The "Bring Them Home Now" tour bus, which was initiated by Cindy Sheehan's vigil at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas, stopped at Oberlin, Ohio on September 10, 2005 at half past noon in front of Tappan Square. Affiliates of igc.org and local peace activists arranged the stop in Oberlin with assistance from Peace Community Church.

Veterans For Peace Chapter 039 played an active role locally in greeting the tour delegation comprised of VFP national office staff member Chris Snively and VFP member Bill Mitchell, whose son was killed in Iraq together with Cindy Sheehan's son while they both were waging state terrorism on behalf of the U.S. government.

Oberlin's weekly peace vigil was already on hand at the corner of Main Street and College Street as they are every week at noon since the invasions of Afghanistan, then Iraq, began. Also on hand were local peace activists organized by local Democratic Party leader Michael Kay, which included Peace Community Church co-pastors Steve and Mary Hammond and Reform Ohio Now local leader John Pardee. Activists waved signs that read "Honk for Peace" and "Stop CIA Drugs" - a reference to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in the quiet name of opium. Passers-by beeped their car horns and gestured peace by hand signals, while one irate warmonger drove by shouting "Bush! Bush!" prompting replies such as "You First".

However, it was saddening to see that many peace activists remain victims of government propaganda and information warfare - this is especially evident in their views on the Afghanistan invasion and continued occupation. Worse, most were completely unaware of the opium production there and CIA's role in that. Also troubling was their willingness to believe the government's spin that Afghans did the Twin Towers attack. To say that Afghans had anything to do with the Twin Towers attack is like saying that the Beverly Hillbillies did OKC. But too many people, including peace activists, have taken the government's line of balderdash on Afghanistan.

Apart from the Afghanistan ignorance, everybody was united in their perception that they were lied to about Iraq. When the bus pulled up and cheers arose from the crowd, I became choked and teary-eyed at the gesture that somebady had a care for what has happened to over 100,000 Iraqi civilians. The poor Iraqis have suffered under U.S.-installed government for over 40 years; they've had enough of foreign intervention on behalf of global corporatism and are fighting the Vichy-style sham democracy there on behalf of true democracy - democracy where they pick their own leaders rather than their leaders being picked by Uncle Sam.

After shaking hands with members of the weekly peace vigil, reporters, photographers, and the Ohio Chapter 039 contact, the tour delegation proceeded to rally at the band cover in Tappan Square. The speakers spoke on behalf of U.S. troops who are being sacrificed on behalf of U.S. state terrorism.

Chris Snively of VFP's national office pointed out that VFP was not particularly pro-Democrat, saying "If Kerry had won the election, Camp Casey would be set up in Massachusetts". Snively, like most VFP members, probably knew that when Bush wanted wars, Kerry had voted for them. During the 2004 Presidential elections, many VFP members saw Kerry as a backslider during the Vietnam-era anti-war movement who could not be trusted today to end Anglo-American imperial aggressions.

Bill Mitchell spoke next saying "You can't b***s*** a vet, we all know this war was wrong to begin with". When Bill began to speak of his son, a soldier in Iraq who died along with Cindy Sheehan's son Casey while both were waging U.S. state terorism there, many in the crowd began to sob. Mitchell, too, began to choke up when he said his son only had a week left on his tour in Iraq. He held up a photo of the coffins containing the bodies of his son and the son of Cindy Sheehan, which were lined up inside an aircraft with flags draped over them. Mitchell did not hold up any photos of the tens of thousands of Iraqi coffins, compliments of the U.S. military. Nor did he call into question our soldiers waging state terrorism in a country that was minding it own business and would've overthrown its U.S.-installed dictator long ago if it wasn't for U.S. government interventionism.

Vince George of Military Families Speak Out spoke about the illegal use of depleted uranium by the U.S. in the current Iraq War as well as the previous Iraq War waged by President Bush's father. George also referred to casualty reports by other governments that show the U.S. counts to be innaccurately too low. George did not comment on the 130 consecutive months of U.S. and British aerial bombings on Iraqi civilians during the decade between Desert Storm and the current Iraq invasion.

No representative took the proverbial podium to speak on behalf of the over 100,000 Iraqi and Afghan civilians that have been melted and blasted by Bush and Blair's squadrons of bombers. No one in the audience was teary-eyed or choked up over the atrocities that Iraqi and Afghan children along with their mothers have suffered as a result of U.S. state terrorism.

No one stood up as the late William Appleman Williams might have to explain that, for over 60 years, the U.S. has been on a permanent war footing; that Britain sucked us back into the "family" as early as the First World War to wage American-powered British empire. No one told the audience that our Founding Fathers taught us that British Empire is wrong and that the worst thing is American-powered British empire, or that we citizens need to collar the bulldog. No one told us that the anti-war movement is in a crisis and unable to get to first base because it fails to address the root of the problem - government interventionism. Pre-emptive wars are wrong - as wrong in Afghanistan and Iraq as they were in Panama and Grenada. The late Murray N. Rothbard explained - "The government is the problem, not the solution".

See Brad Dickens's story from the Sunday, September 11th, 2005 edition of the Chronicle Telegram: http://www.chroniclet.com/2005_Archive/09-11-05/Daily%20Pages/Front/Html/Head4.html

Copyright September 11th, 2005