I DON’T “SUPPORT THE TROOPS”

And I don’t support any “benchmarks” for the Iraqis

By Nick Mottern, Director, ConsumersforPeace.org

This is a letter I am sending today to my person in Congress, Nita Lowey D-NY. I attempted to run against Ms. Lowey in the 1990 Democratic primary because of her support of U.S. attempts to subdue Central American countries. Here we are 17 years later with our hooks into Iraq, with Ms. Lowey’s support. Attempts to meet with her over the last two months have failed.

Dear Ms. Lowey:

I am writing to let you know that I do not “support the troops” in Iraq, and that you are not representing me when you vote more money to keep “the troops” in Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of troops have been sent to Iraqi blinded by lies. There they have been and continue to be routinely ordered to take actions against Iraqis that violate not only our Constitution and international law but virtually every norm of religious and civil society. All “the troops” should know better.

I do not want any of my tax money to support this kind of behavior, regardless of the goal. I feel no sense of loyalty or obligation to individuals or commanders who are daily destroying Iraqi life and culture. In fact, I feel a need to take every non-violent step that I can think of to end this behavior.

Ms. Lowey, you know very well that the intention of sending our military into Iraq is to establish a base of deadly force for our long-term manipulation of the Middle East, in part to ensure our oil companies will have long-term, extremely profitable access to oil.

When you and your Democratic and Republican colleagues vote money to “support the troops” you know that you are taking advantage in a dispicable way of the innocence, ignorance, good will and sense of loyalty of “the troops” and the American public.

Furthermore, how can you allow to go unchallenged all this talk in Congress about the need for Iraqis to meet benchmarks? After killing more than half a million Iraqis, and with the abject suffering being visited on Iraqis by the United States each and every minute, what possible right does the United States have to even make a polite suggestion to one single Iraqi? What is due from America is simply immediate withdrawal, apology and commitment to reparations, with the latter totally managed by Iraqis.

Sincerely,

Nick Mottern

Hastings on Hudson, New York

Posted May 9, 2007

As you said, a historic amount of people participated in the first round of protests, but that didn’t stop the war, so I think people are a little skeptical of anyone who’s telling them “come to a rally to stop the war” when they know damn well it won’t.

I live in Australia too. I side with you in saying that the anti-war leadership here is pathetic. Simply craptacular. It’s never really recovered since the beginning of the war. I think because they don’t know what to do. All they no how to do is “inform people” now that people are “informed” and for the most part against the war, the leadership has no idea what to do.

The types of civil disobedience that the yanks take for granted, even just sitting down on a road, is considered too militant. I think the movement needs to diversify it’s tactics.

A few people burning ONE effigy of a soldier any where is probably not going to have a dramatic impact on any anti-war movement. But even here in Australia, if this type of action was repeated often it would give the right an opportunity to fracture the anti-occupation support base. So would carrying out direct actions and civil disobedience, but they have the possibility of paving the way for real political gains, unlike the effigy burning isn’t going to do much for anyone.

I also really need to stop emotionally reacting to this particular thread—it’s making my blood boil.

Miranda, would you please tell me more about your experiences with anti-war activism and such? I like hearing what others are doing in their areas.

Audrey, your video was awesome…what a disaster still! And what amazing kids you went with. Thank you for your effort.

Randy

Their basketball hoops are vandalized; their playground, built by volunteers and painted in cheerful colors, is vandalized. A tiny community garden was planted the week before I arrived, and by the time I was there, it had flooded. The plants had floated up and were bobbing past each other in the water, uprooted and dead, in an eerie miniature echo of past events.

Not surprisingly, Diamond is heavily targeted by recruiters. Also, I suppose equally unsurprisingly, one of the volunteers there told me the government is building a prison across the street from Diamond. I don’t know of too many starker situations than having everything you own ripped away from you in a storm, having the government house you in overcrowded FEMA trailers – and knowing your occupancy in the trailer is supposed to end after 18 months, and no other alternative has been provided. If you turn on the news, you can hear people condemning you for having the audacity to live where you were born and raised – as if there was someplace else for you to go. On the far side of the fence is a prison; on the near side is a recruiter.

Passing judgment on those young people, if they decide to enlist, would require a level of arrogance on my part that I hope I never have. The thought of somebody potentially burning them in effigy for the choices they make, in the absence of what most of us would consider any real choice in life, is sobering.

Exactly. Well said. This is not about shame or guilt, though I have plenty of both. It really irritates me when people assume that just becuase I have devoted my life to peace and justice work, that I don’t feel guilt and shame for what I did in Iraq. You don’t go through an awakening and not feel it.

But our cause is ending the war and stopping the slaughter as well as waking our brothers and sisters who are still in the haze of military conditioning. You don’t do that by targeting soldiers for humiliation and defacing war memorials and the like.

Many of the people who are aware of this fact are vets…