[Peace-discuss] Make History Saturday: Take the Streets Against the War(s)

[Robert Naiman]

This is posted on Daily Kos, where there is a poll on which you can
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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/26/1318/9058

As if we needed more reason to be in the streets Saturday: this week
the Bush Administration declared that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
is a "weapons proliferator" and that its Quds Force is a "terrorist"
group. Let's pass over the world-historical hypocrisy of this
chest-beating declaration. The word "chutzpah" needs to be officially
retired, like Roberto Clemente's uniform. As the New York Times
reported, while the U.S. beats its breast about the "Kurdish
terrorists" called the PKK who run over the Turkish border from Iraq,
kill Turkish soldiers, and run back, the cat has our tongue when
"Kurdish terrorists" called the PJAK - basically the same people as
the PKK, as the Times points out - run over the Iranian border from
Iraq, kill Iranian soldiers, and run back.

    Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
    Like a Colossus; and we petty men
    Walk under his huge legs and peep about
    To find ourselves dishonorable graves. Men at some time are
masters of their fates:
    The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves,
that we are underlings.

The Los Angeles Times, in an editorial, pointed out that declaring
that part of the Iranian military a terrorist organization was such a
stupid idea that even the Bush Administration was debating whether to
do it, despite having been urged by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
to do so. The LAT noted that Iranian officials with whom anyone who
was actually serious about diplomacy would want to meet - like its
pragmatic former nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani - have also been
affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. In the event, the
Bush Administration did not go as far as they were urged by 76
Senators, declaring that only the Quds Force, and not the whole
Revolutionary Guard, was a "terrorist" organization. The editorial
even urged Congress to pass the Webb bill, to prevent an attack on
Iran without explicit Congressional authorization. But let's pass over
that as well. Snow-covered pigs will fly through Hell before you see
that editorial in the Washington Post.

This week a "jury of peers" in Texas cried foul on the whole "naming
terrorists" charade. They decided not to convict leaders of an Islamic
charity, who were accused by our government of "supporting terrorism"
by collecting funds for humanitarian relief for Palestinians. Our
government argued that since the humanitarian relief projects were
affiliated with Hamas, and since our government has declared Hamas to
be a terrorist organization, such projects supported Hamas
politically, and therefore, supported terrorism. But let's pass over
that as well. After all, those Texas jurors were just ordinary
citizens. They haven't taken Madeleine Albright's graduate seminar in
U.S. foreign policy.

Let's focus instead on the indisputable fact that "naming" part of
Iran's military as a "terrorist organization" moves us closer to the
"World War III" that President Bush has warned us about. This week, CQ
Today reported, Democrats in Congress objected to a new funding
request from Bush for "bunker buster" bombs that they suggest could be
used to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. So much for Bush
Administration officials' reassurances about how the U.S. is committed
to diplomacy.

As we all know from our experience, mere public opinion, as important
as it is, will not, by itself, move Washington. American public
opinion against endless war must be forcefully and repeatedly
expressed so that it cannot be ignored.

Fortunately, we have a wonderful opportunity to do so Saturday. Others
have toiled to create the infrastructure for 11 regional
demonstrations against the war in Iraq and against war with Iran. We
just have to show up.

-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org