Dear Friends and Supporters, George Bush said speaking about the dreadful loss of life in Iraq in August: (08/03/05): "We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the mission." "The families of the fallen can be assured that they died for a noble cause." In reaction to these two asinine and hurtful statements, members of Gold Star Families for Peace (GSFP) are going to George's vacation home in Crawford, Tx this Saturday, August 6th at 11:00 am to confront him on these two statements. 1) We want our loved ones sacrifices to be honored by bringing our nation's sons and daughters home from the travesty that is Iraq IMMEDIATELY, since this war is based on horrendous lies and deceptions. Just because our children are dead, why would we want any more families to suffer the same pain and devastation that we are. 2) We would like for him to explain this "noble cause" to us and ask him why Jenna and Barbara are not in harm's way, if the cause is so noble. 3) If George is not ready to send the twins, then he should bring our troops home immediately. We will demand a speedy withdrawal. GSFP will be joined by members of Veteran's for Peace (VFP), Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Code Pink, and Crawford Peace House. We GSFP members will not leave until we get answers from George Bush. We deserve and expect him to welcome us with answers to as why our loved ones are dead. Every worker for peace, every worker for justice, every person who wants our country back are welcomed to join us on Saturday. Show George Bush that we mean business. Be there to support us family members who have already been through so much. We are fighting for our country, our world, especially the children. Crawford is about 2 hours from Dallas where the VFP Convention is being held this weekend. There will be car pools from the convention. HONOR OUR LOVED ONE'S SACRIFICES: BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!!!! Bring water and hats...we plan on staying until we are arrested or satisfied with the answers. (I am betting on jail). Please pass this email on to your friends, lists, and media.
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GSFP members speak at Out of Iraq
Mission Statement: We as families of soldiers who have died as a result of war (primarily, but not limited to the invasion/occupation of Iraq) are organizing to be a positive force in our world to bring our country’s sons and daughters home from Iraq, to minimize the “human cost” of this war, and to prevent other families from the pain we are feeling as the result of our losses. We are also hoping to be lifetime support for each other through our losses. PURPOSE*To bring an end to the occupation of Iraq. *To be a support group for Gold Star Families. WAYS TO ACHIEVE OUR PURPOSE:*Provide support and to empower those who have been victimized by the invasion/occupation of Iraq. *Raise awareness in the United States about the true human costs of the invasion/occupation of Iraq. *Reach out to families who have lost a loved one as a result of war. Who Can Join?*Anyone who has had a relative killed as a result of war. *Primarily, but not limited to the invasion/occupation of Iraq. |
The Possibilities of Peace GSFP Member Tia Steele will be speaking Aug 19th Visit our ACTIONS page for photos and Testimony from the hearing
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Special guests (see below for dates) include "unembedded" journalist DAHR JAMAIL (internationally acclaimed for his dispatches from occupied Iraq), MARK MANNING (independent filmmaker who entered Falluja just after U.S. forces destroyed the city), TIM GOODRICH (co- founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War), and comedian RICK OVERTON. Come hear first-hand accounts and see exclusive, uncensored
documentary evidence of the war being fought in America's name.
U.S. TOUR OF DUTY (USTOD) supports and promotes the anti-war advocacy of Iraq veterans, military families, policy experts, activists, and performers by organizing public forums, producing video news segments, and maintaining a website (www.ustourofduty.org). USTOD is also making a documentary called "Amazing Disgrace: The Betrayal of Soldiers and their Families." USTOD is a non-profit project of SEE (www.saveourplanet.org), a 501(c)(3) organization. NADIA McCAFFREY is known at the mother who defied President Bush by allowing the media to view the flag-draped coffin of her son, Patrick. After Patrick was killed in the Iraq war, Nadia traveled to the Middle East with filmmaker Mark Manning, who made a 30-minute documentary about the trip. They sought answers to what causes wars, and met with Iraqi mothers. Nadia explains her purpose: "I wanted to look them in the eye and share their pain." After he shot the above-referenced film, MARK MANNING became the only "unembedded" western journalist to enter Falluja immediately following the U.S. bombardment. He spent three weeks filming inside the ravaged ancient city. His exclusive footage, which U.S. Tour of Duty will screen as part of Nadia's talks, provides a rare glimpse of the innocent victims' plight, and dispels the myths of war and the nature of the "enemy." DAHR JAMAIL spent eight months in Iraq as one of only a few independent U.S. journalists in the country. His dispatches at www.dahrjamailiraq.com are widely recognized as an important media resource. He writes for such publications as The Asia Times, The Sunday Herald, The Nation, and The Guardian. Dahr also serves as a special radio correspondent for the BBC, Democracy Now!, and many other stations around the globe. TIM GOODRICH, the co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War, served in the U.S. Air Force and was in the Middle East during the invasion of Afghanistan. He also visited Iraq as part of a Global Exchange trip in January of 2004, and he just returned from Turkey where he testified at the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI). After General Tommy Franks inexplicably gave an unpublicized speech to Los Angeles elementary school students in April of this year, Tim put his body in front of the general's vehicle as its driver attempted to leave the scene. U.S. Tour of Duty will screen exclusive footage of this dramatic encounter as part of Tim's talk. RICK OVERTON is a comedian, actor, writer, and creative consultant. He recently guest-starred on "Joan of Arcadia," "According to Jim" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and is a regular contributor to E! Entertainment's "Most Sensational Crimes of Fashion." Rick won an Emmy award for his work as the head writer of Dennis Miller's HBO series. For more information contact Jeff Norman at 310.842.8794 or visit www.ustourofduty.org Iraq veterans and military families demand the truth! |
Restoration of integrity By Dante Zappala Posted July 12 2005 Until recently, I've been completely unimpressed with Washington antics. Politicians get paid a lot of money to do their jobs. They take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Watching them blatantly abdicate their responsibility in the run-up to the Iraq War was almost as difficult as watching most of America let them get away with it. Worse, however, has been watching these elected officials sit on their hands as Americans die every day in the desert amid the stateside failure of policy and leadership. I had all but given up. Then I met Walter Jones, a Republican congressman from North Carolina. While generally conservative, he's got a solid track record of recklessly leading with his heart and voting his conscience. I first heard of him prior to the invasion of Iraq. Like many others on Capitol Hill, the White House sold him on the idea that Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States and that there were links between Iraq and 9-11. Angry that our allies saw such overwhelming evidence in a different light, Walter Jones insisted that french fries be renamed "freedom fries" in House office building cafeterias. Since the invasion, Jones has distinguished himself by actually paying attention to facts as the Bush administration's arguments started to show cracks. He began to see in Iraq what he saw Vietnam: a war justified by false pretenses and empty ideology that had the real consequence of needlessly killing American soldiers. Jones started sending personal letters with handwritten words of condolences to the families of every soldier killed in Iraq. The hallways outside of his Capitol Hill office are lined with the faces of the fallen. My family recently went to Washington to thank Walter Jones for his efforts. One of those pictures in his hallway is of my brother, Sgt. Sherwood Baker. One of those letters he sent is on my living room table. Sherwood was killed in Baghdad last year. His death has kept my faith at the fore. That faith is challenged, quite honestly, when I hear the warmakers extolling their belief in Christ as their savior as they drop cluster bombs and commit other people's children to the hell of war. Walter Jones could easily be considered one of "them" -- a Christian conservative. I sat next to him in his office and quickly relearned how wrong it is to label a person. As a Christian myself, I understood immediately that his personal belief in Christ has been the basis of his actions. The most obvious aspect of our meeting was the authenticity of his humility. He began by speaking specifically to my mother and the mothers of two other fallen soldiers who were with us. Tears have been easy for me to come by over the last 14 months since Sherwood died. The catalyst could be the unabated laughter of my nephew or the national anthem; anything, really, that brings Sherwood to mind. When Walter Jones said this simple sentence, "If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have voted for this war," I found myself unable to hold them back. I waded through the election rhetoric last year waiting to hear those courageous words. My brother was on the security detail of the Iraq Survey Group. He died looking for those non-existent weapons of mass destruction that President Bush used as a rationale for this disastrous war. Walter Jones is now introducing legislation that seeks a timetable for exiting Iraq. The leadership that advocated for the Iraq War has displayed a deplorable contempt for reality. Our troops suffer injury and death every day. The Bush administration, meanwhile, finds it best to nurse its own bruised egos, to spin history and the truth on their heads just to make themselves look good. Walter Jones, on the other hand, has done what Jesus would ask. He has acted on the principles of his faith. Those principles have led him through a maze of unchecked passion and righteousness. And now, he finds himself in catharsis, staring at revelation. Some call this the path. The next step on that path is to try to right the wrong. As a conservative Republican congressman who has changed his mind about the war, he's in a position to do it. This country needs a restoration of integrity and competence in our government. Walter Jones stands as a beacon of hope that we are pointed in the right direction. Dante Zappala is a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus (online www.fpif.org) and a member of Gold Star Families for Peace www.gsfp.org, and Military Families Speak Out |
*CARLY'S POEM*
by Carly Sheehan Brother Casey KIA 04/04/04 Sadr City Baghdad 
Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son? The torrential rains of a mother's weeping will never be done They call him a hero, you should be glad that he's one, but Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son? Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries? He must be brave because his boy died for another man's lies The only grief he allows himself are long, deep sighs Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries? Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave? They say that he died so that the flag will continue to wave But I believe he died because they had oil to save Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave? Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep? The leaders want to keep you numb so the pain won't be so deep But if we the people let them continue another mother will weep Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep? The sounds my daughter wrote about in her inspired poem, so poignantly and amazingly a few weeks after her brother, my son, was killed in Iraq, have been repeated over and over again too many times since the criminal invasion/occupation of Iraq began in March of 2003. These sounds are imprinted in my DNA. I will never, ever forget the night of April 4, 2004, when I found out that Casey had been killed. After what seemed an eternity, I finally began to wonder who or what was making those horrible screaming noises. Then I realized it was me. It couldn’t have been Casey’s father, because he was paralyzed in stunned silence holding the pair of pants he had been folding when the deliverers of death news arrived. I will also never forget the day when we buried my sweet boy, my oldest son. I’ll never forget the playing of taps, or the violent, and in hindsight, thoughtless, volley of the 21-gun salute. If I live to be a very old lady and forget everything else, I will never forget when the general handed me the folded flag that had lain on Casey’s coffin, as his brother and sisters, standing behind me, sobbed. The saddest thing about the obscene sounds of violence is that they never should have been heard in the first place. From Maine to California, and from Baghdad to Falluja, these dirges were unnecessary. In my travels, and from hundreds of emails, phone calls, and cards and letters, I am discovering that people who formerly supported the invasion of Iraq are withdrawing their support. I even believe that many of our fellow citizens who still support the ignominy of Iraq are doing so because they are clinging to the deceptions so desperately, because they want the deceptions to so be the truth. It will be painful to come to terms with supporting the lies of this administration. It will be painful to know that wholesale killing of innocent people occurred because you and so many others believed the betrayals, but acknowledging the mistake is the first step to correcting it. And believe me, acknowledging the mistake is not as painful as hearing those devastating sounds. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) has realized that he had been duped into supporting the invasion. I have spoken to him about his change of heart, and he is so sad that his wholehearted support of the administration helped cause so many good people to hear those gut wrenching sounds of grief. But he is going forward to do what he can to end this occupation as soon as possible. He has co-sponsored a bi-partisan bill (HRJ 55) with other Congressional leaders like Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Ron Paul (R-TX) to force our administration into a troop withdrawal beginning October 1, 2006. The bill is a good first step to ensuring that families here in America and all over the world do not have to suffer needless death in war. However, I would like the withdrawal to begin tomorrow, because I don't even want to try and imagine the sounds Casey heard before he died. I don't want to imagine the sound of the bullet strong enough to pierce the Kevlar coating on his helmet to rip through his skull. I don’t want to know the sounds of a mother in Iraq wailing for her entire family. These sounds need to stop immediately. It is time to bring our troops home. The sound I do want to hear is the sound of a Nation Waking Up. I will rejoice to hear the sounds of the collective Mea Culpa and the beating of breasts. I want to hear the deafening clicks as the steady stream of news-o-tainment is turned off, propaganda that is turning us into zombies who are numb to the truth. I want to hear the sound of our children getting off planes and boats from Iraq to the joyful squealing of their children and the deep sighs of relief from their spouses, parents, and other loved ones. I want to hear our citizenry lifting up their voices in chorus and singing, "We will never let this happen again."
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A Lie of Historic Proportions Iraq has been the tragic Lie of Historic Proportions of Washington, DC since before the first gulf war. For years, Saddam was one of our government’s propped up and militarily supported puppets. Many people have seen the famous footage of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam. I suppose the two are smiling so big for the cameras because they are kindred spirits. After all of the hand-shaking and weapon brokering, when did Saddam become such a bad guy to Bush, Cheney, Halliburton and Co.? (Insert your favorite reason here). During the Clinton regime the US-UN led sanctions against Iraq and the weekly bombing raids killed tens of thousands of innocent people in Iraq. Many of them were children, but since one of her children didn’t have to be sacrificed to the homicidal war machine, Madeline Albright, thinks the slaughter during the “halcyon” Clinton years was “worth it.” More lies. Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of current events understands that this invasion/occupation of Iraq was not about Saddam being a “bad guy.” If that logic is used, then how many innocent Iraqi people have to die before the citizens of America wake up and know that our government is a “bad guy?” We also know that Iraq was not about WMD’s. They weren’t there and they weren’t going to be there for at least a decade, by all reports. Another reason, so wispy and more difficult to disprove, is that America invaded Iraq to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people. When one tries to dispute this particular deception, one is accused of being unpatriotic or hating freedom. Even though correct, the statement “Freedom isn’t Free” is very insulting to me. False freedom is very expensive. Fake freedom costs over one billion of our tax dollars a week; phony freedom has cost the Iraqi people tens of thousands of innocent lives; fanciful freedom has meant the destruction of a country and its infrastructure. Tragically, this fabricated notion of freedom and democracy cost me far more than I was willing to pay: the life of my son, Casey. The Lie of Historic Proportions also cost me my peace of mind, I do not feel free and I do not feel like I live in a democracy. One of the other great deceits that is being perpetuated on the American public and the world is that this occupation is to fight terrorism: If we don’t fight terrorism in Iraq then we will have to fight it “on our streets.” In fact, terrorist attacks have skyrocketed in Iraq and all over the world. So much so, that the State Department has stopped compiling the statistics and quit issuing the yearly terrorism report. I guess if one doesn’t write a report, then terrorism doesn’t exist? All of Casey’s commendations say that he was killed in the “GWOT” the Global War on Terrorism. I agree with most of GWOT, except that Casey was killed in the Global War Of Terrorism waged on the world and its own citizens by the biggest terrorist outfit in the world: George and his destructive Neo-con cabal. The evidence is overwhelming, compelling, and alarming that George and his indecent bandits traitorously had intelligence fabricated to fit their goal of invading Iraq. The criminals foisted a Lie of Historic Proportions on the world. It was clear to many of us more aware people that George, Condi, Rummy, the two Dicks: Cheney and Perle, Wolfie, and most effectively and treacherously, Colin Powell, lied their brains out before the invasion. The world was even shown where the WMD’S were on the map. We were told that the “smoking gun” could come at any time in the form of a “mushroom cloud” or a cloud of toxic biological or chemical weapons. Does anyone remember duct tape and plastic sheeting? Finally, the side of peace, truth and justice has our own smoking gun and it is burning our hands. It is the so-called Downing Street Memo dated 23, July 2002, (almost 8 months before the invasion) that states that military action (against Iraq) is now seen as “inevitable.” The memo further states that: “Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action”, justified by the conjunction of “terrorism and WMD’s.” The most damning thing to George in the memo is where the British intelligence officer who wrote the memo claims that the intelligence to base Great Britain and the US staging a devastating invasion on Iraq was being “fixed around the policy.” Now, after over three years of relentless propaganda, it is difficult to distinguish the proven lies from the new “truth:” that this occupation is bringing freedom and democracy to the people of Iraq. Casey took an oath to protect the US from all enemies “foreign and domestic.” He was sent to occupy and die in a foreign country that was no threat to the USA. However, the biggest threat to our safety, humanity, and our way of life in America are George and his cronies. Congress made a Mistake of Historic Proportions and waived its Constitutional responsibility to declare war. It is time for the House to make up for that mistake and introduce Articles of Impeachment against the murderous thugs who have caused so much mindless mayhem. It is time for Congress to re-validate itself by holding a hearing about the Downing Street Memo. The reader can help by going onto www.AfterDowningStreet.org and signing a petition to Rep. John Conyers so he will know that the American people are behind him to convene an investigation in the House Judiciary Committee. You can also write your Congressional Representative to help push the inquiry. It is time to put partisan politics behind us to do what is correct for once and reclaim America’s humanity. It is time for Congress and the American people to work together in peace and justice to rid our country of the stench of greed, hypocrisy, and unnecessary suffering that permeates our White House and our halls of Congress. It is time to hold someone accountable for the carnage and devastation that has been caused. As a matter of fact, it is past time, but it is not too late.
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History of the service flag The service flag (also known as "blue star banners" or
"son in service flags") was designed and patented by
World War I Army Captain Robert L. Queissner of the
5th Ohio Infantry who had two sons serving on the
front line. The flag quickly became the unofficial symbol of a child in service. President Wilson became part of its history when in 1918 he approved a suggestion made by the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defenses that mothers who had lost a child serving in the war to wear a gold gilt star on the traditional black mourning arm band.
This led to the tradition to cover the blue star with a gold star on the Service flag to indicate that the service member has died or been killed.
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