[Peace-discuss] New P4P sign suggestions

C. G. Estabrook galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
Thu Feb 27 15:46:18 CST 2003 

How about--

 "Weapons and human rights inspectors in Iraq, Israel, U.S.!" 
 "End ethnic cleansing - by US, Israel, & Iraq - without war!" 
 "International tribunals for Saddam, Sharon & Bush!"...?

Of course, the last should add Perle, Powell, Rice, Rove, Rumsfeld,
Wolfowitz... -- but you see the problem.

The letter that you quote (addressing "you antiwar protesters and
politicians"), like the piece from José Ramos-Horta in the NYT on Tuesday,
may be this year's incubator-baby story -- a bit more sophisticated, and
perhaps an indication (if they were in fact solicited by supporters of the
Bush Administration) of just how worried the Administration is by the
peace demonstrations (as one would expect them to be).

No one paid much attention when, say, Soviet dissidents criticized the US
for Vietnam or our domestic racism -- it was when they turned their
attention to their own government that something important was said.
Criticism of the official enemy is easy, and the pro-Saddam element in the
peace demonstrations is tiny to the point of vanishing.  Why should we
repeat positions that the Administration is using for propaganda?

To address the legitimate concerns raised in the letter, we should demand,
e.g., that the US reverse policy and observe UNSC Res. 687, which ended
the Gulf War.  It calls for *regional* disarmament (including Israel).  
Let's demand a regional peace conference in which the disarmament of all
parties (including Israel) was a requirement (or else no further money
from the US) and UN-supervised democratization of all states was the goal.  
(That would be a complete reversal of US policy -- the US has, e.g.,
already vetoed in the SC even UN observers in the Occupied Territories.)

A good new article <http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n05/ande01_.html> by Perry
Anderson concludes, "Arguments about the impending war would do better to
focus on the entire prior structure of the special treatment accorded to
Iraq by the United Nations, rather than wrangle over the secondary issue
of whether to continue strangling the country slowly or to put it out of
its misery quickly" -- respectively the allowable "liberal" and
"conservative"  positions in this country.  I think we should reject both.

Regards, Carl


On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, Kranich, Kimberlie wrote:

> As a result of the letter to the Christian Science Monitor by an Iraqi
> at the end of this email, I propose the following signs for our
> Prospect for Peace demonstrations to move the debate from a perception
> of just holding an anti-US position to one that holds Saddam and his
> regime accountable for human rights violations without using war:
> 
> 	Weapons and human rights inspectors in Iraq 
> 	End Saddam's ethnic cleansing without war 
> 	International tribunals for Saddam, not bombs for his people
> 
> Kimberlie
> 
> -----Original Message----
> 
> A challenge to us all:
> _______________
> 
> 
> Click here to read this story online:
> http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0226/p11s02-coop.html
> 
> Headline:  If antiwar protesters succeed
> ...

Byline:   
> Date: 02/26/2003
> 
> To publish an unsigned opinion piece is an exception to the Monitor's 
> policy. But the views expressed here, if put with a name, could 
> endanger the writer's extended family in Baghdad. The author - known to 
> Monitor staff - was born and raised in Iraq. Now a US citizen with a 
> business that requires extensive world travel, the author is in 
> frequent touch with the Iraqi diaspora but is not connected with 
> organized opposition to Saddam Hussein.
> 
> Since Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, started 
> warning that a US invasion of Iraq would "open the gates of hell," the 
> retort that has been flying around Iraqi exiles' websites is, "Good! 
> We'd like to get out!"
> 
> It got me wondering: What if you antiwar protesters and politicians 
> succeed in stopping a US-led war to change the regime in Baghdad? What 
> then will you do?
> 
> Will you also demonstrate and demand "peaceful" actions to cure the 
> abysmal human rights violations of the Iraqi people under the rule of 
> Saddam Hussein?
> 
> Or, will you simply forget about us Iraqis once you discredit George W. 
> Bush?
> 
> Will you demand that the United Nations send human rights inspectors to 
> Iraq? Or are you only interested in weapons of "mass destruction" 
> inspections, not of "mass torture" practices?
> 
> Will you also insist that such human rights inspectors be given time to 
> discover Hussein's secret prisons and coercion as you do for the 
> weapons inspectors? Or will you simply accept a "clean bill of health" 
> if you can't find the thousands of buried corpses?
> 
> Will you pressure your own countries to host millions more Iraqi 
> refugees (estimated now at 4 million) fleeing Hussein's brutality?Or 
> will you prefer they stay in bondage?
> 
> Will you vigorously demand an international tribunal to indict 
> Hussein's regime for crimes against humanity? Or will you simply 
> dismiss him as "another" dictator of a "sovereign" country?
> 
> Will you question why Hussein builds lavish palaces while his people 
> are suffering? Or will you simply blame it all on UN sanctions and US 
> "hegemony?"
> 
> Will you decry the hypocritical oil and arms commerce of France, 
> Germany, Russia, and China with the butcher of Baghdad? Or are you only 
> against US interests in Iraqi oil?
> 
> Will you expose ethnic cleansing of native Iraqi non-Arabs (Kurds, 
> Assyrians, Chaldeans, Turkomens), non-Sunni-Muslims (Shiite), and 
> non-Muslims (Christians, Mandaens, Yezidis)? Or are these not 
> equivalent to the cleansing of Bosnians and Kosovars?
> 
> Will you show concern about the brutal silencing of the "Iraqi street"? 
> Or are you only worried about the orchestrated noises of "Arab and 
> Islamist streets" outside Iraq?
> 
> Will you hear the cries of Iraqis executed in acid tanks in Baghdad? 
> the Iraqi women raped in front of their husbands and fathers to extract 
> confessions? Or of children tortured in front of their parents? Or of 
> families billed for the bullets used to execute military "deserters" in 
> front of their own homes?
> 
> No. I suspect that most of you will simply retire to your cappucino 
> cafes to brainstorm the next hot topic to protest, and that you will 
> simply forget about us Iraqis, once you succeed in discrediting 
> President Bush.
> 
> Please, prove me wrong.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (c) Copyright 2003 The Christian Science Monitor.  All rights reserved. 
> 
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> 
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