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Announcement :: Protest Activity |
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MASSIVE MARCH ON WASHINGTON D.C. -- END THE WAR ON IRAQ -- SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH |
Current rating: 0 |
by David Green
Email: davegreen84 (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!)
Phone: 217-840-3979
Address: davegreen84@yahoo.com |
08 Aug 2005
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A.W.A.R.E. (Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort) is sponsoring a charter bus to Washington D.C. for local community members who would like to join thousands of other concerned citizens from across the country in a day of national protest against the continued occupation of Iraq. |
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MASSIVE MARCH ON WASHINGTON D.C.
END THE WAR ON IRAQ
BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH
A.W.A.R.E. (Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort) is sponsoring a charter bus to Washington D.C. for local community members who would like to join thousands of other concerned citizens from across the country in a day of national protest against the continued occupation of Iraq. Massive marches and rallies are being organized by both “United for Peace and Justice” and A.N.S.W.E.R. Demand an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and to bring out troops home now. Now is the time to hold the White House and Congress accountable for the Deaths, the Lies, the Destruction, and the Toll On Our Communities! Join in this historic demonstration and let your voices be heard in Washington.
DEPARTURE: Urbana IMC, 202 E. Elm, 7:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 23rd.
RETURN: Urbana IMC, 202 E. Elm. 8:00 a.m., Sunday, Sept. 25th.
COST: $70 for Round Trip Ticket – some student scholarships available
DEADLINE FOR PAYMENT TO RESERVE A SEAT: Wednesday, Sept. 7th
RESERVATIONS: There are limited seats, so pay to reserve your seat ASAP! To reserve your ticket contact: Durl Kruse, 328-2789 or jandurl (at) insightbb.com. Make checks payable to: A.W.A.R.E. |
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Re: MASSIVE MARCH ON WASHINGTON D.C. -- END THE WAR ON IRAQ -- SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH |
by US OUT NOW!
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Aug 2005
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The U.S. in Iraq is the problem. Out Now! The article below was written a while ago...but our colonization goes on. The world said NO to WAR! U.S. invaded anyway. It was wrong then and is wrong today!
LOCAL YOKEL needs to do his/her homework!
Editorial: Troops out of Iraq!
Last year saw the largest coordinated global demonstrations in history, the February 14-16 protests opposing Washington’s planned war on Iraq. Despite this huge opposition, the invasion took place and the US set up a new government a new Iraqi regime, controlled by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which is headed by Washington’s appointee, Paul Bremer.
In an attempt to limit Iraqi opposition to the White House takeover, the US created the misnamed Iraqi Governing Council. Washington vetted all the Iraqis appointed to the body for “suitability”—i.e., only selected people who would, for the most part at least, go along with US plans for the country.
The Bush administration, concerned by the growing political cost of the occupation at home and Iraqis growing resentment of the presence of US troops intends to create a more credible-seeming puppet government in Iraq. However this Iraqi “government” is formed, the US will tolerate no opposition to the occupation. The Iraqi government will be a body that will be subservient to Washington and ensure that US corporations get the lion’s share of Iraq’s oil.
After fall of Baghdad in 2003, anti-war activists debated how to respond. In countries like Australia that are participating in the ongoing occupation, the question is posed sharply: what demands should anti-war activists put forward? All troops out now? For the United Nations to take over? For troops to leave “soon”?
Vietnamese example
It would seem logical that if you did not want the troops to go in, you should call for them to come out. However, there are conservatives in the peace movement who are unwilling to organise around the unambiguous demand of “Troops out now!”, the demand put forward by Resistance.
The debates over Iraq are similar to those that arose during the Vietnam War. The “troops out” demand became the central demand of the anti-Vietnam War movement. It was based on the principle that the Vietnamese people had a right to self-determination. That is, the US had no right to intervene to determine the fate of another nation, but should allow the Vietnamese people to settle their own affairs.
Many of those who opposed the call for “troops out now”, argued that if foreign troops left Vietnam, then “the communists will win”. Essentially they argued that you could only call for the troops to leave after the result which the US wanted—the survival of the brutal South Vietnamese dictatorship—was guaranteed.
In Iraq, the underlying assumption of those who support the presence of US troops, even if they opposed the war, is that the Iraqi people are incapable of governing themselves and deciding for themselves—how their country should be run.
This argument is a reworking of the racist “white man’s burden” argument that was used to justify old style colonialism.
The end of the occupation in Iraq will not in itself solve Iraq’s problems. The Iraqi people—and the people of the Middle East as a whole—will never achieve real democracy, justice and freedom as long as they are under the yoke of the imperialist First World nations. This includes the US, or the puppets of these nations—the western backed despots who rule in countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.
Scars of colonialism
The problems faced by the people of the Middle East today have their genesis in colonial and neocolonial domination of the region.
The very creation of Iraq was the result of artificial borders imposed by the British when, along with the other western powers, they carved up the Middle East.
When deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein came to power in a bloody coup he was backed by the CIA. An arsenal of chemical weapons, used to devastating effect by Hussein’s regime on Kurds and Iranians, was built up with the aid of the US (including many of the people who are part of the current US regime of Bush jnr).
UN solution?
Some in the anti-war movement call for the US-led occupation to be replaced with a United Nations occupation. But this will not be an end to imperial domination of Iraq, merely a shift from the khaki helmets of the US Army to the blue helmets of UN forces—the bulk of which would still be provided by the US.
We can’t forget the UN itself has been a source of great suffering for the Iraqi people. It was the UN that imposed economic sanctions against Iraq for more than a decade after the Gulf War. Even according to estimates by UN bodies the sanctions were responsible for the deaths of more than half-a-million Iraqi children.
The governments of France, Germany and Russia, all members of the UN Security Council, are pushing for a greater UN role. They hope to pressure the US to grant business concessions through the UN. Having failed to prevent the invasion from going ahead under the banner of the US, these nations want to be in on the carve of up Iraqi wealth, something the US has so far resisted.
An unwinnable war
The strength of the Iraqi resistance is proof that the ongoing occupation is not viable. Even the might of the US military has not been able to defeat it.
Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst from 1964 to 1990 who helped brief George Bush senior, argues that the current US administration has failed to learn from history that wars against guerrilla forces that have popular support is nigh impossible.
In a November 3 article posted on the Internet, McGovern pointed out that the rhetoric of “staying the course” in Iraq is similar to that employed by the US during the Vietnam War, which it eventually lost. “We could not ‘cut and run’ although that is exactly what we ended up doing in 1975 after 58,000 US troops and 3 million Vietnamese had been killed.”
The anti-war movement has a duty, particularly in those nations, like Australia, whose troops are participating in the illegal occupation, to demand and organise around the demand “Troops out now!”. Every day the foreign presence remains in Iraq risks more bloodshed—more dead Iraqis and more dead soldiers, who have been misled by their governments into thinking that Iraq is a just war.
A defeat for the US in Iraq is a defeat for imperialist domination of the Third World. It would make it very hard for the US military to invade or occupy other countries in it quest for unchallenged global dominance.
McGovern’s article concludes: “But, many protest, we can’t just withdraw! Sure we can, and better now than 10 years on, as in the case of Vietnam.” |
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Re: MASSIVE MARCH ON WASHINGTON D.C. -- END THE WAR ON IRAQ -- SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH |
by septemberACTION Collective
info (nospam) septemberaction.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
09 Aug 2005
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Come to http://www.septemberACTION.org for the most updated information and resources for the September 23-26 anti-war, global justice, anti-torture people-powered driven mobilization. Here you can find ride boards, housing boards, resource boards, events calendars, articles, links to legal and medical information, and more!
The septemberACTION Collective is happy to announce that http://www.septemberACTION.org is up and running.
Check it out but also help us out by posting information, articles, commentary, and anything that will help this mobilization whether in Washington, DC or in any other part of the globe.
Groups like Mobilization for Global Justice, United for Peace and Justice, and ANSWER, among others, have called for anti-war and global justice actions that weekend. Many things are happening. Get plugged in!
Read the septemberACTION Collective people-power Call to Action: Clean House! Call to Action: No More Business as Usual on September 23-26, 2005 at http://www.septemberaction.org/cs/call
Find out who we are at http://www.septemberaction.org/cs/about
Join our listserves.
For announcements, send a blank email to announce-subscribe (at) septemberaction.org .
For open discussion, send a blank email to discuss-subscribe (at) septemberaction.org . |
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