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.