Gary Storm on the public meeting of the Anti-War,
Anti-Racism Effort
January 5, 2007
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AWARE, the local Anti-War, Anti-Racism Effort, sponsors
a public event called “One Main” on the first Saturday
of each month from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the corner of Main
and Neil Streets in downtown Champaign.
This month, on January 6th, One Main will recognize the
loss of the 3000th U.S. soldier in Iraq. This exceeds
the number of those killed in the 9/11 bombings in 2001.
It does not include innumerable others—coalition forces,
opponents, and innocent civilians—who have lost their
lives. When to these are added the uncountable thousands
of others who have been maimed and/or psychologically
scarred from the combat and destruction, we can well
appreciate the enormous tragedy of the Iraq war and
occupation.
Why, and to what end?
Although the memory of 911 was frequently evoked by the
Bush administration in the run-up to the U.S. invasion
of Iraq, no convincing evidence has been found
connecting Iraq or Saddam Hussein with the events of
9/11. Together with missing weapons of mass destruction,
this has caused the U.S. reputation with countries
around the world to plunge, while terrorism has
increased rather than decreased. The early progress of
the U.S. government in using diplomacy to generate
international support against terrorism largely
evaporated in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion. We now
need to turn our attention back to international
diplomacy in seeking an end to violence there.
Through the AWARE-initiated advisory referendum last
fall, Urbana-Champaign citizens voted in a clear
majority to bring American troops home and to end the
occupation of Iraq. To help accomplish this, a recent
post card campaign was initiated to signal our wishes to
Senators Durbin and Obama and Representative Johnson.
You, as concerned citizens, can reinforce this message
by joining the “One Main” event this Saturday. If
patriotism involves rescuing our nation from its
misdeeds and protecting its integrity, then
demonstrating against the war is a patriotic act.
We need to remove our virulent presence from Iraq and
help it to heal its wounds. As to our strategic oil
interests, we need to use diplomacy to find fair ways of
compensating Arab nations for their oil while at the
same time allowing it to be more equitably shared by
people around the world. Market forces alone will not
achieve this goal.
Please join us on Saturday! |
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Listen
to the commentary: RealAudio