It is with heavy heart that we inform you that the 3,000th U.S. GI has died in Iraq today. The grief the family and loved ones of this, as yet unnamed person, will be feeling is a reflection of the sadness and suffering experienced by the countless families, friends and communities of all who've died in Iraq--Iraqis, Americans, Brits and others. The Iraqis, of course, have paid the highest price, with at least several hundred thousand deaths, mostly innocent civilians, as well as millions of other lives disrupted, families separated, people made homeless or refugees, as their country has been invaded and occupied in a brutal and illegal war of aggression launched by our own government.

This war must end, and we, the American people, must take concrete steps now to end it.

TAKE ACTION--COME TO THE MEMORIAL: First of all, if you are in town, we encourage you to alter whatever plans you have, if at all possible to attend a 30-minute Memorial for All Who've Died in Iraq. This candlelight gathering will be held from 5:30-6 p.m., Monday, January 1 at the war monuments outside the Boone County Courthouse at 8th & Walnut. As many are out of town for the holidays, it is essential for as many of us as are able to attend to do so.

NEXT, MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD: It is also essential for all of us to demand accountability from our elected officials. We want them to END THE WAR, NOT ESCALATE IT. The idea of a troop "surge," sending in an additional 30,000+ troops makes no sense at all. It will only inflame an already awful situation and lead to more loss of life and limb.

We strongly encourage you to call the offices of your elected officials to share your concerns:

Senator-elect Claire McCaskill: 314-918-8683
Senator Kit Bond: 442-8151 or 202-224-5721
Representative Kenny Hulshof: 449-5111 or 202-225-2956
President Bush: 202-456-1111

If you have a different U.S. Rep than Kenny Hulshof, you can find the contact info for your Rep at www.mosafeenergy.org/officials.

We suggest calling, as calls are harder to ignore than e-mails, or faxes. If you would like to write instead, you can find contact info at the link above. We also suggest that letters to elected officials be posted as open letters via letter-to-the-editor columns. If you'd like to do this, you can find info on how to send letters to all of Missouri's daily papers at: www.mosafeenergy.org/papers

MAKE PEACE VISIBLE NOW: We also encourage you to help make peace more visible continuously here in mid-Missouri. If you don't have one already, please come by the Peace Nook to get a "Neighbors for Peace" yard sign to put in the front yard of your house or your apartment or dorm window. Please display peace sentiments with bumperstickers, pins and in as many other ways as you can. Please come out to our weekly Rush Hour Peace Demonstrations. We hold these every Wednesday, 4:15-5:45 p.m. at Broadway & Providence. It's fine to come for any portion of the time you can. If coming weekly isn't feasible, aim to come at least once a month. We also encourage attendance at the 10-11 a.m. peace vigils at the Columbia Post Office each Saturday, and Women in Black over the noon hour each Tuesday at MU's Speakers' Circle.

We really need to turn up the volume and get the message to come home to our elected officials that the people of Missouri and the whole country want this war to end. We also need to let them know that we will be holding them accountable for further loss of life and the increased threat to our security that this ridiculous and tragic war is bringing.

We thank you for whatever you can do to further the cause of peace.



This candlelight vigil will be held from 5:30-6 p.m. on the day immediately following the death of the 3,000th GI to die in Iraq. Gather at the war monuments outside the Boone County Courthouse, 8th & Walnut. We will be remembering all who've died in the war--Iraqis, Americans and others. You can keep track of the ongoing U.S. death toll by visiting: icasualties.org/oif/.

As of December 28, the tally stands at 2,991. While, of course, we don't know just what day this will take place, at the rate we've been losing troops in Iraq, it is likely to be sometime in the next few days that this grim milestone is reached. Please be prepared to attend this important event in the probable near future.

We also have black armbands with the number 3,000 painted on them. We invite you to come by the Peace Nook to get armbands for yourself and friends. There is no charge for these. Please wear them whenever you can over the next few days to draw attention to what's going on in Iraq, to highlight the need to end the war now, and also to start conversations in order to let folks know about the upcoming vigil and invite their participation.



GOOD NEWS: The good news is that significant numbers of active duty U.S. military personnel are coming out publicly against the war. As reported by Marc Cooper on The Nation website, "For the first time since Vietnam, an organized, robust movement of active-duty US military personnel has publicly surfaced to oppose a war in which they are serving. Those involved plan to petition Congress to withdraw American troops from Iraq." He goes on to report that the Appeal for Redress, calling on Congress to end the Iraq War and bring the troops home has "already been signed by nearly 1,000 US soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, including dozens of officers--most of whom are on active duty." The full article is located here. Also, see www.appealforredress.org for details.

ON THE RADIO TUESDAY: I'm also pleased to announce that I will be interviewing one of the organizers of the Appeal for Redress this coming Tuesday, Dec. 19 from 6-7 p.m. on 89.5 KOPN. This individual, who has ties to mid-Missouri, will remain anonymous for the moment. He will be sharing with Evening Edition listeners his experiences in the military, what prompted him to speak out against the war, and where Appeal organizers hope to go with this. If you are in the local area, please tune in and, if you have questions or comments, call in. If you are out of the local area, you can catch the show after the fact by downloading it from www.kopn.org. Just go to podcasts or click here, then click on Evening Edition, and choose the December 19th show. It should be up by Wednesday.

ESCALATING INSANITY: OK, so the bad news, if you haven't heard it yet, is that the Bush administration is actively considering a "Surge" strategy for Iraq, trying to salvage the disaster on the ground by rapidly sending in 20,000-50,000 additional GIs. I'm sharing a link for an article from the New York Times outlining what's apparently going on. Click here to get to the NYT article. It's an obvious prescription for growing carnage and we in the peace movement must react rapidly and vigorously.

The Bush White House has indicated that they will hold off on announcing their change in strategy until after Xmas. This, therefore, is the time that we need to be out making our demands for bringing the troops home and our insistence that their be no escalation visible and heard by our elected officials and fellow citizens.

For those of us old enough to remember the Vietnam War, this insane gambit has an eerily deja vu-like feel. Tom Paxton spelled it out in his song "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation":

Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
"Have no fear of escalation.
I am trying everyone to please.
Though it isn't really war,
We're sending fifty thousand more,
To help save Viet Nam from Viet Namese."

Full lyrics here.

With, as reported on "Democracy Now!" yesterday, public opinion polls showing only 12% of Americans favoring sending more troops, it is hard to see how they think they will get away with this, but we must do what we can to prevent it, and, if they try, we must do all we can to mobilize broad opposition.

Some might say "Bush is only digging his own grave." The problem is he might be digging his "political grave," but in the process, he is sending many hundreds more GIs and tens of thousands of Iraqis to their deaths. As of today, I should note, the U.S. GI death toll in Iraq has climbed to 2,946, with 57 of these having died in the first 16 days of December, an average of more than 3.5 per day. Meanwhile, the number of GIs wounded in combat has surpassed 22,200, and total non-mortal casualties total now exceeds 47,000. See icasualties.org/oif for details.

Given the horrific price that all in Iraq are paying, we owe it to the Iraqi people as well as to the U.S. troops in harm's way to make our voices heard. Please don't let the holidays distract you from expressing your opposition to the continuation of this war.


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