[Peace-discuss] "Message in a Bottle" from Iraq

[Robert Naiman]

I don't claim any particular talent at inspirational speeches, but
here is my attempt to inspire us for the township meetings tonight.
Hopefully the progressive turnout in Champaign will be enough...!

---

"Message in a Bottle" from Iraq 			 				 			
	http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/message-in-a-bottle-fro_b_45499.html
[go to huffpo for the links]	  	
				 			  			
Iraqslogger on Monday posted pictures from the demonstrations in Najaf
against the US occupation of Iraq.

Check out the signs written in English:

"Yes, Yes to Independence"

"Union of Iraq Students demand for the speedy withdrawal of occupation
forces unconditiolly"

Yes, that last one is not my typo - that's the sign as it appeared.

It's a colorful sign. Some folks went to a lot of trouble to make a
sign in a language that they weren't very familiar with.

Some folks at the demonstration were not focused on rallying Iraqis
against the occupation. Some folks were focused on getting a message
out to people whose native language is English.

Us.

You know, like the Police song - "Message in a Bottle." Maybe some
journalists will take a picture of our sign, and maybe the picture
will go to the U.S., and maybe people in the U.S. will see our sign
and get our message that we want the U.S. occupation forces to
withdraw.

With so many Bush Administration supporters and pundits bashing
Congressional Democrats for trying to establish a timetable for the
withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, you'd think there would be a
little more focus on what Iraqis want.

There is data on this, readily available. In September, for example,
the Program on International Policy Attitudes published the results of
a survey of Iraqi public opinion:
"A large majority of Iraqis - 71% - say they would like the Iraqi
government to ask for U.S.-led forces to be withdrawn from Iraq within
a year or less." Obviously, regardless of the stated purposes of the
U.S. invasion, this is a key fact. But one of the claimed purposes of
the U.S. invasion was to establish democracy. All the more reason why
the apparent desire of Iraqis for the occupation forces to leave
should be a central fact in the U.S. debate. The only plausible
explanation for treating this key fact as irrelevant would be that the
word "democracy" has a meaning for the Bush Administration and its
supporters that is very different from the understanding of most
Americans and Iraqis.

The bottle has washed ashore and we've fished out and read the little
piece of paper. What are we going to do now? One possibility would be
to ask our Senators to support the Reid/Feingold bill cutting off
funding for the occupation after March, 2008.

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iraqwithdrawal.html