Words to the Die-In Participants: We as a People Have the Power
These were my remarks to several hundred activists and supporters participating in a die-in in downtown San Francisco at noon, March 19, 2008, on the fifth anniversary of the launching of shock and awe in Iraq. All those blocking traffic - surprisingly, for a couple of hours, before we were all arrested - were handcuffed, booked and released some hours later for a later court date. I chose to paraphrase, in part, a statement to the court I had heard my older son Robert make in Colorado thirty years ago this spring, when we were on trial for blocking the railroad tracks leading to the Rocky Flats Nuclear Production Plant in 1978.
On this fifth anniversary of an ongoing American crime against the peace, it is well to remember the 40th anniversary - four days ago, this last Sunday - of an American war crime in a hamlet named My Lai. On March 16, 1968, American soldiers - as brave as any fighting now in Iraq - obeyed blatantly illegal orders to gun down 504 Vietnamese civilians, nearly all women, children and infants.
The war in Iraq is a My Lai writ large: on a scale of a thousand. The best estimate of the number of civilians killed in this war, as of last year, is 1.2 million. Not all of those, by any means, have been killed by Americans. Many have been murdered by Iraqis; but American airpower has killed a very high proportion of those civilians, along with indiscriminate ground fire; and it was an American decision that unleashed this slaughter five years ago. 1.2 million people. That corresponds to a My Lai a day, every day, for six and a half years. That’s longer than this war has yet lasted, but not nearly as long as it will probably last.
The Republican candidate for president has projected an occupation of fifty to a hundred years. That could very well prove to be realistic. Of the two Democratic candidates, neither one has been willing to commit - even to an intention - to have every American soldier out of Iraq by the end of her or his first term: five years from now. That is unacceptable. But that situation will not change unless the American people demand that it change. We must demand that our representatives in Congress - as Representative Barbara Lee and others have proposed in resolutions that have not reached the floor for a vote - cut off the funding for any American presence in Iraq, including enduring bases, except for purpose of withdrawal over a period of months. We must demand that a candidate who wants our support and our votes commit to that same goal.
The people lying in the street here [as I began these remarks, people had begun lying down in a die-in in the middle of the intersection of Market and Montgomery Streets in downtown San Francisco, in front of the office of Senator Diane Feinstein] symbolize both the nearly four thousand American dead and the more than a million Iraqis who have died in the war. But they also express, with our bodies, our lives, that this war is continuing, as it began, without our consent.
By lying here - obstructing for moments or hours business as usual- fifty of us, a hundred, a thousand across the country, do not have the power to end this war. But we are trying to show that we as a people - if we have the will and determination - do have that power: the power to change ourselves and history. We as a people have the power to end this war. And that is what we must do.
Let’s get on with it. [At this point my wife Patricia and I joined more than sixty others stopping traffic by lying in the intersection, awaiting arrest.]
Daniel Ellsberg was put on trial in 1973 for leaking the Pentagon Papers, but the case was dismissed after four months because of government misconduct. He is the author of “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers.“
call bush at 202.456.1111
…THIS “WAR” IS GOING TOBITE ALLOT OF AMERICAN CITIZENS IN THE ASS..
SOME NOTES..
THERE SHOULD BE LEGISLATION NOW TO DEAL WITH THE REALITY OF ANGRY, DISTURBED VETS, WHO HAVE SEEN AND COMMITTED HORRORS ONLY THEY CAN IMAGINE..FOR YOU WOULD HAVE TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT..NOW..WHAT IS TO PREVENT THESE PEOPLE FROM IMPACTING YOUR LIFE UPON THEIR RETURN TO AMERICA.
FOR EXAMPLE, TAKE A SOLDIER THAT WAS IN SOME SPECIAL TORTURE UNIT..OR WHO KILLED CIVILIANS IN IRAQ WITH IMPUNITY..FOR THEIR ARE MANY..NOT ALL..OF COURSE…BUT MANY..NOW SUPPOSE THIS SOLDIER RETURNS HOME, AND WITH A VA THAT IS CORRUPT AND ESSENTAILLY USELESS IN TERMS OF PSYCH CARE..THIS PERSON JOINS A LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY…GULP! DO YOU REALLY WANT THIS PERSON TO PULL YOU OVER SOME DARK NIGHT AND BEGIN TO LOSE IT OVER YOUR ‘NO WAR FOR OIL” BUMPER STICKER? DO YOU?
I PROPOSE A 3 YEAR “WATING PERIOD” OR “COOLING OFF PERIOD” BEFORE A VETERAN OF IRAQ CAN JOIN ANY LAW ENFORCEMENT JOB..EVEN IF THEY WERE IN THAT CAREER BEFORE DEPLOYMENT.
I REALIZE TO SOME THIS MAY SOUND LIKE A “PUNISHMENT” OR A ‘SWEEPING GENERALIZATION” AND TO SOME EXTENT THAT COULD BE RIGHT..I GUESS..BUT THE FACT IS THAT IN IRAQ THE “RULES OF WAR” ARE NOT BEING OBSERVED, AND TO ALLOW THESE PEOPLE TO RETURN TO A JOB WHERIN THEY CARRY A GUN, HAVE MORE “RIGHTS” THAN A CITIZEN (BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS ANYMORE WHEN IT COMES TO THE POLICE, YOU CANNOT EVEN DEFEND YOURSELF..) AND TOO, BE IN A JOB THAT HAS A LONG HISTORY OF SECRECY AND ‘PROTECTING IT’S OWN’ WHEN IT COMES TO “JUSTICE’ FOR THEIR CRIMES AGAINST THE COMMUNITY..DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SEE PISSED OFF ANGRY KILLER WITH A BATON AT THE NEXT MARCH? THERE HAS GOT TO BE SOME KIND OF OVERSIGHT FOR RETURNING VETS GOING INTO POLICING JOBS..THEY NO LONGER HAVE THE TEMPERAMENT TO “LISTEN” TO A “CIVILIAN”..SHOOT FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER…NOT GOOD..AND THE “SCANDALS” WILL HAPPEN..YOU WATCH..
SECOND..GET READY FOR SOME SERIOUS, TACTICAL LEVEL, CRIME.
YEAH THAT’S RIGHT..AMERICA HAS YET TO SEE A “BANK JOB” IN WHICH THE “PERPS” HAD SNIPER COVER, MOVED TACTICALLY, AND WERE EXTRACTED WITH A HELICOPTER…THAT WILL ALSO HAPPEN AS PISSED OF VETS WITH THE MOST ADVANCED “URBAN WARFARE” SKILLS COME HOME TO A COUNTRY THAT COULD GIVE A SHIT AND A SYSTEM THAT ESSENTIALLY SAY’S ‘FUCK YOU’ AS REGARDS ANY KIND OF ‘LIFE’…AND NOW YOU ARE AN ACTION JUNKY WITH A SERIOUS JONES…AND YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY..YOU GOT TO KEEP A MANAGABLE JONES…WELL..GET READY..IT’S COMING..
AND THEN THERE ARE THE MERCENARIES…OH WOW MAN…OXO WOW MOM…THESE IDIOTS ARE GOING TO BE REALLY DANGEROUS IN A REALLY DUMB WAY..AND THEY ARE GOING TO CAUSE ALLOT OF TROUBLE..THESE PROBLEMS..IN A SANE SOCIETY..WOULD BE ADDRESSED NOW…BEFORE IT GET’S OUT OF HAND…AGAIN..DO YOU REALLY WANT YOUR LOCAL SHERRIFF DEPARTMENT TO BE MANNED BY EX-BLACKWATER MORONS? I ASK YOU! I DON’T..NOOOO..I DON’T. AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU…
WE DO NOT NEED ZEALOTS WITH ANTI-CIVIL LIBERTIES MINDSETS RUNNING AROUND WITHIN THE FEDERAL AND STATE LEVEL BUREAUCRACY…IT IS A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN..BUT..
THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT..BESIDES CALLING YOUR REPS NOW..AND GETTING IT IN THEIR MINDS..SO THAT WHEN THE STORY BREAKS IN THE LOCAL PAPER OF A SHERRIFF TORTURING A CONFESSION OUT OF A “SUSPECT’ AND IT TURNS OUT THE SHERRIFF SERVED AT ABU GRHAIB..WELL..THEN MAYBE THE IDEA WILL BE THERE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT..
AND LASTLY..DO NOT PAY..DO NOT DECLARE..
YOU ARE PAYING FOR ALL OF THIS! THE WHOLE EVIL, CORRUPT, SAVAGE GAME..YOU ARE PICKING UP THE CHECK…YOU ARE COMPLICIT..ABSOLUTELY COMPLICIT..YOUR DOLLARS ARE PAYING THE SALLERIES OF TORTURE “SPECIALISTS”, OF SECRET KIDNAPPINGS, YOUR DOLLARS PAY FOR ILLEGAL WARS, FOR THINK TANKS THAT FORM PLANS TO DE-EDUCATE YOUR KIDS..YOUR DOLLARS PAY FOR IT ALL…SO PLEASE..PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IT…IT’S “NON-VIOLENT” PROTEST, AND IT IS THE ONE POWER WE HAVE LEFT..THE POWER OF THE PURSE..THEY CAN’T MOVE WITHOUT THE MONEY..IT IS THE GREASE WHICH ALLOWS THE MACHINE TO RUMBLE FORWARD INTO THE GRIM FUTURE..DO NOT DECLARE..DO NOT PAY..AND GET READY..THE “SURGE” WILL WASH BACK…AND AMERICA WILL BE LIKE THAI-LAND…A DISASTER AREA..
jcrumb, your caps key is stuck. Many people don’t read messages that are in all caps.
Daniel Ellsburg not only speaks by his words but by his actions and a thirty plus year career dedicated to exposing the lies and hypocrises of our government. To those (like Ellsberg)who demand that “business as usual” cannot and must not continue, thank you for redeeming our lost freedoms by exercising them.
jakenewton March 20th, 2008 1:19 pm
I know you’re right, because I am one of those people.
I Don’t want to be pesimistic about the concept of “don’t
pay” but….. the leaders who are not responsible leaders are merely borrowing the money from wealthy individuals and other countries. My thought is that we can only create the change we want through civil disobendience, which gets the attention of even the most detacted, and then concentrate on voting the “stay the course/ status quo” politcians out of office, and placing in office those who hold human life in higher regard then corporate dividends.
I ALWAY’S USE ALL CAPS..IT IS NOT TOO IMPORTANT..REALLY..WHO CARES..IF PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO READ A POINT OF VIEW BECAUSE OF THE WAY IT’S WRITTEN..THEN…UHHH..WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND THE PEOPLE WHO SIMPLY IGNORE WHAT THEY DON’T WANT TO HEAR?..IT REALLY SEEMS LIKE AN UNIMPORTANT THING TO BE IRRITATED BY…WHEN THERE IS SO MUCH EVIL IN THE WORLD..I AM PISSED OFF..AND I SHOUT IT OUT…SO WHAT! YOU WANT TO WHISPER..GO AHEAD..NOT ME..I AM ANGRY..AND I AM SHOUTING…AN THAT IS..THAT!
AS FOR THE MONEY THAT FUNDS THE CORRUPT POWER POLITICS IN THIS WORLD…IT IS ALL TAXES..YOU CAN RATIONALIZE ALL YOU WANT..BUT IF YO PAY..THEN YOU PAY FOR THE VERY CRIMES YOU ARE SUPPOSEDLY AGAINST..TO BELIEVE OTHERWISE IS IN FACT…”FEAR” YOU ARE SIMPLY TO AFRAID TO ACTULLY…ACTUALLY..TAKE ON THE VERY POWERS YOU WISH TO CHANGE..THEY HAVE GOT YOU..AND THEY ARE RELYING ON YOUR FEAR TO CONTINUE TO FINANCE THE EVIL THEY DO…PERIOD! AND THE PROOF IS QUITE SIMPLY THIS…DO YOU THINK THAT IS 100 MILLION OF YOU..1/3 OF THE NATION..STOPPED PAYING THAT THEY WOULDHAVE THE MONEY NEEDED TO CONTINUE? IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT..THAN I AM SORRY TO SAY…YOU SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW ENOUGH TO REALLY BE A THREAT TO THE STATUS QUO TO BEGIN WITH..SORRY..BUT IT’S TRUE…
IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY..EVERY THIN DIME..AND YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT..PERIOD..IF YOU PAY, THEN YOU ARE SUPPORTING THE WAR..PERIOD…ABSOLUTELY UNDENIABLE TRUTH..YOU ARE SUPPORTING THE TORTURE, GUANTANAMO, THE WAR, THE BEATINGS, THE RAPING OF THE ENVIRONMENT, TAXES DEFINITLEY PAY THE SALLERIES OF CORPORATE FLUNKIES PUT INTO POSITONS OF POWER BY BUSH..OR DO YOU THINK THAT THEY ARE PAID PRIVATELY…
THE IDEA THAT THIS IS BEING PAID FOR BY PRIVATE MONEY IS..FRANKLY…DUMB! AGAIN, SORRY..IT JUST IS…PUBLIC FUNDS ARE 80% OF THE FINANCIAL REALITY FOR EVERYTHING THAT IS HAPPENING..WITHOUT THOSE FUNDS..THE WHOLE MACHINE STOPS..PERIOD..
SO AGAIN..YOU CAN RATIONALIZE ANY WAY YOU LIKE…BUT IF YOU PAY..THATN YOU PAY FOR WAR..CIVIL DISOBEDIANCE IS GREAT..BRAVO..I DO IT TOO..I HAVE AN ARREST RECORD GOING BACK TO OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING IN CALIFORNIA WHEN I WAS 19…AND THEN I LEARNED…IT DOES NOT MATTER…IT IS ONLY THE MONEY..PERIOD…THE MONEY..THE MONEY..THE MONEY…PRIVATE INTERESTS ARE NOT FOOTING THE BILL..YOU ARE..YOU PAY..YOU PARTICIPATE..PERIOD!
GO AHEAD..LIVE IN FEAR..THEY HAVE BEATEN YOU…THEY HAVE NOT BEAEN ME..I AM NOT COMPLICIT IN THE CRIME..I DO NOT SUPPORT IT…IN ANY WAY…PERIOD..I WILL NOT LIVE IN FEAR. IF YOU WANT TO..GO AHEAD..IF YOU WANT TO WHISPER INSTEAD OF SHOUT..GO AHEAD..I CHOOSE NOT TO DO EITHER…I AM ANGRY, AND I WILL NOT SUPPORT THOSE WHO MAKE ME SO…READ THIS OR DON’T I DO NOT CARE..I DO IT FOR CATHARSIS..COMMON DREAMS DOES NOT SEND ME VALIUM..SO WHAT ELSE IS THERE?
To ‘jcrumb.’
Your fears of returning vets ranting, reckless, wreaking havoc has already occurred: it is called Blackwater - and it is government sponsored. Just ask the folks in New Orleans . . . .
As for the caps - it is simply difficult to read. It is not that people do not want to read your message - it is simply difficult to do so, much as it is to listen to a person who is constantly yelling and screaming. . .
jcrumb March 20th, 2008 1:52 pm
j,
It is more difficult for most eyes to read all caps. It actually places more strain on them.
Daniel Ellsberg; you are an American hero. I’ve wondered b4 if there might not be another, maybe within the intel estab, maybe the military, who might be able to step out of darkness with documents, pictures; proofs that if exposed could change everything….like maybe something explaining how the laws of physics were temporarily suspended on 9-11….Or Wellstone; a video of Bush effing w/ the plane-w/ dick holding a flashilight-the right truth lies under rocks easily dislodged.
Ellsberg got MoJo mon. Courage.
Look, Iraq fills in another piece of the American hegemonic jigsaw. Iran will follow shortly.
This war, like others, has nothing to do with bringing freedom and democracy. It’s a matter of getting your American foot in the door, building more military bases, and securing access to all that lovely oil.
Judge America by what it does not what it says! It is a rogue nation, a dangerous one!
www.dangerouscreation.com
jCrumb: It’s just that it’s hard on the eyes. Hard to read. Not a question of disapproval but practicality. I don’t know why it is uncomfortable, but it is.
The people do indeed have the power, and they want US supremacy on earth and in space. The way Americans see the world makes for a people ready to pick up a gun to solve a problem. Americans automatically fall back into their shell with a gun in hand daring anyone to come and get him. The idea of thinking it out is secondary. This is the American way, individualistic and aggressive.
Daniel Ellsberg is still my hero. He hasn’t gone cynical after all these years. Lizard, for once I think you are right. How do we teach Americans to think as a community? Aggressive individualism fortified by greed doesn’t seem to be working for us anymore.
ABOUT THE CAPS
It’s easier for me to read caps, they’re bigger. I have aging eyes - the rest of me never gets old - so I actually appreciate the caps.
Still, if it causes eye strain or whatever, I’m happy to put on my glasses and stick with the smaller print.
JCrumb–
Besides giving your caps key a rest you need to discover the enter key and put some lines of white space between your long unending list of sentences.
jcrumb, sweetie, all caps = SHOUTING. Reserve that for Bush & Co, though when you yell at deaf people they still can’t hear.
For Daniel Ellsbergs story, watch “The Pentagon Papers”, now on cable and satellite.
but anyway, getting back to the story,i just wanted to note that when you say all the deaths in Iraq have not been caused by americans, i’m not so sure the warriors get off that easy.
before shock and awe there was no sectarian strife, no car bombs, no suicide bombs, and lest we forget no such thing as al qaeda in Iraq. so all that killing started with the u.s. invasion. and the resulting devastation of the whole country.
GLK: How to foster a sense of community.
The globe theater where Shakespeare played was burnt down by puritans who objected to the frivolity of the plays. These people, intolerant and believeing they alone are right, founded the US. The concepts of good and evil, winner and loser, punishment and reward and no allowance for the frailties of man leads to a highly critical and intolerant society. The imposition of one’s will, as in burning the theater has been a hallmark of the US, as with prohibition. Good and bad, human and subhuman. These concepts permitted the holocaust of Native Americans and the population of Africa. The separation between the world and the US is a product of the disdain and mistrust Americans have toward the world. Americans play games almost nobody plays, and ignores the ones everybody plays. Thus they isolate themselves and perpetuate the myth of cultural superiority. The puritans managed to establish and enduring culture of rigid isolation from others on the basis of perceived superiority and closeness to God. A sense of community comes from tolerance for the frailties of man. Capital punishment is not consistent with this. Losers are people too and we are all on the same boat. America doesn’t think that way. It thinks losers deserve what they got because they are lazy no good bums. The key is to move away from religion, especially this religion which is based on judging others and punishing them if they do not conform, like with the Globe theater.
The latest war protest in Washington was about as effective as the ALL CAPS posts above by “jcrumb.”
“Daniel Ellsburg not only speaks by his words but by his actions…”
This is true and he would be the natural choice to lead a movement like Gandhi , Nightingale , Mandela , Tutu , MLK Jr….led theirs but you can’t lead if the majoriy of Americans don’t know or choose to know who you are or what you did .
Britney Spears , now that’s a name worth knowing .
jakenewton is right, j. crumb, I didn’t read your post because of the caps. It’s harder to read the caps. I read a lot. I have to skip something. I skip all caps. FYI.
we need the freedom to dissent peacefully without police action.
We recently read all the variations on a theme headlines: “Five Years Later-Was it worth it?”
As the sari-adorned waitperson serving me recently remarked: America has built up much Karma for herself.
We are now seeing this retribution play out like a moviola.
jcrumb –
your thoughts are powerful and need to be heard.
older readers with eye problems like the caps, but most younger readers, including me, have visual processing stress with the dense, unbroken all-caps format.
why not split the difference? keep your caps, but just create more white space between paragraphs. that would help a lot.
regards…..
just a suggestion…
Keep resisting! Keep protesting! The hope of a nation rests with you!
Sheer Conarchy is loosed upon Democracy,
The freedom-gouging tide is loosed, and everywhere
The Standing of America is downed…
–The Second Succumbing
http://atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/3354/1/
lizard: A sense of community comes from tolerance for the frailties of man.
Right, so end the American superiority complex and start tolerating others for being less godly, less capitalist, less American. But this implies that we should also tolerate others for being less socialist, so we tolerate the capitalist exploitation to avoid a socialist superiority complex. So instead of tolerating EVERYTHING, tolerate everything in proportion to its GOODNESS by universal concensus, which means do not tolerate the capitalist beast. Cage the beast. Embrace universalism to arrive at the most workable code of ethics. The Green Party platform embraces universalism as far as I know, and if not, it should.