Rolla Peace News
September 1, 2009

Dear Friends:

          In this newsletter is:

1. THURSDAY NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE
2. THE SCAPEGOAT'S APOLOGY
3. AFGHANISTAN APOCALYPSE

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1. THURSDAY NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE

Our weekly noon vigils are on Thursdays. We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, September 3, (and all subsequent Thursdays until peace is established) from Noon to 1:00 PM. Please try to join us. The temperature is predicted to be in the low to mid 70s under partly cloudy skies. If you do not feel comfortable standing with us in front of the Post Office, please consider driving by and showing your support for our message by honking your horn and flashing a peace sign.

2. THE SCAPEGOAT'S APOLOGY

When the high and mighty get caught doing what they always do and expect to get away with, it's time to find a scapegoat or fall guy. The latest example is Bernard Madoff. Sure he belongs in jail; but so do thousands of others who continue to rob and steal unhindered. Robert Koehler discusses William Calley, the scapegoat of My Lai, where Calley and his men murdered some 400 Vietnamese civilians: women, children and the elderly; and concludes that the scapegoat's apology will never atone for a war that was wrong from start to finish, (click here).

The transcript of Calley's trial , makes interesting reading. Here is a snippet:

Q: What were you firing at?
A: At the enemy, sir.
Q: At people?
A: At the enemy, sir.
Q: They weren't even human beings?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: Were they men?
A: I don't know sir. I would imagine they were, sir.
Q: Didn't you see?
A: Pardon, sir?
Q: Did you see them?
A: I wasn't discriminating.
Q: Did you see women?
A: I don't know, sir.
Q: What do you mean you weren't discriminating?
A: I didn't discriminate between individuals in the village, sir. They were all the enemy, they were all to be destroyed, sir....

William Calley and My Lai are far too typical, not only of Vietnam, but of Iraq, Afghanistan and, I believe, all wars. William Calley is not an aberration, just a scapegoat, taking the blame for a war that we never should have allowed to happen. Choosing a scapegoat is not enough. We must put an end to war. That is why we vigil for peace.

3. AFGHANISTAN APOCALYPSE

This article by Robert Dreyfuss will give you some idea of what the "experts" at the Brookings Institute are expecting in Afghanistan, (click here).

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Rolla Peace News is distributed by email once a week on Tuesday evenings (except on rare occasions) and is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (links below my photo on upper left of home page).

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Wage peace,

Yusha
tom (at) tomsager.org

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