Opposing the Iraq Supplemental & Iran Threats | Institute for Policy Studies | 26 March 2007 | By Phyllis Bennis

The Congressional resolution passed last week gives Bush another $100 billion to continue the U.S. occupation of Iraq. That much is now guaranteed. The timelines and restrictions included in the bill – clearly responding to the strong public support for ending the war— were weakened almost to the disappearing point to allow the razor-thin vote. Very few of those toothless restrictions will likely make it into the final bill that must survive a super-majority in the Senate, a House-Senate conference committee, and a likely Bush veto.

But the effort to hold Congressmembers to their electoral mandate must be continued and ratcheted up, not abandoned, even as we look towards pressing alternative centers of power (city councils, state legislatures, mayors and governors, newspaper editorial boards, influential clergy, etc.) as instruments to pressure Congress from new directions.
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Where do we go from here?

• What do supporters of Juneau People for Peace and Justice think about goals and objective for the Juneau peace community?
  
• How can we connect with others around the state to augment our work for an end to the occupation and war in Iraq and beyond?
• How can we use the democratic processes to advance our goals?
• What strategies and tactics should we adopt in moving forward?
• How can we be more effective?

These are a few of the questions being raised at our weekly meetings. Please come and join the conversation. We meet every Tuesday at 5:15 pm at Northern Light United Church, 400 W. 11th Street. We need your input and energies!

Restoring America’s Moral Authority: A 10-Point Plan of Action

By Mark Agrast / The Center for American Progress Action Fund
February 28, 2007
As the nations of the world emerged from the devastation of the Second World War, they looked to America for moral leadership. The U.S. heeded the call, playing a pivotal role in codifying international norms for the protection of human rights—from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the 1949 Geneva Conventions—and in creating permanent institutions to uphold those norms and punish those who violate them.

Today, America’s moral authority lies in ruins. The Bush administration’s unilateralist policies and contempt for the law have weakened the international system and the standards of civilized conduct which our nation did so much to put in place. The U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay is a betrayal of everything America fought for 60 years ago, which is why the Center for American Progress Action Fund has joined with leading human rights, civil liberties and religious organizations to urge congressional leaders to adopt a 10-point plan for restoring America’s moral authority.

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Regional Implications of the Iraq War
Chris Toensing | March 27, 2007 | Foreign Policy In Focus
Editor: Erik Leaver, Institute for Policy Studies

President George W. Bush’s vision for the Iraq War was nothing if not expansive. Liberal democracy and popular sovereignty were to supplant tyranny not only in Baghdad, but in nearby capitals as well. And the force of U.S. arms would not be needed to accomplish the latter missions. As Bush asserted to eager applause at the American Enterprise Institute on February 25, 2003, “a new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region.” Democracy, the war party believed, would be contagious.
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Published on Thursday, March 22, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
A Time For Anger, A Call To Action by Bill Moyers
The following is a transcript of a speech given on February 7, 2007 at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

"When Woodrow Wilson spoke of democracy releasing the energies of every human being, he was declaring that we cannot leave our destiny to politicians, elites, and experts; either we take democracy into our own hands, or others will take democracy from us.
We do not have much time. Our political system is melting down, right here where you live."

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Give Us Some Real Political Leaders

Inter Press Service
Ali al-Fadhily*

BAGHDAD, Mar 15 (IPS) - Many Iraqis are now looking to local political leadership to fill wide gaps in a fractured government that is failing to provide security and basic needs.

"Iraqis feel lost amongst too many political currents that blew their country away with their narrow sectarian and personal interests," Mohammad Jaafar, a Baghdad-based politician formerly involved in the interim government told IPS.

"I am ashamed to say that I am or even was an Iraqi politician after all the damage to our country that we caused. It is entirely our fault and there is no question about that."

Many politicians feel similarly. Read story on Dahr Jamail's website

In Washington: Congress debates war funding

Today, the House Appropriations Committee, under new leadership, will complete their work on approving an additional $100 billion for war. Then the entire House of Representatives will have a floor debate. This is a moment for the country to take another step toward peace.

Many groups and people from many walks of life are united in a simple message:

We want no further spending that keeps Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops in harm’s way. Instead, the U.S. should invest in diplomatic strategies, multilateralism, compensation for losses and injuries, and an Iraqi-led reconstruction. These are the first steps on what will be a difficult road to peace and stability in Iraq and the entire region.

Next week begins year five of the war and occupation of Iraq. Right now, we have a big moment to stand up for peace.

Please call your Representative today to ask him or her to replace the violence of the occupation with reconstruction. Also, insist on language that prevents the Bush Administration from attacking Iran without explicit Congressional approval. If we get the language impeding the Administration’s aggression toward Iran into the bill before it makes it to the House floor, we have a good chance to make a big statement.

Call your Representative today

Action: Iran – Congress Can Stop the Slide to War

Your phone calls in the next 48 hours could stop the administration from rushing into military action against Iran.

Members of Congress from both major political parties are concerned that, given the administration’s track record leading up to the Iraq war, President Bush will authorize military action against Iran. Last week the House leadership designed a legislative provision to require the president to seek congressional authorization before launching a military attack against Iran. They attached that provision to the draft Iraq war supplemental spending bill. The provision would require the administration to make a full, public explanation of the need for war and gain congressional approval before launching new military action against Iran.

But, on Monday, the House leadership deleted the no war with Iran provision from the supplemental funding bill. The congressional leadership is counting votes. Apparently, they believe there is not sufficient support in Congress to approve a bar on military attacks on Iran without congressional approval.

Take Action - Call Your Representative Today

The first vote on the Iraq supplemental bill could happen as soon as this Thursday, March 15. Please call your representative today. Ask her or him to publicly ask the congressional leadership to include language in the Iraq supplemental bill that would require the president to seek congressional approval before going to war with Iran.

FCNL has set up a special, toll free number that you can use to reach the Capitol Hill switchboard: 1-800-903-0682. When you reach the switchboard, ask for Congressman Don Young

Read full action alert at http://www.fcnl.org/action/2007/lam0313.htm

Op-Ed Contributor
New York Times

Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?

By ANTONIA JUHASZ

Published: March 13, 2007

San Francisco

TODAY more than three-quarters of the world’s oil is owned and controlled by governments. It wasn’t always this way.

Until about 35 years ago, the world’s oil was largely in the hands of seven corporations based in the United States and Europe. Those seven have since merged into four: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP. They are among the world’s largest and most powerful financial empires. But ever since they lost their exclusive control of the oil to the governments, the companies have been trying to get it back. Click here to read full article.

Occupation Project Fairbanks, Alaska

Press Release 3/12/07

Nonviolent Action - Tue. Mar. 13, 12:45 p.m. End the Iraq War!

Meet at Federal Bld. (101, 12th Ave. Fbks. AK)

Next week Congress votes on President Bush's $93,000,000,000.00 Iraq War and Occupation Supplemental Spending Bill.

Join with us. Tell Don Young:
Support our troops! Bring them home now!
Provide them full benefits, adequate healthcare, and other support!
Spend not one penny more for War!

During his allotted five minutes of comment concerning the recent House Resolution declaring President Bush's plan to "surge" the number of troops in Iraq as not in the United States best interest, Congressman Young misquoted President Lincoln as having said "'Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled or hanged.'" When he was shown that this was not a quote attributable to President Lincoln he said that he would not use it anymore but that he stands behind the point that he was making.

Abraham Lincoln was a pacific man; he denounced war and military glory. When he was a Congressman Lincoln said of Polk, his president, our armed forces' commander-in-chief: "Trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory, that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood — that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy, he plunged into war." Would Don have had Honest Abe "exiled or hanged"?

Another Abe Lincoln quote that Congressman Young should take to heart is: "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King and Gandhi, some may be moved to acts of Peaceful Nonviolent Civil Disobedience. Civil Disobedience is not a requirement to participate.

Action initiated by: Voices for Creative Nonviolence Endorsed by: the Declaration of Peace, Alaska Peace Center, North Star Veterans for Peace, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, CODE PINK, After Downing Street, Voters for Peace, and others.

Local Contact: Rob Mulford, 907-457-5578, mulford.rob@gmail.com

Juneau People for Peace and Justice and Veterans for Peace Chapter 100 are planning for a week of events surrounding the 4th anniversary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq . An art show - "Visions for Peace" will be on display during the entire week beginning Saturday, March 17 at the Nugget Mall. A march, rally and community gathering and potluck on Sunday, March 18th, followed by a reading of the names of Iraqi war dead on Monday, March 19th, a presentation of "What I Heard About Iraq", films and culminating on Thursday, March 22nd with a talk by author and scholar Antonia Juhasz. See Events for details