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Original Content at https://www.opednews.com/articles/NEW-Action-Plan-to-Stop-Wa-by-Kathryn-Smith-080702-935.html (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). |
July 4, 2008
NEW Action Plan to Stop War with Iran and Move Impeachment Along!
By Kathryn Smith
Here is a strategy for how to get the mainstream press jealous and to scoop the story of impeachment-related matters. Put pressure on Congress to impeach, by the strategy here which will convince them that (For their own best interest) they'd better hop to it, even if they are bought off. The key is not to go through the bought-off Congress directly, but to circumvent and put pressure on in other ways: Check this out!
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It would seem that news comes from afar before the American “Free Speech” Press ever reports it. Not only the Israeli Radio, but also the Asia Times warned of Bush’s concrete plans to attack Iran:
http://www.coastalpost.com/08/06/01.html Top Source Says Bush to Strike Iran by August Asia Times says Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, were informed of the attack plan.
Israel Radio also announced Bush’s plans to attack Iran:
http://www.coastalpost.com/08/06/01a.html
Thank goodness and thanks to Seymore Hersch, the information now has gone to the mainstream American press. The New Yorker reports on 6-29-08, in an article by Seymore Hersch titled “Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran” that another war based on yet more lies is coming to you soon: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20203.htm
To prove that this war really is based on a lie, read what Hersch has to say:
“The request for funding came in the same period in which the Administration was coming to terms with a National Intelligence Estimate, released in December, that concluded that Iran had halted its work on nuclear weapons in 2003. The Administration downplayed the significance of the N.I.E., and, while saying that it was committed to diplomacy, continued to emphasize that urgent action was essential to counter the Iranian nuclear threat. President Bush questioned the N.I.E.’s conclusions…Meanwhile, the Administration also revived charges that the Iranian leadership has been involved in the killing of American soldiers in Iraq: both directly, by dispatching commando units into Iraq, and indirectly, by supplying materials used for roadside bombs and other lethal goods. (There have been questions about the accuracy of the claims; the Times, among others, has reported that “significant uncertainties remain about the extent of that involvement.”)
Thus, the motive to profiteer from war contracts and oil money become very clear. But the effects on American life are of grave concern even to those in the highest offices in the USA:
“This is a big deal,” the person familiar with the Finding said. “….. The President signed an Executive Order after September 11th giving the Pentagon license to do things that it had never been able to do before without notifying Congress. The claim was that the military was ‘preparing the battle space,’ and by using that term they were able to circumvent congressional oversight. Everything is justified in terms of fighting the global war on terror.” He added, “The Administration has been fuzzing the lines; there used to be a shade of gray”—between operations that had to be briefed to the senior congressional leadership and those which did not—“but now it’s a shade of mush.”
In fact, Seymore Hersch said, in an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, words to the effect that soldiers would be killing at random, without any oversight from Congress or the Militia. Thus, it basically would become an American terrorist ring of its own, all in the name of fighting the war on terror.
According to Hersch‘s New Yorker article, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates chimes in yet another concern:
“Gates warned of the consequences if the Bush Administration staged a preëmptive strike on Iran, saying, as the senator (who quoted Gates) recalled, “We’ll create generations of jihadists, and our grandchildren will be battling our enemies here in America.” Gates’s comments stunned the Democrats at the lunch, and another senator asked whether Gates was speaking for Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. Gates’s answer, the senator told me, was “Let’s just say that I’m here speaking for myself.” So, what can We the People do? To sit and wring our hands in helplessness is only to enable more deaths of soldiers, American and foreign, based on more lies. As China gets into the act in defense of Iran, as England comes to the aid of America, and as other countries get involved based on objection to America’s aggressive wars based on hoaxes and soap bubbles, World War III is very likely to break out. Gas prices are already through the roof: Think of what’s to come as we attack Iran. Food transportation would become prohibitively expensive, resulting in American food riots and who knows what else. Time to sit back silently? Methinks not.
Here is an action plan, which I am brainstorming out loud. I invite readers to please post their own strategies below. It is imperative, whatever we do, that we act instead of merely talk. Because while to brainstorm is productive, it also is only as productive as the actions we take. We must act as if our lives depended on it, because….they could! If not our own, then certainly the lives of others are at stake.
Here are a few thoughts, which I ask that you please circulate widely and also pass on to Moveon.org (epariser@moveon.org), Credo (info@credoaction.com) , True Majority (info@truemajority.com), and other activist entities you believe will get behind this:
a) Ask officials in countries overseas to issue arrest warrants for Bush, Cheney, and members of Congress who vote for lie-based war funding. This will put pressure on Congress to stop funding the wars based on lies, regardless of their investment in war profiteering.
b) Circumvent the bought-off Congress which will never budge, and will always vote to protect Bush’s crime rings. Instead, appeal to the local officials:
Show all officials I am mentioning below, the articles above, in order to convince them of the reality that war with Iran is imminent and not just a conspiracy theory.
~Based on the mainstream impeachment polls linked below, ask your State Assembly to issue impeachment resolutions. Important: Don’t ask the official what his/her position is about impeachment: This gives politicians too much power and takes the power away from Us, the People, where the power truly belongs. Instead, convince him/her of the necessity, based on the gravely serious matters at stake and the polls below, and based on the reminder that you pay him/her to be implementer of the public will. As the public sentiment has shifted in the direction of impeachment, the likelihood is very good that they would do this. After all, it would only bring them in favor with their constituency if they did. Tell them not only to look at the poll figures below, but at the comments posted even to the ultra-conservative USA Today’s poll:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/06/democrat-files.html USA Today’s impeachment poll
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Vote-in-AOL-com-Impeach-Bu-by-John-H-Kennedy-080610-450.html AOL’s impeachment poll
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/ MSNBC’s impeachment poll
After showing the Official the polls above, show them Kucinich's 35 Articles of Impeachment and the titles for each Article. The titles alone should convince the Officials. Show them also the link to former US Prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega's analysis of the laws violated by each of the 35 Articles of Impeachment, as posted to After Downing Street.Org (thank you, David Swanson!) http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/busharticles
~Ask your State Senators, County Supervisors, and City Councils to issue arrest warrants for Bush and Cheney and any other war criminals in Congress. Do this with a team of people, not on your own, to add strength to your request. Organize a citizen’s meeting with them, face to face. If this does not succeed, send in group emails. Hand-written letters are even more effective, but people are more likely to press a button and send it off. Easy. Done.
c) Turn to the College newsletter editors and local newspapers. Have them cover the official endorsements for impeachment and arrest in articles in their own underground papers.
This will create a communal hum.
Next thing you know, the Press may become jealous and want to scoop the story.
Mission accomplished!
d) Now, go to your US Representative, with newspaper articles in hand, and show them the impeachment and arrest warrants as covered by the Press. Organize a citizen’s meeting with a group of like-minded friends, by calling your Representative and talking to their Aide. You may perhaps meet with the Aide or, if you are very lucky, you may meet with the Representative, face-to-face.
e) Write letters to the editor. Letters to the editor are the most-read pages in the newspaper, according to the ACLU and Moveon.org, and are read by politicians as indicators of public opinion. Which implies that what we think DOES matter! Also, in my experience, having more than 150 letters to the editor printed in my name since the year 2,000, while the mainstream may be censored, letters to the editor are less so. Because the job of letter editors is to represent a wide cross-sector of opinion, not merely the newspaper’s own agenda.
If the mainstream rejects your letter, go for the local papers and the College newsletter editors. Remember that people talk: Your readership will go far beyond the small numbers of readers. People also post to the Internet, and you can even request that they do, in your letter.
An impeachment/arrest letter should express much more than just your opinion, to be effective. Quote the articles above. Underscore the facts. Let people make up their own minds, based on the facts you give. At the very end, make a one-sentence statement urging that local officials issue arrest warrants and impeachment resolutions. End of story, end of your letter.
Remember: All it takes is one pro-active person with some influence, to read your letter. A movie maker could read it, a politician who is on our side, activist group leaders….you never know who you are going to reach, so go for it! Reach out for the hope, and it may yet drop into your lap. If nothing else, at least you tried, and you can sleep easier at night!
f) Dial in to radio talk shows. Remember: Facts convince much better than opinions. Heated opinions in particular, or heated anything, will only turn people off. To be effective, you must be calm, cool and offer fact-based information which gets people thinking and concerned. Be sure to stress proactive things which can be done: Our masses are governed by depression. It is vitally important to break through that depression with strategies to be implemented. Those, in turn, offer people empowerment and hope. That is the single most important ingredient to getting anything done. No matter what people know, no matter how convinced they are, if they lack empowerment, they will do nothing. Create for hope! Offer tools and before you know it, things will begin to move.
Remind people too, that they can host letters-to-the-editor-writing parties in their homes. As people read each their letters out loud to the group, the group edit’s the letter together. The feedback and reactions to the letter could be both interesting and instructive. Groups give each other power where individuals may feel ineffective. Stress these parties as a source of empowerment and hope!
g) Ask like-minded friends to join you in your efforts. Send out chain emails:
Show your friends the articles above or any other links you believe to be important. Ask them to join you in writing letters to the editor (local or mainstream or underground), organize a citizen’s meeting together with them and your US Representative and your local Assemblyman/County Supervisor/etc. Ask them to join you in posting to the Internet, dialing in to radio talk shows, etc and just plain old spreading word. And, ask them to forward the email, creating a chain effect. The participation rate could be exponential: Keep the ball rolling!
This strategy should not only get the impeachment ball rolling, but it should also help to save America from fascist take-over. We are so dangerously close to being all but swallowed up and losing all of our freedoms, that the matters at stake require our urgent action.
According to one ACLU attorney I spoke with, the hope is that we still have the mechanism of the original US Constitution in place. Thus, we can fight any unlawful bills or any unlawful actions arising out of them. We can overturn any bad laws, eventually.
But it will take time on our part. It certainly won’t happen if we just sit by, watch and pray and hope. We must do our part.
Please circulate this action plan widely, send it to any activist entities you believe will get behind it, post it to blogs, etc….”We shall overcome some day”.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”.
Thank you all.