Canada's dirty war in Afghanistan

Peggy

In answer to your question about "Canada's dirty war", this in fact is yet another proxy war being fought to support USA's colonial aspirations . I have no idea who the author is but she seems to have a load of half-truths in her article but really does not understand what really is happening.

The problem is that the current Conservative government in Canada wants to cosy up to US and will do anything necessary - including sacrificing lives of many young men - to support a puppet leader, put in place by the US, who from all reports, is in it for the money he can gather from the large sums of $$$ which US is willing to spend to force its will on the region.

The background is that Canada, under a Liberal government, initally agreed to assign to NATO a limited # of peacekeepers for Afghanistan. Later, when Bush and his buddies needed to gain control of oil and invaded Iraq, Bush and his buddies conceded that Canada need send no fighting soldiers for Iraq if their numbers in Afghanistan were increased.

Canada then doubled the # of peacekeepers with an end date of 2005.The Liberal party then lost an election and one of the first actions of the new Conservative government to curry favour with the US was to reassign the troops into a fighting role and to extend the end date to 2007 . These were to be assigned in the worst area of the country (Kandahar) where the French , German , Dutch etc. refuse to go! The end date has subsequently been extended to 2009 and the Tories (Stephen Harper) are now talking about 2011. In all of this, Harper has been supported by a reactionary General - Rick Hillier, whose aim in life seems to have been to increase Canadian military spending and fight a brutal occupation of Afghanistan.

The per capita death and injury rates for Canadian troops in Kandahar far exceed those of British and US!

Yes, it is a very sickening story, and a very high proportion of the Canadian nation would like to see them out of an untenable position. Our opposition parties say that when they defeat the current government, they will pull all troops out immediately. We hope so! It looks as though the election will happen this summer so maybe we can get out of the mess then.

So much for that , glad to hear that you are keeping well .

All the best , please excuse the diatribe, but we feel very strongly about the useless slaughter of both Canadians and Afghanis.

Malcolm and Jutta

The cost of the Iraq war

So, how much is it that we are spending on the war in Iraq?

In 2004 it was estimated at $177 million per day, $7.4 million per hour, $122,820 per minute.

In March 2008 the New York Times estimate was $13 billion a month, nearly half a billion per day, $18 million per hour, and $5,000 per second.

Couldn’t you do a lot of birth-reducing, water-finding, and micro-lending with that kind of money?

Or think of the things we could be doing in the U.S.. . . .

Cheney: "So?"

Click the map to make it bigger . . .

5th Year Iraq War Anniversary

Jerry Yoest

Terry
Peg and Gloria

Veterans’ Day Die-In - November 11, 2007

Event sponsored by St. Augustine People for Peace and Justice

Our most recent action was a die-in on St. George Street.

We gathered at the gazebo, all wearing black, walked a ways, then dropped dead for l0 minutes. Walked some more, dropped dead again, until the police came and told us we were blocking traffic and to move on.

We had pledged to comply without arguing, but we continued the funeral walk back to the gazebo.

Along the way we distributed a mini flyer listing the number of dead, in the US and in Iraq. We printed l,000 - had only a few hundred left. This was on Saturday November 10th, in solidarity with demonstrations across the nation.

http://www.common.solidarityandpeace.org/events/111107.html

Orlando Rally - Nov 2007

October 27, NATIONAL MOBILIZATION, Orlando

What a wonderful crowd! Thank you, each of you, for being here. We are part of a national day of protest against the war in Iraq. We stand with thousands acrossthe nation in a fearsome expression of the breadth and depth of anti-war sentiment.



From the beginning of the Bush/Cheney administration, it was clear that they were committed to expanding the American geopolitical role in the Middle East. They knew that those huge oil reserves were crucial to the world’s industrial economy and they wanted US domination over those reserves. So they lied to us, to you and to me. They violated national and international treaties to achieve that supremacy. But their lies and their failures can no longer be covered up. Bush and Cheney must be held accountable. They must be IMPEACHED now: before they leave office – or a terrible precedent with be left for future leaders to fall back on.

We know the numbers of dead in Iraq but we can’t begin to imagine the scale of human suffering, the destroyed infrastructure, the destabilizing daily life for the entire population from severe shortage of water, electricity, jobs, and medical care, and the displacement of over 4 million civilians as a result of the bloody civil war.

We know the number of dead in our country, the wounded and maimed, the broken homes, and we see the incredible financial burden this illegal war in Iraq has placed on current and future US taxpayers. This year, taxpayers in Florida will have paid TWELVE BILLION dollars for the cost of the war. For the same amount of money, close to FOUR MILLION people could have been provided with Health Care, more than EIGHT MILLION homes with renewable electricity could have been constructed, or TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND music and art teached could have been employed in our schools.

But knowing all this, and feeling angry about it is not enough. We must transform our feelings into action. We must call on our elected representatives to demand full investigation. We must demand that Bush and Cheney be IMPEACHED.

We must END THE WAR. END THE OCCUPATION.

Negotiations and diplomacy will be our peace-making tools. Reconciliation our goal. The very culture of our society must be transformed from violence to non-violence. Returning troops must be treated with all-out medical and psychiatric care. Homes and jobs must be provided. Family life restored.

We, the people, must reclaim our civil rights. We must VOTE and ELECT national and local officials who will guarantee us an ethical foreign policy and an ethical domestic policy, providing civil liberty, health care and education to everyone. For this, we need PEACE. An end to war.

No more wars – ever!

Impeach the liers !!!

Fathers’ and Grandfathers' Day

PEACE AND IMPEACH

Sunday, June 17th from 2-4 pm.
Gazebo, Plaza de la Constitucione

Sponsored by Grandparents for Peace, St. Augustine

Bring photos, letters, poems, and memories to share. Bring your daughter, mother, wife, grandmother, and great-grand.

It will be the first time that this important holiday has been celebrated publicly in St. Augustine. Men deserve more than ties and meals. Women couldn’t produce babies without them. There are more men than women in Congress.

We must tell Congress how we stand: We stand for PEACE AND IMPEACH!

This event is open to all. It is suggested that women wear pants and ties. For info, call 471 1986.

History of Father’s Day- Sonra Louise Smart Dodd of Spokane, WA, started the observance of the Father's Day on the 19th of June, in 1910. She wanted to express her thanks to her own father, who had reared her on his own, since the death of her mother. Her father, Henry Jackson Dodd celebrated his birthday in June, thus, she chose this month to celebrate the holiday.

3,000 dead in Iraq

Dear GFP Members and friends,

I am forwarding (as an attachment) a very beautiful, very sad letter from Lorraine Krofchok, President of Grandmothers for Peace International (of which we are an affiliate, as most of you already know).

I cannot think of anything to add to her message. I did light a candle and will try to light one every evening until the war and occupation are over. I hope some of you will join the nationwide candle ritual. It will bond us to each other and strengthen our peace-making efforts. Ultimately our mission will be to assure appropriate honor be given to the returning troops, and adequate care to the many who will need it.

Peg


Dear Grandmothers for Peace:

It is yet another sad day for America and families of the now 3,000 dead. What a way to end the year of 2006...

Heart wrenching, devastating, outrageous, misery, depression--whatever you are feeling, it has been an awful year and an awful three years, almost four into this "war". Bush has his revenge, Saddam is dead. Was it worth it for all the lives lost--Americans and Iraqi?

Has he called his daddy and said "look what I have accomplished!" Iraq is in a shambles, the world hates us, the Iraqi people are leaving their homes and fleeing to other countries. Democracy?

One bully has the other bully dead now. What next? Osama, where are you...

Please light a candle, put a number in your window, attend a vigil, or just reflect on all the lives lost. So many young. They never had a start in life. As I have said so often, "what if the cure for cancer or any other devastating disease has died with one of those minds?" It truly is a sad day.

The name of the 3,000th victim is no more or less important than the 2,452 or the first, they all mattered to someone. Who will be the last?

Call Congress on Wednesday--(202) 224-3121--or your local offices.

Demand an end to this war, no more funds, no more "surge", bring them home!

I understand Tuesday will be a "holiday" for government workers because of the death of President Ford. 3,000 Americans will never have another holiday.

Peace to all of us,
Lorraine

Mother's Day celebrations

Sunday, May 13th at the Gazebo, from 2-4 pm


Mothers, Grandmothers, Great Grands, Daughters, Sisters, Aunts:

"Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have breasts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies......

Our sons shall no be taken from us to unlearn
all that we have been able to teach them ..

We, the women of one country, will be too
tender of those of another country
to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

Excerpts from Julia Ward Howe's
Mother;s Day Proclamation, a fervent
plea for peace in 1870.

In the spirit of standing up for peace, in solidarity with Mother's Day celebrations across the nation, please come to the Gazebo in the Plaza.

Bring a flower, a poem, the photo of a loved one, a friend.

This gentle gathering is sponsored by Grandparents for Peace, St. Augustine.

GfP Newsletter - April 2007

Friday, April 27, 2007

Dear GFP members & friends:

A reminder:

Tomorrow Saturday April 28th is IMPEACH DAY. in St. Augustine (and many other places across the nation). From 10 to 12. Great timing as it follows closely on the Kucinich Resolution to impeach Cheney. Thank you, Mr. Kucinich. I say IMPEACH BOTH OF THEM. Join us in the downtown Plaza de la Constitution. Bring signs, bring a friend, bring your kids. Spell it out!

Monday, May 7: A Guest activist from Nicaragua: potluck at 6, slide show and discussion from 7 to 9. My condo, 21 Village Las Palmas in Ocean Gallery, 4600 A1A South, St. Augustine.

Sunday, May 13. a gentle Mother's Day gathering in the Plaza. Bring a poem, or a photo. Bring your Mom, and your kids.

MODERN-DAY INDENTURED SERVITUDE:

GFP has received an urgent appeal from the Southern Poverty Law Center, asking each of us to write to President Bush, Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, and Representative John L. Mica.

"For too long our country has reaped economic benefits from the labor of foreign guest workers - but has ignored the incredible abuses they endure: cheated out of wages, charged exorbitant fees to obtain low wage, temporary jobs, virtual enslavement by employers, forced to live in squalid conditions and denied medical benefits."

We can right this terrible wrong. We must reform our immigration system, not by perpetuating the exploitation of guest workers but by acting to insist that strong labor protections are enacted and vigorously enforced.

If you want to support the SPC's work for justice, write letters or email the President and your Congressmen, and/or send a check to the Southern Poverty Law Center, P O Box 548, Montgomery, AL 36177..

COLLEGE DEBTS:

How many of you have children or grandchildren attending or graduating from college, burdened with debt? Last month the N Y Times had an article about this very sad situation.

"Young men and women are leaving college with debt loads that would break the back of a mule," wrote Bob Herbert. "Families in many cases are taking out second mortgages, loading up credit cards and raiding 40l(k) to supplement the students' first wave of debt, the ubiquitous college loan. Bright students have been forced to leave college or never went to college at all. Two-thirds of all graduates now leave with some form of debt. The average amount is close to $20,000. Some owe many times that... In a nation as rich as ours, it should be easy to pay for college. For some reason, we find it easier to pay for wars."

ILLINOIS STATE SEN BARACK OBAMA:

In October of 2002, Sen. Barack Obama said: "I don't oppose all wars. After September 11, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again.

"I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics."

In the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, Obama called for an effective coordinated intelligence, a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and an efficient homeland security program.

He called for a vigorously enforced non-proliferation treaty, for the elimination of all stores of nuclear material, and for the arms merchants in our own country to stop feeding the countless wars that were raging across the globe.

He urged Bush to demand that our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.

He challenged the Bush administration to wean ourselves off Middle East oil with a creative energy policy, not one that simply serves the interests of Exxon and Mobil.

Today, nearly 5 years later, all of the Democratic Presidential candidates, oppose the war in Iraq, but Sen. Obama's voice is the strongest and clearest. There are many who say he is too young, too under funded, and too inexperienced for the job. Maybe so, but I support his candidacy because I respect his intelligence, his courage, and his values.

How about you?

Peg.

I am alive today

Letter to the Editor:

I am alive today, thanks to nine generous men and or women, who gave me their blood, and to the wonderful care I received at Flagler Hospital and the Ponce de Leon Care Center, and the good wishes from oh, so many friends.

I am alive today and went straight off to join the enthusiastic demonstration at the Plaza de la Costituizione this morning. It was awesome, empowering.

End the War. Bring the Troops Home. Stop the Funding.

Great signs, the beautiful white peace dove, the dancing Fairy Queen, and the largest crowd we have ever had (after four long years of gathering on the 3rd Saturday of every month.) Thanks for continuous leadership from PPJ (People for Peace & Justice), Veterans of America, and Grandparents for Peace.

I am alive today and want more than ever to help change the course from violence to diplomacy, from injustice to safety, health, education, and happiness. It will only come to pass if we work together, stand tall, with a clear vision of our goals. Here are my thanks to all, and my pledge to try to make each day more meaningful.

Peg

End the war

Letter to the Editor:

I am alive today, thanks to nine generous men and or women, who gave me their blood, and to the wonderful care I received at Flagler Hospital and the Ponce de Leon Care Center, and the good wishes from oh, so many friends.

I am alive today and went straight off to join the enthusiastic demonstration at the Plaza de la Costituizione this morning. It was awesome, empowering.

End the War. Bring the Troops Home. Stop the Funding.

Great signs, the beautiful white peace dove, the dancing Fairy Queen, and the largest crowd we have ever had (after four long years of gathering on the 3rd Saturday of every month.) Thanks for continuous leadership from PPJ (People for Peace & Justice), Veterans of America, and Grandparents for Peace.

I am alive today and want more than ever to help change the course from violence to diplomacy, from injustice to safety, health, education, and happiness. It will only come to pass if we work together, stand tall, with a clear vision of our goals. Here are my thanks to all, and my pledge to try to make each day more meaningful.

Peg

Major Peace Rally in St. Augustine

Dictated by Peg:


Hello all of you - and thanks for sending me your email of Thursday Feb 22. It was good but I still have a few tweaks if you approve:


QUOTE

In solidarity with nationwide events marking the 4th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

MAJOR PEACE RALLY IN ST. AUGUSTINE
Saturday March 17, 2007, from 10-12
Downtown Plaza at the base of the Bridge of Lions.

St. Augustine People for Peace and Justice (PPJ), Veterans for Peace (VfP) and Grandparents for Peace (GfP) will hold our usual third Saturday rally “Bring Our Troops Home” on Saturday, March 17 at the Plaza in St Augustine to mark the fourth year of the disastrous occupation of Iraq. Cities across the nation will hold similar events including a massive march in Washington DC. Our rally will feature street theatre, signs, the Peace Dove, the Peace Fairy and a march. Everyone who opposes this “war” is invited to stand with us and with tens of thousands of people all over America from 10 til noon.

Polls clearly show that two thirds of all American voters do not support either the surge in Iraq or the President’s conduct of the “war”.

The Founders of our country did not hesitate to put themselves out on the front lines for their beliefs. They knew their voices would count if they banded together for what they believed. We will speak out on March 17.

Do you believe in what your government is doing in Iraq in your name and with your tax dollars? If so, then stay home. But if you care about our more than 3100 dead troops and their families, our 25,000 wounded troops and their families, and the over 650,000 dead Iraqis and their families, then join us at the Plaza on Saturday March 17 from 10-12 and say NO. Bring a sign. Bring a drum. Bring a friend.

For more information, contact: 904-823.9585, marstans@hotmail.com

UNQUOTE


Peg

Lorraine's GfP letter

From Lorraine, Director of Grandmothers for Peace International, of which we, GFP, are an affiliate.

Dear Grandmothers for Peace:

Congress is returning from vacation after Labor Day. Welcome them back! Flood their offices with phone calls demanding an end to the US war in Iraq. They hold the power of the purse and we must attempt to give Congress the backbone they sadly lack. Along with your phone calls, please continue to send them post cards.

Look up the war dead at http://icasualties.org/oif/ and put that number in big bold black writing and say "How Many More?" Add any other comments you want. Post cards are best, they go right through and no anthrax testing to delay your message.

Each day I have the sad task of walking out to my whiteboard in front of our home and change the casualty numbers. I have had that board there for over two years. Each time I change the number, it means someone has had that dreadful knock on the door. Each morning is a new emotional experience and empathy for the pain of some family...

George Bush continues to ask for additional funding. It is time to stop throwing our tax dollars away! Bring the troops home now. They will need our help and our care. Remember, they will not be returning to Washington, DC and the Department of Defense will not be taking care of them. They will be returning to our cities, towns, and villages.

WE will have to take care of them. Many will return broken in mind, body and spirit. But, they are ours, all of them. Although only one percent "officially" have loved ones in Iraq, remember, we ALL have someone in Iraq. They are Americans. We need to bring them home. The suffering in our nation and the world will last for years.

Remember, "Silence is Affirmation". We will NOT be silent. The Capitol Switchboard is 202-224-3121

Peace to all of us, Lorraine

Best wishes
Peg

At John Mica's office

Peg with other PPJ members in John Mica' office, urging him to stop funding the war in Iraq.