SD joins Global Mobilization Against War

[sarahlee]

Saturday, March 19, 2005 ~ SD joins Global Mobilization Against War

Sioux Falls ~ Rally in front of the federal courthouse,
400 S Phillips Avenue (downtown, just off the corner of 14th & Phillips)

1-3pm ~

Wisdom from military veterans. Speakout. Peace Drums. Singers. Bring signs, banners, kids, friends. Come whenever and as long as your schedule permits. Followed by potluck meal for those who can stay (Bring some food to share).

Rapid City ~ Potluck meal and peace forum, 11:30 am, St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church. Hosted by RC P&J Chapter. Bring some food to share, and bring your friends. Besides good food, peace action ideas will be on the table.

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4 steps -- a coherent path to peace

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1. Stop the war. Negotiate (a) expedited troop withdrawal (b) internationally administered -- not US-controlled -- transition for Iraq (c) payment schedule to honorably assist Iraq's recovery. And leave no base behind!

2. While prudently guarding public safety in the near term, to disarm terror over the long term, it is necessary to disavow domination committing to an international order based on law, caring, sharing and mutual respect

3. De-militarize our culture and economy

4. Fund human needs & care for the natural world with resources diverted from the domination agenda.

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Are you confused? The Administration's reasons for war keep a'changing. First WMD & bogus al Qaida connection. Then "Get Saddam." Then civil war danger (i.e., keep 138,000-plus US troops in Iraq, torture, reduce Fallujah to rubble, poison a nation with DU, send over 15,000 Americans home wounded and 1515 dead, AND kill over 100,000 Iraqi civilians -- all to keep Iraqis from killing themselves.) NOW keep on killing and being killed to scare Syrians out of Lebanon. On Saturday, March 19, say BASTA, enough!

Cut through the latest obfuscation about Lebanon. Below are some clear-eyed views of the latest Administration rationale for US military presence where the oil lives. Read whatever you have time for -- and weep!

That regime change in Syria is the real objective of this administration's intervention in Lebanon seems beyond doubt. The mild-mannered ophthalmologist is about to undergo a startling transformation into a dictator on a par with Hitler. Deep in the air-conditioned bowels of the Pentagon, they're probably already making plans to fake the circumstances of his capture. "The Wonderful Wizard of Washington," by Justin Raimondo http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=5150


"What the US campaign is clearly not about is the promotion of democracy in either Lebanon or Syria, where the most plausible alternative to the Assad regime are radical Islamists. In a pronouncement which defies satire, Bush insisted on Tuesday that Syria must withdraw from Lebanon before elections due in May "for those elections to be free and fair". Why the same point does not apply to elections held in occupied Iraq - where the US has 140,000 troops patrolling the streets, compared with 14,000 Syrian soldiers in the Lebanon mountains - or in occupied Palestine, for that matter, is unexplained. And why a UN resolution calling for Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon has to be complied with immediately, while those demanding an Israeli pullout from Palestinian and Syrian territory can be safely ignored for 38 years, is apparently unworthy of comment. --- The claim that democracy is on the march in the Middle East is a fraud. It is not democracy, but the US military, that is on the march. " Seumas Milne http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5144581-103677,00.html


The Bush Administration wholeheartedly agrees, as evidenced by the orgy of redescription that now passes for American foreign policy. Faced with an Arab world enraged by its occupation of Iraq and its blind support for Israel, the US solution is not to change these brutal policies; it is, in the pseudo-academic language of corporate branding, to "change the story." "Can Democracy Survive Bush's Embrace?" by Naomi Klein http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0311-24.htm

"I'm not the only one who sees the absurdity of this situation. Recently, referring to the President's position on Syrian troops in Lebanon, Jon Stewart of the Daily Show declared that the administration now sees its role as 'spreading irony throughout the world'." "A Plan for Iraq -- in Lebanon," by Sarah Klusen Butcher http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0311-27.htmI