DRANT #229: TIME TO SHOW UP OR SHUT UP

Today in the US Congress -- a display of Infamous
Invertebratitude that defies description.
The Shamocrats refused to vote to end the war, and voted instead NOT to set a deadline to end it, PLUS to hand over all the Oil.
Please read David Swanson's report below.
So- whattya gonna DO about it ?
You going to sit there and let it happen ?
The Congress of the USA is refusing to listen to you.
The Congress of the USA is taking YOUR money and funding the ongoing massacre of tens of thousands of innocent people in your name.
The Congress of the USA is doing what Big Oil pays them to do, while the slaughter goes on, and you whine.
People are DYING. Children are DYING.
What
Are
You
Gonna
DO
About
It ?
Its time to show up or shut up.
COME TO DC AND STOP THE GOVERNMENT
STOP BUSINESS AS USUAL
Here's my offer-
I will pay the air fare of anyone who wants to go but can't afford it.
Email me, and we'll do it. Right now.
Or, as Paul Rieckoff says, just go shopping.
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CINDY SHEEHAN
I am calling on Mothers of the world to join us in Washington DC for a "10,000 Mother of a March" on the day after Mother's Day, Monday, May 14th, 2007. Marches on the weekends are not effective, we need to shut the city of DC down! We will surround Congress and demand an end to this evil occupation and refuse to leave until the Congressional Leadership agrees with us, or throws us in jail!~Cindy Sheehan
Sign up and let us know you are coming
Full Details

May 10, 2007

Resistance is Vital

Today I attended a victory/Peace Rally at UC Fullerton in California. It was to initially be a protest rally. The US Army was busing in 2,000 kids from low income neighborhoods to speak with recruiters on campus. The uproar caused by the Campus Peace Movement and area activists forced the Army to cancel it's recruiting day turning the day into a victory dance. As I figure it 2,000 kids will live to see one more day. It was a beautiful sunny So Cal day. About 100 peace folks were in attendance and 10 Pro-war kids were on the side lines.

One of the most amazing and moving things I have seen to date in the Peace Movement happened. A G.I. was in the crowd. Wearing full desert cammies. At the end of the rally he stepped up to the podium and announced that as of today he was officially AWOL. His National Guard unit was being deployed to Iraq TODAY. This would be his second deployment. His first was as a marine. And he did not want to go back. He was visibly shaking as he told us his story. He then spoke specifically to the young Republican counter protestors, asking them why it is okay to send his brothers and sisters (he is Latino) to Iraq to fight and die for the USA yet the US border patrol kill his brothers and sisters as they cross the border. Of course they had no response or answer for him. This brave young man is no longer willing to fight, kill and die for a war based on lies. After he spoke he stepped back, pulled out his deployment orders and burned them. My eyes welled with tears of pride for this young man. This was a spur of the moment decision for him. He has made no plans. All of us "skin in the game" folks in attendance immediately surrounded him, IVAW, MFSO and myself Gold Star Families for Peace. All hugging him and telling him how proud we were of him. I told him that I wished Casey had lived long enough to make the decision to resist. I am confident that Casey would have done the same thing with the advantage of knowledge about the realities of the "war". This young man is now in the hands of the IVAW and the G.I. Rights hotline. I am sure once he gets his bearings and some advice he will go public. Which will encourage more to resists.

I think two of the most important things we can do in the Peace Movement is Counter Recruiting and encouraging G.I. Resistance. They can not fight a war with no one left to fight it. We need to plug their sources of cannon fodder. We need to stop allowing our kids to be sacrificed in the name of greed and power.

Over the summer while we were at Camp Casey we did a G.I. Rights hotline action at the gates of Ft. Hood. We held signs with the G.I. Rights hotline phone number. We held signs that said Resist, ask me how. We had several kids stop. One was threatened and chased off by an officer. We did this on a Friday afternoon. Come Monday we got word from the G.I. Rights national office that they received a panic call from the Dallas/Ft. Worth office that "something is going on at Ft. Hood". They had been inundated with calls over the weekend. We had an impact. This was a very easy but meaningful action. Imagine if we could model this at every base in the U.S.

I have done counter recruitment work with the folks who made the film Arlington west. They take their very powerful film into High Schools and after screening the film have military families, gold star families and members of the military speak. They ask before the presentations for a showing of hands as to how many of the students are thinking of joining the military. Generally 20-30 hands will raise. They again ask the question after the program. Only a few still raise their hands. I firmly believe Peter Dudar and Sally Marr have saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives with their counter recruiting efforts. Not only the kids who do not enlist but the lives of the Iraqis these new recruits would have been forced to kill.

It is the duty of both commissioned members of the military and the enlisted to disobey illegal or immoral orders:

Oath enlisted military takes…
"I, (state your name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) 809[890].ART.90 (20), makes it clear that military personnel need to obey the "lawful command of his superior officer," 891.ART.91 (2), the "lawful order of a warrant officer", 892.ART.92 (1) the "lawful general order", 892.ART.92 (2) "lawful order". In each case, military personnel have an obligation and a duty to only obey Lawful orders and indeed have an obligation to disobey Unlawful orders, including orders by the president that do not comply with the UCMJ. The moral and legal obligation is to the U.S. Constitution and not to those who would issue unlawful orders, especially if those orders are in direct violation of the Constitution and the UCMJ.

The Bush Crimes commission clearly lays out for us what makes the orders to wage this war illegal.

Their indictments:
Wars of aggression:
Count 1: The Bush administration authorized a war of aggression against Iraq.
Count 2: The Bush administrations authorized conduct of the war that involved the commission of "war crimes."
Count 3: The Bush administration authorized the occupation of Iraq involving, and continuing to involve, the commission of "war crimes", "crimes against humanity" and other illegal acts.

Torture:
Count 1: The Bush administration authorized the use of torture and abuse in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and domestic constitutional and statutory law.
Rendition:
Count 2: The Bush administration authorized the transfer ("rendition") of persons held in U.S. custody to foreign countries where torture is known to be practiced.
Illegal Detention:
Count 3: The Bush administration authorized the indefinite detention of persons seized in foreign combat zones and in other countries far from any combat zone and denied them the protections of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war and the protections of the U.S. Constitution.
Count 4: The Bush administration authorized the round-up and detention in the United States of tens of thousands of immigrants on pretextual grounds and held them without charge or trial in violation of international human rights law and domestic constitutional and civil rights law.
Count 5: The Bush administration used military forces to seize and detain indefinitely without charges U.S. citizens, denying them the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts.

It is our obligation as a peace movement to support these brave men and women who make the very hard decision to resist. We can't let them stand alone.

Courage to Resist

The AFSC has a good tool kit for GI's and counter recruitment efforts
American Friends Service Committee
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More War, With a Peace Label

LIVE BLOGGING By David Swanson
Excerpt-- please read the whole thing at
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/22334

8:12 p.m. There are now 12 heroes in the House, up from 10 at the last Supplemental vote. At this rate we'll end the war this century for sure. The heroes are the two Republicans who voted No who we know oppose funding the war: Ron Paul and John Duncan, plus the eight Democrats who voted No last time and this time again: Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey, Diane Watson, John Lewis, Mike McNulty, and Mike Michaud, plus the two new heroes added to the list: Democratic Representatives Pete Stark and John Tanner.

They deserve our thanks and our praise. But they did not press their colleagues to join them. Stark voted present last time and No this time, almost certainly not because he learned the war was illegal and disastrous, but because Pelosi found an extra couple of Republicans to vote for the war this time, so Stark and Tanner didn't have to. In this day and age, voting No only when there are enough people to vote Yes for war is our highest measure of heroism. When will that change? When will we demand more of Congress Members? When will activist organizations stop playing along with Congressional frauds (like the one of the past 12 hours in which everyone promoted Yes votes on McGovern's bill but kept quiet about the Supplemental, or mentioned it in a one-line whisper at the end of a long Email)? We just saw 171 Members of Congress vote to end the war, and all but 12 of them turn around and vote to continue the war. Guess which vote they'll be talking about when they come home for Memorial Day. Tell them which vote you're going to remember.

7:59 p.m. The bill to dump more money into this war without even a nonbinding date to end it passed 221-205, with 2 Republicans shamefully joining 219 disgraceful Democrats in voting Yes, 10 Democrats heroically voting No because they oppose funding the war, and 195 Republicans voting No - most of them because they love war even more than the Democrats and wanted an even worse bill. Last time around on the supplemental, when it had a nonbinding end date in it, 8 Democrats voted No and 2 Republicans voted No for the right reasons. They were heroes: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/heroes - This time around, we probably can identify Republicans who voted No for the right reasons, and we probably have 12 heroes. Who's newly on the list? And who, if anyone, drops off it?