Pictures from March 19, 2009 - Georgia St University, Atlanta

Atlanta!!

Today is Thursday, March 19th 2009. Six years ago today the Bush administration unleashed an illegal, unilateral, Preemptive war of aggression against Iraq. The American people were told that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that it was only a matter of time before Saddam used his weapons against us. We were told that American forces would be greeted as liberators, that the war would be quick, and that it would practically pay for itself.
Our government was wrong. During the build-up to the Iraq war there was one unified voice that was right, the global anti-war movement. Around the world, with almost no media voice, tens and millions proclaimed that Iraq posed no threat, the war would be long and bloody, it would be expensive, and America would lose credibility in the international community.
Six years later we’ve seen dozens of new excuses to make up for the last bad excuses. No we claim to be in Iraq because we love the Iraqis and just want to protect them from each other.
So the name of this tour is, “Cost of War: Six Years Later”. Since today marks the actual six year anniversary I’m going to list a few measurable costs of this war/occupation.
Estimated Iraqi casualties: 1,000,000.
American troop casualties: 4,260
American Troops Wounded: 31089
Economic cost to US tax payers to date(Not including the additional $75.5 President Obama has asked for): $656.1 billion

The community trade off Americans pay for this war is really mind numbing. This war based economy is the most logical explanation for our economic crisis. One day of war in Iraq could pay for almost 35,000 homes. That’s a powerful figure when one considers how may have lost their homes in the last year.
So we wanted Thursday to be a whole day of action with multiple events to remind Atlanta that this war continues to take our money and our youth and transform them into machines of war.
At 3pm we had a speaking event at GSU. Jason and Raed spoke along with Zack Choate and Chris Raissi(both IVAW members) spoke as well. After the talk we asked everyone to join us in a rally at woodruff park. Once at Woodruff Dozens of veterans led a march to the CNN center to demand that veterans have a voice in the media and that stations like CNN start connecting the dots between economic crisis and war/occupation. After a rally several students participated in a die-in and we all marched backed to Woodruff park.
After all that work it was time to relax and build community. At 8pm we had a HUGE concert at the Fishmarket lofts in the westend. What an awesome turnout! Contaverse, The Wild, The Back Pockets, and Futureshock all donated fabulous music sets to the event. It really couldn’t have been better then it was.
Thanks for everyone who did all the work to make today happen!!!
BIG THANKS TO: Caitlin Barrow, for organizing the speaking tour and making amazing vegan muffins! Diane Mathowitz and the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition/Atl For organizing the March. Emily Kempf of the Back pockets for making the concert SOOO awesome, and all the veterans that had the courage to come out, support, and speak out!

Milledgeville!

It was SOOO nice to get to sleep in Wednesday morning. After taking our time to greet the day we decided to check out the local coffee house. If you’re ever passing Milledgeville I highly recommend going out of your way to check out Black Bird Coffee House. We all found the downtown area to be really charming. Raed and Jason stumbled upon a peace monument that had something to do with the rotary club? They decided to hang out around it and enjoy the amazing weather. Well someone had complained that there were a few bums hanging around the monument and a police officer was sent out to deal with the situation. The first thing the officer noticed was Jason’s IVAW shirt. It just so happened that the officer was an Iraq war veteran! He also admitted to strongly disagreeing with the war and said he would join us if it weren’t for the political climate at his police department.
One exciting thing about this tour is the varied reaction people have to Jason’s IVAW shirt as it’s often the first thing folk’s notice when they see him. Goes to show the power of a shirt!
The crowd that came out for the Cost Of War talk was larger then most in the group expected. Raed and Jason did very well conveying their experience and perspective on the occupation in Iraq. At one point Raed realized that Jason had spent time patrolling the neighborhood he lived in. It was profound to witness this realization between these two, who had become fast friends over the past few days. We had to leave Milledgeville in a hurry to get back to Atlanta for an interview. We REALLY enjoyed our time with all the wonderful students we met in Milledgeville!!

Day Two: Columbus!

Rosa rolled into Columbus around 11:45am and she brought amazing weather along for the ride! We did the talk for a small but passionate crowd. There was a wife of a physically and mentally wounded Iraq war veteran in the crowd who had many questions. The cost of war for her has been very high in a direct way. We also had two local celebrities in attendance!! Bet & Jim Steen have been doing anti-war work for MANY years in Georgia. Jim is a WWII combat vet. After the talk Jim and Jason shared some time together to process the horrors of war and they allowed me to tape it. It’s honestly some of the most intense footage I’ve ever seen! Ever! I will figure out a way to post it.

We hit the road for Milledgeville. After we arrived Kim & Noah (local activists) took us out for a night on the town, Georgia college style-yikes! Before the night was over Kim and Jason performed their version of dueling banjosJ.

Day One: DALTON!!

Dalton was not only our first stop on the tour but it was the first event we’ve ever hosted in the city. Our expectations were rather low. We would have been happy with 20-30 people. When we showed up we were shocked to be greeted by a crowd of 200-300 people! It was clear by the expression of those in attendance that Raed and Jason were both very engaging and presented a perspective that many in the room had not heard before.

After the talk many students stuck around to ask personal questions to Raed and Jason. We had reporters from two newspapers, both of which ended up writing front page stories!
Kim Shaw, the local organizer that did the foot work that made the day a success, treated us to lunch at Los Reyes. There we discussed the economic crisis and the impact it’s had on the Dalton community (Dalton’s unemployment rate is the 2nd highest in the country!!!). So we said goodbye and were on our merry way. I reluctantly agreed to let Raed drive Rosa (our bus) all the way back to Marietta. He did okay.

We had time to kill so I set up a last minute dinner Party in Atlanta. Over 300 people showed up throughout the night! It was great. We left Atlanta at around 10:30pm Columbus bound. On the way to Columbus we got stuck in gridlock for 3 hours! Apparently two big rigs flipped over. Raed and I couldn’t help thinking that if Atlanta had $500 Million ( not even what one day of war in Iraq cost) to finish the three closed lanes that have been under construction forever we would’ve been stuck with all these thousands of other people.