Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 19:12:47 -0800 (PST)
From: nowardc@yahoo.com ("International A.N.S.W.E.R.")
Subject: [anti_war_protests_in_arizona] APRIL 20 - NO NEW WAR AGAINST IRAQ
To: ANSWER@afgj.org
Reply-To: anti_war_protests_in_arizona@yahoogroups.com
HELP STOP THE NEXT WAR BEFORE IT STARTS!
*MARCH ON THE WHITE HOUSE APRIL 20TH*
- a statement from the International A.N.S.W.E.R.
coalition -
http://www.InternationalANSWER.org
The Washington Post frontpage headline of March 14
couldn't be clearer: "U.S. will take action against
Iraq, Bush says." Bush made it a central point in his
March 13 press conference that the U.S. will do
whatever it takes to overthrow the government in Iraq.
The U.S. seeks to replace it with a regime that will
function as a proxy for U.S. interests in the region.
When Vice-President Dick Cheney traveled to England
this week he requested a commitment of 25,000 British
troops to be part of a larger 250,000-invasion force
for war in Iraq (The Independent, March 8, 202). Some
in Blair's Cabinet may split on the issue. The British
and European press are ridiculing Bush's war plan and
more and more public sentiment is crystallizing into
anti-war protests.
A new war in Iraq seems like madness to most of the
world. It is madness! Will we sit by and let hundreds
of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of young GIs
perish so that super hawks in the Administration can
fulfill their right-wing Rambo-like fantasies?
The people of the United States must act now! The
clock is ticking. In the coming months the Bush
administration plans to launch the largest U.S. ground
and air war since Vietnam unless they are stopped by
the mobilization of popular power.
We can expect worldwide protest against the coming war
but the whole world will be looking to see if the
people of the United States are capable of mounting
mass mobilization and resistance to a government that
speaks in their name and is preparing to send their
young people to kill and be killed in large numbers.
BUSH'S CYNICAL USE OF ANTI-TERRORISM
Iraq had nthing to do with the September 11 attack.
Endless searching by the CIA turned up nothing. When
U.S. workers were killed by Anthrax attacks last fall
the Bush Administration spent months in an "intense
effort" to link the attacks to Iraq so that the
Administration would have an excuse to launch a new
war against Iraq, even after they knew the source of
the Anthrax was from the U.S., diverting the
investigation from this domestic sponsored terrorism.
(New York Times, December 22, 2001) Unsuccessful in
every effort to find a plausible pretext to attack
Iraq, Bush has now conveniently redefined terrorism,
and thus his next target, by alleging that selected
nations produce "weapons of mass destruction."
By taking the war to Iraq, Bush inadvertently reveals
that the war on terrorism is not about "protecting
Americans" but is an extension of pre-existing
imperialist strategies and objectives in the oil-rich
Middle East.
GEORGE BUSH'S BIG LIE ON IRAQ ...
Iraq is a weakened country. The image painted by ush
of Iraq as threatening "evil power" is ludicrous, a
total fabrication. Economic sanctions have taken the
lives of 1.5 million civilians mainly children under
the age of five in the past decade. Sanctions have
proved to be a weapon of truly mass destruction for
Iraqi babies, 5,000 of whom die each month from
malnutrition and hunger-related illness (source: UN
Food and Agricultural Organization.)
Iraq has been severely weakened militarily. The
U.S.-led UN weapons inspectors conductd 9,000 weapons
inspections between 1991 and 1998. Iraq was largely
disarmed by 1995. The weapons inspectors left Iraq not
because they were expelled by Iraq but because they
were ordered out by the U.S.-dominated UN in December
1998 so that the U.S. and Britain could begin the
massive bombing campaign December 16-19, 1998. Since
then U.S. and British warplanes have bombed Iraq
several times a week - for more than three years. Iraq
is not bombing the United States; it is the victim of
routine state-sponsored terrorism.
WAR AS HIGH TECH GENOCIDE ... BUT WITH CERTAIN LIMITS
During the last war in 1991, more than 100,000 Iraqis
perished from relentless bombing. The combined number
of soldiers and civilians may be double that. The Wall
Street Journal of March 20, 1991 reported that General
Norman Schwarzkopf and his aides provided information
to Congress that more than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers were
killed (not counting civilians) from the 88,500 tons
of explosives that were dropped on Iraq during the
42-day air campaign. Only 148 U.S. military personnel
died during the war - 37 from friendly fire accidents
--making the conflict one of the most one-sided
massacres in human history.
George Bush's father made the decision not to press
the war further into a massive ground invasion of Iraq
to topple the government because he knew that scenario
would likely lead to thousands and perhaps tens of
thousands of U.S. casualties.
George Bush, Sr. was concerned that the people in the
U.S. would turn against the war in the event of huge
U.S. casualties. Most of the high government officials
feared a repeat of what they called the Vietnam
Syndrome meaning a massive and militant anti-war
movement at home. That's the real reason they didn't
"finish the job" (in the words of the war-mongers)
with a full invasion of Baghdad and the overthrow of
the Iraqi government.
The Administration's ultra hawks most notably
Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, and Wolfowitz believe that in
the post September 11 political environment of
frenzied hyper-patriotism, that they can send
thousands of young GI's in a new war of aggression and
the people will not rise up as they did during
Vietnam. The demonstration on April 20th must send a
clear, loud, unmistakable message that a new anti-war
movement is taking shape and that it too, like the
worldwide movement in the 1960's and 70's, will prove
to be a potent and decisive factor in the politics of
war and peace.
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: BUSH AND THE PENTAGON ARE
THE REAL NUCLEAR TERRORISTS
While vowing to wage new war to destroy Iraq becuse
it may have a nuclear capability some day, the Los
Angeles Times has revealed that the Pentagon, under
Bush, has secretly re-oriented U.S. nuclear doctrine
to prepare for the actual use of first strike nuclear
weapons against a host of countries including Iraq,
North Korea, Libya, China, Russia and others.
Even the New York Times in its lead editorial of March
12, 2002 entitled "America as Nuclear Rogue,"
pilloried the reckless new orientation. "If another
country were planning to develop a new nuclear weapon
and contemplating preemptive strikes against a list of
non-nuclear powers, Washington would rightly label the
nation a dangerous rogue state. Yet such is the course
recommended to President Bush by a new Pentagon
planning paper ..."
GEORGE BUSH V. THE WHOLE WORLD
The Bush administration has now locked into its war
course. Since day one of this crisis, this "unelected"
President has chosen a path of extreme cynical
manipulation of the raw emotion and horror experienced
by people in the U.S. on September 11. With barely a
whimper of protest from the other party of Big
Business, Bush and the Pentagon, have sought to use
the attack as a pretext to use U.S. military
domination as the prime vehicle in an unabashed quest
for world domination.
The whopping $48 billion increase in the war budget
this year is a first step to even more gargantuan
budget requests. By 2007, the annual "defense" budget
will be nearly $500 billion. The U.S. will soon spend
more on the military than all the other countries in
the world combined.World public opinion currently
opposes a new, massive war against Iraq. U.S. allies
in Europe (and puppets) in the Gulf region consider it
lunacy.
But Bush made it crystal clear is his speech on the
6th month anniversary of September 11 that the
administration is now to embark on the "second stage
of the war."
Cheney has been dispatched to Europe and the Middle
East to tell allies and puppets alike that they must
decide "are you with us or them?" The European
imperialist powers chafe (of course, with the
exception of Tony Blair, lap dog to the Pentagon and
its demand) at the unbridled arrogance of U.S.
politicians acting like the masters of the universe.
The puppets, like the regimes in Saudi Arabia, fear
popular revolutions. But all governments are being
confronted by Cheney as Bush's envoy with one of two
options that will simplify their choice: support the
U.S. war effort or support Iraq and face the
consequences.
MARCH ON THE WHITE HOUSE APRIL 20!
On April 20, thousands of people will be taking part
in a united front of organizations that oppose war,
racism and poverty - the real axis of evil. The time
to join this historic organizing effort is now! Become
an organizer or a volunteer with the A.N.S.W.E.R.
Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism),
distribute leaflets and flyers, help organize
transportation from your area to Washington DC, make a
financial contribution at
www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html , get involved
in some way and be a person who decides to make a
difference. A simultaneous protest will take place on
the West Coast in San Francisco.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT & TO GET INVOLVED in the
April 20 National March Against War & Racism, email:
ANSWER@afgj.org , or call New York 212-633-6646,
Washington 202-543-2777, Chicago 773-583-7728, San
Francisco 415-821-6545.
International A.N.S.W.E.R.
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.InternationalANSWER.org
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