Op-Ed
Getting on the Bus
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Kind of a Big Deal
January 23, 2007 - 1:58amThis Friday at midnight, instead of getting ID’ed at Rulloff’s, I’ll be boarding a bus at Baker Flagpole. Along with over 100 students and community members, I will be spending my weekend protesting in Washington.
Hundreds of thousands from across the country will make the journey to D.C. to voice their opposition to the Iraq War in a national march on Washington this Saturday, Jan. 27. Many other cities — including Seattle, Austin, San Francisco and Los Angeles — will be hosting similar demonstrations.
Many students, however, are unconvinced of the effectiveness of protest for affecting government policies. To some, it seems like an idea stuck in the past. “Protest was what our parents did in the ’60s against Vietnam,” they think. “We have different ways of making our voices heard now.”
While much has changed in the world since our parents’ generation, one glaring similarity remains. Now, as then, we are embroiled in an increasingly unpopular war being fought halfway across the world, where the prospect of “winning” seems dimmer by the day.
The Iraq-Vietnam comparisons are impossible to ignore. And they should give hope to those of us that oppose the current war. Although it took eight long years, the United States did end the war in Vietnam. So, as we fight to end this current occupation, we must examine how the Vietnam War was brought to a close.
When the Vietnam War began in 1965, the Johnson administration claimed the war was necessary to prevent a “Communist takeover” in South Vietnam, a rationale that most of the American public accepted.
Despite overall support for the war, there were groups that opposed it from the start. Students for a Democratic Society, with 40 chapters across the country at the beginning of the war, made a name for itself by calling the first national march against the war in March 1965.
SDS studied the successful tactics of the civil rights movement, especially those of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. It was from SNCC that SDS adopted a variety of tactics, including a commitment to activism and grassroots democracy over electoral work and lobbying, as well as an openness to radical politics.
In addition to national demonstrations, student chapters of SDS took local actions against the war, such as targeting their own universities for maintaining weapons research facilities and turning over student lists to the government to help the draft.
The antiwar segment of the U.S. population grew quickly after a few years in Vietnam. By the spring of 1967, almost 500,000 demonstrated in New York City and San Francisco. They voiced their opposition to the war, calling for immediate withdrawal of all troops from Vietnam.
Unsurprisingly, President Johnson acted publicly like the substantial war opposition had no effect on his policies. It is clear, however, that he was disturbed by the mass antiwar sentiment. Johnson rejected a proposal based on computer calculations to add 200,000 more troops. “I have one question to ask your computers,” he said. “How long [will it] take 500,000 angry Americans to climb the White House wall out there and lynch their president if he does something like that?”
Students alone could not end the war. The efforts of SDS and other antiwar groups made the war increasingly unpopular, but they needed the help of others to force the U.S. to withdraw.
While students protested throughout the country, soldier resistance skyrocketed both at home and abroad. Troops in Vietnam were starting to desert in increasing numbers, and patrols were beginning to avoid interactions with the Vietnamese resistance, trying to survive the war rather than to win it. Additionally, troops were returning to the United States and continuing their protests here. Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), which launched John Kerry into the national spotlight, was created to provide a forum for soldiers to voice their opposition to the war.
The Vietnamese resistance proved far more difficult than originally expected, with the Tet Offensive in 1968 proving how difficult victory would be for the U.S. The death toll continued to climb for U.S. troops as well as Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians.
In 1973, due to the resistance of students, workers and soldiers, President Nixon was forced to sign the Paris Peace Accords and withdraw troops from Vietnam.
Right now, we can see the beginnings of a successful resistance to the war in Iraq. A recent poll found that more than three-quarters of Americans think the war in Iraq is going poorly. Most are questioning the very reasons that we entered Iraq in the first place. Weapons of mass destruction were never found, and all purported links between Saddam and al-Qaida have been debunked.
This resistance is also beginning to organize itself into a movement. The Campus Anti-war Network has organized student chapters around the county to oppose the war, using many of the successful tactics of SDS. Iraq Veterans Against the War has also been participating actively in the antiwar movement and providing support to those soldiers who oppose the war. IVAW has been coordinating with many of the same activists in VVAW through Veterans for Peace.
As in Vietnam, one protest will not bring the war to an end. But with the efforts of motivated citizens, principled soldiers and the Iraqi people, we can bring all the troops home. The march on Washington this Saturday is a step in that direction. We must go to D.C. to voice our opposition en masse, then return to Cornell to continue our resistance.
Laura Taylor is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She can be contacted at lat34@cornell.edu. Kind of a Big Deal appears Tuesdays.
Getting on the bus works!
My first peace bus trip was to go from California to Boston 2004 for the Veterans For Peace convention. There, we dicided to call for the impeachment of the president for the war in Irag. We retuned to California and began to build another bus. We painted it red, white, and blue, like a upside down flag. Writen down both sides was "Veterans For Peace Impeachment Tour". After driving it to several events on the west coast, we drove it the Dallas Texas for the 2005 convention of Veterans For Peace. There we met up with Cindy Sheehan. She asked us to drive her to Crawford, TX. We were very happy to give her that ride. While spending the next several weeks camped out in front of the president's ranch, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. We knew that the National Guard was in Iraq, and the president would not have a qlue about what to do. So, we left Texas for New Orleans and spent the next several weeks bringing water, food, generators, chain saws, volunteers to the most effected areas of the gulf coast. We had the only Internet Access at the Red Cross shelters we visisted and used it to get evacuees connected to family members, apply for relief. Every bomb that drops in Iraq Blows up on the gulf coast. Even though we will not get the chance to Impeach Bush for his crimes, Lies, and frauds against America. We were able to wake up Americans to the fact that they have a problem. When we started driving the bus 75% of America was for the war. Now only 25% are still for it. I highly recommend getting on the bus!
park that bus!
I cant believe you would be furthering our nation's reliance on foreign oil by driving a bus all over the country! park that bus! a second suggestion, maybe you could work less on impeaching the president and more on developing candidates that would provide a real alternative to the lesser-of-two-evils options voters have seen from the two major parties in the last few elections.
Getting on the Bus
Well, we used bio diesel made from all American cooking oil where ever possible. If more people and organizations coverted to biofuels there we would not be discussing this and the corporations would not be able to force the elected officials to go to war for profit.
Student Solidarity
Yeah Laura! POWER TO THE STUDENTS!!!!!!!!!
Life Raft Earth
There’s a life raft called Earth bobbing its way through the Cosmos. It spins at something like 800 mph and flies through vastness around 10,000 miles per hour. It has its own thin and dwindling air source for its passengers, and they’ve progressed and begun to figure out that poisoning and removing their own air isn’t smart. This atmosphere has been punctured a few times, but the persevering castaways are finding ways to patch things up here and there. They are beginning to conserve and are living healthier, enabling them to confidently bring life to others. They are keeping it afloat. They have begun to find ways to prolong their survival and search for other future safe havens for their children. But now, in the midst of severe cosmic storms, and with great distances left to travel, some of our marooned have begun fighting over rations. They’ve lost control of themselves and are about to cause grave damage to our raft. If we don’t stop them, we could all be gone. None of us will be spared. There could be no tomorrow for the rest of our species. They can’t see that. They’ve lost control. We must stop them…it’s not a movie.
Frank Pastizzo 1/30/07
Flame Wavers
Flame Wavers
By Frank Pastizzo
Putting up a poster in Congress on C-Span of Osama Bin Laden’s inciting words of his twisted dreams of conquering Christendom helps achieve peace how? Repeatedly stating that we have the best fighting force in the world and have to create better military technology to maintain our military superiority over the world promotes peace how?
Our attackers from the Middle East were nineteen in number, and mostly from Saudi Arabia. These revolting terrorists in the world are fractured factions of extremists practicing guerilla techniques. The formation of a military force in Iraq does nothing to quell these practices. It only creates a symbolic target for them in a foreign land where our enemies will have a perpetual advantage. Too many civilians will die, and harsh and bitter resentment will only grow. If the mission is to kill everyone who hates us, then who will be left? Those remaining will be survivors who fear us and resent our exploitation of their lands. They too will soon grow to hate us.
We have supported the terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan by arming them in the past, teaching them extreme violence and resistance, and now they are using their skills and some of our own tactics and weaponry against us. They will always want us out of their lands. Our fear of their vengeful radicals is well founded, but we will not create a safe future by continuing to publicize the radical enemy’s diatribe or by further occupying and decimating the Middle East.
When certain congressmen and congresswomen tell us this occupation and war in Iraq is part of an epic battle against the radical minorities, we only further project these perceptions into becoming realities. It is gross paranoia and taking action on this flame waving rhetoric will destroy us. It will milk us dry and the USA will become a dependent nation of China and Saudi Arabia and everyone else we are economically indebted to. Our enemies know this. They will continue to provoke the giant. We are being rope-a-doped*, and it is when we are at our weakest and spread thinnest that they will begin to hit us with effect.
We must remove our military from Iraq to form and be part of a much larger international effort to strategize world interventions to protect civilian targets from terrorist plots. And, these interventions should not be dependent on “What’s in it for us?” economics. The USA’s illegal invasion of Iraq has this motive written all over it, and because of this, any support for escalation will always be tainted.
*Rope-a-dope: Technique used by Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali to taunt and antagonize George Foreman until he had exhausted his energies and could be easily subdued.
The Middle East
It’s Okay Ann Coulter
It’s okay Ann Coulter. Stand tall. Love your looks.
Draw a bead with arrogance. Let fly for all.
Love yourself. Love your ways.
Sure you’re right. Sure you’re right. Sure you’re right.
Completely hating us…
In utter despair dedicate own deaths.
Live free or die. Occupied. Under the gun. Overrun.
Hating what money buys. Saying no to Wal-mart and Vegas.
It’s okay USA. Stand tall. Love your looks.
You’re the tops, the greatest, the mightiest, the One,
Your finger’s on the button.
Maverick’s got the ball.
Bodies stacked, buzzing flies,
There’s gold in them hills.
Oil our machine.
Sorry ‘bout your kids, Mom.
It’s the way it is.
Say ‘War on Terror’ No More,
New, Improved Name Announced!
Kill who resist our surge. USA, USA, U!—S!—A!
Freedom on the march. Operation Reclamation.
Square away the oil. Hee-yup.
Cowboy up, America. In for the long haul.
Going for broke. Us against them. Good against bad.
Getting the goods. Fat of the land.
Things looking up.
Sure we’re right. Sure we’re right. Sure we’re right.
Completely they’ll hate us. We won’t know why.
We are good. We are good. We are good.
Our hate, our debt, our future owns.
Going for broke. Us against them. Sure we’re right.
It’s okay Ann. Stand tall. Love your looks.
F. Pastizzo 4/8/07
Iraq
Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. “In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. “The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war… and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
James Madison, April 20, 1795
April Fool’s Day Questions
1. Since the cost of the war is $269M per day or $2B per week, our government pays companies for our armaments and supports, but we don’t have the money we are committing because we are broke. Our Enronian economy is reportedly bustling, but is it our economy or is it our creditor’s economy? Our government has become a go-between—the conveyor of Chinese and Saudi Arabian wealth to our military-industrial corporations. We borrow the money from Saudi Arabia and China to pay our corporations and workers to build the bombs and to fight the war. Our national debt approaches $9 Trillion. What is the interest on those loans? And why are China and Saudi Arabia interested in continuing to fund our war? What do they hope we will achieve in the Middle East for them? How much of a controlling financial interest will they secure of the U.S. by us going further and further into debt?
2. Who really owns Halliburton now that they’ve moved to Dubai?
3. Why do we still sleep with the Saudis when it has been proven that their countrymen are the ones mostly pouring support to the Sunni extremists in Iraq that are killing our sons and daughters? Why do we still accept their loans and oil after their countrymen hijacked our planes and flew them into the WTC on 9/11? Why did we give them flying lessons? Why do we still work so closely with them? Do we have a choice or are we totally dependent upon them for our mortgaged economy and locked into our relationship?
4. Why can’t we deliver quality healthcare to our wounded veterans and our citizens?
5. Why can’t we secure our own borders?
6. Why couldn’t we deliver rescue operations in New Orleans, and why can’t we deliver rebuilding operations to hurricane and tornado victims?
7. Why can’t we fund social security or affordable education for our future generations?
8. Why did we rush the National Guard and police to New Orleans to protect goods from looters before we saved elderly from drowning in nursing homes?
9. Who de-prioritizes rescue efforts yet rushes to build a democracy and government buildings in Iraq during a civil war?
10. How many humans are being culled from the planet amidst the chaos of war?
11. What companies are profiting the most during this war?
12. Why are we demonizing our neighbors in Mexico?
13. Why do politicians and the corporate media try to separate Americans and accentuate differences and dividing lines? Why do they paint us Red and Blue, Believers and Non-believers, Straight and Gay, Liberal and Conservative, Pro Life and Pro Choice? Is the continuation of these arguments’ presence in the forefront random, or is it designed to keep us from uniting as Americans and taking back our country?
14. Why don’t we have terror attacks if it is such an imminent threat?
15. Why doesn’t China or Saudi Arabia have terror attacks?
16. Does President Bush know that chess, with its longsighted strategies, originated in the Middle East?
17. Does President Bush know how to play chess?
18. How long will our sons’ and daughters’ deaths fuel and perpetuate our military machine?
19. Since the 9/11 provocation of the giant, how much have we spent on defense? What companies’ profits have skyrocketed? Do the Saudis have any owning interest in these companies?
20. Are our children dying for the Saudis?
21. How is fighting and killing Iraqi civilians defending America? How many more will come to hate us?
22. Why can’t Canada, Mexico, and the United States unite and become stronger and give all of their people equitable supports and jobs and healthcare and housing and schools?
23. Haven’t we borrowed enough money for this war to allow all of our soldiers to have entire wardrobes of body armor?
24. How many Iraqi civilians were killed in Basra, Iraq by U.S. rockets in January 1999 by President Clinton, thirty-two months before 9/11?
25. How much does oil have to do with our invasion of Iraq?
26. Does our military invasion of Iraq and threatening Iran have anything to do with our national debt with Saudi Arabia or China?
27. In the last State of the Union address, President Bush announced the doubling of the National Strategic Oil Reserve. How much profit of that $30B deal benefited oil companies and Saudi Arabia?
28. Are there still mice at Walter Reed?
39. If the Saudi’s directly fund our country’s covert ops in Iran, does that make our government a sub-contractor of the Saudis?
30. If Iraq’s and Iran’s oil wealth was developed fully and it flooded the market, would that affect the wealth of those in power?
31. Are our sons and daughters dying and being kept in Iraq for multiple tours to protect the wealth of the greedy?
32. If there were a nuclear explosion in one of our cities, would our government be able to efficiently take over and stabilize the situation? Would the prevention of looting still be the most urgent priority?
33. Why don’t we inspect all shipping containers coming into this country?
34. Will the continuing perception of terrorism being an immediate risk become a reality as we escalate our occupation and perpetually hype our fears in our mainstream media?
35. Have we given our government a blank check of approval for their foreign relationships with the corrupt? Are we corrupt?
36. If we continue to threaten the world with nuclear and military invasion and attack the Middle East and kill people, are we not going to invite an attack to our own shores? Can we defend our open and unprotected borders with our defenses totally expended and entrenched in the Middle East? Will not paranoia and the gun owners take over? Will we self-destruct?
37. Why doesn’t every American write to congress in April and demand impeachment and prosecution of our corrupt and failed leadership and save our sons and daughters from this rich man’s war and find ways to show the world that we the people of the United States are taking true democratic action to bring mercy and peace to the forefront?
Frank Pastizzo
Saranac Lake, NY