Five more US soliders (four of them US Marines) died in Iraq within the last 24 hours. For what? The neo-con wet dream of a Three Stooges Reich. BEWARE! The "US mainstream news media" has begun to downplay the deaths (twenty or so in the last week)...
Lee Sensenbrenner, Madison Capitol Times: "I really did not want to think things were this bad. I didn't want to believe our president would behave this way," Julie Sherman, of Madison, said. "Half the country voted for him; he couldn't be that bad."
But after giving the administration "the benefit of the doubt for as long as I could," Sherman said she began reading books critical of the war and President Bush, then saw "Fahrenheit 9/11." She said she's dismayed with the country's leadership.
"I feel we've been lied to," she said.
Dick Gruen, of Stoughton, held a copy of former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips' latest book "American Dynasty," which charges the Bush family with a history of deceit and an interest in power that goes back generations.
Tyler Mertes, who is in his 20s, said he started to pay attention to politics for the first time after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He's frustrated by the way politicians like Dennis Kucinich seem to be dismissed as fringe candidates by major media outlets.
"It's like not being corrupt makes you a radical," he said.
Support Our Troops, Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/index.php?ntid=6521&ntpid=0
Military families question war: Vet says Americans 'asleep'
By Lee Sensenbrenner
July 9, 2004
Jane Jensen, founder of the Military Family Support Group, holds a photo of her son, Lt. Col. Garrett Jensen, who is in Iraq. (File photo)
Until the founding member could hold her tongue no longer, the meetings of the Military Family Support Group were pretty routine.
They'd gather at a church on Madison's west side, sometimes in a ring of battered couches and chairs in the basement, sometimes upstairs where the furniture was new. They'd tell how they had a son, a daughter, a niece, a husband serving in Iraq. They'd share how long it's been since they heard anything from them.
As connected as they became through their common fears, the discussions sometimes showed how different their situations were. One mother last winter told how her son was home for two weeks to undergo surgery for the wounds where mortar shrapnel had torn into his shoulder and deafened him. Another said her son had returned home safely and bought a house.
But other stark differences were revealed.
"People had such opposing views," Jane Jensen, the group's original organizer, said Thursday night at Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ. "I was literally becoming ill from coming here and holding in my thoughts and feelings."
Thursday night was the first meeting of the slightly longer-named and no longer apolitical Military Family Support Group Families for Peace. And in their meeting, rather than edge up to political disagreement, then back off in some kind of polite tension, they railed against the war in Iraq, President Bush and whatever else was on their minds.
Meanwhile, Jensen said she does not know what happened to the other military family members with whom the group used to meet. She said that the original group disbanded about a month ago, but won't get into the details of the breakup.
Carol McKy, who met with the former group, said she thought some of the others still meet, though their gatherings are no longer announced in newspapers.
"They decided to change to a different location," she said. "We don't know where that location is."
As the introductions began Thursday, McKy, of Middleton, said: "I'm against this war. I'm a Republican; I want you to know that. And I'm against Bush."
Several of her nieces and nephews are now serving in the military.
They went around the circle that way, and it came out that all but two in the group of a dozen had seen the Michael Moore film "Fahrenheit 9/11."
"I really did not want to think things were this bad. I didn't want to believe our president would behave this way," Julie Sherman, of Madison, said. "Half the country voted for him; he couldn't be that bad."
But after giving the administration "the benefit of the doubt for as long as I could," Sherman said she began reading books critical of the war and President Bush, then saw "Fahrenheit 9/11." She said she's dismayed with the country's leadership.
"I feel we've been lied to," she said.
Dick Gruen, of Stoughton, held a copy of former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips' latest book "American Dynasty," which charges the Bush family with a history of deceit and an interest in power that goes back generations.
Tyler Mertes, who is in his 20s, said he started to pay attention to politics for the first time after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He's frustrated by the way politicians like Dennis Kucinich seem to be dismissed as fringe candidates by major media outlets.
"It's like not being corrupt makes you a radical," he said.
Mike Burkhalter, of Oregon, served in Japan during the Vietnam War and told the group that he thinks too many Americans are "asleep" to what's going on around them. And he said he doesn't know how to change it.
"I really don't believe that I'm living in the America that I served my country for," he said.
The group has decided to reconvene every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ, 1501 Gilbert Road. All are invited, whether they have relatives serving in the military or not. Next week's assignment, they agreed, would be to write down their purpose.
"I'm really looking for a peace group," said Bill Rowe, a Korean War veteran from Madison. "I'm not looking for Democrats. I don't see peace as a party thing. If we're going to be the Democratic Party, that's not what I'm into."
Others sported John Kerry stickers, talked fervently of unseating President Bush and explained how to sign up to be a member of MoveOn.org.
lsensenbrenner@madison.com
Published: 11:34 AM 7/9/04