Are You Going to Pay for Bush's Wars?
By Jodie Evans, AlterNet. Posted December 15, 2007.
How much of your tax payment this year would you like to allocate for waterboarding in Iraq or an invasion of Iran?
Around the world, people are puzzled as to why the U.S. public allows the Bush administration to wage illegal wars and usurp our power. Why do we tolerate it and continue to pay for it?
Over the past year, millions of U.S. citizens have voted, lobbied, marched and taken direct action to end the war in Iraq. Courageous soldiers, such as members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, have taken the risk to speak out. Yet Congress continues to appropriate billions of dollars for the war.
How do we up the ante of resistance? It is time for taxpayers who oppose this war to join together in nonviolent civil disobedience and show Congress how to cut off the funds for this war and redirect resources to the pressing needs of people.
Chris Hedges wrote in the Nation, "I will not pay my income tax if we go to war with Iran ... I will put the taxes I owe in an escrow account. I will go to court to challenge the legality of the war."
On this anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a coalition of anti-war activists is calling on individuals to sign a pledge to resist payment of a portion of their taxes. Our pledge states, "When I am joined by 100,000 other U.S. taxpayers, I will join in an act of mass civil disobedience and refuse to the portion of my taxes that pays the U.S. military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan." We are aiming for April 15.
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http://alternet.org/story/70713/