Author: Michael Austin

Antiwar.com Editorial Director Justin Raimondo will be speaking in San Francisco, CA this Sunday, March 16th at “Iraq: 5 Years Too Many,” an event marking the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Actor Sean_Penn (a longtime activist who recently lent his voice to the documentary “War Made Easy”) and Peace Activist Cindy Sheehan are headlining the evening, which will also feature Reverend Gregory Stewart, Senior Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church, and Matt Gonzalez, former President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

If you’re in the area, the program will begin at 5pm on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1187 Franklin Street (near Geary) in San Francisco. After the speakers finish, attendees will march to the War Memorial Auditorium on Van Ness Avenue to read the names of Americans and Iraqis killed in the war. There is a suggested donation of $5-$10 for the evening, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. The program is sponsored by the Iraq Moratorium – SF Bay Area and other local peace groups. More info: http://www.iraqmoratorium-sfbay.org or (415) 776-4580.

If you’re in the US, but not near the SF Bay Area, and want to get out and protest 5 years too many in Iraq next week, you can look at United for Peace & Justice’s map of local actions here.

The documentary War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death (based on Norman Solomon’s book of the same title) is now playing at movie theatres and other independent venues throughout the United States. The movie, narrated by actor Sean Penn, uses stunning archival video to expose a 50-year pattern of White House deception and media propaganda that has dragged our country into one military intervention after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Rare footage also spotlights heroes who have resisted the war barrage: people like Sen. Wayne Morse, Rep. Barbara Lee and Phil Donahue. Reviewers have called it “Superb” (Howard Zinn), “Chilling and persuasive” (The Nation) and “Damning” (Variety).

Your seeing War Made Easy now and spreading the word, particularly if you buy a ticket to a theatre, could help it gain wider release. See where the nearest showing to you is now.

April 15th-20th, PBS will be airing America at a Crossroads, a series of eleven independently produced documentaries, each focusing on a different aspect of “the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world,” including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the internal politics and conflicts of these countries, the religious basis of certain terrorist groups and the personal experience of soldiers serving abroad. For more information on the specific documentaries, air dates and times and other special features, take a look at their website here.

Previews of David Hare’s new play Stuff Happens began last night at New York City’s Public Theater. The play explores the reasons for the war in Iraq using characters ripped from the headlines; actors actually play Bush, Powell, Blair, Rice and Rumsfeld, transforming real life into profound drama. John Lahr of the New York Times has said "In his best political play yet, Hare brings us an exhilarating account of the genesis of the current Iraq War." Hare is already well known for the provocative political and social commentary of his works, which include The Absence of War (a meditation on the thoughts and actions of modern politicians and the nature of leadership) and Via Dolorosa (an autobiographical one-man show about traveling in Israel and Palestine).

A special discount is being offered to Antiwar.com readers who wish to see the production: go to www.broadwayoffers.com and enter the code SHEMB67 to save 15% on tickets.

Oakland, CA: TheatreFIRST is producing a rare revival of playwright Robert Holman’s abstract portrait of the lingering effects of war, Making Noise Quietly. In three one-act plays, Holman gives playgoers a glimpse at war’s more rarely acknowledged consequences and victims—often less spectacular than those one sees on the news, yet equally tragic.

Each of the three plays is essentially a dialogue in which two characters who have been deeply affected by a war (WWII in the first play, The Falklands War in the other two) in their past share their experiences and attempt to cope with the awful destruction it has wrought in their consciousness. None of the plays take place on a battlefield or feature soldiers in combat, yet war remains the driving force and major character in all of them. Whether it’s a mother who is finding out she’s lost her son for reasons she can’t fathom, or an unaccustomed father who can’t control his anger after experiencing the horrible adrenaline of killing, all seven characters in the play present a different version of the anguish war causes—far behind the front lines, and long after the peace treaties are signed.

Though Making Noise Quietly was first produced in Britain in 1986, its invocation of the oft-disputed, short but tragic Falklands War (backdrop for two of the three short plays) seems particularly timely in 2005 America. As co-director Clive Chafer so eloquently states in his Director’s Notes for the play’s program: "At this time, it is good to remember that there is no such thing as a limited war, a war whose victory is predictable and whose course can be controlled; a war that can be fought and won and quickly left behind—certainly not for those who are brought down by it: the fighters, and the many touched by its tendrils, which reach out over time and space, and leave their mark, like a tattoo, indelibly."

If you’re in the SF Bay Area:

Making Noise Quietly plays at Mills College campus in Oakland, CA through June 5th.

Details and ticket information available at the TheatreFIRST Web site or by calling (510) 436-5085.