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Today's
Stories
September
7, 2007
Robert
Fantina
Those Iraq Reports: Bush vs. Reality
September
6, 2007
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Bush, Iran and Israel's Hidden
Hand
Allan
J. Lichtman
When General Petraeus Speaks, Don't Listen ...
Norman
Solomon
The Secret Addiction of Thomas Friedman
Yifat
Susskind
Hurricane Felix's First Responders: Courage and Tragedy on the
Miskito Coast
Catherine
Fenton
Why I Am Going to the Protest
Laura
Santina
Can the War Machine be Contained?
Farzana
Versey
Fission Kashmir
Yves
Engler
Haiti: Where a Wage of $2 a Day is Too Much for the Lords of
Industry to Pay
Kelly
Overton
Bang Bang; Shoot Shoot: Is Hunting Racist?
Michael
Simmons
One Jew's Views: The Strange Genius of Drew Friedman and Kominsky
Crumb
Website
of the Day
Dams and Genocide in Guatemala
September
5, 2007
Stan
Goff
The End Begins
Michael
Dickinson
Working for Mother Teresa: Memoirs of a Rebellious Volunteer
Matthew
Abraham
Standing Firm with Norman Finkelstein and DePaul's Heroic Students:
a Defining Moment
Patrick
Cockburn
The Basra Debacle
Dave
Lindorff
Beware the Wounded Beast
Paul
Craig Roberts
Who Are the Fanatics?
Clifton
Ross
Ecuador and the Struggle for Latin American Unity
Elizabeth
Schulte
Katrina's Forgotten Refugees
Joseph
Grosso
Labor Day in New York City
Ben
Terrall
Where's Nancy? On Trying to Protest Pelosi in San Francisco
Website
of the Day
A Guide to Narco Dollars
September
4, 2007
Jean
Bricmont
Why Bush Can Get Away with Attacking
Iran
Patrick
Cockburn
Cut and Run in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
The Haditha Massacre: Spinning a War Crime
Tom
Kerr
Buried Alive on San Quentin's Death Row
Gary
Leupp
The Case of Jose Maria Sison
Sonja
Karkar
The Weeping Olive Trees of Palestine
Heather
Gray
The Best and Worst of America: 9/11, Joseph Lowery and the Lethal
Silence of Billy Graham
Fidel
Castro
The Super-Revolutionaries
Jackie
Corr
Home Depot Comes to Butte--Begging Bowl in Hand
Sunsara
Taylor
Katrina and the Progress of the System
Website
of the Day
Colombia Journal
September
3, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
Brits Flee from Basra
Eamon
McCann
Qana, Derry: The Dead Lie in Familiar Shapes
Joshua
Frank
The End of the Green Party?
Chris
Floyd
Post-Mortem America: Bush's Year of Triumph
Marjorie
Cohn
A Look at Bush's Iran War Plans
Walter
Brasch
The News Drones: How Fake Photos Helped Lead the US to War in
Iraq
Matt
Reichel
Redefining the American Dream
Website
of the Day
Don't Get Fooled Again
September
1 / 2, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Entrapment Snares Larry Craig
Andy
Worthington
Britain's Guantánamo
Saul
Landau
The Tragic Ordeal of the Cuban Five
David
Keen
An Occident Waiting to Happen: Intellectuals and the War on Terror
Patrick
Cockburn
The Collapse of Iraq's Health Care
Services
Diana
Johnstone
Back in Uncle Sam's Pocket
George
Longstreth, MD
& Karen Longstreth, RN
The Sorrows of Occupation: Life in the West Bank
Linda
M. Woolf
A Sad Day for Psychologists--a Sadder Day for Human Rights
Ralph
Nader
Wrapping the World with Advertising
Fred
Gardner
The Trial of Mollie Fry, MD
Ben
Tripp
Enquiry in America Today
David
Michael Green
American Indigestion: Why Bush Governs from the Gut
Missy
Comley Beattie
Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: What the GOP Hasn't
Learned About Tolerance
Michael
Dickinson
Who's Cheating: Remembering Princess Diana
Paul
Krassner
Assholes of the Week: From Larry Craig to Wesley Clark
Ron
Jacobs
A Sports Nation of Millions
Poets'
Basement
Buknatski, Davies and Mickey Z
August
31, 2007
Jeff
Gibbs
Why I Am Not Going to the Protest
Paul
Craig Roberts
The War Criminal in the Living Room
Ray
McGovern
Do We Have the Courage to Stop War with Iran?
Robert
Weissman
The Benchmarks Iraq is Missing
Matt
Vidal
Subprime Lending and Shady Mortgages
Robin
Mittenthal
The Biofuels Trap
Chris
Kutalik
Auto Makers Push Health Care Trust Solution for Industry in Crisis
Richard
Forno
Watching Freedom's Watch
Binoy
Kampmark
Dianified
Dave
Zirin
Kenneth Foster Lives
Website
of the Day
Free
the Jena 6
August
30, 2007
Gary
Leupp
Larry Craig on the Seat
John
Ross
Dead Forest Defenders
Anthony
DiMaggio
Arabic as a Terrorist Language: the Right-Wing Assault on the
Gibran Academy
Jordan
Flaherty
Racism and Criminal Justice in New Orleans
Michael
Donnelly
The Sierra Club Greenwashes Al Gore (and Desecrates John Muir)
Russell
Mokhiber
Whiskey is for Drinking, Water is
for Fighting
Dennis
Brutus
and Patrick Bond
Global Financial Apartheid
William
S. Lind
The Truth Tellers
Martha
Rosenberg
They Call Him Dr. Cruel
Jeff
Leys / Brian Terrell
Seasons of Discontent: a Presidential Occupation Project
Website
of the Day
Bragg: "Old Clash Fan Fight Song"
August 29, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
Maliki and The Mass Shia Pilgrimage
to Kerbala
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The Costs of the Afghanistan War
David
Rosen
The GOP's Outed All-Stars: The Forced Freeing of Gay Men from
the Republican Closet
Dave
Zirin
Confronting Katrina
Paul
Craig Roberts
More Shame, More Sorrow
Diane
Farsetta
Christie Todd Whitman's Nuclear Spinning Wheel
Ben
Davis
Who Won't Stand Up for Kenneth Foster?: Charles Rangel, For One
Alan
Farago
The Housing Crisis and the Environment
Jenna
Orkin
Echoes of 9/11: Another Fire at Ground Zero
Don
Monkerud
The Vanishing American Vacation
Richard
Nasser
Surfing Gaza: More Uplifting News from NPR
Website
of the Day
Don't Sleep on the Struggle
August
28, 2007
Uri
Avnery
The Language of Force
Bill
Quigley
Katrina, Two Years Later
Joshua
Frank
The Fight to Save the Rocky Mountains
China
Hand
"I am Alden Pyle:" Bush's Vietnam Fantasy
Firmin
DeBrabander
Drug Wars: From Afghanistan to Baltimore
Charles
Peña
Nuclear Fear Factor
Andy
Worthington
Good Riddance, Gonzales
Ramzy
Baroud
Abbas and the Abyss
Anthony
Papa
Roger Stone's New Patsy
Ashley
Smith
Drawing the Line at Kennebunkport
Website
of the Day
B is for Bomb
August 27, 2007
Jorge
Mariscal
The General Reports
Bill
Christison
Why the US and Israel Should Lose Middle East Wars
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
911 Emergency! Calling Robert Fisk!: You are Now Entering a Black
Hole
Anthony
DiMaggio
Chronicle of a Coup Foretold?: Bush, al-Maliki and the Press
Bruce
A. Roth
India and the New Nuclear Era
John
Walsh
Abe Foxman's Genocide Denial Roadshow, Part 2
Dave
Lindorff
Gonzo's Gone
Ron
Jacobs
Taking It to the Streets
Binoy
Kampmark
Poshed Up: Why the Beckhams Should Go Back to Brighty
Russell
D. Hoffman
My Favorite Scientist: John Gofman, Bane of the Nuclear Industry
Website
of the Day
George W. Told the Nation
|
September
7, 2007
The Spirit of Charles
Powell
"I
Will Salute No More Forever"
By MIKE FERNER
St. Louis.
His government broke his heart but it
could not break Air Force veteran Charles Powell's spirit. Fighting
back tears, the 64 year-old vet stood tall and resolute in front
of 400 of his comrades, describing in verse the final steps of
a painful disillusionment.
Each summer during the national convention of Veterans For Peace,
time is reserved for a Veterans' Speakout, where any member can
rise to say whatever is on their mind.
When the veterans gathered in 2002, prior to the invasion of
Iraq, George Bush and the hawks of Washington were pounding away
on the war drums. That year, Powell, who had served on a Titan
ICBM launch crew during the Cuban missile crisis, read his poem
titled, "I Won't Let Them Take My Flag." He noted
the warmongers were "again waving my flag" as a buildup
to invasion, and he countered what he felt was a manipulation
of the national symbol with the following lines reminiscent of
the great Langston
Hughes.
But to me 'Old Glory' still
stands for the liberty, justice and solidarity yet to come.
So I still wave it too. I wave it for health care, education,
housing and food for all. I wave it for peace and love and I
wave it for hope. Most of all, I wave it for the America yet
to be.
After four and a half years
of war in Iraq, Veterans For Peace convened again this summer
and Charles Powell was there as always. As his turn came at the
Speakout microphone he struggled a few seconds to compose himself.
Then, in a clear voice growing more determined as he spoke,
Powell mirrored the pain, regret and anger in the hearts of so
many who listened.
I WILL SALUTE NO MORE FOREVER
As a child I learned to Worship
that piece of colored cloth.
My family, my school, the movies,
TV taught me to believe that fragment of fabric stood for good
things.
I watched my father, a World
War II Army veteran, give homage to that wad of material.
As an airman I saluted that
banner for the four years I served in the Air Force where I stood
ready to help launch Titan Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
on command.
Then I became aware that the
wonderful things for which that clump of colors is suppose to
represent, have not been achieved.
I came to know that awful,
unlawful, unwise and immoral acts have occurred under the stars
and stripes.
But I still clung onto the
belief and hope that someday, somehow conditions would change
and the good things for which that rag is still supposed to stand
would yet be realized.
However, I've been forced to
come to my senses.
Now we have: preemptive war,
the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, stop loss, neglect
of returning veterans, ignored infrastructure, billions of dollars
squandered on war and occupation, extraordinary rendition, secret
imprisonment, warrantless domestic spying, disenfranchisement
of voters, stolen elections, torture, suspension of habeas corpus
and denial of due process.
So, even though hearing "America
The Beautiful" still increases my heartbeat.
Although seeing those stripes
still brings a lump to my throat.
Even though the sight of those
stars continues to bring tears to my eyes.
I won't pledge to it anymore.
I won't remove my cap.
I won't stand in respect.
I won't wave it.
I will salute no more forever.
Mike Ferner is a freelance writer from Ohio and
author of "Inside
the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq"
He can be reached at: mike.ferner@sbcglobal.net
|
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