~ At the request of SusanHu – earlier posted in FBC: Frantic Friday ~
for civil liberties numbers “100,000”
Anti-war protesters pass along Whitehall in
London during a demonstration against the
conflict in Iraq, Saturday Sept. 24, 2005.
AP Photo/Matt Dunham
When Rose met Cindy: The case against the war in Iraq
On both sides of the Atlantic, two mothers who lost sons in Iraq have launched campaigns to end the conflict. One camped outside George Bush's ranch. The other stood in the general election. This week, they came face to face for the first time.
Andrew Buncombe reports - 23 September 2005
Along the sunbaked sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue came the sound of singing. It was music from an earlier generation, but as relevant now as it ever was. “All we are saying is give peace a chance,” chanted the group of demonstrators as they made their way to the north-west gates of the White House. “All we are saying is give peace chance.”
More to follow below the fold »»
The mother of a teenage soldier killed in Iraq set off for a major anti-war protest in Washington yesterday. Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra last year, will take part in a march and rally in the American capital – Washington – on Saturday.
Mrs Gentle, 41, from Glasgow, said the anti-war movement was gathering momentum across the Atlantic and the demonstration would be “huge”.
«« click on pic to enlarge
It is with very deep regret that the Ministry of Defence has to confirm that Fusilier Gordon Campbell Gentle was killed in an improvised explosive device attack on British military vehicles in Basrah on 28 June 2004. Aged 19, he served with the 1st Battalion Royal Highland Fusiliers, and was single.
At the head of the huddled group was Cindy Sheehan … at her side was Rose Gentle, a woman whose son, Gordon, was also killed in Iraq and who has launched a similarly relentless campaign to demand answers from Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“It’s exciting to be here, to let George Bush know what we think about the war,” Mrs Gentle said moments afterwards, standing at the junction with 17th Street, carrying a photograph of her son wearing his uniform of Royal Highland Fusiliers. Asked if she thought he would have approved of her campaign, she glanced at the photograph of the young man, 19 years old, and replied: “Gordon would have wanted this. His pals are still there [in Iraq] and he would have wanted them home safe. They still keep in touch.”
She added: “Those young boys don’t know who’s with them or who’s against them. People think we are against the troops but we are for them – we want them home safe. Once they’re dead, the [authorities] don’t want to know them. For a 19-year-old with just 24 weeks basic training to be sent to Iraq…”
Had the US and Britain not invaded Iraq in the spring of 2003 it is unlikely that Mrs Sheehan, 48, from Vacaville, California, and Mrs Gentle, 40, from the depressed Glasgow suburb of Pollok, would ever have had reason to know each other. As it is, they and many of the other demonstrators, who have this week made their way to the US capital after a tour that has taken them to 51 cities in 28 states, share a terrible bond.
Mrs Sheehan’s 24-year-old son was killed in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City on 4 April when his unit, the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. Gordon Gentle was killed by a roadside bomb in the southern city of Basra on 28 June last year, the day the US and Britain purportedly handed back control of the country to an Iraqi government.
More to follow :: please add all International Action and Peace Movements – Ireland – Spain – Japan – Italy – New Zealand – France – Germany …
Galloway is just as he is on TV: a medium-sized, but big-voiced Scots-Irishman. He was applauded on almost every point, and was brought back to bigger applause after he concluded his remarks.
Look, I have already heard it all about how we shouldn’t be there in Iraq; I really know the drill.
However, the difference, I believe, is that Galloway tonight called for the anti-war movements in both Britain and the United States to unite, starting with the big anti-war rally in D.C. next weekend.
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~ Earlier posted in European Tribune ~
Defence Minister cancels meeting with US Chief of Staff
Defence Minister Willie O’Dea today cancelled plans for a meeting with United States Joint Chief of Staff General Richard Myers.
Anti-war protesters had condemned the general’s visit to Dublin but a spokesman for the Department of Defence said the informal meeting would not now go ahead.
But anti-war protesters, who gathered at Defence Forces headquarters in Phoenix Park, said no representative of the Irish State should be meeting with a member of the US military.
“This suggests a very high level of collusion between the Irish State and the US military machine,” he said.
“With the news that troop numbers at Shannon have doubled it suggests that the Irish Government is increasing collusion with the US at a time when the US invasion of Iraq has never been more discredited.”
“It is deeply concerning and it is an affront to Irish neutrality and shows a very high degree of contempt to the views of the majority of Irish people.”
«« click pic for Global Anti-War Protest 2003 »»
RELATED READING AND DIARIES ::
After UK Soldiers (SAS) Arrested ¶ Updated!
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~ Posted from diary TIMELINE :: Basra Police Station – Jail Break … ~
The UK contingent is down from 35,000 to 8,500, in addition many coalition troops under UK Command have left Iraq: Spain, partly Poland and the Netherlands.
The British strategy is the same as where the Dutch were very successful: cooperation and coexistence with the local government. The liason on a daily basis with the local police and government is this lifeline to gather intelligence on subversive elements in the city and region. Meanwhile training the police forces to take over authority.
Following the Dutch closely, on just a few occasions the Dutch got into problems – and lost two men during their stay. These moments were when the U.S. Army pressured the militia of Muqtada Al Sadr near the holy sites of Najaf and the second attack launched by the U.S. on Fallujah and the UK Blackwatch Forces offered U.S. support near Baghdad.
During a period – April 2004 – the Dutch lost all cooperation and received no further intelligence. Rogue elements of Al Sadr militia from outside the province came in, got local support and launched terror attacks on the Dutch forces. In analogy, the Brits have just lost their eyes and ears to know what is happening in Basra. A dangerous and ominous sign, for the Iraqis have just one loyalty: Allah – thus the Islam – and Nationalism.
When the Al Sadr militia came in, they got full cooperation from not only local citizens, but also the police and local administration. Reminds me of a Dutch acquaintance in the oil business for over thirty years in Saudi Arabia. He meets with the Saudis regularly, believed he made friends, but there remains a separation undefined. He knows when violence would break out, he has to watch his back especially for these friends. Iraq is a keg of powder, one never knows if and when it will ignite.
On the contrary, I have made lifelong friendship with several Arab nationals in the Netherlands and in the U.S.
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R.I.P., Gordon.
Bless you, Mrs. Gentle.
I am so angry at the marginalization of protest in the U.S., and at the obscenities perpetrated by the Bush administration, but I am increasingly pessimistic about achieving our desired outcome.
Given their very public postures recently, and that Robert Fisk, a very well respected journalist with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Middle East, has just been refused admittance to the U.S., I will not be surprised if/when the same restriction is applied to other European reporters, Mrs. Gentle, or even George Galloway, M.P.
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To the contrary, these past months the blogs are being sourced for daily news items, even just for verification of what is read or viewed on MSM. It’s important to preserve credibility on the blog, as seen with SusanG and NYBri with the PropaGannon series started @ Daily Kos. You see many trustworthy blogsites doing valiant work on investigative journalism.
These voices won’t be silenced!
Only news what scares, me are the killings of journalists in the war zone.
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