Thousands March For Peace In San Francisco

More power to such display of solidarity with the people of Palestine, Iraq and all those targeted by the US and Israeli Colonialism!

Hey SmashTheLeft...Chronic anger ALWAYS leads to sickness. Your burning rage will eat you up from the inside. But I don't have to tell you that-you know exactly what I'm talking about.

what this weekends events show is the not only the incredible isolation of l'america from the rest of the world --excepting israel--but our complete lack of awareness of same. In london there is a massive demo, half a million people. Back in the belly the best we can do is a few hundred people in the nations capitol who are immediately rounded up by police before they even hit the streets and a few thousands (albeit clever, artistic) resisters in the last holdout of berkeley. And even the existence of the brits demo is denied here at home where if reported at all a zero is conveniently left off the numbers. The good patriotic americans today are just like the good patriotic germans of the 30's; in fact it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to suggest that the u.s. didn't really defeat the nazis in w.w.2; they just took over the franchise (see c. simpson's original blowback and the bush-harriman bankrolling of same). The bush-harriman factions (left and right of the c.i.a.) have continued to rule the country literally thru the bushs and spiritually thru the lieberman-clinton lineage to this very day. With England off the axis it just leaves the mutual colonial outposts of israel and the u.s. against the rest of the world. (Who's controlling who is an issue; but not really because the same people wrote the blueprints for both--wolfowitz, perle, etc.) As Israel Shamir has written its a matter of seeing double; the "faceless destroyer" has indeed appeared but empire is tricky business for long to maintain. The numbers aren't on our side.

1. Iraq’s government openly praised the September 11th attacks on America
* In the aftermath of the attacks on America that killed thousands of innocents from 80 countries, Saddam Hussein said, “America is reaping the thorns planted by its rulers in the world.”

2. Iraq shelters and supports terrorist organizations
* Iraq shelters and supports terrorist organizations that direct violence against Iran, Israel, and Western governments.
* Al Qaeda terrorists escaped from Afghanistan and are known to be in Iraq.
* In 1993, Iraq attempted to assassinate the Emir of Kuwait and a former U.S. President.

3. Saddam Hussein has an appetite for nuclear weapons
* In 1995, after four years of deception, Iraq finally admitted it had a crash nuclear weapons program prior to the Gulf War.
* Were it not for that war, the regime in Iraq would likely have possessed a nuclear weapon no later than 1993.
* Iraq still employs capable nuclear scientists and technicians and retains physical infrastructure needed to build a nuclear weapon.
* Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon.

4. Saddam likely possesses biological and chemical weapons
* United Nations' inspections revealed that Iraq likely maintains stockpiles of VX, mustard and other chemical agents, and that the regime is rebuilding and expanding facilities capable of producing chemical weapons.
* On at least 10 occasions, Saddam Hussein’s military forces have attacked Iranian and Kurdish targets with combinations of mustard gas and nerve agents through the use of aerial bombs, 122-millimeter rockets, and conventional artillery shells.
* Iraq has admitted to producing tens of thousands of liters of anthrax and other deadly biological agents for use with Scud warheads, aerial bombs, and aircraft spray tanks.
* U.N. inspectors believe Iraq has produced two to four times the amount of biological agents it declared, and has failed to account for more than three metric tons of material that could be used to produce biological weapons.
* Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.

5. Saddam’s repression of the Iraqi people
* In the late 1980’s Saddam Hussein launched a large-scale chemical weapons attack against Iraq’s Kurdish population killing thousands.
* Former UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur Max Van der Stoel’s report in April 1998 stated that Iraq had executed at least 1,500 people during the previous year for political reasons.
* Tens of thousands of political opponents and ordinary citizens have been subjected to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, summary execution, and torture by beating and burning, electric shock, starvation, mutilation, and rape.
* Wives are tortured in front of their husbands, children in the presence of their parents.
* Saddam blames the suffering of Iraq's people on the U.N., even as he uses his oil wealth to build lavish palaces for himself, and buy arms for his country.

6. Saddam’s Abuse of Children
* Child labor persists and there are instances of forced labor.
* There are widespread reports that food and medicine that could have been made available to the general public, including children, have been stockpiled in warehouses or diverted for the personal use of some government officials.
* Saddam has held military training camps for children between 10 and 15 years of age.

7. Violence against women
* Human rights organizations and opposition groups received reports of women who suffered from severe psychological trauma after being raped by Iraqi personnel while in custody.
* Amnesty International reported that, in October 2000, the Iraqi Government executed dozens of women accused of prostitution.

8. Iraq has not returned prisoners
* In 1991, the U.N. Security Council demanded that Iraq return all prisoners from Kuwait and other lands. Iraq's regime agreed. It broke its promise.
* Last year the Secretary General's high-level coordinator for this issue reported that Kuwait, Saudi, Indian, Syrian, Lebanese, Iranian, Egyptian, Bahraini, and Omani nationals remain unaccounted for -- more than 600 people.
* One American pilot is among them.

9. Saddam possesses prohibited missiles
* Iraq possesses a force of Scud-type missiles with ranges beyond the 150 kilometers permitted by the U.N.
* Work at testing and production facilities shows that Iraq is building more long-range missiles that it can use to inflict mass death throughout the region.

10. Weapons inspectors have been shut out of Iraq for four years
* It's been almost four years since the last U.N. inspectors set foot in Iraq, four years for the Iraqi regime to plan, build, and test behind the cloak of secrecy.
* The first time we may be completely certain Saddam Hussein has a nuclear weapon is when, God forbids, he uses one.

Every single one of Ivanna's points is easy to rebut (most, of course, are ridculously one-sided proclamations on complex, or unclear, matters).

But the primary point remains this: those of us who are U.S. citizens, or who live-and-work in the U.S. are not Iraqis, we are "Americans." We are morally responsible for the predictable consequences of OUR OWN ACTIONS (not the Iraqis, not Saddam's).

And while Saddam Hussein is, by all measures, a thoroughly brutal autocrat/dictator, he is neither actively committing genocide nor is he actively threatening the U.S. or the World (that "Ivanna," or the Bush regime, can declare that he is such a threat doesn't change the fact that it is a complete fiction).

THE ONLY COUNTRY THAT IS ACTIVELY THREATENING THE WORLD IS THE U.S.A.

Sadly, the USA is not much of a democracy (or even a representative democracy) -- but because it has to "front" as a democracy, and there is a somewhat opportunistic (though thoroughly lame and bought-out) opposition party; and there are also members of the American plutocratic class who might not agree with the Bush Group that full-force global military oppression is the best way to maximize their wealth -- we can take to the streets in the hope of having an impact and helping prevent war.

Furthermore, by taking to the streets we remind ourselves that we do have power to do more than just influence "our" imperialist state's policies -- we have the power to overthrow these plutocratic, capitalist, imperialist bastards once and for all and bring about truly-democratic (i.e. anarchist) socialism!!!!!!!

This is a good way to deal with the pre-schooler / cartoonish viewpoint of 'good vs evil' that Americans are hypnotized by.

Refocus on positive stuff that we can and are doing!

At our meeting today we discussed that everyone needs to - I know, it seems hopeless, but they are apparently counting every call and email - call Kennedy and ask him to fillibuster. Then call Lee and Kucinich and ask them to use whatever mean necessary to stop to vote from going through.

Thank you for including my dog Tyggy, a nearly 10-year-old Bullmastiff. She is a proud and happy protester (though she wouldn't really bite Bush, or anyone; she's a real pacifist!)

U.S. didn't defeat Nazis in WWII? Not even close?
Interesting reading, but (1) that other monstrosity, the Soviet Union, did most of the bleeding and fighting that brought down the Nazi regime in Germany (not to discount the vital role of the U.S.), and (2) allied aerial bombardment utterly broke that country; I'm not sure I'd color what happened a Nazi victory.
Still-- interesting reading.

So what you advocate is sticking our collective heads in the sand? Wow, you are pretty bold to want everyone to follow the democratic party's mambo dance. Instead of caring about others as we always have done (witness the recent independence in Eastern Europe) they would like us to forget about the rest of the world.

The only reason you didn't refute any of Ivana's arguments is because you can't.