They’re at it again.

As if they (and we) learned nothing from Vietnam and Iraq, Cheney and Bush are going full speed ahead to expand the war in the Middle East.

Help Congress develop a spine.  Show yours.

What:  Rally and March to End the War in Iraq

When:  Saturday, January 27th, 2007 12pm (noon)

Where:  Powell and Market Street,  San Francisco CA

This is in conjunction with the rally & march in Washington, D.C.  Confirmed speakers (in D.C.): Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Danny Glover, Jane Fonda, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Reps. Kucinich, Waters, and Woolsey, Bob Watada, and more ...

More info at http://www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar.php?calid=19610

This piece, from the cover of the 2/5/2007 issue of The Nation, sums it up:

World opinion is against the US escalation in Iraq.  The American people are against it.  Congress is against it.  The Iraqi people are against it.  The Iraqi government is against it.

Can a single man force a nation to fight a war it does not want to fight, expand a war it does not want to expand?  If he can, is that nation any longer a democracy in any meaningful sense?  If not, how can democratic rule and the republican form of government be restored?

Be there.  It’s up to us.

I’ll be taking BART to the Powell St. station in SF.

Please take a minute to watch this video… with your sound on…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ervaMPt4Ha0

Wow.  I watched the whole thing, with sound, as you suggested.  I was touched, as I’m sure you were.

Yes, those of us who are serving in Iraq are doing a dangerous and thankless job.  They and their families are making an enormous sacrifice, and their lives hang in the balance every day.

That’s why I’m working to bring them home.

The war that they’re fighting in Iraq isn’t doing anything to keep us safer; in fact, it’s encouraging more terrorism worldwide.

Unfortunately, our armed forces have been ordered to invade and occupy Iraq by people who have no interest in our Freedom, but who want to control the world’s dwindling oil supply, and want to maintain a military presence in, and colonize, the oil-rich regions of the Middle East.

Despite the pro-war cheerleaders in the mainstream media, the vast majority of Americans now recognize that this war in Iraq was a mistake that has cost us too many of our finest people and too much money that’s borrowed from our children and grandchildren.

It’s time to get out of Iraq, but it’s also time to honor our troops for their willingness to do their duty.  They were told they were defending us and fighting for our freedom, but they aren’t.  They were lied to, as we were.

I don’t blame our soldiers for being in Iraq.  I blame the liars who sent them there. If there’s any justice left in this nation, they’ll be marched out of the White House in handcuffs.

If we learned anything in the Vietnam War, it was that we shouldn’t blame the soldiers for believing the lies that were told to them.

So yes, I was touched by the video.  It made me even more sad that our soldiers’ lives are being sacrificed to ultimately enrich oil companies and defense contractors.  And it made me even more furious at the incompetent liars who sent them to Iraq.

—Dan

Dan,

That is a reasonable opinion (not that I agree wholeheartedly).  Here is what I do not understand in your message:

“Help Congress develop a spine.  Show yours.”

How is being at the protest showing a “spine?”  I did not join you, so I am somehow remiss?

Was that protest also sponsored by the pro-Palestinian Marxists at A.N.S.W.E.R.?

I think that opposition to the war has grown beyond that of the lamentable ANSWER Coalition.

It seems to me that the correct way for supporters of the war to show their spines would be to enlist.

Brian,

Looking forward to the day you show your spine and enlist.  There are too many good Americans on their 3rd or 4th tour, and I’m sure they could use your help.

I’m just saying that whether you’re an immigrant, an American citizen, or a member of Congress, it takes courage to express an opinion against the Occupation of Iraq, or against any Cheney/Bush administration policy—even though 67% of Americans are against the war.

That’s right.  We’re the majority.

It’s not at all unusual for outspoken opponents of the occupation to be put on the “no-fly” list, or to receive surveillance letters from the FBI, or to be subjected to character assassination, lawsuits, etc.

And that’s only what we know about.  With the administration’s illegal wiretapping, data mining, tracking our purchases, tracking what we borrow from the library, reading our emails and monitoring our activity on the internet, we don’t even know what the government has on us.

Remember—all it takes is the President, or anyone he designates—to declare any one of us an “illegal enemy combantant,” and we can be locked away indefinitely.  We can be tortured, waterboarded, or mentally incapacitated (like Jose Padilla), with no habeas corpus (the right to challenge our imprisonment), no right to a trial, and no access to representation.

I don’t know, Brian.  Maybe you like the direction that the administration is going.  Maybe you think that a permanent state of war and fear is good for all of us.

I don’t like it one damn bit.  I think it sucks.  And there’s no way I’m going to let my boys grow up in a morally bankrupt, fascist state without getting off my ass and doing something about it.

This doesn’t look anything like the America I grew up in.  What is it, exactly, that we’re going to celebrate this 4th of July?  Our “freedom?”  We’re looking less like America, and more like the Soviet Union we fought in the Cold War.

And yes, the rally was put on by the ANSWER coalition.  I would have gone if it was sponsored by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.  I don’t care.  If someone’s putting their feet on the street to protest this insanity, I’m damn well going to show up and support them.

—Dan

“Looking forward to the day you show your spine and enlist.”

Who said I supported the war?  You make quite a few assumptions about what I think (although my disdain for A.N.S.W.E.R and its considerable ongoing involvement in the direction of the protests is pretty clear).

How is it that when someone questions a protester they are suddenly treated like a supporter?