My name is Liev Aleo, and I'm the founder and director of BecomeTheChange (.org), one of several organizations worldwide that have responded to the prospect of an unjust and cruel war with a direct-action strategy. We have been working to enable those who, like us, want to go to Iraq as human shields, providing our presence to protect the innocents of a long-suffering nation from America’s and their own aggressive governments and, once war is off the table, to help in the rebuilding process. We want to do this by drawing the world’s attention to the humanitarian disaster that has been allowed to continue there for 12 years and is about to become a catastrophe of incomprehensible proportions, potentially worldwide. We're putting our lives on the line, but, knowing that there are others joining us, we are encouraged. As of this writing, BecomeTheChange has received approximately 400 pledges. And I am asking you to join them. Consider making the pledge TODAY because, if enough of us join, we will succeed - just ordinary people like you and I can stay the hands of two governments run amok.

The pledge is, “If [your preferred number of] others will go, I will join them in Iraq, forming a human shield to prevent the loss of life and the spread of war and terrorism around the world, and promoting nonviolent resolution to the conflict that we face with Iraq at this time.”

Please think about that for a moment! At some point - at some critical number - the size of the shield makes it next to impossible for this war to begin at all. It could be as low as 500. Maybe it’s 3,000, maybe it’s 5,000. You decide.

Who endorses this idea? Dr. Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson and founder of the Gandhi Institute, for one. So do Noam Chomsky, Brother David Steindl-Rast, world-renowned speaker and author on peace, Hassan Yousufzai, acclaimed peacebuilder and Fullbright Fellow at the Eastern Mennonite University, Meria Heller, webcast radio show host, and Catherine Dishion, President of the Santa Barbara United Nations chapter.

The human shield has been covered by CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, the INN
report, WNYC, Australian national news, Meria Heller, Michael Medved, Ray
Taliaferro, and many others. Many shield organizers and participants have
written to tell us that they, too are being featured in their local media.

And we know why. We know that we might die, but that in our attempt, hundreds of thousands, or more, might be saved. We know that, by joining the shield and stopping the war (as well as its consequent terrorism and upheaval), we will save many more lives (on all sides) than will be lost to the war. We know that we will enable, motivate and, in some cases, participate in the resolution of this conflict, taking it beyond the first step of achieving nonviolence by providing our presence as a shield.

We understand that the human shield effort is experiment in possibility…and is already a global phenomenon.

Individuals, make the pledge. Organizations, step up to sponsor shield members by purchasing their airfare. Interested others, email me at liev@BecomeTheChange.org to volunteer, spread the word, and otherwise support our men and women of the shield.

Believe in something extraordinary. And prove yourself right. For more information, please visit our website, www.BecomeTheChange.org.

Peace,
Liev K. Aleo
Founder & Director, BecomeTheChange (.org)

”We must become the change we want to see in the world.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“AHEM!”
- Liev Aleo