Risking their Lives to Protect Democracy and Freedom
Posted at "Peace Journalism"
By Linda Zoblotsky

President Bush has said time and time again that the courageous men and women serving in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting over there for a worthy cause. President Bush also claims to be interested in selecting "strict constitutionalists" for The Supreme Court. President Bush also claimed that the United States does not practice torture while threatening to veto a bill for the first time. That bill is John McCain's anti-torture amendment. In that Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark is risking his life to defend Saddam, defending Saddam is not a worthy cause. Ramsey Clark recognizes that while the U.S. is spreading American ideals of "freedom and democracy" in the Middle East, the practice of justice is a worthy ideal to spread as well. The result could very well be that Saddam will make a historically correct claim, that he was once a friend of the United States, when it served us best, as Iran was and is an equal enemy of Saddam's and the United State's government. Saddam is now being held in the custody of The United States. These worthy men and women serving in Iraq have accomplished removing Saddam from power in the interest of removing a ruthless dictator and in the interest of securing their sources, THE OIL, for the best interests of the U.S.

As the United States has been at war with Iraq throughout the Bush I and Clinton administration, using starvation, radiation and bombs against the innocent population, perhaps in Ramsey Clark serving in Saddam's defense, the people of the United States might note that justice is a worthy American ideal to preserve, even in the hearings of Saddam. And while Saddam is having his day in Court, it is time for the American people to also demand that the prisoners of Bush's war in Iraq, Guantanimo Bay and in torture friendly countries around the world also have their day in court, once again practicing these worthy American ideals of justice. If the United States continues on this barbaric course of torture, in order to extract information, we put our own citizens and those serving the military at risk, when at the same time, we are trying to protect and preserve our homeland security. It seems that by torturing and murdering others, we have replaced the dictatorship of Saddam with the dictatorship of Bush.

A BRAVE AND STARTLING TRUTH
Poem by Maya Angelou

[Duchess Note - This beautiful poem was shared with me and other NYC Dept of Peace members by Maria. Thank you so much! By all means, do share with others. Peace & Justice!]

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms













We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.