[Peace-discuss] Draft flyer for Farmers' Market & Main Event, Aug. 4

Fri Aug 3 17:00:40 UTC 2012

Gentles--

Attached please find a draft flyer for AWARE's events this weekend, tabling at the Farmers' Market and demonstrating in downtown Champaign.

I'll appreciate comments & corrections and prepare copies for distribution.  --CGE 

==========The unformatted text is as follows===============

The Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of Champaign-Urbana (AWARE)

THE U.S. IS PROMOTING WAR IN SYRIA AND IRAN
THAT SERVES THE INTERESTS OF ONLY THE 1%

We should fight the rich - not their wars

This week US officials revealed that earlier this year, President Obama signed a secret order authorizing US support for rebels seeking to overthrow the government of Syria by force. Who gave him the authority to do that? The president is not a king, able to go to war on his own: the Constitution says that Congress has to declare war - the Founders specifically took the king's power away from him. (James Madison, Federalist Papers #41). Yet the US has been supplying arms and war materiel to the rebel fighters in Syria through the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and its NATO clients. Why?

Also this week the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a war-mongering bill against Iran promoted by the Israel Lobby group AIPAC. (Our Congressman, Timothy Johnson, was one of only six members of the House - including Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul - to vote against this bill.) Rep. Paul said, "A vote for this [Iran Sanctions Bill] will show that it’s just one more step to another war that we don’t need. We have not been provoked, [Iran] is not a threat to our national security and we should not be doing this. For the past 10 to 15 years we’ve been obsessed with this idea that we go to war and try to solve all the problems of the world. At the same time, it is bankrupting us.” (See the other side of this flyer.)

The US supports civil war in Syria in order to deprive Iran of its principal ally in the Arab world. The reduction of Iran (where the US overthrew a democratically-elected government in 1953) is part of the long-term US policy in the Mideast and Africa, to control the world's energy-producing region as an advantage over US economic rivals, principally Germany and China. (Iran is a major oil-producer; see over.) Of course, war is also good for business for American mercenaries and weapons-makers ("defense contractors"), here and in Israel.

Meanwhile, the long-term economic policies of this (and previous) administrations continued to transfer wealth from the great majority of Americans to the 1% - at an accelerating rate. The candidates of both major political parties (except Ron Paul) support the Mideast wars and the looting of the middle class. The presidential election is largely irrelevant, since whoever is the next president will follow those policies - unless an uprising of the American people, like the Civil Rights or anti-Vietnam War movements, prevents them from doing so.

The US government is in fact quite worried about that possibility (represented now by the Occupy Wall Street movement) and so is encouraging police repression and even military preparations by the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon for the political conventions this summer, along with increased spying on the American people and Obama's assertion of his (entirely unconstitutional) ability to indefinitely detain US citizens "associated with terrorism."

If you object to the Obama administration's violating the Constitution to conduct illegal and unjustified wars - and misrepresenting the reasons for them - tell your representatives in Congress:
they can be reached at 202-224-3121.

AWARE meets every Sunday at 5pm in the McKinley Foundation, Fifth 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 the cable TV program "AWARE on the Air" each Tuesday at 10pm (and repeated through the week) on Urbana Public Television, channels 6 & 99.

*	*	*
Understanding the Iran situation

Today for the nth time in my life I woke up to a headline discussing the latest U.S. threat to bomb Iran. Every time I see a headline like this I am reminded of an interview with Noam Chomsky in which he is asked about the current Iran situation. Chomsky remarks, “I don't know if anybody cares, but there is something called the UN Charter, which is a valid treaty that we're committed to which bars the threat or use of force.”[1] So today when U.S. Secretary of “Defense” Leon Panetta tells reporters that when it comes to Iran, “all options are on the table,” the U.S. is violating the UN charter.[2] Furthermore, these threats are openly made, obviously with the intention of intimidating the Iranian government. They therefore qualify as international terrorism which is defined by the United States Department of Defense as, “The calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear.”[3]

However, let us for a moment put aside our objections to the United States’ complete disregard for law, both international and domestic. Let us turn to the subject of Iran’s nuclear program. There is no evidence that exists anywhere that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. I say this confidently because a report released by the U.S. government, “which represents the consensus of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, indicates that Iran is pursuing research that could put it in a position to build a weapon, but that it has not sought to do so.” This intelligence was not and has not been disputed by the Israelis.[4] And of course Iran is in the “position” to build a nuclear weapon, as is every country in the world that is pursuing their right under international law to make use of nuclear power.

However, at this juncture of thought, I am again reminded of Chomsky, quoting Israeli “defense” expert Martin van Creveld who writes that Iran “would be crazy” to not pursue nuclear weapons.[5] Of course the logic is this, nuclear weapons are one of the few known defenses against U.S. bombing. If there is one lesson that the U.S. government’s enemies can learn from the NATO bombing of Libya, it is that cancelling your weapons of mass destruction program is always a bad idea. Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Gaddafi decided to cancel Libya’s weapons of mass destruction programs. As former head of the National Transitional Council Mahmoud Jibril explained, Gaddafi made this conciliatory move because he, “did not want to end up in a hole.”[6] Unfortunately for Gaddafi, his moves towards reconciliation with the West were fully rewarded when on October 20th, 2011, NATO aircraft bombed a convoy carrying Gaddafi, leading to his capture by rebels and a summary execution without trial. Just like Saddam Hussein was strongly supported by the CIA and successive U.S. administrations and then for very little reason disposed of. And just like Osama Bin Laden, and soon Bashar al Assad, Gaddafi was used of, and then disposed of by the NATO powers. Vijay Prashad writes that the fate of Gaddafi had become, “irrelevant, NATO had fired him.”[7]

So the options laid out by the NATO powers for third world dictators are the following: Serve NATO diligently and you will be used for however long the NATO powers see fit, and then one day with little warning brutally murdered. Or alternatively, like North Korea, build nuclear weapons and you will be safe. The choice is Iran’s to make, and I honestly don’t know which option is better for the world. [libcom.org]

1. "Noam Chomsky on U.S. Policy Towards Iran, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Paul Jay." chomsky.info : The Noam Chomsky Website. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. <http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20071119.htm>.
2. "Panetta tells Israel force is option on Iran - Middle East - Al Jazeera English." AJE - Al Jazeera English. Web. 1 Aug. 2012.
3. "U.S. Department of Defense Definition of Terrorism." Terrorism. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. <http://terrorism.about.com/od/whatisterroris1/ss/DefineTerrorism_4.htm?rd=>.
4. Dilanian, Ken, and Los Angeles Times. "U.S. does not believe Iran is trying to build nuclear bomb - Los Angeles Times." Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/23/world/la-fg-iran-intel-20120224>.
5. Creveld, Martin van. "Sharon on the warpath - Is Israel planning to attack Iran? - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/21/opinion/21iht-edcreveld_ed3_.html>.
6. Muammar Gaddafi’s Exile Options After Fall of Tripoli - The Daily Beast." The Daily Beast. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/21/muammar-gaddafi-s-exile-options-after-fall-of-tripoli.html>.
7. Prashad, Vijay. Arab spring, Libyan winter. Oakland, CA: AK Press Pub., 2012.

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