Posted on 10/20/2002 7:03:48 PM PDT by ppaul
I am flying to Washington, D.C., to join the anti-war march on Oct. 26. This is a considerable commitment of time, money and energy. Why am I doing it?In April 1971, when I was an impulsive, long-haired pacifist of 16, I joined my sister in the Moratorium March on Washington against the Vietnam War with 200,000 others. My youthful idealism was reinforced and sustained as the force of public opinion turned the wheel of history, and the Vietnam war machine ground to a halt.
Some of my idealism has survived the ensuing decades. At the same time, I consider myself fairly well informed about the politics and government of our era, and I am deeply distrustful of the current administration.
A recent article, "The Push for War" by Anatol Lieven in the London Review of Books, lays bare a convincing and deeply disturbing picture of the goals of the Bush administration. The hawks and wolves in the president's shadow envision a world dominated by U.S. military might, where corporate interests, the oil industry in particular, can operate unchallenged anywhere in the world. Implicit in this new doctrine is that when opposition to U.S. policy anywhere in the world is made impossible, opposition at home will be no less so.
The dots in my own mind are connecting, and I am convinced that it is time for Americans again to blow the whistle on the government. Our freedoms not only entitle but obligate us to resist illegal and immoral actions by our government in our name.
Millions of Americans long for a nation that uses its ingenuity, wealth and generosity to help eradicate hunger, disease, inequity and the intractable ravages of violence and reprisal. But the wheels of the military-industrial-energy complex, so deeply embedded in our economy and in the current administration, grind forward, and it will take a lot of bodies in the streets to bring them to a halt.
It can be done; we must insist upon it. Like the rash teenager that I was, America must move beyond adolescence and learn to use its idealism and strength peacefully and humbly among civilized nations to create a secure world.
William W. Rose
SeattleLink to editorial page HERE.
What this self-righteous, traitorous scum overlooks is how the actions of his ilk cost millions of Cambodians and Southeast Asians their lives - not to mention our own troops.So he's going to Washington DC is he? A good reason to be there in numbers to FReep these anti-American louses.
Wouldn't be a bad idea to flood the newspaper with Letters to the Editor in response to this anal orifice's diatribe, eh?
Bzzzzzzzzzzt!
You didn't want your youthful ass drafted, shipped to Vietnam, and shot.
It is really amazing how stupid these people are. They simply can't imagine a world where oil money is not the motive behind everthing. Because oil exists in a lot of shithole places, it is natural that the oil companies have a good understanding of what goes on in them. But I think these liberal really do picture Bush sitting around with oil executives plotting world domination.
In April of 1971 he was a long-haired pu**y, just like his hero Slick was a long-haired pu**y in 1969. Their hair may be shorter today but they're both still pu**ies.
"I am now an impulsive, long-haired pacifist of 61. My sister is dead of AIDS, and there are no more than a dozen losers at this March. But I sure would like to relive my glory days. Man the chicks dug that counter-culture crap!"
Puppies?
The selfish laziness and arrogance of these people is stunning. They are beneath contempt.
Notice, not one word mentioned about Black Tuesday, 3,000 victims, unprovoked attacks on civilians, terrs...
It's as if these pigs never noticed the precipitating events...just the aftermath.
Some of us noticed that when Nixon stopped the draft the "anti-war" demonstrations also stopped even though the war was still on.
What arrogant nonsense. The fact is, public opinion had been against the Vietnam War for sometime (thanks to a media that portrayed our fighting men as animals). When Richard Nixon was elected, he promised to bring our men home. Unfortunately, he decided to make a small detour to Cambodia before he got around to doing that. It was this action that set in motion a series of events that climaxed in the wholesale slaughter of innocent people by members of their own government (Kent State). The events of May 4, 1970 were, indeed, the true turning point that ultimately brought an end to our involvement in the Vietnam War.
What would any of these people fight for? Food? Freedom? To keep their families and loved ones from being killed? Anything?
No oil=no computers, no CD's, DVD's, auto's, buses, trains, food deliveries, heating oil, gas for cooking. And on and on and on. Where do they think energy comes from? Of course they don't want any waste products from energy and you know they don't want nuclear energy. Maybe we could all live in caves and eat dirt.
Probably because he is rich enough to do so, and has the leisure to take off.
PJ O'Rourke was once asked why conservatives didn't demonstrate like the left. He answered it was because they worked for a living.
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