[Peace-discuss] (no subject)

[Morton K. Brussel]

Following a piece on CommonDreams.org by Cindy Sheehan at

[http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/28/4866/]

are many impassioned responses, most of which show that there are  
many desperate, utterly frustrated, anti-war people out there, with  
few illusions about US party politics. I reproduce one; you may wish  
to read the others as well as Sheehan's article. Many want Kucinich  
to go independant.

The following states what the responder thinks must be done, but of  
course the much harder issue remains how to do it. In truth, it may  
not be in the power of the U.S. populace to do it without external  
circumstances affecting the bad deal which we've all been dealt.

---mkb


beyondempire October 29th, 2007 3:10 pm

All of us have got to understand that elections at the national level  
are not played on a level playing field. These are not real elections  
people. By the time the MSM has labeled all candidates who do not  
follow the empire’s agenda crazy, wierd or unelectable; and the  
fraudulent debates have excluded candidates without the cash or poll  
numbers necessary to qualify; and the individual state’s ballot  
access laws have frustrated third parties and independents; there  
will emerge only two candidates one from each of the empire’s  
sanctioned parties and both sharing imperialistic and corporatist  
(fascist) agendas. The fact that one party may lean ever so slightly  
toward rhetorical domestic reforms that seem to favor “We the  
plebicites” but always seem to become watered down and dysfuntional  
in practice presents only a sliver of a difference. What we are  
witnessing at this time in our history is the end of any functional  
democracy. Our elections have become auctions and the winner will be  
the highest bidder. “We the people” have not been invited to attend.

For those of you who still wish to call yourselves Democrats, you  
might be happy to learn that Hillary has won the 2008 election. She  
did so by aligning herself with the interests of big oil, the  
military industrial complex, big banking and AIPAC. Her pro-war  
stance will continue and we will see military action in Iran.

For those of us who support peace, we need to recognize that we can  
no longer support the military with our labor, our money or even our  
rhetoric. I have the utmost respect for those within the military who  
have spoken out against this war and the upcoming war in Iran.  
Unfortunately, many of our military leaders continue to follow the  
instructions of their civilian “puppetmasters”. But it will take more  
than talk to change things. Our military needs to heed the words of  
Schmedly Butler and understand the real reasons behind our wars. His  
book is back in print and “War is A Racket” was never a more accurate  
description of what our country is involved in today. We fight our  
wars not for freedom, not for democracy, apple pie, or our way of  
life (although a literal interpretation of “our way of life” might  
indeed include an uninterrupted source of fossil fuels and natural  
resources looted from indigenous peoples throughout the world to  
support our ever more unsustainable lifestyle). We fight our wars for  
the right of huge corporations to extract unreasonable profits from  
those who may wish to set up a toll both on the highways of  
exploitation.

Our criminal government is up to their necks in fascist imperialism  
with full steam ahead and no one to check the throttle.

We really need to become the kind of activists that pushed the labor  
movement forward. We’ve got to refuse to do the work of the corporate  
criminals who build arms, destroy enviroments, violate human rights  
and exploit other populations; and we’ve got to support the people  
who give up
their jobs in these areas by helping each other to find decent  
employment in areas that support the antithesis of these corporate  
giants.

In order to take control of our government back, we need to destroy  
the power of corporations to hide behind the illegitimate idea of  
“corporate personhood” and eliminate any involvement of corporations  
in campaign financing or political lobbying. Any involvement of  
corporations in the political process should be grounds for the  
corporate “death penalty”

Sorry for the screed but we are in serious trouble as a nation and  
change from within the government is really no longer an option or a  
plausible reality. As soon as we all realize this the better.  
Revolution is at hand. But we’ve got to give it support from the base  
and we’ve got to do it without violence.



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