Friends, I urge you to resist this war in any way you can. Now is the time to be sand in the gears of this war. Ed, a local peace-worker, left Syracuse on February 8, for Baghdad, where he joined fellow CNY peace activist Cynthia Banas, who has been there since October Below are excerpts from messages IPT members sent out in the days immediately following the beginning of the US bombing of Iraq.
In Baghdad as I write, things are relatively quiet. Today IPT delegate Wade Hudson had a chance to take a limited drive around Baghdad with a driver and a government minder. Traffic in one direction was blocked. This grim forecast is not mitigated by Gen.
Still, the protests grow. One thing seems clear. And this as they move from the south toward Baghdad, a city of 5 million people. Here the skies are filled with gray billowing smoke, and the sirens and bombs are becoming constant companions. God knows how angry and distraught I am.
How can they not respond accordingly when faced with advancing US soldiers? How could we ever think that the soldiers would be welcomed triumphantly as liberators? I am so anxious to get some word off to you while there is still time. While I am not getting less fearful of the bombs, I think I am getting more used to them. Or maybe it is the overall lack of sleep that has me moving more slowly. I slept in my room last night with Bettejo in the bed next to me. Despite the periodic bomb blasts through the night that caused the building to strongly quake, only once did we actually flee downstairs to be closer to the ground floor.
This waiting to be hit is a terrible thing. Yes, we are angry, very angry, and yet we feel deep responsibility to further the nonviolent antiwar efforts that burgeon in cities and towns throughout the world. The Bush administration says the war has been successful because so far there have been only casualties. From our March 24, report on visits to the Yermouk and Al Kindy hospital trauma centers, where hundreds of wounded and maimed patients have been treated over the past five days, here are some of the success stories: Roesio Salem, age 10 is from Hai Risal.
