War news

One year ago today, I joined more than 10,000 people in St. Paul who were protesting the ramp-up to war with Iraq and celebrating the life of Paul Wellstone. It's heartening--and sad--that we're in essentially the same place today: 100,000 antiwar protesters gathered in DC and another 20,000 in San Francisco to demand an end to the war on Iraq. A 30-year old Air Force sergeant, speaking at the DC rally:

I think there is a lot of sentiment inside the military that what we are doing isn't right. Technically and legally we did sign up for this, and it's our responsibility to fill what our responsibilities are, but the people making the decisions also need to use us as a last resort.

While one counter-protester in Washington (part of a group calling peace activists "anti-war racists") said she's "pretty happy" with how the war in Iraq is going, other news suggests there's little cause for glee: anti-American attacks are becoming bolder, more sophisticated and frequent (26 attacks per day). Eight to 10 rockets were fired at the Al Rasheed hotel where US military officials live, killing a colonel and injuring 15. The strike, fired from "near blank-point range," comes a day after a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down by rocket-propelled grenade fire near Tikrit.

Also: 10,000 marines come home!