Peace

As cranes lowered segments of a 30-foot-high concrete barrier in the streets of Jerusalem on Jan. 12, walling the city off from the adjoining Arab village of Abu Dis, the outcry against Israel’s so-called “separation wall” continued to mount.

Some 75,000 participants from around the world are pouring into the fourth World Social Forum, in Mumbai, India, Jan. 16-21, preparing for more powerful, united, worldwide struggles to say “no to war,” and “another world is possible.”

WASHINGTON – Let’s take one last look back at 2003 as recorded in the photos on these pages. Many would say it was the “worst of times” marked by George W. Bush’s unilateral, preemptive war on Iraq, which he justified with lies about non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” and Saddam Hussein’s links to al-Qaeda.

As Americans at home returned to post-holiday routines, the news from Iraq continued a familiar pattern – U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians killed and wounded daily. But sharing the spotlight is the looting of Iraq by corporate war-profiteers, fueling mounting anger among the Iraqi people, with U.S. states and communities footing the $166 billion bill.

A group of Japanese atomic bomb survivors (Hibakusha) visited the National Air and Space Museum, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 12 to request that the museum’s planned exhibit of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, bear a label describing the damage caused by the atomic bombing and the agony of the Hibakusha.

Saddam Hussein’s capture answers the question of where he has been since the fall of Baghdad, but there are still many other unanswered questions in Iraq.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Several peace groups, including Brooklyn Parents for Peace and Brooklyn Peace Action, held a rally here on Dec. 18 around the theme, “Support the troops – Bring them home now!”

DALLAS – Texas peace activists are celebrating because our national hero, singer Willie Nelson, has released a new single that asks, “What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth?”

Anabelle Valencia has a daughter stationed in Iraq. She left Tucson on Dec. 1 with two wishes. She wanted to look for her daughter and bring a message of peace to the children of Iraq. click here for Spanish text

The capture of Saddam Hussein will not solve the problems swirling around the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the lies that justified it, many Americans are saying.