrorist aggression”. Speaking in London on Monday, Walid Muallem also raised questions about how a pact between the US and Iraq over troop deployment […]

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How Forgotten Iraq May Elect the Next President

September 30, 2008 by Staff

Whose War Will Win the Election — McCain’s or Obama’s? By Ira Chernus/ TomDispatch.com / September 30, 2008 In 1932, in the midst of a disastrous economic meltdown, Franklin D. Roosevelt made “the forgotten man” the centerpiece of his presidential election campaign. Far more than we suspect, this year’s election may turn not on a […]

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U.S. & Iraq Could Be Close to Withdrawal Deadline

August 7, 2008 by Staff

NBC News and news services / August 7, 2008 BAGHDAD – The U.S. and Iraq are close to a deal under which all American combat troops would leave by October 2010 with remaining U.S. forces gone about three years later, two Iraqi officials said Thursday. A U.S. official in Washington acknowledged progress has been made […]

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End the Occupation of Iraq — and Afghanistan

July 29, 2008 by Staff

by Marjorie Cohn / Published on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 by CommonDreams.org So far, Bush’s plan to maintain a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq has been stymied by resistance from the Iraqi government. Barack Obama’s timetable for withdrawal of American troops has evidently been joined by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Bush has mentioned […]

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Obama, Iraq and Afghanistan

July 29, 2008 by Staff

by Tom Hayden / Published on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by The Nation Barack Obama has restated his phased withdrawal plan for Iraq in response to public questioning, but committed himself to expanding the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Any proposal to transfer American troops from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan is sure to cause […]

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Neil Young’s New Documentary “CSNY: Deju Vu” Targets Bush & Iraq War

July 15, 2008 by Staff

by Stephen Applebaum / Metro.com.uk / July 14, 2008 At the height of the Vietnam War, folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were at the forefront of the musical protest movement. When the US National Guard killed four demonstrating students at Kent State University in 1970, an enraged Neil Young wrote Ohio, directly attributing […]

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Evaluation of the June 28-29, 2008 National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation

July 8, 2008 by Staff

Over 400 Activists Attended Antiwar Conference in Cleveland by Jerry Gordon, Marilyn Levin, and Jeff Mackler Our overall assessment is that the conference was an overwhelming success. Over 400 people from many parts of the country and Canada attended, including a bus of 44 — mostly youth — from Connecticut (see breakdown by states below*). […]

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BIG OIL – 4,000 Americans Died For Them

April 3, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

Top Oil Execs to Congress on Their Record $123 Billion Profits: ‘We feel your pain, but don’t blame us!’ Ten days after US military deaths in Iraq reached 4,000, the top executives of the five largest oil and gas companies appeared before Congress. It was Tuesday, April 1st – April Fools’ Day – and they […]

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Saturday Mar. 22nd Downtown San Diego: 100 Protesters Stage Die-In Against the War

March 22, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

Peaceful Protest Ends Week-Long Series of Antiwar Demonstrations SAN DIEGO, CA. They assembled in a downtown park at First and Island Avenue today, Mar. 22nd at roughly 2pm. As they waited for the word to move out to the “die-in” site, most had their white T-shirts stenciled with the number “15703” representing the number of […]

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San Francisco: Resistance is futile — or is it?

March 20, 2008 by Staff

San Francisco was the epicenter of the failed movement to prevent the Iraq War — but the movement that emerged here may still change the country BY Steven T. Jones /SF Bay Guardian Wednesday March 19, 2008 It was a time without precedent in American history. The commander-in-chief voiced his intention to take the country […]

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Sacramento : Protests and Candlelight Vigils Mark Anniversary of Iraq Invasion

March 20, 2008 by Richard Nadeau

On March 19, the eve of the first day of Spring, I demonstrated with hundreds of other Sacramento citizens bearing witness to the 5th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. In spite of a crippled economy, the horrible war of aggression goes on and on with no end in sight. People in every major […]

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Protesters gather at Redding City Hall

March 20, 2008 by Staff

Marchers voice their opposition to the war in Iraq By Constance Dillon Monday, March 17, 2008 REDDING, CA. More than 100 people gathered at Redding City Hall Sunday, March 17, to take part in March and Rally for Peace sponsored by a number of local groups. Among them were Laureen Oliveira, of Montgomery Creek, her […]

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Police Scuffle Averted at Chicago Protest March

March 19, 2008 by Staff

T. Mannis / The Bench CHICAGO – March 19, 2008 – Police officers, in riot gear and on horses, were ready. The protesters seemed ready to take a stand.They numbered in the thousands. The Bench does not have an official estimate, but a guess is well over 10,000 people marched north along Michigan Avenue. They […]

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UPDATE AS OF 5:00 PDT: San Francisco Protests – Breaking Blog News

March 19, 2008 by Staff

SAN FRANCISCO, CA. Demonstrators gathered and roamed throughout downtown San Francisco in protests against the war, rallying and blocking corporate offices.. The following is a breaking blog news account, posted from IndyBay. Archived Breaking News: 5th Anniversary Anti-War Actions [CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED VIA INDYBAY:] 5:00 pm A large anti-war rally is now under way in Civic […]

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Hundreds Disrupt Nation’s Capital

March 19, 2008 by Staff

By Michael Ruane, Sue Anne Pressley Montes and Petula Dvorak Washington Post Staff Writers / March 19, 2008; 1:02 PM EDT Hundreds of antiwar demonstrators this morning tried to stop workers from entering federal government buildings, sat down in busy streets to block traffic, and staged a “March of the Dead” parade from Arlington National […]

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SPECIAL EVENT: ‘Die In” San Diego, Today – Saturday, March 22

March 19, 2008 by Patty Jones

PLEASE NOTE: This event will involve a peaceful demonstration involving those of us who are ready to end the war and demand TRUTH and JUSTICE. For more info go to www.dieinsd.com When Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 2:00 PM Where Meet in the park downtown W. Island Ave & 1st Ave San Diego , CA […]

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