Yesterday was the last day of the 6th year of War in Iraq. It was not the last day of the war.
Today, another year of the war began. Though pundits and commentators don't talk about it on television anymore, it still rages on.
The damage to America's standing in the world is staggering. The missed opportunities for progress here at home have been devastating.
Years ago this truly was a great, virtuous, nation. For over a decade though, progressive ideas lost influence, and true patriots were silenced.
Rather than faith in ideals and common values, patriotism was mistaken for allegiance to country, even if that country was going to war without suitable cause.
Six years ago this nation was prosperous; now her people struggle to find work.
Far fewer Americans live in luxury than in 2003, and all of us were robbed of our privacy, with liberty in America now just a word engraved on a coin.
There is no possible justification for the human cost of the War in Iraq. Over 4,000 lives lost, thousands more wounded, countless innocent Iraqis dead, hospitals and homeless shelters overwhelmed with new veterans, an economy left in ruin, and all for of a lie.
Six years ago American innocence was tainted by the invasion of a country that never attacked us, meaning the Iraq War was clearly illegal and immoral from the outset.
In the name of a safety, the public's God given rights were forfeited. In the name of national security, politicians, diplomats and generals signed off on the massacre of a people who meant us no harm.
Not in my name though. I was taught to turn the other cheek, but sadly, Iraq had never raised a fist against us. The escalation was by our hand.
Now that war is neither won nor abandoned, it only goes on and on.
After eight years of what amounted to be a dictatorship, the peace movement was largely responsible for creating political change. With President Obama elected, mainly, on the impetus of peace in the Middle East.
Though the masses may not have joined our peace movement in the streets, or during the sit-ins, the rest of the country was part of the silent revolution that took place in the ballot box.
Let us never forget that Code Pink, Iraq Veterans Against the War, World Can't Wait, and the Hip Hop Caucus sat down so they could stand up. Now we stand with them to usher a withdrawal from Iraq and to prevent escalation in Afghanistan.
But it's too late to save thousands of our brothers and sisters lost in Iraq. It's not too late for us, though, we are not far behind.
What precious time we do have left on this earth should be spent seeking redemption; we owe that to the fallen, if nothing else. To wash the blood from our hands we have to make sure they died for something.
Not for weapons of mass destruction or for some global War on Terror. Certainly not for George W. Bush's legacy.
The only way to get clean is to make Iraq the last major war of the 21st century. Redemption requires that we're living out the last withdrawal of American combat troops from a foreign battlefield.
Left stuck in the desert, far from their families, far from their children, too far from home, those soldiers left behind deserve to come home, and in one piece, not in body bags.
As we enter into the seventh year of war, it is time to truly learn to love thy neighbor. Only by making our empathy towards Iraqi widows and orphans as swift and powerful, as was our vengeance, will American goodwill be restored.
That is why this is a perilous but remarkable day, a critical opportunity, not to celebrate the moment, but rather, use it for salvation. So there is no choice but to continue to stand up until every soldier is returned from Afghanistan and Iraq, and into the arms of their loved ones.
For the peace movement, the fight to prevent a full scale war in Afghanistan is perhaps our most important battle, and hopefully the final one. To remain neutral now is to willingly no longer care.
If the United States is ever again the aggressor, or ever again starts an unjust war, then our movement shall fail; mankind will be doomed.
It is time for the peace movement to reorganize and lay out specific benchmarks for success. Because I don't want my sons to ever have to protest a war, just as much as I don't want them to have to die in one. I speak now to prevent both.
That is why our resistance goes from being opposed to current conflicts to the prevention of future warfare, because the fact remains that our foreign policy shuttles troops from one front to the next. And soon it might be Africa.
Therefore, to end the current war is only to stop a mistake. For the healing process to begin, George W. Bush and Richard Cheney must be tried for war crimes.
As a former U.S. Air Force officer, that is difficult to say. It was also difficult to be ostracized, belittled and laughed at for trying to keep my friends out of harm's way.
To be labeled a threat to national security was a confirmation of the breech between the last administration and the people.
This is my country; my dream is an American dream. No American has ever died for one of my dreams or one of my lies.
The only threat that I pose to America is that I may love it to death. There is no one in this great nation that I would send to fight in my stead. No man would find himself in the ranks of a charge I did not personally lead.
The charge that I did soon come to lead was against any war at all, because the effects were hitting too close to home. Being a nation of perpetual war created a trickle down affect of chaos to urban communities.
It pains me to tell young people in my neighborhood, and in my culture, to clean up their acts, steer clear of gangs, or abide by the law, when the real killers and gangbangers in government claim executive privilege.
Living on blocks made up of liquor stores, gun stores and military recruitment offices, the hip hop culture knows not of peace. Yet in spite of all that hip hop has hope.
Dr. King dreamed of a time when the human heart overcame all prejudices. I also dream of that day, and pray that my sons may experience that day, instead of one like today.
That is why the peace movement cannot only stand for harmony abroad. A cease-fire in Iraq will not end the bloodshed of the war that I live out every day. I cannot in good conscious focus on one injustice and neglect her domestic sister.
But the solution goes hand in hand. We can cease the bombing of Afghanistan at the same time we clean up the streets of Los Angeles.
The proud patriot of American ideals already realizes that democracy cannot be installed in other nations until our own experiment is perfected.
Since the economy is in freefall, it is time to take this opportunity to cut defense spending, and rather, spend for prosperity. Cutting the funding for war will allocate money to rebuild urban infrastructure and fast track environmental progress
The oil and banking industry, and the rest of the military industrial complex, will not go quietly into the night, but their days are numbered.
Wall Street could keep the war off the front page; they cannot hide the long lines at the unemployment office.
So, I ask of you today that you make this the start of a new lifestyle, one dedicated towards peace. Help the growing peace coalition so that our troops are withdrawn and brought home, not to be redeployed to the other immoral war in Afghanistan.
And let us never again become barbarians for temporary personal safety or for greed.
My conscience leaves me no other choice but to continue speaking out. I'd love to savor this day as something other than what it is.
However living within the borders of a nation constantly at war fills the calendar only with days of mourning. I speak out so my sons don't have to observe the occasion of anymore.
I don't know about you, but I don't intend to spend this day next year marking the beginning of the eighth year of War in Iraq, I want spend it celebrating the war's end.
