Houston Democrats

First she introduced Jeff Norman of US Tour of Duty. Please visit their web site and support them. After reminding us that Camp Casey isn't about Cindy Sheehan, it's about a lot of families and veterans who have questions, he showed a video of Dolores Kesterson describing her unsatisfactory meeting with President Bush. You can watch the video online at http://www.ustourofduty.org/ as well as the next video of Gold Star dad Bill Mitchell and Veterans For Peace's Tim Goodrich attempting to confront Tommy Franks following his appearance at an elementary school in California.

Then Cindy called. She told us that the vigil at Camp Casey will help "bring our troops home way faster than they would have if we didn't come here August 6."

Mel Goodman, a former CIA agent who left the government after 42 years of service spoke and showed a portion of the DVD "Uncovered - The Whole Truth About the Iraq War." The turning point for his was the October 2002 when the intelligence community gave up the good fight. National Intelligence Estimate provided to the Senate. According to Mel, the justification it provided for war against Iraq was a total fabrication. He lamented the corruption of Colin Powell and pointed out that every assertion in the basis for war was false. Regime change has always made bad situations worse (1953 Iran, 1973 Chile and of course Vietnam).

Then Joan Baez called. She sang Let Nobody Turn Me Around while Sheila's staff passed out comment forms for her to take back to Congress. Then we all joined Joan to sing America the Beautiful.

Amy Alison a veteran who achieved Conscientious Objector status spoke next. She advises other military personnel seeking CO status and told us of a soldier she is advising who's contract was almost up until it was extended for 30 years.

Next was Dr. Sanders Anderson, an associate professor at the Mickey Leland - Barbara Jordan School of Pubic Affairs and Vietnam veteran.

Gold Star Mom Nadia McCaffery followed. She is a native of France who has been actively opposing the war since she lost her son. She has traveled to Jordan and met with relatives of Iraq's fallen and was in Fallujah during the American attack. She's featured in the film Fallujah - Caught in the Crossfire.

Chas Davis, a conscientious objector spoke and reminded us about the tragic impact of depleted uranium used in weapons on both Iraqi's and US personnel. He described basic training as a sort of brainwashing that dehumanizes the way the troops think of Iraqi citizens - reducing them to the status of a piece of paper that needs to be destroyed.

Next was our own local Gold Star mom - Amy Branham. She spoke eloquently about the loss of her son, and the lies of the Bush Administration. Amy has honored us with comments on this blog and I hope she continues to do so. I told her how much we appreciate her input and her courage standing up against this illegal war.

After a question and answer period, we all went outside for a candlelight prayer. We stood on the sidewalk singing Singing for Our Lives.

See you in Crawford tomorrow.

Update: Here is an excellent summary from Devon Greene who captured many of the details I missed.

I just left a meeting organized by the group. Sheila Jackson Lee was the main speaker but there were several others including two military moms (who lost their sons in Iraq), a former CIA official, two veterans one of whom was in combat. They had a lot of interesting things to say and there were three good videos. One video was composed of edited/spliced shots of the usual suspects starting out saying there were WMD in Iraq and we had to get them - evolving to the usual suspects then denying knowledge of said weapons and not knowing where they were, etc. The other, more effective video was of yet another military mom talking about her meeting with Bush when her son died. Her son used the expression "Life is good." a lot. When she said that to Bush his reply was, "How can you know his life would have been good?" What sensitivity!

The former CIA official told us that although the US gov't has lied to us to get us involved in some wars before it has never gone on to the extreme it has this time or by so many of our elected leaders and for so long. He quit his job after 42 years of service with approx. 20 in the CIA. He was an analyst. He said that October of 2002 was the turning point when, after years of fighting the lies sold by the administration, Tenet finally gave in and started going along with them. He just gave up. Powell's speech to the UN, the low point of Powell's career, was written by intelligence people, not Powell, and every point in it was a lie. I just wonder how they forced Powell to give this speech.

One veteran, a woman, told us that she basically was one of six kids, from working class family and joined the military to get an education. She finally changed her mind when the war started and tried to get an honorable discharge as a C.O. but it took 2 1/2 yrs. She said virtually 90% of those cases are dismissed. There was also a video showing a demonstration at an elementary school against Tommy Franks who went there to speak to thechildren about joining the military, etc, without notifying the parents of his coming. Some showed up anyway and were blocking his car as he was trying to leave but the limo kept moving slowly even tho 2 or 3 people were standing right in front of it leaning on the hood of the vehicle. Does this show a complete disregard of life from the pro-life party? Are they trying to hook kids as young as elem age into the military life? Oh . . . and guess what, the school was in a low income, immigrant section of Los Angeles. Why didn't they go to Beverly Hills High?

One man, the Iraq Veteran against the War, said he was thrown out of a press conference for asking one question of Bush when Bush consistently ignored a woman who was trying to ask the same question. So he stepped in front of Bush and asked it and was escorted out. The question was "When are we bringing our troops home?" One young veteran said some interesting things but I think they would need to be verified. He was in Korea for 3 years and was about to be dischargedwhen he was told his contract had been extended for 30 yrs! I've heard of a couple of years extension but 30? Can they do that? He also said depleted(?) uranium was being used in Iraq (in the bullets?) and the cancer rate in Iraq had gone up 1000% and our soldiers were getting sick from it but, of course, the military and our leaders are denying it. He said the half life of dep. uran. is millions of years so that many parts of Iraq will be permanently inhabitable for a long time. However, we have built 14 military bases and several pipelines over there but nothing else. So any Americans sent over there to work on the oil pipelines will also be exposed to it. I have questions about some of his statements but can't really verify them. If anyone else has any accurate info on any of these statements please let me know. So much for rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq.

Cong. Lee said BRAC (the group closing all the bases) may close Walter Reed Hospital - she said the nurses in the American hospitals in Germany are so overworked they're exhausted and if they close Walter Reed they don't know what they'll do. Is Bush nuts?! Shock and traumatize the country with the 9/11 event so they will give the "war president" whatever he wants, immediately try to suspend all our rights with the Patriot Act (in case we don't give him everything he wants), reward those who helped, start a war, cut the revenue, don't send enough troops, don't equip them properly, tell them it's over before it's over, cut medical benefits for them, extend their tours, close the military bases and a major hospital, then don't let the public see their flag-draped coffins in the news because it might offend the families and disturb their privacy! Are these sane decisions by a sane mind? Does anyone see a pattern here? Does anyone see a true intent here? Bankrupt the government, exhaust the military, lie to the public, take over the judiciary, ruin the schools, let the Saudis raise the price of oil so high it will virtually bankrupt a great many people and small businesses, (remember, the military runs on oil as well as food, too). When our own military is exhausted, dead, suffering from trauma, he will then have to hire mercenaries who, of course, would have no problem firing on protesting Americans because they feel nothing for us, which would effectively end all protest. The only problem I can foresee is that the whole world hates us so much I can't figure out where he'd find the mercenaries.

When asked why Bush wasn't being impeached she gave the standard but probably correct answer. The majority in both houses is Republican and they will not do it. But she did say there was talk, etc. So I guess that means there are no honest Republicans left at all in our gov't. How can they stand to let this regime represent them? There was a candle light vigil and another video on Fallujah. But although my spirit was willing the body was weak so I took it home. If you made it to this final line, you will go to Heaven if you pass this message on to 12,000,000 other people in the next 12 minutes. Thanks for reading it all the way through.