I was in the middle of buying some mints from a street vendor on Cairo’s Talat Harb Street—right off Tahrir Square--when the rocks started flying. I had given a 20-cent coin to the vendor. He gave me one pack of mints, and all hell broke loose.
“Run, run,” people yelled at me. I saw a group of men running down the street, carrying a man whose face was streaming with blood. Then I saw the pro-Mubarak thugs, armed with rocks, metal pipes, whips. “Run, Run,” the Egyptians on the street told me. I ran for shelter as fast as I could.
Tonight our CODEPINK delegation in Cairo returned to Tahrir Square after the terrible events of this afternoon, when Mubarak's thugs busted up their peaceful protest with rocks, sticks and molotov cocktails. Hundreds have been wounded--their hands, legs, arms wrapped in bloody bandages. Despite the beatings, thousands of people are still camped out in the square--absolutely determined to stay there until Mubarak goes.
Now is the time that the Egyptian people need our solidarity. Don't let there be one more "Made in the USA" teargas canister hurled at these people. Don't let there be one more U.S. bullet or U.S. weapon aimed at them.
The future will be here in April and Code Pink: Women for Peace has already won it (thus answering President Obama's State of the Union call to "win the future"). The color coded threat warnings our government has been bombarding us with since shortly after September 11, 2001, will be gone. The fear-mongering tactic that Code Pink was named in mockery of will have been mocked right out of existence.
To listen to the corporate media, Code Pink cannot be taken seriously because decorum and politeness are universal values of a much higher order than peace or justice. (Code Pink has been known to disrupt a formal event or two, in addition to all its other work advocating for peace.)
If you're feeling skeptical after hearing President Obama's latest speech on the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, you're not alone. It's hard to know what to make of a President and an administration that brings over 90,000 troops homewhile ordering 50,000 soldiers along with 75,000 military contractors to remain. There are still some 150,000 personnel in Iraq and the US is supposed to be completely out of the country by 2011. That's next year. Bringing home thousands by the end of this August is a good step, but we really need to step on it. Unfortunately, the State Department is dragging its heels as much as the Pentagon and wants to hire 6,000 - 7,000 more staff and train them like soldiers. While working under the auspices of the State Department, these new personnel would have the status of “diplomats.” But who ever heard of a diplomat trained like a soldier and armed with a gun?
On Memorial Day 2010, I remember Abeer Hamza, the 14-year-old stalked, raped and murdered by predatory US soldiers who also murdered her family. I remember Nadja Al-Ali, Iraqi-German author of What Kind of Liberation?, talking about Iraqi women dying from cancer after exposure to Depleted Uranium. I remember being spell-bound by charismatic Afghan parliamentarian in exile, Malalai Joya, as she told a crowd in Berkeley about “democracy-loving leaders” in her country: “We have a LOT!” she declared with eyes blazing.
I remember clearly when Speaker Pelosi made statements last year about not intending to push her colleagues to approve more funding for Afghanistan the next time President Obama came asking. I remember because it was one of my few “yay Nancy” moments. They don’t happen often honestly. So when I read today’s piece on Fox’s [...]
Friday, February 4, 2011
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