Similar were the words of John Hayden in a recent newsletter
in which he called for the strategy of sane and peace loving Americans to
change the course of the nation in 2010-2011. Hayden asked to "share some
specific thoughts about building the peace and justice movement from the bottom
up."
He said, "Social movements always depend on leadership, a commitment by a
single individual or small group to continue their work in the face of all
odds. Then there's the question of a strategy for being effective. We always
have to measure our capacity against the goals we set."
However, Hayden continued, "The bottom-up strategy which I propose is building
the pressure of people power against the pillars of policy that prop up the
Long War. The key pillars for the wars in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan
include, first, the pillar of public opinion; second, the pillar of budgetary
support; and third, the pillar of our military resources. Other pillars include
the mainstream media, religious institutions and, of course, the required
stability of America's ally Kabul. In the end, it's
about public opinion. We have to argue that the American people are not any
safer for having fought these wars, and we cannot afford the cost in casualties
and tax dollars."
In other words, it is about PEOPLE POWER AGAINST THE PILLARS OF POLICY. Like me, Hayden has long noted that bankrupting the USA, physically, morally, socially, judicially was the aim of his terrorist ideals.
American leadership has failed time and again to avoid making more enemies and to avoid breaking constitutional guarantees. For example, this past month, we learned that the "Obama administration has acknowledged it's continuing a Bush-era policy authorizing the killing of US citizens abroad. The confirmation came from Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair in congressional testimony last week. Blair said, "Being a US citizen will not spare an American from getting assassinated by military or intelligence operatives overseas if the individual is working with terrorists and planning to attack fellow Americans.'"
Denis Kucinich and other real Americans have responded to those remarks by re-teaching America her basic values. We need to do so at home, in our schools, in the media and in the face of illegal governance and tyranny.
HAS AMERICAN ALREADY LOST ITS SOUL?
Here is what Kucinich noted in his letter to the Attorney General of the United States, "Well, I think it's incumbent upon the Attorney General to explain the basis in law for such a policy. Our Constitution's Fifth Amendment, our Seventh Amendment, our Fourteenth Amendment all clearly provide legal protections for people who are accused or who would be sentenced after having been judged to be guilty. And what's happened is that the Constitution is being vitiated here. The idea that people are--have--if their life is in jeopardy, legally have due process of law, is thrown out the window."
Most importantly, Kucinich went on to add that "when you consider that there are people who are claiming there are many terrorist cells in the United States, it doesn't take too much of a stretch to imagine that this policy could easily be transferred to citizens in this country. That doesn't--that only compounds what I think is a slow and steady detachment from core constitutional principles. And once that happens, we have a country then that loses its memory and its soul, with respect to being disconnected from those core constitutional principles which are the basis of freedom in our society."
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