Sherry Chandler » Five Years. Racism
Five Years. Racism
VIDEO: Winter Soldier Mike Prysner testimony, Pt1 Watch at YouTube.
VIDEO: Winter Soldier Mike Prysner testimony Pt2. Watch at YouTube.
From Winter Soldier.
On the subject of racism and torture, you might also read this review of Taxi to the Dark Side.
Read this: Players not Cheerleaders
Look past the rhetoric and it becomes clear that neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton has a real plan to end the occupation. They could, however, be forced to change their positions–thanks to the unique dynamics of the prolonged primary battle.
Despite the calls for Clinton to withdraw in the name of “unity,” it is the very fact that Clinton and Obama are still fighting it out, fiercely vying for votes, that presents the anti-war movement with its best pressure point. And our pressure is badly needed.
For the first time in 14 years, weapons manufacturers are donating more to Democrats than to Republicans. The Dems have received 52 percent of the defense industry’s political donations in this election cycle–up from a low of 32 per cent in 1996. That money is about shaping foreign policy, and so far, it appears to be well spent.
While Clinton and Obama denounce the war with great passion, they both have detailed plans to continue it.
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Crucially, the candidates have already shown that they are vulnerable to pressure from the peace camp: When The Nation revealed that neither candidate was supporting legislation that would ban the use of Blackwater and other private security companies in Iraq, Clinton abruptly changed course. She became the most important U. S. political leader to endorse the ban, scoring a point on Obama, who opposed the invasion from the start.
This is exactly where we want the candidates: outdoing each other to prove how serious they are about ending the war. That kind of issue-based battle has the power to energize voters and break the cynicism that is threatening both campaigns.
Let’s remember: unlike the outgoing Bush administration, these candidates need the support of the two-thirds of Americans who oppose the war in Iraq. If opinion transforms into action, they won’t be able to afford to say, “So?”
Also, you might want to sign on the A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.
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2 Comments
1. Harry replies at 27th March 2008, 4:10 pm :
The testimony about racism and torture is moving, but the whole implication that the invasion of Iraq was down to a profit motive, and that unspecified ‘billionaires’ who ‘control the world economy’ were behind it… hmmm.
The idea that this war is somehow being waged to make money — or ‘for oil’, by which people usually mean to imply the same thing — comes up again and again, but it just doesn’t make sense to me. And I don’t think it improves the credibility of anti-war campaigners.
2. sherry replies at 27th March 2008, 6:19 pm :
If you know why we invaded, Harry, I wish you’d tell me because I’ve never had a clue, except maybe that George Bush was drunk on what he perceived to be his power. And if that’s the case, I wish he’d stayed drunk on booze. It would have been better for the world at large.
I don’t even know whether we’re staying to actually try to put Iraq back on its feet or to finish the tremendous base/embassy we’re building there. All I know is that it’s been an incredible fiasco and if it wasn’t money that took us in, it will probably be money that brings us out, because the U.S. economy is in the tank. Either that or some cataclysmic event, like for example the current heating up of the Sadr/Maliki rivalry. I’m pretty sure it won’t be the political courage of Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Certainly not John McCain who still seems to be fighting Viet Nam.
Like John Ashbery said, “Tomorrow is easy, but today is uncharted…”
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