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Left I on the News recommends the statement below from Troops Out Now Coalition, published in the run up to next week's (March 18) rallies around the world. Join Stand Up Seatte at the rally at the Federal Building at 1 p.m.
"Political positions have a direct bearing on how a movement struggles, or even if it engages in struggle at all. Adapting to a soft position, like phased withdrawal or redeployment, gives people the message that there's no need to mobiize on the streets to bring the troops home now--just wait for the politicians to work out the details of the withdrawal. If the movement were united around the demand for an immediate, complete, unconditional withdrawal, this would elevate, intensify, and clarify the struggle against the war.
In the early days of the occupation, some called for the Pentagon to hand authority over the occupation to the United Nations. It’s likely that this position will be taken up again by some, as part of a phased withdrawal plan. We should be wary of the UN solution. As much as we wish that it were otherwise, more often than not the UN does not act in the interest of the people of the world, but in the interests of the U.S. government, the governments of the major European countries, and the corporate interests that those governments represent. In Haiti, as in so many other instances, the UN has merely provided a cover for what is in essence a U.S. occupation, and has engaged in gross human rights violations. It was the UN, on behalf of Wall Street and Washington, that sanctioned the first Gulf War and the genocidal sanctions against Iraq that killed between 1.5 and two million people.
The people of Iraq are not likely to accept another foreign occupation whose only distinction from the present one is superficial. Ultimately, it’s up to the people of Iraq to determine what role if any the UN or any other force should play in rebuilding their country.
As opposition to the war continues to grow, and the bipartisan lies about Iraq are exposed to the whole world, the antiwar movement has a tremendous opportunity. But to seize this opportunity, it needs a clear, independent message.
We need to unify around the demand for an immediate, unconditional and complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq. "
SIRATYST (Stuff I Read and Thought You Should Too) -- “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.” (Calgacus, as quoted by Tacitus, Agricola 30-31)"
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