Thursday, September 22, 2005

We Aren't Long-haired Hippies Anymore

Tia Steele:

She was stunned when David signed up for the Marines, but she didn't try to talk him out of it. He was a thoughtful young man, figuring out his own path. He took "War and Peace" to the battlefield.

He was killed kicking down a door in Fallujah. He was 21.

...

"David can't have died in vain," she says. "I have an obligation to his honor and to the David that I loved to do something about this craziness. . . . This war is a lie. To keep perpetuating it is to cause more damage."

Shallal:

"I don't want it to be another country with better plumbing," he says.

Before the invasion, members of his family, some of whom still live in Iraq, were divided on the prospect of war. Some thought removal of Hussein was worth the price of invasion. Others questioned the legitimacy.

Shallal thinks toppling the dictator could have been achieved peacefully with more time. The violence, he says, undermines U.S. claims to be doing anything good for Iraq. Life in Baghdad for his cousins is more primitive and dangerous than under Hussein, he says.

The presence of American troops is breeding more terrorists, making America less safe, he says, so bring the troops home now.

Charlie Anderson:

He had a job stocking shelves in Ohio when he enlisted a decade ago hoping for a better future. He kept reenlisting: He felt he didn't have a choice with a wife and daughter and no immediate prospects outside the service.

When the war came, he supported it without much thought. He couldn't believe his country would launch it without good reason and hard evidence. Turning against the war was a slow process.

"To admit that everything we gave up in order to do this was for nothing, that's a hard sell," he says.

...

Anderson says American troops are "phenomenal people who are willing to sacrifice everything" to complete a mission, but in Iraq "the mission keeps morphing."

"What is the mission? Tell me what the mission is."

These are the voices of some of the people from the peace movement that exists in this country. United for Peace and Justice and several other organizations are having their huge rally and march in DC this weekend.

With a full majority of Americans believing that the Iraq war was a mistake, it has become increasingly hard for the rightwing critics to label the antiwar movement as out-of-the-mainstream radicals.

Hopefully, the rally and peaceful protests this weekend will get the attention of the media and be one of the catalysts to begin a serious dialogue about bringing our troops home and finding a way to end this war.

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