The Mennonites and Amish are also peaceful churches. Some Amish were jailed during the Vietnam war because they refused to obey the draft notice.
From the Mennonite link:
It is easy to fall into the common belief that democratic freedoms can only be attained or preserved through war. But history proves that democracy and freedom have also been preserved by brave people who stood up for justice.
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**edited to add: Gah, how could I forget the Unitarians, who also believe in peace.
Finally, a bumpersticker I have:
Honor the dead…
…with peace
(which I have never put on my car, ironically because I feared my car getting even more scratched up than it did when I put the Kerry bumpersticker on it. Pretty sad, eh?)
It is truly disgusting watching the mainstream media falling all over themselves trying to sell this war. My past blog on the media’s culpability in selling Iraq….
As yet, I haven’t seen any of them mention the Russian warships en route to Syria. Putin states that Russia will help Syria. Note that “help” includes weaponry.
Last night, CBS shows a visual of people being forced to kneel as the captors aim their rifles. Scott Pelley then says “we won’t show you them being shot….but you will hear the gunfire…” and then proceeds to air the execution. Shame on you, CBS, for using such graphic tactics.
It’s hard for anyone to ignore that. You want to help these people. You don’t want to see anyone suffer.
…but what you don’t see is the media’s same concern, for, say, Chicago. To take a nod from Stephen Colbert, who rightly pointed out that “if we were going to war over people being shot, we should invade Chicago. ”
Why isn’t the media that concerned with what is going on at home?
Dianne Feinstein said that her constituents are very much against us bombing Syria….but with a smug smile on her face says, “…but they don’t know what I know….” She reminded me of a middle schooler who says “I know something you don’t know.” ::giggle giggle:: It was patronizing and once again shows how little D.C. is concerned with the opinions of war weary Americans.
Has anybody else noticed that they’re not talking about the uptick in the stocks since the announcement of going into Syria?
This just in from Canada’s Global News. Note that other world leaders are questioning whether Assad is to blame for chemical use.
Anytime anyone involves ego in a decision, you can bet it is a bad decision. Going to war over a warped perception of credibility is wrong. And America’s credibility was seriously damaged with going to war in Iraq. We were perceived as bullies and liars. The whole world rejoiced when Barack Obama was elected because the whole world disagreed with our invasion.
But the world’s perception of us didn’t seem to bother Congress before now, eh?
And what exactly does “protect our values” mean?? Because I don’t value war.
Kerry tries to shut up opposing voices by throwing out ” this is not the time for armchair isolationists”….that’s you and me, folks, the American public that speaks out against war. We’re sick of war and we’re sick of millionaire politicians telling us that our opinions don’t matter.
He asks if one would be comfortable if we don’t act and Assad gasses his people. Hello? Are we alone in the world? Israel and Saudi Arabia have a stake in this and they should be expected to bear the brunt of it–skin in the game, as they say…they are both wealthy nations, and we are fast losing our wealth. Well, it’s still there, technically, but in the hands of a few who don’t want to pay taxes….that… fund… wars. So Saudi Arabia and Israel need to ante up.
Note how Kerry asserts that there will be no boots on the ground, but from what I was watching yesterday, he once again flip-flopped and stated that he did not want that put in writing because it may become necessary if things escalate. Mighty suspicious….
Tell me again why Kerry was trying to interfere with U.N. gathering evidence on chemical weapons? And why aren’t we waiting for the U.N. to get the results bacK? The Syria situation is not new–this has been happening for over a year now….so why the rush, rush, rush to bomb?
And tell me why those pictures of the dead keep nagging at me–like I have seen them before…? That they were from a chemical weapons attack, but not the current event with Syria?? I just can’t shake that feeling.
Here’s the view from emptywheel. During the hearing, Kerry was drumming his fingers on the table with impatience that they were questioning him. John McCain was caught playing computer games….on taxpayer’s dime. If those same taxpayers were caught playing computer games during company time, they would be fired.
Another take here on it from the Israelis:
Note the sentiment if the U.S. doesn’t strike, Israel will. Is that supposed to be a threat of some sort?
Lastly, John Kerry’s testimony as a Vietnam veteran before Congress, below. He stated yesterday that no chemicals had been used since WWI…I was stunned that he chose to ignore Agent Orange used in Vietnam. In this video, he acknowledges the horror of them and how we “destroyed villages in order to save them…” Note also the reference to Nixon, who stated he “did not want to be the first president to lose a war…” Doesn’t that sound eerily similar to “we have to go in to Syria to save our credibility…”?? The Communism threat was a lie, btw, as only 25% of the people in Vietnam were Communists. The rest were peaceful Buddhists. Pretty sad, eh?
**Edited to fix stupid link to Kerry’s Vietnam Testimony:
While watching the talking heads push for war, I look at President Obama and I am reminded of the Native American tale of the two wolves:
I can sense there is a fight going on inside Obama. I am afraid that the dark one will win, because if he goes to war, that is the side he will feed.
**Edited to add: One can’t lay this only on Obama if we go to war—because there are the warmongers in Congress, on Wall Street, in Israel, in Syria, who are playing their parts in this, too. Just wanted to be clear on that. And it takes those of us opposed to war to speak out to feed the light.
I wanted to add how the talking head worded her comments on CNN–as she talked about Pres. Obama getting us into yet another war, she didn’t ask “Is this a good idea?” Rather, she says the repubs are going to vote “no”…will the Dems support Pres. Obama?
Note how the viewer is trained to look at the debate as one between dems and repubs….and NOT the points on why we should or shouldn’t go to war again.
I was just watching CNN, and they showed a clip of President Obama with members of Congress. Nancy “off the table” Pelosi and John Boehner by his side. He is now pushing for war in Syria. He states that “this will be limited, with no boots on the ground…”
If you believe that, I’ve got oceanfront property in Indiana I want to sell you. Let Israel fight their own damn wars and leave us out of it.
And Let John McCain sell his million dollar homes to finance the war. And open his homes up to the widows and orphans that war creates, if he wants war so damn bad.
The more John Kerry talks….the more I’m getting the “weapons of mass destruction lie” feeling….the urgency to push us into war is unsettling…and undiplomatic. I suspect Israel is the real reason we’re being told we have no choice but to fire upon them….
This from Jim White at emptywheel. Let’s just say he’s not to happy with President Obama for once again getting us into war. I do like his take on “Blurred Lines” however. Nice to see a guy stand up and be counted.
Russia and China veto a UN resolution backing calls for Assad’s resignation as president of Syria. The veto prompted international outrage, coming hours after the regime’s bloodiest crackdown in the 10-month old conflict, which the UN had already characterized as a civil war. At least 200 people were reported killed in heavy shelling in Homs. Read more
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May 26, 2012
Alleged Houla massacre
Activists say Syrian regime forces have killed more than 90 people in the Houla area, many of them women and children. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Arab nations and the international community were “partners” in the killing “because of their silence about the massacre that the Syrian regime has committed.” Read more
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June 16, 2012
UN suspends observer mission
International efforts to stop the violence is Syria are disintegrating after the U.N. suspends its observer mission. Major Gen. Robert Mood said rising bloodshed over the past 10 days was posing significant risks to the lives of the 300 unarmed observers in the country, and was impeding their ability to carry out their mandate. Read more
(the UN does go back within a short time period)
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June 25, 2012
Military defections
Dozens of military personnel defect to Turkey overnight. A total of 33 soldiers – including a general and two colonels – slip across the border in the largest defection of members of the military since the uprising began. It comes at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries after Syria shot down a Turkish
warplane.
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July 23, 2012
Chemical weapons threat
The Syrian regime threatens to use its chemical and biological weapons in case of a foreign attack, in its first ever acknowledgement that it possesses weapons of mass destruction. Read more
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May 3, 2013
Israeli air strikes
Israel launches air strikes into Syria over 48 hours. One appears to target a military complex. An Israeli official says they were targeting missile shipments bound for Hezbollah. Read more
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Well…this is disturbing. Jim White writes that the Kerry tried to interfere with the UN gathering evidence for an independent report on whether chemical weapons are being used. And if you follow the NYTimes link, it states that if Sarin was used, the chemical would linger for a long time, and therefore it could be detected long after it was used. Kind of like DDT, eh?
IF there were chemical weapons used…I wonder who sold either the chemicals or the technology to them? Gah, it wouldn’t be Monsanto, now would it? /snark
A Chicago Alderman has proposed drones in Rahm Emanuel’s Safe Passage routes. I kid you not. If you continue with the next blog of Fred Klonsky, he questions the “none of your business” attitude of CPS on emergency preparedness plans. At the end, there is another link “continuing the story” which has this:
In a written statement, CPS officials insisted that every school in the district does, in fact, have a plan but said they were limited to “management level staff within the Office of Safety and Security,” building principals and assistant principals, and officials of the Chicago Police and Fire Departments.
This is ridiculous. The schools that I have taught at had plans the teachers knew and the children went through drills so they would know what to do. It is important because their teacher may be incapacitated, so the children all the way up to the principals need to know the plan. I found it highly ironic one year when we had a small earthquake while I was teaching. I asked the kids if they knew what to do in case of an earthquake, which they didn’t, so I told them to stay under their desks until the shaking stopped, and then we would leave the building in the usual emergency route. One of the regular instructors thought that I had needlessly worried the children….all the while they have been put in “lockdowns” for some terrorist going to attack the school. <sigh>
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The Indignant Teacher has a post up on a petition to remove David Koch from the board of WGBH Boston’s PBS station. I have always admired WGBH and WTTW PBS stations, and now that Kochs are trying to control the media, it is even more imperative to get them out.
More moneyed influence on campaigns of the anti-public school crowd. Good God, this guy is a liar. A bold-faced one at that.
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More here on John Pelto’s blog that Diane links to:
The evidence is clear that income inequality is a major factor in educational inequality. Children living in poverty experience prolonged stress that affects their brain development in the regions associated with learning. There is a strong correlation between socioeconomic status and standardized test scores. As proven by Stanford’s Sean Reardon, the widening of the achievement gap results from additional opportunities affluent parents provide their children out of the K-12 environment: high-quality pre-K, tutoring, and after-school and summer enrichment. Reardon demonstrated that the test score disparity between low-income and high-income children is not the result of schools.
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See, the pro-Charter $$ folks would prefer to ignore this important fact that impacts learning….it’s much more fun to blame unionized teachers…and watch them scramble to put out fires the Charter proponents deliberately set.
This is pretty powerful. He puts it so well–that every child develops in different ways and at different speeds and those differences should be honored, not ridiculed by failure of a “skills” test. (hat tip to Diane Ravitch)
Finally, a wonderful history lesson here by Diane. She was there on the March on Washington.
Why is it wrong to shoot down an unarmed black child in Florida, but okay to shoot down brown people in Iraq–especially under the lie of weapons of mass destruction perpetuated by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz??
1/9/03 After nearly two months, UN’s Hans Blix says his inspectors have not found any “smoking guns” in Iraq.
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2/27/03 US diplomat John Brady Kiesling resigns, citing the “distortion of intelligence” and “systematic manipulation of American opinion.“
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3/8/03 On CNN, Joe Wilson says, “I think it’s safe to say that the US government should have or did know that [the Niger documents were] fake before Dr. ElBaradei mentioned it in his report at the UN yesterday.” Decision to discredit Wilson made at a meeting within the Office of the Vice President. [Date the public knew: 5/3/04]
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I saw where the President was going to hand out yet another Medal of Honor. I couldn’t stand to watch it. I’m sure this veteran should have been a better candidate for the Medal of Honor. He actually knows right from wrong.
Eagle 
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