Killeen: Under the Hood Update, September, 2010
Friday, September 10th, 2010
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Posts Tagged ‘Lon Burnam’
Killeen: The War is Over | Alice Embree | The Rag Blog
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
Dude. The War is over. President Obama visits with Iraq war veterans and their families at Fort Bliss, Texas, August 31. Photo from AFP.
(But don’t tell the GI’s at Fort Hood)
THE WAR IS OVER!
By Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / September 1, 2010
So do your duty, boys and join with pride
Serve your country in her suicide
Find the flags so you can wave goodbye
But just before the end even treason might be worth a try
This country is too young to die
I declare the war is over– Phil Ochs, 1966
See photos, Below.
KILLEEN, Texas — As Barack Obama declares the end of “combat operations” in Iraq, the haunting refrains of Phil Ochs’ “The War is Over,” reverberate through my psyche. Isn’t this the second time a U.S. president has said the Iraq war is over?
We are seven years into the Second Bush Iraq War. Fifty thousand troops and that many contractors remain in Iraq. The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (3rd ACR), a combat regiment, just deployed from Fort Hood to Iraq. The war’s not over.
It’s not over until the troops are home and the contractors’ checks can’t be cashed. The war’s not over for the Iraqi people until depleted uranium no longer poses a neonatal threat. It’s not over until Iraqi hospitals, electricity, and water are at least back to the levels of operation under Saddam Hussein, or better, back to the levels of operation prior to sanctions. The war’s not over until the five million displaced Iraqis can return home. It’s never over for the families of one million Iraqi dead.
The war’s not over for the U.S. soldiers returning with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), or those who have lost limbs or the use of their limbs. It’s not over for the families of the more than 5,000 U.S. military men and women who died in Iraq.
On Sunday afternoon, August 29th, Dr. Dahlia Wasfi spoke to a packed crowd at the Texas State Employee Union’s meeting hall about the human catastrophe of U.S. policy in Iraq. As an Iraqi-American, she speaks with eloquence about her father’s place of birth. With her medical background, she brings disturbing details to the discussion of civilian casualties. She minces no words in describing the occupation.
Under the façade of liberation and democracy, U.S. troops seized the country, securing the oil fields, the Ministry of Oil, the Interior Ministry (CIA), and taking the lives of thousands of people. Iraq’s rich culture, history, and valuable assets were left vulnerable to stealth and destruction. In the years since [March 19, 2003], the lack of security, jobs, electricity, and potable water have made life for Iraqis unbearable… Our obligation to the people of Iraq, to the people of America, and to the rest of the world is the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of American troops and mercenaries from Iraq.
Go to www.liberatethis.com for more on Dr. Dahlia Wasfi.
On Monday morning, August 30th, a press conference in Killeen, Texas countered the claim that the Iraq war is over. Killeen is the home of Fort Hood, the nation’s largest military base. Rep. Lon Burnam of Fort Worth joined Dr. Dahlia Wasfi and representatives from Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Texas Labor Against the War, Veterans for Peace, CodePink Austin, and the Peace and Justice Support Network of the Mennonite Church at Killeen’s Under the Hood Café.
The common message was that the war continues. Rep. Lon Burnam got directly to the point highlighting the costs of the Iraq debacle.
The Killeen Daily Herald noted, in extensive coverage of the event, that
Burnam said he was tired of officials using the “financial back of us working folks” to fund conflicts, and quoted a 1953 speech by President Dwight Eisenhower: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
In 1966 when Phil Ochs wrote his song, the Vietnam War was not over. In fact, it was far from over. In 2010, despite pronouncements from the Oval Office, the Iraq war is not over. The families of Fort Hood’s 3rd ACR can attest to that. And there is still another war raging in Afghanistan.
[Alice Embree is a long-time Austin activist and organizer, a former staff member of The Rag in Austin and RAT in New York, and a veteran of SDS and the women's liberation movement. She is active with CodePink Austin and Under the Hood Café. Embree is a contributing editor to The Rag Blog and is secretary of the New Journalism Project.]
Dr. Dahlia Wasfi speaking on the Humanitarian Catastrophe of U.S. Policy in Iraq, Austin, August 29, 2010, Texas State Employees Union. Photo by Carlos Lowry / The Rag Blog.
Dr. Dahlia Wasfi addresses media at Under the Hood press conference, August 30, 2010. Photo by Heidi Turpin / The Rag Blog.
Texas Rep. Lon Burnam of Ft. Worth at Under the Hood press conference. Photo by Heidi Turpin / The Rag Blog.
Under the Hood Press Conference. Seated (l-r): Dr. Dahlia Wasfi (Iraqi-American peace activist), Larry Egly (Mennonite Church), Leslie Cunningham (Texas Labor Against the War); Standing, Jim Turpin (CodePink Austin), Jack Prince (Veterans for Peace), Alice Embree (The Rag Blog), Jasmyne Thomas (Fort Hood military family member), Jeff Gernant (Iraq Veterans Against the War). Photos by Heidi Turpin / The Rag Blog.
http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/alice-embree-war-is-over.html
Killeen: “The War in Iraq is Not Over”–press conference at Under the Hood, August 30, 2010 | Killeen Daily Herald
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010Texas Labor Against the War joined other groups in a press conference highlighted by Texas State Representative Lon Burnam of Fort Worth and Iraqi-American Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, at Under the Hood Outreach Center and Cafe on Monday, August 30, 2010. For the full Killeen Daily Herald story, go to http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=44003
RALLY FOR PEACE
- In the pic: Jack Prince of Veterans for Peace; Alice Embree of CodePink Austin and the Texas State Employees Union; seated is Cynthia Thomas, military spouse and manager of Under the Hood. Dr. Dahlia Wasfi is speaking. –Photo by Killeen Daily Herald
By Amanda Kim Stairrett
Killeen Daily Herald
August 30, 2010
Peace activists gathered in Killeen Monday morning to speak out against U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The event, which was hosted at Killeen’s Under the Hood Café, focused on Iraq and the president’s recent announcement that U.S. combat operations ended there today. Speakers also questioned the deployment of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment to Iraq. The final of several thousand of the regiment’s troopers departed Fort Hood for the Middle East Friday in what military officials call an advise-and-assist mission. Those soldiers will assist Provincial Reconstruction Teams and help prepare Iraqi security forces to care for and protect their own nation.
The 1st Cavalry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team will deploy soon for the same mission.
Central Texas activists were in town Aug. 23 to protest the regiment’s deployment. As buses carried soldiers from main post to West Fort Hood’s Robert Gray Army Airfield, demonstrators waited on the overpass with their headlights turned off, according to information from Fort Hood and videos posted on YouTube by participants.
As the buses drove south on Clarke Road Gate at about 3:40 a.m., the demonstrators held up banners and chanted. Several blocked the buses’ path for a short time.
“Acting to protect Department of Defense personnel and equipment, Fort Hood police moved the demonstrators away from the intersection to the sidewalk,” read a statement from Fort Hood.
Individuals were released without incident and the bus convoy continued to the airfield, it went on to read.
Post officials did have advance knowledge about the demonstration, they said.
Monday’s speakers included Cynthia Thomas, Under the Hood manager; Rep. Lon Burnam, a Democrat from Fort Worth and former director of the Dallas Peace Center; Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, a peace activist of Muslim and Jewish heritage; Larry Egly, of the Peace and Justice Support Network of Mennonite Church USA; and Leslie Cunningham, of Texas Labor Against the War.
CodePink Austin, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace were also represented.
Monday’s event was just one of two in Central Texas “aimed at peeling back the mass deception surrounding ‘the end of combat operations,’” according to information from Under the Hood. The first was a talk in Austin Sunday featuring Wasfi.
Most Americans are lulled to sleep because they think the war is over, Burnam said. He attacked Presidents Bush and Obama, saying the “expansionist” war was an illegal and immoral occupation — something that was fiscally wrong to start seven years ago.
Burnam heavily criticized the Iraq war’s financial burden on the country, saying it was wrong for Bush to start two “outrageous” wars while providing tax cuts. Burnam said he was tired of officials using the “financial back of us working folks” to fund conflicts, and quoted a 1953 speech by President Dwight Eisenhower: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
It is time for Obama to end the occupation, end tax cuts for the rich and cure a deficit that will hurt “our children and grandchildren,” Burnam went on to say.
Thomas said Under the Hood started a telephone campaign to make sure non-deployable soldiers were not deployed. The organization has previously worked with soldiers and families from the regiment who said they were not fit to deploy.
The administration and command know there aren’t enough soldiers to cover two wars, Thomas said, and they continue to ignore family members and soldiers instead of focusing on their well-being.
“This community is not going to be able to survive it much longer,” she said.
The 1 percent of the U.S. population in uniform are the ones fighting and paying the most, Thomas said.
If people really wanted to support the troops, they would be fighting for them to come home, she added.
Contact Amanda Kim Stairrett at [email protected] or (254) 501-7547. Follow her on Twitter at KDHmilitary or www.facebook.com/astairrett.
For more information
Under the Hood is located at 17 S. College St. It is open daily from 5 to 10 p.m. Visit the café online at www.underthehoodcafe.org.
For more information about Texas Labor Against the War, visit www.txlaboragainstwar.org or call (512) 470-8485.
Peace and Justice Support Network of Mennonite Church USA can be found online at http://peace.mennolink.org.
Austin & Killeen: Iraq Debacle Events
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010| August 29, 2010 5:00 pm | to | August 30, 2010 10:00 am |
The Iraq Debacle
As corporate media heralds the end of combat forces in Iraq, Fort Hood is deploying 3,000 troops to Iraq from the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment. Many of them have been deemed “undeployable” due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and other conditions resulting from previous deployments during this decade of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several upcoming events are aimed at peeling back the mass deception surrounding “the end of combat operations.”
5:00 pm, Sunday, August 29th, 1700 South First, Austin, Texas. Iraqi-
American doctor, Dahlia Wasfi will speak in Austin about the U.S. Policy in Iraq: A Humanitarian Catastrophe. This event is co-sponsored by Texas Labor Against the War and CodePink Austin and will take place at the Texas State Employees Union meeting hall. (TSEU is on S. 1st St. near Annie, across from Freddie’s Restaurant.)
10:00 am, Monday, August 30th, Under the Hood, 17 S. College, Killeen, Texas. A press conference will highlight the Iraq debacle – its impact on US. soldiers, Iraqis, and funding to meet domestic needs. Dahlia Wasfi, Iraqi-American doctor
and Rep. Lon Burnam from Fort Worth, Texas will join representatives from many groups including Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, CodePink and Texas Labor Against the War.
for more information: http://www.underthehoodcafe.org/
on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112882012098277
Killeen: Under the Hood Update, August, 2010
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
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