The protests will most likely get plenty of media coverage, so it's important to keep in mind the following: Contrary to what they proclaim, most of the protesters are not against war. They are against America waging a war of self-defense. They are against Israel waging a war of self-defense. They are against free nations waging a war against the sworn enemies of freedom. But they are not against the war that is being waged on America by militant Islamic fundamentalists.
I am and most of those who will join me in San Francisco on Saturday are in favor of the US waging a war of self-defense when all other options have been exhausted. We just haven't seen that happen in a very long time. The war in Afghanistan didn't fit the criteria simply because the other options were not exhausted. While I believe it could have come down to war, no other attempts were seriously made. It was Bush's only plan.
We've been around and around about Iraq. Let me say it one more time:
The invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with self-defense. Even your pal Tom Friedman calls it a "war of choice", which in my view makes it odious. Let me again say about the invasion
what I said a few weeks before the first missiles were fired:
This war is not about UN resolutions or weapons of mass destruction. It is colonial piracy. This war will not make Americans safer from any external threat. It will do little to protect people in the Middle East from any threat. It will not bring democracy to Iraq. It will not benefit the Iraqi people. The only people who will benefit will be Mr. Bush's cronies.
Unlike those who supported the coming war last winter, who should be embarrassed about buying into Bush's lies to justify the war, I don't think I have to change a word of what I said. It's still colonial piracy and it still is going to benefit Halliburton and Chevron but not the Iraqi people.
As for the subject of this forum, I know very well that there are some out there who don't believe Israel should exist. I'm not one of them. I believe Israel has the right to exist within her own borders, and that those borders were defined by the 1949 armistice.
Therefore, I protest Israel's policies in the region. Unlike the US in Iraq, Israel has some legitimate business with the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. However, like the war in Iraq, the occupation has also a sinister motive hidden behind those claims of security.
There are two wars being fought between the Levantine coast and the Jordan River: in one is a conventional conflict and in that one Israel is in the right; in the other is a colonial war and in that one the Palestinians are in the right. The Israelis have a right to security and to occupy Palestine
with their military until such time as a peace agreement is reached with a Palestinian government; the Palestinians have a right to a sovereign state and don't need to ask General Sharon for permission about having one. Consequently, Israel is wrong to use the territories for any purpose other than her own security. That means building settlements is wrong, as maintaining the infrastructure and security forces to support them.
The settlements can never have any positive effect on Israel's security. They are, in fact, a detriment to that security. They were built in land inhabited by three and a half million Arabs who would rather die than be either first or second class citizens of Eretz Israel and who want to use their land for their own benefit. The settlements are a target for Palestinian nationalists who see them, rightly, as an affront to their right to control their use of their land. The settlements only commit the IDF to their defense, rather than the defense of the Israeli state.
When the occupation becomes about maintaining settlements even at the expense of Israel's overall security, it is not only time for friends of the Palestinian people to protest, it is time for friends of the Israeli people to protest as well. Regarding myself as a friend of both, you better believe I will be protesting General Sharon's boneheaded actions Saturday.
You will not see signs that say "DOWN WITH IRANIAN THEOCRACY" or "STOP THE PALESTINIAN SLAUGHTER OF JEWISH CHILDREN ON BUSES" or "DICTATORS LIE, MILLIONS DIE." What you will see is the vilification of America for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and a total evasion of the fact that those deaths are the fault of the fascists who initiated or threatened to initiate force against us (not to mention the violence they visited upon their own people).
For may part, I say UP WITH DEMOCRACY. As a matter of fact, I believe Iranian theorcracy is inconsistant with democratic principles. I support democratic movements in Iran. I will not support any PNAC designs to colonize Iran as has been done to Iraq. That, too, is inconsistent with democratic principle.
I am also in favor of international law and I believe that war crimes should be defined and prosecuted in international courts. I believe that targeting civilians in a conflict is a crime of war. That covers bombing a bus or a cafe; it covers wedding parties, too, and makes no distinction whether the bomb was strapped to the bomber or was dropped from a B-52. It also covers refugees in camps and dropping a one-ton missile into a residential neighborhood at midnight in order to assassinate a single terrorist leader; any fool knows that is going to kill more people than Sheikh Shehada, and it did.
Finally, dictatorship is certainly against democratic principles. When somebody loses an election and seizes power, either by force of arms or electoral fraud and judicial manipulation, then that person is no legitimate leader but a dictator. As you know, the American dictator has lied and while he's got a ways to go to reach his first million killed, he's working hard at it. On the other hand, Bush is principally a thief rather than a murderer. If he could have transferred Iraq's wealth from its rightful owners, the Iraqi people, to his cronies without killing anybody, he would have gladly done so. Nevertheless, he is a fascist and he is a criminal. He is the most dangerous man in the world. And I will be out Saturday to protest his illegal occupation of the White House, as well as his illegal occupation of Iraq.
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