Remember the Ash-Heaps of Empire: Call to Action

A Memorial for the Ash-Heaps of Empire

As we enter a new millennium, we could hope that humanity would be on a path toward recovery from the illness of nuclear war. We could dream that our planet would be moving toward greater security and sanity, with peace breaking out as a prerequisite for civilization. We could pretend that terror is dissipating like a mushroom cloud in the twilight…

Over the past century the American culture has become increasingly colonized by the cult of war, in the guise of industrial progress. The development of the atomic bomb was heralded as a great achievement by this cult of scientists and warlords, and they were eager to test the weapons on a large population. In a genocidal decision, they dropped two tests on two different civilian populations, in what will be remembered as the most horrific crimes against humanity in such a brief and brutal moment. It had nothing to do, in the conventional sense, with “war.”

There is no sane justification for the manufacture or use of atomic weapons. It is an inherently evil technology, a tearing of the very fabric of the Unified Field, the Universe in which we exist. Any person, group of persons, or country in possession of, or engaged in the proliferation of atomic weapons should be considered a rogue, a war criminal, a hostile element on a planetary scale. In this new millennium we must expose these weapons of holocaust as violations of international and universal laws.

To apologize for this insanity seems rather rude, when the insanity continues even more deeply than before. Instead, I will speak out against the gargantuan U.S. war machine, which is now spreading as a cancer on the planet... 20 Trident submarines cruising the oceans, each costing 2 billion dollars, each armed with 120 warheads that each dwarf Hiroshima. Each submarine able to create a nuclear winter from which our planet would never recover. And these are only a few of the many thousands of U.S. weapons systems. Choking off the pathways to our children’s future.

I am diagnosing this American society as terminally ill, with “weaponitis.” That is, we have become so obsessed with weaponry, the production, glorification, and deployment of deadly weapons, that our brains have atrophied and we are actually coming to identify with the weapons themselves. Increasingly, you will see stories of stylized heroes who have become “the ultimate weapon.” America has become a permanent warfront, masquerading as culture, from our films and TV to our schools and churches. The military dominates our consciousness so profoundly we cannot separate our identities from war, or weapons, anymore.

I bow my head in shamed silence, in remembrance of the hundreds of thousands of souls killed by American weapons and tortured by the radiation effects. I am profoundly sorry that we have not been able to stop the nuclear nightmare after 60 years, and I pray that humankind will awaken to the horror and depravity of “industrial warfare” before many millions more must suffer….

Respectfully,

B.Z. Bywydd
MUTANEX ChronoCorps
http://mutanex.com

"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
--Albert Einstein


The Wall
by Alfred A. Hambidge, Jr.

The snow was coming down pretty heavy as I walked towards the National Mall. I've always liked walking during a snowstorm; everything seems so quiet, every noise is muffled, even here in D.C. And this storm was a doozy, hammering much of the East Coast.

I don't know why, but I started heading for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. There weren't many people there; few visit during weather like this. As I walked by the panels, relishing the stillness, I came upon a man in fatigues. Though one of those floppy green hats covered his head, he seemed under dressed considering the cold.

The area around him was devoid of wind and snow, as if the Wall created a sheltered harbor from the storm. He was staring at one panel, at a spot about chest high. Upon my approach, he said to no one in particular, "Goddamn bastards are doing it again." The sound of his voice startled me; I flinched, and stopped. He turned to look at me.

"We never learn, do we?" he asked. My quizzical look made him chuckle, and he continued as he turned back toward the Wall:

"It never ceases to amaze me what we let ourselves be turned into cannon fodder for. We let ourselves get talked into all sorts of horror, and only after the body bags start piling up do we begin to wonder why."

We both knew he had my attention now. "Know how many names are here?" he asked. "Something like 50,000," I replied. "You make it sound like a goddamn statistic" he said, "There's Fifty Eight Thousand Two Hundred And Twenty Nine names on this Wall." He said the words slowly, enunciating each one.

"Fifty Eight Thousand Two Hundred And Twenty Nine. Every one of them a son; a brother, or a father, a husband, a cousin, a lover, a neighbor, a friend. Fifty Eight Thousand Two Hundred And Twenty Nine boys brought home in boxes. For what? For fuckin' nothing. And now the bastards are gonna do it again."

"You mean Iraq ?" I asked. "That isn't gonna be for nothing. Saddam is dangerous, he has to be stopped."

The man could barely conceal his contempt. "Give me a break. A danger to who? Us here in the U.S. of A.? Is his navy off our coast? Is his air force flying over our cities? The only danger he poses is to his neighbors, maybe, and they're so worried about it that they're willing to let us die for them, but won't fight him themselves. And they want us to pay them for the privilege. With friends like that...." His voice trailed off. "Maybe you're right," he finally said, "this isn't for nothing. It's for oil."

My raised eyebrows made him shake his head, and he went on: "I don't know what's worse. Killing people over political philosophy, like in my time, or for oil. Hey, at least this time we might get something for our blood. Like ol' Tecumseh Sherman said, 'Nations go to war when there is something to be got by it'. Now oil can be got by it. After a great start, we're gonna be no different than any other empire that came down the historical pike.

"And I know what you're gonna say next. 'He sponsors terrorism'. Where's the proof? I thought we were going after bin Laden for that. But wait, Afghanistan ain't got any oil. So we need another monster, who's got something worth taking. And Saddam is so damn convenient. Yeah, he's an evil sonovabitch who deserves to be taken out, but are we the ones who should do it? Are our kids the ones who should die for it? Is he worth another Wall like this?

"And what the hell is terrorism, anyway? It's not a thing; it's not a place; it's not a person. It is a political and military strategy, that's all. Having a 'War On Terrorism' is as ridiculous as having a 'War on Flanking Maneuvers'. You'll end terrorism when there's no longer anything for anybody to get pissed off about."

"As for now, maybe if we looked at why people are pissed at us, we'd begin to understand. Hell, it doesn't matter whether they're right or wrong; it's what they perceive that motivates them. What you have to address is why they perceive things as they do.

Only then will you start to get a clue. And spare me the bullshit about them hating us because of our freedom. We haven't been truly free in a long time. And now we're letting all this demagoguery convince us to give up what little liberty we have left. Big Brother Lives!

"Look at history, man. The Romans began with a republic, just like we did. The freedom and prosperity that followed made them complacent, apathetic. They became fat and happy, and mistakenly figured that government was responsible. Since their government was such a Good Thing, it didn't need watching, so few paid it any attention. Those with a knack for politics took advantage of that to increase their power, and also their stash. Eventually the republic degraded into an empire, and suffered the fate of all empires. They go broke trying to keep control of every place they've conquered.

"We're heading down the same road. Only this time, it's happening faster. It took three, four centuries for Rome to decline and fall. We might do it in three or four decades. Hell, maybe three or four years. Or months! Who the hell knows?"

He paused for a moment; I could see him trying to calm his breathing. He began to slowly read from the Wall, his eyes moving randomly over the panel. "David T. Hilton. William C. Langham. John A. Gibson. Richard Galan. Danny Lee Frye. Cecil D. Lamm. All these boys blown off the face of the Earth, because we just can't keep our noses out of what's happening on the other side of the world. Ever read George Washington's Farewell Address?"

I shook my head. "He told us not to concern ourselves with what other countries are doing to and amongst themselves. He said it would just get us mired in a big mess. But did we listen? Nooooo. He warned us! Jefferson warned us! Most all of the Founders warned us! John Quincy Adams, about thirty years later, said 'America does not go out in search of monsters to destroy.' Well, now we do, John Q.

"You know what I finally figured out? People don't start wars. Countries don't start wars. It's governments that start wars. Fuckin' governments. And we go along with it. Whenever you see a problem, social or economic or political, and think that government should do something about the problem, do a little homework and you'll probably find that government is the source of the problem. And war is just the epitome of government problem solving. So what if a majority thinks that this coming war is right. The majority is just something that government manufactures and manipulates to give the appearance of legitimacy to what government does.

"And as for those government bozos who say that those who question their plans and motives is unpatriotic and aiding the enemy, well, they can just kiss my ass."

I stared at the ground. Thirty years of fear, of doubt, of anger, of hurt, of rage, was coming out of him in a rush. It made me uncomfortable, but I couldn't move from that spot; I wanted him to continue. He seemed to sense this.

"You know what really galls me? How those that seem to yell loudest for war have never seen one. They've never seen a buddy disappear from the waist up after a shell hit, then see his legs stand there for a moment before falling over. They never saw a friend all psyched up about going home tomorrow after finishing his tour get hit in the belly with shrapnel, see his guts spill out, then watch him try to gather up his intestines lying in the dirt.

"They never saw what napalm does do a little girl's skin. They never saw a 19-year-old from Iowa screaming and writhing on the ground because a mine blew his legs off. They never saw a man take a bullet through the brain, then watch his body flop around on the ground for a minute or so because it doesn't realize he's dead. They never put pieces of someone into a bag, not knowing who it was until you read the tags, because there wasn't any face left to go along with the other parts. They haven't seen the shit I've seen, and they want to do it all over again. Those bastards!

"But what really makes me mad is how those who should know better seem to have forgotten. All those vets in Congress, POW's even, who know what I'm talking about, but will go along with the calls for war because it's politically expedient. Don't they remember? Do they really want another generation of kids to experience that shit? Have they gotten so accustomed to the trappings of power that people are just pawns, tools, mere things to be manipulated for their own ends? DO THEY KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THEY'RE DOING?

"But it doesn't matter. We'll let them do it anyway."

He began walking away, head up but eyes looking down. As he receded into the swirling snow, I saw him raise his face to the storm, toward Capitol Hill. "DAMN YOU BASTARDS!" was the last thing I heard as he disappeared into the white.

I turned to the panel next to me. The wind and snow came heavier now; I hunched my shoulders and lowered my face. My gaze fell upon names near the bottom. William R. Hunt. David F. Bowman. Hector L. Sanchez. David W. Wooden. Gary B. Jones. Oscar L. Thomas. Ramon Hernandez Torres. Thomas C. Mays. Woodrow D. Adler. Jonathan Blue Jr.

I wept.


“We must realize that today’s Establishment is the new George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, honored in tradition, is also revolution.”
-- William O. Douglas “Points of Rebellion” 1969



87 percent of Young Americans cannot find Iraq on a Map

Americans may soon have to fight a war in Iraq, but most of them can't even find that country on a map, the National Geographic Society said last year.

The society survey found that only about one in seven -- 13 percent -- of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military warriors, could find Iraq. The score was the same for Iran, an Iraqi neighbor.

WHERE IN THE WORLD
Among 18- to 24-year-old Americans given maps:

87 percent cannot find Iraq
83 percent cannot find Afghanistan
76 percent cannot find Saudi Arabia
70 percent cannot find New Jersey
49 percent cannot find New York
11 percent cannot find the United States



VIETNAM 2 PREFLIGHT CHECK

1. Cabal of oldsters who won't listen to outside advice? Check.
2. No understanding of ethnicities of the many locals? Check.
3. Imposing country boundaries drawn in Europe, not by the locals? Check.
4. Unshakeable faith in our superior technology? Check.
5. France secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
6. Russia secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
7. China secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.
8. SecDef pushing a conflict the JCS never wanted? Check.
9. Fear we'll look bad if we back down now? Check.
10. Corrupt Texan in the WH? Check.
11. Land war in Asia? Check.
12. Right unhappy with outcome of previous war? Check.
13. Enemy easily moves in/out of neighboring countries? Check.
14. Soldiers about to be dosed with *our own* chemicals? Check.
15. Friendly fire problem ignored instead of solved? Check.
16. Anti-Americanism up sharply in Europe? Check.
17. B-52 bombers? Check.
18. Helicopters that clog up on the local dust? Check.
19. In-fighting among the branches of the military? Check.
20. Locals that cheer us by day, hate us by night? Check.
21. Local experts ignored? Check.
22. Local politicians ignored? Check.
23. Locals used to conflicts lasting longer than the USA has been a country? Check.
24. Against advice, Prez won't raise taxes to pay for war? Check.
25. Blue water navy ships operating in brown water? Check.
26. Use of nukes hinted at if things don't go our way? Check.
27. Unpopular war? Check.

Vietnam 2, you are cleared to taxi"

From: "Salmonberries"



A Vietnam Veteran on Iraq
The Case Against War

by PETER P. MAHONEY

America is going to war. The decision has already been made, by a handful of arrogant elitists who will not be deterred.

The UN? Bush has already said that the US will proceed with or without a UN resolution. Bush has been repeating his mantra "act or become irrelevant." Bush has already made the UN irrelevant.

The US Congress? They are falling all over each other in their rush to establish patriotic credentials before the elections. Hey, what's a few body bags when re-election is at stake?

This war will be waged without compelling motive, at incalculable cost, and will seriously undermine rather than enhance US security. Does anybody care?

1. Justification: One would expect that invading a sovereign country to overthrow its government should require clear and compelling evidence of a threat to national security. We have been inundated with innuendo, rehashed allegations, and, at times, downright falsehoods, yet no evidence that Iraq poses a serious and immediate threat to the United States has surfaced. If such evidence exists - as in the Cuba missile crisis in the early sixties - surely the Bush administration would not be shy about sharing it with the world. In fact, Bush tried to change the justification for war from the fact that Iraq "may" possess weapons of mass destruction to that fact that Iraq has flouted UN resolutions. If this were true justification for war, then why does the US continue to support Israel, which does possess weapons of mass destruction and has been flouting UN resolutions for thirty-five years? Is "may" a compelling reason for war?

2. Security: The administration has tried to convince us that the war on Iraq is part of the war on terrorism, and that removing Saddam Hussein from power will make us safer. I beg to differ. Al Qaida has attacked us; Iraq has not. The focus on Iraq has distracted our attention from Al Qaida, a true threat. Perhaps this is part of the Bush strategy, since his foray into Afghanistan has utterly failed to achieve his original goal -- to eliminate the leadership of Al Qaida. When was the last time you heard Osama mentioned by the administration?

All indications are that war with Iraq will actually decrease our security. The Arab states in the region - particularly our totalitarian allies - are petrified of the destabilizing effects that war with Iraq will have on their countries. Anyone familiar with the tactics of terror understands that the goal of the terrorist is to "heighten the contradictions" - to provoke an indiscriminate overreaction that radicalizes moderates and drives them towards the terrorist's camp. The invasion of Iraq will not reduce terrorism, it will increase it. Osama and his cronies have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

3. International Relations: In the post-World War II era, the United States has been a leader in constructing an interlocking system of institutions and treaties to safeguard the world from the type of might-makes-right policies of Hitler and his allies. Now that system is being swept away by a handful of US politicians who seem to find "the law" - both international and domestic - to be a mere nuisance in the pursuit of their policies. The most fundamental principle of our nation has always been that "the law" applies equally to all, rich and poor, strong and weak. Our government has told the world: "the law" applies to others but not to us. Is this who we really are as a nation?

We are currently the mightiest nation on earth; it will not always be so. World history is littered with the carcasses of "great powers" whose demise was swift and sure when their arrogance for power exceeded their ability to exercise it. What will be in store for us when the next great power decides to emulate the US, and exercises might-makes-right policies against us?

4. Cost: Remember when we were debating how to spend the surplus? In the blink of an eye, it's gone. Where will the money come from to fund this grand adventure? From education, from social security, from healthcare, from domestic infrastructure, from environment. Is this really a price we're willing to pay?

We are already in an economic downturn. War in the Middle East always causes a significant increase in the price of oil. As war hysteria increases, the stock market goes down further. Some are trying to convince us that war is good for business; the evidence suggests otherwise.

Most important is the human cost. Have you noticed that the loudest voices trying to convince us that this war will be quick and neat are those who never served in the military? I don't claim that my service as an infantry lieutenant in Vietnam gives me any special insight into war, but I did learn two things. The first is that no war ever goes according to plan. The most likely scenario is that Iraq's troops will retreat into the cities. The resulting loss of life - both among US troops and innocent Iraqi civilians -- from this urban warfare will be horrific.

The second thing I learned from Vietnam is that soldiers are required to do their jobs when politicians fail to do theirs. We always reward our politicians for starting wars; it is what makes it so appealing to them. Start a war, and people forget about the failure of our intelligence agencies, the failure in Afghanistan, the failure of our economy, the infringement of our civil liberties, the totalitarian arrogance of our president, the corporate greed scandals and the administration's role in them. Isn't it time we punished our politicians for starting wars?

No, it will not be so. America is going to war. And it will be our children who will reap the grim fruits of our folly.

Peter P. Mahoney is a Vietnam veteran who lives in Warren, Vermont.
He can be reached at: pmahoney@iscvt.org


Mark Twain, after viewing a pre-emptive war in the Philippines a century
ago.

"Oh Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our
shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their
patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of guns with the shrieks of their
wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a
hurricane of fire; ...help us to turn them out roofless with their little
children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land.... We ask
it, in the sprit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love."


Hearts, minds and bodybags
Iraq can't be a Vietnam, pundits insist. Those who were there know better

James Fox
The Guardian

In Vietnam in 1972 there was a hearts and minds programme called chieu hoi to entice the population in the south to rally to the government. The late Gavin Young of the Observer quipped: "I think the Americans have bitten off more than they can chieu hoi ."

Is this the case with Iraq if, whatever happens in Baghdad, liberation turns to occupation and resistance? To lose the hearts and minds, which the Americans have surely done so far in Iraq, would surely be to lose the war, whatever the strategic results. But don't whisper "Vietnam", and certainly "quagmire", the word with which the Iraqis daily taunt the Americans. To do so in print has invited the reflex denial that the topography - desert versus jungle - is different and not good for guerrilla war; that Vietnam took 10 years to lose and we've been here two weeks. One historian wrote last week that the Iraqis were not "politicised as the Vietnamese were by the Vietcong", a startling observation given the evidence of recent days.

Nationalism, patriotism and fatwas from the Arab world are surely enough. Iraqi strategists, according to one Arab editor, study Vietnam constantly. And they talk of it too. Not only will 100 Bin Ladens be unleashed by this struggle, they say, but "100 Vietnams". "Let our cities be our swamps and our buildings our jungles," Tariq Aziz told the Institute of Strategic Studies before war began. Yesterday Iraq's information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, talked of turning Iraq into "another Indochina". Has Baghdad become a mini Ho Chi Minh trail of hidden tunnels and arsenals?

George C Scott, as General Patton in the eponymous film, hisses: "Rommel, you sonofabitch, I read your book". The key book for the Iraqis was written by General Vo Nguyen Giap, the brilliant architect of the war against the French and the Americans. It was published in English in 1961, under the title People's War, People's Army, long before the US war in Vietnam hotted up.

Though full of partyspeak, it shows how easy it is to hold up and demoralise a hugely superior army that has a long supply convoy. Giap exploited what he called "the contradictions of the aggressive colonial war". The invaders have to fan out and operate far from their bases. When they deploy, said Giap, "their broken-up units become easy prey". First harass the enemy, "rotting" away his rear and reserves, forcing him to deploy troops to defend bases and perimeters.

"Is the enemy strong?" wrote Giap. "One avoids him. Is he weak? One attacks him." There will never be enough troops to hold down the scattered guerrilla forces. General William Westmoreland, commander of US forces in Vietnam, estimated that he would have needed 2 million troops to "pacify" the country. At the peak of the war he had half that number. You can apply the principle to Baghdad or the country beyond - the topography matters less than the principle. Commanders talk of their puzzlement at Republican Guard units "melting away" after the onslaught of last week. Are they preparing a trap?

It was astonishing to read of the surprise on the part of the military at the Iraqis' methods. The commander of the Desert Rats said that their "terror tactics" were "outside the rules of war", although anyone who has attended a war knows there aren't any rules. Hue was the last pitched battle fought by the Americans during the 1968 Tet offensive. In that battle, 5,000 Vietcong infiltrators climbed out of their civilian clothes in the city to reveal their North Vietnamese uniforms. General Westmoreland complained that Tet "was characterised by treachery and deceitfulness" - the same outrageous methods Bush speaks about today.

The Americans were surprised and outraged by the Vietnamese tactics right to the end, consistently underestimating the North Vietnamese army's strength and determination. I remember the shock in 1972 when the North Vietnamese launched a fierce barrage far from its bases with deeply dug-in 130mm guns south of the demilitarised zone. Giap had stockpiled massive underground arsenals.

The Iraq campaign has swiftly changed from a "hearts and minds" operation of liberation to one of winning the war. The Anglo-American forces have not won the cooperation of the local population that is so vital for military-political control. From the Iraqi point of view, since you can't win, the only real weapon is the demoralisation of the enemy, keeping the war going as long as possible and uniting the population against them. Mark Franchetti reported vividly last weekend on frightened marines shooting up any taxi that moved, describing the fresh-faced soldiers he had met a few days ealier turning into scared, demoralised killers - echoes again of the Vietnam era.

Giap wanted to wage a protracted guerrilla war of attrition and mount a parallel political offensive aimed at the US democratic system, which would not bear for ever a long, inconclusive war. The Iraqis are doing the same. What took years to build up in the US during the Vietnam war - scepticism and finally widespread opposition - could happen in just weeks with the help of 24-hour television. Now the actual speed and success of the war will come down to whether the Americans are prepared to kill civilians more or less indiscriminately, as Saddam does and Giap did before him. If it is a question of televised bodybags versus civilians, the civilians will have to go.

Finally, there is the Giap maxim: "War without politics is like a a tree without a root." At the moment, the coalition politics stink. It is impossible for Rumsfeld, and perhaps also Tony Blair, to understand how insulting it is to be told what "liberation" is by a superpower you have reason to distrust. The doctrine forgets how instructed Iraqis are with a deep sense of their history, as were the Vietnamese and as are the Palestinians, now coming to fight in Iraq because they fear they may be next.

I remember, too, in Vietnam in 1972 the anger among the South Vietnamese - even when facing defeat - at being denied a hand in their own destiny. The sentiment was eloquently put by one Iraqi in Basra last week: "Even if I do not support Saddam, I do not want the invasion. They want to change the system but this is not the way. This way there will be only death, the death of children and women."

Maybe the Iraqis who simply want to defend their country out of patriotism should be taken at their word; that Baghdad is indeed the first quagmire they advertise. It can't be besieged because that would lose any final support for the coalition cause. In house-to-house fighting it will take, according to one military expert, a battalion to clear one office block; the battle could last many weeks or even months. If air strikes are used, it will kill many civilians and wreck any last hope of cooperation.

"What if they get to Baghdad and nobody's home?" asks Dan Plesch, senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, "if they've all melted away to the towns set in the marshes of the Tigris?" With or without Saddam, the guerrilla war then extends to the country beyond and then perhaps to the whole Arab world, whose united desire at the moment, according to Egypt's leading newspaper, is to see the "invincible" US defeated, in whatever cause.

James Fox reported from Vietnam for the Sunday Times in the early 1970s.
He is the author of White Mischief and The Langhorne Sisters


The War Filter-A Call to Action

by: Dragon Li-Hagetaka Yung

Preventing the energies of war so that the energies for Peace and Healing can work unhindered

This Iraq war came about despite many attempts to stop it both in the physical plane and in the astral. The bad news is, according to the prophecies and premonitions of many, this is only the beginning.

Why did the energies for peace not work? There are a few speculative reasons. Some would say that, strange as it may seem, it must be the Gods' will. Some would say that if it happened regardless of our intervention, there must be some eventual good to come about from it. Some would say that perhaps more hearts wanted the war than those who did not.

We'd like to introduce another perspective. Through research, reflection, and astral messages, word passed along that perhaps there is someone fueling the fires of war. Perhaps even the God of War himself! And who can stop the God of War when he is on the fast track?

In truth, war is not a natural occurrence. Many over the years have confused the very beneficial God of Battle and Conflict with the God of War. Battle and Conflict are part of nature; there is always an amount of chaos that must be fought through to achieve creation. However, war is merely the creation of humans, as is evil. We act in it, recognize it, and accept it as part of life, but that doesn't change the fact that it is unnatural.

When you put your energies toward something, you achieve a goal--create an outcome. When many put their energies together, they can create great things. They can also create horrific things depending on where their focus had followed. Over thousands of years we have experienced and given into wars of many kinds. Those energies--those of fear, hate, anger, control, power, and killing for the sake of killing--have gathered together to create a being we recognize as the God of War.

The God of War is like a robot; it has no soul of its own and basically acts as programmed, even if the programming was a mistake or unintentional. He may show himself as a true God, may even act like it, but the true Gods and Goddesses despise this being that threatens the natural balance of all things.

But who can stop it when so many people want the quick and easy solution to so many things? People who feel it's better to bomb first and ask questions later than to willingly work through differences, even be humble and open to the views and suffering of others? Of course, not all people are like that, but so many are that the God of War is being fed a feast every day, becoming stronger with every shout of "Death to them!" Knowing this, what can we do? We've tried to put our energies toward peace, we send out our energies for healing, what else is left?

We'd like to propose something that perhaps not all will want to partake in, but for those who are willing to try anything so that their children may see a better tomorrow, please listen. We feel that it's possible to stop this false God of War from feeding the minds of naive humans or from being fed and strengthened by the foolish actions of the masses. In fact, the group we are involved with is going to do this regardless of outside participation, but being that they are small, they surely could use the help.

They are proposing that we use our energies to create a specific filter that embraces the world and grounds the energies that get trapped in it. With this filter in place, the energies of the God of War will get caught and never reach human ears or hearts. At the same time, those people who cannot be changed from their warlike views, their energies will no longer continue to feed this false God. The energies caught in the filter can ground harmlessly into the Earth, deep into the void of the unknown where it can dissipate harmlessly.

With this filter in place, our energies for peace and healing can finally work unhindered. We will no longer have to push against an immovable foe. Of course, it will be everyone's duty to make sure the filter stays charged and keeps strong, but think of the benefits that a little bit of focus and energy every so often can provide!

I realize that to some of you, this may sound perhaps off the wall or pointless. And perhaps, maybe the Gods do have a good reason for the war that we just cannot override. However, being that the Universe is divided between Fate and Free-will, I can only hope that our will for peace and prosperity overrides our desire for war and quick solutions.


"Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception
in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free
press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from
deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of
foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell."

Justice Hugo Black Pentagon Papers case (New York Times v. U.S.)


'Hero's Welcome'

by Fred Ferraris

Who vowed to cut the tangled roots
Who knew how to tell the gnats from the fleas
Whose history is a stew of arrogance, arson and malarkey
Whose dreams foretold imaginary weapons

As in the example of razor knives
As in the example of iron birds
As in the example of daisy cutters

Why did so many things happen all at once, as if you weren't there

Will the soldiers saunter into desert quicksand
Are the generals still laboring in flooded paddies
Is war the small man's restorative tonic
Did you offer a camel to that starving child

Is there light at the end of the bagpipe anthem
When does bad blood have nutritive value
Is this the war to refresh all wars

Will the bodies be stacked in vertical rows
Where can I get me one of them rocket launcher thingees
Who dares forget the terror of the nameless

When did remembering become an act of treason
Will exposure to sunlight spoil your putty face
What cooks all day while the cook's away

What did the refugee carry in her suitcase, besides her clothes and a few salamis
Does flesh boil best when bones are boiled with it
Is this revolution's spontaneous motion

Where is the flash of suddenly awake
Why does mind keep drifting up & down a burning mountain, on & on, up & down
Who cut down the world tree to build himself a cube

When do we get to the good part, Daddy
Would we trade an eagle's kingdom for a lion's corpse
Must revenge be applauded with such self-righteous gravity

Does gravity require a separate inquiry
Whose organs do you think they're roasting down at the gulag cafe
How many fingers am I holding in front of you

Will anyone be left to render the crude
If it isn't true that, "freedom is myth", why does freedom seem so unfreeing
Will funding be increased for the orphan industry

Are we the doctors or are we the disease
Who ran screaming down a trail strewn with mishaps
Why does that small man keep winking and smirking

Who feels at home with the insomniac dead
Are those maggots I see spilling from the small man's mouth
Shall we take a break and come back later

What message do you read in the severed limbs
Is the fast food gulag open yet for business
Why not, while we're waiting, have a few drinks and hoot at the captives

Is this a good time to talk
What was buried in the rubble when the cube collapsed
Why not stop and smell the smoke

Is this another one of them two man cons
Who slept on a rock by the side of the mishap
Is this a good time for a nap

What message was written on the hanged woman's hand

Is anyone blameless
Who fell from grace and lost his place at the Department of Demonization
Whose history was erased from the retrospective syntax

Who refused to reveal her anonymous sources
Who sifted through the smoking ashes
Who reported a feeling of dread

Will anyone be forgiven
Who dreamed out of turn and missed her conviction
Who suffers from a fatal lack of charisma
Who chose not to worship the setting sun

Who steps outside the frantic anthem
Who refused to swallow the corn
Who declines to pay her fines
Who rasped and cackled

Who wakes in a flash
Who slept in fits
Who sleeps
Who spoke



And our hands remember how to spin;
We spin freedom on the rising wind.
We spin threads of life, the cords of fate.
We spin love into a river that can overrun hate.
We spin justice like a flaming star;
We spin peace into a river that can overcome war.
And if you want to know where true power lies,
Turn and look into your sisters' eyes.
Break the chains that have kept us bound.
Weave a web to bring the monster down.
In the face of truth, no lie can stand.
Weave the vision, strand by strand.
We are sweet water, we are the seed.
We are the storm wind, to blow away greed.
We are the new world we bring to birth
A river rising to reclaim the Earth

Starhawk



"The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army,and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, &c. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or ofthe moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps bemanufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They havethe same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others,—asmost legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and officeholders,—serve the state chiefly with their heads; and as they rarelymake any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the Devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots,martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for themost part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. "
-- Henry David Thoreau

"Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you."
--Aldous Huxley

Wealth heaped on wealth,
nor truth nor safety buys,
The dangers gather
as the treasures rise.
Samuel Johnson

Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and, of the human frame,
A mechanized automaton.
Percy Bysshe Shelley