Why is it a Minneapolis issue? Because there are a lot of folks who don't trust the current administration's motives farther than they can spit. Once our military, in our names, starts killing more innocents, some of these folks are going to stand up.
Maybe the next Seattle'99 will be here. It probably won't be in a city who has chosen to speak out against going into this war without first having proof that it is necessary and convincing the UN of that proof. Although I like the Greens, I'd make a lousy one because I'm not a pacifist. I have no trouble with the idea of committing violence (especially against property) to prevent violence against an innocent, and there's not a brick in this city that's worth the life of a single Iraqi civilian or child. Not one. I might be able to accept their deaths if I believed that it were an altruistic war - if fighting it was necessary to give their neighbors and survivors a reasonable life. I think if the global justice folks believed that this war were being fought in the interest of the Iraqi people or if they believed that Saddam backed 911 or was going to back a WMD attack against America, you'd see a lot less resistance to the idea. But when Reagan had the Taliban visit the US and called them the equivalent of our founding fathers, when Unicol <sp?> was trying to broker deals in Afghanistan very close to the war, when Rumsfeld travelled to Iraq after Saddam's use of nerve gas and told Saddam he was a "moderating influence" on the region, when Carlyle's significant investors include both the Bushes and the bin Ladens and their holdings build weapons in the Middle East, when a thousand other things are seen, it gets pretty tough to swallow. When it seems so clear that this is going to make it MORE likely to provoke more terrorist attacks, it becomes even harder to swallow. I forward the following letter because it struck a chord. I don't concur with the author's assessment of the motivations behind the war (I believe it is more about controlling world oil supply than our personal need for it), but the writer's assessment of the hypocrisy and the reasons to question what is happening strikes me as being right on. Why should the city council care? Because the city's going to have to deal with all the citizens that don't swallow what the White House is trying to shove down our throats. Once the "collateral damage" starts, we're going to be even more displeased. - Jason Goray Sheridan, NE. Annoyed to know that someone's probably going to be keeping closer tabs on me now, but damn it, someone had to say it because a lot of us have been thinking it! (Oh, and for those of you who like predictions, check out this article from 01/18/2001: http://www.theonion.com/onion3701/bush_nightmare.html. It appears in the wayback machine for that date as well) (This article says a lot, but most of it is national /international, so I'd recommend going to the MPD/MPN lists for discussion around it.) = = = FORWARD = = = It appears we are on the eve of America's decision regarding imperialism. The decision revolves around this question: Will America strike now to become a true global dictatorship and empire? I believe it has been made clear that the current administration is not interested in human rights, spreading democracy, the removal of military dictators, or even in slowing the spread of weapons of mass destruction. This administration is interested in wealth. It wants the oil. It wants our taxes. It wants it all to go to the rich. And it wants it now. If the administration were interested in human rights, we would force Israel to stop invading and stealing Palestine's land. We would push the UN to halt Israel's human rights violations. Or in the very least we wouldn't use our veto on the permanent UN council to stop other countries from trying. If the administration were interested in spreading democracy, it wouldn't be so interested in revoking our own. Protections against mass media monopolies such as the one which Clear Channel (or many others) enjoys would not have been stricken from law. The Patriot Act would never have been passed. American citizens would not be executed by the CIA on foreign soil without trial. Captured enemies of the administration would not be relocated to countries where torture was not illegal, for purposes of interrogation. And all of America would still be considered a "Free Speech Zone," regardless of where the protest was at. If the administration was interested in removing military dictators from power, we wouldn't have such an incredible record of toppling popular democracies and installing military dictators in the first place. We wouldn't have turned a blind eye as Hussein used chemical weapons on the Kurds, nor supplied him with these weapons. We wouldn't have assured Hussein that attacking Kuwait was none of our business. We wouldn't be using the CIA to try to topple the government of Venezuela. And on and on. And if the current administration was interested in stopping the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, we wouldn't be the biggest arms supplier the world has ever seen. We wouldn't be advocating deals with declared nuclear power North Korea while we claim to be "inspecting" Iraq. We wouldn't be working on the son of the Star Wars program. We wouldn't be pulling out of nuclear non-proliferation treaties. We wouldn't maintain the largest nuclear arsenal of the world. And we wouldn't be advocating using these nuclear warheads in preemptive strikes as the new preferred way to wage war. Nuclear weapons, if they are to exist at all, should only exist as a deterrent. No, it appears to anyone who is looking that the current administration only cares about stealing what is rightfully ours from us. That, and slaughtering hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of innocent people to take what is theirs, too. The current "Shock and Awe" strategy of attack against Iraq calls for 800 cruise missiles to strike that country's infrastructure within 2 days. Each missile costs 1 million. They will strike "communications centers" (telephone routing, television and radio, and the like), "power grids" (electrical plants, routing stations), "transportation" (roads, bridges, rail, airports), and "support" (hospitals, schools, factories, government centers... well, you get the idea). Iraq will be left blind, broken, and burning. Up to 500,000 civilians will be killed. Up to a million will require "immediate" emergency food rations, or risk starvation. Hundreds of thousands will flee as refugees to Turkey. And we will add to the hundreds of tons of depleted uranium we have already dropped on that country's lands, only to turn away while the cancer rates and birth defect rates jump up to 19 TIMES what they were once were. We do this so we can take over that country. It has already been declared that an attack "may be necessary" even if Hussein steps down from power and seeks refuge in a different country. That is may be necessary even if the inspectors find no evidence of wrongdoing. That is may be necessary even if the UN vetoes the act. Even if we are in violation of international law to do it. All so that we have access to the massive oil reserves, so that our economy recovers, so that the machine of the administration can continue to roll. With an "American friendly" regime in place (or possibly without any regime at all - simply a US territory?), American oil companies will drain in the profits and the administration, one way or another, will become fatter. This, while the unemployment rate reaches its worst level since 1930. While corporations and the top 1% of taxpayers will receive cuts on how much they owe to the administration. While we are less free than we were in over a generation. While the administration continues to ignore the largest, broadest, most diverse anti-war movement since the height of anti-war at the end of Vietnam. While we are squeezed and confined and hammered on until we are no more. And I keep using the word "we." Because we are letting the administration do this to us. They are acting as the government of "We The People." To the world, the administration is us. And so we are doing this to the world, and we are doing this to ourselves. What I'm saying is when will we stop this insanity? When will we demand justice? When will we demand that the tide be turned back? And when our demands are denied, what will we do then? Will it be all threats, foreign and domestic? When does this chapter end? = = = END FORWARD = = = __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. 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