I have begun a hunger strike Monday, Sept. 11, in an effort to stir more of our citizens to inform themselves and give serious thought to all the information that has come to light since that day, about this administration, its tactics and its purposes.

All reasonable minds must accept by now that this administration lied to us, the U.N., and the world, about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction and complicity in the 9/11 events. What we should also know is that the doctrine of preemptive strikes, even the invasion of Iraq specifically, was first conceived by those in the first Bush administration — Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, and Paul Wolfowitz.

The ultimate stated goal: “Global dominance.” That plan, which found favor with Bush Sr., was leaked to The New York Times in 1992 as the Defense Planning Strategy for the 1990s. And after the Clinton interim, those same men were appointed by Bush Jr. (or was it the other way around?) to have their fingers on the proverbial buttons. Rumsfeld’s addition was the concept of preemptive strikes with nuclear weapons! (See the Oct. ‘02 article in Harper’s magazine, titled “Dick Cheney’s Song of America” by David Armstrong, an investigative reporter for the National Security News Service.)

This is just one of the basic facts Americans need to know about their “leaders,” to disillusion themselves that these current strategies have anything whatsoever to do with 9/11 and their immediate re-labeling as “the war on terror.”

I will turn 68 in less than a month, and have tried all the ways I know — vigils, demonstrations, forums and films — to inform people of what is really happening in and to our country. But it seems we Americans are too comfortable to put a stop to what is being done in our name. Perhaps putting my health in jeopardy may at least give people pause and spark some to inform themselves and act to stop this administration before before it spills even more blood and wreaks even more havoc around the world.

I plan to eat no food and drink only water until I can be assured that no more of our loyal men and women are being sent to the slaughter in Iraq, and there is a definite plan, to be implemented in no more than six months, to bring them all of them home. I am asking my Washington representatives, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Jim McDermott, to be my eyes and ears in D.C., to know whether and when there is a firm pledge to send no more troops to Iraq and bring all those already there home to their families. Alive.

I want to see us, as citizens of a democracy, getting into the streets or onto the net to demand impeachment of this entire administration. (Since it’s really Cheney in charge, acting according to his original plan, it would do no good to impeach Bush alone.) There are already bills of impeachment in the Congress, being blocked by Republicans in those committees; but they have to be widened to include Cheney, and we must all raise our voices and demand that those proceedings take place.

Now. Isn’t this, after all, supposed to be a democracy of the people and for the people? We must take our country back before it does more harm! I am willing to die to make that happen. What will you do?

Patricia Brooks, a writer and activist, lives in Coupeville.