An essay with this interesting title came to us recently from Jane Hanna, former President of the Witherspoon Society.

She sent it with this note, which we have edited slightly at her suggestion:

This essay, it seems to me, provides vital information about how much it is costing our nation to support our present military system. The money that is going into our military machine would easily be enough to fund a single-payer health system, public education from pre-school through college, living wage for all workers and assistance for those unable to work. The list could go on and on.

And this article doesn't mention the environmental cost to the planet of our military system, nor the total devastation of Iraq where its infrastructure is destroyed and a quarter of its people either dead or refugees.

We could reduce the number of our so-called "enemies" around the world in no time, if the money spent supporting our present military system were spent to build schools and health facilities, guarantee adequate safe water for all, and rebuild the world's agricultural practices to sustainable, healthy and safe levels. Instead of teaching and training young people around the world to be killers, could help nations train teachers, doctors, nurses, sustainable farmers.

How would we feel if every nation where we had military bases were to be allowed to have one in the US? President Correa of Ecuador suggested that his country should have a base in the US, in exchange for permitting ours in his country. President Bush talks about spreading democracy yet when the South Koreans, the Italians, the Okinawans, the Poles and citizens of the Czech Republic voted overwhelmingly against US military installations in their countries – they had to accept them anyway.

I pass this on thinking that every one of us should know the extent to which our assets are being drained by a military that has been allowed to run out of control. Even if people are only interested in their own pocketbooks, with no concern for what we are doing to the rest of the world, that would be a step in the right direction.

It doesn't speak well of us as a people that the economic situation that impacts our personal lives seems more important to us than what we do to the people of other countries. However, I'll push for a bit more reality-based thinking whenever it can be encouraged.

New hope in Iraq
[10-9-08]

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Typically on a dreary fall day, my mood despairs. But today, as I learned more about the nonviolence work of the Iraqi network LaOnf, my spirits soared! Beginning Friday, October 10, LaOnf's Third Week of Nonviolence will be a campaign to pave the way for Iraqi citizens to participate in local elections in the governorates free from any and all pressures concerning how they vote.

LaOnf (an Arabic word that roughly translates to "nonviolence") is a network formed in 2006 by Iraqi activists. LaOnf joins together Iraqi civil society organizations to create and support nonviolent strategies to oppose occupation, terrorism and corruption in Iraq. Please take just a few minutes to support LaOnf's work by:

For more information on how your local congregation can support the efforts of Iraqi groups working for peace and healing for and with Iraqis, contact Noah Baker Merrill, convener of CPWI's Prophetic Service working group, at noah@directaidiraq.org.

CPWI depends on your donations. Donate at https://secure.sitemason.com/donation/gATUR2

The media are all over the story, and indeed it deserves our attention when one of President George W. Bush’s former top aides speaks out on the deceptions and illusions (and self-delusions, perhaps) at the heart of the U.S. misadventures in Iraq and elsewhere. Scott McClellan, former White House Press Secretary, has just published What Happened -- Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, in which he describes the President as making momentous decisions on the basis of “gut feelings” rather than facts, and of deliberating setting out to deceive and manipulate the American people.

(The L.A. Times provides one good example of the coverage.)

But columnist Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that’s a little too easy.

The national media, he says (and McClellan acknowledges) served as “complicit enablers” of the Bush strategy. The “liberal media,” it seems, failed miserably to live up to their supposedly bad name.

But, Bookman adds, “here’s the hard part: Much of what is now being said of Bush and his administration can also be said of the nation as a whole. The president was far from alone in preferring to think with his gut, not his brain, in deciding to invade Iraq. If he had not reflected the national mood so well, he could not have led us so easily into such a bad war.”

He concludes: “It is wrong — tempting, but wrong — to try to scapegoat one man for the mistakes of the past seven years, even if that man is as powerful as the president. Our institutions have failed us, and we have failed ourselves. For that failure, we will pay a heavy price for years to come.”

Can there be any question that, since the invasion of 2003, Iraq has been unraveling? And here's the curious thing: Despite a lack of decent information and analysis on crucial aspects of the Iraqi catastrophe, despite the way much of the Iraq story fell off newspaper front pages and out of the TV news in the last year, despite so many reports on the "success" of the President's surge strategy, Americans sense this perfectly well. In the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, 56% of Americans "say the United States should withdraw its military forces to avoid further casualties" and this has, as the Post notes, been a majority position since January 2007, the month that the surge was first announced. Imagine what might happen if the American public knew more about the actual state of affairs in Iraq – and of thinking in Washington. So, here, in an attempt to unravel the situation in ever-unraveling Iraq are twelve answers to questions which should be asked far more often in this country:

Engelhardt’s top five reasons (for each of which, along with the other seven, he gives careful explanations and evidence):

S. F. Labor Council backs ILWU May Day action in West Coast ports with this resolution:

Whereas, the San Francisco Labor Council has a longstanding position calling for an immediate end to the US war and occupation in Iraq; therefore be it

Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council supports the decision of the Longshore Caucus of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) to stop work for 8 hours on Thursday, May 1, 2008 – International Workers Day – at all West Coast ports, to demand "an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of US troops from the Middle East." The Council supports the decision of Branch 214 of the National Association of Letter Carriers to observe 2 minutes of silence in all carrier stations at 8:15 a.m. on May 1^st, in solidarity with the ILWU action and to express their opposition to the war in Iraq; and be it further

Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council encourages other unions to follow ILWU's call for a 'No Peace-No Work Holiday' or other labor actions on May Day, to express their opposition to the US wars and occupations in the Middle East; and be it finally

Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council send a letter of congratulations to ILWU President Bob McEllrath for his union's bold initiative to use the occasion of International Workers Day to stop work to stop the war.

Combat stress may cost U.S. up to $6 billion
[4-22-08]

Study warns of post-traumatic stress and depression leading to drug use, suicide and marital problems.

The Washington Post reported on April 18, 2008:

About 300,000 U.S. military personnel who have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression, a mental toll that will cost the nation as much as $6.2 billion over two years, according to a Rand Corp. report released yesterday.

In addition, nearly 20 percent of the 1.64 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, or about 320,000 personnel, reported a probable traumatic brain injury during deployment, the report notes, although it says their treatment needs have not been determined.      More >>

Converting a permanent war economy
[4-17-08]

You’ve seen some of the endless numbers about the cost of the war in Iraq. So have lots of other people. But sometimes numbers don’t move us very deeply. And the war goes on, the numbers keep growing. And people keep dying.

Mary Beth Sullivan is a trained social worker and community organizer from Maine, who has worked with homeless people, women on welfare and disabled children. In 1995 she began volunteer work with Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. Now she speaks out against the American commitment to a war economy, as more and more people begin to consider the alternative: an economy that promotes sustainability and peace.

The Omaha Weekly Reader recently interviewed her prior to the 16^th annual Space Organizing Conference & Protest at St. John’s Parish basement at Creighton University, April 11-13.

She humanizes the numbers, and it is powerful.

She shared with Bruce Gagnon in a seminar at Ghost Ranch a few years ago, which was sponsored by the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and the Witherspoon Society.

The newspaper report >>

John Shuck posted this reflection yesterday, Tuesday, March 19.  It seems a suitable, modest way to commemorate today’s anniversary of the US war in Iraq

Five years ago we watched Shock and Awe on our wide screen television sets. It was a war led by false pretenses. It had nothing to do with the events of September 11th, 2001. The populace was misled. It had nothing to do with Weapons of Mass Destruction. The populace was misled.

I still wonder what the reason could have been for an invasion. What could this invasion possibly fix? It didn't take long to topple Saddam Hussein. We fixed him all right. One wonders if that is what one nation is supposed to do when the leader of another nation is corrupt? Do you think a military just goes in and fixes it and the problem is solved? What could they have been thinking?

Here we are five years later, a million deaths later, billions of dollars later, and the U.S. is stuck. If the U.S. were to pull out all of its troops tomorrow there will be chaos and increased civil war and many more deaths possibly for years maybe decades. Does the U.S. stay, occupying a foreign land, indefinitely? Of course, it cannot. At some point it will simply wear out and it will finally leave. Then it will leave them with chaos and civil war and deaths for years and maybe decades.

Those of us who advocate for peace, who saw this war as not only a mistake but an immoral act are also in a spot. Toward what do we work? Do we work for the U.S. troops to come home? That won't fix anything. There are wars all over this planet. Those of us who work for peace must look beyond political and military solutions to our problems. Politics and the military machine got us in the mess. It won't fix it.

Those who work for peace must work toward a higher allegiance than political boundaries and tribal alliances. We have done this before. The survival of humanity to this point has been its ability to expand our smaller allegiances into larger ones. Individuals realize that they need families. Families need extended families, neighborhoods, communities, states and provinces and nations. We know how to do that.

Now we have the need to expand our awareness and pledge our allegiance to Earth as the home of all humanity. We are all citizens of Earth. We will not be able to negotiate these issues – and they are life-threatening, planet-threatening issues – by thinking any smaller than what is good for Earth and its people and its life.

We need a change of consciousness and this will not happen overnight. But it can happen if we believe in it and work toward it. We need to realize that what is good for my immediate family is what is good for someone on the other side of Earth. If it is not good for them, it will, eventually, not be good for me or my descendants. Humanity has survived because it has learned to adapt to wider and wider circles of awareness and cooperation. We face humanity's biggest challenge now.

This is where advocates for peace are needed. You are the ones who need to keep yourselves centered, focused, fit, wise, learned, and skilled. You need to work together. You need to dream, sing, hope, and work toward building relationships of trust between people.

Those who will participate in candlelight vigils tomorrow night will be participating in an effort to raise awareness. It is not a meaningless act. It is not a drop in the ocean. You never know what can come from participating in an event such as that.

Posted by John Shuck to Shuck and Jive at 3/18/2008 08:05:00 P

On March 12 we pointed to an economist’s disturbing analysis of the financial costs of the current US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. An new article by Warren P. Strobel of McClatchy Newspapers reminds us of the even higher costs the US is (and will be!) Paying in loss of “power, prestige and influence.”

He writes:

Thanks in part to the Iraq war, the next U.S. president - Republican or Democrat, black or white, man or woman - will take office with America's power, prestige and popularity in decline, according to bipartisan reports, polls and foreign observers.

"The winner of the 2008 elections will command U.S. forces still at war in Iraq, Afghanistan and against elusive terrorists with a deadly reach. The U.S. economy will remain burdened. ... America's moral leadership and decision-making competence will continue to be questioned," begins a study of foreign-policy choices for the next president, which a Georgetown University task force released last month.

"Restored respect will come only with fresh demonstrations of competence," the study said.

The numbers don't inspire confidence: Oil prices are at an all-time high, the dollar at new lows against the euro. Surveys find the United States' popularity and respect slipping in every part of the globe except Africa. A poll of 3,400 active and retired U.S. military officers by Foreign Policy magazine found that 88 percent agreed with the statement that "The war in Iraq has stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin."

Some say we’re “winning the war.”
But we’re losing the future
[3-12-08]

Writing for CommonDreams, Chicago-based journalist and editor Robert C. Koehler draws on the new book The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, by noted economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, to give a truly dread-inducing picture of the future that we are “buying” with the cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, told Koehler, “Because of the war, the national deficit is $2 trillion higher. At 5 percent interest, that’s $100 billion a year, year after year after year - forever!”

Stiglitz suggests that we need a new unit of account: "Think of what things would cost in terms of hours, days, weeks of fighting."

For instance, he says, "Three years ago we had a financial crisis with the Social Security system. For one-sixth of an Iraq war, you could have fixed Social Security for the next 50 to 75 years."

Remember when President Bush vetoed a bill to expand health insurance for children? "We’re talking about days of fighting in Iraq," according to Stiglitz.

(Note: The American Friends Service Committee has a Web page devoted to the Iraq war as a unit of account, including more "posters" like these, at www.afsc.org/cost/banners.htm .)

42 arrested for civil disobedience in Hart Senate Office Building      [3-12-08]

In a special report to Presbyterian News Service, Matt Black writes:

More than 40 religious leaders and faith-based peace activists were arrested in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill late Friday afternoon (March 7, 2008) for their non-violent witness to end the war in Iraq.

Hundreds of people assembled earlier in the afternoon for a public demonstration against the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, and thousands of worshipers gathered at noon Friday in 10 houses of worship here for services calling for peace and an end to the war in Iraq.

Following the noontime worship services, worshipers processed to Upper Senate Park for an interfaith witness near the U.S. Capitol. In the midst of a driving rain, leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Unitarian traditions insisted that people of faith will be relentless in encouraging their political leaders to take bold, unequivocal action for peace.

Multi-faith delegations from the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership — which includes the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship — the organizing coalition of the afternoon’s events, met with high level staffers from both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s offices.

Here’s some food for thought, or for talk

IRAQ BY THE NUMBERS

from Women’s Action for New Directions / WAND

5          Number of years the Iraq war has lasted.   March 19, 2008, the 6th year begins.

3973     U.S.Deaths Confirmed By the DoD (March 3, 2008)

MAY 2, 2003     The day the President arrived on the deck of an aircraft carrier and declared "Mission Accomplished."

64%                 Percentage of Americans who oppose the war in Iraq (CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. Feb. 1-3, 2008)

57%                 Percentage of Iraqis who think it is acceptable to attack American soldiers. (Up from 51% in March and 17% back in February 2004.)

(August 2007: ABC; BBC; NHK; D3 Systems of Vienna, Va.; and KA Research of Turkey)

81,000 - >1,000,000   Estimates of number of civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq (Epidemiologists have estimated that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.)

49                    Number of countries in the Coalition of the Willing when the invasion began in 2003

25                    Current number of countries supplying 11,685 troops — about 7% of the size of the U.S. forces.

>4 million         Number of displaced Iraqis: more than 2 million uprooted within Iraq, and as many have fled to neighboring countries.

$500 billion      Amount spent on the Iraq war as of 3/5/08; more is already approved and being spent daily. If Congress provides additional supplemental appropriations requested by President Bush ($192 billion in FY2008), Congressional Research Service estimates that total war costs will reach about $803 billion.

$3 trillion         Estimate of true cost of war by Nobel Prize-winning economists (see over*).

$270 million    How much the U.S. spends each day in Iraq

$390,000         Cost of deploying one U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq (Congressional Research Service)

$9 billion          Amount lost & unaccounted for in Iraq

Where Have All the Protests Gone?
[10-31-07]

We reported on Oct. 29 on the demonstrations held in cities around the country, calling once again for an end to the US war in Iraq.

Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com, and is the co-founder of the American Empire Project, went to the demonstration in New York City.

He wrote about it afterwards, reflecting on how things have changed (maybe downsizing is the word) since the massive protests early in the war. While protests against the Vietnam war grew over the years, now the number of demonstrators seems to be shrinking.

He speculates that it may be because "the Washington Consensus – Democrats as well as Republicans, in Congress as in the Oval Office – has been settling ever deeper into the Iraqi imperial project. As a town, official Washington, it seems, has come to terms with a post-surge occupation strategy that will give new meaning to what, in the days after the 2003 invasion, quickly came to be known as the Q-word (for the Vietnam-era ‘quagmire')." And even more discouraging, this has happened even as the American people have come to the point where a majority disapprove of the war, and most want the U.S. to be out of there within two years at the most.

At the same time, the current Administration has convinced our people that the government is not something to be trusted, even to be appealed to. "Civic duty" has lost all meaning – even the idea of a civic duty to demonstrate against a war that is widely seen as wrong.

So where are the demonstrators? They are, apparently, staying home watching TV or wandering around on the Internet.

Read the article >>

What do you think?
Do progressive Christians (or other people of faith)
have anything to offer to a nation in this kind of situation?
(Morass? Quagmire??)
Please send a note, and we’ll share it here!

You may want to check out his book, The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation (University of Massachusetts Press), which has just been updated in a new edition that deals with victory culture's crash-and-burn sequel in Iraq.

On Oct. 25 we posted a call from the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, calling on their supporters to join in the mobilization for peace on Saturday, Oct. 27.

Here’s one report on the events held around the country:

The October 27 demonstrations represented another important step forward for the anti-war movement in the United States.

Over 100,000 people took to the streets in coordinated regional and local protests to demand an immediate end to the war in Iraq. The October 27 demonstrations took place just six weeks after the September 15 National March and Die-In in Washington, D.C. that was led by Iraq War Veterans and family members of soldiers and marines.

Anti-war sentiment is growing. The demonstrations yesterday, like the September 15 March on Washington, were noteworthy for the large number of young people - students and young workers - who are joining the front ranks of the anti-war movement in the United States. The Arab American and Muslim community was well represented. The participation of Iraq War Veterans and their families continues to grow. The energy and spirit of the demonstration is an indicator that the people of this country are fed up with the criminal war and occupation of Iraq.

Our light continues to burn!
This Saturday, October 27, participate in the massive mobilization for peace.

Announcement from the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq   [10-25-07]

Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, with 36 Partner organizations, sponsored an ecumenical witness at the Washington National Cathedral and the White House in Washington, DC, March 16, 2007. We continue to call Christians across the country to pray and act for peace.

This Saturday, October 27, tens of thousands of peacemakers across the United States will stand for peace and call for an end to the war and occupation of Iraq. Mass demonstrations in Boston, Chicago, Jonesborough (Tenn), Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle, and smaller protests in dozens of cities, provide an opportunity to make a public witness for peace and to invite others to build a continuous Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.

This weekend, we invite you to use CPWI materials – posters, bookmarks and banners– to call others to join a national movement of Christian prayer and action to:

On our CPWI website, you'll find resources for this weekend, and flyers, vigil tips, posters, and other ideas and resources to support your efforts.

www.ChristianPeaceWitness.org

Three Presbyterians were among a delegation of more than 100 religious leaders who met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sept. 26 during his visit to the U.S.

The two-hour dialogue, held at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City, was the second in a series of conversations focused on establishing a dialogue between people of faith in the United States and the people and government of Iran.

The dialogue was organized by the Mennonite Central Committee and endorsed by American Friends Service Committee, Church of the Brethren General Board, Mennonite Central Committee, Pax Christi, Sojourners/Call to Renewal, the World Council of Churches' Commission of the Church on International Affairs and other groups.

The Rev. Victor Makari, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s coordinator for the Middle East and Asia Minor and Jinishian Memorial Program, said the denomination's primary purpose for participating in the dialogue is the PC(USA)'s ongoing commitment to our church partner in Iran.

Other Presbyterians taking part in the discussion were Joel Hanisek, the PC(USA)'s United Nations representative, and Catherine Gordon, associate for international issues in the PC(USA) Washington Office.

Outsourcing war    [9-25-07]

One of the concerns raised during the Ghost Ranch Week for Peace and Justice was the growing use of contract security operatives as part of the U.S. occupation force in Iraq. That issue rose to front-page status last week when the Iraqi Interior Ministry charged the operatives of Blackwater USA opened fire without provocation in Baghdad, killing at least eight civilians. That is of course being denied by Blackwater, and the U.S. military says they are investigating.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday, Sept. 23, published brief comments by experts on various aspects of the private security forces.

The introduction to the story >>
 

"Nobody gives a damn about these guys. There's a great quote at the beginning of a book about the foreign legion where a legionnaire says, 'Nobody cries over a dead legionnaire.' Nobody cries over a dead contractor, except their families."

—- Larry Taulbee, associate professor of political science, Emory University

"This is the best-supported and best-supplied military operation in history. . . . I don't think the Army could have done much better."

—- Doug Brooks, president of International Peace Operations Association, a contractors trade group

"The ratio of troops to contractors in Iraq is almost one to one. It's unprecedented, and it has moved at a pace that far exceeds our ability to comprehend what's happened."

—- Laura Dickinson, professor, University of Connecticut School of Law

"We're putting guys in harm's way. There's got to be some fallout. There's lots of guys who are going to slip through the cracks."

—- Psychologist Paul Brand, whose practice treats military contractors almost exclusively, on the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder

"This shows all the signs of the last downward spiral of an addiction. The United States can't win with them and can't go to war without them."

—- Peter Singer, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Corporate Warriors

Launch of nationwide observances set for Sept. 16
[9-13-07]

by Evan Silverstein, Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE - September 13, 2007 – The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF) , an affinity group of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) committed to nonviolence and peacemaking, is urging Presbyterians to join a continuous nationwide ecumenical prayer vigil and witness to protest the Iraq War, starting Sept. 16.

More than 30 religious organizations are expected to launch the non-stop anti-war initiative with prayer vigils in churches and by staging witnesses in cities across the country.

The effort is being sponsored by the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq (CPWI), a group that PPF executive director Rick Ufford-Chase helped form to organize a large national peace witness last March in Washington, DC.

"The prayer vigil will be continuous, 24 hours a day, somewhere in this country," Ufford-Chase told the Presbyterian News Service. "In other words, there will be different churches taking on different pieces of it indefinitely. Probably until at least the spring of 2008 when we gather back in Washington again."

Goals of the effort are to achieve the five "pillars" around which CPWI was formed: end the United States-led war in Iraq and occupation; support U.S. troops; support an Iraqi-led peace process; say "no" to torture; and say "yes" to justice.

Ufford-Chase, who was moderator of the PC(USA)'s 216th General Assembly in 2004, said suggestions for local witnesses include visits to congressional representatives, visiting veterans in the hospital, and non-violent public action.

"That's exactly what we're looking for," Ufford-Chase said. "For churches and campus groups to step up and take those kinds of things on."

CPWI has launched a new section on its Web site where churches, campus groups and other Christian organizations can register their vigil plans and post photos and videos from their gatherings.

"The idea is to use the Web site as a clearinghouse and hopefully have continuous vigils and witnesses going on all over the country," Ufford-Chase said. "People will say 'We'll do a vigil here at this time, anybody who can join us please do.'"

One local event being planned for Sept. 16, Ufford-Chase said, is a small peace witness in the nation's capital.

Organized by a group of DC-area clergy and laity, the vigil will include a liturgy of peacemaking and the placing of more than 4,000 stones at the White House gates to represent those killed in the Iraq War. The event will start at 6 p.m. in Lafayette Park across from the White House.

He noted that Sept. 16 is exactly six months to the day from CPWI's anti-war gathering last March 16 in Washington, which was attended by more than 4,000 people from numerous states, including some 500 Presbyterians and six former General Assembly moderators.

Two of the seven American soldiers who wrote of their pessimism about the war, in an Op-Ed article that appeared in The New York Times on Aug. 19, were killed in Baghdad on Monday. They were not killed in combat, nor on a daring mission. They died when the five-ton cargo truck they were riding in overturned.

The victims, Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, 26, and Sgt. Omar Mora, 28, were among the authors of "The War as We Saw It," in which they expressed doubts about reports of progress.

Among many other important points, they wrote:

As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day.

The THIRD FRIDAY of every month beginning Friday September 21st

Join with millions to:

The slow motion train wreck that is the occupation of Iraq grows more nightmarish by the day. In 2006 the American people voted to bring it to an end. But the political process is moving glacially at best. We must force the media and the politicians to recognize just how angry and how massive anti-war sentiment in this country has grown.

It's time for the Iraq Moratorium.

The Iraq Moratorium will be an escalating, monthly series of actions demanding an end to the war. Commencing Friday, September 21st and continuing the Third Friday of every month thereafter, we will make a break with business as usual.

If you think the Iraq Moratorium is a good idea - if you want to help build it and make it grow - please make a generous donation. This is a bottom up movement. There are no fat cats, no corporate underwriters, no big foundation grants!

STOP the War * Bring the Troops Home
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you’ve been paying attention to the appearance of Gen. David Petraeus and and U.S. ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker before four congressional committees in the past two days, you may be wondering about the ways they have been portraying the situation in Iraq. Bad, indeed – but getting better. Not much, but a little, and if we just keep working at it, and fighting, they see at least some hope that things will get better yet.

For an alternative view of the situation in Iraq, you might take a look at a new article in The Nation magazine, which reminds us of the President’s frequent declaration that his war is making us safer in America. The first piece of the answer:

According to the July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, Al Qaeda has fully reconstituted itself in Pakistan's northern border region. Terrorist attacks worldwide have grown dramatically in frequency and lethality since 2001. New terrorist groups, from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia to the small groups of young men who bombed subways and buses in London and Madrid, have multiplied since 9/11.

Meanwhile, despite the Bush Administration's boasts, the total number of people it has convicted of engaging in a terrorist act since 9/11 is one (Richard Reid, the shoe bomber).

Following what former Attorney General John Ashcroft called the "paradigm of prevention," the US has engaged in acts of torture, "preventive detention," violation of human rights in the US and around the world, and much more. The result has been to increase America’s isolation, to escalate hostility toward the US in the Muslim world, and much more.

It’s a fairly long article by David Cole and Jules Lobel, but worth a read if you want helpful ways to think (and talk) about the endless war.

Take Action
Write a letter to the editor about the September 11 anniversary.

Six years ago nobody could say for sure what was the best response to the September 11 attacks. But six years later the results are in: In an essay published this week, FCNL’s Senior Military Analyst Dan Smith talks about the rising costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and analyzes how the unilateral, "preemptive" military response to the September 11 attacks has increased hatred of the United States, helped to recruit new supporters for violent armed groups, and destabilized key U.S. allies in the Middle East.

Despite these negative consequences, Congress continues to focus U.S. foreign policy almost exclusively on military solutions. The budget approved by Congress allocates 95 percent of all federal dollars for foreign engagement to the military. The entire State Department budget, money for foreign aid, and support for the United Nations must come out of the remaining 5 percent. Rather than continuing to throw more money at the failed military strategy, Congress should legislate a new policy of international engagement based on diplomacy, development, and support for international institutions.

You would have plenty of company in making your argument in your letter to the editor. FCNL has collected a series of quotes from military officers, U.S. intelligence agencies, and political leaders describing the failures of U.S. policy that might be useful for you letter to the editor.

As Congress receives a number of "reports on the success of the war (or lack thereof)," Wallis is calling on people of faith to pray for our senators and representatives as they begin a crucial debate about next steps in the war.

He writes:

So we would like to begin this great debate with prayer. Prayers for peace and prayers for the wisdom and courage to end this war in the ways that are most protective of human life, especially of the innocent. Our nation's political leaders are listening to the faith community as never before. We've spoken to several members of Congress who are considering reading a selection of your prayers for peace into the Congressional Record.

More on the Surge for Peace >>

One of the concerns shared during the Ghost Ranch Week of Peace focused on the privatization of US fighting in Iraq.

One current report by AP begins:

GA actions ratified (or not) by  the presbyteries   

A number of the most important actions of the 219^th General Assembly have now been acted upon by the presbyteries, confirming most of them as amendments to the PC(USA) Book of Order.

We provided resources to help inform the reflection and debate, along with updates on the voting.

Our three areas of primary interest have been:

If you like what you find here,
we hope you'll help us keep Voices for Justice going ... and growing!

Please consider making a special contribution -- large or small -- to help us continue and improve this service.

Click here to send a gift online, using your credit card, through PayPal.

Or send your check, made out to "Presbyterian Voices for Justice" and marked "web site," to our PVJ Treasurer:

PVJ's Facebook page

Mitch Trigger, PVJ's Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!

Voices of Sophia blog

Heather Reichgott, who has created this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:

John Harris’ Summit to Shore blogspot

John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive

Got more blogs to recommend?