Bobby, Joan Baez has -- she spent 12 days in Hanoi during the 1971 Christmas
raids. She saw death everywhere and lived through it all, she wrote her most
powerful song about the experience, called "where are you now, my son?" The
song title refers to a weeping Vietnamese mother, who was crying for her son.
She also went to Bosnia and Serbia when Clinton was bombing there. That is
why at 62, she is still very much respected all over the world. In Europe
especially.

The thing about Bush, is he is not terribly bright, and has called leaders
oof various countries names. And that is not diplomatic or very smart if
you're trying to protect the US. You do not deliberately provoke your
enemies. He called n. Korea's president a pygmies, for heaven's sake...

Excuse me, I just think that was stupid. I say yes, go after al-quaeda, bring
Saddam into world court ... but we have never really stopped the first war
with Iraq, and now the country is almost completely devastated. The
population there is now fifty percent children under 16.

I doubt Bush Jr. , any idea of just how horrific war is. I think he has the
idea it's like the movies, sadly.

I read something today that made me shudder. Somebody implied Bush is like
Hitler. And then I recalled reading somewhere else that If nobody had taken
Hitler seriously, there wouldn't have been a third Reich.
and then I thought, if only all the soldiers in the world would lay down
their arms, then there couldn't be war anywhere.

Don't get me wrong, I think Saddam belongs in a small room with many bars and
locks. But let's let the inspection work. The inspectors are destroying the
weapons as they are finding them. Bring him to trial... Make him live in a
snake infested jail ... but I think in the year 2003 we ought to look for
better ways of dealing with people who are rotten.

Both Baez and Raitt, are life long Quakers, and Quakers oppose all violence.
It's not just west coasters who think this war will only lead to more
violence, all over the world, yesterday, people marched in the hundreds of
thousands.

Mag

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Democracy Demands our thoughtful questions. If we never questioned our
government, it would not be a democracy, but a junta.
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