contributions

MOSCOW: There is "no doubt" that the US military presence in Kyrgyzstan will end as the new leadership in the Central Asian state does not intend to allow it to continue indefinitely, a top Russian lawmaker said on Friday.
"In the eyes of the new Kyrgyz leadership, the issue of the withdrawal of the Americans must be resolved when the time comes," Sergei Mironov, leader of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, told a small group of journalists.
For the (…)

WHY BUSH INVADED IRAQ
By Peter Fredson
I looked at some of my files on the Bush War with Iraq. I wanted to find good reasons why Bush, or anyone, would declare war, cause death and destruction, incur enormous expense, and generate endless hatred and revenge. I don’t know how many are “legitimate”, if any, but here are some reasons I found in the news, on blogs, and in commentaries.
TOP REASONS THAT GEORGE W. BUSH INVADED IRAQ Because he couldn’t catch Osama bin Laden Because he didn’t (…)

(CNN) — A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the former secretary of state’s presentation to the United Nations on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction was "the lowest point" in his life.
"I wish I had not been involved in it," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life."
Wilkerson is one of several insiders interviewed for the (…)

Dear Julieanna,
We continue to be part of the vigil at Crawford, Texas, even as Cindy Sheehan had to leave to be with her mother, who suffered a stroke. We pray for her mother’s recovery and for Cindy’s return.
On Thursday, we had a wonderful “mother’s day” at the camp where all day long, women at the vigil and around the country wrote letters to Laura Bush asking her to intercede with her husband on Cindy’s behalf. In just 24 hours after putting out the call, we received over 500 (…)

By Chris Floyd
The United States long ago ceased to be anything like a living, thriving republic. But it retained the legal form of a republic, and that counted for something: as long as the legal form still existed, even as a gutted shell, there was hope it might be filled again one day with substance.
But now the very legal structures of the Republic are being dismantled. The principle of arbitrary rule by an autocratic leader is being openly established, through a series of (…)

By Michael Georgy
BAGHDAD - An angry Iraqi crowd carried coffins through a Baghdad district on Thursday and threw rocks at American soldiers, accusing U.S. troops of killing three innocent middle-aged brothers, one of them in a wheelchair.
The U.S. military said they had killed three "terrorists".
"They call everybody terrorists but they just commit terrorist acts whenever they want," said Mohsen Thabit, a friend of the men whom neighbours found shot in the head at home after a raid by (…)

By Mustafa Barghouthi
RAMALLAH, West Bank As Palestinian factions vie for credit for Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, many forget that the success really belongs to the ordinary men, women and children of Palestine who have remained in their homeland during 38 years of devastating occupation and clung to the belief in the justice of their cause. The disengagement is a direct result of their patience and resilience, and now the occupation has only one direction to go - backward. Serious (…)

Force Ministries mixes killing & Christianity
by Greg Lloyd Smith
SAN DIEGO, CA — (OfficialWire) — 08/20/05 — Throughout history, religion has been the single greatest source of human-caused wars, suffering, and misery. Without exception, in the name of God, more suffering has been inflicted than by any other manmade cause.
So it should not surprise you to learn of Force Ministries, a San Diego-based organization that purports to be aligned to the Christian-faith, albeit one that (…)

The Neo-cons Never Accounted for the Cindy Sheehans of America
by Stan Moore (Thursday August 18 2005)
"Empires are never benevolent enterprises. Empires are expressions of force, usually for reasons of accumulating wealth and power. Empires take lives from their own citizens and from those they rule."
The Neo-cons thought they had in all figured out when they planned their Pax Americana. They were going to rule the entire world, taking strategic resources for America, keeping (…)

Leaving Camp Casey
The Peaceful Occupation of Crawford
Today started out okay. I did my usual stint with Mark and Mark on the Morning Sedition on Air America Radio. I always love talking to them because they are so funny and smart. We have a 7:10am time. Nightline was also following me to do a "Day in the Life of Cindy Sheehan" piece so they got there nice and early to mic me up. I gave two interviews early this morning where I said that the Camp Casey Peace Movement has taken on a life (…)