Iraq Moratorium #9, a day for individual or group action to end the war and occupation, will be observed on Friday, May 16, in Milwaukee and across the country.

A vigil from 5 to 6 p.m., at Water Street and Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Milwaukee,  is sponsored by the Milwaukee Coalition for a Just Peace and Peace Action-Wisconsin.  It's a high energy event with flags, banners, signs, music, kids, students, and people of all ages joining in.  I'll be there; if you're in town, please stop by.

If you can't make that, or vigils aren't your thing, do something yourself to mark the day.  Wear a button or armband to work, put a sign in your yard, email Senator Herb Kohl, write a letter to the editor, make a donation to the Iraq Moratorium or another antiwar group.  You'll find ideas and more info at www.IraqMoratorium.org 

Check out this NYT piece on how Berkeley is opposing the Iraq War.  

It's past time for municipalities to ramp up war resistance in as many creative ways as possible.

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Six months ago, I was confidently telling people that if the Democrats couldn't win the presidency in 2008, we should just disband the party.

Lately, I have started hedging my bets.  

And an hour with the front section of Sunday's New York Times was enough to make me think that we are headed for another heartbreaking and unnecessary loss.

What did we learn today from the "liberal media?"

1. Violence is on the decline in Iraq.

    2. One brigade of US troops has started to pull out.

    3. The troop surge has not produced the political progress that was promised, so the Bush administration is simply downsizing its goals, to make it look like progress.

     4.  The Democratic presidential candidates appear ready to soften their stances, or at least their language, on Iraq and change the subject to domestic issues.

Here we go again.  

We will be fooled again, it would appear.

OK, that headline is only true in my dreams.

But on a per capita basis, the equivalent happened on Iraq Moratorium  #3 last Friday in Hayward, Wisconsin.

Hayward, a city of 2,129 in northwestern Wisconsin, is better know as the Musky Capital of the World than as a center of antiwar activism.

But 40 people turned out for a vigil to call for an ending the war and bringing our troops home.

If Milwaukeeans had turned out in equal numbers, as a percentage of the population, there would have been 12,000 at our downtown rush hour vigil Friday night. Instead, there were perhaps 100 at most.

In New York City, there would have been 160,000 in the streets.  In Houston, 42,000.   In  San Jose, 18,000. And that’s without including any suburban populations.

This inspiring photo, which graces the Iraq Moratorium website, is not from Hayward, but from Sewanee, Tennessee, with a population of 2,335.

On Friday, Iraq Moratorium #3, will be observed in hundreds of events across the country. At least 10 actions to call for an end to the war are planned in Wisconsin, although not all are listed on the national website.

If you can't attend one of these, or public protest isn't your thing, consider taking some individual action, even if it's only wearing a button or putting a sign in your window. Doing something beats doing nothing.

Events:

HAYWARD: 4 to 5 p.m., Weekly Vigil for Peace, intersection of Highways 27 and 63. Sponsored by Peace North.

JEFFERSON: Peace Vigil, 5 to 6 p.m., Rts. 26 & 18, downtown, sponsored by Rock River Peace Group. Bring your black armbands.

WAUSAU: 3:30 to 5 p.m., Weekly Walk and Picket for Peace, in the triangle across from the County Courthouse at the confluence of Grand Ave., Forest St. and 6th St., sponsored by Northwoods Peace Fellowship.

STEVENS POINT: 3:30 p.m., weekly demonstration,downtown, by the Shopko parking lot, sponsored by Concerned Citizens of Stevens Point.

WOODRUFF: Noon to 1 p.m., Weekly Prayer Vigil for Peace, Holy Family Church.

A U.S. team of world-class bridge players, tired of being asked to defend their country's indefensible actions,disavowed George W. Bush's policies -- and risked their livelihood. All sorts of penalties are being threatened.

All they did was hold up a handmade sign saying, "We did not vote for Bush."  But they did it at a public event in China.

In the polite, refined world of duplicate bridge, it rivals the black power salute of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

Bridge players protest. In Pakistan, it's the lawyers. Can you imagine that here?

Anyway, it's a sneaky way to lead to the question: If they can do that, what are we going to do Friday, Iraq Moratorium Day #3?

Organizers ask people to do something -- anything -- to call for an end to the war in Iraq. It's a largely unstructured, grassroots event, designed to continue to grow, expand and escalate.

It recognizes that it's going to be a long haul to stop the war, and is digging in for a prolonged effort. It happens on the third Friday of every month.

Sunday's Journal Sentinel carried this op ed column. Unfortunately, they edited out the website link, so here it is: IraqMoratorium.org

How to take a stand against the Iraq war

By BILL CHRISTOFFERSON

As we march inexorably toward the sixth year of the Iraq war with no end in sight, the country's antiwar movement is asking itself: What will it take to end this war?

- via MAL Contends

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Air Force is training to bomb Iran.

That's great, the air strike, predicted by many in the reality-based community, is likely to kill many innocent civilians in Iran and destabilize much of the world.

But the neo-con Israeli and American hawks know from experience that war works well, right?

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has been training on long-range flights, including refueling in mid-flight, in preparation for potential strikes against Iranian nuclear targets.

The training program has been taking place for some time but has only been released for publication Friday, the Ma'ariv daily reported.

- via Editor and Publisher

Andrew J. Bacevich, a Boston University professor and a vocal critic of the Iraq war, had his worst nightmare come true Sunday when his son, 1st Lt. Andrew J. Bacevich, 27, of Walpole, Mass., died Sunday in Balad after an explosive detonated near his unit in Salahuddin province.

In a March 1 op-ed for the Boston Globe, Bacevich Sr. wrote that "our reckless flirtation with preventive war qualifies as not only wrong, but also stupid. Indeed, the Bush Doctrine poses a greater danger to the United States than do the perils it supposedly guards against."

How many more will die?

See more at Editor and Publisher

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