Watch the Iraq Veterans Memorial video.

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We Reject Military Recruitment of Our Children!

War is not the answer to America's problems. America's young men and women have more to offer the world than their bodies as pawns in the global strategy of a small elite of industrial, political, and military planners intoxicated with the idea of controlling the world. If our children are to sacrifice their lives, let it be for a truly noble cause.

Military recruitment is now undertaken automatically in high schools (unless informed families "opt out" of it by requesting that their children's names not be given to the military), and even occurs in younger children's play and party places, like Chuck E. Cheese's. "Permanent war"-- the current US government program for "peace and stability" in the world -- can lead only to the soul-searing destruction and physical maming and death of more of our children.

Most Americans don't want this, and in a democracy the majority is supposed to rule. A growing movement against the military's automatic recruitment of our young people is gaining momentum.

For more information about this important campaign to keep our children home and alive, go to: http://unitedforpeace.org/article.php?type=76&list=type.

To request your DVD of DDTV's video about this issue, please email: info@DocumentingDissent,TV.

 

Also in the Spotlight:

the War at Home  on minorities and the poor

 

Katrina & The Antiwar Movement: Lend Our Hand and Our Voice

(Excerpted from recent commentary by War Times/Tiempo de Guerra, http://www.war-times.org) "One prominent African-American supporter of Mr. Bush who is close to Karl Rove, the White House political chief, said the president did not go into the heart of New Orleans and meet with Black victims on his first trip there, last Friday, because he knew that White House officials were 'scared to death' of the reaction. 'If I'm Karl, do I want the visual of Black people hollering at the president as if we're living in Rwanda?' said the supporter, who spoke only anonymously because he did not want to antagonize Mr. Rove." - New York Times, Sept. 10 The desperate plight of thousands of mostly Black and poor people in the wake of Hurricane Katrina didn't inspire any urgency in the Bush administration. The White House was roused to take action - mostly on the public relations front - only when Karl Rove realized that the human disaster underway might result in a political disaster for his President. And well it should. Katrina was a natural calamity - but the scope and color of the resulting social disaster was a direct result of human action and inaction. The callous and incompetent behavior of the Bush administration is most immediately responsible. Yet beyond that are deeper causes: the racist and class-divided structure of U.S. society (and the specific situation in the Gulf region of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama); the 30-plus year right-wing assault on the public sector and on the whole idea of government responsibility for public welfare and the common good; longstanding patterns of development that place private profit ahead of environmental responsibility and human needs (including destruction of Mississippi Delta wetlands that diminish the force of hurricanes, global warming and its impact on hurricane ferocity, racist placing of toxic contaminated waste sites in communities of color, and so on). The antiwar movement has an important role to play in the post-Katrina struggles that are already underway. We can reach deep into our pockets to help those directly impacted by this disaster (see below). We can add our voice to the demand for immediate accountability from those in government - starting with the President - for their dereliction of duty. We can join other social movements in making sure that the spotlight now shining on U.S. racism and class inequality is not drowned out by the voices calling for a return to "business as usual." We can do our part to amplify the voices of those who have deep truths to tell: folks who can describe what really happened during those agonizing days and nights in the Superdome; undocumented workers still too fearful to apply for assistance (over 100,000 immigrants in the region face devastation); New Orleans residents who had to endure a militarized reaction from authorities even while struggling to find food, water and shelter; the poor, sick and elderly who were betrayed and left behind. Gulf region community-based organizations, especially in the hardest hit African American community, are taking the lead in this fight. Many are the same organizations providing immediate help to those most urgently in need. These deserve political solidarity as well as an outpouring of generous donations. Among organizations you can donate to are: **********************************************************   People's Hurricane Fund/Community Labor United http://www.qecr.org./index.html (Louisiana/Mississippi) The Southern Relief Fund, c/o The Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights, PO Box 1223, Greenville, MS 38702, 662-334-1122 S.O.S - Saving Our Selves, Att: Beni Ivey, Center for Democratic Renewal, PO Box 50469, Atlanta, GA 30302, 404-221-0025 Louisiana Environmental Action Network, http://www.leanweb.org Alejandro Rosales, Oxfam regional organizer for the hurricane relief, with a focus on immigrants, Biloxi, Mississippi 818-434-6495; or e-mail Emily Parry of OxFam, eparry@oxfamamerica.org   ********************************************************** Antiwar activists also have particular responsibilities in pointing out the links between Katrina's impact and the war against Iraq. Money that should have gone to disaster preparations went to the war instead. National Guard members and resources that could have made a huge difference in Katrina's aftermath were instead thousands of miles away. These are vital issues to raise as we redouble our antiwar efforts, most immediately in the urgent mobilization for the September 24-26 actions in Washington, DC to End the Occupation of Iraq and Bring Them Home Now. Go to http://www.unitedforpeace.org for full information: Money to Fund Full Recovery of the Gulf Coast, Not War in Iraq!