Death of a Tyrant:Coverup of Crimes by Another

Once again the barbarians have succeeded in professing human dignity while ignoring human life’s sanctity. My thoughts are filled with disgust as the so called civilized world revels in the hanging of Saddam Hussein yesterday.
Don’t mistake my total distaste of the execution of Hussein for any alliance or sympathy for the tyrant killer. I just tire of the “morally superior” position of this nation (U.S.) when it comes to the administration’s posturing around the capture, trial and execution of the man our government installed in the first place.
We did the same thing with Noriega in Panama and Diem in Vietnam. This names only a couple of many tyrants our nation has been responsible for bringing to power and maintaining in power at the expense of their own citizens.
Let’s not forget the now infamous photo of Donald Rumsfeld warmly greeting Saddam back in the 1980’s when it was ever so convenient to have a dictator in charge of a country with the second largest oil reserve in the world.
Let’s not forget how we encouraged an uprising against Saddam after Gulf War I and then abandoned the rebels to be killed and tortured by his ruthless police.
Let’s not forget when sanctions were in place, blocking even humanitarian aid such as medical supplies and water purification, Dick Cheney went around the rules that made it a crime to provide any supplies. By using the European branch of Halliburton (he was CEO at the time) Cheney helped supply Saddam with pipe for the oil fields. No doubt the costs were marked up and Halliburton made a tidy profit.
Meanwhile, let’s not forget the hundreds of thousands of children who died as result of sanctions. The deaths could have been easily prevented had medical supplies and water treatment supplies been allowed.
Obviously the American government put more value on oil than the lives of a million Iraqi children. When people in groups like Voices in the Wilderness requested permission to enter Iraq to bring supplies they were denied. When Madeline Albright was informed of the dying children she dismissed it as the cost that had to be paid.
When Kathy Kelly of Voices went to Iraq independently the American government made threats of imprisoning her and handing out large monetary fines. Dick Cheney as Vice President of the United States is exempt from prosecution for his ventures into Iraq with Halliburton-Europe.
Let’s also not forget the furor leading up to the war in Iraq about weapons of mass destruction. The American people were bombarded with the danger Saddam presented because of his WMD. As proof of this danger the Bush administration constantly pointed out Saddam gassed the Kurds in Northern Iraq.
What George W. Bush didn’t tell the American people was how Saddam came to have any WMD’s. Bush and his cronies failed to tell the American people what the American government knew of Saddam gassing the Kurds. They failed to admit the government knew in advance of the gassing and failed to intervene.
Time after time the government of the United States failed to intervene against the ruthless actions of Saddam. Saddam remained in power as long as he did because the American government viewed him as a stable opponent of the Iranian government that we feared was gaining too much influence in the oil rich Middle East.
The timing of Saddam’s execution is classic Bush/Rove tactics. And let’s not think the U.S. authorities didn’t have some great influence on when the execution took place in the “Green Zone”.
Bush, under tremendous pressure from almost seventy per cent of Americans disapproving of his Iraq policy, is scheduled to produce a “new” plan on Iraq once the holidays are over. He had his chief crony, Donald Rumsfeld, resign the position of Defense Secretary to calm the growing discontent of the masses.
Shortly after the approval of the new Secretary of Defense, reports emerged that Rumsfeld is now a chief “advisor” on the new Iraq policy. It’s also become clear the criminal of the Vietnam/Cambodia fiasco, Henry Kissinger, is a chief “advisor” for Bush also.
So, once again diversion from the continued illegal and immoral acts of the Bush administration has been created. The hanging of Saddam Hussein has taken center stage. If violence has been fomented because of the execution it makes the diversion all that much better.
When the new plan for Iraq is announced following the holidays the major factor is going to be a call for increasing the number of American troops to “train” Iraqi forces. The “surge” of troop deployments will be only “short term” the “leaked” reports are saying. “Déjà vu, all over again….we’ve heard this before.”
It is quite possible the number of American troops killed in Iraq will reach 3,000 before 2006 ends. Iraqis are dying at a rate of nearly 100 each day. The wounds of American troops continue and the devastation of Iraqi communities continues. It’s clear the American occupation is the major reason for the escalated violence.
One has to question and object to the “new plan” that is simply an escalation of the “old plan”. As an American combat veteran, I object to the continued slaughter of young American men and women. I object to the continued slaughter and disrespect of Iraqi citizens.
The execution of Saddam is convenient for George W. Bush and all the previous administrations during Saddam’s rule. Killing him adds to the cover up of the truth about what has really taken place in Iraq over the past few decades.
American foreign policy in the Middle East has once again eliminated a tyrant imposed upon a nation by the American government to continue the hegemony of the American military-industrial complex.
The execution of Saddam is “mission accomplished” for George Bush in covering up ever increasing evidence of his illegal actions to usurp Iraqi rights to their own natural resources.
The execution is his continued message to the American people that we have the inalienable right to do what we want by any means necessary.
So, let us not pat ourselves on the back in congratulations for the hanging of the tyrant, Saddam. We haven’t proved our morality or our great respect for life. We’ve proved just the opposite. We’ve proved our continued immoral foreign policy is designed to further our greed and power in the world. We’ve proved the lives of our own young and the innocent citizens of any nation are expendable to support lies, illegality and immorality. And we’ve proved our disdain and disrespect for human lives.
In today’s news, parents of American troops killed are quoted as pleased with the execution because it gives meaning to the deaths of their children. Sadly, the death of Saddam only provides further proof of the tragic loss of their children to an illegal and unnecessary war.
As the song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” intones, “ …when will they ever learn?”
Wm. Terry Leichner,RN
Denver VVAW member
Article also published December 31, 2006 at
Information Clearing House

A Christmas Miracle....sort of

A Katrina Christmas in the Gulf

Christmas in Iraq (Mosul)

Reluctantly, I went to the local Roman Catholic Church with my wife for Christmas Eve midnight mass. I'm still "officially" Catholic but have been in conflict with the Church for some time. In particular, I've had many conflicts with the Denver Archdiocese's Archbishop.
Despite all information showing what George Bush intended in Iraq and the Middle East, this Archbishop continued to support Bush in the 2004 election. Oh he was very deceptive but when he told the laity it would be sinful to vote for any candidate supporting a woman's right to choice in abortion he endorsed George Bush by default.
Shortly after the election the same Archbishop was photographed at a Presidential breakfast with George reaching over to touch his leg and smile warmly (anyway for George).
I was somewhat surprised then on Chrismas Eve. The pastor of Notre Dame actually made reference to the Iraq war and told the assembled congregation he had the thought when Rumsfeld left that there should be a Secretary of Peace as well as one for Defense.
The Pastor even spoke of the birth of Christ as an event to herald peace since it is often that we call Him the King of peace.
I was motivated to write Msgr. Leo Horrigan an email to express my thoughts about his mention of peace and the war. I'm going to post that email because it was my feelings toward Christmas at the time.
Hopefully before next Christmas we will truly have the troops home and the violence in Iraq can begin to come to an end. Miracles sometimes happen.
Here's the email:


Msgr. Horrigan,

I wanted to thank you for broaching the subject of a “department of peace” during your homily this evening at the solemn mass for Christmas. As you may very well know, there are a number of activists within the movement for peace who have developed the concept of a Department of Peace. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has been one member of Congress that’s continuously pushed for this idea.

There are also some, like me, who believe the department is an idealistic concept that does need looking at but first we must use our energies in the urgent matter of ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I’ve worked with several Iraq veterans who now oppose the war they participated in that tell stories of atrocity and corruption. I’ve worked with parents who have lost sons and daughters or have seen the horrible effects of war on their sons or daughters on return from combat.

I’ve also worked with survivors of Katrina on three separate occasions since September 2005. A group of veterans were among the first to start bringing food and needed supplies to parts of New Orleans and the surrounding area when federal agencies like FEMA failed the citizens. We have made the connection of the billions of dollars spent on killing in wars and the abject failures to come to the assistance of the marginalized communities such as the 9th Ward of New Orleans. Every bomb dropped on Iraq and Afghanistan is one dropped on the shores of the Gulf because it’s that much more funding lost to help repair lives in that area.

Still today much of the worst hit areas of Katrina are like a war zone. This past March a group of young vets assisted by some of us older vets marched from Mobile to New Orleans over a week’s time. We struggled to understand why seven months after Katrina we found the majority of the area looking like the war zones we’d done time in with the military. We struggled to understand why most of these areas were in the black communities and the immigrant communities.

Today, still, Monsignor, I struggle with the Church’s lack of opposition toward a war that drains billions of dollars from safety net programs for the weakest of our citizens. I struggle with the Church when it speaks about the sanctity of life but fails to point toward the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as a violation of that sanctity. By now it is clear the wars were based upon lies, manipulations and a thirst for greed and power. Corruption is rampant and death is a common daily experience in the lives of innocents in Iraq.

The most reliable estimate of innocent dead in Iraq was done by the English medical journal, Lancet. Their estimate three months ago was 650,000 innocent Iraqis have died since March 2003. The study is the only one that has been done using correct scientific methods. Of the numbers mentioned 40% of the killed have been children.

I have a dear friend with 75 % of her father's family living in southern Iraq. They have endured lack of electricity on a daily basis for most of each day. They have to buy bottled water to be safe. Raw sewage runs in the streets of their large urban area. Women are now afraid to been seen uncovered. Medical services which were once the best in the Middle East are deplorable. They constantly run out of even the basics such as bandages and antibiotics. Children die from water borne diseases which would be unheard of in this country. My friend, a MD, has been in Iraq twice since 2004 and things have gotten worse.

So, I wonder, Monsignor, why we are asked to say special prayers for the American troops….and I have no problem doing this…..but the innocents of Iraq and Afghanistan are never mentioned? The American troops have lost almost 3,000 dead and close to 30,000 wounded. The Iraqi civilians have been affected 10-30 times worse by the war.

Most of the horrible wounds and the deaths have occurred as a result of American bombs, artillery and other munitions. White phosphorous and napalm have been used despite both being war crimes under international law.

Depleted uranium is poisoning both Iraqis and our own troops with radiation and nothing has been done to stop this use in American armaments despite studies by the Pentagon that demonstrates the deadly effects. The head of the Pentagon study team has called the use of depleted uranium a “war crime”. Helen Caldicott, a noted child physician and anti-nuclear activist, has warned about DU for decades. Only the U.S. and its allies use it.

And, again, I wonder why the Church and its leaders have failed to speak out against such madness. I wonder why so much is said about the sanctity of life but it doesn’t seem to apply in all cases. And I must admit I have struggled with a spiritual crisis as I’ve seen the Church fail to speak out against such evil and in truth some of the leaders have endorsed politicians who are the architects of the death and destruction associated with the wars and the ways it is executed.

So, on this Christmas, I found hope hearing my parish pastor saying something that hinted at such insanity. I found hope to hear once again that the birth of Christ is essentially about peace and love for all men and women. For that, I want to give you my most heartfelt thanks, Monsignor.

May you have the peace and love of this miracle of Christmas, Msgr. Horrigan.



Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

Denver,CO

The Solution to Iraq - by S. Wasfi/Dahlia Wasfi

My wife,Pam (l) and Dahlia




Dr. Dahlia Wasfi is a very close friend of my family. My wife and I like to refer to her as "our adopted daughter" here in Denver. Dahlia has spent the last three years presenting the face of the Iraqi people to the American people presentation by presentation.
Her truths about the situation in Iraq have not been the most popular ones for Americans but they have been the truth.What captures the heart of her audiences is not only her keen intellect but the sharing of her family through her photos. Seeing her cousin Dina and the rest of the beautiful people of her family makes it clear the Iraqi people are no different in their desire for peace, family and safety than any other people.
Dahlia has been to Iraq twice since the start of the war. She went alone to meet her mostly unknown Iraqi family in 2004 because she felt she couldn't wait to finally meet the family of her father.
She returned alone again last year (2005). I received her call on Christmas Day that she had arrived safely. It was a great present for my wife and me.
Dahlia returned to our home here in Denver in March of 2006. It was a great relief to see her walk through the gate at Denver International. Since then she has addressed a Congressional committee and challenged them to do the right thing by bringing the troops home immediately. She passionately pointed her finger at the committee and told them,"Iraq has had just about all the help from the United States it can handle. Bring the troops home now."
Today I received the following article from one of my veteran friends. I proudly put it on my blog. Thanks to "my daughter" for her continued inspiration and courage. We love you.

The Solution to Iraq

By Sadiq H. Wasfi, Ph.D and Dahlia S. Wasfi, M.D.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15890.htm

12/13/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- Four years ago, we were told by our government that American national security was in grave danger from Iraq. We were told that Iraqis had weapons of mass destruction and were close to achieving nuclear technology. The Bush administration linked “9/11” and “Iraq” so many times that at the time of our illegal invasion, 70% of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. We were told lies then, and we’re being told lies now.

The Problem

The main problem in Iraq today is not civil war but the brutal, illegal occupation by American forces. The divisions between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam are more than 1400 years old, and throughout that history, there has never been armed warfare between them until U.S. forces invaded.
It is American forces who are directing and arming the Iraqi police and army, and it is American forces who by law are responsible for maintaining law and order. The Iraqi police are largely composed of militiamen from the private armies of former CIA operatives Ahmed Al-Chalabi (Iraqi National Congress), Iyad Allawi (Iraqi National Accord), and Nuri Al-Maliki (Hezb’Dawah). There are also Iraqi Police Commando Units—aka death squads—who are being trained by American Special Forces.

Who benefits from our soldiers staying in Iraq?

Is it the Iraqi people? By 2004, a report on Iraq issued by our own Government Accounting Office (GAO) confirmed that the majority of Iraqis had fewer basic services like electricity and water than before our invasion. In 2005, doctors were reporting that under the U.S.-controlled Ministry of Health, their supplies were significantly worse than during the period of economic sanctions! And the latest cluster-sample survey published in the British medical journal Lancet (a scientifically-sound study) estimates the Iraqi civilian death toll at 655,000 after 3.5 years of occupation. The highest estimates for the toll of Saddam Hussein’s killing sprees were around 300,000, and that was over 30 years. It should come as no surprise that a secret poll done by the UK Ministry of Defense in 2005 found that 82% of Iraqis want U.S. troops out. Another 2006 study showed that 60% of Iraqis support attacks against occupation forces—much like the sentiment here towards the Redcoats in the 1700’s. No, the occupation does not benefit Iraqis.

Is it American soldiers who benefit from staying? It doesn’t help the nearly 3000 who have died in an illegal war based on lies. It doesn’t help the over 30,000 mentally and physically disabled for the sake of war profiteers (www.iraqforsale.org). It doesn’t help those dying from exposure to depleted uranium, denied their benefits because the Veterans Healthcare Budget came up 1 billion dollars short last year. It doesn’t help those who suffer from the nightmares and flashbacks of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and it certainly doesn’t help those who found suicide a better option than continuing forward in emotional and sometimes physical agony.

Do the American people benefit? Citizens who have had their hard earned tax money stolen by greedy corporations? Defense contractors like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman and war profiteers like Halliburton, its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, and Bechtel have our tax money to the tune of over $300 billion. But there isn’t enough money to buy armor for the soldiers’ vehicles, and American families are buying their kids Kevlar vests so they might not come home in flag-draped boxes.

We are not safer. Our own CIA has established that the new Iraq under U.S.
direction is a “terror breeding ground.” Since 2005, American military officers have said that the war for hearts and minds is lost. And now Army and even Marine generals have made official statements that the “military war” is lost. What Americans have “won” is the reputation for being an arrogant bully, and a murderous and racist one at that. The seeds of hatred have been sown in our name.

The Solution

The recently released report of the Iraq Study Group echoes the military assessment that the status quo in Iraq is hopeless. But their proposals are non-starters, since our history of occupation in the Arab World from Palestine to Iraq shows our bias for outside interests and our lack of credibility to take part in negotiations. The time for diplomacy was March 2003. After the death and utter destruction that “liberation” has brought to Iraq, we have no choice but to exit and exit now.

Our obligation to the people of Iraq, to the people of America, and to the rest of the world is the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of troops and mercenaries (including over 100,000 mostly U.S. private contractors) from Iraq. Ideally, a large multi-national force that excludes all neo-colonialist European countries should be created to establish law and order—a job we failed to do—and disarm the aforementioned militias within the context of a political consensus. A new Iraqi government will emerge as it has historically following centuries of invasions of Mesopotamia, likely comprised of representatives whose groups are now vying for power. We are responsible for bringing chaos and atrocity to Iraq. It is up to Iraqis—and Iraqis alone—to shape their future.

No human being, regardless of race, creed, skin color, ethnicity, or religion, accepts humiliation and subjugation. As such, our military death toll will grow until the day when the rape and pillage of the “New American Century” ends and the troops come home. How much more agony should we force the children of Iraq and America to take.

Dr. Sadiq H. Wasfi is a professor at Delaware State University. He was born in Iraq, and became a U.S. citizen in the 1980's. Dr. Dahlia S. Wasfi, his daughter, was born and raised in the U.S. and is currently an activist living in Denver, Colorado. For more information, please visit her website at www.liberatethis.com.
____________________

A Young Marine Speaks Out

Falluja before and after November 04 bombing and artillery by US forces




I've been blessed to meet several young Iraq vets who have shown what true courage is when they objected to what they'd been asked to do. Abdul Henderson was one of the Marines I first met who did this. The many veterans who joined IVAW have inspired me in the same way. I'm going to add another young man to these ranks.

I don't usually post anything I've not written but the following is an exception. Hopefully the young Marine who wrote this will find the support and gratitude he deserves.

Wm T. Leichner, RN

USMC combat vet - Vietnam '67-69

A Young Marine Speaks Out

By Philip Martin

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15847.htm

12/08/06 "Lew Rockwell" --- I'm sick and tired of this patriotic,
nationalistic and fascist crap. I stood through a memorial service today for
a young Marine that was killed in Iraq back in April. During this memorial a
number of people spoke about the guy and about his sacrifice for the
country. How do you justify 'sacrificing' your life for a war which is not
only illegal, but is being prosecuted to the extent where the only thing
keeping us there is one man's power, and his ego. A recent Marine Corps
intelligence report that was leaked said that the war in the al-Anbar
province is unwinnable. It said that there was nothing we could do to win
the hearts and minds, or the military operations in that area. So I wonder,
why are we still there? Democracy is not forced upon people at gunpoint.
It's the result of forward thinking individuals who take the initiative and
risks to give their fellow countrymen a better way of life.

When I joined I took an oath. In that oath I swore to protect the
Constitution of the United States. I didn't swear to build democracies in
countries on the other side of the world under the guise of "national
security." I didn't join the military to be part of an Orwellian ("1984")
war machine that is in an obligatory war against whoever the state deems the
enemy to be so that the populace can be controlled and riled up in a
pro-nationalistic frenzy to support any new and oppressive law that will be
the key to destroying the enemy. Example given – the Patriot Act. So aptly
named, and totally against all that the constitution stands for. President
Bush used the reactionary nature of our society to bring our country
together and to infuse into the national psyche a need to give up their
little-used rights in the hope to make our nation a little safer. The same
scare tactics he used to win elections. He drones on and on about how
America and the world would be a less safe place if we weren't killing
Iraqis, and that we'd have to fight the terrorists at home if we weren't
abroad. In our modern day emotive society this strategy (or strategery?)
works, or had worked, up until last month's elections.

My point in this; to show that America was never nationalistic. If anything
they were Statalistic (giving their allegiance to the state of their
residence). This is shown in the fact that the founders created states with
fully capable and independent governments and not provinces that were just a
division of the federal government. These men believed that America was a
place where imperialistic values would be non-existent. Where the people
trying to make their lives better by working hard, thinking, inventing and
using the free market would tie up so much of normal life that imperialistic
colonization and the fighting of wars thousands of miles away for interests
that are not our own would be avoided. They believed this expansion of power
could be left to the European nations, the England, France and Spain of
their time. However this recent, and current influx of nationalistic feeling
has created an environment where giving up your rights, going to a foreign
country to fight a people who did not ask for us to be there, nor did their
leader do anything to warrant us being there, and dying would be considered
honorable and heroic. I don't believe it anymore. I don't believe it's right
for any American to go along with it anymore. Yes I know that we in the
military are bound by the UCMJ and somehow don't fall under the Constitution
(the very thing we're suppose to be defending) but sooner or later there is
a decision that every American soldier, marine, airmen and seamen makes to
allow themselves to be sent to a war that is against every fiber this
country was founded on. I know that when April rolls around I will be
thinking long and hard on that decision. Even though we in the military are
just doing as we're told we still have the moral and ethical obligation to
choose to do as we're told, or to say, "No, that isn't right." I believe
that if more troopers like me and the professional military, the officers
and commanders, start standing up and saying that they won't let themselves
or their troops go to this illegal war people will start standing up and
realizing what the heck is going on over there.

The sad fact of the matter is that we are not fighting terrorists in Iraq.
We are fighting the Iraqi people who feel like a conquered and occupied
people. Personally I have a hard time believing that if I was an Iraqi that
I wouldn't be doing everything in my power to kill and maim as many
Americans as possible. I know that the vast majority of Americans would not
be happy with the Canadian government, or any other foreign government,
liberating us from the clutches of George W. Bush, even though a large
number of us would like that, and forcing us to accept their system of
government. Would not millions of Americans rise up and fight back? Would
you not rise up to protect and defend your house and your neighborhood if
someone invaded your country? But we send thousands of troops to a foreign
country to do just that. How is it moral to fight a people who are just
trying to defend their homes and families? I think next time I go to Iraq
perhaps I should wear a bright red coat and carry a Brown Bess instead of my
digitalized utilities and M16.

Notice I never once used the word homeland in any of this. I have a
secondary point I want to bring up now. Never once was the term homeland
ever used to describe the country of America until Mr. Bush began the
department of homeland security after the 9/11 attacks. Taking a 20th
century history class will teach us that the most notable countries in the
last century that referred to their country in this way were Nazi Germany
and Soviet Russia. Hitler used the term fatherland to drum up support,
nationalistic support, for his growing war machine. He used the nationalism
he created in the minds of the Germans to justify the sacrifice of their
livelihood to build the war machine to get back their power from the
oppressive restrictions the English and French had put on them at
Versailles. This is the same feeling that has been virulently infecting the
American psyche in the last hundred years. This is the same feeling that
consoles a mother after her son is killed in an attempt to prosecute an
aggressor's war 10,000 miles away. It's also known as Patriotism these days,
but I say, "No more." No more nationalistic inanity, no more passing it off
as patriotism. Patriotism is learning, and educating oneself to understand
what their country really stands for.

I heard a lot during the memorial service about how the dead Marine did so
much good for others and how his helping others was like a little microcosm
of America helping because we have the power to do so. Well if we have the
power to help people why aren't we helping in Darfur where hundreds of
thousands of people have died in the last 10 years. Saddam was convicted and
sentenced to death for killing 143 Shiites who conspired to assassinate him.
(I know all you "patriotic" Americans would be calling for the heads of
anyone who conspired to assassinate supreme leader Bush). And yet we spend
upwards of 1 trillion dollars and nearing 3,000 lives to help these Iraqis
when they don't even want us there. Not to mention we don't have the legal
justification to be there. I guess we should wait around for the omnipotent
W Bush to decide who we should use our superpowerdom to help next. It's
about time to throw him and the rest of the fascists out. Moreover it's
about time to start educating Americans about their past and history, and
letting them know that imperialistic leaders are not what the founders of
this great country wanted.

Philip Martin has been a Marine for 2 years. He
is in the infantry (a "grunt"), and spent 7 months in the al-Anbar province
of Iraq. He went on more than 180 combat patrols in and outside of the city
of Fallujah, where he was hit with 2 IEDs (luckily never injured) and was
involved in a number of firefights. He is currently stationed in Twentynine
Palms, CA, and due to return to Iraq for a second deployment in April 2007.
He is 21-years-old.

Misogynist Response to Impeachment

The following is the email exchanges between my friend and a former candidate for the House of Representatives, Bill Winter (D). Two others also chimed in along with me. The issue was whether it was responsible or proper to have impeachment as a discussion in the national dialogue.
The exchange seemed to be going along well until Mr. Winter decided to attack Ms. Wasfi in his last response. It’s an example of the internecine dialogue that often takes place in the progressive/peace/liberal movement.
Debate is an excellent format of resolving issues or at least hearing one another but obviously there are some who feel debate is a game to be won or lost.
I think the issue of misogyny must be interjected into this particular exchange of emails given the defensive and inappropriate remarks ultimately coming from the man who would be a congressman.
I’m going to highlight the areas in which I feel Mr. Winter discounts and demeans a young Iraqi-American woman who just happens to disagree with him.


BGWinter1964@aol.com wrote:
From: BGWinter1964@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 12:27:09 EST
Subject: Re: December 10th

In a message dated 12/3/2006 9:15:19 A.M. Mountain Standard Time, dahliaswasfi@yahoo.com writes:
So why not host an educational seminar on the myriad grounds for impeachment, for those who want the world to change to a place where justice is served, and lay a foundation for rejoining the international community?(Wasfi)


Winter’s response:
So we further divide America--perhaps to the point of destroying it, shut down Congress for a year, give the right wing the issue it needs to get back a majority, spend 80 million dollars, and ignore all the real problems facing America, just to get rid of a guy who will be gone in two years anyway, and so we can replace him with....wait for it....Dick Cheney!!! AND allow them to nominate a new vice president who will have a head start on being the next President!

Dumbest damn idea I ever heard, and one of many reasons that I think I'm done with politics!

You can move forward governed by rage or you can move forward governed by reason, but only one will allow you to actually govern!

And you can have impeachment--or you can have health care and alternative energy and yes, a solution in Iraq, and all the other real issues that are so important---but you can't have both.

Which will it be?

Has Bush committed impeachable offenses? Damn right he has! Will impeaching him make America and the world a better place? Absolutely not!

You pursue whatever crusade you want, but I'm going to go find a way to give real people the things they need to make their lives better and impeachment just doesn't get us there!Bill Winter


In a message dated 12/3/2006 9:15:19 A.M. Mountain Standard Time, dahliaswasfi@yahoo.com writes:
So why not host an educational seminar on the myriad grounds for impeachment, for those who want the world to change to a place where justice is served, and lay a foundation for rejoining the international community?(Wasfi’s original response)


Further response from Winter:
While you are fighting for impeachment, here are just a few of the things I want to go and figure out:

I want to know why the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence don't apply to gay and lesbian Americans.

I want to know why speaking Spanish makes you a second class citizen in America.

I want to know why it's okay for police to put 50 bullets into a black man's car on his wedding day in America.

I want to know why an Iraqi life or an Afghani life or any other life is worth less than an American life.

I want to know why people still die in America from malnutrition and because they can't afford health care.

I want to know why we fiddle and do nothing as the polar ice caps melt.

I want to know why a kid in Douglas County is entitled to a better education and more opportunities than a kid in downtown Denver.

This is only a start to the list of things that consume my days and haunt my nights.

You can go impeach George Bush and throw him out on the pavement, and you STILL won't have answered any of these questions or the hundreds of others I have!

God knows I made a lot of mistakes in the past year--in the past 42 years--but one of the biggest was getting careful. I won't be careful any more.

So if impeachment tops your list of priorities, then by all means fight for it---but count me out, because it doesn't even MAKE a list of my priorities!

Bill Winter


dunnilsson@comcast.net wrote:

Friends,

While Bill's list is of course very important, even crucial, to restoring our democracy and Constitutional rule of law, I don't see any reason that an educational seminar on the myriad grounds for impeachment, as Dr. Wasfi put it, can't be part of it. I don't see her desire to impart knowledge about, or even just to discuss the extent of the damage done to our democracy, etc. as fighting for impeachment to the exclusion of all else. Frankly, it is my belief that this should eventually be part of the national conversation, and I regret that Speaker-elect Pelosi and Senator Reid seem to have "taken it off the table", as it were.

It is my belief that now that the voice of reason will once again be heard in Washington, the first order of business should be to take care of the American People, in the ways Bill has outlined and more. However at the same time, those responsible for the damage done to our American values, Constitution and way of life, should be held accountable for their actions and inactions. For it is indeed many of those very actions and inactions that are the cause of many, if not most, of the situations Bill mentions.

-LD


Mike Collins wrote:
Subject: Impeachment is Your Constitutional Responsibility
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2006 08:24:22 -0700
You're Wrong, Nancy Pelosi; Impeachment is Your Constitutional Responsibility
By Bill Hare
12/03/2006 08:04:35 PM EST
The November 15 issue of The Washington Spectator features an article by Elizabeth Holtzman, who, as a congresswoman from New York, was a member of the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Representative Peter Rodino of New Jersey during that tense period in the seventies when the issue of impeachment was being considered.
The Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon, which would have resulted in a trial before the Senate had the besieged and increasingly unpopular chief executive not been coaxed into resigning.
Republican elder statesman, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, along with the party's leaders in the Senate and House, Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania and John Rhodes of Arizona, achieved that result in a private White House meeting that devastated Nixon.
Goldwater glumly summed up Nixon's prospects by telling him that he could count on no more than perhaps 8 votes in a Senate trial and that it would be best for the country for him to promptly resign, which he did.
As a lawyer with the rare background of personal experience in a historical first with the only president in American history resigning, it is only natural for Holtzman to set her sights on what is occurring today amid the severe and frequent demolition of the U.S. Constitution, with a special emphasis on the Bill of Rights, on the part of the current regime.
Holtzman was a featured speaker at the recent rally held on the steps of Constitutional Hall in Philadelphia calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush. She continues to articulately make that case.
Prior to the solid victory of the Democratic Party in the November mid-term election, in which she thereafter was assured of becoming the first Speaker of the House in American history, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California said in the October 22 edition of CBS' 60 Minutes:
"Impeachment is off the table.... It is a waste of time. Wouldn't they just love it if we came in and our record as Democrats coming forth after twelve years is to talk about George Bush and Dick Cheney. This election is about them. This is a referendum on them. Making them lame ducks is good enough for me."
Read with any kind of careful scrutiny, Pelosi's aforementioned statement embodies grand ignorance, audacious arrogance, or a combination of the two. Pelosi appeared to be paying little if any attention to what candidates were saying on the campaign trail about the major issues that would ultimately get them elected.
Contrary to what right wing propagandist David Brooks wrote in his jaundiced analysis of the November 7 results in the New York Times, that voters had "exchanged moderate Republicans for conservative Democrats," a CNN exit poll on Election Day revealed a distinctly different result.
The CNN poll revealed that the largest number of voters surveyed, 42 percent, rated corruption and ethics in government as the most important issue determining their vote. According to The Washington Spectator, "Scandal-conscious voters favored Democrats by a 22 percent margin. As the indictments go, so goes the nation."
To summarize, voters were seeking significant change. They were not interested in preserving a status quo-take care of business approach. The remarks of Pelosi unfortunately appear to be reflective of a status quo attitude.
Pelosi should be reminded that officeholders take an oath to preserve and defend the U.S. Constitution. In so doing, it is the responsibility of a Member of Congress to oversee that the document crafted by our Founding Fathers is not shredded in the interest of political expediency.
With so much scandal having pervaded the Washington scene recently, it is up to Members of Congress to launch investigations and follow the ensuing trails wherever they lead.
Given what we already know, any kind of conscientious efforts by the likes of Congressmen Henry Waxman of California and John Conyers of Michigan, two notable congressional investigators, will likely result in evidence pointing toward the commission of acts falling within the purview of impeachable offenses.
Nancy Pelosi needs to be brought in touch with current realities. Angry voters made the difference in the Democratic victory of November 7. These individuals are seeking justice. That means following the trail of corruption wherever it leads, including the White House.
This is not a game of political "gotcha," as Pelosi seems to be indicating in her remarks on 60 Minutes. This is not political gamesmanship. This is what voters who made the difference, those who voted for Democrats, do not want. This is not what officeholders are expected to do in conformity with their oath of office to preserve and defend the Constitution.
Lastly, the comment that Bush and Cheney being lame ducks is "good enough" totally misses the point. Two years is plenty of time to trash the Constitution some more. If evidence clearly indicates previous trashing to the level of impeachable offenses, is a license to be granted due to lame duck status?
In my next article I will analyze the points raised by Elizabeth Holtzman in her Washington Spectator article and dovetail them alongside those raised earlier in that sphere in this column.

Mike Collins
www.ranger25.com
www.COVFA.com


Dear Bill, Stan, and BetheChangers,

Thank you to LD and Mike Collins for being the change....that is, for offering courteous and respectful discourse rather than the abusive belligerence and arrogance that characterizes American "diplomacy" around the world. This country was not built on the ideals of freedom and democracy any more than the new Iraq is. It was founded on the basis of economic gain via the genocide of the indigenous peoples of North America and Africa (who were brought here in chains). That institutionalized racism and misogyny persists to this day, and it is the basis for explaining why American society is what it is. The American dream is for an elite few (mostly white, male, and rich), and it is built on the nightmare of everyone else.

So, what will we, as Americans, do to bring about justice?

In solidarity,
Dahlia



BGWinter1964@aol.com wrote:
From: BGWinter1964@aol.com
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2006 15:21:48 EST
Subject: Re: Clarification
To: dahliaswasfi@yahoo.com


In a message dated 12/4/2006 1:06:40 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, dahliaswasfi@yahoo.com writes:
for offering courteous and respectful discourse rather than the abusive belligerence and arrogance that characterizes American "diplomacy" around the world.(Mr. Winter’s use of one phrase of a larger message from Ms. Wasfi. Apparently Mr. Winter finds this statement personally offensive and thinks it must be directly targeting him….I suggest he read Stan Goff at the Feral Scholar – http://stangoff.com. Stan presents clear evidence of exactly what Dr. Wasfi refers to in her statements.)





What I have found, Dahlia, is that anyone who disagrees with you in any respect is immediately labeled and called bad, and you heap upon those with whom you disagree exactly the abusive belligerence that you claim to decry. I am neither abusive nor arrogant, but I can disagree with you without being a bad person. I wish you the very best, but the only way you know how to reach out is with scorn and rage. I'm not built that way. I recognize that we live in a complex world and there are no black and white answers to any issues. I respect the right of others to disagree with me. You do not. You lump all of us who disagree with you into the same category--wrong and bad! I do not share your arrogant certitude about the world.
Sincerely,

Bill Winter

Dahlia’s email to me following this email from Mr. Winter

Perhaps this is an opportunity for me to learn.....what's your honest take on this?
I know I have a temper, but overall, with regard to my work, is it true that "the only way you know how to reach out is with scorn and rage" ?




My answer to Dahlia about Winter’s remarks:

Reading through the correspondence I don’t find anything that should have elicited such a personally defensive response. If there’s any offender of the courteous and respectful ideal of discourse it seems Bill Winter discounting a discussion of impeachment you suggested by throwing out his list of priorities was it.
His refusal to discuss the criminal actions of the administration is akin to Americans and most of Europe overlooking the holocaust being carried out against the Jews, gays, gypsies and any other “defective” group Hitler chose to target. We had the information much earlier than the time the troops liberated the camps. We sent boatloads of refugees away from our shores rather than acknowledge them.
This guy talks about cops shooting the black groom in NYC and calls it a crime and is right to say so but he won’t say the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis caused by the lust for power and control of resources is crime enough to warrant a trial. One American life, black though he was, seems more important to Mr. Winter than the deaths of children in Iraq at the hands of American artillery and bombs.
This is the sickness of war Americans perpetuate; if these types of atrocities happen in ANY war regardless of the legality it’s not a crime - it’s just the way it is in war.
He talks about the poor and disadvantaged here in America but won’t acknowledge the responsibility Americans have in the destruction of all major infrastructures and social gathering places (i.e. schools) in Iraq and Afghanistan. He won’t acknowledge Americans have a moral responsibility to fund the rebuilding of Iraq by Iraqis (and Afghanistan by Afghanis).
The whole smokescreen of listing priorities more important than impeachment and pointing out how disruptive it would be is a cowardly approach to criminal acts that have devastated American families, Iraqi families and Afghani families. Rather than clean the whole house, Mr. Winter only wants to clean the front rooms while he keeps all the dirty linen hidden in the backrooms.
It wasn’t so long ago another ex-Marine declared the peace movement needed to focus on just ending the war and bringing the troops home instead of all the peripheral issues that are connected to the administration of this war. Scott Ritter seemed to think we could only work on one thing at a time or we’d confuse and blur the issue of stopping the war.
I contend the war’s effects are far-reaching and by tying them together we present an even stronger case against the war. Connecting the war to all the egregious situations Mr. Winter describes presents a strong case for the discussion of impeachment. Violation of international laws coming from Nuremberg and the Geneva Convention shouldn’t be ignored as Bush, Cheney and Gonzales so ardently desire.
We don’t let criminals off the hook even if it disrupts the status quo and call it justice. Winter, being a lawyer knows better but then we have to consider the American justice system’s inequitable rulings that are predominately against people of color or people lacking wealth. The system Mr. Winter is licensed to practice in is obviously not a system lending itself to justice. We need only visit the prisons and see the racial profile of the inmates.
I reject the continued line of thinking we can’t bring the perpetrators of so much unnecessary death and destruction to justice because of the disruptive nature of doing what’s right. We let Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon off the hook for the genocide in Cambodia they perpetrated when they ignored pleas of the Cambodians to stay neutral. And yet we spent millions or maybe billions pursuing impeachment for a consensual act of sex between a President and a woman other than his wife.
If the American people allowed that circus to happen they certainly need to allow a discussion of impeachment based on the crimes against humanity that have occurred since 2003. If an act of oral sex is reprehensible in the context of a President taking advantage of a low level aide, the deaths, torture and wounds of so many in these two wars is outrageous and needs to be addressed. It’s all connected whether Bill Winter wants to acknowledge it or not.

William Terry Leichner, RN
USMC combat vet –Vietnam (67-69)

Impeachment Isn't on Their Agenda - Progressive Cowers

Recently an activist friend of mine was asked by David Swanson of After the Downing Street Memo if she would be willing to assist in a national day of awareness about impeachment of the Bush regime’s war criminals, including Bush himself.
My friend told David she’d contact the progressive organization To Be the Change and some members of the recent Bill Winters’ campaign to unseat Tom Tancredo in the House of Representatives.
A member of that campaign responded to her in an email this way:


S D - BeTheChangeUSA - wrote:

Impeachment isn't part of our agenda.


My friend was incredulous about this response and asked me what I thought. My response was the following:

Dahlia
My thoughts on this issue:

Ignoring the war crimes that have occurred starting with the preemptive and illegal war in Iraq is complicity with the criminals. The Nuremberg trials were initiated to bring justice to war criminals and more importantly the victims of the crimes. The United States was instrumental in bringing this about so the fascists responsible would face the world to answer for their crimes.
Now some fifty years later the leadership of this country refuses to even acknowledge war crimes other than the ones committed by low level troops under implicit protocols and orders of commanders insulated from any responsibility or blame.
Even worse is a group of progressives so cowed by fear mongering tyrants they’re more than willing to erase the history of the past four years to just “move on”. Apparently the 650,000 dead Iraqis just doesn’t measure up to the high standards of liberals and progressives claiming to want a new way of governing.
Three thousand dead Americans will make this nation’s people rise up with venomous hatred against the phantom of “terrorism” but dropping bombs on the homes of families only hoping to survive the already harsh life of Iraq barely causes Americans to flinch. The terror of bombs and artillery unleashed on children in Fallujah, Basra, Baghdad and Ramadi remains a forgotten issue. When it’s our bombs and artillery violating the Geneva accords and human decency it’s not terrorism it’s “democracy”.
The discussion of impeachment scares the hell out of those Americans wanting to believe the mid-term election was a victory for freedom and justice. But, to be a nation with any semblance of morality it’s imperative to seriously discuss the impeachment of war criminals. For a nation to be truly great it must take responsibility for the actions of leaders that have abused power. Just voting them out fails to bring justice to their victims.
The failure to seek true justice by liberals, progressives, Democrats and others claiming opposition to the Bush regime exposes them as nothing more than another face of what’s wrong with the political system of this nation. The statements by the Pelosi led “new” Congress is clear evidence we’ll simply have more of the same old corrupted leadership favoring the elite and ignoring and abusing the weak.
If I were to choose which side I’d rather see in power, I think I’d rather have the known evil of Bush’s government than the camouflaged elitists claiming to be something they’re not. Putting the Democrats back in power will only stall the needed changes as the American people will be fooled into hopes for change. In the end they’ll find their hopes dashed as their taxes continue to fund death and violence while schools, children, elderly, disabled, veterans and the most in need will be denied help they need and deserve.
Denial of the immoral and illegal actions by Bush and his government will only diminish the stature of the American people in the eyes of the rest of the world. Taking the issue of impeachment off the agenda of the new government has already started that process.

William Terry Leichner, RN
USMC Combat veteran – Vietnam (’67-’69)

Response/Answer to WTF is Wrong With This Country

Sectarian Attack Is Worst in Baghdad Since Invasion(NYT November 24,06)






RE: [CCJP-discuss] WTF is Wrong With This Country???
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ViewWednesday, November 22, 2006 7:06:07 PM
To:terry >peezfulmindz@yahoo.com>
Cc:CCJP-discuss@yahoogroups.com


Good laundry list. And the list is getting longer. Yet I’m one who hopes, for an end of tyrants and better building of a culture that can socialize bullies before they become tyrants. I hope we don’t have to collapse and completely rebuild. But I always wonder when we, not just you but we, condemn the victims.

All that’s part of why I spent decades in education, only to get distracted with efficiency in education, which is more a tyrant’s agenda than peoples’. As things got worse or better, I would become or less involved, while also thinking about roots of our problems, like a good little scholar.

At the center of all these issues are the leaders who decide and how they deal with the people. Our early visits to Reps is one good idea. And at the center of leaders is how we elect them. How do we elect the thoughtful legislators that we always imagined, rather than the salesmen we have too many of? And not to say we don’t need some salesmen, always, or dynamic leaders at times. Churchill was right for his war, but not before or after. (I won’t dwell on the roots of that war, here.) Everyone, not just activists, wants to be heard, if not appreciated, when we have an idea. How can we do more to improve the dialog with our leaders, especially with our candidates?

And yes, bringing more people in, and connecting them with leaders and candidates is the center of Civic Satisfaction. But still only one of the many ideas we get to pursue as activists and citizens.

And when we have two parties with one voice, and major frustration on our part, do recall, that small step is in a better direction. And look at the progress of the last few hundred years. We have more rights, even without full rights to accusations and trial. Family violence is no longer normal, the mean of Shakespear and Dickens' day, but something we are rooting out. Most of the world hates our wars, but not us. I won’t produce another laundry list, as important as they are.

And remember Confucius and Greening of America: easy on the rate of change. Too much change, even good ideas, destabilize the whole and create it’s own chaos, which really sours people on a good idea. So too remember the ancient sages’ talk of the activity rest cycle. We need activity and rest. And we need different types of activity or rest. So video games in balance are fun and can be cathartic. Often, violent fantasies mean your muscles are calling for some exercise, or, "it’s a tricky day for you," not necessarily a social crisis.

So if the steps are small at the end of the pendulum swing, they are the steps the body politic can handle and somewhat in the right direction. And it’s a long journey. And as goals are merely the mean of life, we’ll always have great challenges.

And so use your anger and frustration to focus, but don’t forget to play whatever you do play, and to relax. And you know that anger and frustration are not good for your heart. So take heart, the American people are moving, growing, learning. But some ideas must be re-taught and rethought every generation.

Wgxxxxx

Answer:

Interesting points. My question would be which group we tell to expect slow progression of history to address their needs?

Certainly we've put the black community on hold for far too long. We seem to be regressing in the treatment and acceptance of the Latin@, Hispanic, Chicano and Mexican population.

I would have difficulty facing the mothers of Iraqi veterans on their second or third tour with the information the war needs time to wind down. Congress has already said that in their lack of urgency to address the withdrawal of troops.

The children and innocents of Darfur have already been waiting for a genocide too long. It's unconscionable to ask another generation to wait as the progress of history develops.

From the many reports about the state of the planet's environment it seems clear we've already passed the tipping point of irrevocably changing it. I have one enviromentalist friend who tells me we are on the brink of extinction in the near future. I hate to portray her as an alarmist given her long history in the environmental movement.

We face the threat of depleted uranium but given the half life we will have plenty of time to work on that one. The issue of combat PTSD and traumatic brain injury (TBI) for returning veterans can be put on hold since the budget won't allow for effective treatment anyway. And historically, the veterans have always been lied to about what they would receive on return from war. Why change the history at this point.

Many changes at once may be characterized as revolution by some even though Confucious may disagree. Some may say the government of this country only changes when the threat of revolution looms as the alternative.

While history may show the progress over the generations has been evolving with positive change, I'm not reassured by the history of social change. My children and grandchildren are living in the here and now.

The implications of nuclear weapons poised at full alert all throughout the Midwest of the U.S. certainly makes this a different period in history. The environmental changes wrought by the willful and criminal polluting of corporations focused on greed and power seem to indicate the "chickens will come home to roost" sooner rather than later.

We all have our own ways of coping with these possibilities. I choose to be outraged and angry by the insanity of the time. I guess it comes from my background as a combat vet. That experience outraged me.The continuation of such madness continues to do so.

Having said that, it would be presumptious to think outrage and anger can't be balanced with rest and enjoyable activity.

I've often joked with my non-activist friends the idea of humor or fun is difficult to express in any peace and justice organization. There is a decided lack of humor or willingness to have fun while immersed in the seriousness of the movement, unfortunately.

I do refuse to accept violent video games are a healthy catharsis for young children. One study I've read shows these games do help children in being prepared to operate the tools of war, however. Recruiters are encouraged by this study, I'm sure.

Sadly, the warning, television is a vast wasteland, is more than true. It's not only that but it's a tool for operant conditioning of the masses. The repetitive showings of violence has desensitized and normalized formative minds to violence. Since the late 1950's the level and frequency of violence on televison has increased to a point most children have witnessed hundreds or thousands of acts of violence by the time they reach adolescence.

The one time freedom of going out to play ball in an empty lot without a parent interfering is just an old-timer's memory for most kids today. In a country all about being number one, failing to win is not acceptable. For many kids not athletic enough to be on the team what does it leave them? Do they become the "losers" if they just happen to be mediocre in sports and academics?

There are many pockets of hope all over this nation. I've met young and old in the past few years who gave me great hope. I've seen the undying spirit of Katrina survivors. I've been blessed to be with Iraq vets who are speaking out with great passion and in greater numbers. I've listened to slam poets and hip hop artists that made my spine tingle with the messages they sent out to their audiences.

I've been blessed to meet Ardeth Platte, Jackie Hudson and Carol Gilbert. I've been blessed to see Kathy Kelly and have been inspired by her mission and her tenacity. I stumbled upon Cindy Sheehan while going to join veteran friends that asked me to come to Crawford. I've been honored to witness the quiet dignity and integrity of Abdul Henderson, my friend.

Locally there are so many heroic figures waging the good struggle against injustice and violence. Carolyn B, Mag and Ken S, Cheryl D, Claire R, Rich and Ellen A, Dahlia W, Kelly D, Jeff E, Joe H, Sarah B, Andy B, Sarah G, Erin D, Larry H, Shareef A, Nita G, Allen G, Paula B, Karen T, Hannah H, Kate G, Cynda C, Tom K, Frank B, Charles E, Mary Ellen and Paul G ....and so many more are the forgotten heroes who work tirelessly for change and expect it to happen.

And so do I.

William Terry Leichner, RN

USMC combat vet

Denver VVAW member

(Unfortunately due to spying by government agencies I didn't want to provide an neat list to them by using the last names of the locals mentioned. But you know who you are)

WTF is Wrong With This Country

Recent headlines and personal ruminations have led me to believe the United States is surely on the brink of social and cultural collapse much like the decline of the Roman Empire.


We have a government that makes little effort to conceal its disdain for the common man and woman. The elitists of Congress and even state legislatures make little effort to hide their prostitution to corporate interests, power mongers and foreign wealth.


Employment by companies expecting loyalty from employees is being shipped off shore faster than new service industry jobs paying less than a living wage are created. Unions are demonized and made villains by the disloyal and corrupted corporations and their governmental stooges.


Perpetual wars continue to consume much of the national budget with corporate interests reaping huge profits. Smedley Butler, the former Marine General turned whistle blower, wrote his War is A Racket essay back during the days of the Great Depression. Butler’s words and his look at major corporations reaping huge profits on the back of dead soldiers rings as true now as it did then.


Benefits for the poor child, the poor elderly and the poor family have been cut at record rates while more and more Americans foreclose on their “great American dream home” in unheard of numbers.


Benefits for the returning soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen from the battlefields of deception are being challenged and denied. Young men and women are enticed by the benefits to risk life and limbs for “patriotic” causes but quickly find the patriotism is a one-way street. They give and their government takes.


Unethical doctors treat the wounded with dangerous blood-clotting agents that keep the troops alive long enough to go to another doctor’s care but the risks of complications are so great the agent is not approved for treatment anywhere else.


Psychiatrists minimize and hypothesize about the mental state of the returned troops with little regard to their symptoms. They have an agenda to “expose” the troops as malingerers and “lay-abouts” to prevent soaring costs of treating the emotional trauma war brings.


The caretakers of humanity have become the whores of big government and big business just as Smedley Butler talked about. If further proof of this is truly needed; one need only glance at the American pharmaceutical companies in their testing new medicines for HIV/AIDS in Africa. They used impoverished and dying Africans to test toxic formulations of drugs to combat the disease but withdrew the medications that proved to have some efficacy in order to reap huge profits in the so-called civilized West.


The hopes of a continent devastated by AIDS were raised by the interest of big business in their plight only to have them dashed by the harsh reality of greed. It was another way of America endearing itself to the “third world”.


This laundry list of American imperialistic narcissism is long and grows worse as this nation grows older. The one-time beacon of freedom and democracy has really now become the beacon of consumerism, neglect of others and disregard of Mother Earth.


Americans can no longer say they are victims of their government when they have given away so many freedoms and human rights out of their own cowardice and self-centeredness. The only true victims in this nation remain the people of color and shameful poverty in the world’s richest country.


The dying middle class and white majority have only themselves to blame as they see their dreams of secure employment and retirement in the “great American dream home” become a nightmare of deceitful lies by the corrupt liars they elected to guard their government. They listened to 30 second sound bites of slick, quick talking, make up puppets of big business interests and failed to look beyond the façade.


If the foolish American proletariat did look beyond the façade, they generally took a helpless position of a coward by convincing themselves they were safe as long as they didn’t rock the boat. Now that boat has sprung more leaks than the Titanic.


In the face of all this the people of this country don’t rise up to demand their freedom back. Instead they stick their heads in the sands of consumerism, ignorance and fear.


Christmas season approaches and an already indebted serfdom continue to feel they must have more and more of the products of a failed society. Their children grow up entranced by 24/7 television and the newest forms of video gaming.


Sports and recreation are no longer allowed to be fun for children. They must win at all costs in all activities. Bludgeoning the opponent is the goal. Sportsmanship and respect of one another is for losers.


You may say this is overly harsh but reading and hearing the news of even mainstream sources confirms the facts.


Last week a new generation of video game went on the market at big retail stores across the world. Here in America the young men and women (and sometimes middle aged) camped out in front of stores to be first in line to buy the limited amounts of the game being sold. They camped out days and some even a week or more.


The day the video game went on sale there were reports of the crowds becoming hostile and violent. At some places gunfire broke out. There were other reports of the games being sold on the black market for huge profits by the people staying in line to buy at the retail stores.


It’s not as if the game won’t be available once the Christmas season is over. The corporate makers of the game deliberately short supply the mostly Western consumer to make even more profit. The young who typically would never turn out in such numbers to help stop a war are so addicted to being first with something mass marketed they can’t wait past Christmas. Instant gratification must be had.


This is the sad epitome of our culture. The young hardly recognize the world’s starving, the genocides, the wars or even their own countrymen dying and being maimed. They know every detail of a new video game, a new DVD or a new song on I-Tunes by a musician making billions from sales to the lemmings.


We know all about Tom Cruise getting married, OJ attempting to reenter our cultural morass, the upcoming Madonna concert on the tube and the ratings of Gray’s Anatomy. Ask the typical American to find Iraq on the world map and it will startle how many are unable to do so.


The young at least have the excuse of being young and ignorant but their parents don’t. The parents allowing their children to engage in games of graphic violence toward other humans that include rape, armed robbery, murder and war are abusing their children with a failure to set limits and teach them a value system cherishing lives of others as much as themselves.


Parents have taken over the sports and games of their children out of supposed love but in many cases they are living vicariously through their children’s achievements. They push their children often to the point of cursing and belittling them if they fail.


Parents are criminally neglectful of assuring their children don’t become tools of a culture of violence. They rush to schools in states of panic whenever acts of violence occur feigning to care about their children. Not much later in the lives or their children they allow them to pick up rifles for hunting other humans in illegal wars without much of challenge, if any.



Another sign of our country’s decline and collapse is the upside down view of heroism. Those that know me have heard me rail against making heroes of highly suggestible and ignorant men and women who go to war. I've long advocated we provide the necessary treatment and benefits to these troops but taking part in war is not heroic. It's brutality and survivalist insanity.


I’ve continually suggested a hero is someone willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their brothers and sisters without a personal gain other than self respect. I’ve constantly talked about three nuns, Ardeth Platte, Jackie Hudson and Carol Gilbert, as being my personal heroines. I also include Carl Kabat, a former priest, Ken and Mag Seaman, Kathy Kelly and all who have risked themselves for a greater cause.


The sisters and Carl are headed back to prison for entering nuclear sites to bring world attention to the presence of the missiles of total world destruction strewn throughout this country. Missiles that remain on full alert 24 hours of each day. Missiles ten times more powerful than the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.


This past weekend hundreds were jailed crossing into Fort Benning, GA to voice their opposition to the continued training of death squads at the “School of the Americas”. Most of them will be sentenced to federal prisons for their trespass.


And so it is that I ask what the fuck (wtf) is going on in this country when we honor the people who commit acts of war and we jail those who care enough to oppose genocide and torture? This question came up the other day in something I read and it’s been one in my head for the longest time.


Where are the moral and good people of America to stand beside these heroes? Where is the protest about children being killed for corporate greed and political corruption? Where is the outrage?


Sadly, I think it’s clear far too many of the American people are busy shopping and waiting in line for the new video game to give a damn about such matters. They will still be shopping and ignoring the poor when the last freedom has been stolen or a new revolution occurs.


Sadly, Americans with courage and integrity will be imprisoned or discredited by the masters of the new American Empire. Already new prisons fill with the disenfranchised and rebellious.


The American Gulag has been flourishing under the neglectful eyes of the American people. Blacks, Chicanos, Latin@s, Middle Eastern and indigenous peoples don’t make alarm bells of tyranny ring in deaf ears.


The once cheered and honored troops who fought senseless wars for corrupt reasons are often joining these groups in the gulag. Still the warning signs are not seen by the fearful and submissive proletariat. They seem to think the largest prison population in the world in the largest democracy is democracy rather than fascism.


The plan for a new century by Americans may last a while longer but the erosion of an empire has more than likely gone past the tipping point. The abuse of environment alone has reached a crisis state and the majority of Americans only care about gasoline prices going too high.


They don’t seem to care about the ozone levels going too high, the waste in waterways reaching dangerous levels or the climate changes that have already started us on the way to extinction. They fail to understand there is no inherent right for a nation the size of the U.S. to consume over one quarter of the world’s natural resources.


Peace and justice activists are aware of most of these issues but inexplicably hitch their horses to the Democratic Party as the answer to their concerns. They continue to think the electoral system will eventually save us all from the major payback that is about to come.


The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans and Gulf coast areas exposed the truth of America. There is another America full of struggling people that have been abandoned and disregarded. They are angry and tired of the Euro-centric rule of racists and imperialists. They’re not fooled by the flag waving appeals to their patriotism when they seem the only ones doing any sacrificing for the "cause".


Time is running out in the life of the American Empire mostly because the people of that Empire didn’t care enough to make it a true world power willing to share and work together with the rest of the world. The empire has been too much about U.S. and not enough about we, the people of the planet, Earth.


The American Empire will unfortunately be known as one of the bloodiest, most ruthless and most decadent in the history of the world.

Veterans Day 2006

Veterans Day 2006
I’m an eighteen year old in a fifty seven year old body. In 1968 on some island on some peninsula near Danang, Republic of Vietnam I became permanently 18.
Since that January 30th day of 1968 I’ve never left that island with the village burned to charcoal by napalm. I’ve never left the smell of the “crispy critters” once humans, once babies, once women, once men.
Since that day the sounds and smells of war have stayed with me. The video in my head comes on each night as I try to sleep. There it is again, the rice paddy, the firefight, the dead squad leader, the NVA overrunning us, the grenades, the flash, the screams, the cries, the green and red tracers, the night illumination, and the endless night.
The USMC was going to be my test of man-hood. It turned out to be the test of my will to live. It left me 18 forever like those names on the wall in Washington, D.C. How many times I think they were the lucky ones.
I look back and see nothing but a trail always filled with the booby traps of the jungle. Life always dictated by the past…by the time I was 18.
Tomorrow I will march with veterans for peace in a parade to “celebrate” Veterans Day. We will wear our uniform of the day with symbols of the groups we represent. I represent all those 18 year old Marines who will have their minds permanently impaired in strange places with foreign names.
I’ll represent the walking dead. Too stupid to die. Always there’s someone trying to pull me into the present time telling me things will get better but always the same old shit comes back.
I don’t want your fucking sympathy. I don’t want your fucking tears. I don’t want your fucking love. I don’t want any fucking thing you want to give me. Unless you can give me the death I should rightfully have had in 1968.
Don’t tell me all the things I mean to you. Don’t tell me I’ve done honorable things. Don’t tell me life like this is worth living. Fuck your version of life with never ending war killing the seemingly endless supply of young.
Fuck your version of life with the talk of working for peace and justice but thinking some dumb fucking politico elected to some dumb fucking office will make the difference.
My life is 18. Violence is the answer for me. Always has been. Violence against others. Violence against my soul. There’s nothing left. I’m still 18 and can’t move on.
Yeah let’s march with all the vets from all the wars and make believe we have some kind of fucking honor. The only thing we have is a deluded view of the world. Look at who marches in the parade tomorrow. Every generation’s eighteen year old Marines and soldiers. They have the bodies of the old but they’ve never escaped that past. They wouldn’t be marching if they’d moved on.
There’s no honor, no bravery and no respect for the fools who believed the lies. Fuck your flag and fuck your wars, America. Fuck your stupid fucking dream of greed and privilege. Fuck your democracy. Your legacy will be your fucking body count.
There’s no honor in your fucking uniforms. No fucking honor in your fucking medals. They give you a day to gimp around the streets while the rest of the city, the rest of the world ignores you. Just another day to spend and consume.
Fuck your version of freedom you asked me to spend my life on. Fuck the phony constitution you’ve managed to bastardize and revoke. Take your fucking bullets, your tanks, your planes, your bombs and rifles and blow yourself up.
Masters of war …that’s what Dylan called you. Thieves of my soul and the souls of the young are what you are. You take away the souls and leave us with a body that ages but our minds stay 18.
Mama’s don’t let your daughters marry us. Kids don’t let us take your soul because that’s what they taught us. We’re the killers of life; we take it one way or the other. We suck up valuable air and space while we destroy all that gets in our way.
Veterans Day …just a joke of a day to make fools of us. Don’t you see we’re a bunch of old bodies that have never aged in mind since the day of the first killing we took part in?
The video still runs in my head and I’m still 18. Fuck you, America!!

The Electoral Vortex

Denver voter told she can't vote because she entered line at 7:01 p.m.



The Democrats “swept” the mid-term elections yesterday and for many there’s celebration. Many will say this result is proof of an electoral system working in this nation. That remains to be seen. We have to assess who the Democrats were that won their elections yesterday.

We also have to look at the overt attempts to steal the election by some in the same places as they were stolen in the last few elections.

There were reports of computer problems and long lines in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. This is the same county where obvious vote fraud took place in 2004.

In Virginia there were reports of Democratic voters receiving calls directing them to the wrong address to cast their votes. There were also reports of calls to Democratic voters making threats of arrest if they attempted to vote. The calls stated there was information the voters were registered in other states and any attempt to vote in Virginia would result in a felony arrest.

In Colorado a “terrorist” squirrel was blamed for one loss of power. In many other places computer malfunctions and poor training of election officials caused long lines and long waits. At one voting center a friend of my wife reported an election judge telling the mostly black group of voters “you people should have already voted” when there were complaints about the wait.

The friend confronted the judge with his racist remarks and informed him it was Election Day, so no one was late except the election officials who couldn’t get it together.

Living in heavily Democratic populated Denver I had to wonder if any votes were being lost in any of these “outages”.

At 10 pm there were still lines at some Denver polling stations. Voters in line at 7 pm were the only ones allowed to vote that late. This morning we still don’t know the Denver count due to computer problems.


Yesterday after getting power back to the internet I came upon an article written November 6, 06 by Greg Palast about how yesterday’s elections could be stolen.

There will be those who will now swear democracy works as evidenced by the Democratic Party’s resounding “victory”.

Ah, now here’s the news flash for all who think the Democratic Party is the savior of the nation….new laws excluding voters without ID’s will account for 1.9 million votes being lost. Palast refers to these laws as the Jose Crow laws.


Next Palast says Republicans will have lists of voters predominately Democratic, black and liberal who will be challenged by poll watchers stationed in key precincts. Another million votes will be lost to this tactic.


Then there will be the votes lost to “spoilage”, again with the predominate demographics being the same. This will happen by voting machines failure to start up, to respond to touch and the intermittent crashes. Another million votes are projected lost to this not to count the long lines causing an unknown number of voters to give up in disgust with the whole system.


Another million will be lost to provisional ballots discarded and absentee ballots rejected. After it’s all over there will be approximately 4.5 million votes tossed and lost that would have gone against the Republicans, Palast says.

In order for Democrats to win they would have to overcome being 4.5 million votes behind before the first vote was cast.


And where were the Democrats? They were telling all the liberals and progressives to work against the voting machines themselves and failed to set up a network to oversee the challenges, the rejections and the discarding of votes.


The Democrats in Congress failed to mention the Jose Crow laws with any vigorous voice because like cowards they try to keep away from anything that would indicate support for the Hispanic movement or immigrant rights.

In many cases this election was won by the narrowest of margins by Democrats like James Webb in Virginia. Webb’s credentials include being Secretary of Navy under President Ronald Reagan.

Here in Colorado, former DA Bill Ritter was elected governor. Ritter took such liberal stances as opposing abortion except in very special cases. Ritter supports the death penalty. During his time in office as DA he never once prosecuted a Denver policeman for brutality.

Denver’s record of police shootings and beatings exceed places like New York City and Los Angeles.

Colorado continues to have two of the top ten worst congress people in Tom Tancredo and Marilyn Musgrave. The ratings in Rolling Stone magazine included members of Congress known to be least effective and most corrupt.

Across the nation the Democrats winning races to displace the outgoing Republican were not our father’s Democrat. Progressive and liberal ideals and beliefs were not what these Democrats ran on or stand for. Most are conservatives using the Democratic Party for their platform.

Democrats would like us to believe they are the party of the people. They want us to think they’ll stand up for peace and justice, economic equality and civil rights.

The truth is the money contributed to the Democratic Party in this election exceeded the amounts to the Republican Party. There are more millionaires and billionaires claiming to be Democrats than there are Republicans.

The demographics of the power structure in the Democratic Party make it doubtful the status quo in Washington will change on the watch of the new “congress”.

If we look at the leaders of this party we can find Zionists like Hillary Clinton who have no intention of ever challenging the genocidal policies of the Israeli government.

We must keep in mind these are the Democrats who have supported the war in Iraq with votes of continued funding that now exceeds 500 billion dollars. These are politicians who have failed the world for lack of courage.


Once again the time, the talent and the treasure of the progressives and liberals has gone to what Stan Goff calls the “vortex of electoralism” while social justice issues have rotted on the vine.


Once again trust in the corrupted and deceitful has duped the movement. Visits to congressional offices to get patronizing words and phony promises have taken up ungodly hours and accomplished little or nothing except lead folks to believe they were doing something worthwhile.


Politicians dupe the electorate to believe there’s representative government if “we the people” only exercise the “right” to vote. As my wife likes to say, “I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck”. We can exercise all we want but if we’re to change this country it will take a revolution.


Yes, I said revolution. Interestingly enough, a synonym of that word is insurgency. And good liberals and progressives will cringe and groan to even consider such an action. Most are convinced revolution means violence. Most still think we can be “nice” and regain our stolen nation.


Revolution doesn’t have to be violent but it must be action driven beyond anything the peace and justice movements of this nation have demonstrated. Going out to rallies, making speeches and marching in streets isn’t hacking it.


A disruption of business as usual is a form of revolution. With the Christmas season approaching, a rejection of the consumerism so blatantly called for by advertisers of big business would certainly disrupt business as usual. It also might leave time for families to spend quality time together.


Making the bastards of failed democracy pay in economic terms is necessary to effect revolution. Refusing to participate in the illegality of war and violence is necessary. Uniting with communities of color and marginalization will be necessary. Refusing to put time and money into the mainstream political parties is necessary.


The creative minds of the movement, now so embedded with the Democratic Party and the UFPJ front for the Democrats, are going to have to try something different and radical in taking back their nation.


When it becomes clear this nation is divided between the haves and the have-nots with the have-nots growing in number every minute, perhaps the need for action will become just as clear.


When the quickly vanishing white middle class awakens to the fact they are considered the have-nots maybe the love affair with the fake political system will end. Maybe then they’ll understand what Malcolm and others meant when they spoke of “any means necessary” to be free.

The new Congress will not restore the lost wages and lost jobs. They will not restore the lost pension funds. They will not force corporate America to provide living wages and health benefits for all.


Revolution is necessary but the will and the courage of Americans is questionable. It remains much easier to delude ourselves we won the election. We think we’ve taken back this stolen democracy. A year from now we’ll know it remains a hijacked government.

There will be a revolution whether white liberal and progressive Americans want it or not. Oppression and tyranny can only be tolerated so long before rebellion and revolution occurs. The question is where the peace and justice movements will be when it happens.

Will they still believe there’s a democracy and stand behind the police lines with the politicians or will they join the faces of color and poverty standing up for the basic freedoms the Constitution promises?


Do they truly believe all men (and women) are created equal with inalienable rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Do they believe all people have freedom of speech and assembly?


One thing is clear at this juncture of American history. The electoral vortex won’t make it happen.


REFERENCE LINKS:
Greg Palast - http://www.gregpalast.com/how-they-stole-the-mid-term-election

Stan Goff - http://www.bradblog.com/?p=1881


William T. Leichner
Denver, CO
VVAW member

The Hateful Pulpit of the Archbishops

Archbishop Chaput with the man he "didn't endorse" soon after the election he didn't endorse him for.

Clarification: I've incorrectly stated there are three archbishops in Colorado. Charles Chaput is the only archbishop. The other two clergy (Tafoya and Sheridan) mentioned are bishops. Also I've been told Catholics recognize other Christian marriages but my point was to be a Catholic I had to be married in the Church even though I'd already been married by a Baptist minister twenty five years earlier.

Charles Chaput and his fellow archbishops here in Colorado should be ashamed for the deceptive and disingenuous way they endorse Amendment 43 and call for the defeat of Referendum I in the upcoming election.
Both ballot issues concern same sex marriage/same sex unions. Amendment 43 would create an amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as “one man, one woman”. This amendment is explicitly directed at gays and lesbians as a group to prevent any possibility of a legally accepted marriage.
Amendment 43 does nothing to enhance the lives of people but does perpetuate homophobic hatred. The archbishops claim the amendment is needed to “protect” the sanctity of marriage and family as God intended.
Since the Catholic Church only accepts a Catholic marriage as a marriage recognized in the eyes of God it seems strange they’d be worried about civil arrangements. It’s highly improbable the Church will ever allow a same sex marriage. So what is the threat to the Catholic family these clergy are worried about?
Referendum I is a proposal to give same sex partners the same benefits as married couples in areas of medical benefits, insurance and confidential medical care. The referendum would become specific only to the state of Colorado and have no legality in any other state.
The benefits of Referendum I is provision of health care to a significant other, provision of legal standing to a partner in the case of a medical emergency in order to make critical decisions and to allow a partner to be the beneficiary of insurance in case of a death of the significant other. This would honor the wishes of the partner in the disbursing of benefits.
The three clergy in their letter read to all parishes in the state of Colorado claim Referendum I is simply recognition of same sex marriage and therefore a threat to marriage and the family.
It seems strange the Church should oppose health benefits, medical decision making of the person closest to the patient and insurance benefits given to the most loved of the deceased. Still stranger is how this in any way threatens marriages and families.
If I recall correctly, the Catholic Church only recognizes a marriage of a man and a woman married in the Church. That marriage is supposedly a lifetime partnership of the man and woman and an irrevocable contract of faith.
Of course if we look at the state of heterosexual marriages in the United States we’ll find a divorce rate of 50% or greater. It’s doubtful that horrendous failure rate has anything to do with same sex unions. It’s likely the failures of marriages in this country have more to do with the lack of faith in the concept of marriage, immaturity of the man and woman and inadequate counseling by family and clergy.
So instead of worrying about the issue of same sex marriage it seems the leaders of the Church might want to put more emphasis on preserving the concept of fidelity to heterosexual marriage by men and women.
What’s also sad and shameful about the uproar caused by Chaput, Sheridan and Tafoya over same sex unions is the diversion it creates from some truly urgent matters we face in this country and world wide.
The three have yet to make a clear statement concerning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s been no statewide reading of a letter to parishes to condemn the war in Iraq based on the lies of our government.
There’s been no statement to recognize the 650,000 dead Iraqis and nearly 3000 dead Americans as immoral and illegal. There’s been no outrage or organized opposition by the Church to a war portrayed as a “crusade” against the axis of evil. A war sold to the world with lies and deceit of immoral leaders in Washington, D.C..
Chaput in a recent interview by Jean Torkelson of the Rocky Mountain News denies he endorsed Bush in the last presidential election because it would violate the rules of a non-profit organization endorsing any candidate. When confronted with his statement against John Kerry’s candidacy based on views about abortion and same sex unions, Chaput protested he didn’t say the things quoted to him.
The reporter read Chaput’s words to him verbatim. He acknowledged them but evasively stated they weren’t meant to endorse any candidate. Of course he never made any type of statement to question the war or the other immoral acts of the President.
To quote Chaput himself in his remarks about John F. Kennedy’s political views on the state-church relationship….”if it quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.” If it sounds like an endorsement, Archbishop, it must be an endorsement.
The deceptions of the clergy about issues that threaten no one but those who refuse to recognize the reality of sexual preference by some is hypocritical and shameful. The endorsement of an amendment so hateful to gays and lesbians is hardly something I could envision Christ endorsing. To add to the hate by opposing a proposal that only helps individuals live a better life is not in keeping with the love inherent in Christ’s teachings.
Shame on you, Archbishops.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN