Take a Moment for Death By William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t - April 12, 2007

He was just a blue-eyed Boston boy,
His voice was low with pain.
I’ll do your bidding comrade mine,
If I ride back again.
But if you ride back and I am left,
You do as much for me.
Mother, you know, must hear the news,
So write to her tenderly …

- “Two Soldiers”

Let’s take a moment, you and I, to slice through the shouting and the posturing and the politics. Let’s elbow out some space, just a wee margin, away from fired US Attorneys and Gonzales and subpoenas and Karl Rove, away from Cheney and Bush and spending bills and withdrawal plans and all the rest of it. Let’s put a little room between these things and ourselves, not because these things are unimportant, but because something underneath it all still manages to get ignored even within the maelstrom of a failing administration, and we need to talk about it.

A soldier from Massachusetts was killed in Iraq last week. He was an Army Sergeant, and was 25 years old.

A soldier from New Mexico was killed in Iraq last week. He was a Specialist, and was 21 years old.

A soldier from Alabama was killed in Iraq last week. He was a Staff Sergeant, and was 31 years old.

A soldier from Indiana was killed in Iraq last week. He was a Private, and was 20 years old.

A soldier from California was killed in Iraq last week. He was a Staff Sergeant, and was 25 years old.

A soldier from New Hampshire was killed in Iraq last week. He was a Captain, and was 25 years old.

A soldier from North Carolina was killed in Iraq last week. He was a Specialist, and was 33 years old.

A soldier from Michigan was killed in Iraq last week. He was a Specialist, and was 23 years old.

A soldier from Arkansas was killed in Iraq last week. He was a Private, and was 21 years old.

Nine soldiers, whose names I am withholding out of respect for their families, are gone. Nine soldiers gone in less than a week, nine names added to the bloody list, a list that totals 45 soldiers killed in Iraq over the short passage of twelve days in April. 45 soldiers killed in less than two weeks, added to the 81 soldiers lost in March, added to the 80 soldiers lost in February, added to the 3,292 lost since Bush’s wretched misadventure in Iraq began four long years ago.

This is the “surge” you’ve heard about, three months along now, and that smothering euphemism is brutally appropriate. Critics tried to label this newest fiasco an “escalation” in the media when it began, so the truth of it wouldn’t be buried under kinder, gentler, politically soothing terminology. Yet “surge” is the word, and the lethality of it all is only lost when we fail to take a moment to encompass it.

Bush and his people have “surged” about 200 American soldiers into the cold ground over this new year, have “surged” about 200 folded American flags into the trembling hands of shattered families, have “surged” woe and horror and sorrow into the hearts and souls of people from all points on the national compass. They have not “surged” any kind of success into the Iraq equation, of course, but this becomes mere grist for the political mill only when the rest of us fail to take a moment and remember that failed policies these days are always paid for in blood.

45 soldiers in 12 days. Will it be 90 soldiers in 24 days? One hundred soldiers when the time comes to turn the calendar page? More?

Who can say? The only constant is butchery, and as we slide along this axis of inevitable carnage day after day, we can depend upon a daily dose of death to present itself before us. We can, and must, engage in the political fights of this hour. We must demand accountability, push for hearings and subpoenas, and work to corner this deranged administration so that maybe, just maybe, a chance to stop the killing can be seized.

Take this moment, just a small slice of time, for death. In all the noise and thunder and shouting, don’t forget to take that small moment. It is the very least we, the living, can do.

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William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: “War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn’t Want You to Know” and “The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.” His newest book, “House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America’s Ravaged Reputation,” is now available from PoliPointPress.

This says it all…

Thursday, Apr. 05, 2007
An Administration’s Epic Collapse
By Joe Klein - Time Magazine

The first three months of the new Democratic Congress have been neither terrible nor transcendent. A Pew poll had it about right: a substantial majority of the public remains happy the Democrats won in 2006, but neither Nancy Pelosi nor Harry Reid has dominated the public consciousness as Newt Gingrich did when the Republicans came to power in 1995. There is a reason for that. A much bigger story is unfolding: the epic collapse of the Bush Administration.

The three big Bush stories of 2007–the decision to “surge” in Iraq, the scandalous treatment of wounded veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys for tawdry political reasons–precisely illuminate the three qualities that make this Administration one of the worst in American history: arrogance (the surge), incompetence (Walter Reed) and cynicism (the U.S. Attorneys).

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PERATA INITIATIVE TO CALL FOR WITHDRAWAL OF TROOPS FROM IRAQ

Today, California Senate President pro Tem Don Perata unveiled legislation that would make California the first state in the nation to call on President Bush to immediately withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq. I completely support it!

Frustrated by the Bush administration’s failure to end the war after more than four years, Senator Perata announced plans to place the advisory measure on California’s statewide ballot as part of next year’s February 5 presidential primary.

The text of the resolution is as follows:

“The people of California, in support of the men and women serving in the Armed Forces of the United States, urge President Bush to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and immediately begin the safe and orderly withdrawal of all United States forces; and further urge President Bush and the United States Congress to provide the necessary diplomatic and non-military assistance to promote peace and stability in Iraq and the Middle East.”

“We’ve had nearly 3,300 Americans killed and spent more than $350 billion, with no end in sight,” Senator Perata said. “We’ve established a democratic government in Iraq, now it’s up to the Iraqis to make it work. With the possible exception of George Bush, we all know it’s time to go.”

To learn more about Senator Perata’s legislation, and to lead the way by signing the Vote US Out of Iraq Resolution, please visit here.

California Faculty Association Announces Tentative Agreement

The California Faculty Association announced today a tentative agreement with the California State University administration in the 23-month dispute for a contract covering the CSU’s teachers, librarians, counselors and coaches.

CFA President John Travis said, “We have a tentative agreement on the CSU faculty contract that will be good for the CSU, good for our students, good for the faculty—and frankly it will be good for California. As a result, we have put the rolling walkouts at the 23 CSU campuses on hold pending ratification of the agreement.”

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