Ron Jacobs has an article at CounterPunch on the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations. A number of e-mails are coming in on the article and organization.
We're not promoting it. When it does something, we'll promote it if we like the activity. But we're taking a wait and see on the organization due to all the many do-nothing and Barack-covering 'peace' organizations. World Can't Wait and A.N.S.W.E.R. we'll promote. In terms of general organizations (membership open to anyone), that's going to be it.
On the plus for NAEIAWO, they have a few people high in their ranks who are not apologists, are not Democrats and are not in any political closet. With those, the organization might really have a shot at becoming something. (They also have Dems on their administrative and continuous body.) But if you would have told me a few years ago that UPFJ would become such a suck-up, suck-ass to a Democratic Party president, I would never have believed you. Not with some of their people. I'm not talking Tom who always whores himself out to the Democratic Party or Barry's would-be lover from Democratic Socialists. But they had Communists, for example, on their board. And, granted, most were in the closet, but even so.
So I wouldn't have guessed they would make it their life's purpose to enable a War Hawk just because he was a Democrat. (Or maybe just because he was bi-racial.) But that's what they did. They want to pretend -- and they aren't alone in this -- that the economy and other issues are why their donations tanked. Their donations tanked because people walked away. Because people got tired of their crap. You're either for ending the illegal war or you're not. You're either okay with Afghanistan remaining a killing field or you're not. But they ignored it and they whored it and Phyllis Bennis can cry in her pillow about the Palestinians all she wants but she better grasp that they and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq live in danger because she helped whore for Barack.
People are sick of Leslie Cagan, they're sick of Phyllis Bennis. Now you can translate that into college students who are furious with these do-nothing 'leaders' who think they can boss the movement around and use the movement. But I'm also talking about people like Elaine. I'm not giving to UPFJ. The only reason I ever did was because it was Elaine's favorite charity. She's done with them, she's done with those liars, and I'm not donating and there's a whole host of us who gave big donations but won't anymore.
UPFJ needs to decay. I really don't think it can start over and be worth anything. It betrayed everything it was supposed to stand for. Ron Jacobs is much nicer about UPFJ in his article than some (including me) would be.
Hopefully, this new org will amount to something. But the reality is they did nothing in 2008. It's really easy to give a few strong remarks in an interview today. But try calling Barack out in 2008 when whores were pimping him as anti-war. Try telling the truth and see how easy it was then. It's not that easy today but it's because of the very few people who do tell the truth that it gets easier and easier each week.
This is honestly like the post-911 period where people just would not criticize Bush. They lived in fear of it. And it took brave people to chip away that nonsense. We don't have royalty in the United States (I believe a little princess who wanted to be a senator found that out the hard way as last year drew to a close). And this nonsense of hero worship needs to stop. It is very dangerous and the sort of the thing we criticize Russia and the USSR for. It needs to stop. It's dangerous to democracy and it's dangerous to the world.
Those with any bravery need to be calling Barack out the same way Bush was. There's not a bit of diffference. If it were Bush using the teleprompter (and screwing up with it all the time), there would be a million jokes by now.
"Public servant." That's what the president is, that's what the Congress is. They work for us. We don't work for them. They make huge sums of money and we're the ones paying that. They are servants to the people. We don't need to glorfiy them, we don't need to worship them. We do need to treat them like what they are: Workers we are the boss of. And when we can do that, when we can stop begging on our knees and demanding what we want, the Iraq War will end. We can even have universal health care. Real universal health care. But that's never going to happen while we feel like we don't have the right to tell them what to do. Of course we have that right. We hired them. They only serve at our pleasure.
When we can trash this notion of hero worship and start expecting the people we hired to work for us, there's no limit on what we could accomplish.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
Last Thursday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4276. Tonight? 4278.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
i hate the war
the ballet
ron jacobs
