These women traveled 1000s of miles, endured indignities to come to the nation which has shattered their civil society, killed 10,000s of their people. I don't think I could find it in my heart to visit the homeland of those who occupied my home and killed my family.

I heard tonight from an Iraqi engineer, an Iraqi doctor, an Iraqi pharmacist, an Iraqi college professor and other Iraqi women that the Iraqi people - Kurds, Sunni, Shia and others - all believe US forces will never their their nation. That our media lie to us about them. That the Bush/Cheney regime wants a crisis or civil war in Iraq as an excuse to stay forever. That no one cares about them and their suffering. They told us how each morning Iraqi families say good-bye to each other, not knowing if they will ever see their child or parent or brother or sister alive again.

One of these brave women challenged us. She said Iraqis are people just like us. They want to have what we have in this country. They want to have fun in life. They want to live without fear, violence and death. They are just like us. Why, she asked, do Iraqis deserve the bombing of their homes and hospitals? Don't they deserve the same things we have in the United States? Of course they do. But they don't have those things because our nation - admittedly hijacked by a neo-con and theo-con cabal - has destroyed the fabric of Iraqi society.

Afterward, I spoke at length with her. I told her some Americans know Iraq has 8,000 years of history. She gave me her card, showing she is an engineer at a water treatment company. I explained that you know how our bombing and the years of sanctions before the war killed helpless Iraqi children - dead from wasting diseases from lack of safe water. I made a promise to her and some of the other Iraqi women that I - and you - will make sure all their fears do not come true. That the living hell in Iraq will end soon. She offered to send me pictures of Iraq as it is - devastated, innocent lives destroyed. Soon, I'll be posting links to those pictures, but the pictures she and her sisters painted with their words were more than enough - too much - for me.

I promised we will do all we can to help. So the bombs will stop falling. The blood will stop flowing. That our troops will leave Iraq. That America will leave Iraq to the Iraqis so the Iraqi children, women and men with stop dying in this ugly, pointless, senseless, war which has degenerated into war crimes. That's what drives me to do what I do. I have to do what I can do to help. I know you want to help too, for all the same reasons. We have to help. We have to do more.

Tonight I learned that $6000 from Code Pink helped women in Iraq set up a medical clinic and a delivery room facility in an Iraqi town which had neither. Such a small amount of money in the right hands is saving lives every single day. I want to know if you can do two things to help the Iraqi people. If you can spare $25, $50, $100, $500, $1000 or more, please make a tax-deductible donation to Code Pink here:

democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/codepink/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=191

You can email them to ask that your donation go to help Iraqis, or you can leave it to Code Pink to choose how to use your contribution: info@codepinkalert.org - and as a favor to me, mention you heard about this and contributed based on this email from me, Mike Hersh. I won't get and wouldn't accept anything in return - except maybe some hugs from Code Pink members. I just want to know who is reading my alerts and responding.

Even if you can't spare any money right now, please do this: Join Women's Global Call For Peace!

Sign the Women Say No to War Call TODAY!

I will stand with Code Pink and the Iraqi women to deliver the Women Say NO to War petition signed by 100,000 people across the globe to demand the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq if you help and sign now! Do it here: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/codepink/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=185&t=WSNTW2.dwt

If any of these links break in a post, forward etc. you can get all the info and links here: http://www.codepinkalert.org/

WomenSayNOtoWar.org is your opportunity to unite with international women everywhere and contribute towards the end of the illegal war in Iraq. Go to: womensaynotowar.org to sign the call now! Forward this to everyone you know who cares about what's going on in Iraq. We have little more than a day to get another 10,000 people to sign up.

Our call will be delivered to the White House on March 8, 2006. Please celebrate International Women's Day on this date by joining us and visiting the following page for action/event ideas: democracyinaction.org

Thank you for taking action, but there's something else you can do.

Please help Progressive Democrats of America clean up the mess the Republicans are making of the planet, and the DLC "Semicrats" are making of the Democratic Party. I know many people - like me - are getting sick of the Democrats. PDA may be our best hope of bringing back democracy to the Democratic Party. Please Become a Sustaining PDA Donor: https://www.pdamerica.org/donate.php and again, email PDA to tell them you heard about this from me, Mike Hersh: http://pdamerica.org/contact.php (scroll to the bottom).

OK so that's three things I want you to do. Five if you count sending the email. Please do it, though. It means so much to Iraq, to our troops who need to come home, and to the Democratic Party that needs to come home to its base.

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