Government used chemical weapons on own citizens

This is in response to Steve Campbell's column in Tuesday's paper. In your column, you claim that the U.S. has never tested chemical weapons against the enemy let alone our own people, this is simply untrue. In the summer of 2002, the Defense Department acknowledged that between 1963 and 1969, several U.S. ships were hit with chemical agents and biological toxins. Some were even subjected to nerve gas. It was called project SHAD, Shipboard Hazard and Defense. It was a series of tests of the navy's vulnerability and on board protective equipment. [Read article]

The University of Arizona Peace Refuge is the creation of a diverse group of people. We come from many backgrounds and political positions, and are motivated variously by humanitarian principles, religious faith, moral outrage or political conviction. While we have differences, we are united by a profound sense that the war on Iraq is an unjust and criminal act of aggression that must be opposed. We all feel sorrow that, once again, the people of Iraq are facing a horrific and devastating onslaught. We are outraged that their lives, their loved ones, their homes, their country and their cultural heritage are being destroyed in our name. [Read article]

There was once a time, or so we're told ÷ most of us aren't old enough to know from personal experience ÷ when war got people thinking. Ah, the '60s ÷ McCarthyism had retreated back into its hole for the time being, world geography was common knowledge and everyone was young and righteous. It was the Golden Age of the conscientious objector.

Now war has got us un-thinking. We've got virulent patriotic fever, and it's reaching epidemic proportions. It's a disease that infects the brain and impairs mental function, leading the inflicted to say things like: "It's impossible to support the troops without supporting the war." "There's no trouble with embedded reporters staying objective." "Of course the interim government will have to be run by Americans." [Read article]