Will Iraq be Better off? Will we? (2).

Seyed Razavi (webmonkeyx) also gifts us with a critiique by Martin Luther King. Note it's applicability to our present action in Iraq.

ACCEPTANCE ADDRESS FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE DELIVERED IN OSLO, NORWAY 10 DECEMBER 1964

The following works almost equally well if you replace "Vietnam" with "Iraq":

.... In these days ... there is no greater need than for sober-thinking, healthy debate, creative dissent and enlightened discussion. ....

I would like to speak to you candidly ... about our present involvement in Viet Nam. .... We are all aware of the nightmarish physical casualties. ....

But the physical casualties of the war in Viet Nam are not alone the catastrophes. The casualties of principles and values are equally disastrous and injurious. Indeed, they are ultimately more harmful because they are self-perpetuating. If the casualties of principle are not healed, the physical casualties will continue to mount.

One of the first casualties of the war in Viet Nam was the Charter of the United Nations. ....

It is very obvious that our government blatantly violated its obligation under the charter of the United Nations to submit to the Security Council its charge of aggression against North Viet Nam. ....

The second casualty of the war in Viet Nam is the principle of self-determination. .... our participation in the war in Viet Nam is an ominous expression of our lack of sympathy for the oppressed, ... our failure to feel the ache and anguish of the have nots. .... Today we are fighting an all-out war--undeclared by Congress. .... American planes are bombing the territory of another country, and we are committing atrocities equal to any perpetrated by the Vietcong. ....

A third casualty of the war in Viet Nam is the Great Society. ... the promises of the Great Society have been shot down on the battlefield of Viet Nam. The pursuit of this widened war has narrowed domestic welfare programs, making the poor ... bear the heaviest burdens both at the front and at home.

It is estimated that we spend $322,000 for each enemy we kill, while we spend in the so-called war on poverty in America only about $53.00 for each person classified as "poor". And much of that 53 dollars goes for salaries of people who are not poor. ....

We are isolated in our false values in a world demanding social and economic justice. We must undergo a vigorous re-ordering of our national priorities.

A fourth casualty of the war in Viet Nam is the humility of our nation. ... our power has ... made us arrogant. We feel that our money can do anything. We arrogantly feel that we have everything to teach other nations and nothing to learn from them. ....

A fifth casualty of the war in Viet Nam is the principle of dissent. An ugly repressive sentiment to silence peace-seekers depicts advocates of immediate negotiation ... and ... a cessation of bombings ... as quasi-traitors, .... Free speech and the privilege of dissent and discussion are rights being shot down by Bombers in Viet Nam. ....

A sixth casualty of the war in Viet Nam is the prospects of mankind's survival. This war has created the climate for greater armament and further expansion of destructive nuclear power. ....

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. ....

Let me say finally that I oppose the war in Viet Nam because I love America. .... I am disappointed with our failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism, extreme materialism and militarism. ....

The Casualties of the War in Vietnam Delivered in Los Angeles 25 February 1967 From the Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Project at Stanford University

Do the American People have the right to know the data used and the decision-making processes involved when they are taken into war?

If not now, immediately after? If not full disclosure to all, then full disclosure to individuals empowered to make a ruling as to the justice, the efficacy and the equal benefit all US citizens as well as the Iraqi citizens we are "protecting" with this action?

I believe we (citizens of any representative democracy) have the right to the assurance that we are not killing Iraqis and Americans primarily in order to line the pockets of the rich and to protect our own life style from any significant disturbance. (In a time of diminishing oil resources and increasing population this is an unreasonable, no, impossible, expectation.) War for those reasons is illegitimate, amounting to a war of aggression by the haves against the have-nots. [Connectivity: Spike Hall's RU Weblog]

Welcome to the Post Consitutional America
7:41:03 PM  #  comment []

Mixing, tinkering - digital age. Mixing, Tinkering and Reusing in the Digital Age Comment: Short, point-form post of a John Seely Brown presentation. Quotables: "The... [elearnspace blog]

What I got out of this is that there is a new digital ball game and educational paradigms from which I work out of is behind the times.
2:33:51 PM  #  comment []

Our Willie, Joe, Jose's and Lamars are dissed again.... Not only did President Bush and friends cut $$$$ from veteran benefits, now the truth is coming out that our field commanders and ultimately our troops in the field were not a priority in the political planning of the war because they lacked supplies and manpower at this stage. Bush is feeling the heat because he believed in Rummy. DUMB! Our field commanders are speaking up. They were not given what they needed now to fight the war due to administration political blunders, Turkey for example. Remember the old saying, Don't count your chickens before they are hatched. Rummy did not care because he is not sending his kids into war. There is this ivory bunker mentality that shields these folks from the reality of war. Where is Bill Mauldin, the great cartoonist. Willie and Joe is now joined by Jesus and Lamar on the front lines. Check out Detroit Free Press Cartoonist Mike Thompsons tribute to Bill Mauldin.

"Kinda Funny how some things never die"

http://cagle.slate.msn.com/news/BillMauldinTributes/mauldin/thompson.jpg
12:17:16 PM  #  comment []