After the end of World War II, the Japanese constitution, written by the United States for the defeated Japanese, rejected war as a solution for conflict. Article 9 states: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.”
jaymarx's blog
Peace Prevails! Help Tell The Story. . .
Submitted by jaymarx on Sun, 09/09/2007 - 3:23am.It's election season, summer's coming, the War and Occupation in Iraq continues at a cost of $720 million a day (!), and Congress is about to sign another $100+ Billion blank check. Meanwhile, the hard and creative work of pro-peace mobilization continues across the city and the region. The mainstream media ignores us furiously, but the Washington Peace Letter wants to tell the full story--and we need your help.
If you were at an event--demonstration, cultural action, workshop, speech, government fiasco--anything that interested you and that you think others should know about, then TELL US ABOUT IT. The Peace Letter is written and edited by volunteers like you. You can send us any story (ideally between 200 and 2000 words--clarity and brevity are always appreciated) and we can put it in print or make it appear on the blog below. ALL SUBMISSIONS APPRECIATED AND CONSIDERED. (wpc@igc.org Subject line: NEWS- [your headline])
John Cusack's War: The Actor Battles to Un-embed Hollywood With "War, Inc."
Submitted by jaymarx on Fri, 05/16/2008 - 9:02pm.By Jeremy Scahill
t r u t h o u t | Film Review
Friday 16 May 2008
Back in 1989, in his smash hit, "Say Anything," John Cusack famously stood with a boom box above his head outside the home of the woman he loved blasting Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes." With his latest films on the Iraq war, Cusack is standing outside Hollywood with a TV above his head broadcasting his political movies calling on the public to wake up and "Do Something."
John Cusack began working on his new film, "War, Inc.," which premieres in LA and New York May 23, about a year into the US occupation of Iraq. From the moment US tanks rolled into Baghdad, Cusack was a voracious consumer of news about the war. He took it deadly seriously, regularly calling independent journalists and asking them questions as he sought as much independent information as he could. Watching the insanity of the erection of the Green Zone and the advent of the era of McWar, complete with tens of thousands of "private contractors," Cusack set out to use the medium of film to unveil the madness. He wanted to do on the big screen what independent reporters like Naomi Klein, Nir Rosen and Dahr Jamail did in print. Over these years of war and occupation, Cusack has become one of the most insightful commentators on a far-too-seldom-discussed aspect of the occupation: the corporate dominance of the US war machine.
Of War and Golf - Olbermann Indignant
Submitted by jaymarx on Fri, 05/16/2008 - 6:12am.By Keith Olbermann
MSNBC Countdown
Wednesday 14 May 2008
Transcript:
Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on two topics a lot of us had foolishly thought, had naively hoped, we would not again have to address… and a third topic nobody thought a president would ever seriously mention in public unless perhaps he'd just been hit in the head with something and was not in full possession of his faculties - how he expressed his "empathy" to the families of the dead in Iraq - by giving up golf.
Burma, Day 10: Answering Your Question on Aung San Suu Kyi
Submitted by jaymarx on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 2:14pm.Dear friends,
Many thanks to all of our supporters who are now holding events across the country to help raise funds for victims of the Cyclone. The situation gets more dire everyday. It appears that still only a trickle of humanitarian aid is reaching the people most in need, and yesterday even the United Nations World Food Program briefly suspended shipments of aid to Burma after the military regime impounded aid planes. Reports indicate that supplies that should be reaching the Burmese people are literally sitting on the tarmac.
We are going to send you a full update about the Cyclone, we are pulling it together right now. For a quick moment though, we wanted to answer a question that hundreds of you (including many journalists) have been asking us: what is the condition of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's struggle for human rights and democracy and the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient?
Article: War dead cremated at facility for pets (story link)
Submitted by jaymarx on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 11:56am.Link here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004404786_cremains10.html
How bad does it have to get before we finally say Enough.?
How much disrespect do they have to demonstrate? How much will we tolerate?
Who can justify this Administration?
Article text:
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has, since 2001, cremated some of the remains of U.S. service members killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in a Delaware facility that also cremates pets, a practice that ended Friday when the Pentagon banned the arrangement.
Despite Bush Administration Pressure, the Japanese People Continue to Say ‘No More War’
Submitted by jaymarx on Thu, 05/08/2008 - 6:43pm.Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Doesn’t Mince Words About War and Justice
Submitted by jaymarx on Thu, 05/08/2008 - 10:34am.by Olga Bonfiglio
Shirin Ebadi wants Americans to do what they can to stop the Bush administration’s threats to bomb Iran as punishment for presumably making nuclear weapons.
“Nuclear weapons are not a daily concern of the people,” said Ebadi. “They want jobs; they want houses; they want health; they want more freedom.”
However, she predicted that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would whip up nationalistic support if Iran were forced into a face-off with the United States, just as it did when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980. The invasion resulted in an eight-year war between the two countries.
Greetings from Guantanamo Bay ... and the sickest souvenir shop in the world
Submitted by jaymarx on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 8:42am.By ANGELA LEVIN - More by this author » Last updated at 00:06am on 4th May 2008
Mockery: A child's T-shirt proclaiming the camp a tourist spot
The sands are white, the sea laps gently and crowds of bronzed Americans laze in the Caribbean sunshine.
They have a cinema, a golf course and, naturally, a gift shop stocked with mugs, jaunty T-shirts and racks of postcards showing perfect sunsets and bright green iguanas.
Only the barbed wire decoration, a recurring motif, hints at anything wrong.
Welcome to "Taliban Towers" at Guantanamo Bay, the most ghoulishly distasteful tourist destination on the planet.
As these astonishing mementoes show, the US authorities are promoting the world's most notorious prison camp as a cheap hideaway for American sunseekers – a revelation that has drawn international anger and condemnation.
Just yards from the shelves of specially branded mugs and cuddly toys, nearly 300 "enemy combatants" lie sweltering in a waking nightmare.
It is six years since foreign prisoners, many captured in Afghanistan, were first taken to this US-occupied corner of Cuba. Yet even now, no charges have been brought against them.
While the detainees lie incarcerated, visitors can windsurf, take boat trips and go fishing for grouper, tuna, red snapper and swordfish.
The United States' 1.5million service personnel and Guantanamo's 3,000 construction workers are eligible to visit the "resort", which boasts a McDonald's, KFC and a bowling alley.
They even have a Wal-Mart supermarket.
The vacation comes at a knock-down price: just $42 (£20) per night for a suite of air-conditioned rooms, including a kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedrooms.
But it is the souvenirs that have led to the greatest criticism. One T-shirt from the gift shop is decorated with a guard tower and barbed wire. It reads: "The Taliban Towers at Guantanamo Bay, the Caribbean's Newest 5-star Resort."
Another praises "the proud protectors of freedom". A third displays a garish picture of an iguana and states: "Greetings from paradise GTMO resort and spa fun in the Cuban sun."
A child-sized shirt says: "Someone who loves me got me this T-shirt in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."
Scroll down for more...
Exposed: An array of the ghoulish gifts on sale at the Guantanamo Bay 'resort' catering for American sunseekers
Article 9 Conference: Updates from Japan
Submitted by jaymarx on Sat, 05/03/2008 - 4:27pm.Washington Peace Center Coordinator Jay Marx and Proposition One Committee Director Ellen Thomas are presently in Japan for the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War. They arrived on Friday, May 2, and the conference runs from Sunday, May 4, until Tuesday, May 6.As they have time, Jay and Ellen will post reports, photos, and other information to this blog, and they will deliver a full report-back about the Conference and their other journeys upon their return.Please continue checking below for updates.Cheers! JM & ET
Impeach for Peace Picnic Videos
Submitted by jaymarx on Mon, 04/28/2008 - 8:27pm.More video interviews with participants can be found at this website link: http://www.youtube.com/user/StartLoving1
Peace Tent at McPherson Square, 3/19/008
Submitted by jaymarx on Tue, 03/25/2008 - 9:25pm.In the Dome Tent! Friends from Student Peace Action Network posted up next to the Washington Peace Center at McPherson Square on 3/19/008.
MLK, Lockheed Martin and Military Recruitment
Submitted by jaymarx on Wed, 01/23/2008 - 3:12pm.From a recent internet post by Pat Elder.
We held a spirited demonstration yesterday at the corporate headquarters of
Lockheed Martin in suburban Washington to honor Dr. Martin Luther King and
to draw attention to Lockheed's insidious record. Lockheed produces the
Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS). Each MLRS can fire up to 12 rockets at
once, and each rocket contains 644 M77 submunitions, or cluster bombs. Each
bomblet can kill up to a 12 foot radius. The damn things don't all explode
and innocent children are regularly killed by these devices produced by my
Hilda Mason, Presente!
Submitted by jaymarx on Tue, 12/18/2007 - 12:11am.Hilda Mason was a local leader for rights for African Americans and for public school education, one of the founding members of the DC Statehood Party in 1970, a former teacher & principal, a former member of the DC Board of Education, and a former member of the City Council. Ms. Mason last spoke publicly as a party member during an antiwar rally organized by the Green Party in downtown DC in September 2005. Hilda Mason was 91 when she passed away this morning.
This is one of several deaths in the DC Statehood Green Party family in the past two months. Party activist Henry Moses died in November, and Gail Dixon's daughter Stephanie died a few days ago. Below are the announcement from Ms. Mason's daughter and a short bio lifted from from 1998, when Ms. Mason last ran for public office. * * * * *
The Odor of Old Promises
Submitted by jaymarx on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 12:47pm.by Tom Driscoll
Perhaps no one is really surprised. It might be that this country has finally lost its capacity for outrage, has long since surrendered the idea of reproach or redress when lied to. We have become the Orwellian farm animals who find it too troubling to remember the promises once posted on the stable wall.
Monday morning, November the 26th, at a closed door teleconference, our president signed an agreement, a "declaration of principles" with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. There are details to be worked out, but the basics are clear. Iraq’s al-Maliki led government will abide by one more year of coalition forces on Iraqi soil per the U.N. authorization that provides for their presence. They will support one more one year renewal of the resolution, which would have the mandate finally coming to a close sometime in late 2008. But this won’t see American soldiers coming home. The “U.S.-Iraq Declaration of Principles for Friendship and Cooperation” that our president signed sees to that.
The document affirms a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq long after the rest of the “Coalition of the Willing” has gone home. There may be welcome home parades in Mongolia and Estonian, but for American troops it will be business as usual for a long time to come... OK, actually the word is 'permanently.'
In a rather quiet press release on the president’s teleconference and agreement signing, the White House points out that U.S. troops will remain “to train and equip Iraqi Security Forces” (more than four years in and another year out we will apparently still be “training and equipping”). We will remain “to provide security assurances to the Iraqi Government” (presumably this is just in case those security forces won’t be all that effectively trained or equipped after all).
According to a statement by Prime Minister Maliki, Americans will remain “to deter any external aggression” and “defend against internal coup” (I guess that just about covers everything). Our troops will remain so as to “codify” our lasting “bilateral relationship” with a “democratic Iraq.”
(Roughly translated: we will remain as a permanent military presence in Iraq, Yes, that’s right: Permanent).
According to the Associated Press, a detachment of about 50,000 U.S. troops would remain, perhaps in a series of bases well outside the major Iraqi cities (there are still details to work out). The Iraqi government would assume "greater control" of how these forces would be used.
Rest assured that the long term “strategic partnership” between Maliki’s embattled government and the U.S. is not without its rewards for American loyalty. Officials of the Iraqi government remind us that they are offering preferential treatment for American investment (All you boys and girls serving over seas, be sure to call your broker.)
What scant attention the "declaration of principles" has received has been answered with the appropriate double-speak. Prime Minister Maliki has announced to his people that this new agreement signals an end to the occupation of Iraq. (Same troops, same mission, but we won't call it an 'occupation' anymore.)
Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, President Bush's adviser on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan explains it to us this way: “Iraq is increasingly able to stand on its own; that's very good news, but it won't have to stand alone.”
(There, don’t you feel better?)
To quote one National Security Council staffer in a briefing on the "declaration of principles," soon, we will no longer occupy Iraq, but rather we will be engaged in a "normalized, bilateral relationship."
As I started to write this piece I was thinking of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ —of the pledges the animals all made to each other as they started on their idealistic adventure, how they posted them proudly at first up there on the stable wall. I thought of how the words could be forgotten, such that they could be so easily ultimately changed.
Come on into this particular barn with me. There are still a couple of scraps pinned to the weathered plank. You can still just make out what they said:
"As a proud and independent people, Iraqis do not support an indefinite occupation and neither does America."
~President George W. Bush, April 13, 2004
"We do not seek permanent military bases in Iraq. Our goal is to help Iraq stand on its own feet, to be able to look after its own security, and to do what we can to help achieve that goal."
~then-U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, August 14, 2005
“We're not seeking permanent bases really pretty much anywhere in the world these days. We are, in fact, in the process of removing base structure from a lot of places.”
~Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, April 4, 2006.
Ah, well. The promises are faded now, forgotten. I suppose it’s best we move on.
It’s starting to smell in here anyway.
Tom Driscoll
Holliston, MA
Tom Driscoll is an opinion columnist, poet, performiing songwriter (let's just say he writes).
How Much is Enough?
Submitted by jaymarx on Tue, 11/20/2007 - 12:43pm.by Frida Berrigan
Once upon a time, people researched and wrote reports about lower defense
spending and converting the military-industrial complex into a peacetime
economy. These reports came from university research institutions, private
think tanks, and the federal government. They are memorials to the hope
kindled in the brief post-Cold War and pre-War on Terrorism moment when
anything seemed possible. Even cutting the military budget was not
unthinkable because we had pulled the planet back from the brink and
survived five decades on the edge of nuclear midnight. Scholarship turned
120 US war veteran suicides a week
Submitted by jaymarx on Sun, 11/18/2007 - 11:43pm.November 15, 2007 09:47am
THE US military is experiencing a "suicide epidemic" with veterans killing themselves at the rate of 120 a week, according to an investigation by US television network CBS.
At least 6256 US veterans committed suicide in 2005 - an average of 17 a day - the network reported, with veterans overall more than twice as likely to take their own lives as the rest of the general population.
An Appeal to Barack Obama - by Tom Hayden
Submitted by jaymarx on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 11:11am."The Democrats have been stuck in the arguments of Vietnam, which means that either you're a Scoop Jackson Democrat or you're a Tom Hayden Democrat and you're suspicious of any military action. And that's just not my framework." - Sen. Barack Obama.
Barack, I thought Hillary Clinton was known as the Great Triangulator, but you are learning well. The problem with setting up false polarities to position yourself in the "center", however, is that it's unproductive both politically and intellectually.
Politically, it is a mistake because there last time I looked there were a whole lot more "Tom Hayden Democrats" voting in the California primary and, I suspect, around the country, than "'Scoop' Jackson Democrats." In fact, they are your greatest potential base, aside from African-American voters, in a multi-candidate primary.
Impeachment fuse is briefly lighted
Submitted by jaymarx on Wed, 11/07/2007 - 4:40am.A resolution against Cheney gets parked in committee. Republicans sought an immediate vote in order to spark a House floor fight.
WASHINGTON -- House Democrats on Tuesday beat back a Republican attempt to force them to vote on a divisive resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney for "fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction" to justify the war in Iraq.
George Bush and CODEPINK: Women for Peace
Submitted by jaymarx on Mon, 11/05/2007 - 1:12am. Published on Friday, November 2, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
by Medea Benjamin
On November 1, while CODEPINK was outside the Heritage Foundation protesting the appearance of George Bush, Bush himself was inside talking about CODEPINK. “When it comes to funding our troops, some in Washington should spend more time responding to the warnings of terrorists like Osama bin Laden and the requests of our commanders on the ground and less time responding to the demands of MoveOn.org bloggers and Code Pink protesters,” he said.
It Don’t Look Like They’re Here to Deliver the Mail
Submitted by jaymarx on Mon, 11/05/2007 - 1:07am. Published on Friday, November 2, 2007 by The Wiscasset Newspaper (Maine)
by Chris Cooper
Daylight declines and the leaves fall. We imagine it is frost that colors then looses them, because the heat declines more or less during the same weeks as the erosion of daylength reaches the critical limit for each deciduous species, but it is latitude, not lack of warmth that brings on the fall. Then, in the last few days of October and through as much of November as might remain unencumbered by snow, our landscape is made by wind.
The Power of Inspection and the Claim of Impeachment
Submitted by jaymarx on Mon, 11/05/2007 - 12:50am.by David Bromwich
Last night’s Democratic debate marked the first time a number of candidates have spoken sanely and frankly about the Cheney-Bush design for a world war. Tim Russert asked each candidate to “pledge” to prevent Iran from developing the capacity to make a nuclear weapon. A mindless and demagogic request, and an attempt to corral the Democratic party into the militarism which holds the Republican candidates (with the exception of Ron Paul) captive and cheering. Russert was out of line and someone should have told him so. Yet the responses were instructive. Hillary Clinton vowed to do all she could to prevent Iran from acquiring a weapon; when that proved not ripe enough for her questioner, she made it clear she would not please him by upping the ante. What he was after was a pledge to initiate a war by bombing Iran.
Disconnect Between Anti-War Activism Then and Now
Submitted by jaymarx on Mon, 11/05/2007 - 12:43am.by Arthur J. Magida
A bunch of unrepentant ’60s activists and socially concerned students met recently at Georgetown University. The usual suspects were there - people such as Todd Gitlin, a former leader of Students for a Democratic Society; Marcus Raskin, a founder of the Institute for Policy Studies; and Katha Pollitt, a columnist at The Nation.
There wasn’t a centrist or conservative in sight, even at the university whose former dean of its School of Foreign Service, the Rev. Edmund A. Walsh, proposed to Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy over dinner in January 1950 that the senator take up the issue of Communists in government to invigorate his political career, which was heading downhill fast. This was not long after the Soviet Union had exploded its first atomic bomb, and Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury. Mr. McCarthy began waving around his “lists” of Commies who had infiltrated every nook and cranny of the federal government.
Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland: Yoko Ono Interview on Amy Goodman
Submitted by jaymarx on Wed, 10/17/2007 - 10:00am.AMY GOODMAN: Today, we spend the hour with Yoko Ono, artist, musician, peace activist. She’s here in the firehouse studio with us, just days after returning from Iceland, where she unveiled a project forty years in the making: the Imagine Peace Tower. Dedicated to her late husband John Lennon, the tower shoots light into the sky and bears the inscription “Imagine Peace.” It will light up every year between October 9, the day of John Lennon’s birth, and December 8, the day of his death.
Today, we speak with Yoko Ono about this latest project and her long and sometimes overlooked career as a prolific artist and innovator. We’ll also talk about her husband, John Lennon, and how their political activism together led to government surveillance and deportation attempts from the Nixon administration. But first, this is an excerpt of Yoko Ono's speech, unveiling the Imagine Peace Tower one week ago today.
More God in Government - Pelosi Prescribes Prayer
Submitted by jaymarx on Thu, 10/11/2007 - 2:11am.Maybe it was due to the Sunday morning talk shows, but Nancy Pelosi apparently said that, if the American people really wanted the war to end, then they should pray.
At first I didn't believe it, so I went online to see if I could find the statement. I'm not sure I did, but I got close, and this bit was pretty interesting:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Speaker_Pelosi_prays_for_President_Bush_1007.html
I especially liked the part about how she was taught not to pray for a specific political outcome. Wow. Ponder that. Well, all right, Nancy, I will pray for something else. You are praying for the president to change his mind? Were you taught to pray only for the things you know you will not get? Are you praying to St. Jude?
Rightist Indignation - Newt Gingrich Invokes Diety on Hannity and Colmes
Submitted by jaymarx on Thu, 10/11/2007 - 1:37am.First of all, why was I watching FOX? But there was Newt, spewing the richest and most fragrant moralistic manure I had heard in a long time. In high dudgeon about the Architect of the Capitol's decision not to include God in the wording of a certificate sent to constituents who receive Capitol flags, Newt insisted that it was terrible and that outraged Americans should call their Congresspeople about their right to include God in official communications from the Government.
"God will not be censored!" Newt cried.
How can we even start to fathom the hypocrisy. I take the concept of separation of church and state seriously. I recognize that it's a negotiation. But I think at least, wherever we draw the line, we should apply it consistently. If we are committed to keeping church and state separate (and there are good reasons for doing that), then so be it. But if Newt wants God in government, does he want to consider what God thinks about, oh, I don't know, the war?
Leading Americans Ask U.S. Military to Refuse Orders to Attack Iran
Submitted by jaymarx on Tue, 10/02/2007 - 11:05am.Country music legend Willie Nelson, literary icon Gore Vidal, Gold Star Mother Cindy Sheehan, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, author and radio host Thom Hartmann, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Rabbi Steven Jacobs, and dozens of other prominent Americans have signed a letter asking the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all U.S. military personnel to refuse orders to launch an aggressive war on Iran.The letter has been posted as a petition for others to sign at http://www.dontattackiran.org
Benifit BBQ Potluck and Arts/Crafts Silent Auction - Sunday September 30, 2007
Submitted by jaymarx on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:58pm.IVAW/WPC BBQ GRILL-OUT FUN(d)RAISER & SILENT AUCTION
Friends at the Top of the Park enjoyed an afternoon of art, music and BBQ at a late summer benifit for the Iraq Vets Against the War (IVAW.org) and the Washington Peace Center. Crafts, paintings, jewelry and more, generously donated by local artisits and crafts people, were auctioned off to raise over $900 for IVAW and $200+ for the Peace Center!
Vast thanks and kudos to our host, Martine Zundmanis, for pulling it all together. Volunteers like Glenn, Rick, Norman, Echo (all the way from FLA!), and Jim (generous grillmeister!) made it all possible. And thanks to Vet for Peace Jim Goodenow (and co-pilot Miles) for transporting a whole posse to the Top of the Park in his bus, the Yellow Rose.
Blackwater, Oil and the Colonial Enterprise
Submitted by jaymarx on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 12:53pm.By John Nichols
The Nation
September 21, 2007
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=235197
BLOG
Blackwater USA's mercenary mission in Iraq is very much
in the news this week, and rightly so. The private
military contractor's war-for-profit program, which has
been so brilliantly exposed by Jeremy Scahill, may
finally get a measure of the official scrutiny it
merits as the corporation scrambles to undo the
revocation by the Iraqi government of its license to
HATRED IN OUR MIDST - a message from Ron Keine
Submitted by jaymarx on Tue, 09/18/2007 - 3:57am.<ronkeine@yahoo.com>
http://www.ronkeine.org/
Sometimes I am amazed by some of the things I
have heard come out of the mouths of my brother and sister abolitionists.
It was a wonderful but stressful morning. I had
given a short welcome speech to the general
assembly at UCLA. The subject of the speech was
how happy I was to see so many concerned people
in attendance joining together to stop government
killing. Later I poured my heart out telling my
Where Is the Rage?
Submitted by jaymarx on Thu, 09/13/2007 - 6:09am.http://www.progressiveu.org/224930-where-is-the-rage
By cliburn September 10th, 2007
I had drill this weekend. Drill has been a forever-
evolving presence in my life for the past six years. I
went from looking forward to drill to hating it to
missing it while I was in Iraq and back to looking
forward to it when I returned. I used to hate drill,
but found myself liking the weekends where I was
reunited with those that I spent a year with in Iraq.
Over the past few months, that has turned into dread,
