Resist Empire! (3/20/04 and more)

[Jeff]

Just wanted to remind all you PISers to get in the streets for the worldwide day of protest this Saturday, March 20. The date marks the first anniversary of the Bush junta's illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. Find an event in your town here:

www.unitedforpeace.org/

And, if you can make it, plan to be in New York City August 27 to September 4 for the Republican National Convention. As many as one million people will be protesting Bush's cynical and ghoulish attempt to use NYC's 9/11 dead as a campaign prop. More info here:

www.counterconvention.org/
www.rncnotwelcome.org/


Give 'em hell!!
Jeff

[ghost]

I'm going to say something that will probably sound badly wrong. Yes, Bush lied to his own nation. Yes, the invasion of Iraq was immoral and wrong. Surely, invasions and war are wrong. But Iraq now is not the same as it was - terrorists have come there and may make it their nest. So if the occupants leave now, the situation will not necessarily get better. Leaving will not necessarily be right. At least so it all appears after some recent discussions on our TV. A certain degeree of military presence might be necessary. Controlled and aided by United Nations and all the people in the world who care and really understand what is happening. Just do not re-elect Bush. But again, I may very well be wrong. It is not my country that has been so invaded - if it were, I would probably have a different opinion.
Natasha.

[Hubsi]

The American forces went in there and smashed whatever order there was. When they leave now, there will be even more chaos than there is now.
Still I understand every Iraqi who drops a bomb on the US soldiers. There will be no peace, as long as the Iraq is occupied.
I think, the occupation has to change to a peace keeping force, preferably with non-US Soldiers. Elections can be held later. But it must always be clear, that the Iraqi people (no matter what religious fraction they belong to) make all the government decisions, not some foreign occupation force.

[Jeff]

You two are right--the issue is not whether there will be any troops be in Iraq. Obviously, somebody's troops will have to be there, for the time being, in order to keep a lid on the chaos that bumbling Bush and Co. unleashed. After all, the US occupation dissolved the Iraqi army first thing!

The real issue, as Hubsi says, is who will control Iraq, and to what end. The US wants to ram through massive structural changes before there's anyone to stop them. That means, of course, privatizing everything (especially oil, naturally) and selling out the entire Iraqi economy to big (mostly American) corporations. They also want to leave huge military bases in Iraq, to allow easier 'force protection' for future aggression in the region. In the best of all worlds, the US would like to see an obedient (in media Newspeak this translates as 'pro-American') client government in Iraq. However, it looks like that last bit might not work out so well for them, with the majority Shiites calling for direct elections (instead of 'caucuses' and other nonsense).

Let's not forget: the US war was illegal. Therefore the US occupation is illegal. For an invading foreign power to radically restructure the economy of an occupied country is most definitely illegal.

So all US troops have to leave Iraq immediately. The US must relinquish all political and economic control of the country. All reconstruction and privatization contracts must be cancelled (especially those held by Bechtel, Halliburton and other Bush cronies), and re-negotiated by a sovereign, elected Iraqi government. Peacekeeping troops in Iraq should be under the command and control of the UN (which is already a problem since the UN is dominated by the US, and administered the mass-murder sanctions, but it's the only thing there is).

And hell, since I'm just fantasizing here, the US should pay substantial reparations to Iraq and to families of civilians killed and injured during the war and occupation. Ha-ha, funny right?

Well, none of the above will happen as long as Junior is president. And frankly, most of it won't happen if Kerry is president, but at least he's not totally insane. The movement will just have to deal with him once he's elected.

If Bush is elected (not re-), the world is truly fucked. And Iraq will remain firmly under the boot.

[Jeff]

Holy f**k, this board stars out the f-word (my favorite)!

It even changes a coarse Englsih word for defecation (spelled 's', 'h', 'i', 't') into the (presumably) unoffensive word 'nuts'! Wow!

Does that mean I can say "suck my nuts"? How about "bust a nut"? "Hairy nuts"?

What about "I really have to take a big nuts"? "Ooops, I stepped in dognuts"? "nutshead"?

PISers, please know that this is an automatic feature of this board, and most definitely NOT our doing!! PISers love to swear, we do it all the time! ; )

[Kleanthes]

I hate to disagree, dear Member Jeff, but I personally took the liberty to render your otherwise salient musings palatable to the light-hearted among us. To be honest, there is so much swearing in this world, and especially the internet, that I deemed it all too suitable to moderate all postings. I hope this does not offend you. If so: FUCK YOU, YOU BIG TATTOOED TWAT! :-) Off to bed, getting nervous: less than 28 hours to departure -- the Enemy's Country, this is going to be the scariest trip so far. No clue whether the fucking yanks will even let me into their country. If there's one thing I hate more than cops and uniformed people, it's cops and uniformed fucks in US of Fuckin' A. You'll hear from me -- I hope...

[Jeff]

"Nuts" is the substitute? Sheeit. I see that "thingy" replaces that coarse term for a woman's gentials (starts with a 'c'!). Ain't that a beeyotch!

[ghost]

More on swearing - maybe we could get around the ban by cursing in foreign languages. I doubt this website would filter that out! Stop cursing, mat' vashu!
Natasha

[Hubsi]

ugly:
michaelmoore.com/index_hires.php

[Jeff]

Hey PISers, check this out:

May 5, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROTESTERS AMBUSH CONSERVATIVE THINK TANK
Speaker applauded for lambasting Bush

At the Heritage Foundation's annual Resource Bank meeting in Chicago last
Friday, protesters masquerading as a right-wing think tank took the stage
and announced that in light of Bush's shortcomings, they were nominating
former Reagan Attorney-General Ed Meese for president.

The audience applauded for nearly ten seconds. Meese, eating at a table
just feet away from the podium where Andy Bichlbaum of The Yes Men made
the announcement, grimaced and shook his head in surprise.

Heritage is the most influential think tank in Washington, spending over
$25 million annually to influence policy. Just as the wildest anarchists
aim to "smash the state," Heritage hopes that "the liberal welfare state
can be brought to collapse," in the words of its current president.

The Yes Men registered for the Heritage event as "The Society for
Socioeconomic Stability" and spent two days mingling among the 650
participants before approaching the microphone during a lull in the
closing luncheon.

Echoing sentiments expressed by others throughout the event, Bichlbaum
condemned Bush as an inadequate free-markets candidate. But while others
had condemned Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program as "socialistic,"
Bichlbaum focussed on the administration's war in Iraq, calling it "crony
corporate welfare" and "market distortion on a fairly gigantic scale."

"The Iraq war was history's biggest illegal trade subsidy," said Yes Man
Mike Bonanno, who was also in attendance. "One thing we'll be trying to
do in the months ahead is lodge an official complaint about this with the
WTO in Geneva."

"In a free market, companies like Halliburton and Exxon should be funding
their own market expansion projects instead of depending on the Federal
government for it," said Louise Smith, another Yes Man attendee.

Please see www.theyesmen.org/hijinks/bush/heritage.shtml for
pictures and video.


The Yes Men are best known for having represented the World Trade
Organization in a number of venues; a movie about these adventures will be
released by United Artists this coming August:
www.theyesmen.org/movie/

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CONTACT: The Yes Men mailto:[e-mail]