More than 10,000 march on Pentagon

Scenes from the "March on the Pentagon" Rally

More videos on the flip...

Well, here we are at the Old Capital in Tallytown. All five of us. It's a beautiful evening to protest the sixth anniversary of the Iraq War and Occupation.

YOU shoulda been here, we are... Oh well, we'll light a candle for you anyway.

Our Troops and Iraqis are Still Dying

An Open Letter to the Peace/Anti-War Movement from Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans For Peace

After six years of war and the historic election of a new President, we as veterans, military and Gold Star families felt an urgent need to reach out to the larger peace/anti-war movements to make our position on Iraq clear during this time of political and economic uncertainty. Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For Peace continue to stand together in our demand to Bring the Troops Home Now! We ask all those who have stood with us in the past to stay faithful to the cause.

President Obama has announced a plan to gradually reduce troop levels in Iraq. Many in the peace/anti-war movements are breathing a sigh of relief, and suggesting that it is time for us to scale back our efforts to bring an end to the occupation of Iraq. But for our troops on the ground, their families and the Iraqi people, the nightmare continues. They need all of us to stay in the struggle. IVAW, MFSO and VFP have been long united in our call for an immediate and complete end to the occupation of Iraq and will not shift our stance under any circumstances...

Peace Grannies Arrested in Times Square Wednesday, March 18th by Joan Wile

Relax, everyone! The New York City police are really on the job these days. With rapists, murderers, bank robbers and dope peddlers, not to mention corporate thieves, rampant throughout the City, they made a significant dent in the crime statistics yesterday, March 18, when they arrested seven grandmothers aged 67 to 90 in Times Square.

The grannies, all members of the Granny Peace Brigade, were sent to jail while protesting at the Times Square recruiting station. Their arrest occurred during what is believed to be the first antiwar protest of the Obama Administration, in an attempt to urge the President to reconsider his decision to retain 50,000 troops in Iraq after the official withdrawal scheduled to be completed in the next 18 months and his order for 17,000 more troops sent to Afghanistan. The women feel strongly that these measures will only result in increased death and destruction for Americans, Iraqis and Afghanis and further solidify anti-American feeling throughout the world.

Said 94-year-old Brigadier Marie Runyon, "Peace can only be achieved through diplomacy and humanitarian aid." The Granny Peace Brigade women are mostly strong supporters of Barack Obama but were responding to his request that his constituency pressure him to do the right thing when they feel he is on the wrong path...

Lake Ella War Commemoration March 19th

A group of Tallahassee citizens advocating an end to U.S. involvement in Iraq, are inviting the community to come to Lake Ella at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 19, 2009, to commemorate the start of the nation’s 7th year in Iraq.

[This is not to mourn the start of our nation’s 7th year of laying waste to Iraq and its people. Tom]

We ask that each person come to the lake with a candle or flashlight. At 8:00 p.m. the candles and flashlights will be illuminated; fifteen minutes later “Taps” will be played.

Meredith McMackin, who lost her son, Marine Cpl. Julian M. Woodall in Iraq in May 2007, hopes that the community will participate in these events in recognition of the on-going war and its effects.

FMI
Meredith McMackin at mlmcmackin(at)aim.com or 544-0506.

Operation Iraq Liberation 6th Anniversary Candle Light Vigil - March 20, 2009
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

American Friends Service Committee, Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, National Organization for Women, Military Families Speak Out, Pax Christi, Tallahassee Network for Justice and Peace, Veterans for Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War members and friends will join again to mourn the tortured, the hundreds of thousands of war dead, the destruction of Iraq society and humankind's historical legacy.
Candles will be provided.
Donations accepted.

East of the Florida's Old Capitol's steps.
Apalachee Parkway and South Monroe
Tallahassee, FL
Park behind the flag off Calhoun. :
850-322-1509

“Cut and Glue Party” for 2nd annual ”Peace in the Park" March 22nd

“Cut and Glue Party” to make flags to honor those US soldiers, sailors, marines and airman who have died or were wounded in the Iraq War. We will be displaying them at Railroad Square for the “Peace in the Park” event which is April 19th.in Railroad Square Art Park. We are going to install 4,300 purple flags-each flag representing one American life lost in Iraq or Afghanistan as well as 10 wounded Americans [Each flag could also represent 50 murdered Iraqis and 100 Iraqi children that suffer from ACUTE MALNUTRITION over and above the rate under Saddam because of our destruction of Iraq’s infrastructure since 2003], but they don’t] .

“Cut and Glue” Party will be at Anne Allen’s home
Sunday, March 22nd, 2:00 PM
FMI
Jeannie Lancaster at lancaster996(at)gmail.com

170 Organizations Request Special Prosecutor for Bush-Cheney

A movement is building around a simple statement at http://prosecutebushcheney.org

Organizations and individuals are signing on, and 170 organizations have already taken the lead.

Next week United for Peace and Justice will ask its 1,400 member groups to consider signing on.

Most of the 170 national and local groups signed onto this movement before the release of seven Justice Department memos from 2001-2002 in which top officials claimed the right to disregard the Fourth Amendment, Habeas Corpus, and Posse Comitatus:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/40420

Most of these groups signed on before learning that the CIA had destroyed 92, not 2, "interrogation" tapes:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/40360

Most of these groups signed on before the release of Emails in which we discover that British intelligence thought the Iraq weapons claims were laughably dishonest: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/40684

Most signed on prior to the United Nations declaring rendition illegal:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/40627

Would you or your organization like to be cutting edge?
You can sign on at http://prosecutebushcheney.org

You can make a difference in building the March 21st March on the Pentagon without leaving your computer!::::::::

Help Spread the Word Online about the March 21st March on the Pentagon

You can make a difference in building the March 21st March on the Pentagon without leaving your computer!

We are asking everyone to spread the word about the new website http://www.PentagonMarch.org by posting a simple message about the demonstration with a link to the website all over the internet.

You can post the message and link on your own website or blog, or on your Facebook or Myspace page. You can also post the message on any blog where you think people would be interested, in online chat rooms and discussion groups, on message boards and listserves, and on the Facebook and Myspace profiles of your friends.

Basically, anywhere you can post a message and link on the internet, you should post about the March 21st March on the Pentagon and the new website http://www.PentagonMarch.org...

ProsecuteBushCheney.org
WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Federal:
Add your organization or individual name to joint statement requesting a Special Prosecutor. Ask organizations you're in touch with to sign on. The demand for prosecution has been supported by many members of Congress.


Sign a petition asking Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes. Sign now.


Collect signatures in the real world by printing out this PDF. Please enter the data you collect on the petition online and/or mail the completed (or partially completed) forms to JDS, 4407 Garrison Street NW, Washington DC 20016.


Phone and Email and fax the Office of the Attorney General at 202-514-2001 AskDOJ@usdoj.gov fax:202-307-6777 to request a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes.


In June 2008, 56 Democratic Congress members, led by Congressman John Conyers, wrote to Attorney General Mukasey asking for a Special Prosecutor. Conyers and Congressman Jerrold Nadler wrote to Mukasey again in December 2008. Please ask them to re-send these letters to the new Attorney General, Eric Holder. Conyers 202-225-5126, Nadler 202-225-5635. Nadler says he's drafting a new letter.


Congressman John Conyers has proposed extending statutes of limitations on Bush-Cheney crimes. Help make this happen.


Contact the State Department's Office of War Crimes Issues and urge them to ask Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in war crimes.


Here are tips and info. on contacting Congress.


State and Local:
Bush and others can be indicted at the state or district level for murder. Please take these steps. They have also violated state laws against warrantless spying and various other crimes. Persuade or elect a decent prosecutor!

It Was Oil, All Along
June 28, 2008
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

Oh, no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction. But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire, and ashes. And now the bottom line turns out to be....the bottom line. It is about oil.

As in 4000 too many dead US soldiers during the Iraq invasion and occupation. Local activists and concerned citizens responded to the American Friends Service Committee's call to action by assembling in front of Florida's old Capitol in Tallahassee to commemorate 4000+ dead US soldiers.

More pics on the flip...

Update from UFPJ - Reports are still coming in, but it is clear that March 19th -- and this whole week of anti-war action -- was historic.

On Wednesday, the atmosphere out in the streets of our nation's capital was exhilarating. More than 1,000 people -- students, grannies, veterans, and more -- engaged in more than a dozen bold, creative, inspiring actions in downtown DC that disrupted business as usual. The protests made those who profit from war, and those who enable it, stop and take notice.

The energy in those activities was bolstered by the fact it was connected to more than 1,000 actions in all 50 states marking the 5th anniversary of the war and occupation in Iraq, and demanding that it be brought to an immediate end.

And all of this was preceded by 3 days of powerful testimony given by brave veterans of the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Winter Soldier hearings organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War. If you haven't already, we urge you to visit www.ivaw.org now to watch these historic proceedings online...

4000th US - 1,000,000 Iraq War Dead Commemoration Candle Light Vigil 7:30 MONDAY 23MAR2008

Commemorate the lives and deaths of U.S. Soldiers and Iraqis

AFSC urges peace supporters to organize events in their hometowns the day after the 4,000th U.S. military death in Iraq is announced.

Together, we'll mourn all the lives lost in this war and call for the troops to come home.

http://www.afsc.org/4000/index.php?SearchTerm=FL&Submit=Search&m=r

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Tallahassee

5 Years Too Many Tallahassee Iraq War 5th Anniversary observation

To commemorate the beginning of the sixth year of the illegal, immoral, and unjust war of aggression against the people of Iraq, local political activists and citizens of all stripes gathered at Lake Ella in Tallahassee on Wednesday March 19th as evening fell.


The names names of Florida's war dead were read to the tolling of a large Buddhist bell echoing through the neighborhoods surrounding Lake Ella.




Groups represented included TNJP, Tallahasseans Who think Its Time To Come Home, Vets for Peace, Vietnam Vets Against War, CodePINK, MoveOn.org and regular citizens including at least two active-duty members of the military.

Turnout was lower than expected due to a driving rainstorm. Still, approximately one hundred turned out to raise voice and witness to the disastrous (pick your adjective) misadventure in Iraq.

See the full photo album on Picassa

More below the fold...