Okay, Cindy got a little sloppy when she says the van in the wikileaks Iraq video was "full of kids"; there were only two kids in it, but those two were shot up by U.S. soldiers for sure. The rest of what she says I heartily agree with! Linda J. EXCERT BELOW:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25200.htm
This Empire has lost what little of its mind that it had left after the syphilitic Bush years. The Empire is literally living on borrowed time. The expensive occupations, the expansion of Empire into South America, the new threats of sanctions against Iran, the continued and unwavering support of Israel, the increase (66% over the Bush years) in drone bombings, hellfire missiles raining down in Yemen, presidential targeting of American citizens abroad, yadda, yadda, yadda—will lead to the eventual downfall of the American Empire. It always happens and it will happen this time, too.
What can we do about an Empire that is so many noodles short of a full casserole, but divorce ourselves from it? Can we do a full-frontal attack against a psychopath that has nukes? Can we do what the president of Afghanistan recently threatened—join the resistance? I know for sure what doesn’t work—marching around in circles and shaking our fists at empty buildings on the weekend in Washington, DC—or spending a weekend as a “guest” of the DC criminal justice system.
“Only the little people pay taxes.”
Leona Helmsley
I haven’t paid my income taxes since my son was killed in Iraq in 2004. I am ashamed that I ever paid taxes to fund the crimes of this Empire. I started paying taxes around 1974 and this Empire was embroiled in crimes then as it was before and has been ever since. Get this, in 2009, Exxon, a multi-national billion-dollar crime syndicate paid zero dollars in income taxes!
Some years since 2004, I have made enough to be required to file, most years my reportable income has been way below the filing level. I rarely even receive letters from the IRS. However, I would rather go to prison than know that one of my dollars went to pay for the murder, torture, false imprisonment, or oppression of one person here or abroad.
Think of it this way—what if St. Obama himself walked up to you and asked you to write him a check for two-grand so he could have money to buy a water board, or other torture apparatus, or for bullets, or for one square inch of a bomber? Would you do it? Some of you might, but most of you wouldn’t.
There are many ways to be war tax resisters and there are a handful of us doing it. If more of us who really believed in peaceful conflict resolution did it that would be a far more effective and more courageous way of opposing this Empire than marching in circles.
If we don’t come up with more creative solutions to the violence of this Empire, more and more innocent people will suffer.
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.
From War is a Racket by Major General Smedley Butler
I think as an antiwar-peace community, the only way we can “Support the Troops” is by working as hard as we can to make sure none of our children become The Troops.
If you can’t come to DC to take part in our Civil Resistance efforts for Summer Camp OUT NOW, I suggest the you pour all of your efforts into doing counter-recruitment.
There are so many good organizations doing this work that you can help, or support with donations.
World Can’t Wait—WE ARE NOT YOUR SOLDIERS.
American Friends Service Committee: Youth and Militarism
No “warriors,” no wars.
These are just two of the ways that we can Take This Empire and Shove It—there are many more suggestions in my e-book, Myth America: 20 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution.
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