Gone to the Dark Side – No attack. No excuses. No sanctions!
If
any July 30th City Council vote happens – the passed resolution will NO
LONGER REFLECT the absolute opposition to an attack on Iran shared by
millions in this area.
Question:
When does a resolution opposing war become an excuse for launching it?
Answer:
When it is gutted and rewritten to pass muster with the same political
forces funding illegal wars, calling for sanctions and blockades, and
threatening a third-world country with nuclear “obliteration.”
People of conscience are witnessing their moral principles falling
victim to the deadly logic of compromise, a logic that has allowed our
nation to be carried too far into the aptly named dark side by the Bush
regime.
In
mid-May, a committee of the Chicago City Council held a hearing and
passed a resolution clearly opposing any attack on Iran. That
resolution, introduced by Alderman Joe Moore, reflected the truth of
the Iran situation — that the world now faces an even greater (than
Iraq) danger in the Bush administration’s plans to launch a new round
of aggression against Iran. Scott Ritter, a Marine and Republican, said
in May, “…To extend this human suffering and tragedy into Iran
would be to create a level of suffering for which America can never,
and should never, be forgiven.”
Yet,
despite now knowing that in 2003, we were lied into a strongly opposed
Iraq war, the present level of resistance by the “opposition” party to
an even more outrageous and unjustified attack on Iran is almost
non-existent!
Although Chicago twice passed Iraq anti-war resolutions before and
after that invasion, as a more serious attack on Iran now looms, Mayor
Daley has deliberately blocked such a resolution, saying it would hurt
Obama’s campaign.
Meanwhile
the Democratic-controlled Congress is promoting HR 362, calling for a
blockade and sanctions against Iran, which only hurts their people, as
we saw with 500,000 child deaths from the Iraq sanctions.
HR 362
represents an effective act of war on Iran! McCain calls for bombing
Iran and Barack Obama, the supposed candidate of change, has painted
Iran as “the greatest danger to peace” in the Middle East, and
indicating he will use any option to deal with Iran, including
first-strike nuclear weapons!
In pursuit of “hope” for a way to pass muster with a pro-war Mayor Daley and the top leadership of the Democratic Party, including the Obama campaign, the previous No Attack on Iran City Council resolution has been re-written.
This makeover version guts the heart of the truth out of the first resolution and caves in to the new wave of lies emanating from the White House;
like: “Iran is the threat” (refuted by Scott Ritter in his testimony).
Another insertion reads: “…We give our unconditional support to U.S.
military personnel serving at home and abroad in their tireless battle
against global terrorism, and should our military forces be sent to
battle against Iran, we give our unyielding support to our young men
and women serving in our nation’s military, even if we oppose the
policy that sent them there now.”
One might ask, what’s the point of this sort of fully diluted “opposition?” The most recent statement from the World Can’t Wait reads, “People
of conscience do not allow themselves to be demobilized by the
political and moral terms of an election that calls for national unity
while carrying out unjust war for empire.”
Unfortunately, too many people are being swallowed up in this demobilizing wave of misguided political expediency.
Swallowing the logic of compromise and capitulation may fulfill our
hunger for ‘hope’ and ‘change’, but it will prove a poison pill that
kills all chances for breaking out of the suffocating paradigm of
endless wars ratcheting tighter every day.
This killing logic turns those who seek to prevent war ultimately into
cheerleaders for war crimes, with their “unyielding” support of troops
engaged in illegal and immoral actions.
It’s
time to turn away from the Dark Side and reject not only the Bush
administration’s wars, but the thinking that legitimizes and enables
them to get away with crimes against humanity.
“We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do. Thus we call on all people living in the United States to RESIST the trajectory of wars and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration and a complicit Congress.
We choose to make common cause with the people of the world by
extending a hand to those suffering from these policies and by showing
our solidarity in word and deed.”
WEBSITE:
www.chicagoworldcantwait.org