Country Joe's Place
Listen to "The Call" based on a Robert W. Service poem in RealAudio US flag Peace flag
The Current Crisis
Iraq flag Listen to my song "Peace on Earth" in RealAudio
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This is the place for people to talk about the current world situation. Country Joe's Place will post news we receive regardless of the point of view. We understand that not everyone will agree with what is posted but we believe in talking, not fighting.
 Message Board
 Bulletins
 Getting Involved
 Some Links
 It's a Small World
 Fixin' to Die in Afghanistan
 Fixin' to Die in Iraq
 Featured Essay


Coalition casualties   POW/MIA

SOME CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS WITH DOWNLOADABLE ANTI-WAR SONGS ON THEIR SITES

Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) "Life During Wartime"
Beastie Boys "In a World Gone Mad..."
Luka Bloom "I Am Not at War With Anyone"
Jonatha Brooks "War"
Paula Cole "My Hero, Mr. President!"
Crack Emcee "Red, White & Blue"
David Dondero "Pre-lnvasion Jitters"
Michael Franti and Spearhead "Bomb the World"
Lenny Kravitz "We Want Peace"
George Michael "The Grave" (cover of Don McLean's Vietnam protest song)
John Mellencamp "To Washington"
Paris "What Would You Do"
R.E.M. "The Final Straw"
Zack de la Rocha/DJ Shadow "March of Death"
Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Eugene Chadbourne and others
System of a Down "Boom!"


 Why we fight.
 Read Country Joe's San Francisco Chronicle interview about the start of US bombing in Afghanistan.
 Country Joe -- lousy commie creep or misunderstood soul? Another Chronicle story.
 Country Joe's Place has obtained top-secret information about the Pentagon's plan for control of the Middle East.

Listen to a
Memorial Medley
in RealAudio


H  O  M  E

Q U O T E S

"Protesting war isn't some Vietnam-era relic, like love beads or Country Joe McDonald, but an American democratic tradition."

--David Greenberg, in an article in Slate, March 26, 2003

Colin sets you straight Hit the "play" button to hear Colin Powell explain it all. Hit "stop" when you're convinced.

"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself."

--George W. Bush, Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 29, 2003

"We don't have enough information to know what we know."

--Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, Pentagon briefing, November 9, 2001

"War is a racket; possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious... Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. Nations acquire additional territory (which is promptly exploited by the few for their own benefit), and the general public shoulders the bill -- a bill that renders a horrible accounting of newly placed gravestones, mangled bodies, shattered minds, broken hearts and homes, economic instability, and back-breaking taxation of the many for generations and generations."

--General Smedley Butler

"I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

--General George S. Patton, June 1944

Bulletins

Mghm mmph nmm The on-line database Iraq Body Count has published detailed evidence of at least 200 civilians killed by coalition cluster bombs since the start of the Iraq War. The Pentagon has admitted only one recorded case of a civilian death from cluster munitions in Iraq this year. This extraordinarily low number has been greeted with widespread incredulity. Since the start of hostilities Iraq Body Count has been building up a meticulous and exhaustive compilation of every reported civilian death in Iraq caused by coalition military action. It has based its work on corroborated reports in key media sources published worldwide. The research team has updated its estimates on a daily basis by adding to a constantly growing on-line data-base which now reports over 100 separate incidents involving up to 2700 civilian deaths in total. Among these incidents are included reliable reports of at least 200 civilian deaths due to cluster bombs, with up to a further 172 deaths which were probably caused by cluster bombs. Of these 372 deaths, 147 have been caused by detonation of unexploded or "dud" munitions, with around half this number being children. Full details are here.
A veteran U.S. diplomat quit on February 27 in protest of the Bush regime's policies. Read his letter of resignation.
Read Sen. Robert Byrd's speech to the Senate.


Getting Involved

World Trade Center Rebuilt I R A   F V R O R   B R E V I S   E S T
"Anger is a brief madness"

In keeping with the above words of wisdom, perhaps people would like to e-mail our leaders with wishes for no more killing and a wish for peace and communication.

President George W. Bush
Vice President Richard Cheney
Laura Bush
Lynne Cheney
Congresswoman Barbara Lee was the only member of Congress to vote against the war powers resolution. If you support her stand, you might want to e-mail her.

Although "Operation Dear Abby" has been suspended, you can send an anthrax-free message to your favorite service member on the web.

Add your vote to a national referendum on the proposed Iraq war at VoteNoWar.org.


Some Links


ONE TWO THREE FOUR
WE DON'T WANT YOUR FUCKIN WAR!

Sometimes you folks forget that I am in the music business here on Music Row in Nashville, TN. Here is a free song for you to enjoy concerning the present situation.

And, here's another song I know you will like concerning war.

PEACE,
LT Bobby Ross

A N T I - W A R   S I T E S
Not In Our Name
Peaceful Tomorrows -- loved ones of 9/11 victims for peaceful responses
International Action Center
Peace Protest Net
A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
Mobilization for Global Justice
War Resisters League
Network Opposing War and Racism -- Australian site
Anti-War.Com -- a Libertarian perspective
No Status Quo -- radical feminists against the war
Anti-War Rage Page -- add your thoughts
Michael Moore's page
Hal "Phoenix" Muskat's page -- with lots of links
Stop the War Coalition -- UK
Human Shields -- Western volunteers in Iraq acting as human shields
No Blood for Oil
Move On
Poets Against the War
Direct Action to Stop the War -- group planning civil disobedience in San Francisco
War Blogging
Cursor
Baring Witness -- get naked for peace!
United for Peace and Justice

S O U T H   A S I A N   P E R S P E C T I V E S
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Party of Islamic Liberation) -- radical Islamic fundamentalists
Arabic Media Internet Network
Afghan News Network
YesPakistan's page on the Afghan crisis
Mercy Corps: how to help Afghanistan

G U L F   W A R S ,   E P I S O D E   I I :
C L O N E   O F   T H E   A T T A C K

See the poster
Iraq News Agency
Saddam Hussein's home page
The U.S. State Department's Iraq Update
Iraq Journal
Iraq Action Coalition
National Network to End the War Against Iraq
American Gulf War Veterans Association
Iraq Chat -- with message board and forums
Electronic Iraq
Satellite photos --near real-tiime views of Iraq from above
Salam Pax -- blog from Bagdad now back online

A L T E R N A T I V E   N E W S   S O U R C E S
Al Jazeera -- English-language beta version now functioning
Radio KPFA (Berkeley) -- streaming broadcast
Radio WBAI (New York) -- streaming broadcast
BBC news -- slightly less censored than American press
The Guardian -- ditto
World Press Review Online
Middle East Media Research Institute -- English translations of current articles from Arab media
Stars and Stripes
Independent Media Center
Common Dreams
Z magazine online
Media Workers Against War
Guerrilla News Network
AlterNet
Fallout Shelter News -- yes, the sky IS falling

O F F I C I A L   I N F O
DefenseLink news -- from the Defense Department, including latest casualty lists
NATO
U.S. Central Command -- your host, Gen. Tommy Franks
U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
U.S. Army
U.S. Air Force
Uniform Code of Military Justice -- if you're thinking of signing up, you'd better read this first
Information Awareness Office
US State Department's official list of terrorist organizations

O T H E R   O R G A N I Z A T I O N S
American Civil Liberties Union
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
Free Mike Hawash -- US citizen being held without charges
Charge Jose Padilla -- US citizen held without charges for over a year
Free John Walker Lindh
International Red Cross
USO
G.I. Rights Hotline
Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
Canadian immigration information
Air Line Pilot's Association
Aviation Safety Network
Patience Press -- publisher of books and literature about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Project for a New American Century -- blueprint for the Bush regime's plan for world conquest

T H E   L I G H T E R   S I D E   O F   D E A T H   A N D   D E S T R U C T I O N
Bush regime playing cards -- Washington's most wanted (from gatt.org, a parody of the World Trade Organization's site)
"Terror's March Backwards" from the London Observer
America: Winning the Logo War
Falwell/Robertson/bin Laden: Can you tell the difference?
What the tarot tells us
The George Dubya Bush Songbook
The White House -- but not the real one
The world's largest peace sign collection!
Dancing Bush
The Onion -- America's Finest News Source


"It's a Small World"

It's a world of laughter
A world of tears
It's a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There's so much that we share
That it's time we're aware
It's a small world after all

There is just one moon
And one golden sun
And a smile means
Friendship to ev'ryone
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small, small world

Richard S. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman

Hear the music


If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:

There would be:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans

52 would be female
48 would be male

70 would be non-white
30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian

89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual

6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.

80 would live in substandard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer from malnutrition

1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth

1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education

1 would own a computer

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

The following is also something to ponder...

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very rare, even in the United States and Canada.

If you can read this, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Since it is such a small world and we're all stuck here on it, maybe we should learn something about it.
Global Facts from the International Metalworkers' Foundation
Earth Facts from Planet Pals
Earth Facts from One World - Nations Online
Global Internet Statistics


Countries with Nuclear Weapons Capability

#1. U.S.
HISTORY Set off first nuclear blast in 1945. Has conducted 1,030 tests, more than the rest of the world combined.
ARSENAL 12,070 warheads.
MISSILE RANGE 8,100 mi. (13,000 km), able to reach anywhere in the world

2# BRITAIN
HISTORY First test in 1952; has performed 45 in all
ARSENAL 380 warheads.
RANGE 7,500 mi. (12,000 km)

#3. FRANCE
HISTORY Testing since 1961; 210 tests in all. Conducted six controversial tests in the Pacific Ocean as recently as 1995 and 1996.
ARSENAL 500 warheads.
RANGE 3,300 mi. (5,300 km)

#4. RUSSIA
HISTORY Second to conduct tests; 715 in all. Once a major player in arms race, its warhead count is now shrinking.
ARSENAL 22,500 warheads.
RANGE 6,800 mi. (11,000 km)

#5. CHINA
HISTORY Started testing in 1964; 45 tests in all. Known to be helping Pakistan with its nuclear efforts.
ARSENAL 450 warheads.
RANGE 6,800 mi. (11,000 km)

#6. INDIA
HISTORY Set off five nuclear tests in May, 1998, surprising the world, conducted its first nuclear test was in 1974.
ARSENAL about 65 warheads.
RANGE 1,550 mi. (2,500 km)

#7. PAKISTAN
STATUS Began secret weapons program in 1972 to reach parity with India, but restricted by U.S. sanctions since 1990. Just tested a new medium-range missile
ARSENAL 15-25 warheads.
RANGE 930 mi. (1,500 km).

Countries with Undeclared Nuclear-Weapons Capability and Countries Believed to be Attempting to Develop Nuclear Weapons.

#8. ISRAEL
STATUS Known to have a bomb in the basement. Pledges not to introduce nukes to the Middle East.
ARSENAL 64-112 warheads.
MISSILE RANGE 930 mi. (1,500 km)

#9. IRAN
STATUS U.S. believes Iran, a member in good standing of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is developing weapons using its nuclear power program.
MISSILE RANGE 300 mi. (500 km)

#10. IRAQ
STATUS Subject to rigorous inspection since its defeat in the 1991 Gulf War. U.N. inspections seem to have halted progress in weapons development.
RANGE 90 mi. (150 km)

#11. NORTH KOREA
STATUS Threatening to suspend a 1994 agreement that froze nuclear activity. Perhaps enough material to build two warheads
RANGE 600-930 mi. (1,000-1,500 km)

#12. LIBYA
STATUS U.S. still thinks Gaddafi is interested in acquiring nuclear weapons, but a U.N. embargo has hampered his progress
RANGE 190 mi. (300 km)

Countries That Gave Up Their Nuclear-Weapons Programs

#13. ALGERIA
STATUS Discovered in 1991 to be building a reactor able to produce weapons-grade material. Placed reactor under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and now party to the NPT.

#14. ARGENTINA, BRAZIL
STATUS Both countries pursued weapons programs in the 1980s, but new democratic governments stopped work by 1990. Both have signed a treaty for a nuclear-weapons-free zone in Latin America.

#15. BELARUS, KAZAKHSTAN, UKRAINE
STATUS When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, these former states possessed numerous nuclear weapons. All have rid themselves of the warheads and have acceded to the NPT.

#16. SOUTH AFRICA
STATUS The only country to develop nuclear weapons and then give them up of its own volition. De Klerk dismantled the arsenal in 1991 and joined the NPT as a non-nuclear weapons state.

Sources: Arms Control Association; Center for Defense Information; Center for Nonproliferation Studies; National Resources Defense Council; SIPRI Yearbook 1997

Adapted from Time Magazine, May 25, 1998, Vol. 151, No. 20.


More Fixins'


Here's the latest version of the Rag adapted to the terrorist attacks, from Jan Scruggs, October 14, 2002, who writes, "Watch Out Osama... Kentucky sharpshooter is zeroin in his musket!." We've got a whole bunch more.
Fixin’ to Die Rag

Come on all you big strong men
join on up with Osamas Men
Gonna blow up all non Mus lems
From Bali to Manhattan PR> And its 1 2 3 what are we fightin for
Fightin for Allah and Islam
Just dumb guys- Osamas Men
It 5 6 7 open up the pearly Gates
Strap on a bomb and kill someone
Whoopee its a whole lot of fun

Kill some folks on vacation
Kill some folks in their own nation
Got some cells in Germany
Got a hiding place in Old Bagdaddy
Gotta watch out for Uncle Sam
He sure has some mean Green Berets
Kicked our butts in old Afgan
Navy Seals are pretty tough men

But we just keep killing Civilians!


Still More Fixins'

This peace symbol in front of Berkeley's Chez Panisse restaurant fashioned of bay leaves and lemons (now replaced with one of olive branches and garlic), has been joined by one made of coffee beans at the cafe across the street, flowers at the flower stand, and bread at the bakery. It will be interesting to see what the barber shop and hardware store in the neighborhood do.

When Bush morphed the war on terror into another war on Iraq, we found this anonymously posted to the message board. Since then we've got a whole bunch more.
Well come on all you new young men
Uncle Sam's in a mess again
Got himself in a terrible jam
With a crazy Muslim named Saddam
So put down your bibles pick up your guns
We're gonna have a whole lot of FUN

And it's 1 2 3 what are we fighting for
Don't ask me I don't give a damn
I just know we gotta kill Saddam
And its 5 6 7 open up the pearly gates
Aint no time to wonder why
Big oil is startin to cry


Well come on all of you christian right
We all know you love a good fight
Now's your chance for a last crusade
The whole damn word has got to be saved
Just remember when your children all die
They'll be standing at the good Lord's side

Come on Dubya ,better move fast
Our gas is burnin and it won't last
Your daddy started but he couldn't finish
Now's your chance to make your own image
Aren't you glad you don't have sons
Cause were callin up the guard for this one


Featured Essay

Heil! The Reason Why
George McGovern
From The Nation
April 21, 2003

Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.

--Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"The Charge of the Light Brigade" (in the Crimean War)

Thanks to the most crudely partisan decision in the history of the Supreme Court, the nation has been given a President of painfully limited wisdom and compassion and lacking any sense of the nation's true greatness. Appearing to enjoy his role as Commander in Chief of the armed forces above all other functions of his office, and unchecked by a seemingly timid Congress, a compliant Supreme Court, a largely subservient press and a corrupt corporate plutocracy, George W. Bush has set the nation on a course for one-man rule.

He treads carelessly on the Bill of Rights, the United Nations and international law while creating a costly but largely useless new federal bureaucracy loosely called "Homeland Security." Meanwhile, such fundamental building blocks of national security as full employment and a strong labor movement are of no concern. The nearly $1.5 trillion tax giveaway, largely for the further enrichment of those already rich, will have to be made up by cutting government services and shifting a larger share of the tax burden to workers and the elderly. This President and his advisers know well how to get us involved in imperial crusades abroad while pillaging the ordinary American at home. The same families who are exploited by a rich man's government find their sons and daughters being called to war, as they were in Vietnam--but not the sons of the rich and well connected. (Let me note that the son of South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson is now on duty in the Persian Gulf. He did not use his obvious political connections to avoid military service, nor did his father seek exemptions for his son. That goes well with me, with my fellow South Dakotans and with every fair-minded American.)

The invasion of Iraq and other costly wars now being planned in secret are fattening the ever-growing military-industrial complex of which President Eisenhower warned in his great farewell address. War profits are booming, as is the case in all wars. While young Americans die, profits go up. But our economy is not booming, and our stock market is not booming. Our wages and incomes are not booming. While waging a war against Iraq, the Bush Administration is waging another war against the well-being of America.

Following the 9/11 tragedy at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the entire world was united in sympathy and support for America. But thanks to the arrogant unilateralism, the bullying and the clumsy, unimaginative diplomacy of Washington, Bush converted a world of support into a world united against us, with the exception of Tony Blair and one or two others. My fellow South Dakotan, Tom Daschle, the US Senate Democratic leader, has well described the collapse of American diplomacy during the Bush Administration. For this he has been savaged by the Bush propaganda machine. For their part, the House of Representatives has censured the French by changing the name of french fries on the house dining room menu to freedom fries. Does this mean our almost sacred Statue of Liberty--a gift from France--will now have to be demolished? And will we have to give up the French kiss? What a cruel blow to romance.

During his presidential campaign Bush cried, "I'm a uniter, not a divider." As one critic put it, "He's got that right. He's united the entire world against him." In his brusque, go-it-alone approach to Congress, the UN and countless nations big and small, Bush seemed to be saying, "Go with us if you will, but we're going to war with a small desert kingdom that has done us no harm, whether you like it or not." This is a good line for the macho business. But it flies in the face of Jefferson's phrase, "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind." As I have watched America's moral and political standing in the world fade as the globe's inhabitants view the senseless and immoral bombing of ancient, historic Baghdad, I think often of another Jefferson observation during an earlier bad time in the nation's history: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."

The President frequently confides to individuals and friendly audiences that he is guided by God's hand. But if God guided him into an invasion of Iraq, He sent a different message to the Pope, the Conference of Catholic Bishops, the mainline Protestant National Council of Churches and many distinguished rabbis--all of whom believe the invasion and bombardment of Iraq is against God's will. In all due respect, I suspect that Karl Rove, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice--and other sideline warriors--are the gods (or goddesses) reaching the ear of our President.

As a World War II bomber pilot, I was always troubled by the title of a then-popular book, God Is My Co-pilot. My co-pilot was Bill Rounds of Wichita, Kansas, who was anything but godly, but he was a skillful pilot, and he helped me bring our B-24 Liberator through thirty-five combat missions over the most heavily defended targets in Europe. I give thanks to God for our survival, but somehow I could never quite picture God sitting at the controls of a bomber or squinting through a bombsight deciding which of his creatures should survive and which should die. It did not simplify matters theologically when Sam Adams, my navigator--and easily the godliest man on my ten-member crew--was killed in action early in the war. He was planning to become a clergyman at war's end.

Of course, my dear mother went to her grave believing that her prayers brought her son safely home. Maybe they did. But how could I explain that to the mother of my close friend, Eddie Kendall, who prayed with equal fervor for her son's safe return? Eddie was torn in half by a blast of shrapnel during the Battle of the Bulge--dead at age 19, during the opening days of the battle--the best baseball player and pheasant hunter I knew.

I most certainly do not see God at work in the slaughter and destruction now unfolding in Iraq or in the war plans now being developed for additional American invasions of other lands. The hand of the Devil? Perhaps. But how can I suggest that a fellow Methodist with a good Methodist wife is getting guidance from the Devil? I don't want to get too self-righteous about all of this. After all, I have passed the 80 mark, so I don't want to set the bar of acceptable behavior too high lest I fail to meet the standard for a passing grade on Judgment Day. I've already got a long list of strikes against me. So President Bush, forgive me if I've been too tough on you. But I must tell you, Mr. President, you are the greatest threat to American troops. Only you can put our young people in harm's way in a needless war. Only you can weaken America's good name and influence in world affairs.

We hear much talk these days, as we did during the Vietnam War, of "supporting our troops." Like most Americans, I have always supported our troops, and I have always believed we had the best fighting forces in the world--with the possible exception of the Vietnamese, who were fortified by their hunger for national independence, whereas we placed our troops in the impossible position of opposing an independent Vietnam, albeit a Communist one. But I believed then as I do now that the best way to support our troops is to avoid sending them on mistaken military campaigns that needlessly endanger their lives and limbs. That is what went on in Vietnam for nearly thirty years--first as we financed the French in their failing effort to regain control of their colonial empire in Southeast Asia, 1946-54, and then for the next twenty years as we sought unsuccessfully to stop the Vietnamese independence struggle led by Ho Chi Minh and Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap--two great men whom we should have accepted as the legitimate leaders of Vietnam at the end of World War II. I should add that Ho and his men were our allies against the Japanese in World War II. Some of my fellow pilots who were shot down by Japanese gunners over Vietnam were brought safely back to American lines by Ho's guerrilla forces.

During the long years of my opposition to that war, including a presidential campaign dedicated to ending the American involvement, I said in a moment of disgust: "I'm sick and tired of old men dreaming up wars in which young men do the dying." That terrible American blunder, in which 58,000 of our bravest young men died, and many times that number were crippled physically or psychologically, also cost the lives of some 2 million Vietnamese as well as a similar number of Cambodians and Laotians, in addition to laying waste most of Indochina--its villages, fields, trees and waterways; its schools, churches, markets and hospitals.

I had thought after that horrible tragedy--sold to the American people by our policy-makers as a mission of freedom and mercy--that we never again would carry out a needless, ill-conceived invasion of another country that had done us no harm and posed no threat to our security. I was wrong in that assumption.

The President and his team, building on the trauma of 9/11, have falsely linked Saddam Hussein's Iraq to that tragedy and then falsely built him up as a deadly threat to America and to world peace. These falsehoods are rejected by the UN and nearly all of the world's people. We will, of course, win the war with Iraq. But what of the question raised in the Bible that both George Bush and I read: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul," or the soul of his nation?

It has been argued that the Iraqi leader is hiding a few weapons of mass destruction, which we and eight other countries have long held. But can it be assumed that he would insure his incineration by attacking the United States? Can it be assumed that if we are to save ourselves we must strike Iraq before Iraq strikes us? This same reasoning was frequently employed during the half-century of cold war by hotheads recommending that we atomize the Soviet Union and China before they atomize us. Courtesy of The New Yorker, we are reminded of Tolstoy's observation: "What an immense mass of evil must result...from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen." Or again, consider the words of Lord Stanmore, who concluded after the suicidal charge of the Light Brigade that it was "undertaken to resist an attack that was never threatened and probably never contemplated." The symphony of falsehood orchestrated by the Bush team has been de-vised to defeat an Iraqi onslaught that "was never threatened and probably never comtemplated."

I'm grateful to The Nation, as I was to Harper's, for giving me opportunities to write about these matters. Major newspapers, especially the Washington Post, haven't been nearly as receptive.

The destruction of Baghdad has a special poignancy for many of us. In my fourth-grade geography class under a superb teacher, Miss Wagner, I was first introduced to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the palm trees and dates, the kayaks plying the rivers, camel caravans and desert oases, the Arabian Nights, Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (my first movie), the ancient city of Baghdad, Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent. This was the first class in elementary school that fired my imagination. Those wondrous images have stayed with me for more than seventy years. And it now troubles me to hear of America's bombs, missiles and military machines ravishing the cradle of civilization.

But in God's good time, perhaps this most ancient of civilizations can be redeemed. My prayer is that most of our soldiers and most of the long-suffering people of Iraq will survive this war after it has joined the historical march of folly that is man's inhumanity to man.

Read previous featured essays.

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H  O  M  E