Washington, D.C. - On Sunday, May 14, 2006, a colorful protest action, sponsored by “Code Pink: Women for Peace,” was staged directly in front of the White House. It included a mini-parade, a sing along and plenty of roses waving around. The event, a 24-hour vigil, began the day before. Its theme was “Declare Peace on Mother’s Day.” On a warm, but cloudy afternoon, it featured speeches, from 2 to 4 PM, by activists, like: Cindy Sheehan, a leader in the “Gold Star Families for Peace; and Susan Sarandon, a member of the Screen Actors Guild and a celebrated film actress.

Sheehan said that this Mother’s Day has been wonderful, but “very emotional for her.” She related how a soldier came up to her earlier and gave “her an orchid as a present.” Sheehan continued that Casey (her son who was killed in Iraq) had “brought all of us together” and had given her “so many gifts.” She added that the activist community is “making a difference” and that the day will come when the Bush-Cheney Administration “will be held accountable and that we will bring the troops home.”

One of the campaigns that Code Pink, a national organization, has launched is to get the junior Democratic Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, “to listen.” (1) She’s a pro-Iraqi War Lite in the image and likeness of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). Code Pink activists are pushing her to sign on to a Resolution calling for bringing all the troops home, now. Clinton continues to vote to fund the war, which was initiated by the Bush-Cheney Gang based on damnable lies. (2) In essence, pseudo-liberal politicos, such as Clinton and Kerry have acted as accomplices of the Bush-Cheney Gang. As of today, 2,439 brave American military personnel have died in the war, another 17,869 have been wounded. The cost of the conflict is now put at $280.8 billion, while Iraq, a country of 27 million, lies mostly in ruins, and its death toll may exceed 100,000. (3)Reading an “Open Letter” to First Lady, Laura Bush, Sarandon mocked President George W. Bush as a warmonger and derided him for calling himself, “The Decider!” She reminded Laura that Americans really “don’t want their kids to go off to war and die.”

Sarandon was also one of the principal speakers at a large anti-war rally, which was held on the National Mall, on October 26, 2002. Since then, the Bush-Cheney Gang has been caught up in a web of sordid scandals: like the disgraceful torturing of detainees at Abu Ghraib; spying on U.S. citizens; the Valerie Plame affair, featuring the Neocon, Irving “Scooter” Libby; and the case of the sleazy lobbyist and fixer, Jack Abramoff. Meanwhile, it’s suspected, too, of creating a framework, via Homeland Security Agency and the Patriot Act, for a possible Police State. (4)

Showing up, with his bicycle in tow, was Colman McCarthy, an ex-pundit for the Washington Post. He said, “Unless we teach our children peace, someone else will teach them violence.” He is also the founder of the “Center for Teaching Peace.” Famed African-American Comedian Dick Gregory emphasized that “the power of mothers” was one of “strongest” of all the powers and that if harnessed properly that it could radically “change” the present pro-war attitudes. Karen Kwiatkowski also spoke at the rally. She is a retired USAF Lt. Col. and a sharp critic of the Iraqi conflict, who recently worked in the Pentagon. She underscored, “Our nation was marched into war based on lies and false patriotism.” Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, who has just returned from Iraq, was outraged over the fact that the “Mossad is training U.S. troops in Northern Iraq.” She also railed over the fact that while Paul Bremer was the Viceroy of Iraq, that he “couldn’t account for $9 billion” in funds from his tour of duty there. Meanwhile, she added, Americans were “’drowning” as a result of Hurricane Katrina because of the gross failures of the federal government to “protect them.”

On March, 2003, Ann Wright, a high ranking diplomat in the U.S. Department of State, resigned her position rather than endorse the Iraqi War. I think she summed up the feelings of just about everyone at the well organized event when she acclaimed to a loud round of applause, “It’s time to take our country back!”

Finally, the Code Pink activists have again lifted the spirits of the Anti-War Movement. Its enthusiasm, as always, is contagious, even though its numbers today were only in the hundreds. Nevertheless, the War Party has been shaken to its rotten core by the rising voices of dissent in this country. More Americans every day consider the Neocons, like the twisted ideologue, Paul Wolfowitz, who hyped this insane war, as a curse on our Republic. (5) The Ladies in Pink are making a critical difference on the issues. As they chanted out in unison, in front of the White House, “Stop the killings, not one more! Mothers say ‘no’ to war.” I could imagine their call being heard across America. I can also see the day coming when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will be brought before the Bar of Justice and languish in a prison cell, next to that convicted felon, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the hawkish, ex-GOP congressman from California. (6)

Notes:

1. http://www.codepink4peace.org/
2. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/
3. The splendid historian, Will Durant, considered Ancient Iraq,  (Babylon), one of the prime wellsprings of the culture of the peoples  of the Christian West. He pointed out that it had sourced the  “foundations of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, grammar,  lexicography, archeology, history, and philosophy.” The Myth stories  concerning the Creation, a God/Man rising from the dead, a Holy  Virgin Mother and the Flood and Ark; the “Epic of Gilgamesh;”  along with the legendary “Hammurabi-the-Lawgiver,” also came  from  this sacred land, “Our Oriental Heritage, Vol. 1.”
4. Two of the main pushers in the U.S. Congress for the USA Patriot  Act were the salivating War Hawks, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Sen.  Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT). When Bush signed that draconian Bill into  law, the two clowns were at the ceremony, standing by his side, and  smirking away at the TV cameras.
5. http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j032203.html
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_%22Duke%22_Cunningham

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May 16, 2006 © William Hughes 2006. William Hughes is the author of “Saying ‘’No’ to the War Party” (IUniverse, Inc.). He can be reached at liamhughes@comcast.net