Antiwar.com Blog

April 15th-20th, PBS will be airing America at a Crossroads, a series of eleven independently produced documentaries, each focusing on a different aspect of “the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world,” including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the internal politics and conflicts of these countries, the religious basis of certain terrorist groups and the personal experience of soldiers serving abroad. For more information on the specific documentaries, air dates and times and other special features, take a look at their website here.

But it wasn’t Nancy Pelosi.

A day after Pelosi’s well-publicized visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Republican Darrell Issa (CA) met with Assad saying that Bush had failed to promote the dialogue that is necessary to resolve disagreements between the US and Syria.

“That’s an important message to realize: We have tensions, but we have two functioning embassies,” Issa told reporters after separate meetings with Assad and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

And a few days before Pelosi, three other Republican congressmen visited with Syria (Frank Wolf of Virginia, Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, and Robert Aderholt of Alabama).

“I don’t care what the administration says on this. You gotta do what you think is in the best interest of your country,” said Republican Congressman Wolf.

An official statement issued by the delegation stated “We came because we believe there is an opportunity for dialogue. We are following in the lead of Ronald Reagan, who reached out to the Soviets during the Cold War.”

Dr. Ron Paul, Texas congressman and Presidential candidate, explains his foreign policy principles and how they apply to the Bush doctrine, the “isolationist” smear, the motives of the bin Laden movement, his belief that the Middle East would be more peaceful without the American military presence, the corruption of the Congress as a result of how much power they wield, U.S. obstruction of various peace efforts in the region, the threat of war with Iran and the possible consequences, that nation’s enmity toward al Qaeda, frightening new changes to the Posse Comitatus and the Insurrection acts, the Military Commissions Act and his opposition to the way the current administration operates their secret military tribunals.

MP3 here. (26:44)

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas and candidate for President of the United States.

Mikey Weinstein, former Reagan White House counsel, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and author of the new book, With God On Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military discusses his background and attempt to prevent the American Taliban from taking over the Armed Services and the firing of his friend David Iglasius, one of the fired U.S. attorneys.

MP3 here. (34:22)

Mikey Weinstein is an attorney and businessman who served 10 years’ active duty as an Air Force Judge Advocate (JAG) at military installations from California to Washington, D.C. The former federal prosecutor spent three years in the Reagan White House and served as the Air Force’s first Chief of Telecommunications and Information Systems Procurement Law.

Mikey’s family has deep and distinguished military-academy roots spanning nearly 60 years: His father is a Naval Academy graduate; and Mikey, his brother-in-law, eldest son and daughter-in-law are all graduates of the Air Force Academy (from where his youngest son is scheduled to graduate in 2007). Mikey and his wife of almost three decades, Bonnie, reside in Albuquerque, N.M.

Col Ann Wright, a former diplomat, 29-year veteran of the U.S. Army and expert on the Geneva Conventions discusses her adventure being roughed up by that scum Bill O’Reilly the other day, Iran and America’s violations of human rights and America’s nuclear arsenal.

MP3 here. (10: 39)

Col. Ann Wright served in the U.S. Army for 13 years and in the U.S. Army Reserves for 16 years. She also served for 16 years in the U.S. diplomatic corps, and in that capacity helped reopen the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December 2001. She received the State Department’s Award for Heroism as the acting U.S. ambassador during the rebel takeover of Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1997.

Seventy female U.S. soldiers have now been killed fighting in Iraq, and at least 450 have been wounded. This comes as no surprise since over 160,000 female soldiers have served in the Middle East and Afghanistan since the war began. But in addition to dodging bullets and IEDs, some female soldiers have had to watch out for a danger they weren’t expecting—sexual assaults by male soldiers. Says Helen Benedict in a Salon piece last month:

I have talked to more than 20 female veterans of the Iraq war in the past few months, interviewing them for up to 10 hours each for a book I am writing on the topic, and every one of them said the danger of rape by other soldiers is so widely recognized in Iraq that their officers routinely told them not to go to the latrines or showers without another woman for protection.

War brings out the worst in men. War brings out the worst in women. War brings out the worst in everyone. Bring the troops home now.