Rise Up

Three years ago we took to the streets. We marched en masse in winter of 2003. Bitter and dangerous wind chills didn’t weaken our rage. Cold weather didn’t seem to dent the numbers, numbers that were remarkable and inspiring and these numbers covered the planet. Warm or cold, the people were out in force. On the other side Bush was screaming and bellowing, ”Either you’re with us or against us” to quivering lap dog politicians everywhere. We, for our part, showed clearly that we are against Bush and we are with the Iraqi people.

Now, three years later we are tired. We are tired of writing and reading about Iraq. We are tired of the daily report from the grim reaper. We are tired of bombs and kidnappings and casualties – of Operation Slaughterhouse or Operation Bloodlust. We are tired of the lies and the propaganda. We are tired of this quagmire. The killing has jaded and hardened us. We’ve had enough. We just want it to stop and we seem to have lost the energy to fight the war pigs.

If we feel war weary, perhaps we should consider the citizenry that has been deemed, by the hawks and their yellow journalists, “insurgents”. The term gives us the impression that it is the beleaguered citizens that are the cause of the war. It’s as if the citizens of Iraq are the invaders as the Americans complain about the problem of ‘foreign fighters’. Should we suppose that the people that have been deemed foreigners in their own land are tired of this war? Should we suppose that they should have lost the energy to fight the war pigs? They are beyond tired, jaded, and hardened but they have no choice but to protect themselves. They will continue to fight until the foreigners are driven out.

We can’t stop. We must continue to support them and defeat Bush and his war machine. Now is not the time to relax with this. Now is the time to fully support the Iraqis and in so doing, support the hapless soldiers that are there.

The soldiers and the Iraqis are shooting and bombing each other and no have qualms. The soldiers are fighting Bush’s oil war and have no stake in it whatsoever. The Iraqi people are faced with these young men from the hungry side of the American spectrum. But their real enemy is those from the far other end, the ultra oil rich; the obscenely wealthy. The real enemy will never don a helmet or carry a gun. They use the poor for that. And so they kill each other; working class Iraqis against working class Americans that have far more in common with each other than they do with Bush or the capitalists that make it all possible.

Both the American soldiers that have found themselves in hell and the innocent people of Iraq can’t afford for us to be tired and bored with the whole thing. They need us now and they need us to resurrect our anger and outrage.
They need us to make politicians and weapons and oil capitalists uncomfortable. They need us to take to the streets and they need us to demand, not ask, DEMAND, that they put an end to this war crime now.

This is not a game or a rehearsal. This is not a hint of the coming fascism of the American capitalist state. This is the real thing. This IS the fascism of the American capitalist state. People are dying and being tortured as you read this. It is your duty as a human being to play a part, to contribute to its end.

Three years ago we made a difference. The politicians that would love to cozy up to Bush had a very hard time doing so. They were between a rock and a hard place and we were that hard place. We were thousands of angry and outraged citizens on the streets screaming bloody murder.

Three years on and the people of Iraq have been collectively and horribly abused. It will be many generations before they recover from this biblical war crime. And we didn’t stop the war – yet. The mess Bush made has sunk into civil war. To assume that the Americans should still be there for that reason brings up the question; why?

As people with conscience, as people with compassion and humanity, we must consider the hell that the people of the Garden of Eden endure on a daily basis thanks to that snake in the White House. Then we must act and act in any way that will decapitate the serpent of empire.

Don’t let yourself go to sleep. Read alternative newspapers and web sites. Join anti war movements. Urge family and friends to stand up now and help countless Iraqi children, women, men, escape the hell that they have endured for the past three years. Recovery will take a long time. The sooner we start, the better off we all are.

The three year anniversary showed that the passion is still strong to force an end to this war. It will take more action on the streets, in the news and over the internet to put the fires out. Goal number one; get the Americans out of there. The Iraqis are working hard at achieving this, so should we.

The Reich

e·vil
adj. e·vil·er, e·vil·est

Morally bad or wrong; wicked: an evil tyrant.
Causing ruin, injury, or pain; harmful: the evil effects of a poor diet.
Characterized by or indicating future misfortune; ominous: evil omens.
Bad or blameworthy by report; infamous: an evil reputation.
Characterized by anger or spite; malicious: an evil temper.

n.
The quality of being morally bad or wrong; wickedness.
That which causes harm, misfortune, or destruction: a leader's power to do both good and evil.
An evil force, power, or personification.
Something that is a cause or source of suffering, injury, or destruction: the social evils of poverty and injustice

(lifted from dictionary.com)
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There is a grouping, a category, or a political type that appears to be utterly evil and they are consistently enough that way that we can predict where they will stand on any given issue. They will stand on the side of starvation, death, and immeasurable misery for people that are powerless and in need. It is as if they relish the misfortune of the misfortunate.

In the interests of objectificaion, let's say that there is a category of people that consistently favour war over peace. They consistently support those with power over those that have little or none. They support death and misery and scorn attempts to relieve human misery and pain.

Where They Stand

Poverty: This category of human beings support any policies that cut social support for those in need (eg. cutting spending on health care).

Wealth: They support greed and they support the rich (they won't complain about spending on plunder, war, and conquest).

Racism: They are generaly racist.

Immigration: They see immigrants as threats. They crave uniformity and social conformity.

Law and Order: Favour harsh rigid laws against the poor and liberal discretion for the wealthy.

Death Penalty: In favour of it.

Nationalism: Highly nationalistic and patriotic to the point of a willingness to kill people in foriegen lands for no other reason than 'we are at war'.

Feminism: Highly distrustful not only of feminists but of women as well.

Gay Rights: Homosexuality is seen as a problem.

Religion: They generally support religious movements that are conservative. They would hang Jesus but are often devout Christians.

War: Always at the ready to support the state in the mindless slaughter of human beings.

The State: Loathe state functions that distribute wealth or interfere with the aims of the very wealthy.

The State: Enthusiastically support the state in war efforts, prisons, or any other oppressive functions.

If such a category of people exist; people that support poverty, obscene wealth, racism, patriarchy, nationalism, the death penalty, religion as a social control mechanism, war, the state etc., we could make the reasonable argument that they fit into the above definition of evil that was lifted from Dictionary.com. We have the misfortune to know that such people not only exist but they enjoy ominous influence and control over the rest of us. They are not only the backward and naive lackeys. They run the governments of America, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and most governments and corporations on the planet. The reason for this is that they consistently support the wishes of the wealthy and powerful and in many cases are one and the same. Any politicians that are not wealthy must function as the paid whores of the wealthy.

Such people are generally categorized as right wingers and this category has significant and really surprising cohesion. That is, most right wingers consistenly support an ideological framework that is consistent with the above charges. There are exceptions however. But if there are too many exceptions they are no longer in the category.

Their response to this unflattering snapshot will be to rationalize their views (eg. the death penalty deters crime (in the face of evidence to the contrary)), deny them (I am not a racist), avoid them (there is no torture if there are no pictures), or blame victims (they blew up the twin towers).

Perhaps the idea that they are evil is a little harsh and unforgiving. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the average right winger is merely a patsy.

The average rightist will argue tooth and nail that any and all attempts at feeding the poor will result in a Joseph Stalin type of totalitarain tyranny. There is a man standing behind him with moneybags that has convinced him that he needs his wealthy master; that to interfere with his masters structural scam is to open the door to disaster. Moneybags is saying to his stooge that the stooge is indebted to the master for his livilihood and everything he owns. Rock the boat and all will be lost.

But then there is another sentiment that is not so forgivable. This right winger knows that he is in recept of the spoils of hegemony. He knows that war is about plunder and that state supported dictatorships in the far reaches of the globe force people to grow cash crops to feed him as reasonable prices. He knows that oil wars will keep the oil supply close to his Ford.

Both types - the quisling little idiot under his masters table and the psychopath - are not mutually exclusive from each other. Most on the right are a mixuture of both.

Crime and evil harm countless innocent people every day and stupidity is no excuse for crime. Stupidity doesn't forgive those that make the slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan possible. You can't say that you are not responsible for killing kids when you speed in a drunken state through a school yard and you can't say you're not responsible for 'collatoral damage' just because you mindlessly support war.

The conclusion is that the right wing is evil. It is, apparently, a sound and valid argument.