[Peace-discuss] [sf-core] couple things

[C. G. ESTABROOK]

Obama has more US troops fighting in more places in the Mideast than Bush did. 
Demonstrating against out-of-office Republicans now plays into the defense of 
Obama, that he "inherited the problems."

We should be demonstrating against the crimes being committed in our name at the 
moment. Instead, members of Socialist Forum are defending the president.

And I think I'd prefer to say that AWARE is an anti-war group (and specifically 
US wars) rather than a peace group. All oppressors are in favor of peace - just 
peace on their terms. "Croppies lie down," in the Irish song.

But contemporary wars are primarily the result of US policy (in this 
administration as well as the last).  To quote a real socialist (also an Irish 
patriot):

      "One great source of the strength of the ruling class has ever been their 
willingness to kill in defence of their power and privileges. Let their power be 
once attacked either by foreign foes, or domestic revolutionists, and at once we 
see the rulers prepared to kill, and kill, and kill. The readiness of the ruling 
class to order killing, the small value the ruling class has ever set upon human 
life, is in marked contrast to the reluctance of all revolutionists to shed blood."


Stuart Levy wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 08:51:24PM -0600, C. G. ESTABROOK wrote:
>> It is certainly "a bit perverse" to assert that the present administration 
>> represents any improvement over that last in, say, the matter of killing 
>> people.
> 
> I don't think we need to claim that to find Rove thoroughly worthy
> of demonstrating against.
> 
> Rove is one of the principal political architects of support for the
> wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And he has not changed his tune.
> The Obama administration has not shown that kind of grand initiative --
> they owe a heavy debt to the previous admin.
> 
> For some fun, check out recent Doonesbury strips (doonesbury.com),
> which involve helicopters, the CIA, and an Afghan wedding party, but
> not in the usual tragic way.  It also includes Trudeau's favorite
> quotes from recent news, and here's the current one:
> 
>     "I'm proud that we used techniques that broke the will of these
>     terrorists... I'm proud that we kept the world safer than it was,
>     by use of these techniques." -- Karl Rove on waterboarding
> 
> If John Yoo came to town, would we refrain from demonstrating about
> his presence on the grounds that he wasn't part of the current administration?
> How short are our memories supposed to get?
> 
> During the Bush administration I didn't see AWARE, at least, as
> a specifically anti-Republican action group, and I don't see us as a
> specifically anti-Democratic one now.  We're a peace group.
> 
>    Stuart

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