[pjw] REPORT BACK: : Friday rally #150 since stay-at-home orders (fwd)

[Peace and Justice Works]

Iraq Affinity Group supporters

There were seven of us last night at the Friday Rally for Peace and 
Justice. The weather was mild, we had lots of enthusiastic horn-honks (in 
contrast to the last few weeks), and a veteran who had been in Iraq until 
2021 struck up a conversation wondering why our next event is called "20 
Years Later, the US Is Still in Iraq." When I told him that there are 
still 2500 troops there, he asked, "then why did I pack up all that gear 
to move out of the country? Why did they tell everyone we were leaving?" 
And I said, "Why indeed?"

I advised him to look up 2500 US troops still in Iraq; I should have 
pointed him to the news from our Jan. 20 rally that talked about the Iraqi 
PM ok'ing the troops' presence there.

  https://news.antiwar.com/2023/01/15/iraqi-prime-minister-supports-open-ended-us-troop-presence/

He talked about how his unit built infrastructure and gave soccer balls to 
children. I didn't dispute that these things happened but pointed out that 
the infrastructure had to be rebuilt because the US bombed it to the 
ground twice (in 1991 and 2003). Maybe it was repayment, I said. I also 
asked him that with people in the US are fighting against each other, how 
would he feel about a Middle Eastern country coming here, building a huge 
embassy and flooding our streets with their military. He said he had 
thought about that. Good, let's hope he does more soul searching (and 
internet searching) in the future.

That conversation brought me right up to the time for the rally, at which 
these were some of the headlines:

--People who ask us, "why do we say stop the wars" should know that this 
week a US drone strike killed three supposed Al Qaeda suspects in Yemen/

  https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/01/31/yemen-drone-strike-al-qaeda/

--The US is working to expand its presence at four military bases in the 
Philippines to counter China (after vacating one of them at Subic Bay 30 
years ago following a volcanic eruption)

  https://archive.is/lice8
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/30/philippines-bases-china-taiwan/

--Syrian locals are again refuting a newly-issued report that Syria used 
chemical weapons in Douma in  2018

  https://thecradle.co/article-view/21006/douma-locals-medical-personnel-deny-veracity-of-2018-chemical-weapons-attack

--Russia says that Ukraine hit a hospital (in Russian-occupied 
territory in Ukraine) with US missiles, killing 14 people.

  https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-accuses-ukraine-killing-14-deliberate-strike-hospital-2023-01-28/

--NPR reminds us that 20 years ago this week, Colin Powell lied to the 
UN about weapons of mass destruction being in Iraq, leading to at least 
185,000 civilian deaths and two million displaced people.

  https://www.npr.org/2023/02/03/1151160567/colin-powell-iraq-un-weapons-mass-destruction

--Good news: the prisoner who made a plea deal years ago was released 
from Guantanamo, bringing the total number of people there down to 34.

  https://www.stripes.com/theaters/americas/2023-02-02/guantanamo-prisoner-released-9019793.html

In local news, Officer Brian Hunzeker, the former Portland Police 
Association President who leaked a false allegation the Commissioner Jo 
Ann Hardesty was involved in a hit-and-run, was given his job back by an 
arbitrator. The arbitrator said the City failed to prove it was 
retaliation, despite the fact that Hunzeker EXPLICITLY TOLD INVESTIGATORS 
he did it because Hardesty had claimed that officers were setting fires 
during the 2020 protests.

  https://www.opb.org/article/2023/02/02/portland-oregon-police-law-enforcement-jo-ann-hardesty-brian-hunzeker-hit-and-run/

*Sigh.*

Along the regular march route, I noted that a spokesperson from the US 
State Department refused to refer to the West Bank as being an occupied 
territory, even with all the violence from the Israeli government and 
apparent retaliatory acts from Palestinians.

  https://www.newarab.com/news/us-spokesperson-refuses-say-occupied-west-bank

This week's money for human needs not war is the bizarre continuation of 
Republicans wanting to cut the military budget. They don't seem to care 
that the military kills people (and destroys the planet, and takes money 
away from those in need). No, their big concern is that the military is 
too "woke" because they have diversity and are working to use alternative 
fuels.

  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/eyeing-defense-spending-cuts-house-gop-targets-military-wokeness/ar-AA171K71

Once again the Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial Sign went out along the block 
by the Gucci store, this time with a full battery and the display light 
turned off on the generator. I should probably just report when it works, 
but then that would be a very short subset of our protests since the 
sign's debut in June 2020.

Getting back to the March 17 event marking 20 years since the Iraq war, as 
noted yesterday the flyer is now up online:

  https://pjw.info/iraq_20yl_flyer.pdf

A web page devoted to the event will be ready soon.

As always, we welcome you to join us any Friday at 5 PM, keep masked up 
and distanced with us for safety, and help educate the community about the 
violence being done in our names that must end.

thanks
--dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group