October 11, 2007
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 — The Marine Corps is pressing to remove its forces from Iraq and to send marines instead to Afghanistan, to take over the leading role in combat there, according to senior military and Pentagon officials.
The idea by the Marine Corps commandant would effectively leave the Iraq war in the hands of the Army while giving the Marines a prominent new role in Afghanistan, under overall NATO command.
The suggestion was raised in a session last week convened by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and regional war-fighting commanders. While still under review, its supporters, including some in the Army, argue that a realignment could allow the Army and Marines each to operate more efficiently in sustaining troop levels for two wars that have put a strain on their forces.
As described by officials who had been briefed on the closed-door discussion, the idea represents the first tangible new thinking to emerge since the White House last month endorsed a plan to begin gradual troop withdrawals from Iraq, but also signals that American forces likely will be in Iraq for years to come.
At the moment, there are no major Marine units among the 26,000 or so American forces in Afghanistan. In Iraq there are about 25,000 marines among the 160,000 American troops there.
It is not clear exactly how many of the marines in Iraq would be moved over. But the plan would require a major reshuffling, and it would make marines the dominant American force in Afghanistan, in a war that has broader public support than the one in Iraq.
Mr. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have not spoken publicly about the Marine concept, and aides to both officials said no formal proposal had been presented by the Marines. But the idea has been the focus of intense discussions between senior Marine Corps officers and other officials within the Defense Department.
It is not clear whether the Army would support the idea. But some officials sympathetic to the Army said that such a realignment would help ease some pressure on the Army, by allowing it to shift forces from Afghanistan into Iraq, and by simplifying planning for future troop rotations.
The Marine proposal could also face resistance from the Air Force, whose current role in providing combat aircraft for Afghanistan could be squeezed if the overall mission was handed to the Marines. Unlike the Army, the Marines would bring a significant force of combat aircraft to that conflict.
Whether the Marine proposal takes hold, the most delicate counterterrorism missions in Afghanistan, including the hunt for forces of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, would remain the job of a military task force that draws on Army, Navy and Air Force Special Operations units.
Military officials say the Marine proposal is also an early indication of jockeying among the four armed services for a place in combat missions in years to come. “At the end of the day, this could be decided by parochialism, and making sure each service does not lose equity, as much as on how best to manage the risk of force levels for Iraq and Afghanistan,” said one Pentagon planner.
Tensions over how to divide future budgets have begun to resurface across the military because of apprehension that Congressional support for large increases in defense spending seen since the Sept. 11 attacks will diminish, leaving the services to compete for money.
Those traditional turf battles have subsided somewhat given the overwhelming demands of waging two simultaneous wars — and because Pentagon budgets reached new heights.
Last week, the Senate approved a $459 billion Pentagon spending bill, an increase of $43 billion, or more than 10 percent over the last budget. That bill did not include, as part of a separate bill, President Bush’s request for almost $190 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senior officials briefed on the Marine Corps concept said the new idea went beyond simply drawing clearer lines about who was in charge of providing combat personnel, war-fighting equipment and supplies to the two war zones.
They said it would allow the Marines to carry out the Afghan mission in a way the Army cannot, by deploying as an integrated Marine Corps task force that included combat aircraft as well as infantry and armored vehicles, while the Army must rely on the Air Force.
The Marine Corps concept was raised last week during a Defense Senior Leadership Conference convened by Mr. Gates just hours after Admiral Mullen was sworn in as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
During that session, the idea of assigning the Afghan mission to the Marines was described by Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine Corps commandant. Details of the discussion were provided by military officers and Pentagon civilian officials briefed on the session and who requested anonymity to summarize portions of the private talks.
The Marine Corps has recently played the leading combat role in Anbar Province, the restive Sunni area west of Baghdad.
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior Army officer in Iraq, and his No. 2 commander, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, also of the Army, have described Anbar Province as a significant success story, with local tribal leaders joining the fight against terrorists.
Both generals strongly hint that if the security situation in Anbar holds steady, then reductions of American forces can be expected in the province, which could free up Marine units to move elsewhere.
In recent years, the emphasis by the Pentagon has been on joint operations that blur the lines between the military services, but there is also considerable precedent for geographic divisions in their duties. For much of the Vietnam War, responsibility was divided region by region between the Army and the Marines. As described by military planners, the Marine proposal would allow Marine units moved to Afghanistan to take over the tasks now performed by an Army headquarters unit and two brigade combat teams operating in eastern Afghanistan.
That would ease the strain on the Army and allow it to focus on managing overall troop numbers for Iraq, as well as movements of forces inside the country as required by commanders to meet emerging threats.
The American military prides itself on the ability to go to war as a “joint force,” with all of the armed services intermixed on the battlefield — vastly different from past wars when more primitive communications required separate ground units to fight within narrowly defined lanes to make sure they did not cross into the fire of friendly forces.
The Marine Corps is designed to fight with other services — it is based overseas aboard Navy ships and is intertwined with the Army in Iraq. At the same time, the Marines also are designed to be an agile, “expeditionary” force on call for quick deployment, and thus can go to war with everything needed to carry out the mission — troops, armor, attack jets and supplies.
General Petraeus is due to report back to Congress by March on his troop requirements beyond the summer. His request for forces will be analyzed by the military’s Central Command, which oversees combat missions across the Middle East and Southwest Asia, and by the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. All troop deployment orders must be approved by Mr. Gates, with the separate armed services then assigned to supply specific numbers of troops and equipment.
Marines train to fight in what is called a Marine Air-Ground Task Force. That term refers to a Marine deployment that arrives in a combat zone complete with its own headquarters, infantry combat troops, armored and transport vehicles and attack jets for close-air support, as well as logistics and support personnel.
“This is not about trading one ground war for another,” said one Pentagon official briefed on the Marine concept. “It is about the nature of the fight in Afghanistan, and figuring out whether the Afghan mission lends itself more readily to the integrated MAGTF deployment than even Iraq.”
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Marines Press to Remove Thier Forces From Iraq
Saturday, September 29, 2007
YOUR MISSION IS NOT ACCOMPLISHED !
Lance Corporal Alexander Arredondo, USMC pictures above, is just one of the 141 New England service men and women who have fallen for a failed republican policy of the Bush Administration.
Last November 2006, we gave our Mass delegation a mandate to stop the war, and we were serious! When you came back into the district last January 2007, you all promised not to fund the war.
You have all broken your promise to we the people and voters who put you in office. Messer’s Delahunt, Kerry & Kennedy, it is YOU that have failed YOUR mandated mission, which we wanted and needed accomplished! Change your own course and don 't give this Republican failed administration one more death, dollar or day in Iraq!
Bring Our Troops Home NOW!
Monday, May 7, 2007
READ THIS BOOK!
The book Natural Capitalism was used as a text book for a young family friend, Tim Marcella, has helped me with eyes W I D E - O P E N ((0)) ^ ((0)), and showed that .."if we always do what we always did, we will always get what we always got". I want and the world needs a different USA foreign policy and a different president!
As John Lennon said in his 1968 Xmas greeting, War is Over! ....... :) "if you want it"
After hurricane Katrina, I became deeply involved in the work of stopping the occupation of Iraq, by trying to show the human cost of war. Arlington East was one of the fruits of that labor, displaying 2800 grave markers for the fallen on a autumnal day in October 2006, on Cape Cod. With over 215 grave markers for Iraqi children killed as well.
How many US suicides have there been and has it been under reported?
How many US deaths will it take?
How many US wounded? How many Iraqis?
For what ? Oil Profits? Saddam is gone, No WMD! The Iraqis have a new democracy, new leaders. What about the reconstruction and reconciliation. Who running for president cares about this problem?
How many years and what natural resources , and human capital will we squander and for what end?
Millions of refuges from Iraq, the Sub-Sahara, and the whole of Africa are being displaced by war and Global Warming.
How many Iraqi dead or displaced? Millions!
Q. How many Iraqi refuges in Iraq?
Source - Refugees International
A. (RI) Refugees International generates lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for displaced people around the world, and works to end the conditions that create displacement. RI website states that... "An estimated 1.8 million Iraqi refugees have fled Iraq since the U.S. conflict began in 2003 and are now living throughout the Middle East, including Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Inside Iraq, 1.7 million people have been internally displaced -- with 600,000 displaced since 2003. Many of these people have fled targeting by insurgents due to their alleged collaboration with U.S. forces and the new Iraqi government. Others are fleeing the growing sectarian violence at home. RI conducted assessment missions to the region in November 2006 and February 2007 to assess this crisis and is working to bring these refugees to the attention of U.S. officials and UNHCR."
Q. What main countries absorbed the Palestinian refuges in 1948?
A. In the Jordan, Syria and Lebanon!
What was the human cost of these wars?
A. Natural Capitalism gave me some strategies to my new understanding of how we can make a better, more peaceful world. It has the way forward toward hope.
In "Natural Capitalism" the authors Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, Paul Hawken redefine expendable humanity. The "human capital" shows to us the REAL need for anyone to see how we must can change our thinking from old capitalism to "human focused" Capitalism. A must read for anyone running for President, or voting for President in 2008. This young graduate student of the earth who happens to be in Tern Island, Hawaii studying albatross eggs is my teacher, Thanks Tim!
The Albatross - legendary protector of seafarers - is heading for extinction. Biologists have discovered that swordfish and tuna fishing fleets are eliminating more that 100 000 of these birds every year. In a couple of decades most species will be wiped out unless urgent action is taken. Tim is taking action on Tern Island!
Peacefully yours,
John Bangert
--
Not one more dime!
Not one more day!
Not one more death !
Bring Our Troops Home Now!
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Cape Cod Times Letter by Member - Dan Corrigan
None of the people America is killing in Iraq are enemies of mine.
When President Bush and his cohorts speak of "our enemy," he's not speaking for me. I've got nothing against any Shiite, Sunni, or Kurdish man, woman or child. When Bush orders these people killed, he's not killing them for me. He might be killing them for his America, but he's not killing for mine, because my America is different from that.
My America would never torture anyone — an America where government serves the poor as well as it serves the rich. My America believes in justice, talking about our differences with other countries and not killing over them, and belief in the rule of law.
Bush's America, however, is a different story.
It may irritate Sen. Inhofe if he heard it, but let me be clear: None of these Iraqis America kills, maims, or totally terrifies are enemies of mine, especially the children. And I apologize as deeply as I can to these victims of Bush's reckless, unchecked greed. I wish I could tell all of Iraq how saddened I am, how ashamed I am of what America has done to them. When will their Bush-caused nightmare ever end? When will ours?
Dan Corrigan
Harwich
Monday, April 2, 2007
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Follow Citizens Impeachment !
Public Impeachment of George W. Bush & Richard B. Cheney
Saturday April 28, 2007, High Noon
75 State St., Boston , MA 02109
Speakers to include David Swanson, Co-Founder of: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org
Park of a national day of events: http://www.a28.org
Sign up here to attend: http://impeachbush.meetup.com/335/calendar/5605491
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Fellow citizens, you are cordially invited to an IMPEACHMENT! It shall be a People's Impeachment, where WE THE PEOPLE shall impeach Bush and Cheney by Public Proclamaton.
Patriotic citizens, we are calling YOU to do your duty on Sat. Apr. 28th at historic Faneuil Hall in the city of Boston, Massachusetts.
Technically, "IMPEACH" means, simply "to bring charge against". And, THAT is precisely what we in Boston intend to do that day by public mandate! April 28th has been designated as a national day of action on impeachment: http://www.a28.org/boston
If the Congress won't do it, then we will! Together we'll show them how it's done.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT:
We shall gather there at HIGH NOON by the statue of Sam Adams in the public square in front of Faneuil Hall (the birthplace of the American Revolution) to hear charges of impeachment formally and publicly declared against President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney.
We the people shall publicly indict them for their persistent abuses of power, their official misconduct and gross negligence while in office, for their numerous violations of the U.S. Constitution and their sworn oaths to uphold it, and last but not least, for their continued violations of international law and crimes against humanity!
See list of charges HERE: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/petition-4.pdf )
When the people have publicly assembled, our Town Crier shall call them to order. The accused (see photo: http://www.backbonecampaign.org/chaingang.cfm ) shall then be made to face their accusers, the betrayed American public, assembled before them.
The Town Crier shall then commence with the public reading of the impeachment charges against President Bush and Vice President Cheney, aloud for all to hear .
We there, so assembled as a People's Committee on Impeachment, shall then be asked to consider the charges against the accused and to vote 'YEA' or 'NAY' whether Bush and Cheney should be charged with the list of crimes read before them. If the vote by the people be 'YEA', then WE THE PEOPLE (on behalf of the citizens of the city of Boston and United States) SHALL at that time DECLARE Bush and Cheney formally IMPEACHED BY PUBLIC PROCLAMATION ratified by a mandate from the people (in accordance with the 1st & 10th ammendments to the U.S. Constitution and the principles of Declaration of Independence)!
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SO, COME, SPEAK OUT! LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!
Come celebrate your independence from those corrupt usurpers power in Washington who everyday shows such contempt for our Constitution and the rule of law in America.
Come join us as we exercise our rights to peaceably assemble and speak out demanding a redress of grievances from the government!
After we the people have stood up and charged this corrupt administation with for the crimes they have committed, then we will have a number of notable speakers on various issues relating to the impeachment charges, and others talking about impeachment activism locally and across the country.We will also invite ordinary members of the public to step up to the podium and declare their personal reasons for stepping up and impeaching Bush and Cheney for their crimes on that day.
So, come BE A PART OF HISTORY! Or, AT LEAST, if nothing else... come be a part of a REALLY FUN, SELF-EMPOWERING STREET PROTEST and (hopefullly) a REALLY GOOD YOUTUBE VIDEO too - that will help inspire others to speak out and take action as well!________________________________________________________
Of course, we will NEED YOUR HELP, if we're going to successfully pull off this creative bit of street theatre. To send a big message, we need a big crowd.
To get a big crowd of people, all standing up and voting to impeach, we need your help in organizing it.
We need help on that day, Sat. Apr. 28th, and before then helping to promote the event and organize other logistics of the event.
If you can VOLUNTEER for the event (and/or know any groups that would like to help co-sponsor the event with us), let us know.
Email us back and sign up at: http://volunteerforchange.org/e/959?refcode=
We are also holding weekly planning meetings, between now and Apr. 28, each Wed. night at 6:30 pm at the Green Dragon Tavern (the pub favored by the plotters of the Revolution) near Faneuil Hall. Further details on the event and upcoming planning meetings will follow soon.
This event is being sponsored by:
Bostonians for the Overthrow of King GeorgeImpeach for Peace - Boston Chapter
http://www.a28.org/boston
Code PinkRaging GranniesWorld Can't WaitProgressive Democrats of America...and others
http://impeachbush.meetup.com/335/calendar/5605491
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Can a War Hero Love A Peace Hero? Ya Sure You Betcha!
John Murtha, Hero of the War Protesters
He's Pro-Gun, Likes Pork, But on Iraq, the Legislator Is Firmly in Their Camp
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007;
Gruff, jowly John Murtha wouldn't seem to be a Code Pink kinda guy, what with his appetite for pork and his pro-gun, antiabortion Marine hero bona fides.
But there the congressman was, in a Rayburn House Office Building hallway, gallantly protecting some war protesters from the group who had been tossed out of a hearing room and threatened with arrest.
"He said 'I know these people,' he gave me his hand and said we wouldn't be arrested," said Medea Benjamin, a San Francisco human rights activist who was doing her earnest best Tuesday to end the war when her lobbying methods provoked the displeasure of the U.S. Capitol Police. Code Pink ladies on one side; uniforms on the other. In the middle, the impressive bulk of 74-year-old Murtha. He called the sergeant at arms and didn't leave until he was assured the women would be released, Benjamin said.
"He's one of the most principled people I have ever met," said Benjamin of the Pennsylvania Democrat. "I don't know about the past. I'm sure there's plenty I wouldn't like. I'm sure there's plenty about his present record I wouldn't like. But I really respect his position on this issue. And today, he stood up for us."
For the antiwar women of Code Pink, the progressive thinkers at MoveOn.org and liberals from Berkeley to Brooklyn, the 33-year congressional career of Murtha might as well have begun on Nov. 17, 2005.
That's when the defense hawk and decorated 'Nam vet from Johnstown, a gritty town best known for its worst flood, stood alone on the House floor and called for an end to the war in Iraq. He called it "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion." He stunned his colleagues and electrified war protesters, who recognized that his staunch military support could supply credibility to a cause sputtering between teach-ins, action alerts and e-mail campaigns.
They made him an icon, his fellow Democrats eventually moved his way and into control of Congress, and tomorrow, the House is expected to vote on a resolution that would set an end date for the conflict. The legislation, due largely to Murtha's efforts, allows President Bush to deploy troops who don't meet readiness standards as long as he publicly declares it. It includes nearly $1 billion in money for mental health services and brain injury care for Iraq soldiers and veterans, $2.5 billion for training and equipment for military reserves, and $123 million more than the president requested to armor vehicles and upgrade other equipment headed to Iraq.
To embrace him, the antiwar left has ignored Murtha's dealmaking with a man they revile, former Republican leader Tom DeLay. And his support for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and doling out pork from his seat on the powerful Appropriations defense subcommittee to defense companies in his district. And the delight he also inspires in antiabortion, pro-gun advocates.
"To be honest, I didn't know much about him before he stood up against the war," said Gael Murphy, a District resident and co-founder of Code Pink, which awarded Murtha its "badge of courage" last year. "Then I was reminded about the Abscam scandal. He has another side of him."
Ah, yes, Abscam. That 1980 FBI sting featured G-men posing as the posse for an Arab sheik named Abdul who needed asylum in the United States. The public corruption probe brought down a flock of officials, including a senator and five congressmen, before it was over. Murtha's canny political wiles were captured right on hidden camera: He repeatedly refused the $50,000 proffered, but kept the door open if the sheik might invest in some business in his district. "I want to get the goddamned jobs in the district, some bank deposits, later after we've dealt awhile, we might want to do more business," Murtha said. The FBI named Murtha as an unindicted co-conspirator in the scandal. He testified against two other House members who were convicted of bribery and conspiracy.
Then there was the nonprofit a staffer set up in Johnstown to help disabled people find work; defense contractors and lobbyists wound up on its board.
None of that bothers Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.org, the progressive group calling for an end to war. "For people who want to get out of Iraq, John Murtha is a hero," he said. "The issue is the war. Americans are getting shot and killed every day. If Tom DeLay wanted to become an antiwar activist, we'd take him."
When Yvette Clark was running for Congress from Brooklyn last year, she brought Murtha to speak. In affluent Park Slope, with its bistros and chic baby boutiques, the former owner of Johnstown Minute Car Wash packed 'em in. "I had been quoting him throughout the campaign," said Clark, who won and is now a freshman lawmaker. "It was great to have Jack there. He added credibility to what I had been saying."
Murtha is in the unique position of being able to speak to both the antiwar movement and the Pentagon. But he makes it clear that his common ground with the liberals is limited strictly to the Iraq war.
"It's a marriage of convenience," said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College. "Once this is over, he's going to continue to vote for strong defense and they'll part."
Soon after the Iraq war started, Murtha began weekly visits to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Medical Center, a ritual he continues. "I always ask, 'What happened to you?' " Murtha said.
As the war progressed, the answers alarmed him. Complaints about a lack of body armor. Tales of equipment shortages. Murtha returned shaken from the visits, his ruddy face set in a frown. Simultaneously, he was hearing private concerns from military commanders about the way the war was being prosecuted. "The reality didn't match the rhetoric of what the administration was saying, that everything was going well," Murtha said. "They lied so much."
He began to think Iraq was draining resources and damaging the country's military reserves, making it unable to respond to new threats. By November 2005, Murtha had had enough. "I was so frustrated that I had to speak out," he said.
The next two weeks, Murtha's office received about 18,000 letters and e-mails from around the country, 80 percent of them supporting him. Someone from California tucked a $10 bill into a letter, encouraging Murtha to fight on. Strangers stopped him at the airport to thank him.
He has barreled ahead, through his failed bid to be elected majority leader, to craft a strategy to redeploy troops out of Iraq, sparking weeks of internal wrangling within his party over how to end the war.
"We have the same goal, we absolutely want our sons and daughters home," said Tina Richards, the 44-year-old mother of a Marine, who came from Missouri to lobby lawmakers earlier this year. She thinks the Democrats' plan under consideration today doesn't go far enough, but adds, "I completely respect Mr. Murtha because he's trying to deal with the politics and find the best route."
Murtha sees redemption ahead.
"In the end, everything I've said is right," he said. "Every single thing I've said from the time I started out is right. I said it was going to hurt the troops, that the strategic reserve is going to be depleted, that we can't sustain this militarily, that we've got to do it diplomatically. All those things are coming about."
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
March on Pentagon View by Artist and Mother
This march was grim, unlike the rally on January 27th. It was cold and we had counter-demonstrators.
We arrived early, as usual, about eight am, after a long, slow ride through snow and freezing rain, and a middling breakfast at The Waffle House north of Baltimore.
The first thing we noticed on arrival was a maze of snow fences crisscrossing the lawns around the staging area and the Vietnam Memorial. As we moved around getting a feeling for the territory we passed a line going through a security checkpoint. As it turned out, this was the current entrance to the Vietnam Memorial. The line was occupied by men, all leather-jacketed biker types who challenged us as we walked by them yelling things like “You do not belong here” and “You can’t come in here.” I had not planned to go to the Vietnam Memorial but I had thought I would go look at the Roosevelt Memorial or perhaps the Lincoln Memorial. The way to either was blocked by snow fences and heavy security.
I learned later that there had been rumors circulating on some right wing web sites, specifically a site called gatheringofeagles.org, that the peace marchers were planning to defile the Vietnam Memorial, this because someone had spilt paint on the steps of Congress at the January rally. I don’t imagine any of the marchers had any such idea, the Vietnam Memorial being something utterly different from the steps of Congress, but by the look of things, DC officials were sufficiently alarmed by this turn of events to impose some heavy security around the area.
(If you go to the Gathering of Eagles site be sure to scroll down the and hit the link “about” under “sections” in the right hand column. )
It started the day on a depressing note.
The Gathering of Eagles, dressed in their black leather jackets, stood in a group at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. There was a barricade in front of them, a space about a lane deep in front of the barricade, and then another barricade behind which was the staging area for the march. Police, including mounted police on huge shiny well-muscled horses, stood watch between us. Our group found a spot at the front of the crowd and opposite The Gathering. They taunted and swore at us, while the march organizers encouraged the crowd with speeches and chants and lively anti-war music. We danced to stay warm. When the march got under way the Gathering of Eagles lined the street like watchers at a parade. Security was everywhere. They were hostile, mean, squinty eyed, hard faced, and scary. They yelled insults and shook their heads.
The march over the Potomac was frigid. As icy winds came blowing up from that very, very wide river, we felt that we were on the longest bridge in the world. When we got to the other side I kept trying to look back to see how long the march was, it seemed to me that there were still marchers on the bridge as we approached the rally site, but it was hard to tell. We were very close to the front of the march and among the first to arrive at the rally where it was staged on the parking lot south of the Pentagon. The Pentagon itself, huge and unapproachable, served as a formidable and colorless backdrop to the stage. Out of all those many windows, I wondered, how did we look standing here?
We stood close to the stage, almost to the barricade, and were able to see and hear the speakers perfectly. We moved and swayed and marched in place to stay warm. Cindy Sheehan was there and spoke about how standing in front of the Pentagon was like being in the shadow of the Death Star. She spoke about the march against the Vietnam war forty years ago and how we were here again forty years later and how she didn’t want to be out here in the cold as a ninety year old woman marching against another war. Ramsey Clark, attorney general under Johnson and Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman from Georgia also spoke, among others.
(Democraynow.org has video of some speakers on their website.)
The demonstrators started wondering off at around four, an hour before the rally was slated to end. We were all frozen and the best of the speakers had spoken. Our group followed the crowd to the Arlington Cemetery Metro station. While we waited on line to purchase fare cards, which took about an hour, we nibbled on the cheese and crackers and pepperoni that I had brought with me. No one had eaten since our breakfast at The Waffle House. At the Pentagon City mall we thawed out and warmed up and recouped our resources with a burger and a beer before boarding the bus around seven pm and heading home.
As the bus pulled out of the city some riders used the bus’s mike to talk to us and reflect on the days experience. One talked about getting caught up in the snow fence maze with his young daughter and being abused by the Gathering of Eagles as they tried to negotiate the labyrinth and return to the demonstration. Among the vets on the bus one talked about the MIA POW flags that some members of the Gathering of Eagles were flying. How the POW MIA movement symbolized everything that had gone wrong for the Vietnam Vets and how strange it was to see these flags flying on the other side. As I listened I was struck by the irony of these vets supporting an administration that has been so negligent in regard to returning soldiers. I was also struck by how muted the reaction was on our side. The dominant emotion among us in regard to the Gathering of Eagles seemed to be a kind of sadness. I thought to myself that, at the end of the day, we must have outnumbered them fifty to one.
Peace,
Andrea
PS If you feel that you missed out on making donations to the Cape Cod Peace bus, never fear. We came up short and could still use your donations. Make checks out to:
John Bangert
5 Stage Coach Road
Harwich, MA 02645
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