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CounterPunch
March 8,
2003
There's Got to be a Better Way
Never Back Down,
Never Shut Up
By GORDON SOLBERG
Let me say right at the beginning that I believe
in equal opportunity regime change -- depose Saddam, and impeach
Bush. The world would then be a better place.
One thing is clear: after all these thousands
of years, the Golden Rule still hasn't caught on very well. In
the latest installment of our ongoing human tragedy, we have
millions of Iraqis -- half of them under the age of 15 -- being
held hostage by a ruthless dictator.
This dictator is confronted by the most
powerful empire the world has ever seen -- an empire that has
been taken over by a well-organized group of militant, fundamentalist
hard-liners. These hard-liners are none other than the military-industrial
complex -- which has finally taken over, just as Dwight Eisenhower
warned in 1961. The hard-liners have geopolitical ambitions that
include keeping America and the rest of the world dependent on
the oil they control.
The hard-liners' plan for Iraq involves
murdering thousands of innocent Iraqis while destroying what's
left of their infrastructure. Somehow, this doesn't resonate
with a lot of people. We would prefer to rescue the Iraqi people
from Saddam without annihilating them, and without empowering
Bush's world domination agenda.
Thanks in large measure to the Internet,
the Bush regime has encountered an overwhelming amount of worldwide
resistance in recent months. Even in the United States, where
public discourse -- especially on TV -- is tightly controlled
by pro-Bush corporations, a substantial number of Americans are
adamantly opposed to the Bush agenda. We oppose not only Bush's
war, but the entire direction in which he is taking our country.
The millions of anti-war protestors who
have taken to the streets are but the tip of an anti-Bush iceberg.
There are many millions of rock-solid, patriotic, mainstream
Americans who have never protested, but who don't appreciate
being marginalized and steamrollered by the Bush administration's
corrupt and dangerous policies. It's amazing how much fear and
loathing George W. Bush has created in only two years.
Most Americans long ago internalized
Teddy Roosevelt's advice, "speak softly and carry a big
stick." We are weary of an administration that struts and
swaggers and alienates the entire world. We are embarrassed and
outraged to be represented by such people.
We are weary of having our country cold-bloodedly
divided and manipulated by fear, which the Bush administration
quite consciously uses as a management tool. This is not the
kind of country we want to live in.
We are weary of being called "traitors"
by the poisonous Limbaugh-type hate jocks of the far right. We
love our country as least as much as anybody else does.
We are deeply concerned by the erosion
of our Constitutional rights, and by future plans -- such as
Patriot Act II -- to continue this process. Terrorism can be
effectively combated without abridging our Constitutional rights.
We are weary of American troops being
used as pawns in Bush's geopolitical chess game. Bush expects
us to say, "We support our troops, therefore we support
the war." This is false logic. How about: SUPPORT OUR TROOPS,
BRING THEM HOME.
We are weary of the money-changers and
warmongers running our country. It is time to cast them out --
Democrats as well as Republicans, local and state as well as
federal. The looting has gone on long enough.
Americans are hungry for a positive vision.
We want to leave a habitable planet for our children and grandchildren.
We want renewable energy, so that we can finally be free from
the curse of oil. We want to have fair and honest elections for
a change. We want a country with a level playing field for rich
and poor alike. A country where we aren't manipulated to hate
and fear each other.
Things can go either way. Do we follow
the path of fear, death, and planetary destruction that is presently
being imposed on us? Or do we change directions to a path in
which "liberty and justice for all" actually means
something? Will a critical mass of Americans see fit to bestir
themselves about this? It's up to you. Speak out -- loudly and
constantly. Never back down, and never shut up. The time is now.
Gordon Solberg
is a beekeeper who lives near Radium Springs, NM. A onetime planetary
astronomer, Carl Sagan was his editor. You can e-mail him at
earth@zianet.com.
His website is www/zianet.com/earth
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