Cover Story - March from Lexington to Richmond to Protest Iraqi War
We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders.
And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside
and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of
something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops
know we’re for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the
streets to protest Bush’s proposed surge.
If you can, go to the peace march in Washington. We need
people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, “Stop
it, now!”
—Molly Ivins, in her last syndicated column
“Americans cannot allow war in Iraq to continue”
read the mid-January headline of what turned
out to be the last syndicated column by mighty
wordsmith Molly Ivins. These were her final challenging
words to us.
An estimated 400,000 grassroots Americans, including
over 150 Kentuckians, took Molly’s words seriously. We were
a noisy group as we completely surrounded our Capitol the
first time in history chanting and shouting out to our lawmakers.
When those of us of the Peace Action Task Group of the
Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice heard that
the next national anti-war protest—calling for immediate
withdrawal of the U.S. military from Iraq—would be held
at the Pentagon on March 17th, some of us decided to take
another strategy: a local one. We asked ourselves: “What is
our link in Central Kentucky to the Pentagon—the military—
and to what is happening to our soldiers and the people
of Iraq as the fourth anniversary of the war approaches
on March 19th?”
For years we’ve heard the rumor in the Commonwealth
that conventional weapons up to 500 pounds were being
stored and shipped from the Blue Grass Army Depot to Iraq
since 2003, when the war began. The rumor also included the
possibility of cluster bombs.
Just down the road from Lexington…and your town…
Nobody seemed to know for sure, but we found this
from a nonprofit website that monitors the military:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/blue_grass.htm
“The conventional ammunition area consists of 852 igloos
filled with ammunition with several tons additionally stored outside.
The Depot’s mission of conventional munitions has remained
very active since World War II. Located within the heart of this
highly secure area is the chemical limited area (CLS), with even
more security.
Blue Grass Army Depot is the only DoD site using the ammunition
peculiar equipment (APE) 1300 system. This operation is a
proven resource, recovery, recycle process supporting the conventional
munitions demilitarization program. A flashing furnace supports
this and other operations.”
Later in the web article we
learn that of the 901 storage igloos
on the site, 852 are for conventional
weapons. It also says that their mission
includes “renovation of all types of
munitions (small arms to large bombs).”
In our planning, two needs became apparent:
First, we must get some specific questions answered
about the Depot’s connection to the War in Iraq. Second,
we must find an imaginative way to draw attention to this
connection in our own neighborhood—to the suffering and
unnecessary deaths of our children and somebody else’s
children in Iraq. We looked at other peace groups across the
country who had walks to witness for peace: Nevada
Desert Experience (Nuclear Test Site 60 miles from Las
Vegas); Migrant Trail Walk (75 miles from Sonora Desert,
Sasabe, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona); The 200-mile Interfaith
Peace Walk to close the School of the Americas at Ft.
Benning, Georgia.
We decided to walk, too, from Lexington’s Triangle Park
to the Depot in Richmond via U.S. 25, a 32.5-mile hike,
according to EKU‚s Gene Kleppinger. Our walk to wake up
Congress to end the war will take place on St. Patrick’s Day
weekend (Friday, March 16- Sunday, March 18). We will cover
about 11 miles on Friday, another 14 on Saturday, and the
remaining seven plus on Sunday. Coincidentally, this is the
40th anniversary of the historic march on the Pentagon
against the Vietnam War, a turning point in the grassroots
movement for peace.
We will proclaim our theme: “not one more death, not
one more dollar” at a press conference before we depart, with
handbills along the way, and with a rally upon arrival.
Americans of all stripes are coming to realize that the
only way to REALLY support our troops is to quickly get
them out of harm’s way. Congress must appropriate funds to
allow our troops to orderly and safely leave Iraq. But there
should be no more funds to continue the war. There must be
no more funds for death. We go to the Depot because it is a
source of small arms ammunition used in the war. And in the
end, we must be clear—it is death that the Blue Grass Army
Depot is about. We call for not one more death: not one more
American, not one more Iraqi. Because it is the source of some
of the death we have brought to Iraq, the Army Depot is the
appropriate place in Central Kentucky for people to rally and
demand that Congress act. This war must end.
We invite citizens to come to our press conference Friday,
to the rally Sunday, and to walk with us. Walk with us the
entire way or join us for a mile or two. Walk with us if only
for a few feet.
For some of us the walk
will be a pilgrimage. We
will walk in penance for
our nation’s arrogance
and ignorance. We
were lied to, but we
were gullible. We
did not know
Iraq. We did not
know what we
were doing.
Before we resort
to force we must
be absolutely
certain of the
facts, and even
then, violence
must be a last
resort. We are sad but
we won’t be somber.
We take our cue from the
late columnist Molly Ivins who
wrote in her last column: “And every
single day, every single one of us needs to step
outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise
hell…We need people in the streets, banging pots and
pans and demanding, ‘Stop it now!‚’” So, to honor Ivins
and to raise a little hell, we ask walkers to bring a pot or
pan. We will walk to the beat of pots and pans and the
chant “End this War.”
We know already that millions of tons of ammunition are
stored at BGAD, and we suspect that a significant amount of
ammunition has gone to Iraq. That ammunition “protects”
our troops and we’re glad they are protected, but occasionally
that ammunition will tear and burn a 5-year-old Iraqi girl.
Occasionally, other weapons (maybe some we sold to
Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War) will tear and burn
a 19-year-old man (a reservist) from a rural U.S. town where
there are too few jobs.
There are statistics on the deadly effects of conventional
weapons—every year they kill hundreds of thousands in
wars that are going on throughout the world—I wonder if
some of those transfers come from the BGAD? (Read the executive
summary of Arms Trade Resource Center‚s study: U.S.
Weapons at War 2005: Promoting Freedom of Fueling
Conflicts? U.S. Military Aid and Arms Transfers Since
September 11
(http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/wawj
une2005.html#execsum)
Maybe the specific weapons don’t matter. What if we
learned for sure that the BGAD does not ship cluster
bombs? Would that make us happy? After all, we know that
the U.S. has them—if BGAD does not have them, they must
be stored and shipped from somewhere else. Would shipping
the bombs from a place that farther away make us any
less culpable?
What’s the harm in preparing for war?
We might need all those weapons to guarantee the safety
of those we love. Perhaps we need to ask whether all the
weapons we have (more than all of the other nations on the
planet combined) actually make us safer.
Do you feel safe?
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