The human race is facing a major crisis. A retarded monkey is holding the world to ransom,
playing with matches in a fireworks
factory, yet nobody has the resolve to go in there and take the matches off him.
The fact that
this war is being allowed to happen at all will be marked as one of humanity's great failures.
Just because you don't live in Iraq doesn't mean that this war doesn't have serious
consequences for your way of life. Yes, this war will probably be over quickly - in as much as the last
war in Iraq was ever over, or the one in Afganistan - but that doesn't make it OK. If this war
stops when Bush says so, then it will be a war that wasn't just lost by Saddam, or by Iraq, but a
war that the whole world lost.
And
it's your fault. Whoever you are.
Every single person shares the responsibility to stop this war.
Don't let yourself think you're doing enough - no matter what you're doing to oppose it.
Don't think that forwarding emails and signing online petitions is doing enough. It isn't. Don't
hope that lobbying your friends or your colleagues or your representatives is doing enough.
Don't believe that joining marches, holding banners and shouting slogans is doing enough. Nor
is making tshirts, spraying graffiti, burning effigies, taking out full page ads in the
New York Times... If you aren't doing any of those things, then
shame on you. But even if you're doing them all, it's still not enough.
The combined force of every action opposing this war didn't prevent it from beginning, and it
hasn't yet stopped it. Until this war is stopped, NOBOBDY is doing enough to stop it.
The cliched excuse of "what can one person do?" holds no water here. Despite what Bush, the White
House, or CNN is telling you, most people are against this war. No free thinking person could
possibly arrive at the conclusion that America is justified in invading Iraq, and to my knowledge,
none have.
Instead the question is "what can millions of people do?". First,
we need to establish people's confidence in dissent - let everyone know how widespread
opposition is. The things I listed above as not being enough, are still worthwhile doing.
Make sure that everyone you know knows that you are against this war. Take whatever steps
you're willing to to make sure everyone you don't know knows it as well.
But I believe that possibly the most effective weapon against Bush is one that failed against
Saddam: sanctions. Why did America continually pursue sanctions against Iraq? Because
the worst punishment America could conceive of was to cut off the flow of money.
Yet sanctions failed, not simply because Iraq isn't as passionate about money, but mostly
because America couldn't bear to see all that oil going un-burned.
Bush has gone to war to shoot his way out of a recession. If we can ensure that
the cost to America of this war is monetary, and not simply humanitarian, maybe
we can stop it. I propose a boycott of all American goods. I take it for granted that
people avoid McDonalds and Starbucks etc as a matter of course, but if it becomes a matter
of principle, and if enough people follow that principle, it will be impossible to ignore.
It was complacency that elected Bush, and apathy that has kept him in power. His mandate
comes only from people's reluctance to oppose him.
Don't let that continue.
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