You Have Spoken
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“I don’t have an agenda, I don’t have a program. I’m not a communist or a socialist. I guess I’m a left-libertarian and a populist, and I believe in the Bill of Rights the way some folks believe in the Bible.”
– Molly Ivins, 1944-2007
Stats
I’m glad you are doing this. Big and bold…that’s how the numbers should appear.
Cindy Sheehan has discontinued her War Protests. She says it has cost her too much, and now she is going to take what she has left, and go home.
Let us not allow this evil adminstration to destroy all those who oppose it.
I hope she finds some solace, and comfort, in knowing she tried, and gave all, including a child, and was admired by many.
Rest and Heal Cindy…
Let the torch continue to be passed to the ones strong enough to oppose G.W. and his evil empire.
We will always love you..
Mom, I couldn’t agree more.
I am almost relieved that she is bowing out and I’m glad she does it with a strong statement. She isn’t physically well and surely the vitiol she has endured has taken an heavy emotional toll. But no matter where she is or what she is doing, she will always be the mother of the modern peace movement. No patriot has ever served her country better than this humble, soft-spoken woman.
Petition: CBS Must Re-Hire General Batiste
Here’s a brief letter you can send to your email circle. Please send it along right away, but please only contact people who know you personally. Spam hurts our campaign.
Click here to open a new e-mail and invite your friends, family and colleagues to get involved:
Invite friends and colleagues.
Or, you can cut and paste the text below into an email message:
Subject: Help Stop Censorship at CBS
Hi,
Remember when shock-jock Don Imus used racist and misogynistic terms to refer to a women’s college basketball team? Well, it took CBS two weeks to fire him for that but it only took them TWO DAYS to fire a respected General from Iraq for speaking out against the president on the war.
CBS shouldn’t be censoring or firing people for speaking their mind. I signed a petition urging CBS to re-hire General Batiste — can you join me at the link below?
http://pol.moveon.org/batiste/?r_by=-8299595-MrkZnw&rc=paste
There’s more information on the firing on that page, too.
Thanks!
More details:
A few weeks ago, the very effective grassroots veterans organization VoteVets released a series of ads featuring retired military leaders speaking out about the broken policy in Iraq. One of them, General John Batiste, spoke forcefully about Bush’s “failed strategy that is breaking our great Army.”
The price of speaking out? General Batiste was fired from his job at CBS.
Now, there are other retired military members voicing support for the policy of George Bush, and none of them have been fired for it.
This is another in a long line of attempts to make speaking out costly to those who do it, from the Dixie Chicks being pulled from radio play lists to the savage attacks on Jack Murtha — the smear of Matt Dowd after he spoke out against his old boss — or the way in which retired military leaders who dared call for Don Rumsfeld’s resignation were dismissed and even attacked as disloyal, painted as threats to civilian control of the armed forces. That is cheap and it is shameful.
At a time when the administration cannot let go of the myths and outright lies it broadcast in the rush to war in Iraq, those who know better must speak out.
I know from experience how hard it can be to speak out against a war when there are many powerful forces trying to silence you. But I also know how important speaking out can be — especially when it comes from those who know what it means to wear the uniform of our country. We need more truth about Iraq, not silenced voices.
So join our friends at MoveOn.org in calling for the reinstatement of General John Batiste.
If we stand together and speak with many strong voices, all calling for a new direction in Iraq, we will bring change.
Sincerely,
John Kerry
Mom: I was so stunned to see Cindy’s letter, but, truthfully, not surprised by her reasons. This country has a habit of building heroes and heroines for the sole purpose of tearing them to pieces. In Cindy’s case, the media reaction was a hundred times worse, because she was a “simple housewife” who lost her child to this media-driven war of choice and had the temerity to speak truth to power. When she called the Dems for their failure to force an end to blank checks and war without end, they turned on her.
The only things I disagreed with is that Casey died in vain and that she failed him. In his name, she created a movement that will not end with her leaving, but will only end when every soldier is home.
Mirth: Am I remembering correctly that you met Cindy at Camp Casey a couple years ago?
Mom, thanks for the take-action ling. This is one of the reason blogs are so vital.
PA: In 2005 I arrived at Camp Casey the day Cindy flew home to be with her sick mother, so I didn’t get to meet her. That first day things were in disarry. People weren’t sure what would happen without her. And then it all started humming again, that very day. Camp Casey Two went up and everyone got back to the work of running this small city. The energy that she made possibly came back, just as it will without her face and voice.
June 27, 2007
Count is 3569
and still growing.
More bablings from Pelosi and Reid on how they are going to stop the war.
They are like Bush. Say it and do something else.
Too true, Larry. It’s becoming more and more impossible to support “our side” when they continue to ignore the will of the American people.
The ironic thing is, the approval rating for Congress rises each time they stand up against the overreaching and histrionic tactics of BushCo, but the more they continue to play footsie with the misAdministration, the farther down the hole their ratings go.
July 21, 2007
Todays total: 3632
American lives lost.
Wonder where all the Right To Life Folks Are.
Shouldn’t they be marching to save the lives of our children….
Or are these moral, conservative, Christian types only in favor of saving lives of yet unborn…
When will it end?
” The answer my friend is (still) blowin’ in the wind.”
[...] Court Contact the Webmaster Link to Article white house Counting the Cost » Posted at The Lady Speaks on Thursday, August 16, [...]
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Eighty-two service women have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to the Pentagon.
Remembering, of course, that women are never allowed to be in combat positions…..
These are mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, aunts…
Officially, they are not even allowed in combat roles…
We do not really know, therefore, if these deaths are even counted.
We do know, that if you make it off the battlefield alive, and die elsewhere, you will not be counted as a “combat” death.
What is the true total?
Yes, Virginia, this is almost exactly like Viet Nam!!!!
Yes, women in uniform who die in Iraq are counted as part of the total. The key being “in Iraq”.
According to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, the number of wounded looks like this:
Wounded and medical evacuations
As reported by the DoD as of 7/31/2007
Non Mortal Casualties……………………………………………Total
Wounded – No Medical Air Transport Required………………..19,116
Wounded – Medical Air Transport Required……………………..8,163
NON-HOSTILE-RELATED MEDICAL AIR TRANSPORTS………….27,397
Non-Hostile Injuries – Medical Air Transport Required………..54,676
Diseases/Other Medical – Medical Air Transport Required……20,849
MEDICAL AIR TRANSPORTS (HOSTILE AND NON-HOSTILE)….28,308
The question is: Do we add all those numbers together? Add, then subtract 5% for superficial “boo-boo” type injuries, then assume 30% (or 50%) mortality?
The military says it doesn’t track deaths/wounded by gender, but I think it’s more likely that they do, but won’t reveal that statistic.
Factor in about 400 US deaths in Afghanistan/Pakistan/Uzbekistan….no one knows the real number of this forgotten war.
Absolutely, mirth. Those killed in the Afghan theatre aren’t counted, and of course, neither our military or our government agencies can be bothered to count the number of Iraqis and Afghanis killed and maimed.
They play with the stats…
They did it in VietNam, and they are doing it now.
So, the public won’t know the facts.
Make if off the field, and you did not die in combat.
The truth..
They think we can not handle the truth.
When, in fact, we are more aware than they want to believe.
Even Senator Warner is now calling for troops to come home….
Do we, and they, have to wait for this evil administratiion to be out of office?
Too many have already lost way too much.
At least they get to keep one son: From CNN
CLOVIS, California (CNN) — Jeff Hubbard fought back tears as he talked about his boy — a “great, great young man” who was killed last week in Iraq in a helicopter crash. It’s the second time he’s had to bury a son killed in the Iraq war.
This time, it was made even more tragic. His third son, also a soldier in Iraq, was immediately on the scene of last week’s helicopter crash and watched as soldiers carried the remains of his brother, 21-year-old Army Cpl. Nathan Hubbard, from the crash site.
Nathan’s flag-draped coffin arrived in Fresno earlier this week and eventually to his hometown of Clovis. Video Watch “We love you Nate” »
Hundreds of mourners gathered Friday to remember Nathan at St. Anthony of Padua, the same church where his oldest brother’s funeral was held in 2004. Nathan will be laid to rest at Clovis Cemetery, beside his brother, Jared.
Nathan and his other brother entered the military shortly after Jared was killed — to honor his sacrifice.
“Their decision to join the military was motivated by a love for their brother and a desire to serve their country,” the priest told mourners Friday. “The death of Jared touched him deeply. Losing a brother and a friend made a profound impact on him, and brought to his attention the seasons of war and grief and loss.”
Jeff Hubbard spoke to reporters Thursday ahead of the funeral, struggling to find words to describe how much his youngest son meant to him and his family.
“I want everybody to remember and celebrate Nate in their own way, the way they want,” he said. “We want him honored, remembered and celebrated — he was a great, great young man. Wonderful young man.”
Tragically, the Hubbards have gone through this anguish before.
In 2004 their son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, was on patrol in Iraq with his best friend and fellow Marine, Jeremiah Baro — also from Clovis — when a roadside bomb exploded, killing both.
Jeff Hubbard says there’s no way for a parent to prepare for the agony a second time.
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“They’re each absolutely individual terrible instances that you deal with the best you can as you go forward,” he said.
Six months after Jared was killed, Nathan and Jason Hubbard decided to enlist and serve together — to follow in their brother’s footsteps.
On August 22 after returning from a scouting mission south of Kirkuk, Iraq, the Blackhawk helicopter carrying Nathan and 13 other soldiers crashed.
Jason, who served in the same Army platoon, was in a separate helicopter when his brother went down and was ordered to secure the crash site.
When he and his men reached the downed Blackhawk, Jason says he realized it was his brother’s unit.
“We also had to remove as many of the men as we could out of that helicopter,” Jason remembered. “And I couldn’t participate in that. I knew my — I knew Nathan was in there. I tried several times to kind of gather myself, but I just — I couldn’t.”
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Jason says as the men carried bodies out of the wreckage, he spotted his younger brother. “At one point they did carry Nathan by me. And that’s when the reality, the complete reality, and complete understanding of the situation came to me and I began dealing with it.”
Under the Department of Defense sole survivor policy, Jason says he was told he will not be allowed to return to war. His wife and young son will join him at his base in Hawaii.
*
Dear gods. This poor family.
There have been 4,058 coalition deaths — 3,760 Americans, 2 Australians, 168 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, 1 Czech, 7 Danes, 2 Dutch,2 Estonians,1 Fijian, 1 Hungarian, 33 Italians, 1 Kazakh, 1 Korean, 3 Latvian, 21 Poles,2 Romanians, 5 Salvadoran, 4 Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, 2 Thai and 18 Ukrainians — in the war in Iraq as of September 6, 2007, according to a CNN count.
The conservative estimate is over 1 million Iraqi deaths.
Nothing more needs to be said.
Still blowin’ in the wind…
This was about Viet Nam, but it applies.
It applies all too well to Iraq.
This is G.W.’s war…Wrong, and immoral, and for oil.
Endless war. Endless death. Endless pain.
But the oil profits are up!! So, of course, G.W. and Dick (Satan) Cheney have accomplished their real mission.
We have to keep being angry, and noisy, and make sure the Prez and Congress hears us.
Please if you are not registered, then get registered to vote, and then be sure to vote in 2008…
Many voices together can make a difference..