[Peace-discuss] Fwd:[ANSWER]: OCCUPATION IS NOT LIBERATION: Why We (1 of 2

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OCCUPATION IS NOT LIBERATION:
Why We Are Marching on April 12

March Will Target Corporate Profiteers, Fox News and the  Pro-War Media

Having slaughtered and maimed thousands of Iraqi people,  the U.S./British invasion forces are celebrating the use 
of their massive, overwhelming and brutal military power  to crush resistance to their invasion of Iraq. The images  portrayed in the U.S. media conceal the reality. While 
hospitals are overflowing with civilians and soldiers, the  streets of the country are littered with incinerated 
bodies, destroyed homes and families buried alive. (See 
"Amid Allied Jubilation, a Child Lies in Agony, Clothes 
Soaked in Blood," Robert Fisk, The Independent (UK):
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=395117  )

The Bush administration is moving rapidly to impose a 
colonial-style occupation government on Iraq. This is not  liberation. It is the use of overwhelming firepower to 
seize the land and resources of Iraq, and eliminate Iraq's  sovereignty, while violating the most basic principles of 
self-determination. This is a war for Empire. The Bush 
administration, having carried out a war of conquest in 
Afghanistan and now in Iraq, will now step up its plans 
for future wars of aggression in the Middle East and 
elsewhere.

The people of the United States and the world must stand  together with all of those who resist in the Middle East 
to say no to imperialism and to Empire. The occupation of  Iraq will be used to set the stage for intensified war 
planning against Syria, Iran, southern Lebanon, North 
Korea, the Philippines, and against the Palestinian people  who continue to resist occupation in their homeland. On 
Saturday, April 12, people in Washington DC and around the  world will continue the mobilization against the invasion 
and the occupation in an international day of action with 
demonstrations in major capitals around the world.

The global movement that suddenly emerged in the past six  months in opposition to Bush and the U.S. war drive is a  singularly important development. People all over the 
world, in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, in  the United States and in Europe marched in coordinated 
action. These movements have now defied borders and built  an international voice of solidarity. Even the New York 
Times on February 17 referred to this movement as the  second "superpower" in the world.

This movement represents the hopefulness of the planet  that war, imperialism, oppression, racism and any form of  colonialism can be overcome through the globalization of 
human solidarity.

It would be the most tragic and wasteful outcome if this  movement ­- less than a year old ­- decided that its 
efforts had failed because Bush and the Pentagon proceeded  with their slaughter in Iraq. The war on Iraq does not 
prove the failure of the anti-war movement. If anything,  the war on Iraq proves only that the economic, political  and military authority in the United States is morally 
bankrupt. It is nurtured by a system that has become 
addicted to militarism and war.

Dick Cheney, speaking on behalf of the administration, 
promised after September 11 that there would be "endless  war" and a war lasting a lifetime. These were neither idle  comments nor rhetorical flourish. Since then, the 
administration has been absolutely brazen about its 
planned military adventures abroad and its systematic war  against Arab Americans, Muslims and civil rights and civil  liberties at home.

While they will never admit it, this planned "endless war"  is a class war waged by the U.S. government on behalf of  corporate and banking elite