Quotes

Photo: Some local activists in front of the Vets for Peace sign in Asheville in May 2008. Below are some quotes from some good people - including Ann Wright, in the picture here - and some bad people.

"Security and human rights are inseparable issues -- you cannot have one without the other. Human rights are not only for times of peace -- you need to hold onto them always even during difficult times and times of war. My last message to the U.S. administration is that torture will not stop terrorism -- torture is terrorism." ~ Sami al Haj, upon his release from Guantanamo prison, where he was held for six years without charges. He was working as a cameraman for al Jazeera news when he was kidnapped by US forces near the Afghan border. He was tortured by US forces also, and has been force fed for the last 16 months of his imprisonment. He was released this week.

This war is about oil – and McCain lets that slip: “I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will -- that will then prevent us -- that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.” ~ John McCain

And Hilary Clinton was asked what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons (which Iran does not have): "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," Clinton said. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them." The Iranians filed a complaint with the UN.

Col. Ann Wright said this in her resignation letter to Secretary Powell: “When I last saw you in Kabul in January 2002, you arrived to officially open the US Embassy that I had helped reestablish in December 2001 as the first political officer. At that time, I could not have imagined that I would be writing a year later to resign from the Foreign Service because of US policies. All of my adult life I have been in service to the United States.” Col. Wright resigned because of her disagreements with administration policies on Iraq, along with the administration’s lack of efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the lack of policy on North Korea and the reduction in civil rights in America.