It is time for truth, a time for clarity. A time for action. A time for teach-ins, for meet-ups, for marches, for rallies about the war to begin at college campuses, at churches at labor halls, at libraries. Time to gather in civic centers, in town halls, to discuss the truth about this war, and to plan civic action to end it.
It is time for the American people to exercise their First Amendment rights to stand up, to speak out. Time to redirect the policies of this country. Time to learn and practice peaceful, non-violent conflict resolution. Time to believe in our capacity to evolve beyond war. To believe, and act upon the belief that war is not inevitable, that peace is inevitable - - if we are ready to commit to the daily work of peace building everywhere.
You know what? He's right. Instead of just blogging about how mad we are, we need to start acting on it. We need to stage some sit-ins like they did in the 60's. I'm willing to get arrested doing one just so I can get some publicity out of it and have that publicity inspire others to do the same. We can actually grow this movement from one of complaining into one of action. We can end the American occupation of Iraq.
So, I'm going to put together some friends and come up with a plan for our own old fashioned sit in. Are any of you with me?
2 comments:
I think the sit in sounds like a great idea, but my question to you is...what if we were to pull out tomorrow? Where would that leave Iraq? I'm not arguing that in retrospect we probably shouldn't have gone in in 2003, but it's a little late to change that now. What benefit would the US, the Iraqi people, or the world in general derive from a total pullout? I agree it should be our goal and our plan to get them out as soon as humanly possible, but it just seems like there's still so much to be done..and I think it has it may take some time. Maybe the key is to send in more troops right now so as to speed up the security process and the eventual withdrawal?
I would agree with you if I felt that the US actually was interested in helping the country and was able to provide security in their current capacity. The thing is that I believe that we really made a mistake by occupying the country and not doing enough early on to restore services like electricity, etc.
I believe that by being there we are causing more unrest than if we weren't. The country now has a government, a parliment and an army. We should leave immediately and let them sort out their internal problems on their own.
We should admit that we really messed up and offer any kind of assistance that the government asks of us. But the fact remains that Iraq is a sovereign nation and we are occupying it. That is not a good thing and it is killing our reputation worldwide.
And to be honest, I had no interest in invading Iraq from the get go and I still could care less about them. I'm in the minority here (even amoung progressives) when I say that I want us to take our hands off of all nations in the middle east for a long time and let them sort out things on their own. We should stop buying their oil and leave them all alone (including Israel and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) completely and let them fight it out all they want.
And don't mention terrorism.. Eveyone agrees that the root of OBL's fatwa against us is our bases that we put up in Saudi Arabia. Essentially the terrorsim threat all comes from them being sick of us meddling in their affairs.
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