Reply #42: "Single point agenda"? I'm sorry, I just don't agree. That was the...

[Peace Patriot]

mistake we made in 1967 and thereafter in the Vietnam War protests. We did not sufficiently address the CAUSES of the war: 1) war profiteers, first and foremost; b) Corporate Rule, poverty and injustice (the poor fought the war); c) the lack of humane and progressive values under our Corporate Rulers, evident in their continuing devastation of our planetary environment; and d) a humongous military machine with the most Weapons of Mass Destruction on the planet--and an economy based on war industries for the last 60 years.

What should we expect but that outright fascists would gain illegitimate control of this huge killing machine and use it to steal another country's resources?

Over a million Vietnamese slaughtered, over 50,000 U.S dead, and we did not go on to insist that this horrid killing machine be dismantled AND that our tax revenues, mostly--with the Reagan era--confiscated from law-abiding, poor and middle class American taxpayers, be utilized to benefit the American people, and to foster justice and peace in the world.

We failed because we DID NOT ADDRESS THE BIGGER PICTURE: the rich getting richer; the poor getting poorer and being used for cannon fodder; gigantic U.S.-based war-profiteering corporations and news monopolies; and the poor and the brown oppressed everywhere on earth.

This movement is NOT just about ending the Iraq war. It is about ending HOW that war COULD go forward despite the overwhelming opposition of the American people. Many people don't remember this, but it stuck in my mind, never to be dislodged. 58% of the American people opposed the Iraq war BEFORE the invasion. Feb. '03. Across the board in all polls. Before all the lies were exposed; before all the horror and costs of it were known. 58%!

That number dipped only once, during the weeks of the invasion with U.S. troops at max risk, then when right back up to nearly 60%, where it stayed through the election--and is over 70% today.

The question is HOW could this war have happened with such big opposition early on? The immediate answer is that the American majority has been DISENFRANCHISED, and, by the time of the 2004 election, was disenfranchised very directly, by two rightwing corporations, Diebold and ES&S, who gained control of the vote tabulation with SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code--and with the war profiteering corporate news monopolies actually FALSIFYING their own exit polls (Kerry won) to fit the result derived by Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae (Bush won). And if that SECRET, PROPRIETARY vote tabulation continues, there is NOTHING we can do to "bring the troops home." They will never come home. They will go on to Iran and Syria. And even if the Diebold and ES&S install a War Democrat in 2008, the purpose will be to get a military Draft (which Bush can't do) and to perpetuate this unjust, war-mongering economy.

That's what we're facing if we don't restore our right to vote! And beyond that, OUR RIGHT TO CONTROL OUR GOVERNMENT, and to use it to benefit all the people.

War and injustice go together! They always have. And if you don't address the injustice, you WILL have another war, and another, and another.