Swanson: Road to Peace Goes Through Santa Cruz
21 February 2006 Road to Peace Goes Through SantaCruz By David Swanson
The following areremarks I made last Wednesday night in Santa Cruz,California, at an event held in the Veterans Hall, where thestar speaker was Medea Benjamin, and where a group of RagingGrannies with pink aprons and rolling pins belted outanti-Bush songs of their own creation that brought down thehouse. Medea was tremendous, and I recommend watching thevideo once they get itonline.
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I'm honored to havebeen asked to come and talk in the US town that least needsto hear about why this war is wrong and why its architectsneed to be impeached, removed from office, andprosecuted.
Santa Cruz would have been the first citygovernment to pass a resolution in favor of impeaching Bushearlier this year, if Santa Cruz hadn't also done so,already, three years ago.
People send me reports andphotos to post at afterdowningstreet.org from marches andrallies and lobbying efforts, and I get more encouragingnews from Sherry Conable and others in Santa Cruz than fromanywhere else.
And, this being Santa Cruz, I'd like toextend a welcome to all the representatives of the lawenforcement community. Ours is a movement to restore therule of law, laws like the US Constitution, the War PowersAct, and the Geneva Conventions.
I'm honored also to havebeen asked to speak alongside one of the heroes of the peacemovement, Medea Benjamin. Medea and her colleagues at CODEPINK are the most creative and most courageous disruptors ofpower in this country. I'm thrilled to be working withMedea and many others to build a national network ofpolitical activists called Progressive Democrats ofAmerica.
And I did say progressive Democrats, which may bean endangered species, but one that can be grown incaptivity and one that is starting to flourish inCalifornia.
Three years ago today we tried to prevent awar with the largest public demonstrations in cities aroundthe world that had ever been held. We had built aremarkable anti-war movement before the war was evenlaunched. And the movement had begun building internationalalliances. CODE PINK was at that time taking flowers to theembassies of nations that refused to support the war.
OnFebruary 15, 2003, in the morning, before the big march inNew York, with marches in hundreds of cities alreadyunderway, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Harry Belafonte, his wifeJulie, and Phyllis Bennis went to the UN to meet withSecretary General Kofi Annan.
Bennis recalls the meetingin her book "Challenging Empire," and writes that Tutu beganby saying, "We are here on behalf of the people marchingtoday in 665 cities around the world. And we're here totell you that those people marching in those cities allaround the world, we claim the United Nations as our own, weclaim it as part of our global mobilization forpeace."
Two hours later, Annan gave a media interview inwhich he said that if force were to be used, a second UNresolution would be required.
The US and the UK tried forbut never got that authorization. This war was a war ofaggression and one explicitly rejected by the UnitedNations. That's as illegal as you can get, and that'sbefore exposing any of the lies that never actually made acase for the war.
Many of you will recall that last summerthe efforts of hundreds of thousands of us forced theDowning Street Minutes and seven related documents into theUS media. Bush and Blair were asked a single question aboutthe Downing Street Minutes. They largely ignored thequestion, which was about the line in the minutes that saidthe US was "fixing the facts around the policy" of going towar.
Instead, they both denied that they had settled onwar by July 2002, pointing out that in November 2002 theyhad gone to the UN, supposedly in an attempt to avoidwar.
And, of course, Bush and Blair had publicly claimedto be working for peace right up until the launch of the warin March 2003.
So, what would happen if we were to findthe record of a meeting of Bush and Blair at the White Housein January 2003. What would they have been saying inprivate?
Well, you're unlikely to have heard about it yetin the US corporate media, but such a record hit theinternational news and the internet a couple of weeks ago. There were a couple of short AP stories, a Christian ScienceMonitor story, and finally last weekend an LA Times story,but not much else.
Not much else, despite the fact thatwhat this White house Memo reveals are actions that led to alot more than one man being shot.
And, can I just ask,what kind of society puts a shotgun in the hands of a manwho has misused missiles, tanks, napalm, white phosphorous,depleted uranium, and the service men and women of the USmilitary?
The White House memo shows that Blair waspushing Bush to try for a second UN resolution, one thatwould authorize war.
Bush said, according to the memo:"The US would put its full weight behind efforts to getanother resolution and would 'twist arms' and 'eventhreaten.' But he had to say that if ultimately we failed,military action would follow anyway."
Does that sound likeBush was trying for peace or trying to legitimize awar?
Bush also said this: "The US was thinking of flyingU2 reconnaissance air craft with fighter cover over Iraq,painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them he would bein breach."
What these guys wouldn t do for peace!
Tohelp push this latest smoking gun into the media, please goto http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/613
There is no more serious high crime or misdemeanor thantaking a nation to war on the basis of lies. There islittle dispute, except on the far right, that Bush andCheney have committed impeachable offenses. But there is adispute over whether we should try to impeach them.
That's a situation that should scare us. We know that itis our duty as citizens to demand impeachment, yet we arewilling to set that aside in order to play the role ofpolitical pundits. It is not our place to effectivelyremove impeachment from the US Constitution, no matter whatany pundit says. But the case for impeachment can be madeon the liberal pundits' own terms.
I hear three mainobjections. First, we should focus on ending the war. Butmore than anything else, what is driving opposition to thewar is awareness of the lies used to justify it. Investigations into those lies and the spying and leakingand other related crimes is the shortest route toward endingthe war. Bush and Cheney have made clear that they will notend this war while they're in office. And we also need tothink about preventing the next war and futurewars.
Second, I hear that we must wait until the Democrats(or a combination of Democrats and independents) win amajority in Congress. But why should we wait until then totalk about impeachment and not wait until then to talk aboutevery other up-hill fight, including ending the war? Thisis the time to fight for what's right. And this is anoff-year election. People must be given a dramatic reasonto turn out and vote. With 85 percent of Democrats wantingto vote for pro-impeachment candidates (at least inPennsylvania, the only state that's been polled), this canbe an election issue. And it must be an issue beforehand ifthe election is to give it a boost. If we elect a bunch ofDemocrats who have not been forced to support impeachmentduring the campaigns, the pundits will immediately announcethat 2008 is just around the corner, and now is, once again,not the right time for impeachment.
Third, I hear thatCheney is worse than Bush. But we're very unlikely to see aserious investigation of Bush that does not incriminateCheney. And Cheney is running things now, so we'd be betteroff with him up-front; he's even more unpopular thanBush.
I also hear that impeachment is too partisan andpolitical and traumatic (as if life under Bush-Cheney is nottraumatic). Well, impeachment was those things when theRepublicans impeached Clinton against the will of thepeople. Now, a majority favors impeachment, and there is nolaw that says we can't win over 15 Republicans and all ofthe Democrats to make it happen.
But this is not revengefor Clinton. This is defense of democracy.
Sure, I'mvaguely annoyed that Clinton was not impeached for thereasons I would have chosen. But mostly I want Bush andCheney impeached for the illegal war, the spying, theleaking, the lying, the bombing, the napalm, the whitephosphorous, the depleted uranium, the illegal propaganda,the disastrous energy policy, the destruction of oureducation system, of the right to organize, of our pensionsystem, the attack on Social Security, the global warming,the neglect that led to the Katrina disaster, the neglectthat led to the 9-11 disaster, the complete disregard forthe rule of law, the mistreatment of veterans, and theunprecedented low standing of the United States in worldopinion.
At www.afterdowningstreet.org I've posted alist of some of the things, large and small, that you can doto help end the war, ranging from not buying gasoline toconscientious objection, from wearing an anti-war shirt tohelping other cities pass impeachment resolutions. But themost important thing we can do is to pressure Congress. That means pressuring the media, but it also meanspressuring Congress directly. And after three years, withmore people dying every day, it's time we got aggressiveabout it.
We need to speak truth to power. We've made alot of phone calls and sent a lot of Emails. We've held alot of meetings. We've seen a lot of Resolutions of Inquiryfail in committee, including one today on the illegalspying.
Senator Rockefeller has proposed looking into thespying. To give you an idea of what we're up against, hereis what Senator Chuck Hagel said in today's Washington Post,(and this was after talking to Cheney, who may have comearmed),
"If some kind of inquiry would be beneficial togetting a resolution to this issue, then sure, we shouldlook at it. But if the inquiry is just some kind ofpunitive inquiry that really is not focused on finding a wayout of this, then I'm not so sure that I would supportthat."
Enough is enough. A coalition of groups, includingProgressive Democrats of America, Democrats.com, Gold StarFamilies for Peace, Hip Hop Caucus, Velvet Revolution, AfterDowning Street, Democracy Rising, and Iraq Veterans Againstthe War is announcing this week a campaign to organizeprotests every weekend outside the homes of CongressMembers, demanding an end to the war and the impeachment ofBush and Cheney.
You can sign up to get involved at http://www.democrats.com/cd
Democrats.com is not the Democratic party, and we areorganizing protests outside the homes of Democrats andRepublicans.
We are leaving it to the judgment of localorganizers to make exceptions for the very best congressmembers, with whom we'll request more meetings before movingto protests.
We're asking that members cosponsor Murtha'sbill to withdraw troops and McGovern's to end war funding,and that they cosponsor Conyers' bill to create aninvestigation into grounds for impeachment, and that theyintroduce articles of impeachment.
About 10 members havedone three out of four. A great many have done two. SamFarr and Mike Honda have done two. Anna Eshoo has done one.I encourage you to persuade Farr and Honda to sign ontoMcGovern's bill, and persuade Eshoo to sign onto McGovernand Conyers. And then ask each of them if they would liketo become an instant international hero by introducingarticles of impeachment.
How many of you would be willingto work on that?
You can sign up at www.democrats.com/cd
We are also encouraging people to lobby the Californiastate legislature to send impeachment charges to the USHouse of Representatives.
How many of you would supportthat? Contact Sherry or one of the other organizers of thisevent to get involved.
We need you in Santa Cruz to helpalong the parts of California that are struggling, and tosee if you can get any action out of Senators Boxer orFeinstein. Senators are supposed to represent peopletoo!
We also need you to lobby national activistorganizations to take on impeachment. If our organizationscan't be made to take this on, we can hardly expect Congressto do so.
Thankyou.
ENDS
THIS ISSUE Lead NZ News NZ Politics World News FeaturesComment & Opinion No Right Turn on UN Guantanamo Report - Guantanamo must be closed, and its prisoners either released or given a fair trial in the United States under US law. That is the recommendation of an investigation conducted by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Why? Apart from general principles of justice and a respect for human rights, the UN has three reasons. See... No Right Turn: Guantanamo Delenda Est
Kirk MacGibbon: A New York Perspective on Labour's Spending - News that the Labour Party is being investigated for allegedly breaching campaign spending limits by a whopping $400,000 seems almost quaint from a New York perspective. What struck me was just how cheap it is to win office in New Zealand. The Labour party spent $2.8 million to win control of the Treasury for another three years. Helen Clark said the laws were in need of 'clarification. See... Kirk MacGibbon: The Price Of Office
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Pierre Tristam Defending the Enlightenment - In the eternal battle between reason and regression there's never been a rallying cry as powerful as Voltaire's double-barreled phrase: Ecrasez l'infame. It has been translated variously as "crush the infamous," "crush the horror" or my preference "smash the rogues." Voltaire's targets, his recent biographer Ian Davidson writes, "included superstition, theological repression, Jesuits, monks, fanatical regicides, and the Inquisition in every shape and form; in short, all facets of the dark and regressive alliance between the Catholic Church and the French State." ... It's a lesson the Islamic world has not yet learned. It's a lesson the western world risks forgetting. See... When Liberty's The Ward Of A Higher Power's Rogues
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