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Resistance is Futile - Or Is It?
It was a time without precedent in American history. The commander-in-chief voiced his intention to take the country to war - a voluntary, preemptive war with no clear catalyst, no faraway invasion or Pearl Harbor or sinking of the Maine - and millions of people shouted their opposition. With plenty of time to avert war, the protesters warned the invasion would be a costly disaster.
They were right. And it didn't matter.
The war in Iraq was a test of our democratic ideals. It was a test that this country failed, a failure that has been felt by the people of the United States, Iraq, and elsewhere for the last five years. For many, the refusal of the US government to heed the demands of its citizens left them disillusioned and disempowered.
But others say it sparked a political change that woke up an apathetic citizenry, pulled the Democratic Party back to the left, and may have averted war with Iran.
It's certainly arguable that the presidential campaign of Barack Obama owes its energy and success in part to the antiwar movement - and if Obama wins, he will be the first president in a long time who took office thanks to the support of a strong grassroots progressive movement.
Nowhere was the clash of people power and government will more acute than on the streets of San Francisco, where a series of massive marches, some drawing nearly 100,000 people, filled the streets prior to the invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003. The onset of war led protesters to effectively shut down the city, resulting in about 2,300 arrests and millions of dollars in costs to the city.
President George W. Bush dismissed the protests, of course, but he wasn't the only one. Political leaders such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, then-Mayor Willie Brown and soon-to-be Mayor Gavin Newsom (who didn't attend any of the marches, unlike progressives on the Board of Supervisors) condemned the peace movement for hurting an innocent city. But with the "battle for San Francisco" making international news, the protesters were more concerned with the global audience.
A month earlier, on the weekend of Feb. 15 and 16, there were coordinated protests against the impending war in about 800 cities around the world, drawing around 10 million people. The peace march in Rome included about 3 million people, earning a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest anti-war rally in history. People have never made such a loud and clear statement against an incipient war.
Beyond the numbers, the antiwar movement was also right. On every major issue and prediction, the messages from the street proved correct while those from the White House were wrong. The US wasn't welcomed as liberators. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Iraq after the invasion isn't a stable democracy or shining beacon to anyone but the new generation of jihadis Bush created.
We can blame a hard-headed president, ineffectual opposition party, failure of the national media, or the national climate of fear following Sept. 11. But rather than refighting that lost battle, now is the time to gain perspective on the events of five years ago and determine what it means for democracy and the post-Bush national agenda.
TO THE STREETS
There were two main umbrella groups organizing protests before the war: Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW) and International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). ANSWER has remained active and DASW has recently been reconstituted for the fifth anniversary of the war, using direct action in San Francisco as well as other urban centers and outposts like Chevron's refinery in Richmond, which has reportedly been processing Iraqi oil.
"With the fifth anniversary coming up, we're going back to direct action on the streets," said Henry Norr of DASW. "But I don't have any illusions that it's going to be like it was five years ago."
The maddening march to an ill-advised war created a political dynamic in which a broad cross-section of Americans was willing to hit the streets.
"We had a wonderfully diverse group of people, from soccer moms to anarchists," said Mary Bull, who cofounded DASW, a collective of various affinity groups and concerned individuals formed in October of 2002 as Bush started beating the drums of war.
It was a group fiercely determined to prevent the war - and really believed that was possible. In fact, Bull recalls how she and other members of the group burst out crying at one meeting when a key activist said the war was going to happen.
Richard Becker, who cofounded ANSWER and serves as its West Coast coordinator, said that in the summer of 2002, "we came to the conclusion that [the war] was going to happen." The group called its first big protest for Sept. 15, 2002, and another one two weeks later. But the movement really exploded on Oct. 26 when almost 100,000 people took to Market Street, much of it a spontaneous popular uprising.
"We were overwhelmed," Becker said. "We were in a perpetual state of mobilization to keep up with what was going on. But then it didn't stop the war."
Did he think they could?
"I think a lot of people thought maybe it was possible to stop it. And we thought maybe it was possible to stop it," Becker said.
The high point, according to Becker and Norr, was Feb. 17, 2003, when the New York Times ran a front page analysis piece entitled "A new power in the streets" that claimed "the huge anti-war demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion." But then Colin Powell went to the United Nations to argue for the invasion, and the Democrats in Congress did nothing, and it became clear war was coming.
Norr stayed out there protesting, being arrested several times and even shot in the leg by Oakland police with a rubber bullet during a protest at the Oakland docks. And he thinks some good came from the experience.
"The lesson for people is the political and economic elites are committed to preserving and extending empire. And they basically say as much in their own writing," Norr said. "Wars are not anomalies."
Despite being a frustrating and depressing exercise, most saw benefits to the failed movement. "People got an incredible education about how the system really worked," Becker said. "Building a movement is mostly about a series of setbacks."
Medea Benjamin, cofounder of both Global Exchange and CodePink and fixture of the anti-establishment peace movement for years, was upbeat about the protests. "We did our job as citizens. We did what we were supposed to do: organize, get people to take action, get people onto the streets," she said. "We did everything we could think of.
"What you take from it is we don't have a very well-developed democracy because the people spoke and the government didn't listen."
FACING ARREST
The collective action of five years ago starts with a series of personal stories - tens of thousands of them - so let me briefly begin with mine.
My arrival in San Francisco was closely tied to the march to war. I was living in Sacramento and working as the news editor of the Sacramento News & Review when Bush began his saber rattling against Saddam Hussein, but by the end of 2002 I had a falling out with my boss and found myself jobless.
Like most Northern Californians who opposed the war, I came to San Francisco on Jan. 18 to make my voice heard and experienced a bit of serendipity on my way to Justin Herman Plaza: while reading the Guardian on Muni, I saw their advertisement for a city editor, a job that was ideal for me at a paper I've always loved. Needless to say, it was a great day, empowering and full of possibilities.
Less than two months later I was on the job, and on the second week of that job I was back on the turbulent streets of San Francisco, part of a Guardian team covering the eruption of this city on the first full day of war. When I stepped off the cable car just after 7 a.m., people were streaming up Market Street and I joined them.
When a large group stopped at the intersection of Market and Beale, I stopped too, taking notes and bearing witness to this historic, exciting event. I had a press pass issued by the California Highway Patrol that allowed me to cross police lines, so when police in riot gear surrounded us and threatened arrest, I held my ground with 100 or so protesters.
After interviewing about a dozen people about why they were there and that they hoped to accomplish (see "On the bus: Journalists, lawyers, four-year-olds - the cops were ready to bust anyone Thursday morning," www.sfbg.com), I was arrested with the others and taken to a makeshift jail and processing center at Pier 27 (no charges were filed in my case, and charges against all of the 2,300 people arrested here in those first few days of the war were later dropped).
I recently tracked down a few of the people who appeared in my article, including Daphne and Ross Miller, who were at the center of the most interesting drama to play out during our standoff with the police. She's a family practice physician, he's an architect, and they live in Diamond Heights with their two children, Emet, who is almost 9, and Arlen, 12, who was away on vacation when the war began.
"We were genuinely shocked that the war started," Ross told me. "We were at some of the earlier protests and really thought there was no way [Bush] could do it."
They woke up March 20, 2003, to news that the war had begun and immediately walked to the BART station with Emet and rode to the Embarcadero station, not really planning for the day ahead but just knowing that they had to make themselves heard.
"We were pissed as hell. I don't think I've ever been so angry in my life," Daphne said.
They quickly came up with a plan. "We basically decided that if anyone was going to be arrested, it was going to be Ross and I'd stay with Emet. But it didn't end up that way and I ended up in the arrest circle."
Daphne had their house keys and threw them over the police line to Ross at one point. A photographer in the circle had gotten shots of a man named Roman Fliegel being roughed up by police as they pulled him off his bicycle, which was towing a trailer with a sound system, and decided to throw his backpack with camera gear out as well. When Ross - who had four-year-old Emet on his shoulders - caught it and refused police orders to give it to them, police grabbed Emet and roughly arrested Ross, leaving a gash on his forehead.
"Rage surged through the crowd, and it seemed as if things might get ugly, but the police kept a tight lid on the situation, using their clubs to shove back protesters who had moved forward," I wrote at the time.
Emet was delivered into the circle with Daphne as the arrests continued, many quite rough. "At that point, as a mom, I had to exercise the most restraint ever," said Daphne, who was angry about the situation but fearful about what she was exposing her son to. "Please, don't let any violence happen here," she pleaded with the crowd. Eventually, commanders on the scene let the mother and child go.
"The officer who let me go said that if he saw me again out there, he would call Child Protective Services on me," Daphne said. But two days later, still brimming with outrage at her country's actions, she ditched a downtown medical conference to rejoin the street protests, this time solo.
The couple say they've lost friendships over the war and have become more engaged with politics, coming to believe that Bush and the neocons are malevolent figures who knew how badly the war would go and did it anyway to establish a large, permanent military base in Iraq.
"Since that day, we've been far more active," Ross said. "We realized you can't just trust the system. You have to push."
But that determination was mixed with feelings of disempowerment and depression. They attended some of the protests that following year, but the couple - like most people - just stopped going at some point because they seemed so futile.
"There was a horrible sense of resignation and a genuine depression that followed," Ross told me.
The nadir was when Bush was reelected and they considered leaving the country. But then, Ross said, "we decided we're not just going to run away and we're not going to accept this." Looking back, even with the scare over Emet, they express no regrets.
"It was the right thing to do because it was the wrong war to have. I'd do it again and again and again if I had to," Ross said
They're guardedly hopeful that Barack Obama could begin to turn things around if he's elected. "I think the right president can at least start to dismantle this," Daphne said. "I think thousands of people marching in the streets is something he would listen to."
WITNESS TO HISTORY
Covering the peace movement in those early days was a heady experience, like reporting on a revolutionary uprising or working in a foreign country where the people are organized and active enough to be able to shut down society and brave enough to risk bodily injury for their beliefs.—
I was at the founding meeting of CodePink - which became the most effective group at personally confronting the warmongers and keeping the war in the public eye - one evening at Muddy Waters in the Mission District shortly after the war started.
Looking back, Benjamin rattled off a long list of the alliances the group built - with labor, churches, businesses, and a wide array of social movements - and creative actions intended to build and demonstrate popular support for ending the war.
"We've done so many things and what did we get? We got a surge," she said. "It shows the crisis in our democracy, the crisis of the two-party system, the crisis of a dysfunctional opposition party."
Yet she said the peace movement has been remarkably successful in convincing the public that the war was a mistake and that it's time for the troops to come home, even if the Democrats have been slow to respond to that shift.
"The progress we've made is turning around public opinion and that's going to play a big role in the upcoming elections," she said. For Norr, the role of the news media is a particular sore spot. He was a technology reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle who called in sick on the first full day of war and was arrested on Market Street with his wife and daughter, resulting in suspension by editor Phil Bronstein for his actions.
I wrote several stories on the issue, which culminated in Norr being fired and Bronstein unilaterally banning Chron employees from peace protests. I even borrowed CodePink's guerilla tactics when Bronstein repeatedly refused to return my calls or address why he had singled out antiwar protesters for uniquely punitive treatment. I confronted him during a speech he gave at the Commonwealth Club (see "Lies and half-truths," 5/7/03). That was the tenor of the times: we were all tired of being lied to and we decided to push back.
Norr was particularly frustrated with his own paper's reporting of the war and started sending articles by the foreign press to his paper's news desk, trying to wake his colleagues up to the pro-war propaganda being passed off as journalism in this country.
He was also disappointed with the country and with the Chronicle - both the management and his fellow reporters, who did little to support him - but the experience caused him to return to his roots as a progressive activist.
"The war and losing the job and everything brought an abrupt end to my consumerist phase and dumped me back into the world of being an activist," said Norr, who serves on the KPFA 94.1 FM local station board and has made three recent trips to the Palestinian territories while working with the International Solidarity Movement.
Benjamin said Americans shouldn't expect the next president to end the war - not without lots of pressure from a renewed and vocal peace movement. "This is the time to set the stage for the post-Bush agenda," Benjamin said. "Don't put your hopes in Barack Obama in getting us out of Iraq. Put your hopes in the people."
THE AFTERMATH
The San Francisco Police Department, which spent more than $2 million on overtime costs responding to peace protests between March 15 and April 16, 2003, generally behaved with restraint and professionalism, but there were several exceptions.
The most costly and disturbing incident came when Officer Anthony Nelson began aggressively swinging his long riot baton at protesters, badly shattering the arm of peaceful protester Linda K. Vaccarezza, who suffered a permanent disability in her career as a court reporter.
Nelson's incident report falsely stated that Vaccarezza had threatened him with a sign attached to a solid pole, but video of the incident later clearly showed there was no pole and that she was retreating when he teed off on her (see "The home front," 05/26/04).
Vaccarezza received an $835,000 settlement from the city in November of 2004. On Oct. 5, 2005, two and a half years after the incident, SFPD fired Nelson for lying about what happened that day, and the City Attorney's Office has been successfully fighting Nelson's appeals in court ever since, putting in more than $100,000 in attorney time and costs into the Nelson and Vaccarezza cases.
The other significant ongoing litigation from the antiwar protests involved Mary Bull, who was arrested during an early protest for pouring fake blood in front of the entrance to Chevron's San Francisco office before being allegedly strip searched and left naked in her San Francisco Jail cell for 36 hours.
Ironically, Bull was among those who brought a successful class action lawsuit against Sacramento County after she and others protesting a logging plan were strip searched, setting a precedent and led most counties to reform their strip-search policies. She used her share of the $15 million judgment to buy an organic permaculture farm in Sebastopol.
Her San Francisco case, in which Bull won a multimillion-dollar judgment, is still under appeal and now in mediation. Bull said the protests five years ago did make a difference, something she tells those who fret about its apparent failure. "I tell them to look at what issues the candidates are talking about now and I thank them for protesting then."
"Even though we had millions throughout the world, we were sort of blocked, but now we're regaining that momentum," Melodie Barclay, a massage therapist who was also arrested with me on the first day of the war, told me recently. "We can't judge it by the fact that we didn't get the momentum we wanted."
Norr started his antiwar activism working with Students for a Democratic Society in Boston, protesting the Vietnam War, which he said shares many similarities with the current situation, for good or for ill. He said that people tend to forget that while the protests then were huge and helped end the war, the movement did wane after Nixon ended the draft and substituted massive aerial bombardment for boots on the ground.
"The protests dropped off considerably," he said. "A lot of the things that drove people to take risks in the late '60s had faded by the early '70s."
He thinks the current administration learned a lesson from those days: it's easier to maintain a war effort if the average citizen isn't affected.
But there are other factors as well keeping a lid on the antiwar outrage.
"The culture has changed too. Young people are oversaddled with debt. People in schools seem to be docile. The culture as a whole seems to be more individualist and consumerist," Norr said.
Yet some young people have woken up and many of them are funneling their energies into a peace group that was formed in the summer of 2005: World Can't Wait, as in: the world can't wait for the end of Bush's second term before we change our direction and leadership.
"We don't just want them gone, we need to repudiate their program," said Giovanni Jackson, a 26-year-old WCW student organizer. "If we're going to change anything, we need the youth."
Jackson was at WCW's founding convention in New York City, which came just as New Orleans was being flooded and then essentially abandoned by the federal government.
"When [Kerry] lost, people felt demoralized and World Can't Wait kind of stepped into that situation," Jackson said. "There was a lot of demoralization in the antiwar movement at that time."
The group organized protests and student walkouts on Nov. 2, 2005.
"Everyone has their moments of doubt," he said, "but I'm motivated by the crimes we see everyday."
THE LESSONS
One of the biggest barriers to galvanizing people and turning the fifth anniversary of the war into something that might make a difference is the presidential election, which is diverting the energy of many potential protesters - and at the same time, offering some hope that a new president may lead to peace.
After all, every single one of the Democratic presidential candidates has promised to withdraw troops from Iraq, with varying timelines and numbers of US personnel left behind. And with enough encouragement, they might be willing to help change the status quo.
Many of the activists who volunteered their time and money to help move the Obama campaign into its front-runner position came out of the antiwar movement, and Obama's strong stand against the war has been a key factor in his popularity.
Becker and some other activists don't have much faith that a change in presidents will change the course in Iraq, although he agrees that much of the energy now surrounding Barack Obama derives directly from the antiwar movement.
"There's been a huge upsurge of hope for Obama and that he might bring about the kind of change we need," Bull said, adding that she doesn't share that hope, believing the only path to peace is to pressure Obama and other leaders to commit to more progressive positions.
Norr said, "On one level, people have illusions about the power of peaceful protests. People believe in democracy, as well they should. We feel like the rulers should be paying attention to public opinion.
"It's a remarkable story how broadly and quickly the American people have turned against the war. Public opinion was certainly ahead of the Democrats."
And people will only grow more disenchanted with Iraq and its multitude of costs. "The people here are paying for this war, and everyday we have new stories about health clinics being shut down," Becker said.
Becker was amazed last March as massive demonstrations for immigrant rights seemed to explode out of nowhere. "We think there will be more things like that," he said.
Because after five years of organizing communities to resist the military-industrial complex's plans, Becker thinks there's been some visible progress.
"There isn't a town or hamlet in the US that doesn't have activism going on, but you wouldn't know it from the corporate media," Becker said. "It's a mistake for people to feel discouraged."
Copyright ©2008 San Francisco Bay Guardian
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38 Comments so far
Show AllPlease W bring back the Draft! Those were the days!!!
Thanks Steven for laying out the history of that time ... i was on the streets when we shut the city down (so was Van Jones !). You did forget to mention the misleading figures the Chronicle put out in terms of the number of protesters. At one time they actually missed a zero and reported 15000 instead of 150000 !! The SF Chronicle did everything it could to belittle the protests and they continue to do so as evidenced by their crusade against the City Of Berkeley and the Marine Recruiting Center issue. We lost friends to the protests as well.
The general apathy to this war however hasnt changed, judging by the reaction of the people this morning in San Francisco !! One of the protesters interviewed had it right ... she said she is shocked how 'normal' the war has become. Depression, anger, rage, resignation .. these are the emotions you feel these days with no end in sight.
as stated above by Norr - war is not an anomaly - neither is clear-cutting, destruction of native people, or vacuuming the sea - damming rivers and blowing the tops off mountains -
if we stop any of these we can stop all of them - who is ready for a world without fisheries, or home depot? who is ready for world laid to waste?
i share the author's hope that the presidential election cycle, unnecessarily lengthy and expensive as it is, will not distract citizens from the far more important work of engaging one-on-one with their neighbors. we need to cut through the fog of corporate media and show them how the occupations, the bursting of the housing bubble, and the skyrocketing price of nearly everything are interrelated, and how those factors are affecting them directly.
let's try being less narrowly anti-war and more broadly anti-imperialist. let's keep the pressure on wherever we are. let's keep those conversations going. and let's not pin all our hopes on "change" arriving on angel's wings on 1/20/09.
While I don't want to think the resistance is futile, I don't believe that the pro-peace movement made a dent in actual policy.
Unfortunately, people who want to believe that Obama (or worse yet, Hillary) are going to bring change are going to be sadly betrayed.
There needs to be fundamental change in what motivates society, and if we as a society cannot even state it, how can we act on it.
Economics drives the war, genetic food, stock market-- even if it goes against the well being of society.
This war is not a failure to the architects of the war, they are making plenty of profit. The billions of dollars this war is costing is simply the transfer of money that comes from our taxes to the hands of corporations and individuals who don't mind a little blood on their money.
so it goes...
I believe that resistance is the way. It's just that the amount we have to resist has increased exponentially because these people don't care what the people don't like. We have to resist resist resist resist until they feel it where it hurts -- their pocketbooks.
I named my blog resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com.
Yes, there are very few politicians who would actually go against corportations...someone like Ron Paul, or Dennis Kucinich, maybe... but the others , even Obama, will be bought and paid for. We need to stand against our own government, in peaceful, but forceful ways. In small towns such as ours, apathy and racism STILL rule. Until it really hits these people in their souls, things will not change. Resistance is probably futile, but we should at least TRY.
Resistance is NOT futile. One key plank in the neo-con's justification of the Iraq war is that no deranged ragheads have crashed any more airplanes into US landmarks. Cannot the peace movement strut about and believe that Iran would be a disaster zone of death and suffering by now, were it not for the peace movement's resistance?
But I do see, that as with the Environmental movement, all our victories are temporary, all our defeats permanent.
Actually I think they should bring back the draft. No, really.
It would give a hard kick in the butt to all those people who think its not their problem, that there is no cost to them. It would also bring it home to those who have a choice not to enlist because they have a prospect of a decent job and can sit and play arm-chair general with a support the troops decal on their car.
I have stood on the corners with homemade signs, and candle lite vigils for over 5 years now, I have seen the difference, we used to get soda's thrown at us, mooned, threatened bodily harm, not to mention a million fingers which we took to be people showing their intelligence quota, but lately the cascade of horns peace hands waving, smiles, wish they would join us, but...
I have stood on the corners for over 5 years now, I have seen the differance, used to get things thrown at us, mooned, one fingers, but now, a cascade of horns thumbs up, peace signs, smiles, its a pleasure to continue the stand there...
"There were two main umbrella groups organizing protests before the war: Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW) and International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism)."
Let's not forget NION (not in our name) and UFPJ (united for peace and justice)... Just to name a few.
As this is being written, the town square is filled with people taking turns reading the known names of those who have died in Iraq. This will continue into the night, in rain, in cold, because memory is necessary - not only to remember those who have died, but those who are alive and that life is a journey that billions of human beings are calling out to be traveled together. Our doubts and concerns are the renewal for legitimate truths lived in the smallest aspects of our lives... a journey of discovery of what already exists and shedding the unnecessary. We are called to be fearless, faithful and loving.
The present-day Borg/American Fascism must be resisted everyday because it works everyday to supress and mind-numb. Besides active solidarity, learning the history of the American Borg is essential as is teaching it to others. The many writings of George Seldes and I.F. Stone are good places to start as they are the source works for Chomsky, Zinn, et al.
They should try reading the names of the 1.3 million Iraqis dead too! Reading of the names of the American dead soldiers ought to be done in every town square in America and on the steps of Congress and the Supreme Court. To hell with the White House, they don't care a damned about Americans unless they are crony corporatists.
Big Money writes - But I do see, that as with the Environmental movement, all our [pro-peace] victories are temporary, all our defeats permanent.
This is because commmon people let millionaires get away with anything because they think that once they get to be millioinaires they want to be able to get away with anything. They let the theives steal because they want to become theives and steal.
so it goes...
We never had the internet back in the 60's protests days. In a news blackout atmosphere, protests would only be reported on after the fact but their very existence was the FACT. It caused media coverage because it existed. No the media didn't help organize the demonstrations and begrudged what little coverage they gave it and always, underestimated numbers. Too bad we didn't have the net then but we knew how to organize with what we had. Volunteers...lol.
We barely use the potential for the voice of the people on the net. Our multitude of voices, speaks loudest as we learn this way of instantly communicating with others all at once.
Maybe we need to organize our organizations, web sites, blogs or what have you on this net of ours. You know ...our net... not the mainstream media. Like this site and so many others. People needed to coordinate to demonstrate. This net needs an open access Peace Circle ... a web ring? Some way of self coordinating all our web voices?
In short ... this net needs US. Get E-organized on this net of ours while yet it still open and is ours.
For people who feel they have no voice and aren't heard, how come you can literally communicate with millions at a single keystroke? Wish we had had that ability back then to help us protest and even announce upcoming protests in the 60's. Or have such ways of being creative while doing it.
Historically, for the very first time, the voice of the people, (each individual) now has access to mass media.
With every keyboard a microphone... how come nobody is talking with each other ... having a coordinated communication, an electronic grapevine, between sites, blogs and people?
Gee I wish we had had the ability to instantly be able to communicate with thousands and potentially millions of people so easily.
All we had was us... stuffing flyers into envelopes, mailing them... a great tool this net and yet ...
Organise your net.
Organize your individual ability to have instant access to a form of mass communication.
On the electronic frontier, the net is the great equalizer.
An individual's mass media. Okay is that cool or what?
Turn bombs into doves! Wage Peace.
If you need motivation watch Winter Soldiers on democracy now or other places.
I hope it's true, but I can't say I believe anything will come of it. I've written to legislators, the president, blogged here and there, donated money, withheld money, etc etc. I don't have much hope that any change, even small, will come of peoples' protests. Those in power do what they will. The common people suffer, and the rulers profit. It has been this way since ancient times, and except for costumes, seems ever the same.
I note with regret the absence of posts by PAUL BRAMSCHER.
Stylistically dry, arguably, to the point of distraction, but pleasantly, always nobly above the conventional partisan fray, BRAMSCHER nevertheless reliably, consistently argued for basic human decency in all matter small and large.
Has he begun to post, against his posting principles, under a different name? Or has his decent spirit and keen head, instead, become too disgusted to continue sharing sensible insight and hope?
Where are you, Paul?
But others say it sparked a political change that woke up an apathetic citizenry, pulled the Democratic Party back to the left
Who said that? A satirist?
if Obama wins, he will be the first president in a long time who took office thanks to the support of a strong grassroots progressive movement.
A strong grassroots progressive movement? What a delusion! We know what to expect after the election of Prez O'Bama. We can expect the same thing we got after the Demoks took majority control of the Congress in 2006. Capitalist, imperialist, zionist, militarist control over public policy, the institutions, the markets, the society and the people.
But the capitalist media will continue pretending that either the people are in control when in fact they're not (as the San Francisco Bay Guardian tries to do above), or that the people's control is irrelevant (the usual tactic).
CorpusCallosum, maybe we need to look at both the pros and cons of hope. Some people like me spent a long time hoping, assuming, and trusting that our employees in the federal government were doing their jobs. I don't hope or trust anymore when it comes to the feds, but I do hope, trust and am fully confident in the progressive way which is currently practiced on such a tiny scale in the US. Practice it yourself and get your hope from your own results. And imagine how great it will be when the flood of people finally come into the progressive camp. But placing hope in the establishment may lead only to depair. And this is no surprise. Governments are very easily corrupted when their citizens fail to uphold their civic duty.
"…The movement did wane after Nixon ended the draft and substituted massive aerial bombardment for boots on the ground."
After watching a graphic movie about the atomic bombing of Japan ("White Light/Black Rain") this is so depressing for someone who's been protesting since the [1st] Gulf War. I have seen how nothing really changes; the militarization -and manipulation- of society has only become far more extensive, as eerily shown in the movie "Why we fight". I went through the same process as the Miller couple in the belly, Washington, D.C. I considered leaving many times, especially when I see, as today, no signs of change. We visited API, Lockheed and other main Iraq war profiteers. The most unsettling thing is to see the indifference of the rest of Americans, so oblivious to those crying in 2008 for an end to this rampant planetary and human destruction.
"Ah, how wretched men have been and how much to be pitied! And they were wretched only because they were cowards and fools." -- Voltaire
I would say that the above appellations apply to the government leaders, not to the protesters...
To the protesters I would say the proper appellation would be that they be Candide, a character of Voltaire who represented the good person who continued to believe that authority had virtue until he could believe it no more.
Here, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, we have a scene where we keep standing on street corners holding up our signs, representing our disapproval of Bush et al, all to no effect. This has been the case since Bush was elected, yet protests continue. It should be clear at this point that to protest does no good. Our gov't has moved from a democracy to an authoritarian state. We must deal with it as such.
How does one do that?
Dunno. I am inexperienced, but a creative approach must follow. Let's say we, en masse, stop buying at Wal Mart. That would demonstate some power to us and them. Exxon -Mobile would be next. Just a thought. More creative sorts out there might come up with better strategies.
riverpeace, I, too, watched White Light/Black Rain, and Why We Fight (my son asked me to buy it after he saw it!), and The Corporation, and Control Room, and all the other documentaries so I could better understand our place in the world. I also feel the apathy from my friends in our small community where I live. It saddens me that people just don't want to talk about our illegal invasion any more.
My 13 year old son cringes when his friends are over and I ask them questions like how many Iraqis have died since our invasion, or how long have we been at it in Iraq. I'm hoping to plant seeds so that they'll begin to ask the same questions of their parents. Next time I drive the school carpool I'll ask them all why they think we're over there fighting. If I can't get through to their parents, perhaps I can get through to them.
I agree that informing others and bringing up the issue of Iraq is importanrt if we want to turn the people against war. However, McCain is as popular as Obama in the latest poll, so how can one not be discouraged? Sure we have to keep trying but there is a very, very long way to go and it won't be in time for this election. Apparently, we need McCain to take us in deeper in order to learn the lesson we need to learn.
The symbol of this struggle is Nancy Pelosi. She, as much as Bush, is responsible for this degrading situation. She, more than anyone, deserves to be thrown out. How is that going? She has collected more money than anybody and seems headed for an easy reelection.
We don't need to change congress as much as we need to change the people. One way to do that is to move to Sweden.
Which Oil company was Douglas Feith working for?
My father is a lifelong Republican who spent 40 years working as a safety engineer for the FHWA. This is what he says about the war: "The lynchpins on the Bush war wagon are the events of 11 Sep 01. With the truth we can pull them."
Why does this site filter on and block posts with dubya tee see seven dot net in them?
Sorry about the possible repost, but I am having trouble editing a previous post.
My father is a lifelong Republican who spent 40 years working as a safety engineer for the FHWA. This is what he says about the war: "The lynchpins on the Bush war wagon are the events of 11 Sep 01. With the truth we can pull them."
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18 March 2008
OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS
IMPEACH OR ELSE
I hereby pledge that for the rest of my life I shall not vote for any member of the Senate or House of Representatives, Democrat or Republican, for any future public office if they have not taken a public stand for impeachment of the Bush-Cheney gang before these war criminals have left office. All of our elected Representatives and Senators have taken an oath of office that they will defend the Constitution against both foreign and domestic enemies. Under these circumstances, with the crimes committed by this group against our Constitution and crimes against innocent civilians, not to bring impeachment proceeding borders on traitorous action. When our very form of government and our Constitution are under threat, there can be no more important business for the Congress to attend.
The crimes of Bush and Cheney in the abuse of human rights and international crimes of torture, murder, and illegal detainment are well known. They have manipulated our country into a war under false pretenses that has cost thousands of lives, those of our own citizens as well as innocent civilians of other countries. They have alienated our allies by spurning international law. The Republican Party must bear responsibility for the actions of this administration and the Democratic Party has become complicit in these crimes by their continued financial support of the war and their failure to institute impeachment proceedings. All who do not make a stand for our Constitution, that so many brave Americans have given their lives to defend, should be voted out of office as unworthy to serve. If our elected representatives do not act on this critical matter they leave an indelible stain on the American psyche and our reputation among the family of nations that time will not wash away. The Constitution does not say MAY be impeached, but Article II, Section 4 says, "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States SHALL BE removed from Office on IMPEACHMENT for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. Therefore, I cannot vote for those who do not uphold their oath of office. Their failure to uphold the Constitution for which they took an oath borders on treason. If any of these people, who have failed to fulfill their duty to protect our Constitution, choose to run for public office again, I shall not vote for them, but will vote for the best qualified independent who pledges to truly represent the people and I encourage others to do the same.
Copyleft 2008 J. Glenn Evans
(Feel free to copy and distribute as broadly as possible)
If you likewise are alarmed at the trashing of our Constitution and appalled at our elected representative's reluctance to act in fulfilling their oath of office and wish to make the same pledge, please list your name and email address below and forward on to your contacts and post copies to your elected representatives.
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REMEMBER THE CONSTITUTION and 1776
Earth rights—Human Rights—Peace
Public funding of private militias is the knife that will cut the throat of the Republic—J. Glenn Evans—24Nov2007
J. Glenn Evans
Native of Oklahoma and former stockbroker and investment banker. Poet, author, historian and founder of PoetsWest and Activists for a Better World. Widely published in journals and anthologies. Produces and hosts weekly radio show of poetry, music and stories on KSER 90.7 FM.
Resist-and keep resisting. This president and this war are a horrible and tragic mistake that the republican party refuses to recify at the cost of so very much.
This war has cost so many lives; this war has left-in its wake-deep and permanent scars. Tragedy upon tragedy.
And still the neocons beat the war drum. They ought to be beaten with it, instead.
Shame on them; but really, how do you shame the shameless-the conscienceless-the completely irresponsible? No hell is hot enough, in my book!
I think a large part of the problem is that the age of mass media is accompanied by a ubiquitous condition of narcissism and nihilism. People in general don't believe they can change the world for the better, and a lot of people who tried got killed, imprisoned, or tortured, so why not just enjoy consumption and fornication ( to paraphrase Tariq Ali)---y'know, if you're stuck on the Titanic and you have no chance of getting a spot on a lifeboat, then, why not get drunk and screw before you sink beneath the waves.
re JohnR 9:55am
i think you're on to something, but i'd argue that the real nihilists are the ones currently in power, who apparently have no concerns beyond living large right now. what do they care what kind of world their children will inherit? the attitude seems to be "we're going to be dead soon, so party on, dudes!---(but let's not waste our time and money being excellent to each other)."
compare this to the first nations, whose considerations of possible effects on the seventh generation was part of group decisionmaking.
We need to make Wendell Berry required reading for everyone. The real disconnect is between the consciuosness of the post-industrial human and the requirements of nature. And as hazmat observes, nature requires us to reproduce successfully indefinitely into the future. Any economic or political system that fails to honor sustainability will not sustain, but perhaps, we are too far gone to reverse the course. I hope not, but human beings aren't very good at resisting immediate gratification even when it is made quite clear that it's not in their long-term self-interest. We're like chimps that way.
I am a Conservative Republican and rarely read news like yours. Yet I, too, cried when my nation invaded another country, Iraq. That isn't the America I am so proud of.
I pledged allegiance to a very different nation, and now I fight daily to get that country back.
My Mom is a progressive like you and reads this sort of thing. Then I had a long talk with her one day--and discovered that we agreed on almost every issue. So I expect that each of you and I have far more in common than you might think, and dream most of the same dreams for America's future.
It amazes me that you keep saying you want freedom from war yet you keep voting for the BiGovernment Democrats who make the government bigger and bigger--why do you expect anything but war?
I attended a Hillary Clinton rally and the people cheered her statements that she would get us out of Iraq! Havent't these people paid any attention to her voting record? She voted to start it (most Americans DID support the invasion) and has voted for it consistently since.
You are horrified by the criminality of BigCorporations--don't you know these are amongst biggest contributors to both Dem and Republican parties--0giving twice as much to the Democrats?
Do you think you can have freedom with the Democrat politicians who take away one right after another, pushing you around?
Ah, but what have the Republicans offered you? Bush, who outspent Clinton and violated long-term Republican ideals of keeping the Feds out of our teachers' hair and promulgated Real ID and farm animal ID and warrantless searches, etc. etc. McCain, who destroyed other aircraft in Vietnam besides the one he was shot down in, and opposes--vigorously--the return of our MIAs from that conflict, Romney, whose Health care plan is as Nazi as Hillary's, etc.
Such are no alternative at all.
There have been a few lonely figures in both parties trying to restore the Rule of Law and the Constitution. And some third parties, such as the Libertarians and Constitution Party.
If you want to delete war and other BigGov abuses of the people, then you need to find leaders like Ron Paul, who are actually moving in that Direction. There is a real possibility that this kindly doctor will receive the Republican Nomination. If so, you can vote in November for a Candidate who voted AGAINST the war in the first place, and ever since--and gets more money contribution from our soldiers than ALL other candidates combined. They know who will really support the freedoms they risk so much to defend.
Other candidates blow smoke, hot air. Ron Paul is running on his record-- a record you will like very much if you take a good long look at it.
It is not only a matter of November and one Officeholder. It is also a Revolution in the tradition of the first one: people tired of swarms of officers eating out their jsubstance, who want a Restoration of everything this country stands for. Find out more about it: Google Ron Paul.
Thank you.