[O29] Troops out NOW or "at some unspecified date in the future to be determ

[robert montgomery]

On 10/1/05, robert montgomery <ilyenkova at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> It's important to set the record straight on Vietnam and how the war was
> ended:
> By 1968 the ground war was stalemated. The US knew it couldn't win on the
> battlefield and the Vietnamese knew they couldn't drive the occupiers out
> without an air force. US strategy shifted to massive bombing to punish the
> Vietnamese enough to try and extract concessions in Paris (negotiations
> began early in 1968). The only force that could tip the balance and open
> things up for the Vietnamese victory was the antiwar movement here. When
> Gary suggests that the antiwar movement here was a secondary factor and that
> the struggle was really won on the battlefield he's making a totally false
> dichotomy between the Vietnamese resistance struggle and the deepening
> struggle against the war here at home. The nationwide student strike in May
> 1970 threw the US ruling class into a panic. It was at this point that timid
> Congressional "doves" began to make some noise. And this gets to my central
> point that the record is clear: Whatever happens in Congress is an echo or
> reflection of what's happening in the streets. Today we see some small
> temporizing stirrings in Congress because:
> 1. The war is going badly
> 2. Opinion polls show growing antiwar sentiment
> 3. Camp Casey and Cindy Sheehan were front page news for over a month
> 4. Hundreds of thousands were in the streets on 9/24 demanding "Out Now"
>
> So the cautious, spineless politicians are beginning to worry about
> politics getting out of their control. This is fine; we want them worried.
> Hell, we want them in a panic like in May 1970! But it's our militant mass
> actions, independent of their support or prescence (Conyers and Cynthia
> McKinney notwithstanding) that has them worried.
> The LeBlanc proposal Gary supports proposes not simply a tactical
> reorientation of the movement, but rather a strategic orientation to antiwar
> organizing diametrically opposed to our own. One orientation holds that real
> power resides in Congress and our function is to leverage the tepid liberal
> initiatives along by supportively lobbying "set a date" politicians. The
> other orientation believes the real power lies in deepening and broadening
> mass opposition to the war by continuing to build a politicallly independent
> movement based on mass action with a principled demand that supports the
> fundamental right of the Iraqi people to self-determination. That demand can
> only be for the immediate withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq.
> Bob Montgomery
>
>
> On 10/1/05, Brian O'Connell <vinniechops at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I have to weigh in here and say that going along with a timetable and
> > leaving the war pullout to corporate loving John Kerry,Ted Kennedy and
> > Hillary Clinton does not appeal to me at all. Leave the war to the
> > politicians? No thanks.
> >
> > If we arn't going to demand an end to war and the pursuit of peace NOW
> > then
> > when are we going to do it? Who's going to do it? The next generation?
> > The
> > one after that? Or maybe the one after that? We probably don't have too
> > many
> > generations left if we don't cure the scourge of war and injustice. If
> > we
> > don't seriously take on the military industrial complex with clear
> > demands
> > then we won't have much influence.
> >
> > The message, "a sane and just world is possible, we have the power" can
> > be
> > sold to the American public, we just have to create a new protest
> > culture to
> > get them down to the market. I want to sell them real Peace, not plastic
> > Congressional Peace.
> >
> > If someone had me on the ground with a boot to my neck I'd probably want
> >
> > them to take it off NOW. . . I wouldn't say to my assailiant, "Please
> > sir,
> > lighten up the pressure in about ten minutes, thank you sir".
> >
> > Also, on the issue of including a demand in solidarity with Arabs and
> > Muslims. For me that's a no brainer . . .Of course we should be reaching
> > out
> > to that community.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Brian O'Connell
> > cell: 617-947-8983
> > home: 617-364-9746
> > vinniechops at hotmail.com
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > O29 mailing list
> > O29 at massglobalaction.org
> > http://massglobalaction.org/mailman/listinfo/o29_massglobalaction.org
> >
>
>
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