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CHINA'S GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS
Peter Kwong
gives us the "New China" without illusions: from the
"millionaires' fair" in Shanghai, with $60,000 diamond-studded dog leashes
to one
of the most savagely repressed working class and peasantry on
the planet. How China's
leaders swapped Marx and Mao for Milton Friedman. Alexander Cockburn
on What's wrong with the U.S. left.
They're sitting in darkened rooms weaving conspiracy fantasies
about 9/11; they're blogging; they're confusing a medium with
a movement; they're not doing enough to stop the war in Iraq.
John Ross
takes us along the stormy trail of the Mexican election. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers
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"Dictatress
of the World": Has America Become JQ Adams' Worst Nightmare?
A
Troops Home Fast
By MEDEA BENJAMIN
This July 4th, as we celebrate the 230th
anniversary of our nation's founding, we find ourselves in a
tragic position: a nation born out of a longing for freedom from
domination has now become the dominator. The US Declaration of
Independence proclaimed the need to fight against Britain because
King George III had "kept among us standing armies"
that committed intolerable "abuses and usurpations."
Today our government, sending 140,000 soldiers off to fight in
a foreign land, is committing abuses and usurpations in Iraq.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison all warned
that the invasion and occupation of other lands would turn America
into precisely the sort of occupying force they had rebelled
against. "If there be one principle more deeply written
than any other in the mind of every American," said Thomas
Jefferson in 1791, "it is that we should have nothing to
do with conquest."
But it is the words of John Quincy Adams that should haunt us
today. As Secretary of State in 1821, he called on America to
be "the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all",
but "the champion and vindicator only of her own."
He advised against going abroad "in search of monsters to
destroy" because "once enlisting under other banners
than her ownshe would involve herself beyond the power of extrication,
in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice,
envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard
of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly
change from liberty to force." The United States might become
the "dictatress of the world," Adams warned, but "she
would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit."
The invasion of Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with the
September 11 tragedy, is indeed a war of interest and intrigue
that has usurped the standard of freedom. While the invasion
morphed from a war against Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction
to a war to free the Iraqi people, the Iraqis increasingly came
to view the U.S. forces as occupiers, not liberators. The abuses
at Abu Ghraib, the destruction of Fallujah, the Marine rampage
in Haditha-all are reflections of how, in our search for "monsters
to destroy," we have found them in ourselves. And the refusal
of our elected officials to put a timeline for the withdrawal
of U.S. troops-despite the call to do so from both the American
and Iraqi people-shows how our involvement has entrapped us "beyond
the power of extrication."
Many peace-loving Americans have been trying to extricate our
nation from this war of conquest by pushing for our troops to
come home. We have organized massive rallies, lobbied Congress,
held month-long vigils outside the White House and gone to jail
for committing acts of civil disobedience. But it's obviously
not enough, for the war rages on.
Perhaps that's because we've been waging peace with half a heart.
Father Dan Berrigan, who engaged in hunger strikes and spent
years in prison for his protests against the Vietnam War, once
said: "We have assumed the name of peacemaker, but we have
been unwilling to pay any significant price. And because we want
peace with half a heart, the war continues. The waging of war,
by its nature, is total, but the waging of peace, by our own
cowardice, is partial."
This July 4, a group of American patriots will gather outside
the White House to wage peace with a full heart. Foregoing the
barbeques, we will instead launch an open-ended hunger strike,
called Troops Home Fast, to call for an end to the occupation
of Iraq. The fast is inspired by people throughout history, from
Mahatma Gandhi to the Suffragists to Cesar Chavez, who deprived
themselves of food as a way to rally public support against oppressive
policies.
The long-term fasters include mothers and fathers who have lost
sons in this conflict, veterans from Iraq, a former Army Colonel,
a retired CIA analyst and a Franciscan priest. Joining in solidarity
one-day fasts are celebrities such as Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon,
Danny Glover, Willie Nelson and Graham Nash, and over 3,000 people
in 18 countries.
In launching the fast on July 4th, we honor the spirit of resistance
upon which our nation was founded and call on other patriots
to join us. Let us follow the advice of John Quincy Adams by
extricating ourselves from Iraq so that Iraqis can rule their
own nation and we Americans can, once again, become the rulers
of our own spirit.
Medea Benjamin is cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK:
Women for Peace. You can be in solidarity with the fasters by
pledging to fast for one day. To sign up or learn more, see www.troopshomefast.org.
She can be reached at: medea@globalexchange.org
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