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A War By Any Other Name Is Still a War |
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On January 15, 1991, I was with over 3000 other people in a park in
downtown Olympia, Washington. We were opposing the impending war with
Iraq. After the rally in the park, we headed to the Capitol building about
five blocks away. After one more speech, many of us headed into the
building itself where we occupied at first the rotunda and then one of the
legislative chambers where we hoped to bring attention to the worldwide
opposition to this imperial war and present a resolution opposing American
war moves. We did get attention--in fact the protest was covered on CNN
nationwide. We did not get a resolution passed. The next day the bombing
began. Less than three months later, the war ended. Hundreds of thousands
of Iraqis died-some in very hideous ways. An image which represents this
war is that of a fleeing Iraqi soldier who was literally burnt to a crisp
by American firebombs. Since that time, many more hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis have died and most recently, the United States and Britain bombed
Iraq again for four relentless days. Since that pre-Christmas bombing
ended, the United States military has continued to attack Iraqi positions
at will, as if it were war. Well, guess what? This is a war! Like Vietnam in the 1960s, our government is sneaking us into a war. This time it's in Iraq. Now, the U.S. is attacking wherever and whenever it feels like under the guise of protecting the troops and enforcing the "no-fly" zone. Troops that wouldn't be there if the United States government and its corporate sponsors didn't feel it necessary to prevent every other country from moving in on the turf it feels is its own. The no-fly zones are nothing more than arbitrary regions in the country of Iraq that the U.S. and its ever loyal shadow, Britain, have decided are theirs to do whatever they wish to. Just like the British carved Kuwait from Iraq back in the early part of the century, these two imperial powers are attempting to carve Iraq into even more pieces. It's time we got moving! This war could easily become much larger than it has ever been since 1990. Our ignoring it will not make it go away. Silence is considered assent, especially when governments use their military power. Combined with the sanctions, the U.S. has killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis since its attack back in 1991. Up to this point, very few U.S. citizens have been killed, but that too could change. Either way, that is not a reason to not speak out. This war is not in our interest. It is being fought for very basic reasons: oil, the profits oil makes, and power. None of these reasons are worth killing or dying for. Going to war for any of these so-called "national interests" is not in the interests of the American people: the only interests being served by such a move are those who profit from oil and the machinery of death. It is time we stop allowing these folks to define what our interests are. And, similarily, who our enemies are. Saddam Hussein is not the enemy. Although ruthless and dictatorial, it is not his government's actions that we should be opposing first and foremost. It is our government's policy of bombing instead of talking that we should be calling to task. Just as many Americans consider Hussein to be difficult to communicate with, most of the rest of the world thinks the same of the United States. After all, it is the U.S. that has consistently issued ultimatums and called them negotiations and then, when the opposing government failed to respond within the time limits set by the U.S., the Pentagon sent in its weapons of mass destruction. In Iraq, it was also the U.S. who arbitrarily decided that certain areas of Iraq's own air space were off limits to Iraqis. Imagine if some government made New England off limits to U.S. air traffic and shot down any American craft it saw in the area. That would mean war. This is how the Iraqis feel about the "no-fly" zones--zones no one in the world recognizes other than the United States and British governments. If we truly want peace with Iraq, we must demand that our government quit making war on the people of Iraq. Write your congresspeople and convince them that talking is better than bombing and that the sanctions are bordering on the genocidal in that they are killing Iraqis only because they are Iraqi. Help organize demonstrations and teach-ins about this issue. Attend these functions and encourage other to do so. Demand that the media cover all sides of the story--the effect of the sanctions and the bombings, why the United States refuses to allow the sanctions to end, and why the U.S. Congress recently passed legislation which would in effect create a contra force inside Iraq, for example.
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