Join Your Voice With the Iraqis!

Over at Dean Esmay's site, he's spearheading a drive to include the following logo and link on as many blogs as possible:

Why is that important? An Iraqi gives one good reason why. Dr. Khalaf's article points to another reason, however, and it goes beyond support or non-support for the war. Seriousness about this question does not divide exactly along partisan lines - though I would argue that the division isn't even.

Simply put, it's this: What future do we want for the Iraqi people? What kind of place to we want Iraq to be?

Some in the "invade Iraq" camp would be happy with replacement of Saddam by a more compliant dictator. Dean's initiative isn't for them; they offer no real help to Dr. Khalaf or to thousands of others like him. Then, too, there are those in the "non-intervention" camp whose stance also comes from a position that could care less about Iraqis. They are animated primarily by either hard-core ideology/religion, material benefit, or by internal hatreds and resentments. Dean's initiative isn't for them, either.

For the rest of us, for whom the Iraqi people and their fate matters deeply, Dean's initiative is welcome and appropriate. How we get there may be a matter of disagreement. But what we seek, together, matters.

How to Get Involved

There's a static JPEG logo as well as an animated GIF. These have been fully tested, no uploading of files needed and no worries about the bandwidth. If you want to include this on your web site, just paste in one of the following sets of code:

Animated GIF Graphic

This option is attention grabbing, but uses a bit more bandwidth and may be distracting to some people. I chose this option for the graphic above. Here's the code to paste into your site:

<center><a href="http://www.defenddemocracy.org/templ/display.cfm?id=247&Sub=336" target="_blank" alt="Democracy in Iraq!"><img src="http://www.windsofchange.net/files/iraqidemocracy.gif" height="73" width="100" border="1" alt="Animated GIF: Free Iraq"></a><center>

Static JPEG Graphic

This option is less attention grabbing, showing just the Lady Liberty graphic on the front. It uses less bandwidth and won't bother people who dislike motion on a page they're reading. Here's the code to paste into your site:

<center><a href="http://www.defenddemocracy.org/templ/display.cfm?id=247&Sub=336" target="_blank" alt="Democracy in Iraq!"><img src="http://www.windsofchange.net/files/iraqidemocracy.jpg" height="73" width="100" border="1" alt="Static JPEG: Free Iraq!"></a><center>

If you do participate, please say so in the comments on Dean Esmay's site.

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