By David Swanson

Why is it that every time we elect "peace" candidates we defund the peace movement, stop calling for an end to wars, and limit our demands exclusively to opposing war escalations?

In 2006 we voted into Congress the candidates who looked most likely to end the war in Iraq. We congratulated ourselves on a job well done. Then we mildly urged them not to escalate the war they'd been elected to end, and they escalated it anyway.

By David Swanson

In November 2008, then President George W. Bush and then Puppet Nouri al-Maliki negotiated an unprecedented, unconstitutional treaty to "legalize" three more years of war in a manner not unlike the "legalization" of invasions, detentions, torture, and warrantless spying by secret decree of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice.

By David Swanson

A few words from U.S. troops in Iraq, all quoted in Chapter 1 of Dahr Jamail's brilliant new book "The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan":

"Oh yeah, we did search and avoid missions all the time. We would go to the end of our patrol route and set up camp on the top of a bridge and use it as an over-watch position. It was a common tactic. We would just sit there and observe rather than sweep. We would call in radio checks every hour and report that we were doing sweeps." -- Eli Wright

By David Swanson

The House is about to vote on another supplemental spending bill for continued and escalated wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We're not accustomed to winning in our efforts to block war money, but the Democratic leadership has delayed the vote out of concern that we will.

By David Swanson

Six Years of Illegal War: Demand Accountability

We are fast approaching the end of the sixth year since the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and seven and a half in Afghanistan. There has been no accountability for the criminals who launched these wars of aggression. The current congress and president are continuing both and escalating one.

But awareness and public pressure continue to grow, as does the possibility of criminal prosecution for some of the war crimes. Over 150 groups are asking the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor for Bush and Cheney. You can add your name or your organization, and find a dozen other easy steps to take here:
http://prosecutebushcheney.org

By David Swanson

This is the question now raised in Iraq: If they throw shoes at your face are you a combat troop or a noncombat troop? The answer may be important in helping to guide President Elect Obama's strategy of reducing but continuing the genocidal occupation that has made a shoeless journalist one of the most beloved, if little known, people in the world overnight.

People have started passing around and publicly posting English translations of the Arabic version of the treaty being negotiated between Bush and Maliki. (It's also been published by an Iraqi newspaper. Who should teach whom about freedom of the press?) The U.S. Constitution requires that the Senate approve treaties, so Bush is calling this one a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).