Why Oppose an Escalation in Iraq?

Last night President Bush announced his plans for what is being euphemistically called a troop “surge.” In military parlance it’s called an escalation. When faced with over 47,000 wounded and more than 3,000 dead, the president has decided to escalate – to pick up the pace. That seems to me to be heading the wrong direction.

The President, when faced with the message from the American people that “stay the course,” was an unacceptable practice, was faced with two options. He could draw down the troops, or he could escalate the war. I don’t think the President quite understood what we meant. I say, support our troops. Bring them home now.

There are three reasons why I oppose the escalation of troops. First, the President has proven himself untrustworthy. Second, the President is asking us to NOT trust reliable experts. And third, we’ve already tried this strategy with tragic consequences.

In his speech, the president has said, in essence, “Trust me.” This is the president who said:

• Trust me. Iraq is linked to September 11th.
  
• Trust me. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction that are a clear and present danger to the US
  
• Trust me. We can do this war on the cheap with very few troops,
  
• Trust me. Armor only slows our troops down. We don’t need armor.
  
• Trust me. We will be greeted as liberators.
  
• Trust me. Your National Guard troops are needed for a short period of time.
  
• Trust me. Mission accomplished!

No, President Bush. Like the national debt, I’m afraid your “trust” account is badly overdrawn.

To trust President Bush, we have to NOT trust such experienced voices as the Generals on the ground, former Secretary of State Colin Powel and the entire bipartisan Iraq Study Group. In fact, General Abizaid stated before the Senate Armed Services Committee, "I met with every divisional commander, General Casey, the Corps commander, General Dempsey… And I said… if we were to bring in more American troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq? And they all said no."

Keep in mind that this strategy has already been tried. Last summer we increased U.S. troops in Baghdad by 12,000. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you already know the results – more injuries to US soldiers, more deaths, more civilian casualties and a strong upsurge in violence. The President and the military have had the opportunity to ask for more troops for several years.

In conclusion, I’d like to propose an alternative approach. If the President is looking for an escalation, he can escalate diplomacy. In a recent poll conducted by the University of Maryland, 82% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans said we should directly engage with Syria and Iran to establish a political solution in Iraq, as was unanimously recommended by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. Otherwise, what he can expect is an escalation in protests from the American people.

Here are ten actions you can take today to oppose the escalation of the war in Iraq:

1. TODAY - Attend a rally to stop the escalation in Iraq. You can look at Moveon.org or AmericaSaysNo.org to find a local rally. Can’t find one? Create one!
   
2. Call, email and text message all of your friends and encourage them to attend a rally.
   
3. Call your Senators and Congressman/Congresswoman and express your concern over the plan to escalate the war in Iraq. Call 202-224-3121.
   
4. Join Tom Vilsack’s campaign to Communities Opposed to Escalating the War Resolution. After you sign the pledge, you’ll be given instructions on how to pass a resolution in your home town, county and state.
   
5. Use the power of the pen (or word-processor)! Write a letter to the editor at your local paper. It’s best to actually print it out and carry it in. If not, most newspapers will accept an email, but not as an attachment. Or you can blog for peace. Hey, you read this, didn’t you? Why not write your own blog? If you would rather speak than write, call in to local radio shows to oppose the escalation of the war in Iraq.
   
6. Go big or stay home – literally. Join in the March for Peace. See http://www.unitedforpeace.org. The government brought the troops home from Vietnam, after we took to the streets in massive numbers. It's time to take to the streets today. On January 26th I’m going to be on a bus headed for DC. What are you going to be doing?
   
7. Sign the Mandate for Peace.
   
8. Jump on a train that is already moving! Join your local peace and activist groups. There are general activists groups. For example, John Edwards has formed One Corps. Moveon.org has set up Operation Democracy. There are also specific groups that deal with Human Rights, such as Amnesty International or Civil Liberties, such as the ACLU. And there are groups specifically devoted to peace activism such as United for Peace & Justice, Gold Star Families for Peace or Code Pink.
   
9. Create a photo petition. See the instructions here.
   
10. Support a candidate who supports peace. Two declared presidential candidates have come out in favor of bringing our troops home - Tom Vilsack and John Edwards. You can contribute to their campaigns. You can volunteer to work for them. You can hold rallies in your home to support them. If you contact the campaigns, they will give you plenty to do to work toward peace.

Are you ready to be an Activist?

Picture it - You're sitting in a living room of someone's house talking about...talking. Talking (more like complaining) about how things are wrong, bad, and sad. The furniture is covered in a stiff clear plastic and you keep sliding down the cushion of the sofa. Little doilies with rings of coffee stains cover any surface that is not wrapped in plastic.

The people around you are talking about how unfair the world is, and how we’re all doomed. “It’s not like the old days,” says one lethargic man in a torn t-shirt. He takes a swipe at the 14 hairs he is trying to use to cover the top of his head. “By god, we used to have a great country. Now it’s all gone to hell in a hand basket.”

OK, that’s enough torture. But before we leave this scene, let me ask you, what does that make you feel like? Dry? Bored? Feel like jumping up and running away?

Now, let's replace that picture with a different picture. Let's picture ourselves in a meeting, no let's think of it as a rally, or an event, not just a meeting. We're taking massive action. We're making posters for an upcoming event, or making phone calls to rally the troops. We're talking to the press instead of talking to ourselves. We're making a direct impact on someone's life, like the life of a family that is down on their luck. We're not TALKING about doing something - we're actually doing something. Now how does that make you feel?

That's the difference between a movement and a club. I don’t know about you, but the last thing I need is one more club meeting to go to. I have not time, or interest in wasting my time with a group of stuck-in-the-mud do-nothings. A club sits still and talks. A movement, you guessed it, moves!

The question we get to ask ourselves is, what kind of activist do we want to be? Do we want to be a member of a club or part of a movement? Are we ready to make an immediate and real impact, or are we satisfied with watching from the outside and complaining. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to move!

So, if you’re ready to move, here are five suggestions for you.

1. If you haven’t signed up for a local chapter of One Corps, do so today. This is where John Edwards' organization for putting boots on the ground.


2. Once you join, there’s a link on the right-hand side for you to invite your friends. Here’s one case when many of your friends will appreciate some Spam. I don’t know if you’ve ever volunteered before or not, but volunteering is addictive. You could change a friend’s life by connecting him or her with fellow activists.


3. Be more than a passive observer in your local One Corps group. Make suggestions for activities like a food drive. Here’s a crazy idea. Hook up with a local comedy club (or local bar). Let people come to the club and do 3 minutes of stand-up comedy if they donate cans to the One Corps food drive. It will help the club to get people in the door on a slow night, it will help the local food bank, and it will help get out the word about your local One Corps group. Oh! Here’s a good name for it. Are you ready for this? “Laugh your cans off!” No? Well, anyway, this is just one example. The point is to be active in your local chapter and get others on your team to be active.


4. Schedule a movie night. Brave New Theaters has a wide selection of movies that you can screen along with tools to help you invite people. Here in Cedar Rapids, IA we’re going to screen the movie Money Talks to open a discussion about the cost of health care.


5. C-O-N-N-E-C-T. Just in case you haven’t heard, you are Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, that is if you are one of the millions of people who participate in Blogs (you’re reading this, aren’t you?), Meetup, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, etc. If you haven’t set up an account on any of these services, do it today! And then link back from there to your One Corps group. It is incredibly easy. Also look at local non-profits who might be aligned the same way you are and who would want to connect with you and One Corps. Examples might be churches, Amnesty International, Moveon.org, etc. There are also other new tools on the web specifically designed to help you connect with other activists such as http://www.volunteermatch.org/ or http://www.idealist.org. The more you connect, the more you can grow the impact of your local One Corps group, and the more you can change the world. And after all, isn’t that why you’re here?

OK. So, what do you say? Do you want to be a club, or are you ready to be a movement! Get active today and see how many other people you can challenge to also get active.

Warm Regards,

Tony Loyd
Click here to see my One Corps group
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Cedar Rapids John Edwards Meetup

Faith Without Works is Dead – the War in Iraq

You’ve probably heard that saying, “Faith without works is dead,” or more precisely, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” So, now let’s apply that to the war in Iraq. It is not enough to say we want the war to be over. We have to take massive action if we want to end the war. If we believe in peace, but we take no action, our belief is dead. But with massive action, our belief can be realized on the earth.

Here are a few actions you can take today to bring peace to the middle east right now.

1. Take to the streets! Join in the March for Peace. See http://www.unitedforpeace.org. They brought the troops home from Vietnam, after we took to the streets in massive numbers. It's time to take to the streets today.



2. Support a candidate who supports peace. Two declared presidential candidates have come out in favor of bringing our troops home - Tom Vilsack and John Edwards. You can contribute to their campaigns. You can volunteer to work for them. You can hold rallies in your home to support them. If you contact the campaigns, they will give you plenty to do to work toward peace.



3. Believe it or not, you can end the war with a little popcorn. That's right - popcorn. Screen a film about the war in your home. Brave New Theaters makes it easy. Go there and sign up to screen Iraq for Sale, The Ground Truth, or Sir No Sir.



4. Make a suggestion to your Congressmen/women. How about this for a practical suggestion? Do NOT cut off the funding for the troops on the ground. Instead, cut off the billions of dollars for missiles and ships and other methods of traditional warfare. That will get some attention at the Whitehouse and the Pentagon without harming our troops. If the Pentagon wants to choose to spend their billions on a pointless war, let them. But they're going to have to give up their toys to do so.



5. Heal the real wound that is causing much of the strife in the Middle East. End the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Join with others at PeaceNow.org.

So, there’s the bottom line. If you want peace now, you’ve got to work for it. Faith that we will have peace in Iraq without direct action, is dead. Let’s work together to bring peace to Iraq today.

I Laughed. I Cried. It Changed My Life

I’m sitting in the living room of a total stranger. This might be weird enough, but we’re watching a movie staring Al Gore. Imagine that - a movie starring Al Gore giving a PowerPoint presentation on Global Warming. I can barely suppress a yawn while thinking about it. But nonetheless, here I am in this person’s living room, watching this movie and I am...laughing. Now that’s something I didn’t expect.

In fact, An Inconvenient Truth is just the opposite of what I expected. Someone in the room just commented “Where the hell has this guy been?” Al Gore is animated (if you can imagine that), passionate and at times, yes, funny.

A few minutes later, as Gore is telling the story of his six-year-old son’s near-death experience, I find my self crying. I’m not usually one for crying at movies (though the ending for “It’s a Wonder Life” gets me every time). I also cried one other time, when Gore talked about the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. While may be hard to imagine, you just have to see the movie to understand.

Global Warming is real, it’s a threat and we have to take massive action if we’re going to save this planet. So, in the spirit of being a good activist, here are some actions you can take immediately.

1. Go to your local library and check out a copy of An Inconvenient Truth. Watch the movie. If it moves you the way it moved me, then invite your neighbors over and have them watch it with you. Most people will come if there is free popcorn involved.



2. Buy the DVD at Amazon. A percentage of the profits go to a new effort, the Alliance for Climate Protection, to educate the public about global warming. The Alliance has a list of further actions you can take on their web site. If you don’t need a copy, then donate a copy to the local library or to schools in your area.



3. Go to the EPA's Personal Greenhouse Gas Calculator and figure out how much you are producing in greenhouse gases. Then, scroll farther down the page for several ideas to offset your greenhouse gas burden on the earth.



4. Next, go to AlGore.com and fill out a postcard to go to the Congress. If you do so immediately, Al Gore himself is planning on hand-carrying the post cards to Congress.



5. Hand-write a letter to your Representative and Senators. It seems that Congress takes hand-written letters more seriously than typed ones or email. Express your concern and ask them to support the reduction of greenhouse gasses. Ask them to tell you exactly what they intend to do about global warming.

But most of all go see the movie. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. It will change your life.