Not In Our Name, Mr. Bush!
Oct. 6th, 2002 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravencallscrowsToday, people from all over and all walks of life gathered all across the nation to protest (among other things) the current administration's plans to go to war with Iraq. We were fortunate enough to be able to join 
C-ko and thousands of other Seattleites in what has to be one of the most orderly protests i've seen- as well as one of the largest.
I think the organizational Pledge of Resistance is worth reproducing here:
As people living in the United States, we believe
it is our responsibility to resist the injustices
done by our government in our name.
Not in our name
will you wage "endless war."
There can be no more deaths,
No more transfusions of blood for oil.
Not in our name
will you invade countries,
bomb civilians, kill more children,
letting history take its course
over the graves of the nameless.
Not in our name
will you erode the very freedoms
you've claimed to fight for.
Not by our hands
will we supply weapons and funding
for the annihilation of families
on foreign soil.
Not by our mouths
will we let fear silence us.
Not by our hands
will we allow whole peoples or countries
to be deemed evil.
Not by our will,
and not in our name.
We pledge resistance.
We pledge alliance with those
who have come under attack
for voicing opposition to the war
or for their religion or ethnicity.
We pledge to make common cause
with the people of the world
to bring about justice, freedom and peace.
Another world is possible
and we pledge to make it real.
This should NOT be taken as an endorsement of the policies of the Hussein government, just a clear statement that regardless of what's happening in Iraq, it's not in the best interests of the US at large. With the sagging economy and unemployment approaching post-Depression highs in many parts of the country, there is no reason for the warmongers Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield et al. to be trying to trump up a war in Iraq while ignoring the problems here. Whatever is going on in Iraq isn't clearly threatening national interests, and trying to create ties to al-Qaeda and justify war as a continuation of the "war on terrorism" is just patently ridiculous. IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!
C-ko and thousands of other Seattleites in what has to be one of the most orderly protests i've seen- as well as one of the largest.I think the organizational Pledge of Resistance is worth reproducing here:
As people living in the United States, we believe
it is our responsibility to resist the injustices
done by our government in our name.
Not in our name
will you wage "endless war."
There can be no more deaths,
No more transfusions of blood for oil.
Not in our name
will you invade countries,
bomb civilians, kill more children,
letting history take its course
over the graves of the nameless.
Not in our name
will you erode the very freedoms
you've claimed to fight for.
Not by our hands
will we supply weapons and funding
for the annihilation of families
on foreign soil.
Not by our mouths
will we let fear silence us.
Not by our hands
will we allow whole peoples or countries
to be deemed evil.
Not by our will,
and not in our name.
We pledge resistance.
We pledge alliance with those
who have come under attack
for voicing opposition to the war
or for their religion or ethnicity.
We pledge to make common cause
with the people of the world
to bring about justice, freedom and peace.
Another world is possible
and we pledge to make it real.
This should NOT be taken as an endorsement of the policies of the Hussein government, just a clear statement that regardless of what's happening in Iraq, it's not in the best interests of the US at large. With the sagging economy and unemployment approaching post-Depression highs in many parts of the country, there is no reason for the warmongers Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield et al. to be trying to trump up a war in Iraq while ignoring the problems here. Whatever is going on in Iraq isn't clearly threatening national interests, and trying to create ties to al-Qaeda and justify war as a continuation of the "war on terrorism" is just patently ridiculous. IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-10-07 06:12 am (UTC)I'd say there's no good reason for it, but I think there is definitely a reason. It's a reason that I find so hateful and repugnant that I almost wish that Iraq would find someway to get an atomic bomb into Washington DC. The reason we are probably going to war in the Middle-east (again) is because there are elections less than a month away and the administration knows that one of the best ways to improve their ratings are to bomb the shit out of some poor gomers far away. The September 11th terrorist attack had to seem like a god-send to Bush & co. Here they were, facing lots of domestic issues that they couldn't get a handle on, and they were handed the opportunity to look presidential on a grand scale. And on top of that they were able to sell the idea that disagreeing with the admin was tantamount to supporting terrorists! Then when it started to look like the economy was about to take a turn for the worst (Enron) we began bombing Afghanistan. And now with the elections soon to be held and control of both the House and the Senate up for grabs Dubya is using bombs and missiles and planes and tanks and the blood of American children to buy votes for his political cronies. Politics as usual.
Whatever is going on in Iraq isn't clearly threatening national interests...
Unless you equate national interests with Republican political interests.