When President George W. Bush launched the Iraq and Afghan Wars, 15 million of you in 800 U.S. cities protested and although in fewer numbers, those protests continued throughout his presidency. But when Barack Obama became President in 2009, most of you fell silent, joining the vast majority of Americans who have been silent throughout these wars as the death and destruction continues. Where is your moral outrage? Do you no longer care? Maybe you are caught up in President Obama's charisma and you ignore his actions.
Just before Christmas, in blizzard conditions, between 100 and 200 peace protesters, many of them former soldiers, held a peaceful vigil outside the White House. They were arrested and you remained silent. 77 year old Korean War veteran John Fortier and I host weekly candlelight vigils along Pacific Coast Highway in the Los Angeles area, http://candlelightvigils.blogspot.com/. If the wars matter to you what actions are you taking?
When President Obama abandoned his pledge to end the Iraq War in 16 months, instead adopting President Bush's program, little was said. When he escalated the Afghan War and the death toll mounted again little was said.
That President Obama has now initiated wars in Yemen and Somalia and continued the one in Pakistan still did not get you involved. That he not only didn't close Guantanamo, but has death squads conducting "targeted killings" and secret CIA run prisons which torture as they did under Mr. Bush still does not raise your ire. The U.S. may no longer be waterboarding but does seizing, torturing and holding without charge satisfy you?
Meanwhile in Iraq on Tuesday, just north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber walked among a crowd of police job applicants and their families and detonated his explosives. In an instant, 60 men, women and children were dead and another 160 were seriously injured.
The casualty count was so high, that some of the victims were rushed to hospitals as far away as 120 miles. And Mosques across Iraq pleaded for blood donors. But the next day, renewed attacks killed 14 more in one incident and three others in another. And on Thursday, two suicide car bombings killed 56 Shiite Muslim worshipers and police in Karbala, just south of Baghdad. Another 189 were wounded.
While in Afghanistan Tuesday, a roadside bomb blew-up a van carrying families to a medical clinic, killing 13 men, women and children. Since President Obama's military surge began, people are being killed in greater numbers than at any time since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan nine years ago.
Yet America was deeply shaken when Jared Lee Loughner opened fire on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others in Arizona January 8th, killing six people including a nine year old girl and wounding 13 others. But in Iraq and Afghanistan this would be just another day.
What will it take to get you involved? The deaths and maiming of more U.S. soldiers? It happens all the time including last week in Iraq in which three U.S. soldiers were killed in combat, despite President Obama having declared "an end to combat operations." What ever happened to "support our troops?"
In December when Congress ignored the 9/11 First Responder pleas for medical care, you got fired up and flooded Congressional offices with phone calls, emails, texts and twitters. As a result, Congress did a quick reversal and funded medical programs to help the First Responders.
You could end all these wars by doing the same thing. Please, in the name of God, or for humanity raise your voice for peace. Your conscience will thank you and you will set an excellent example for your children. And as the U.S. races to moral and fiscal bankruptcy funding weapons and wars, you will be doing your part to salvage our economy and to provide a better financial future for your family and for all of our families.
Dick
Editor's Note: Thank you to webmaster Jon Barnes for his research on this piece and for doing an excellent job editing it. The number of protesters and cities is from Wikipedia, 1/21/11.
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