Antiwar.com Blog

As reported by Antiwar.com’s Debbie Clark:

Saturday morning, after a march around the Capital building, 30-35 people from Camp Democracy – mostly Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War members – went to the Pentagon to see the new 9/11 memorial.

As they were nearing the end of the tour, Geoffrey Millard, a disabled Iraq war veteran, left a stack of pamphlets about the dangers of depleted uranium on a brochure stand as they were entering the chapel. At first, no one noticed and they continued the tour, but as the group was headed out, they say they were surrounded by about 20 or 25 pentagon police.

The cops indicated that someone had left a stack of “literature” inside and announced that this was a violation. They were told that if they didn’t admit who did it, they would all be arrested. The cops apparently then thought a bit better of it, and decided they would arrest the the ones who still had them. That’s funny. Arrest the people who still have them, even though they are the one’s who obviously hadn’t left their’s behind.

Four of them, three IVAW guys, Steve Mortillo, Joe Hatcher, and Toby Hartbarger, and Gregory Watson, a friend, still had the pamphlets and were arrested.

Geoffrey Millard had been doing an interview, and so was held up. When he caught up and saw that his friends were being arrested, he went up to the cops and told them he was the one who had done it.

All five were held in a police station on the Pentagon grounds and were charged with violating a lawful order and illegally posting materials – both federal misdemeanors. All 5 have now been released, but they missed Ray McGovern‘s and Karen Kwiatkowski‘s speeches at Camp Democracy.

For those in DC, the recently released Prisoner of Conscience, Kevin Benderman, will be giving a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus at 7pm Eastern, Saturday night at St. Aloysius Church, 900 N. Capital Street Northwest, near Union Station Metro, redline.

Update: See the video of their press conference here.

… in Afghanistan, since September 1, 2006, a total of 24 British and Canadian troops have lost their lives. 

Three more US soldiers were killed today in Iraq, bringing this week’s total for US and British troops killed in Iraq to 18.

The US military’s total losses since the March 2003 invasion now total 2,662, according to Pentagon figures.

That’s the oh-so-maverick Bill Maher on George W. Bush. Maher went on to say that the reason W. takes the correct – i.e., 100-percent Likud – positions on Israel is “because he’s a crazy evangelical Christian.”

My God man! What the hell has happened to this country?

We at Antiwar.com do not make this stuff up:

From the Boston Globe:

“Maine National Guard members in Iraq and Afghanistan are never far from the thoughts of their loved ones.

But now, thanks to a popular family-support program, they’re even closer.

Welcome to the “Flat Daddy” and “Flat Mommy” phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.

The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their significant others on the home front.”

Via Brad at Wendy McElroy’s blog

I think the last story we reported said that Lebanon’s reconstruction cost would be around $2.5 billion — a number I thought was far too conservative. A 12-story building in my neighborhood would cost at least $20 million to build, if not more. It can’t be less than a quarter as much to build the same thing in Lebanon. Considering many thousands of buildings were totally flattened or damaged beyond repair, not to mention bridges, highways, the airport, hospitals — and I could go on — the cost had to be way higher. I see today in an article which is otherwise lower news, this paragraph:

The cost to rebuild Lebanon is at least $7 billion. More than 130,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in the short war. Unemployment has doubled, to 20%.

$7 billion still seems pretty low, but I guess we’ll only know once it’s done. With unemployment doubled, domestic sources of funding will be harder to dig up. It’s frustrating to realize that all I can do is wish them well, even as my money helped destroy their lives.