All of the above are recent headlines which
show that North Americans, citizens of the USA, are getting fed up with
bowing their heads to the criminals du jour who inhabit our White House.
It has always been our birthright and absolute
imperative to peacefully protest our government and to hold them
accountable to represent us the way that we want to be represented.
Through the Clinton years when we thought we were peaceful and
apparently prosperous we were lulled into a comfortable complacency.
After 9/11 we have been bullied into being fearful of the boogey-man
and our now vindicated toiletry items that can rejoin us in airplane
cabins.
Those of us who spoke out against George and
his war were marginalized and demonized. Phil Donahue was fired for
being too outspoken, Mrs. Joe Wilson was outed, Gen. Eric Shinseki was
forced to retire, vile accusations were leveled against weapons
inspectors who dared to say that Saddam had none; etc., etc. Even if we
disagreed with the impending invasion, many of us were terrified to say
anything or be reduced to “focus groups.”
Now it appears that people are not terrified
to stand up for peace and justice. I am so proud of America for not
buying into the bull crap that if you oppose the illegal occupation of
Iraq, then you are exactly like a “Nazi sympathizer.” (Who wants to be
equated with Georgie’s grand pappy, Prescott Bush). It makes me proud
to be an American because we are putting our bodies on the line for
peace.
It is now the time to stand up and be counted
and tell this out of control government of ours that we are withdrawing
our consent to be governed by them.
Our dear young people, who made the horrible
mistake of joining our military, are being further abused by their
lily-livered civilian leadership and having their deployments extended
when they never should have been in Iraq in the first place.
Our nation’s National Guard are being
asked to perform duties that they never enlisted for and they
are also being held hosage to Halliburton in Iraq.
The people of Iraq are being killed for having
the unmitigated gall of having been born and on and living on
top of Exxon’s oil.
Now is the time to rise up. Now is the time to
lift our heads and refuse to be bowed by war criminals. Now.
I have a story to share. When I was in Jordan
with the peace contingent, meeting with Iraqi parliamentarians, we
heard the testimony of a Sheik who is also a respected mullah in Iraq.
He told us that members of the US Army broke into his house, raped his
wife, beat him severely, and took him to prison where he was further
tortured in compliance with George‘s barbaric and cruel policies. All
of this happened in front of his teenage son.
Listening to him describe his injuries and the
awful treatment he received from my country, I apologized to him,
weeping. No human being should treat another human being so inhumanely.
He listened then he said this: “My son’s dream
is to get a rifle and climb up on to a roof top and assassinate
Americans. I will tell him that there are Americans like you and
encourage him not to do this thing.”
Now, imagine that you are sitting at home with
your family. Maybe you are all watching “Dancing with the Stars.”
A foreign invader breaks in rapes the mom and beats and hauls off the
dad. How would your son feel? How would you feel? Would your family be
justified in resisting the violence and repression? Or would you just
bow your head and say: thank God for the freedom and democracy these
fine people are bestowing on me?
I wonder how much money was spent on the CIA
National Intelligence Estimate that reports that George’s war of terror
on Iraq is causing Islamic Jihadism to arise. Duh. Any person who
thinks, knows that committing atrocities on humans only breeds hatred
and animosity, not grateful feelings of love and support for one’s
oppressor.
We had planes tragically fly into our
buildings on 9/11, killing our loved ones and our sense of safety, but
they were not flown into the buildings by the babies of Iraq and
Afghanistan. What’s the difference between flying planes into buildings
and causing innocent deaths to dropping bombs from planes on buildings
and causing innocent deaths? It is time to quit repaying hate with hate
and violence with violence.
I am so pleased that more people are
lifting up their heads to the repression and violence of
our government. But it will take all of us. It will take a concerted
effort by each and everyone of us to finally end the cycle of
never-ending death.
Please support Rep. Jim McGovern’s HR 4232 that calls for immediate de-funding
of the killing in Iraq.
Come join GSFP and the
Camp Casey Peace Institute in Washington, DC on election day to
show BushCo that we are withdrawing our consent to be governed my
torturers and killers.
We are fed up. We want our country back.
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc Casey Sheehan who was KIA
in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is the author of Peace Mom available now from Atria
Books