World-News

The Senate defeated an attempt to erase an American troop withdrawal date from an Iraq spending bill this afternoon after an emotional debate about the powers of the presidency and Congress and the well-being of front-line soldiers.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032707Z.shtml

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Be The Participatory DEMOCRACY That Brings Our Troops Home

Tell The Senate To Go FURTHER Than The House In Stopping the Iraq Occupation/War

Call your members of Congress now toll free at 800-828-0498, 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803.

ACTION PAGE: https://www.peaceteam.net/troops_home_now.php

If there is any good news to come out of the House last week, it is that the headlines read that the Democrats are standing up to Bush, even though they still aren't doing so nearly sufficiently. And for his own part Bush painted himself further into the rapidly shrinking corner with an another angry veto threat. Barbara Lee, the sponsor of a TRUE "end the war" amendment was pragmatic afterwards, recognizing that she might have only gotten 100 votes for her measure, even if that vote had been allowed by Pelosi. Why? The answer is self-evident. They need to hear from MORE of us.

Now as debate shifts to the Senate the difference between how many votes we can get to support a proposed 120 day start for withdrawal, or not, is how many of us will pick up the phone right now, call our senators at one of these toll-free numbers, 800-828-0498, 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803, and then follow that up with a message in writing. Indeed, we could have had the Lee amendment passed already if only more of us were ringing those phones. Polls show that 90% of Democrats say they want the war to end. But it is not enough to only say it to pollsters. Are 90% or us calling on the phone? Why not? The call is free!

We made OUR calls last week. How about you? Are you calling all of your members of Congress on an ongoing basis, once a week as part of your regular activist routine, to tell them again, and again, that is time to end the horrific madness in Iraq? We know that Bush is not going to stop trying to use his bully pulpit to make a least one statement a week, to try to bully us all in the other direction. Where Harry Truman once said, "The buck stops here," Bush keeps demanding, "Just give me the war bucks."

We can't just hold our breaths waiting for our elected politicians to show "leadership". For the vast majority it's never going to happen without our voices continuously prodding them. In fact, we don't even need any leaders. All we need are REPRESENTATIVES, and we have enough of those right now, who will respond to their constituents' calls, and vote accordingly. But unless we ARE calling, and incessantly, we cannot expect the result to happen on its own.

The aspiring presidential candidates we hear talking on the stump so early, do they actually want to END the Iraq war, or do they just want to CAMPAIGN on ending the war? There's a pretty big difference. For truly, those who are senators have the power this very instant to end the war. They must stand up to Bush NOW, not just let him play defiantly loose cannon for another two years. But they aren't going to really do it without constant pressure from we the people.

ACTION PAGE: https://www.peaceteam.net/troops_home_now.php

And if matters were not urgent enough, while all this is going on there has already been a serious border incident with Iran. 15 British soldiers were captured by the Iranians, after venturing into a DISPUTED border area of open water. Leaving aside the issue of what they thought they were doing in known questionable waters, if they had been American soldiers the bombs might be raining down on Tehran right now, blowing the gates of hell entirely off their hinges in Iraq. We are that dangerously close to total Armageddon.

The wackos in Iran want war because they have evidence from Iraq that they no longer have anything to fear from American military power. The wackos in the White House want war because they are too high on the fumes of their own arrogant belligerence to know better. Only we the people can stop them by bombarding our representatives with our messages, by speaking out now to bring the troops home immediately, if not sooner.

Our military in Iraq has become nothing but a provocation, the greatest obstacle to achieving any kind of political settlement there, and the greatest threat to our own national security. Every day the risk grows of another incident that Bush will try to use as an excuse to unleash whatever dogs of war remain. That's what he wants, his deliberate plan, what he likely sees as his only remaining personal salvation, at the expense of own utter destruction as a country.

Please make your calls and send your emails today. Talk to all your friends and neighbors. Forward them this email. Encourage them to do the same. Our lives and our future depend on the number of messages we can generate every week from now on.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.

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https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdrawal

Former Army Sgt. Sam Provance was one of the heroes of the Abu Ghraib scandal, the only uniformed military intelligence officer at the Iraqi prison to testify about the abuses during the internal Army investigation. When he recognized that the Pentagon was scapegoating low-level personnel, he also gave an interview to ABC News. For refusing to play along with the cover-up, Provance was punished and pushed out of the US military.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032707A.shtml

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Abu Ghraib Film Obscures Truth
https://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/043008b.html


Informant: Dorothee Krien



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Abu+Ghraib
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sam+Provance

British government officials have backed the methods used by scientists who concluded that more than 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the invasion. The government publicly rejected the findings published in the Lancet in October. But the BBC said documents obtained under freedom of information legislation showed advisers concluded that the much-criticized study had used sound methods.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032707P.shtml

National Review
by Fred Thompson

03/26/07

The House’s emergency war-funding bill contains several conditions on how the war should be run. They’ll never become law but they ’send signals’ they say. They’re big on sending signals in Washington. But what I was really surprised to find in the bill was what looked like $25 billion in pure pork. Since a lot of the people who voted for the bill campaigned against pork, I was puzzled. I’m puzzled there’s $283 million for dairy farmers in an emergency war-funding bill. But there’s also $74 million for peanut farmers so, I figured our soldiers are eating a lot of peanut-butter sandwiches; they need more milk to wash them down with. Hey, I’m trying to keep an open mind, here, okay? But I also wondered why the bill gives $25 million to spinach producers...

https://tinyurl.com/283xpu


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=spinach

https://tinyurl.com/ysjqrv



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Codepink

The interrogations innocent Iraqis like Abbas suffer every day deserve as much attention as the now infamous photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib, Tucker said.

https://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070325/film_nm/iraq_doc_dc


From Information Clearing House



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=abuse+Abu+Ghraib
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=interrogations

British government officials backed the methodology used by researchers who concluded that more than 600,000 Iraqis had been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the BBC reported Monday.

https://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/26/news/iraq.php



Iraqi deaths survey 'was robust'

The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war, the BBC has learnt.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6495753.stm


From Information Clearing House



https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=death+toll

More than 770 civilians working for US firms have lost their lives supporting the military in Iraq, and some families are now speaking out.

https://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032607F.shtml