The People of the World Say: NO WAR! The Trump administration is dragging the United States into a war with Iran that could engulf the whole region and could quickly turn into a global conflict of unpredictable scope and the gravest consequences. The people of the world need to rise up and stop it. For all who believe in peace, for all who are opposed to yet another catastrophic war, now is the time to take action. On Saturday, January 25 in cities across the globe, there will be protests against a new war in the Middle East. Please join us. Don’t forget to contact Congress and tell them to prevent Trump from being able to carry out his war!
Hundreds of events already planned on January 25, more being added, check the list here. Add your event here.
Sponsored by CODEPINK, National Iranian-American Council, Antiwar.com, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Kairos, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Jewish Voice for Peace, Fellowship of Reconciliation USA, Dominican Sisters/ICAN, American Muslims for Palestine, Veterans for Peace, Pastors for Peace/Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, Black Alliance for Peace, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Nonviolence International, US Labor Against the War, Peace Action, and many others (go to the bottom of this page to see the complete list).
Sad that it is CodePink….the folks who conspicuously sat on the sidelines during Obama’s bloody 8 years of war crimes in the middle east. But that is typical of the “left.” They only care about something when a republican is doing it….everyone else gets a “pass.” Expect the event to be the typical socialist/progressive recruitment gathering, sprinkled liberally with vitriol against capitalism, freedom, liberty, etc.
And I make my comments about what this gathering likely will be like, having spent many, many hours at such gatherings during the first Gulf War, and the atrocities in Afghanistan and Iraq. The crowd, sadly, is always the same.
And Trump Rallies aren’t more about anti-immigrant hysteria than any degree of opposition to regime-change wars? Both left and right are inconsistent, but Code Pink has been pretty consistent about opposition to aggressive warfare, even Obama’s wars. Check out Thomas Knapp’s comments below about other leftist groups “hijacking” anti war events. You are correct about that, but I don’t think it is about Code Pink.
The f**k are you talking about? CodePiink was pretty much the only group protesting against the Libyan crusade, the MSM just didn’t see fit to cover it. They’ve also been remarkably consistent on Israel. You just hate them because they’re leftists, which makes you precisely the species of bigot you’re railing against. Bottom unity is everything.
Actually, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin (and others) interrupted Obama’s events with anti-war protests, etc.
You are, however, correct that groups with other causes (generally “leftists”) tend to hijack every anti-war event to lecture us on how “it’s not just about war, it’s about [insert pet issue here, everything from health care to labor organizing to living wage, etc].” Or at least they did circa 2003.
“Or at least they did circa 2003.”
I had a pretty good experience at an anti-war march and rally in San Francisco in the summer of 2007. In spite of it being in SF, most of the speakers (including our own Justin Raimondo) stayed on topic. There was a pretty large Ron Paul contingent, and I marched with Code Pink while wearing my Ron Paul windbreaker (My girlfriend Violet wore a Barack Obama T-Shirt, as she was supporting him at the time). There was an incredible sense of unity of purpose, in spite of the crowd’s diversity. I haven’t seen the likes of that since, and perhaps because Bush was president at the time, both the lefties and the Ron Paul folks could focus on the war.
Tom, sad but I didn’t see the word “libertarian” on any of that list of sponsors. Not even one.
“I didn’t see the word “libertarian” on any of that list of sponsors.
Certainly not explicitly, although it did contain “antiwar.com” which is run by libertarians.
We need more than posters and marching. Vietnam only ended because of open revolt, from the barracks to the streets. And Iraq never really ended, precisely because we lost that radical edge. We need to bring the war home again before it goes nuclear. We might have to crack a few skulls to save a few million lives. http://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2020/01/its-time-to-bring-war-home-again.html
I am not so sure, comrade. Using violence to combat violence is a losing proposition, as you reap what you sow. Just think about our government’s war in Afghanistan, where we really can’t even clearly define who the bad guys are, yet we keep killing anyway. How has that worked out? It is the same domestically. Since you really can’t point a finger at an individual and say for sure, “you are the one oppressing me,” it would be fruitless to start shooting or “cracking skulls.” Such violence makes you look like a hypocrite, and people can sense that. It would not, could not, ever change public opinion to an anti-war position.
Now, if it ever got to the point of mass arrests for people saying or writing the wrong thing, then, perhaps, violence in self defense would be warranted. In all cases you would have to clearly define who it was that was violating your rights, and steer clear of ever violating someone else’s rights in the name of “self-defense.” If you did not, you would simply be emulating our own military establishment, defining “defense” so broadly as to become the oppressor yourself.
The Pentagon, the State Department, and the Capitol Building would all be reasonable targets for blockade and/or occupation. Considering that these organizations operate on our behalf, in our name, with our money, I don’t see this level of activism as intervention in the foreign policy sense of the word which renders the Afghan analogy moot. Iraqi’s are in the streets as we speak, dying to shut down the war machine. This is a global problem that requires global solutions. I’m not talking about terrorism. I’m talking about direct action with a state set on destroying the world. Peaceful tactics are welcome and respected, but diversity in tactics has become necessary.
“in the foreign policy sense”
I didn’t mean it that way. I was comparing what I thought to be similar moral situations, not a particular policy type. I was trying to show you that doing violence toward people, when some of them are necessarily innocent, even if some are guilty, simply cannot achieve anything positive in the long run. It is a type of natural law.
To be fair, I may have miscontrued what you had in mind. I read the post linked to in your original comment a week ago, and, because of my failing mental faculties, have already forgotten the details of what you wrote. It is getting quite difficult even to work anymore. Oh well.
I posted this earlier. It seemed to have worked but is now gone. I guess it is too long? Well this the last time I’ll try post it on this story. I don’t care how many I come across, if an article or video regards the looming war with Iran, I’m posting it because people should know beforehand what happened, so they could perhaps not call for the invason of Iran or, worse, the NUKING of Iran.
All I ask is that you share this information. I post this in all relevant threads because our sailors’ lives matter. One of the earliest battlegrounds will actually be battle waters theaters of battle in any full scale conflict would be the Strait of Hormuz. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Iranians will sink the entire Fifth Fleet if it attempts to break an Iranian blockade of the water way.
Every American needs to understand the Millennium Challenge 2002 war game and its implications. 15,000 sailors’ lives in the Fifth depend on it. Iran will absolutely be as successful as van Riper in the Strait. This is not a matter of technology and firepower, which they could never match, a fact they are well aware of, so they have built their navy SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS SITUATION. And of course, thousands of Iranians would die. That’s the whole point. It is a matter of the relative numbers of small craft and missiles against oil tankers and warships, and it is a matter of the relative maneuverability of big clunky oil tankers and warships against asymmetric swarm tactics in the strait, and they win. When the Iranian Navy was decisively defeated in Operation Praying Mantis in the 1980s, what was destroyed was a smaller, inferior force of just nine vessels, two frigates, one gunboat, and six speedboats. To equate it to what the Strait will look like this time is preposterous.
No amount of bravery can overcome numerical and physical reality. If there are 50 suicide boats surrounding and speeding at them, and they sink 45, 90%, they can take their A-minus to the bottom of the sea. Add barrages of anti-ship missiles, and the situation becomes even more hopeless.
A blue water navy cannot triumph here. Indeed, it will be destroyed here. Round over….continued below
James, was there a link?
I see, it was cut off, there is more….
I still don’t see any link or extra text.
It’s below, here’s the permalink https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2020/01/22/jan-25-no-war-with-iran-international-day-of-action/#comment-4772635208
Unlike Pearl Harbor, where we had been at peace for decades, we are currently the world’s most interventionist power and the people are sick of war. Also unlike Pearl Harbor, the likelihood of the US provoking or prevaricating an incident is far higher than that of Iranians launching an actual initiatory attack, My hope is these differences direct anger to the right people in our own government. But thousands of dead sailors is going to shock most Americans, and they will be afraid, and the warmongers and war profiteers will exploit that fear. With such massive loss of life, my fear is that the Donny Administration will successfully mobilize a full scale invasion. “Avenge the Fifth,” I imagine will be the slogan. VietIran at best. WWIII in fact.
There are two crucial time periods. One will be the month before the election, the so-called October Surprise (just like Donny predicted Barry would do, so we know this is how he thinks). The other will be after Bernie defeats him and he is a lame duck. He is absolutely petty enough to hand a war off to the next administration. If it is Bernie, I would hope that his nascent state department will immediately reach out to Iran to halt any hostilities. We can’t know if it would be too late, the Shia Crescent is on fire. Minority Shia in nuclear armed Pakistan are agitated. Nuclear armed India is nervous. Hezbollah is shelling nuclear-armed Israel with its 40,000 rockets and missiles. You bet your life that Russia and China will mobilize their armies to their Southern and Western borders. We can’t know how far the violence has to spread for both to intervene directly. Will we even have the time to mobilize an expeditionary force? Would this Administration really order nuclear attacks on a non-nuclear power for the third time in history, once again by the United States. May we never know these answers.
For more:
Why a War with Iran is Just…. A Horrendous Idea https://youtu.be/FCuoj5Dz6VI
U Sank My Carrier! http://www.exile.ru/print.php?ARTICLE_ID=6779&IBLOCK_ID=35
The Neoconservative Agenda To Sacrifice the Fifth Fleet. This is from 2007, when the neocons seemed like they were really going to do this before cooler heads prevailed. And now they are back in the driver’s seat and have at least another year to begin a war. . http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/3317
Can a speedboat sink a carrier?
https://newwars.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/can-a-speedboat-sink-a-carrier-pt-1/
America must not underestimate Iran’s Navy, or else…
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/america-must-not-underestimate-irans-navy-or-else-109106