Peace

DENVER — The Iraq war is front and center here at the Democratic Party convention, but front and center like gravity is in our daily lives — a major force but not talked about all the time.

United for Peace and Justice, the nation's largest grassroots anti-war coalition, has joined forces with other major organizations to organize what promises to be this year's largest anti-war mobilization.

The conflict in Georgia has cast a spotlight on both John McCain’s ethics and on his ability to exercise good judgment in a time of crisis.

The current conflict in Georgia shows just how dangerous it is in this 21st century world to pursue political goals by military means. In an era when war — and nuclear weapons — can easily spread and bring unimaginable devastation, it is imperative that conflicts between states be resolved peacefully.

The U.S.-backed militarization of the Caucasus in the former Soviet Union exploded on the night of Aug. 7. Under cover of darkness and as the world watched the Olympics, the government of right-wing Georgian President Saakashvili ordered an all-out military attack on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia.

Military alliances are always sold as things that produce security. In practice they tend to do the opposite. Thus, Germany formed the Triple Alliance with Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire to counter the enmity of France following the Franco-Prussian War. In response, France, England and Russia formed the Triple Entente. The outcome was World War I.

A peace activist holds a drawing by an A-bomb survivor representing people badly burned – like they were on fire — and running after atom bombs were dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki, three days later. Un activista por la paz carga un dibujo hecho por un sobreviviente del holocausto nuclear de la bombas atómicas lanzadas por Estados Unidos contra las ciudades japonesas de Hiroshima el 6 de agosto, 1945, y Nagasaki, tres días después.

The good news is Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama continues to project withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq by mid-2010. The bad news is, he is proposing to transfer a significant number of those troops to Afghanistan.

My son, where are you that I can’t find you.
I’ve searched for you in gullies.
On pathways, in rivers and in oceans,
And in all the different places
Where I’m told that “there are bodies.”

The Obama campaign opened this week with a focus on the Iraq war, despite the claims of pundits who insist the war is John McCain's strongest point.