Imperialist powers are ultimate enemy

[Gość: Derwisz]

By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

While President Bush's actions in the "war on terrorism" continue to garner
him overwhelming public support, a growing number of the most vocal critics of
the war are spreading a common theme to all who will listen: It is the United
States that is the true enemy.

These voices of dissent, scattered throughout the landscape of public opinion,
aren't spreading simply the age-old belief that "war is bad." Instead, they
have set their sights directly on Bush and the "imperialists" of the U.S. and
U.K.

"Unless we stop President Bush and NATO from carrying out a new, wider war in
the Middle East, the number of innocent victims will grow from the thousands
to the tens of thousands and possibly more," says a "call to action" by
A.N.S.W.E.R. – "Act Now to Stop War and End Racicm," a group that sprang up in
the aftermath of the attacks in New York City and the Pentagon. "A new, wider
U.S. and NATO war in the Middle East can only lead to an escalating cycle of
violence."

"Arab American and Muslim people in the United States, in Europe and
elsewhere, as well as other communities of color, are facing racist attacks
and harassment in their communities, on their jobs and at mosques," the
group's statement continued. "Anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism is a poison
that should be repudiated."

The group also claims the Bush administration is attempting to use the
terrorist war to curtail civil liberties.

"The U.S. government is attempting to curb civil liberties and to create a
climate in which it is impossible for progressive people to speak their mind,"
said the statement. "The Bush administration is attempting to take advantage
of this crisis to militarize U.S. society with a vast expansion of police
power that is intended to severely restrict basic democratic rights."

Signatories to the group include Ramsey Clark, a noted left-wing activist and
former attorney general during President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration;
The Green Party USA; Jews Against the Occupation and American Muslims for
Global Peace.

A Clark-founded group, the International Action Center is filled with news
reports, stories and references to anti-war protests and accusations that the
media has "stuck its head in the sand" and has given the Bush administration a
pass on the war.

"Rocket attacks from U.S. jets on a place of worship and a hospital. Bombs
directed at a convoy of fleeing refugees. Repeated hits by 2,000-pound bombs
on clearly marked Red Cross food warehouses. Fragmentation bombs on civilian
homes. All these things have occurred in the first three weeks of the
Pentagon's attacks on Afghanistan," wrote John Catalinotto in a column for IAC
entitled, "Look at the Record: U.S. Has Targeted Civilians Before."

"The war in Afghanistan is creating 'the most serious, complex emergency in
the world ever,' according to United Nations official Stephanie Bunker,"
writes Heather Cottin for IAC. "Considering the many horrible tragedies that
the world has seen in recent years, this is a calamitous warning."

"'As many as 100,000 more children will die in Afghanistan this winter unless
food reaches them in sufficient quantities in the next six weeks,' Eric
Laroche, UNICEF spokesperson, said in an interview with the Times of India on
Oct. 29," Cottin wrote.

"But the heavy U.S. bombing of Afghan cities and supply routes, as well as the
deliberate targeting of food supplies like the Red Cross warehouse in Kabul,
has choked off relief efforts," she said, never mentioning the tons of food
dropped by U.S. military planes for Afghan relief efforts since Oct. 7.

The Green Party also believes the Bush administration's response to the Sept.
11 attacks is a mistake.

"Can we not be grown-ups and use this latest disaster as a starting point for
working together towards peace? There is no security in revenge, only a
continuous escalation of killing once the hatreds are solidified," the party
says in a policy statement.

Claiming the U.S. "interferes" in world affairs, the party admonished the Bush
administration to stop supporting "American-based corporations … with American
military or in any way."

"In fact, corporations should be actively discouraged from taking advantage of
poor regions of the world, including in the USA," the party statement said.

The government should also "stop U.S. military incursions and blockades of
needed food and other goods anywhere in the world," the party said.

In one of its own calls to action, the American Muslims for Global Peace
organization has called on members and others to "join us in protesting the
mounting death toll of innocent Afghani civilians and in calling on President
Bush to stop the bombing of Afghanistan and to seek the capture of the
perpetrators of the Sept. 11 terror attack by means that will promote justice
and ensure the safety of innocent lives. …"

The group has also called on the Bush administration to stop its Afghan
campaign during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – which the administration
has already refused to do.

"Misleading media reports of celebrating Afghans betray the grim reality of
mounting reports by humanitarian groups of malnutrition and disease afflicting
over 3 million Afghans in both refugee camps and others who have been denied
access to food and medicine because of the military campaign," the
organization said in a press release last month.

"The war is one month old, and a peace movement is burgeoning in over 20
countries. There is a growing anti-imperialist understanding that this war is
about the profits of U.S. and British oil companies," added Cottin in her
column for IAC.

"The genocidal bombing and heartless devastation of the Afghani people is part
of the 'Great Game' of the imperialist powers and has nothing to do
with 'fighting terrorism.'"