U.S. Corporal Gregory S. Stultz, 22, of Brazil, Indiana, died on February 19, 2010 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. According to icasualties.org, Stultz’s death marks the grim milestone of 1,000 American soldiers killed in Operation Enduring Freedom.

This week has also been a grim one for civilian casualties as a result of NATO’s Operation Mushtarak in the Marjah district of Helmand and an airstrike in Oruzgan province that killed 27 innocent people. Despite strong denunciations by President Karzai and a steady stream of “I’m sorry’s” from US General Stanley McChrystal, the civilian casualties keep mounting alongside President Obama’s surge in Afghanistan.

The good news is the surge in anti-war sentiment abroad, particularly in NATO countries. The most spectacular case is that of the Netherlands, where the Dutch coalition government collapsed over the issue. A marathon cabinet meeting this weekend ended with the walkout of the second largest party in the government, the Labor Party, which accused the main Christian Democratic Alliance of reversing a 2007 agreement to bring the troops home this year. The Dutch Prime Minister now says that the Dutch will be completely out of Afghanstian by the end of next year.

Public opinion against the war is forcing other governments to consider withdrawal, despite strong pressure from the Obama administration. Canada has announced it will withdraw its 2,800 troops by the end of the year. European countries are struggling to find their share of the 10,000 extra troops requested by General McChrystal to join the 30,000 extra U.S. troops. France has declined to send more forces and the German government is facing fierce opposition at home.

Here in the United States, the debate on the war has been overshadowed by the debate on healthcare and the domestic economy. While progressives have consistently tried to link the two, these ties are increasingly coming from the conservative end of the political spectrum as well. Republican Congressman Ron Paul won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Progressive Action Committee this weekend on a strong anti-war platform. “The constitution does not give us the authority to be the policemen of the world,” he said to roars of approval from young conservatives. “We spend a trillion dollars a year maintaining an empire, but we’re broke.” His solution? Conserve our taxdollars by practicing diplomacy.

Anti-war sentiments are brewing within the Tea Party as well. Former Arizona Sheriff and Tea Party spokesperson Richard Mack expressed his view on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews last week. “Both parties have us involved in the war in Iraq and other wars that we shouldn‘t be involved in,” he said. “There‘s no end in sight in this ridiculous war. … It‘s ridiculous.” And conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, talking on with Chris Matthews on Monday, said we had three options for dealing with our gigantic deficit: cut entitlement programs, raise taxes or cut the trillion dollars we spend on maintaining an empire abroad. “That cow is going to be on the chopping block,” he said of the bloated Pentagon budget, and insisted that the anti-war conservatives are growing in strength.

Unfortunately, the anti-war sentiment lacks visibility. Gone are the days when the peace movement could turn out hundreds of thousands of people. The Obama administration not only led to a surge in Afghanistan, but it sucked the air out of the anti-war movement. United for Peace and Justice, once a vibrant coalition of over 1,300 groups with large offices in New York and a dozen staff, has become a network based on volunteers, and grassroots peace groups across the country have folded.

But March promises to be a revival of sorts. The ANSWER coalition is gearing up for the first significant anti-war marches since Obama took office, planned for the March 20 anniversary of the Iraq war. Progressive Democrats of America, along with groups like CODEPINK, have been encouraging people to gather for a brown bag lunch at congressional offices in districts across the country. With the message of Healthcare not Warfare, there are now over a hundred monthly lunches outside congressional offices. And a group called Peace of the Action is organizing a campout on the DC mall starting March 13.

As the fighting surges, the spending on war surges and the deaths surge, it’s time for the U.S. peace movement to regather its energy and push the anti-war agenda back onto the national scene.

Medea Benjamin (medea@globalexchange.org ) is the cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace (www.codepinkalert.org) and Global Exchange (www. globalexchange.org).

As we stepped gingerly through the cement dust, climbing towards where the alter once stood, I remembered the last time that I walked down this aisle, through the sunbeams and the wailing, walking to pay my last respects to Father Gerard Jean Juste in October 2009. This place has always broken my heart. So many voices that once sang in this church have been swallowed by the earthquake and I longed to hear Father Gerry’s voice, but I knew what he would have told me. He would tell me that those of us who survived have to sing louder, to work harder and to love each other more. As we left the cathedral and passed the crowd on Champ de Mars I could hear the crowd of thousands singing their sadness into salvation. I knew that Father Gerry was with them, under the tarp churches, marching through the streets, watering the parks of the city with their tears.

When we got home in the evening on Friday everyone at Matthew 25, where we are staying, gathered to read aloud a prayer for Haiti. Three quarters of the way through the prayer the tears began rolling down my cheeks, I could see the cathedral as they carried Father Gerry’s body down the aisle and the flowers buried in dust that we had walked through earlier. I cried for hours that night for the first time since coming to Port au Prince. Mine were only drops in the lake of tears that flowed through Haiti this weekend as people said goodbye to their loved ones and their lost city.

I end with an excerpt from the prayer that we read on the 12th.

“Raise up your people from the ash heap of destruction and give them strong hearts and hands, shore up their minds and spirits. Help them to bear this new burden”

This week with your donations we were able to provide a week’s worth of food to over 350 families, deliver 24,000 gallons of water to 5 communities, provide medicines to several mobile clinics, give over 4000 water sachets in churches during Jounen jèn and purchase 140 tarps, reaching over 5,000 people in Port au Prince. In Cap Haitien the SOL team provided food and medicines to victims of the earthquake that have been relocated out of the capital. SOIL is still small and though we cannot rebuild the National Cathedral, with your support we can help thousands of families in Port au Prince to bear this new burden.

It is the strength of the Haitian people that has helped me to rise from the ashes of my own fear and sadness, today on this final day of mourning I pray that I can treat the victims of this tragedy as they have treated me, with compassion, respect and dignity. I am so grateful to all of you who have helped to lighten Haiti’s load, this experience has helped us all to remember our humanity.

With love from Port au Prince,
Sasha

Sasha Kramer is a San Francisco CODEPINK activist and the Cofounder of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti. Here’s how you can help Haiti. All donations made in the next month will go towards earthquake relief.

When I first arrived in Port au Prince I spent a day at the UN compound by the airport where NGO’s, doctors and soldiers swarm around talking on satellite phones and running from meeting to meeting. I learned about the massive amounts of food aid that arrived in the first week and was stockpiled at the airport. I learned of the aid trucks filled to the brim with supplies blocked at the border and sitting idle at the ports. Since that day I have not returned to the aid compound and chosen instead to go into the streets, into the camps where people hide from the sun, huddled together under tattered tarps waiting for the food that has yet to come, into the alleyways littered with the rubble of fallen dreams and the spirits of those we have lost.

I know that some of these stories of aid not reaching the victims are beginning to filter into the international media but I wanted to see if I can shed some light about why this is without casting blame. Everyone who has come here is devastated by this disaster, everyone wants to help but the slowness in distribution is not a question of intentions, it is a question of long standing fears and the security structures put in place in response to these fears.

A few days ago I got an email from Nicolas Kristof of the New York Times asking me to comment on the supposition made by many (not Nicolas himself) that Haitians have received large amounts of aid money over the years and have somehow squandered it. I responded to him by talking about fear, this same fear that is slowing the distribution of aid during this crisis. For centuries Haiti has been portrayed as a dangerous country filled with volatile and threatening people, unsafe for foreigners. This supposition, this fear and misunderstanding, has very deep implications for foreign aid and cross cultural understanding.

I have been amazed to visit friends working with large NGO’s in Port au Prince only to learn that they are forced to operate under security restrictions that prevent any kind of real connections to Haitian communities. One friend showed me the map, used by all of the larger NGOs where Port au Prince is divided into security zones, yellow, orange, red. Red zones are restricted, in the orange zones all of the car windows must be rolled up and they cannot be visited past certain times of day, even in the yellow zones aid workers are often not permitted to walk through the streets and spend much of their time in Haiti riding through the city from one office to another in organizational vehicles.

The creation of these security zones has been like the building of a wall, a wall reinforced by language barriers and fear rather than iron rods, a wall that, unlike many of the buildings in Port au Prince, did not crumble during the earthquake. Fear, much like violence, is self perpetuating. When aid workers enter communities radiating fear it is offensive, the perceived disinterest in communicating with the poor majority is offensive, driving through impoverished communities with windows rolled up and armed security guards is offensive and, ironically, all of these extra security measures actually increase the level of risk for aid workers.

As I said, this wall of fear is not a new phenomenon and it has had very serious implications for the distribution of the millions of dollars of aid that have been flowing into the country for the past 10 days. Despite the good intentions of the many aid workers swarming around the UN base, much of the aid coming through the larger organizations is still blocked in storage, waiting for the required UN and US military escorts that are seen as essential for distribution, meanwhile people in the camps are suffering and their tolerance is waning.

Over the past 5 days I have been grateful to work with a small organization unhindered by bureaucracy and security restrictions. I am so thankful to work with a courageous team of Haitian community leaders and a respectful and fearless group of Americans. Thanks to the generous donations of our supporters SOIL has raised approximately $30,000 for immediate relief efforts and we are committed to providing that relief as quickly as we can get the money into the country. The most striking thing I have noticed while visiting the many camps throughout the city is the level of organization and ingenuity among the displaced communities. Community members stand ready to distribute food and water to their neighbors, they are prepared to provide first aid and assist with clean up efforts, all that they are lacking is the financial means to do so. When the quake struck people’s savings were buried under the rubble of their former homes, banks are closed and no one has been able to access their accounts. Food and water are available for sale in the streets but no one is able to purchase them.

Our hope is that SOIL, AIDG and other small organizations will be able to help provide communities with the means to meet their needs in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, bridging the gap during the time it takes for the larger organizations to mobilize. I am honored to know a network of brave community leaders throughout Port au Prince whom I met during my human rights work from 2004-2006 and our team has spent the past several days visiting the camps with them and helping to distribute the resources that we have at our disposal. Each day we have been purchasing water trucks to deliver to camps that have yet to receive water, giving money to community organizers who are then able to purchase food from local businesses and distribute it to the areas most in need, bringing doctors and medical supplies into zones of the city that have none, providing our generator to community cyber cafes so that people are able to contact their families, driving patients from the camps to medical clinics that can receive them.

The magnitude of this tragedy is unimaginable and we are aware of our limitations and our inability to help touch more than a small percentage of those affected. While it breaks my heart to think about those we cannot help, it also fills me with hope to see the impact that we have been able to make. Each day I am awed and humbled by the dedication and compassion of my colleagues, both Haitian and international and touched by the outpouring of love and support that we have received from around the world. Please keep your love and donations flowing and we will do everything in our power to funnel that love and aid to the communities that need it the most.

With love from Port au Prince,
Sasha

Sasha Kramer is a San Francisco CODEPINK activist and the Cofounder of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti. Here’s how you can help Haiti. All donations made in the next month will go towards earthquake relief.

This afternoon, feeling helpless, we decided to take a van down to Champs Mars (the area around the palace) to look for people needing medical care to bring to Matthew 25, the guesthouse where we are staying which has been transformed into a field hospital. Since we arrived in Port au Prince everyone has told us that you cannot go into the area around the palace because of violence and insecurity. I was in awe as we walked into downtown, among the flattened buildings , in the shadow of the fallen palace, amongst the swarms of displaced people there was calm and solidarity. We wound our way through the camp asking for injured people who needed to get to the hospital. Despite everyone telling us that as soon as we did this we would be mobbed by people, I was amazed as we approached each tent people gently pointed us towards their neighbors, guiding us to those who were suffering the most. We picked up 5 badly injured people and drove towards an area where Ellie and Berto had passed a woman earlier. When they saw her she was lying on the side of the road with a broken leg screaming for help, as they were on foot they could not help her at the time so we went back to try to find her. Incredibly we found her relatively quickly at the top of a hill of shattered houses. The sun was setting and the community helped to carry her down the hill on a refrigerator door, tough looking guys smiled in our direction calling out “bonswa Cherie” and “kouraj”.

When we got back to Matthew 25 it was dark and we carried the patients back into the soccer field/tent village/hospital where the team of doctors had been working tirelessly all day. Although they had officially closed down for the evening, they agreed to see the patients we had brought. Once our patients were settled in we came back into the house to find the doctors amputating a foot on the dining room table. The patient lay calmly, awake but far away under the fog of ketamine. Half way through the surgery we heard a clamor outside and ran out to see what it was. A large yellow truck was parked in front of the gate and rapidly unloading hundreds of bags of food over our fence, the hungry crowd had already begun to gather and in the dark it was hard to decide how to best distribute the food. Knowing that we could not sleep in the house with all of this food and so many starving people in the neighborhood, our friend Amber (who is experienced in food distribution) snapped into action and began to get everyone in the crowd into a line that stretched down the road. We braced ourselves for the fighting that we had heard would come but in a miraculous display of restraint and compassion people lined up to get the food and one by one the bags were handed out without a single serious incident.

During the food distribution the doctors called to see if anyone could help to bury the amputated leg in the backyard. As I have no experience with food distribution I offered to help with the leg. I went into the back with Ellie and Berto and we dug a hole and placed the leg in it, covering it with soil and cement rubble. By the time we got back into the house the food had all been distributed and the patient Anderson was waking up. The doctors asked for a translator so I went and sat by his stretcher explaining to him that the surgery had gone well and he was going to live. His family had gone home so he was alone so Ellie and I took turns sitting with him as he came out from under the drugs. I sat and talked to Anderson for hours as he drifted in and out of consciousness. At one point one of the Haitian men working at the hospital came in and leaned over Anderson and said to him in kreyol “listen man even if your family could not be here tonight we want you to know that everyone here loves you, we are all your brothers and sisters”. Cat and I have barely shed a tear through all of this, the sky could fall and we would not bat an eye, but when I told her this story this morning the tears just began rolling down her face, as they are mine as I am writing this. Sometimes it is the kindness and not the horror that can break the numbness that we are all lost in right now.

So, don’t believe Anderson Cooper when he says that Haiti is a hotbed for violence and riots, it is just not the case. In the darkest of times, Haiti has proven to be a country of brave, resilient and kind people and it is that behavior that is far more prevalent than the isolated incidents of violence. Please pass this on to as many people as you can so that they can see the light of Haiti, cutting through the darkness, the light that will heal this nation.

We are safe. We love you all and I will write again when I can. Thank you for your generosity and compassion.

With love from Port au Prince,
Sasha

Sasha Kramer is a San Francisco CODEPINK activist and the Cofounder of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti. Here’s how you can help Haiti. All donations made in the next month will go towards earthquake relief.

December 28
House Arrest and Other News

Bill and I are under house arrest as are all other Gaza Freedom Marchers that made it as far as El Arish. El Arish is the last town before the Raffa border crossing. We left Cairo a day early other wise we would be stuck there like all of the rest of the Gaza Freedom Marchers. There are about 40 of us here, in El Arish. 5 Americans from Viva Palestina, 20 from Spain, 2 Japanese, 1 French, 4 Brits, 4 or 5 from Luxenburg, 4 Jews from New York City, and us.
We are the lucky ones, a whole bunch of people who left Cairo after us have been detained at check points along the route to El Arish. They have gotten out their transportation and refused to go back to Cairo. The result of this is forced hunger strikes all along the route.

The authorities in Cairo have made it illegal to transport any foreigners out of Cario. There have been some arrests,and peaceful protests have been broken-up.
Is the US press covering any of this?

Bill and I are here to deliver hope and friendship in the form of a community made art glass mural. It will likely not get delivered. Thankfully the police officer who is in charge of watching our house is very friendly and kind.

We will wait it out and see what happens, on a plane back to the US on January 3rd, no matter what else is happening here.
Peace,Love and Light,
Kathleen

Sunday, December 27, 2009
Be Ready to Change Plans Quickly!

Please excuse me if this is too long and if I make spelling mistakes, I have just an hour window to speak my mind. We arrived in El Arish yesterday. It was not a good day’s travel what with all the check point stops. Bill and I were going to go to the Raffah Border Gate this morning in a taxi that was arranged by the Hotel Concierge. When we got up in the morning and came to the desk to leave we were given a covert warning by the hotel manager not to go. He said that there would be a bus we could take later.

Later when we came back to the hotel to get on the bus the hotel was surrounded by secret police, we went to our room to get our stuff, our British friends came to the room and told us that they were going to leave the hotel and go somewhere else. We like the Brits, they are thoughtful and considered in their decisions and they do not broadcast their intentions. We grabbed our bags and headed out, I walk fast and thought Bill was behind me, the 2 Brit girls did the same. But trying to leave with our bags is when the shit hit the fan. Bill and the 2 British men were made to stay in the hotel. The hotel is on the second floor. Once we got out and were on the steps of the hotel we women parked ourselves with our stuff and waited for the men to be released.

Phones numbers between phones began to be blocked, I could no longer call the codepink organizers or any of the other International delegates who were also stuck up in the hotel with Bill. One of the Brit girls got some tweeting done and we got the numbers for the US and British Embassies. The US number did not work; I got the same error message as I did with all the other numbers I had previously been able to call. I began calling friendly Egyptians Bill and I had met in Cairo, explained our situation and asked them to call the US Embassy on our behalf. Eventually they let Bill and the Brit (Ian and Peter) men come down to talk with us (Ali and Charlotte) but they made them leave their luggage up in the hotel.

I have no idea who pulled strings or worked on our behalf, but we 2 Americans and the 4 Brits were allowed to leave and bring their stuff down to join us. However, no taxis were allowed to come down the street. This American Woman who lives in El Arish had joined us and she was able to get 2 taxi’s down the street by calling a police contact she has. The 2 taxi’s pulled up but as soon as we tried to put our stuff in it they grabbed it and would not allow us to get in the taxi’s, thankfully we all worked in unison quickly grabbed our bags and walked quickly away from the hotel, we got to a more busy street hailed cabs and took off.

We have rented a chalet on the beach, for less than the cost of the hotel, and if we were not on a mission, it would be a beautiful vacation spot. However we were there for less than an hour and the police parked out front and then kicked out the Egyptians in the adjacent space and moved themselves into it.

Some of the French tried to take a cab to the Raffah border they were stopped and turned back. The Castellanos are stuck in the hotel we were able to escape.
We are not sure, but we think that there are about 50 internationals who were able to make it as far as El Arish. We let ahead of the main body of the marchers who are stuck in Cairo. The few that try to get out are now being detained at checkpoints, the peaceful non-violent CODEPINK actions that have tried to take place in Egypt have been broken up.

I have some really great photos but am unable to upload them right now. Our Chalet does not have internet access, we are at a hotel using the internet access here, but do not want to stay too long and get detained or have our computers confiscated.

We are fine, we are safe; we are determined to get to Gaza, at least to the Raffah border! How that will happen is impossible to say, but I think once we have exhausted all options we will begin the Gaza Freedom March here in El Arish, and march towards the border.

If you have not been following this story please see my blog.
Please call our senators and ask then to advocate for our free and safe passage.
Sen. Boxer is on the Foreign Relations Committee and Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women’s Issues (Chairwoman) 415 403 0100 leave voice mail or talk to staff on Monday. In peace, Cheri

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Arish via Checkpoints
We left the Lotus hotel in downtown Cairo today at 9 a.m. Each of us is carrying a back pack that weighs about 40 pounds. We have enough food and water to last us 5 days. In addition to the backpacks we are dragging along the mural, the crate is back in it’s suitcase, but it weighs 80 pounds, and since we don’t want to wreck the wheels we have to lift it up and down stairs. There are a lot of stairs in subway stations.

From the subway we caught a group taxi. to Arish. There were 6 Egyptian men including the driver Bill and myself stuffed into an old diesel Mercedes station wagon. The pre-arranged price was 18 Egyptian pounds per person, but it did not go that way. There have been too many foreign internationals making their way to El Arish which is the last town before the Raffah border crossing. A group of 4 Castellanos were traveling in another taxi at the same time, to this area that rarely sees tourists. The Gaza Freedom March has been banned and Egypt has said that they will not let any internationals through the gate. They have revoked all permits for gatherings of more than 5 people in one place and they will not allow CODEPINK or any other bus full of internationals to leave Cairo in the direction of Raffah. We decided to try to trickle in, but traveling so close together in time we were suspect. I think that if our taxis were not full of Egyptians who needed to get where they were going our taxis might have been turned back. Our drivers paid bribes to the police. At the last crossing they took the drivers licenses of our drivers and gave us a police escort to our hotel. We have had to say we are tourists and coming to El Arish to see the Mediterranean Sea. If we had said our true and final destination we would have been turned back right away. In the end we paid our taxi driver $150 pounds and another $20 to the police man who hung around to make sure we went in and registered at the hotel.

Aside from being on a mission that could get us in trouble and therefore a little nerve wracking it was a beautiful ride and it was great to get out of Cairo. The people are super friendly here too, but I have not been hustled here. This evening when we went out to get fruit for out camping trip some small boys were following us and begging, an older man swatted them both on the head with a newspaper they yelped and took off. I sure appreciated this kindness.

Our hotel manager is quite sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and has been very hospitable. He wants to get me a gift of a dictionary for translating Arabic into pronounceable English lettering for me so that I can do some more communicating. I’ve been having a good time learning some Arabic words and phrases, and the Egyptian people really seem to appreciate the effort.

We spent and hour or so with the Castellanos this evening planning strategy for getting to the Raffah border. Apparently we will have 5 more check points to get across, I suppose this means more bribes, and we are running really low on Egyptian money. We could spend dollars in Cairo, but not here.

Codepink’s new plan is to wait until about 25 of us reach the border and then they will descend on one of the embassies in Cairo and demand that that country help clear the red tape for those of us who are sitting at the border waiting to get in. They are not sure which country they will descend upon yet, but I am pretty sure it will not be the U.S.

We have one last meeting tonight with the Castellanos, off to bed and then on our way!
Wish us luck, if I don’t post a bog tomorrow it is because we are camping at the border!

1. Tens of thousands of people from around the world took to the streets of Copenhagen to call for meaningful action to address climate change, despite continuous attempts to squelch it. Inside Copenhagen’s meeting halls, indigenous peoples from small island nations and the Himalayas spoke powerfully about their rights and their needs.

2. According to recent polls a majority of Americans now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting, and seventy-five percent say no new troops should be sent to that country. Public opinion is on our side. We can take heart from vocal women in Afghanistan, from member of Parliament Malalai Joya who rails against warlords to women standing up against harmful rape laws and government corruption.

3. The creative use of Twitter by protesters in Iran brought thousands of people into the streets of Teheran, including students, young people and thousands of young women.  Their courageous and innovative use of social media kept the rest of the world informed of events, slipping out from under the country’s blanket of censorship.

4. The Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement to pressure Israel to respect Palestinian rights garnered the support of many groups around the world. The growing list of BDS successes is too long to enumerate here, but to choose only one: In February South African dockworkers, remembering the long history of Apartheid in their country, refused to offload an Israeli ZIM Lines ship in Durban.

5. One of Obama’s first acts in office was to lift the Global Gag Rule, which ended restrictions on U.S. funding for organizations that provide family planning services and that are often the first responders for women in the fight against HIV.

6. The Washington, DC City Council voted in mid-December to legalize same-sex marriage, making it the first jurisdiction south of the Mason-Dixon Line to do so.  Same-sex marriage is now legal in Iowa, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut and will be legal in New Hampshire on January 1st. DC Mayor Fenty signed the bill on December 18, 2009.

7. Michelle Obama planted the White House’s first organic vegetable garden, a garden that provided food for her own family’s table and helped to educate the nation’s children about healthy eating and the impact of mass-produced food on the environment.

8. 2009 may go down as the beginning of the end of the failed “War on Drugs”. The Obama administration announced that the federal government would no longer arrest and prosecute medical marijuana patients and caregivers as long as they were following their state’s medical marijuana laws.

9. Last year, CODEPINK launched a campaign calling upon the FBI to add Luis Posada Carilles, a ruthless terrorist who was responsible for downing a Cuban airplane in 1976, to the Most Wanted List and arrest him. On April 8, he was indicted on 11 counts.

10. Obama’s Nobel Prize victory sparked a global debate about what it takes to be a real peacemaker. While many of us were aghast that a president who has escalated a war was receiving the world’s principal peace honor, the aspirational goal of the prize is an added pressure on both the Obama administration and us at the grass roots.  We realized that we are the ones who have to make peace, that the impetus is as much on us to turn hope into action.

Even after all the disappointments of this year, the items on this list and our own strength and persistence give me immense hope in the possibilities to come as we greet the New Year.

So here’s a toast to our power and our passion—we have our work cut out for us in 2010!

According to the Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the U.S. and Iraq, all U.S. troops must be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by today, June 30. It also gives the Iraqi government jurisdiction to give permission to U.S. troops for military operations and bans the U.S. from staging attacks on other countries from Iraq. Thus, today, some Iraqis are celebrating the end of U.S. soldiers in their streets and the open destruction of their homes, schools and infrastructure.

But the U.S. occupation of Iraq is far from over. A massive number of troops — more than 130,000 — remain in Iraq in addition to more than 130,000 military contractors. Obama also plans to keep 50,000 military personnel there past 2011. The strategy now is to encircle cities including Baghdad (and those particularly to the north) with bases, home to troops who will work inside the cities by day in various roles. Some are given the mandate to train and assist Iraqi forces, however, their numbers and continued presence will fuel further resistance and violence, continuing to destabilize the region. The Pentagon is dodging the SOFA principles, and Obama is still far from fulfilling his promise.

We look forward to the day when we can truly celebrate — alongside the Iraqi people — an end to the U.S. occupation and the fulfillment of our responsibility to help Iraqis rebuild the country we have so destroyed.

For more information, please contact Jean Stevens, national CODEPINK media coordinator, at 508-769-2138 or Jodie Evans, CODEPINK co-founder, at 310-621-5635.

Cockburn must not be, in Twitter-speak, “following” many members of several left organizations, including CODEPINK, UFPJ, AFSC. They’ve sent tweet after tweet calling on Obama to keep his promises, to stop the Afghan war, to end the drone attacks, and more. In fact, last month, these groups coordinated a National Media Day of Action on Afghanistan to spread the word on why we must stop the war in Afghanistan via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and traditional media letters to the editor, op-eds and more. The goal: to change public opinion against the war.

Unfortunately, their efforts did not catch on with “the Twittering classes” as the conflict in Iran has. The “masses,” for now, are largely uninterested to tweet about ending the Afghan war and in critiquing Obama — at least on the foreign policy front. (This could also explain why, despite valiant efforts by peace groups, the country appears to have no energy for “mobilizations, actions, civil disobedience” as demonstrated by increasing activism around health care, food reform and climate change and dwindling numbers in anti-war street actions. We’ve proof from just yesterday, as few people turned out for the torture accountability actions planned nationwide — though in Pasadena and elsewhere, however, CODEPINKers tried their best). The masses are instead caught up in the fervor of the Iranian protests, fueled by front-page images of beautiful young women, horrifying viral YouTube videos and widespread national outrage and mistrust toward the current Iranian government based on its history of crackdowns on rights, secret torture, etc.

Of course, anti-war groups would LOVE to know — where are the YouTube videos depicting the 80 Pakistani civilians just killed in a U.S. drone attack? Where’s the outrage (and mistrust) toward the U.S. government, based on its torture practices, its killing of innocents, the U.S.’ policies toward Afghanistan? Do we need to see beautiful women victims? Until the “Twittering classes,” or the majority of Americans, feel as comfortable critiquing the often-terrifying practices of their own government, we’ve a long way from “three million…rousing tweets” to “mount any sort of political resistance at home!” Suffice to say, of course, many members of these groups are trying their best to get them there, tweet by tweet.

Upon our arrival at Central Park, the ladies that would end up in bikinis — Dana, Rae, Gina, and myself — quietly wrote our messages of dissent on our bare bodies at a location outside of the main event, got dressed, and inconspicuously walked into the “beach party”.  To an outsider, we must have looked like regular folks coming to participate in the day’s festivities; little did anyone know that we were about to raise some serious eyebrows — and awareness.

As we entered the actual “party” site, the four of us set up camp in a very visible spot towards the front of the “beach site” in front of the DJ.  We then casually stripped to our bathing suits and rubbed mud on ourselves as if it were tanning lotion — but the mud we rubbed on our bodies symbolized Israel’s dirty policies, to remind the crowd of their complicity in the slow destruction of an entire people.

When we started walking around with our hot pink signs (some read: “Say NO to Israel’s War Crimes”, others said, “Ahava = Stolen Beauty.  Don’t Buy Occupation”), we quickly got the attention of the event’s organizers. Needless to say, they weren’t pleased and quickly called security.  When the police arrived, they were eager for us to leave the immediate site and offered us an alternative that wasn’t to the liking of any of the activists that were participating in the event: they wanted us to go into a pen that had been set up for those who dissented.  The pen was symbolic of the plight of those trapped in Gaza and we all agreed that this was not a viable option.  Though the police kept promising to arrest us, we were able to out-maneuver them throughout the day by exiting the immediate site and walking around the entrance.  At times we were also forced to put down our signs, but this was not detrimental to our action as we had already painted our messages on our mostly bare bodies.

Not only did we find resistance from the police, but the staff was also less than friendly.  In fact, their hatred and violence was jarring.  I personally had one of the staffers approach me by pressing his body against mine and whisper in my ear, “why don’t you go f–k yourself, you dirty little whore.”  Other bystanders also had similar messages of hatred.  One family, in front of their young children, said that we should go to Israel so that we could be stoned.  Another random man said that we deserved to be bombed.  Likewise, an elderly woman made recurrent violent gestures towards us with the Israeli and American flags she held in her hand.  It was shocking to hear such violent messages, and it seemed immensely hypocritical coming from a constituency that defends its atrocities by citing their victims’ violence.  But each insult affirmed my commitment to expose the event’s hypocrisy.  It was important to me that Israel and those putting together this tourist-grabbing, phony party got a clear message that New Yorkers hadn’t turned a blind-eye to their cruel policies.

Further strengthening my commitment to the action was the solidarity we built with other groups and individuals whom we encountered during the protest.  The group contained in the pen included activists from different walks of life.  Some were Palestinians, others were Jews against Israel’s policies.  However, we were all united in promoting much needed peace in that region of the world.   The solidarity among us was palpable.  Women in veils hugged girls in bikinis and though we weren’t in the pen with them, many of the activist from within kept coming out to check up on us and make sure that the police and staff weren’t harassing us too badly.

We accomplished our goal of bringing attention (including some media) to Gaza’s plight and Israel’s violent policies by exposing the deceitfulness of this mockery of an event.  Further, we did a great job at educating bystanders whom would have otherwise perceived it as one of the city’s many free summer events.  We even had some friendly and informative chats with the few police officers who were sympathetic to our cause: that life in Tel Aviv aren’t all fun and games as this party tried to portray.  No amount of artificial sand could mask the reality of Israel’s abhorrent actions.

Nine members of international women’s delegation stay behind in Gaza
A Palestinian delegate is detained at border, will attempt to cross again March 15

AL-ARISH, EGYPT –  Nine members of the 60-member aid delegation to Gaza with novelist Alice Walker have decided to stay back in Gaza several extra days until this Sunday, March 15, and one member, Palestinian Abdullah al Ghoul, was detained at the Rafah border and will attempt to leave early next week.

The rest of the 60 delegates crossed out of the war-torn region March 11 and will return to Cairo and home today and within the next few days.

The delegation, which includes Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker and organized by the peace group CODEPINK, was allowed through the Rafah, Egypt, crossing in time for International Women’s Day, March 8. The crossing has been closed by the Egyptian government almost continuously since July 2007. However, Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, chairman of the Egyptian Red Crescent (similar to the Red Cross) and president of the National Women’s Committee, communicated her “blessing” of the mission through the Red Crescent team that escorted the delegation through the crossing.

“We want to send a message to the governments of both Egypt and Israel that the borders must be opened to all individuals and organizations,” said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK. “ Long-term peace and prosperity are not possible without freedom of movement.”

The CODEPINK delegation was invited to the region by the Gender Initiative of the United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a program dedicated to promoting the rights of girls and women in the Gaza Strip. On the six-day visit in Gaza, the delegates met with social-service organizations and delivered more than 1,000 gift baskets to Gazan women and celebrated International Women’s Day March 8. This weekend they plan to visit the Palestinian Human Rights Center, the Palestinian Relief Center, hospitals and farms.

The Red Crescent estimates that 1,000 truckloads of supplies and other goods are needed every day to meet the needs of the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip. Yet, the UN reports that the daily average has been only 125 truckloads since the borders closed about 18 months ago.

Also among the participants are Craig and Cindy Corrie, parents of 23-year-old Rachel Corrie, who was struck and killed six years ago this month by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to block the demolition of a Gazan home.

For more information and interviews, contact Jean Stevens, national media coordinator, at 508-769-2138 or Medea Benjamin at 018 9561919.