DAYTON, OHIO -- Local activists and citizens gathered at the Pearl Nightclub in downtown Dayton Thursday, March 6, to raise funds for Dayton for Darfur. Dayton for Darfur comprises dozens of members working to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur and to lobby policy-makers and world leaders to stop the killing and enact a lasting peace agreement guaranteeing civilians’ security and human rights.

This week, at hundreds of events across the country, tens of thousands of people will mark the fifth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq and demand an end to the occupation and the withdrawal of all US troops. They will march, vigil, sit-in, teach-in, write letters, call their Congressman, block recruiting offices, sing songs, wear orange, call in sick, buy Citgo (Venezuelan) gas, all in an effort to get the nation's political leadership to take notice of the 70% of the American people who think this war has destroyed too many lives, done too much damage to our own country as well as Iraq, cost far too much, and gone on way too long.

It's kind of logical. In a pathological way.

A country that devotes a vast array of resources to killing capabilities will steadily undermine its potential for healing. For social justice. For healthcare as a human right.

Martin Luther King Jr. described the horrific trendline four decades ago: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

If a society keeps approaching spiritual death, it’s apt to arrive. Here’s an indicator: Nearly one in six Americans has no health insurance, and tens of millions of others are badly under-insured. Here’s another: The United States, the world’s preeminent warfare state, now spends about $2 billion per day on military pursuits.

Gaining healthcare for all will require overcoming the priorities of the warfare state. That’s the genuine logic behind the new "Healthcare NOT Warfare" campaign. http://pdamerica.org/articles/news/2008-03-05-12-05-43-news.php

On 17 February 2008 in South-eastern Europe, the Serbian Southern province of Kosovo declared independence from Republic of Serbia, and self proclaimed new Republic of Kosovo. New proclaimed Republic of Kosovo was later recognized by few sovereign states, but not by the UN. Involvement of the world's two (the EU and the US) out of five superpowers in this event can be explained through experimental theory and as a secret plan of the European Union and the United States.

Experimental theory: Kosovo, an Ultimate Testing Ground of Giants

Things have changed in the international system, now we have new superpowers, superpowers that do not look like anything we saw before. Today, superpowers, states with leading positions in the international system and ability to influence events and project power on worldwide scales are: the European Union, the United States, Russia, China and India. These superpowers sometimes need a testing ground to show their superiority over others. These days that testing ground is Kosovo.

The European Union

NEW YORK - The National Lawyers Guild calls on Congress to override George W. Bush’s veto—in direct contravention of the advice of military commanders—of the Intelligence Authorization Bill that contained a provision limiting the Central Intelligence Agency’s ability to engage in the torture technique known as waterboarding. The practice is currently prohibited by both military and law enforcement agencies. The bill would have limited U.S. interrogators to techniques permitted in the Army Field Manual on Interrogation. Senator John McCain voted against the bill, reversing his previous position on torture.

Torture is illegal under domestic and international law. The U.S. Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment, and the United States is a party to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which makes it part of U.S. law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.  That convention prohibits torture even in wartime.  Torture is also unlawful under the U.S. Torture Statute (18 USC 2340) and the U.S. War Crimes Act (18 USC 2441).