I'm writing as Veterans for Common Sense is launching into a new chapter of our work.  I want to thank all of you who wrote encouraging emails after the announcement I would be coming on board as VCS' new executive director, as well as to thank those of you who made gifts. We've got a long, hard fight ahead of us, but together we'll succeed.

Veterans for Common Sense Meet-Ups

    This fall, VCS is sponsoring meet-ups all around the country.  Meet up with other VCS supporters, and brainstorm how you can be involved locally in our work!

    To find out about meetups in your area, or to organize one, visit our Meet Up discussion at http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/discussion/viewforum.php?f=7. If your city isn't listed, add it, and introduce yourself. Now is  the one of the most critical times for us to move forward, and you can help by getting involved in your local community, by sending letters to newspapers, making your presence felt, registering people to vote, and telling the country that American veterans believe in common sense solutions to our security problems.

    Don't know how many VCS members live your area?  Click here to find out where our members and supporters live around the country.

Update on Iraq

    A car bomb in Baquba killed at least 113 people yesterday, in one of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq yet, and an armored humvee hit a roadside bomb, killing one U.S. soldier and injuring three more. Although overall U.S. casualties have fallen from their peak in April 2004, we have still seen nearly two hundred U.S. service members killed-in-action since April, and more than fifty since formal "sovereignty" was turned over to the new Iraqi government just one month ago.  We don't know how many Iraqi civilians have been killed. Iraq has now become a haven of lawlessness and terrorism.  There's no jobs, and civil society is hardly functioning.  According to this article in the Seattle Weekly, somewhere around $20 billion dollars of reconstructions funds are simply missing.

    Unfortunately, the tactics of the current administration seem to be designed to make the situation worse, not better.  To a large extent, the Iraqis themselves are cut out of the reconstruction of their own country.  Many of billions of dollars spent on reconstruction efforts have flowed back to the United States in the hands of military contractors.  To the average Iraqi on the ground, this appears to be nothing more than the United States looting their country.  This is not the way to win the peace.

    It's time for a new strategy.  One that will bring security to Iraq, followed by prosperity, so the men and women of America's armed forces can come home. 

Have you signed the Honor the Legacy Petition?

    Veterans for Common Sense is very concerned that the United States honor its commitments under the Geneva conventions and other international laws.  Stories of torture and abuse in prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the deaths of twenty prisoners in U.S. custody, have been reported in the news for some months now. America isn't about torture, and giving up our deepest principles for vague tactical reasons isn't the way to go.  We're not the bad guys, and we shouldn't behave like them.  Further, by ignoring basic international law, we invite others to do so to, and put our own captured service members at risk across the globe.

    Veterans for Common Sense, partnering with a group of other organizations, is leading the Honor the Legacy Campaign. If you haven't signed the Honor the Legacy Petition, please do so now by visiting http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/petition.cfm.  Fourteen thousand others have signed, but we need many more.

If you have signed on, tell a friend and ask them to sign on to the petition.  To tell a friend, visit http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/tellfriend.cfm.

Discussion Board are back

    Over the course of VCS's first year, an incredibly lively debate and discussion took place on our site, with over 12,000 comments posted on the news.   Due to technical problems, we had to take down the board a few months ago, but it's back and better now, with all of the original discussions reposted in the archives.  Join in the discussion!  Visit http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/discussion.

More ways to get involved

    There are a host of ways you can be involved in the work of Veterans for Common Sense..  Visit http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/GetInvolved.cfm to find out more.

Once again, thank all of you for your support of Veterans for Common Sense.

Best regards,

Charles Sheehan-Miles
Executive Director
Veterans for Common Sense
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org