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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 04/09/2003 10:20:49 AM PDT by TomB
On Saturday, April 12, join the tens of thousands of people of conscience who will surround the White House. The whole world is watching to see if the people of the United States can intensify the power of the anti-war movement at the moment that the Bush Administration is intending to slaughter tens of thousands of Iraqi people and occupy their country. We urge every anti-war organizer and concerned person to bring your friends, neighbors and family members to this all-important mobilization on April 12.
The world is in a state of Shock and Revulsion as the murderous Bush Administration follows through on its promise to "Shock and Awe" the Iraqi people by dropping thousands of bombs and missiles on their capital, a city that is home to 4.5 million human beings. Baghdad has been bombed relentlessly, terrorizing the occupants of that city and of the entire country. U.S. "precision" bombs have slammed into poor residential neighborhoods in Baghdad and a busy shopping street. U.S. and British troops are leaving a "trail of death" in their wake as they invade and bomb Iraq and reporters describe charred corpses littering the roads to Baghdad as well as in its streets. U.S. and British forces have laid siege to Basra, bombing and destroying the electrical supply to the main water plant and blocking the Iraqi food distribution system into Basra. The people of Basra are now starving and without water; various U.N. agencies state that Basra is in humanitarian crises and on the verge of a major cholera outbreak and massive child mortality. This crisis is caused by the U.S. attack coupled with the effect of 12 years of U.S.-led U.N. economic sanctions. The United States government is telling the people of Basra that they may only have food and water if they rise up against the Iraqi government and accept the U.S. occupation.
The Iraqi people and the U.S. GIs who have been killed and wounded and are suffering are the casualties of George W. Bush's unprovoked war of aggression. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families of all those who have been killed and wounded as a consequence of this illegal imperialist war.
This horrific unprovoked attack on Iraq must be understood as one of the extreme terrorist acts of modern times. Cruise missiles launched from submarines and aircraft hundreds of miles away and 2,000 lb. bombs dropped from 30,000 ft. up are the latest example of the Bush administration's criminal resort to limitless violence and terrorism in order to achieve its objectives of conquest and occupation. The hypocrisy of the war against Iraq is extreme: the most powerful military in the world waging first strike war with the most advanced weapons against an impoverished country on the pretext that it someday may possess such weapons.
The world has entered a new phase. The Bush Administration is hell bent on world domination. The war on Iraq was meant to signal that the U.S. use of raw military power will be the means to create a new era of Empire. We understand that the war on Iraq is only one of the fronts on which the United States government is determined to build a world empire. The U.S. is also waging war in Colombia, training future death squads at the dreaded School of the Americas/WHISC, and waging economic war through the IMF, World Bank, and free trade treaties such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement.
To the shock of the warmakers, their plans have ignited a world movement of opposition and solidarity. In addition to the well publicized demonstrations in Europe and the Middle East, nearly every country in Latin America has participated in massive street demonstrations and the continent has nearly unanimously rnjected Bush's "Coalition of the Willing." For months this movement has delayed and restrained the war plans for Iraq. Bush and Co. have lost all legitimacy and they are isolated. The people's movement has deprived them of the any threadbare claim to legality.
April 12 comes in the midst of the long-planned "Mobilization Against Military and Economic Intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean" organized by the Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC). This coalition, which includes some members of the A.N.S.W.E.R Steering Committee, has called for a series of actions from April 10- 15. In addition to converging in Washington on Saturday April 12 for the mass march on the White House to Stop the War on Iraq, A.N.S.W.E.R. encourages you to travel to DC in time for the public opening plenary of the LASC conference on Friday evening, April 11, and to stay for a demonstration on Sunday, April 13 focusing on Latin America Solidarity which will march to several corporate and financial institutions before arriving at the World Bank.
Today our hearts are filled with both anger at the war and sadness for the suffering people of Iraq who are enduring this unprovoked terrorist attack, and for the grieving families of the sons and daughters of America who Bush has sent to kill and be killed for his war of aggression and conquest. But sadness and grief should be coupled with a profound understanding that the sudden emergence of a new global movement offers the best and only hope that the U.S. government's plans for militarism, war and domination -- the doctrine of endless war -- can and will be overcome. In the days ahead we must intensify the struggle against this cruel war.
Winner of this year's "Bad Timing" Award.
Posted purely for your schadenfreude.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Are these bozos all Trust Babies? All the goofy "conferences" and "marches" and "teach-ins" and "sit-ins" and meetings take time and money. Too bad this group of misfits can't channel their energy, time and money into something useful.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, now up on UPI, and FR, "The Berlin Solution to the Baghdad Problem."
Leni
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