I'm Sick and Tired of READING about the Iraq War

[HamdenRice]

Everyday I read about these horrible events. I read the list of US troops killed and it is becoming common place. This war has to be stopped by the people of the US and the non-violent people of Iraq.

I am sick of posting about the war and reading about the war. This war is the great moral outrage of our age -- like segregation in the south in the 1950s, the Vietnam War of the 1960s, apartheid of the 1970s and 1980s.

Can we stop talking about how pointless, idiotic, murderous and genocidal the shrub administration is and start figuring out how to just end it? The Johnson and Nixon administration did not end the Vietnam war. Apartheid South Africa did not just decide to release Nelson Mandela. Vast numbers of people organized around these purposes caused these atrocities to end.

Let's start using our imaginations: How do we end the war despite the shrub administration?

How to we link up to the non-violent resistance in Iraq? Who are their leaders and spokesmen? How do we bring Iraqi speakers to tour the US, the way ANC and UDF anti-apartheid campaigners toured the US in the 70s and 80s?

How do we get more images out of Iraq?

How do we create anti-war organizations on every US campus and in every liberal mainstream Christian church in North America?

How do we organize a flow of refugees from Iraq to US ports to press for recognition of a "well founded fear of persecution" in Iraq under US occupation? How do we create an underground railroad out of Iraq for Iraqi children?

How do we press US universities to begin giving full scholarships to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi students -- a popular tactic that had a huge impact on the anti-apartheid movement?

How do we organize million-person, multi-city demonstrations whenever the US decides to flatten a city like Fallujah? Why aren't we even as effective as Israel's Peace Now during that government's Jenin campaign -- which is operating under a much more unpopular context than us? Speaking of Israel's opposition, where is our West Bank Data Project, tracking and documenting the US theft of Iraqi resources?

And where is our equivalent of anti-apartheid white South Africa's Black Sash, or white South Africa's soldier conscientious objector movement?

Where is our divestment movement pressuring universities and non-profits and church endowments to disinvest from all companies doing business in Iraq, like Halliburton and Carlyle?

When are we going to stop waiting for the end of the shrub administration to stop the killing? Why are we expecting some heroic figure like the 1969 John Kerry to save us, when we know that the 2004 John Kerry -- I voted for it before I voted against it -- long ago murdered the 1969 Kerry and entombed him in his deadened soul?

<This was my response to a different thread in EOA, but decided to post it separately as a new thread.>

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[G_j]

1. great post... kick

[HamdenRice]

2. Thanks ...

and if no one here is interested in these things, maybe they could at least point me in the right direction? Someone somewhere must be starting these initiatives right?

[G_j]

3. I think it is a discussion that needs to be had

& many peace groups are having it.
March 19 will hopefully see massive demonstrations, btw.
There are many people planning around that date.

see www.unitedforpeace.org (for example)


March 19: The World Says End the War!
March 19-20 marks the two-year anniversary of the U.S. bombing and invasion of Iraq. There's a new urgency and a stronger determination within the global antiwar movement to bring the troops home now

[HamdenRice]

6. Thanks for the link ...

I think I found a local group I can contact to work with!

[G_j]

8. our local peace group

is meeting tomorrow night to talk about this also.
There is a lot of hard work ahead!

[uppityperson]

4. Good questions to consider after yesterdays sobfest

The election is over and Mr. Bush is president again. I spent yesterday with a group of friends on DU moaning and bitching. Today I woke with the same thoughts, what to do now to stop this crap. How do we get people who believe everyone deserves to be able to have their own opinions (so long as they don't hurt anyone else) to work together and coordinate all our energies into positiveness, not just bitching and moaning (myself included)?

I believe that one of the things that ended the VietNam war was tv. Pictures and movies of what was happening there were shoved into mainstream americanians homes on the evening news and they could no longer pretend it wasn't happening (my family included). How can we get more pictures out in the MSM?

How can we get a candidate to run in 2008 that has a chance of winning beyond the voter fraud the repubs pull off and campaign so this happens? We do not need to sell out and "become more like repubs" because that's not the problem. PR is the problem. Advertising is the problem.

Please don't just flame me, writing how I'm negative and kerrybashing and PLEASE don't use this as an excuse to be negative and kerrybashing as there are enough bitch-n-moan threads already. I agree that we need to start/continue work on this and thank you for starting this thread.

[hector459]

5. If we are not willing to sacrifice and take to the streets (which "they"

know we won't) than nothing will or can be done. They know we are too comfortable, to afraid, and too self-indulgent to give up anything to thwart their power and evil. While so-called "terrorists" and "insurgents" are willing to give up their very lives, we are not willing to give up our next trip to the mall or to Wal-Mart. Thus, nothing will change except by an act of God. It literally takes a tsunami to make us move.

[HamdenRice]

7. Duuude -- don't give up so sooon...

Nothing can be done? People have ended lots of atrocities despite their governments. And taking to the streets is just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the work is organizing, lobbying, collecting and disseminating information.

But it reminds me of something that Mark Maron keeps saying on AAR Morning Sedition -- activism isn't just blogging and posting on forums like DU.

[rocktop15]

9. Good post man

Far too often we place the blame on others without looking for a remedy for the problem. The college campus idea is very good. I might look at starting something like that up here at UTC.

[MadHound]

10. Well some of us have been out there fighting this thing since the start

And we are making a difference. Remember, during the Vietnam war the peace movement really didn't start to get rolling until '66, and didn't get mainstream majority support until '69-'70. We're already much further ahead now than during the Vietnam war. And sad to say, we're working against a much more stubborn media to get our message out to the mainstream. During the sixties, the massive anti-war protests were something new and different, and hence were considered newsworthy. Since they are old hat now to the MSM, it is felt that they can be safely ignored unless something really big happens. Thus, we have to work twice as hard to get our message out.

Give it time friend, I really think that the tide is turning, and that people are starting to wake up. You may not notice it for awhile, but it is. Meanwhile, do what you can, and don't discount people talking on an anonymous political chat board. We have many many people cruising through here to get the truth, and some of them are in positions of influence. If they are enlightened and educated, then these postings you dispair of aren't useless.

[HamdenRice]

11. Well, let's have it ...

You mention you have been out there "fighting this thing since the start". Care to share? We need to share experiences so we don't duplicate and reinvent the wheel. G_j has alread pointed me toward UnitedforPeace and hence to a local peace organization in my area. Tell us about your experience.

[MadHound]

12. I'm working with the same group I've been working with for twenty years

Mid Missouri Peaceworks. If you want to come by, we're at the post office every Saturday morning, and every Wed evening rush hour at Providence and Broadway. <http://peaceworks.missouri.org/> We co-ordinate with ANSWER and other major national groups for the big nation-wide protests, and have small local marches fairly frequenctly. You also might hook up with Fellowship of Reconciliation, a national group that has local chapters everywhere.<http://www.forusa.org/>

Hope that helps.

[HamdenRice]

13. Thanks for the info nt

[WebeBlue]

14. Keep me in the loop if these ideas take hold..MFSO family here

been using the unique military family voice to speak out against the war since the beginning, primarily trying to get media coverage. And of late, I'm starting to feel deflated, as media has lost its credibility and become a caricature of itself. More voices from many fronts are needed in visible examples the public can see for themselves.

The ideas you proposed sound good to me, and next = action. I'm listening..and welcome participation across the states, across the campuses, across the organizations. I'd really like to hear more if the ideas gels and something grassroots begins to grow.

[HamdenRice]

15. Thanks, but ...

I also get deflated when the response, even in DU, is so underwhelming. It's like most of us would rather bitch about it than figure out what to do. I mean, we can't even establish a DU forum on the Iraq War! There are birder groups and fantasy fiction groups, but we can't even get together a group to discuss and protest the war.

Sorry for venting tonight.

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