Greetings from Europe: The view of home through the microscope and through the telescope...
The following proclamation is circulating on the internet. I thought it looks like something most TPAs could sign on to, so I'll put it up here:
GREETINGS FROM EUROPE!
American Voices Abroad Berlin sends you greetings of solidarity!
As citizens of the United States living abroad, we look at our country through both a telescope and a microscope. From a distance we see what all the world sees: a country mired in a war begun under false pretenses and dominated by profiteering, a war that has unleashed multiple sources of violence. From our distant but very focused point of view, we see a delusional administration unwilling to end the occupation of Iraq, incapable of admitting its own failures, stalling until it is no longer in office.
But under the magnifying lens we see the people of the United States - our families, friends and former neighbors, now an overwhelming majority of the population - asking: How can we get out of Iraq responsibly?
From our point of view, responsibility means demonstrating our non-imperial aims: We must end all claims to permanent bases! We must end all claims to Iraqi oil! We must end the occupation of Iraq, withdrawing our soldiers and military contractors. This is the responsible way out.
We ask of our country that it work with the United Nations to form a peace-building mission - unprecedented in size and vigor - with partners especially from the Arab and Islamic worlds, led by the United Nations, without troops from the occupying countries. Those occupying countries - the United States and the Coalition of the Willing - must now work with the United Nations to re-build Iraq, to compensate it for all the death and destruction.
And, of course, responsible behavior also means preventing a war with Iran. Five years ago many Americans did not believe that the United States would really go to war with Iraq, especially because UN inspectors were not finding any weapons of mass destruction. But the disinformation campaign was successful, and a war powers authority resolution was passed in Congress, a resolution that is still in effect. This resolution must be repealed. And congressional hearings must begin to expose the current alarming disinformation campaign justifying war with yet another country. We must stop behaving as if we were sent by God to invade and remake the entire region.
At home, we must take care of our veterans. We must reform our dysfunctional electoral system. We must restore all of our
constitutionally guaranteed rights.
These are the right things to do. These are the responsible things to do. And, as far as we can tell from abroad, this is all in the national interest of the United States.
Let us begin to consider what real security means and what an effective government in the United States might look like. How do we want to relate to the rest of the world - as aggressors and war profiteers, or as a force for peace and justice and international law?
Thank you.
American Voices Abroad Berlin, Berlin/Germany (a member group of the UFPJ coalition)
signed: Ann Wertheimer, for the executive committee of American Voices Abroad Berlin, October 2007
GREETINGS FROM EUROPE!
American Voices Abroad Berlin sends you greetings of solidarity!
As citizens of the United States living abroad, we look at our country through both a telescope and a microscope. From a distance we see what all the world sees: a country mired in a war begun under false pretenses and dominated by profiteering, a war that has unleashed multiple sources of violence. From our distant but very focused point of view, we see a delusional administration unwilling to end the occupation of Iraq, incapable of admitting its own failures, stalling until it is no longer in office.
But under the magnifying lens we see the people of the United States - our families, friends and former neighbors, now an overwhelming majority of the population - asking: How can we get out of Iraq responsibly?
From our point of view, responsibility means demonstrating our non-imperial aims: We must end all claims to permanent bases! We must end all claims to Iraqi oil! We must end the occupation of Iraq, withdrawing our soldiers and military contractors. This is the responsible way out.
We ask of our country that it work with the United Nations to form a peace-building mission - unprecedented in size and vigor - with partners especially from the Arab and Islamic worlds, led by the United Nations, without troops from the occupying countries. Those occupying countries - the United States and the Coalition of the Willing - must now work with the United Nations to re-build Iraq, to compensate it for all the death and destruction.
And, of course, responsible behavior also means preventing a war with Iran. Five years ago many Americans did not believe that the United States would really go to war with Iraq, especially because UN inspectors were not finding any weapons of mass destruction. But the disinformation campaign was successful, and a war powers authority resolution was passed in Congress, a resolution that is still in effect. This resolution must be repealed. And congressional hearings must begin to expose the current alarming disinformation campaign justifying war with yet another country. We must stop behaving as if we were sent by God to invade and remake the entire region.
At home, we must take care of our veterans. We must reform our dysfunctional electoral system. We must restore all of our
constitutionally guaranteed rights.
These are the right things to do. These are the responsible things to do. And, as far as we can tell from abroad, this is all in the national interest of the United States.
Let us begin to consider what real security means and what an effective government in the United States might look like. How do we want to relate to the rest of the world - as aggressors and war profiteers, or as a force for peace and justice and international law?
Thank you.
American Voices Abroad Berlin, Berlin/Germany (a member group of the UFPJ coalition)
signed: Ann Wertheimer, for the executive committee of American Voices Abroad Berlin, October 2007
mhatlie - 25. Oct, 16:08