[Peace-discuss] Flyer for 2 July Main Event

[C. G. Estabrook]

A draft of the flyer prepared for the demonstration in downtown Champaign on 2 
July is attached.

The text is as follows:
==============

PRESIDENT OBAMA:
~BRING U.S. TROOPS (AND MERCENARIES) HOME;
~END THE WARS IN THE MIDEAST AND NORTH AFRICA;
~STOP LYING ABOUT THE REASONS FOR THEM;
~SPEND THE MONEY FOR JOBS AT HOME; AND
~STOP BAILING OUT BILLIONAIRES.

At the celebration of its national independence - the Fourth of July, 2011 - the 
United States is said to be waging six wars in southwest Asia and north Africa. 
- Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia - to which should be 
added Palestine, where Israel - the chief client of the US - is oppressing an 
entire people.

President Obama claims that his reason for causing death and destruction half 
way around the world is "9-11." The crimes committed in New York and Washington 
on September 11, 2001, were awful - but those who committed them said that they 
were counter-attacks to the US sanctions on Iraq, which killed half a million 
children ("...worth it," said Clinton's secretary of state); to the Israeli 
government's attacks on Palestinians; and to the US military occupation of Saudi 
Arabia, with its Muslim holy places. The crimes of 9-11 were a horrible response 
to two generations in which the United States had attacked, subverted, 
manipulated, and coerced governments through the Mideast.

The current administration has in fact fallen in with the constant US policy in 
the Mideast. Since the Second World War, the US has demanded control of the 
world's greatest concentration of energy resources, in the Mideast and North 
Africa - what the State Department two generations ago called "the world's 
greatest material prize." It's important to see that the US doesn't need this 
gas and oil for our own use here at home - contrary to what most politicians 
say, the US imports very little from the Middle East - but control of this 
region gives the US an advantage over the countries who are its economic rivals 
in northern Europe and northeast Asia. Our government is killing people from 
Libya to Pakistan, from Central Asia to the Horn of Africa, because the Chinese 
need oil, and we intend to control how they get it.

This policy remains the same whether Republicans or Democrats are in office. The 
two most important things the federal government does is kill people and 
transfer money from the poor to the rich. The result has been a decade of war 
and a generation-long - and accelerating - concentration of wealth in the hands 
of a tiny minority of Americans. Barack Obama has shown himself to be more 
brutal and efficient at these tasks than George Bush. Two-thirds of the 1,000 
American military personnel who have died in Afghanistan have been killed since 
Obama became president - and he was elected by people who thought he would be 
more anti-war that his Republican and Democrat rivals.

The president tries to convince Americans that he is "stopping terrorists" and 
"protecting civilians" - when we can see that he is killing civilians and 
creating terrorists. The US wars in the Mideast have been immensely expensive, 
and we all know that the money is needed here at home. While China builds 
high-speed transportation systems, American roads and bridges are crumbling. In 
spire of the world financial crisis and the current great recession, the Obama 
administration has in fact restored the fortunes of only a very few Americans: 
the richest 1%. Nothing has been done for jobs for most Americans - except that 
large amounts of money have been given to the largest corporations in hopes that 
they might hire more people. Instead, they've hoarded the cash - our tax money. 
Obama's wars are in the interests of those corporations and that 1%.

The U.S. military designates the energy-producing region as its "CENTCOM 
[Central Command] AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY" and insists on controlling the 
governments of the region by alliance, subversion, intimidation, or conquest:

If you object to the Obama administration's conducting illegal and unjustified 
wars in the Mideast and North Africa - and misrepresenting the reasons for them 
- while doing nothing about the economy except aiding the rich, tell your 
representatives in Congress. Representative Tim Johnson, and Senators Dick 
Durbin and Mark Kirk, can be reached through the Capitol switchboard at 
202-224-3121. Your protest makes a difference: local congressman Tim Johnson, 
who voted for the invasions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, decided that he was 
wrong to do so and refuses to vote for any more money for war in the Mideast. He 
has kept his promise, while our senators continue to vote for war. Now Rep. 
Johnson has joined with other members of Congress - including Rep. Ron Paul and 
Rep. Dennis Kucinich - in a lawsuit against the president's illegal and 
unconstitutional war in Libya. You can call and thank him for his stance against 
war at 217-403-4690.

You can also join us in the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of Champaign-Urbana 
(AWARE). We meet every Sunday at 5pm in the McKinley Foundation, 5th and Daniel 
Streets in Champaign, near the UIUC campus. We discuss the war and what can be 
done against it. Visitors are welcome - and see our Facebook page. We also 
present AWARE on the Air each Tuesday 10-11pm on Urbana Public Television, 
channels 6 & 99. Each week we bring you comments by members and friends of AWARE 
about the war and the opposition to it, locally and nationally, by Americans who 
oppose our government's betrayal of our democratic principles.

We at AWARE think that, if Americans knew what the Obama administration is doing 
in their name, they would be appalled.

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