Album Notes

Proceeds Benefit Voices in the Wilderness

This compilation is a musical history of the ongoing US war against the Iraqi people. Iraqi citizens struggle against this war every day through their persistant ambition to help their families and people survive. All proceeds benefit Voices in the Wilderness .

Since its founding in 1996, Voices in the Wilderness has campaigned to end economic and military warfare against the Iraqi people. We have done this mostly by organizing delegations to Iraq in deliberate violation of U.N. economic sanctions and U.S. law, to publicly deliver small amounts of medical supplies to children and families in need. Our primary focus has always been ordinary Iraqi civilians and the most vulnerable of Iraqi society, especially children. We have witnessed this ongoing warfare through the everyday lives of families we have come to know as friends over the course of seventy visits to Iraq.

We are volunteers-teachers, veterans, social workers, artists, health care professionals, trades people and people of faith-who, in the tradition of Mohandas Gandhi, practice and advocate nonviolence as a means for social change. As nonviolent war resisters, we oppose the development, storage and use by any country of weapons of mass destruction, be they nuclear, chemical, biological, or economic. Many of us refuse to pay taxes for war.

Throughout the US led "Operation Shock and Awe," VitW organized Iraq Peace Team delegations to live alongside ordinary Iraqis before, during and after the massive bombardment and subsequent occupation. Convinced that "where you stand determines what you see," VitW continues its efforts to educate people in the United States and abroad about the consequences of US militarism. Our current campaign focuses on the need to "spotlight Iraq." By telling the truth about this war, we hope to help prevent future wars. Concurrently, we seek outreach and education regarding concerns of people who dwell in other countries deemed part of the so-called "axis of evil." We hope that our experiences and methods of education and resistance can serve as a model for people doing similar work, here and abroad.

Dedicated to nonviolently resist the roots of war, campaign members challenge military recruitment, corporate war profiteering, and elements of western culture that wage low intensity warfare, continually, against the biological diversity of Mother Earth and against weaker countries whose resources are exploited to maintain our overly consumptive lifestyles. We advocate simple living, sharing of resources, service, reverence for all of life, creative education and nonviolent direct action for peace.

Voices in the Wilderness functions as a network for nonviolent education and action: developing and practicing ways of nonviolent resistance. Voices is committed to teaching peace in formal teaching and learning environments as well as through grassroots, non-traditional settings. We will travel anywhere, anytime, with or without a stipend to help foster education in communities that invite our members to speak about what they've seen and heard, and for us to listen and learn from others.