Mumia Abu-Jamal

When U.S. President George W. Bush spoke about an endless war, some took it

as mere political speech or rhetoric designed to gain the top spot on the

evening network news. I did not. ?W? is an agent of his class: the wealthy

oil merchants of the land, and his intentions are to press for an ever wider

war in all corners of the earth to make the world safe for capital

exploitation and unbridled commerce. This will eventually become a war that

reaches into a slew of countries in the Middle East and beyond on behalf of

the rich and powerful elites who rule.

Make no mistake - this is a war that has nothing to do with democracy. The

U.S. enters the region armed to the gills not to defend democracies, but to

defend theocracies; to defend kings, princes, and Sultans; to defend U.S.

access to the vast oil resources in the region. And how can the U.S.

credibly claim to be leading a war against terrorism when the world?s

largest training academy for terrorists is the School of the Americas in

Georgia, where some of the most brutal military dictators in the world are

alumni. The U.S. may have since re-named the school, but it has the same

essential mission: to create foreign military leaders who are the enemies of

democratic and popular movements and who are beholden to their imperial

masters in Washington. The graduates of the S.O.A. have proven relentless

fighters, to be sure, who are masters of the dark arts of torture, cruel

interrogations, rape, and mass murder. And who do they fight but their own

people? To millions of people in Latin America the school is known by the

popular name ?School of Coups.? There is scarcely an infamous massacre that

cannot be traced to its graduates?.

When the U.S. raves about a war on terrorism, there are millions of

Americans to the South who snort in derision, for they know another America

which breeds state terrorism. The people who brought you 9/11 were brought

to you by the C.I.A. school of terrorism, designed to reek havoc upon the

soldiers of the former Soviet Union. They were Jihadis - recruited, paid,

indoctrinated, and armed by U.S., Pakistani, Saudi, and related intelligence

agencies to wage a holy war against the former Communist government in

Afghanistan. And like the proverbial dogs of war, they turned on those who

fed and trained them, to remind them of what they?ve unleashed. And now,

with little thought to its true beginnings, the nation is once again

embroiled in war - a war that was born not in Kabul nor in the tropical

Orient. This war began in cool office buildings in Washington, where men of

wealth and power drew up plans to draw the former Soviets into a neighboring

territory into what they called the ?Afghan trap.? And now, as Malcolm X

once said, ?The chickens have come home to roost.? You want to stop war?

Then stop them where they are born - in Washington, D.C.

--

For an article by Mumia Abu-Jamal about the School of the Americas and a

letter from Subcommandante Marcos of the EZLN from Chiapas, Mexico to Mumia,

visit www.zapatista.de.vu



Massive Rally and Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Action to Shut Down the

School of the Americas (SOA)

November 15-17, Fort Benning, GA