The increasing erosion of our constitutions, civil rights and democracies as they are being gradually subjugated by Authoritarian Security Surveillance States. The bloating no-fly lists and terrorist watch-lists. The continuing inhumane and barbaric renditions, "enhanced interrogations" and indefinite detentions - of children, teenagers and adults alike. The continuing standing of Military Commissions, which are nothing more than politically-driven, rigged, kangaroo courts. The seemingly unending wars of choice and occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq - both based on lies to justify a vengeance operation for 9/11 and the securing of foreign oil resources. The ever mounting toll of civilian deaths, displaced refugees and soldier casualties.

This is the overall state of things today with regards to our so-called "Western civilization" - especially with regards to the U.S.A., the U.K. and Canada.

The collective power of the peace movement helped the Democrats take control of Congress and turn Nancy Pelosi from Minority leader into Madam Speaker. But in May the new Congress turned its back on the peace movement, granting Bush another $95 billion for war with no timetable for withdrawal. While the Speaker of the House herself voted against the war funding, she failed to put pressure on the conservative Democrats to form a united front against another blank check for war. She also failed to effectively use her power to decide what bills would come up for a vote. In the case of both the unrestricted war funding and the expanded FISA wiretapping, Pelosi had the ability to keep the bills off the floor but refused to do so.

Let me start off by saying it has taken me all day to decide to write this diary. When I first read it this morning it was done through a veil of tears. I dropped a couple comments over the day on this , hoping someone else would write about it, but it didn't happen. I can understand why no one wanted to write about it either.

The devastating effects of war hit hardest upon a nation's most vulnerable members - the youth. And one of the worst ways that war effects a nation's future is through the physical and psychological abuse of using desperate kids to commit acts of violence.

While serving in Iraq, I witnessed firsthand the devastation that war brings to a country. In 2003, I visited St. Hannah's Orphanage when a nun took me aside and requested that I and my fellow soldiers not return to the orphanage which we had supported in previous months. The insurgents threatened to kill all of the children if we ever visited the orphanage again. This and many other horrific moments inspired me to conceive a program that provides aid and assistance to Iraq's war kids. That's why I started War Kids Relief.

War Kids Relief helps the children of Iraq recover from the disruptive effects of war and gives them hope for a better future. War Kids Relief's Iraq Youth Center Work/Study Program, implemented by The Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sport, provides Iraqi youth with both jobs and education. This critical program is designed to keep the victims of war from becoming insurgents, and give hope to a community that has been devastated.

Ever wonder just how much money the U.S. Military pays out for its "collateral damage" -- civilian injuries and deaths in the war zones?

Did that title turn your stomach? It should. In released documents that expose yet another US coverup dating back to our days in Korea has forced me to wonder about our policys today. We have read numerous accounts of the troops firing on car and trucks filled with civilians and killing and wounding them. There is alway some kind of excuse that sounds plausible to some. In one case a person who had just been released by kidnappers was shot down before being able to really taste the freedom. As in everything that comes out of the White House these days credibility is gone.

The document, a letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea to the State Department in Washington, is dated the day in 1950 when U.S. troops began the No Gun Ri shootings, in which survivors say hundreds, mostly women and children, were killed.

Small wonder Cheney and Bush didn't even blink when the figures of 600,000 Innocent Iraqi Children, Women and Men have been killed in our "Shock and Awe" Invasion. They already knew this is what becoming too clearly " Standard Operating Procedure" in our times of War. Sound too harsh? I wish I could agree but I remember too clearly the storys I was told by some of the soldiers that returned from Nam. This story is not about some " isolated incident ", this was the ordered murder of Civilians and a ongoing coverup.