By Debra Sweet

We've been out on the streets over the last week talking to people about the wars begun under the Bush regime, which are now fully Obama's wars, and how they remain illegitimate, unjust, immoral.  And how the only force authoritative force to stop them is us, forming ourselves into a much larger, louder, more determined movement.

IRAQ: Large numbers of people said to us, "Iraq is over," a statement more true than most of them realized.  While Iraq is still occupied, it's been left in the hands of modern warlords who are further destroying the country, leaving people without essential services and in constant insecurity, because of the aggressive war begun by the U.S.  Oil is flowing out of Iraq to the rich countries, but the widows, orphans, injured and bereaved are much worse off than they were before US sanctions began in 1990, and Shock & Awe in 2003.

New videos:
David Swanson, Michael Otterman, Larry Everest and Debra Sweet speak at What War? US Turns from War on Iraq to Permanent Occupation.
Zohra Ahmed, Ed Kinane and Debra Sweet on Stopping the US Drone War.

The MIT Center for International Studies has an excellent page called The Human Cost of the War in Iraq to "present empirical reports, studies, and other accounts that convey and assess the consequences of war for the people of Iraq."

AFGHANISTAN: Only Al Jazeera printed the names of the 16 civilians killed last week near Kandahar, although U.S. newspapers have gone on extensively about Robert Bales, who the military says was the sole killer. 200 protested the wars Sunday in the Pakistani community of Chicago, right. Photo by FJJ.

The dead:
Mohamed Dawood son of  Abdullah
Khudaydad son of Mohamed Juma
Nazar Mohamed
Payendo
Robeena
Shatarina, daughter of Sultan Mohamed
Zahra, daughter of Abdul Hamid
Nazia, daughter of Dost Mohamed
Masooma, daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Farida, daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Palwasha, daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Nabia, daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Esmatullah, daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Faizullah, son of Mohamed Wazir
Essa Mohamed, son of Mohamed Hussain
Akhtar Mohamed, son of Murrad Ali

Protests in Bay Area Against Massacre in Afghanistan were centered in the Afghan community of Fremont, which has previously not shown visible opposition to the U.S. war.

Glen Greenwald, in Hypocrisies and Ironies in American Justice writes that Robert Bales is now likely in the same unit with Bradley Manning at Ft. Leavenworth:

That likely means that there will be some substantial interaction between Bales and Manning. Think about that: if you expose to the world previously unknown evidence of widespread wanton killing of civilians (as Manning allegedly did), then you will end up in the same place as someone who actually engages in the mass wanton killing of civilians (as Bales allegedly did), except that the one who committed atrocities will receive better treatment than the one who exposed them. That’s a nice reflection of our government’s value system (similar to the way that high government officials who commit egregious crimes are immunized, while those who expose them are aggressively prosecuted). If the chat logs are to be believed, Manning decided to leak those documents because they revealed heinous war crimes that he could no longer in good conscience allow to be concealed, and he will now find himself next to a soldier who is accused of committing heinous war crimes.

IRAN: The New York Times reported the the U.S. military carried out war games with the purpose of determining the effect of missile strikes on Iran. Friday, antiwar.com reported "Netanyahu Moves Closer to Iran Attack." Haaretz reports "Netanyahu is preparing Israeli public opinion for a war on Iran," and Obama says "Window for diplomatic solution to Iran nuclear standoff is 'shrinking.'"

Clearly this is an urgent situation -- a loud and clear rejection of war is needed to help mobilize opposition to war in the US.  Hundreds at the Left Forum supported this message:

NO WAR ON IRAN!
The U.S. and Israel are openly threatening war on Iran.  These nuclear-armed powers state "all options are on the table" to stop the Iranian nuclear threat.  In fact, Iran has no nuclear weapons, and US intelligence agencies state there's no evidence Iran has a nuclear weapons program.   Meanwhile, the U.S., the EU, and Israel are already waging a covert war on Iran through punishing sanctions which impoverish ordinary Iranians, secret operations, military threats, assassinations, and drone overflights.

Even if Iran possessed nuclear weapons, a U.S.-Israeli attack would constitute illegal, unjust, and immoral aggression.  Such a war would not rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons.  Such a war would not end oppression or liberate the Iranian people.  And the toll in Iran and beyond would likely be enormous – the Union of Concerned Scientists warns a “bunker-buster” bomb dropped on an Iranian reactor “would create massive clouds of radioactive fallout that could spread far” and “the number of casualties could range up to more than a hundred thousand.”

So we demand: End these threats!  Lift economic sanctions!  No U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran!

More analysis on Iran from Larry Everest:
Video: Larry Everest speaking at the Peninsula Peace & Justice Center about US plans to attack Iran, and the need for resistance, and his article Threats, Aggression, War Preparations...and Lies – U.S. and Israel Accelerate Campaign Against Iran.