LINKS FOR A NEW WORLD
Sunday, February 15, 2003
President's Day Weekend
The Day After World Peace Day
The New York Times is no longer trying to pretend the antiwar demonstrations don't exist. See "From New York to Melbourne, Protest Against War on Iraq" "Antiwar Rallies Raise a Chorus Across Europe", and "Antiwar Marches Reveal Gulf Between Leaders and People". See Punchdown.org for 165 photos of protests around the world. The L.A. Times also ran a photo gallery. And a BBC photo gallery. The Independent reports on a million who demonstrated in London against the war. No War No Way! See this show from takebackthemedia.com The London Evening Standard says the London peace demonstration was the largest in history. The Guardian also called it the largest in history. While obviously the number was millions, The Associated Press reported that "Thousands Worldwide Protest War in Iraq". Check this little video out, give it time to download: We Don't Want Your War. The Washington Post says, "The more capable the U.S. military has become, the more it has been asked to do, and now strains are beginning to show. As the Bush administration prepares for war with Iraq, it is also sustaining peacekeeping missions in the Balkans, protecting South Korea from a newly aggressive North Korea and pursuing a war against terrorism that stretches from Afghanistan and the Caucasus to the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia. This is a period characterized by what seems like continuous warfare, likened by military analyst Ralph Peters to the Thirty Years War that decimated Western Europe in the 17th century, and the effects are beginning to tell on the military's manpower, on its budget, on the nation's treasury, and on a conflict of priorities -- between the need to fight today's wars and the pursuit of means to dominate tomorrow's Rumsfeld is going all out to attack Germany economically for its stand against the war against Iraq, according to The Observer. The Pentagon plans to "withdraw all its troops and bases from there and end military and industrial co-operation between the two countries," the Observer said. It quoted Pentagon sources as saying, "We are doing this for one reason only: to harm the German economy." These guys don't like being defied. They are going to "make an example" of Germany of what happens when you defy the biggest bully in the world. Once again these dinosaurs are acting on the belief that massive brute force is the answer to all problems. But they are being proven wrong over and over. Will Germany acquiesce? Dubya is handling the presidency like someone would drive a stolen car. Maybe it's because he did steal it. In "Getting Serious" The Plaid Adder says it's time to stop acting on the assumption that we are living in a democracy. If we look at Bush's "staggering disregard for public opinion" from the standpoint of a democracy, it looks insane, but, "Dubya is not an elected official; neither are any of his appointed lackeys. It is time that we start not only saying that, but getting that. Dubya did not win a fair and free election in 2000. And he is certainly not acting like someone who expects to compete in a fair and free election in 2004. This rush to war, at all costs and despite overwhelming public disapproval, is merely the most extreme and terrifying manifestation of what is really the most frightening thing about Dubya: the fact that he acts, talks, raves, and governs exactly like a dictator." Time for a reality adjuster. This is not a democracy. If we want one, we have to build it from the ground up, just like it was done in the early days when the world was governed by kingdoms. Buzzflash reported arrests and overreactive crowd control measures by New York City police at Saturday's demonstration. See Buzzflash Breaking News Alert. See Photos and more photos of the New York City demonstration. See International A.N.S.W.E.R. for reports on demonstrations worldwide on February 15 and actions to come.