Peace

The massacre of Iraqi civilians, including women and children, by U.S. troops in Haditha and elsewhere is having far-reaching repercussions for Iraq and the U.S.

It’s a coalition of the dwindling. The U.S.-led multinational occupying force in Iraq is losing troops from two of its most important allies -Italy and South Korea -and up to a half dozen other members could draw down their forces or pull out entirely by year’s end

Two grim reminders of war’s toll on innocent civilians marked Memorial Day weekend this year.

The United Nations Committee Against Torture has asked the U.S. to shut down the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility where prisoners are being held in hellish conditions without recourse to legal counsel or trial.

WASHINGTON — Activistas por la paz de 23 estados y esta ciudad llenaron los pasillos del Capitolio el 22 de mayo para cabildear en favor del fin a la guerra en Irak mientras llegaba la noticias de que un grupo de Marines estadounidenses mataron a 23 iraquíes inocentes, así desenmascarando el genocidio que es la naturaleza de la ocupación de ese país por EEUU.

WASHINGTON — Peace activists from 23 states and the District of Columbia converged on Capitol Hill, May 22, to lobby their senators and representatives for an end to the Iraq war, just as reports of a massacre by U.S. Marines of 23 innocent Iraqis, including at least seven women and three children, exposed the brutal nature of the U.S. occupation of that country.

An unprecedented meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 28-29, proved that wounds from the Vietnam War are still open and bleeding three decades after that conflict supposedly ended. It was the first International Conference of Victims of Agent Orange, and it attracted people from more than a dozen countries who are suffering the aftereffects of their exposure to Agent Orange, dioxin, and other toxic agents sprayed recklessly on Vietnam during the 10-year war.

HONOLULU (PAI) — Don Bongo is both mad and sad at his military and civilian boss, Donald Rumsfeld. Bongo, you see, wears two hats: In regular life, he is a federal civilian defense worker at Pearl Harbor, one of almost 800,000 nationwide, and a federal union member. But for the last six months, until Jan. 19, he was an engineer with the Hawaii National Guard, serving in Iraq.

ATHENS, Greece — During her recent visit to Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was met by thousands of protesters wherever she stopped. The demonstrations, which were organized by communist parties, trade unions and peace groups, included banners that read, “No to imperialists, murderers of the peoples!”

Hopes are high that Sudan’s western Darfur region is on the road to peace. The African Union announced on May 5 that an agreement to end the war in Darfur was signed between the Sudanese government and the Mani Arkoi Minawi faction of the Sudanese Liberation Movement, the largest by far of the three Darfuri rebel groups.