Dear friends, This should be the last one tonight. This is something Shane wanted me to pass on. We talked to him yesterday and someone from Voices called today. He was in good spirits. Right now, Shane is probably in Iman, Jordan, waiting for the rest of his team to arrive. The whole team is concerned about the "Shock and Awe" campaign which Bush alluded to in his speech last night. (Which was also Michelle's birthday - send her an e-card or something!) And please keep the people of Iraq in your prayers. mikebrix

Iraq Peace Team, Baghdad

We write you from the brink of tragedy - a flesh and blood tragedy for the people of Iraq, a moral tragedy for the people of the the U.S. We write you as the U.S. has assembled one of the mightiest war machines ever to plague this fragile and bloodied planet. This war machine is poised to attack Iraq - a comparatively defenseless nation already crippled by years of UN sanctions. A nation whose misfortune, it has been said, is that " our" oil is beneath its sands. The attack - its Pentagon architects proudly call it " shock and awe" - may happen any day now. It's aimed at the cradle of much of the world's civilization. Land of the Tigris and Euphrates, land of Sumer and Babylon, land of Abraham and the Garden of Eden, Iraq is also the land of 24 million human beings - most of whom would be too young to vote or enlist if they were in the U.S. We were immensely heartened by the marches in the U.S. - and all over the world - on February 15. We are aware that many in the U.S. will hit the streets the very day "shock and awe" commences. Given its unimaginable scale, its unthinkable carnage, however, "shock and awe" must be stopped BEFORE it happens.Our Call, then, is for PRE-EMPTIVE nonviolent civil disobedience action in every village and city and capitol in the U.S. Please join us. We must all mobilize all of our networks. We must all use our collective resourcefulness. We must find ways to throw sand in the gears of the war machine. The precise date of the U.S. attack is unknown, but here is reason to believe it may be very soon. The time to act is now.