Anti war movement blames Bush directly

Anti-war movement
blames U.S.

Groups finger 'imperialist powers' as ultimate enemy
By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

While President Bush's actions in the "war on terrorism" continue to garner him overwhelming public support, a growing number of the most vocal critics of the war are spreading a common theme to all who will listen: It is the United States that is the true enemy.

These voices of dissent, scattered throughout the landscape of public opinion, aren't spreading simply the age-old belief that "war is bad." Instead, they have set their sights directly on Bush and the "imperialists" of the U.S. and U.K.

"Unless we stop President Bush and NATO from carrying out a new, wider war in the Middle East, the number of innocent victims will grow from the thousands to the tens of thousands and possibly more," says a "call to action" by A.N.S.W.E.R. – "Act Now to Stop War and End Racicm," http://www.internationalanswer.org/, a group that sprang up in the aftermath of the attacks in New York City and the Pentagon. "A new, wider U.S. and NATO war in the Middle East can only lead to an escalating cycle of violence."

"Arab American and Muslim people in the United States, in Europe and elsewhere, as well as other communities of color, are facing racist attacks and harassment in their communities, on their jobs and at mosques," the group's statement continued. "Anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism is a poison that should be repudiated."

The group also claims the Bush administration is attempting to use the terrorist war to curtail civil liberties.

"The U.S. government is attempting to curb civil liberties and to create a climate in which it is impossible for progressive people to speak their mind," said the statement. "The Bush administration is attempting to take advantage of this crisis to militarize U.S. society with a vast expansion of police power that is intended to severely restrict basic democratic rights."

Signatories to the group include Ramsey Clark, a noted left-wing activist and former attorney general during President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration; The Green Party USA; Jews Against the Occupation and American Muslims for Global Peace.

A Clark-founded group, the International Action Center is filled with news reports, stories and references to anti-war protests and accusations that the media has "stuck its head in the sand" and has given the Bush administration a pass on the war.

"Rocket attacks from U.S. jets on a place of worship and a hospital. Bombs directed at a convoy of fleeing refugees. Repeated hits by 2,000-pound bombs on clearly marked Red Cross food warehouses. Fragmentation bombs on civilian homes. All these things have occurred in the first three weeks of the Pentagon's attacks on Afghanistan," wrote John Catalinotto in a column for IAC entitled, "Look at the Record: U.S. Has Targeted Civilians Before."

"The war in Afghanistan is creating 'the most serious, complex emergency in the world ever,' according to United Nations official Stephanie Bunker," writes Heather Cottin for IAC. "Considering the many horrible tragedies that the world has seen in recent years, this is a calamitous warning."

"'As many as 100,000 more children will die in Afghanistan this winter unless food reaches them in sufficient quantities in the next six weeks,' Eric Laroche, UNICEF spokesperson, said in an interview with the Times of India on Oct. 29," Cottin wrote.

"But the heavy U.S. bombing of Afghan cities and supply routes, as well as the deliberate targeting of food supplies like the Red Cross warehouse in Kabul, has choked off relief efforts," she said, never mentioning the tons of food dropped by U.S. military planes for Afghan relief efforts since Oct. 7.

The Green Party also believes the Bush administration's response to the Sept. 11 attacks is a mistake.

"Can we not be grown-ups and use this latest disaster as a starting point for working together towards peace? There is no security in revenge, only a continuous escalation of killing once the hatreds are solidified," the party says in a policy statement.

Claiming the U.S. "interferes" in world affairs, the party admonished the Bush administration to stop supporting "American-based corporations … with American military or in any way."

"In fact, corporations should be actively discouraged from taking advantage of poor regions of the world, including in the USA," the party statement said.

The government should also "stop U.S. military incursions and blockades of needed food and other goods anywhere in the world," the party said.

In one of its own calls to action, the American Muslims for Global Peace organization has called on members and others to "join us in protesting the mounting death toll of innocent Afghani civilians and in calling on President Bush to stop the bombing of Afghanistan and to seek the capture of the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 terror attack by means that will promote justice and ensure the safety of innocent lives. …"

The group has also called on the Bush administration to stop its Afghan campaign during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – which the administration has already refused to do.

"Misleading media reports of celebrating Afghans betray the grim reality of mounting reports by humanitarian groups of malnutrition and disease afflicting over 3 million Afghans in both refugee camps and others who have been denied access to food and medicine because of the military campaign," the organization said in a press release last month.

"The war is one month old, and a peace movement is burgeoning in over 20 countries. There is a growing anti-imperialist understanding that this war is about the profits of U.S. and British oil companies," added Cottin in her column for IAC.

"The genocidal bombing and heartless devastation of the Afghani people is part of the 'Great Game' of the imperialist powers and has nothing to do with 'fighting terrorism.'"

Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily, and author of the special report, "Election 2000: How the Military Vote Was Suppressed."