Silence is complicity.
"Fighting for peace is like screwing for chastity."
Small banner being carried by middle-aged man dressed in tweed and felt cap, seen in anti-war rally, Hyde Park, 22 March 2003.
Come on, Budu and Tots, you knew I wouldn't be able to resist putting that one in.
There were fewer people today than there were on the 15th. Some may argue that this shows that anti-war sentiments die down once the war actually starts. It makes sense, doesn't it- the start of a war generally means that any campaign to stop the war has lost, right? No point in protesting anymore.
I don't think so.
Hey hey LBJ, How many kids did you kill today?
Remember that?
Bush, Blair CIA, how many kids did you kill today?
Chants don't die. They evolve. Just as injustice is a constant, so too are dissenting voices. And often, it is the voices of dissent that remain the last bastion of resistance against the brute force of tyranny.
I suspect the Bush administration, along with its toadies in the Labour government have been hoping that when the war actually does begin, the citizens of their respective countries, if not the world, will be emotionally blackmailed into silent compliance, if only as a sign of support for the 'men and women sacrificing their lives in Operation Freedom Iraq'.
Please do not give them that satisfaction.
Soldiers, as do the rest of us, have a choice. We can choose to stay silent as thousands of cruise missiles rain down upon a once mighty seat of an ancient civilisation- the centre of culture, of science, of learning, of peace- believing that we are powerless against the tide of destruction, that our voices are too small,our actions too weak. Or we can subscribe to hope. Believe that the voices of billions of people are louder than the wail of air raid sirens. Believe that the tiny seemingly insignificant actions, when put together are more powerful than the might of a thousand tonnes of firepower.
Think that civil disobedience is ineffective? That demonstrations, however large, are pointless in a country whose leaders refuse to listen anyway?
Then boycott.
The aggressor here is an imperialistic force whose seat of power lies in its economic might, whose actual agents are its McDonalds, its Microsofts, its Coca-Colas and its Nikes, and especially its petroleum corporations. We have been deluded through a lifetime's worth of advertorial onslaught that we are addicted to consumerism. That the goods which America sells us in return for the money to destroy the world are needs rather than bloated wants.
Difficult, yes. Impossible? No. One man, dressed only in a loincloth, managed to lead a people to successfully overthrow an Empire after more than a hundred years was one of the founders of the concept of civil disobedience, or satya graha. If Gandhi could do it, why can't we?
The point is that once you start thinking that you are powerless, a self-fulfilling prophecy kicks in. Apathy begins once desensitisation occurs. Apathy is the new opiate of the masses.
Think of a baby who died in a Baghdad hospital because there was not enough oxygen to be supplied to him and another baby.
Think of the doctor who had to make the decision to give the oxygen to the other baby because that baby was slightly heavier, and had a better chance of survival.
Think of the 5 year old girl who was dying of diarrhoea due to the unavailability of medicine most of us would take for granted, in this sophisticated age of stem cell research and genome projects.
This was not the result of one sole tyrant- this was the result of the tyranny of a world body who denied food and medicine in order to punish a people unfortunate enough to be led by a maniac.
Think of your cities tonight, think of its beautiful buildings, think of your homes, your families.
Then imagine what it would be like to have a thousand missiles dropped upon you.
Would they look as sureally beautiful as they do on the news?
Would you go quickly? Would you have time to run into a shelter, to spend the night cowering, wondering whether next time you would be as lucky?
'Collateral damage'- an easy phrase. It contains no numbers, no names, no ages, no occupational details. You are spared the details which give the victims their identity, you are spared the pain of sympathy.
Don't spare yourself.
Someone told me that war is never personal, it's just business. I disagree.I refuse to stand by and do nothing, believing that I am powerless when thousands of innocent people are killed.
Make it personal.
Think. Pray. Speak out. Write. Boycott. Anything. You are only as powerless as you think you are.
nads went at 23:58