Comrade-Z
13th February 2007, 16:53
The members of the Anti-Empire Movement are committed to:
*Unabashed opposition to U.S. imperialism in all of its manifestations.
*Fiercely attacking any notion that any continued U.S. presence in Iraq can make things better, no matter how "short" or "conditional."
*Fiercely attacking the notions that the Iraq War is a "mistake" or a "fumbled but otherwise noble endeavor." This war is neither. It is a part of the normal functioning of our system, no matter who is in the White House.
*Challenging the individuals of the U.S. military to be responsible global citizens. This mean that, whatever our stance on "supporting the troops" has been in the past, it's time that we start demanding that Americans soldiers take responsibility for their actions. The excuse that "I was just following orders" or that "I was just doing my job" didn't fly at Nuremburg, and it should not suffice for us either. No matter how desperate one’s situation is, carrying out the U.S.'s murderous imperialism is not "the only option" one has, especially since soldiers are armed. They, more than anyone else, have the power to stop this war and all future imperialist wars. It's time to start saying, "I'll start supporting the troops when they start supporting us."
This is because imperialist war, and the maintenance of the American Empire in general, are tantamount to a war against Americans themselves, in the following ways:
*We foot the bill for it.
*We provide the cannon-fodder for it.
*We sacrifice our civil liberties for it.
*We earn the undying hatred of almost everyone around the world as a result of it.
**Consequently, we average citizens actually become less secure as a result of it.
*And finally, we average citizens receive few or none of the spoils of this empire. What do we ultimately gain from it? Only perpetual lies and misery.
We must also overhaul the U.N. so that it cannot be so easily manipulated towards imperialist purposes. We must abolish the Security Council and all veto privileges, make majority decisions in the general assembly binding, make voting strength proportional to population, and make each country’s funding of it proportional to that country’s GDP. In the case of the U.S., the U.N. delegate position shall be a directly elected and recallable position.
There may be some who think that this sort of talk is "unpatriotic" or "unAmerican." We must calmly explain to them that their stalwart loyalty to a murderous empire is gradually making them into enemies of any decent, freedom-loving individual on the planet, ourselves included, and that it would be in their interest to reconsider their allegiances. We must also point out that nowhere have we called for the "destruction of America," but instead simply the dismantling of the American Empire (in other words, that the U.S. military withdraw from all of its foreign military installations and terminate all of its, interventions, military aid to countries, and occupations all around the world). The average U.S. citizen doesn’t need this empire for his/her safety. There are countless countries in the world that remain perfectly safe without maintaining hundreds of military bases and dozens of client states all around the world, even without the U.S.’s massive nuclear arsenal and technological capabilities. Like I have explained before, the U.S.'s empire only makes us more hated and insecure. The dismantling of the American Empire is the logical choice for the average American citizen.
*Unabashed opposition to U.S. imperialism in all of its manifestations.
*Fiercely attacking any notion that any continued U.S. presence in Iraq can make things better, no matter how "short" or "conditional."
*Fiercely attacking the notions that the Iraq War is a "mistake" or a "fumbled but otherwise noble endeavor." This war is neither. It is a part of the normal functioning of our system, no matter who is in the White House.
*Challenging the individuals of the U.S. military to be responsible global citizens. This mean that, whatever our stance on "supporting the troops" has been in the past, it's time that we start demanding that Americans soldiers take responsibility for their actions. The excuse that "I was just following orders" or that "I was just doing my job" didn't fly at Nuremburg, and it should not suffice for us either. No matter how desperate one’s situation is, carrying out the U.S.'s murderous imperialism is not "the only option" one has, especially since soldiers are armed. They, more than anyone else, have the power to stop this war and all future imperialist wars. It's time to start saying, "I'll start supporting the troops when they start supporting us."
This is because imperialist war, and the maintenance of the American Empire in general, are tantamount to a war against Americans themselves, in the following ways:
*We foot the bill for it.
*We provide the cannon-fodder for it.
*We sacrifice our civil liberties for it.
*We earn the undying hatred of almost everyone around the world as a result of it.
**Consequently, we average citizens actually become less secure as a result of it.
*And finally, we average citizens receive few or none of the spoils of this empire. What do we ultimately gain from it? Only perpetual lies and misery.
We must also overhaul the U.N. so that it cannot be so easily manipulated towards imperialist purposes. We must abolish the Security Council and all veto privileges, make majority decisions in the general assembly binding, make voting strength proportional to population, and make each country’s funding of it proportional to that country’s GDP. In the case of the U.S., the U.N. delegate position shall be a directly elected and recallable position.
There may be some who think that this sort of talk is "unpatriotic" or "unAmerican." We must calmly explain to them that their stalwart loyalty to a murderous empire is gradually making them into enemies of any decent, freedom-loving individual on the planet, ourselves included, and that it would be in their interest to reconsider their allegiances. We must also point out that nowhere have we called for the "destruction of America," but instead simply the dismantling of the American Empire (in other words, that the U.S. military withdraw from all of its foreign military installations and terminate all of its, interventions, military aid to countries, and occupations all around the world). The average U.S. citizen doesn’t need this empire for his/her safety. There are countless countries in the world that remain perfectly safe without maintaining hundreds of military bases and dozens of client states all around the world, even without the U.S.’s massive nuclear arsenal and technological capabilities. Like I have explained before, the U.S.'s empire only makes us more hated and insecure. The dismantling of the American Empire is the logical choice for the average American citizen.