Peace Against Terrorism - The Turning Point

"Kucinich's 'Prayer for America' speech was interrupted by repeated standing ovations. But the real measure of the message's resonance came as the text of the speech circulated on the Internet--where a genuine worldwide web of opposition to the Administration's actions led to the posting of Kucinich's words on websites (including www.thenation.com) and dispatched them via e-mail. Within days, Kucinich received 10,000-plus e-mails.

....For most people, Kucinich's speech represents the clearest Congressional criticism they have heard about the conduct of the war, and of the Administration's plans to expand it. That's enormously significant,' said Midge Miller, who helped launch Senator Eugene McCarthy's [Vietnam] antiwar challenge to President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. 'Citizens look for Congressional opposition to organize around - they look for leaders to say something. When I read Kucinich's speech, I thought, This could be a turning point.'

It has certainly been a turning point for Kucinich. Overwhelmed by invitations to speak, he says his top priority will be to work with [Congressman Tammy] Baldwin and others to encourage a broader Congressional debate over international priorities, Pentagon spending and the stifling of dissent. ...."
The Nation, Feb 25, 2002

"The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it to them."
Dwight Eisenhower, U.S. president 1953-1961

Congressman Dennis Kucinich is one of the first US congressmen to challenge the validity of the Bush Administration's so-called 'War Against Terrorism'

Below is his recent address to US citizens

Please send Congressmen Kucinich your message of support - http://www.kucinich.us/contact.htm
and forward a copy of his prayer to every media outlet you can find

http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/sp-020217-prayer.htm
[text colouring added by nlpwessex]

A Prayer for America

(to be sung as an overture for America)

"My country 'tis of thee. Sweet land of liberty of thee I sing. . . . From every mountain side, let freedom ring. . . . Long may our land be bright. With freedom's holy light. . . ."

"Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

"America, America, God shed grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. . . . "

I offer these brief remarks today as a prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With love for our country. With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of us. With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a democracy each time we speak freely. With the understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and fear stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in fear and faith at the same time.

With the understanding that there is a deeper truth expressed in the unity of the United States. That implicate in the union of our country is the union of all people. That all people are essentially one. That the world is interconnected not only on the material level of economics, trade, communication, and transportation, but interconnected through human consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of the world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning to be and to breathe free.

I offer this prayer for America.

Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. We must ask why should America put aside guarantees of constitutional justice?

How can we justify in effect canceling the First Amendment and the right of free speech, the right to peaceably assemble?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Fourth Amendment, probable cause, the prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Fifth Amendment, nullifying due process, and allowing for indefinite incarceration without a trial?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Sixth Amendment, the right to prompt and public trial?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment?

We cannot justify widespread wiretaps and Internet surveillance without judicial supervision, let alone with it. We cannot justify secret searches without a warrant. We cannot justify giving the Attorney General the ability to designate domestic terror groups. We cannot justify giving the FBI total access to any type of data which may exist in any system anywhere such as medical records and financial records.

We cannot justify giving the CIA the ability to target people in this country for intelligence surveillance. We cannot justify a government which takes from the people our right to privacy and then assumes for its own operations a right to total secrecy. The Attorney General recently covered up a statue of Lady Justice showing her bosom as if to underscore there is no danger of justice exposing herself at this time, before this administration.

Let us pray that our nation's leaders will not be overcome with fear. Because today there is great fear in our great Capitol. And this must be understood before we can ask about the shortcomings of Congress in the current environment. The great fear began when we had to evacuate the Capitol on September 11. It continued when we had to leave the Capitol again when a bomb scare occurred as members were pressing the CIA during a secret briefing. It continued when we abandoned Washington when anthrax, possibly from a government lab, arrived in the mail. It continued when the Attorney General declared a nationwide terror alert and then the Administration brought the destructive Patriot Bill to the floor of the House. It continued in the release of the Bin Laden tapes at the same time the President was announcing the withdrawal from the ABM treaty. It remains present in the cordoning off of the Capitol. It is present in the camouflaged armed national guardsmen who greet members of Congress each day we enter the Capitol campus. It is present in the labyrinth of concrete barriers through which we must pass each time we go to vote. The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a state of fear, ill equipped to deal with the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President.

Let us pray that our country will stop this war. "To promote the common defense" is one of the formational principles of America. Our Congress gave the President the ability to respond to the tragedy of September the Eleventh. We licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror of September the Eleventh. But we the people and our elected representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the response.

Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq.
We did not authorize the invasion of Iran.
We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea.
We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention.
We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus.
We did not authorize assassination squads.
We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.
We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights.
We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution.
We did not authorize national identity cards.
We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities.
We did not authorize an eye for an eye.
Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases.
We did not authorize war without end.
We did not authorize a permanent war economy.

Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy. The President has requested a $45.6 billion increase in military spending. All defense-related programs will cost close to $400 billion. Consider that the Department of Defense has never passed an independent audit. Consider that the Inspector General has notified Congress that the Pentagon cannot properly account for $1.2 trillion in transactions. Consider that in recent years the Dept. of Defense could not match $22 billion worth of expenditures to the items it purchased, wrote off, as lost, billions of dollars worth of in-transit inventory and stored nearly $30 billion worth of spare parts it did not need.

Yet the defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems to fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems in search of new enemies to create new wars. This has nothing to do with fighting terror. This has everything to do with fueling a military industrial machine with the treasure of our nation, risking the future of our nation, risking democracy itself with the militarization of thought which follows the militarization of the budget.

Let us pray for our children. Our children deserve a world without end. Not a war without end. Our children deserve a world free of the terror of hunger, free of the terror of poor health care, free of the terror of homelessness, free of the terror of ignorance, free of the terror of hopelessness, free of the terror of policies which are committed to a world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a free people, not appropriate for the survival of democratic values, not appropriate for the survival of our nation, and not appropriate for the survival of the world.

Let us pray that we have the courage and the will as a people and as a nation to shore ourselves up, to reclaim from the ruins of September the Eleventh our democratic traditions. Let us declare our love for democracy. Let us declare our intent for peace. Let us work to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our own society. Let us recommit ourselves to the slow and painstaking work of statecraft, which sees peace, not war as being inevitable. Let us work for a world where someday war becomes archaic. That is the vision which the proposal to create a Department of Peace envisions. Forty-three members of congress are now cosponsoring the legislation. Let us work for a world where nuclear disarmament is an imperative. That is why we must begin by insisting on the commitments of the ABM treaty. That is why we must be steadfast for nonproliferation.

Let us work for a world where America can lead the way in banning weapons of mass destruction not only from our land and sea and sky but from outer space itself. That is the vision of HR 3616: A universe free of fear. Where we can look up at God's creation in the stars and imagine infinite wisdom, infinite peace, infinite possibilities, not infinite war, because we are taught that the kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.

Let us pray that we have the courage to replace the images of death which haunt us, the layers of images of September the Eleventh, faded into images of patriotism, spliced into images of military mobilization, jump cut into images of our secular celebrations of the World Series, New Year's Eve, the Superbowl, the Olympics, the strobic flashes which touch our deepest fears, let us replace those images with the work of human relations, reaching out to people, helping our own citizens here at home, lifting the plight of the poor everywhere. That is the America which has the ability to rally the support of the world. That is the America which stands not in pursuit of an axis of evil, but which is itself at the axis of hope and faith and peace and freedom.

America, America. God shed grace on thee. Crown thy good, America. Not with weapons of mass destruction. Not with invocations of an axis of evil. Not through breaking international treaties. Not through establishing America as king of a unipolar world. Crown thy good, America.

America, America. Let us pray for our country. Let us love our country. Let us defend our country not only from the threats without but from the threats within. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good with brotherhood, and sisterhood. And crown thy good with compassion and restraint and forbearance and a commitment to peace, to democracy, to economic justice here at home and throughout the world. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good.

Thank you.

Southern California
Americans for Democratic Action
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Sunday, February 17, 2002
United States Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
Email responses to Dkucinich@aol.com

On July 11, 2001 Congressman Kucinich introduced H.R. 2459, a bill to create a Cabinet-level Department of Peace which embodies a broad-based approach to peaceful, non-violent conflict resolution at both domestic and international levels. The Department of Peace would serve to promote non-violence as an organizing principle in our society, and help to create the conditions for a more peaceful world.

"I think we're finding all over the world this hunger people have for connectedness. Those of us who view the world in a holistic way, seeing it as an unbroken whole, understand that there is an essential interconnectedness which we all have. And when people awaken to the pulsation for peace which is out there, when they hear of programs that work to further it, they can get very excited about it."
U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich on his proposal for 'Department of Peace' legislation
http://hagelin.org/news/08_10_2001.htm

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is joined by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Congressman John Conyers Jr (D-MI) at a Washington, DC news conference to unveil legislation establishing a cabinet level Department of Peace.
click here for photo and full list of congressional co-sponsors

"...'We can't afford to waste billions of dollars' because of the Bush administration's 'theological fascination with missile defense,' said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. 'No threat assessment exists to justify the spending.'...'People are playing with the apocalypse,' said Kucinich [on Bush's new strategy for first strike nuclear attack options], top Democrat on the national security subcommittee. 'These are doomsday scenarios ... (and) it needs to be challenged.'...."
New York Times, 12 March 2002

"On the battlefield, all wars are different. But on the home front, all wars slowly begin to resemble Vietnam. The best evidence to support that second assertion was a Tuesday morning news conference called to herald the formation of a muscular new organization, 'Americans for Victory Over Terrorism.' Led by former Education secretary Bill Bennett, the indefatigable crusader for virtue and conservative values, the group stands ready to wage holy war against those who would weaken America's resolve to fight terrorism. In his opening statement, Bennett pledged to take this fight 'to campuses, salons, oratorical societies, editorial pages and television.' Thirty years ago, similar groups used to make pilgrimages to the Nixon White House to buttress the president's spirits during the dark days of Vietnam. Back then, they were the right wing's answer to the peace movement. So who is the target of Bennett's heavy rhetorical artillery?... Who is weakening America's resolve? Continuing his scattershot answer, Bennett then read aloud intemperate comments by left-wing House Democrats Maxine Waters of California and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio... After Saddam, what? Are we prepared to commit tens of thousands of U.S. troops to occupy Iraq? Can we envision an alternative government that could inspire credibility? Or are we going to war along with a few allies and a handful of Iraqi exile groups and hoping for the best? Given our mixed record in fostering post-Taliban stability in Afghanistan, these are not idle questions. A full-throated national dialogue on Iraq will not weaken our resolve. For the true lesson of Vietnam is that the lack of honest debate in Washington is what undermines national unity."
USA Today, 13 March 2002

Support September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows - click here
"Peaceful Tomorrows is an advocacy organization founded by family members of September Eleventh victims. Its mission is to seek effective nonviolent responses to terrorism, and identify a commonality with all people similarly affected by violence throughout the world. By conscientiously exploring peaceful options in our search for justice, we choose to spare additional innocent families the suffering that we have already experienced—as well as to break the endless cycle of violence and retaliation engendered by war."

Terrorist reprisals are all but certain now that the U.S. has launched its military campaign to 'eradicate' terrorism. For this reason, a proven solution to terrorism is especially urgent. Please follow the link below, read carefully, and act decisively. There is no other effective defense against terrorism.
Please click here

"The news that the Pentagon had secret contingency plans to fight terrorism with nuclear weapons has the marks not of considered military doctrine but rather of an infantile tantrum born of the Bush administration's frustration in making good on its overblown promise to end the terrorist scourge. There is desperation in the air; the giant that is America feels humbled by the Lilliputian terrorists who have not been brought fully to account."
The Fallout of Desperation, Los Angles Times, 12 March 2002

The Lunatics Are Now In Charge of the Asylum
Isn't it time something was done about this?

"It is completely possible for the USA to take revenge against terrorists and continue to crush terrorism, month after month, and year after year, but the net result will be a chain of destruction from both sides. We would never like to compare President Bush with Hitler, but if the World War starts from this, what else could be the interpretation? .... In the beginning, when Hitler started his war, all of Germany was with him..... If the government and people of the USA think they can destroy terrorism by starting to destroy terrorists, they should understand that any step in the direction of destruction will have destructive repercussions and will only help to create waves of destruction in time. This is a universal Law of Nature—action and reaction—'As you sow, so shall you reap.' It is a matter of truthfully facing the facts. The President of the US and the people of all the NATO alliance countries should understand that any war, anywhere, by anyone, will make the reality of war perpetual, as it has been throughout the ages. Wisdom in this scientific age demands eliminating the cause of all wars. We are making these logical inferences because we have a solution."
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Proposal for World Peace
Washington Post, 23 September 2001
The New York Times, 23 September 2001
International Herald Tribune, 25 September 2001

"Let it be clearly understood – there is no authority to wage war against Iraq without Congress passing a Declaration of War. HJ RES 65, passed in the aftermath of 9/11, does not even suggest that this authority exists. A UN Resolution authorizing an invasion of Iraq, even if it were to come, cannot replace the legal process for the United States going to war as precisely defined in the Constitution. We must remember that a covert war is no more justifiable, and is even more reprehensible. Only tyrants can take a nation to war without the consent of the people. The planned war against Iraq without a Declaration of War is illegal. It is unwise because of many unforeseen consequences that are likely to result. It is immoral and unjust, because it has nothing to do with US security and because Iraq has not initiated aggression against us."
Additional Statement by Congressman Ron Paul, 1 March 2002

"An attack on Iraq would send .....the ... message: that the US reserves the right to overthrow any regime it dislikes, regardless of whether it has actually attacked or even threatened the US. .... the most immediate effect of a US attack on Iraq would be to justify the possession of nuclear weapons to other countries around the world as a deterrent against future unprovoked attacks from America.....Surprisingly few American commentators have reminded the public that September 11 involved nothing more sophisticated than craft knives...."
London Times, 14 March 2002
'America is becoming its own worst enemy'