What's with all of the white liberal backstepping on the IMC these days?

When did the white liberal CIA operatives infiltrate the site? Did knowledge of the US military's
atrocities in killing babies (bombing civilian hospitals, starved infantry men arbitrairily shooting
women, your tax dollars funding satan's army) scare your little white privileged minds and now you cower
and lose your principles.

Grow some balls people.

Bring the troops home, impeach bush, accept nothing less, and if the middle of the road
do nothings can't take it, then they'll have to learn. You aren't gonna have any choice when the
martial law comes, so grow up.

I would like for the killing to stop.
I would like some democracy.
I would like an end to this fucking empire.

I feel so sad for people who don't believe there is anything worth dying for. Are you that spoiled and miserable that you want to keep others miserable? Why do you stick up for a mass murderer like Saddam Hussein? Do you honestly believe you're the only ones who don't want to see people killed? NOBODY wants to see people killed, but sometimes it is necessary, like now. When the Iraqis are free, and they tell of the horrors of living under Saddam's rule, I can't wait to hear one of you ask them, "But was your freedom worth dying for." They will look at you like the idiots you are. God help you.

Maybe you should do a little more research about the true motivations of the U.S. administration, do a little research looking at just how successful the U.S. has been historically at imposing "democracy" in other parts of the world. In very simple terms, their ideas about "democracy" are very skewed, their motivations appear to be corrupt; it's about controlling resources and self-serving GREED! Ask the owners and friends of the corporations who'll get the contracts in the "rebuilding" process if the killing was worth it and they'll say "Hell yeah!" I'm making a ton of money off all that blood. You ask us to grow up, I implore you to wake up to the ugly truth that is being thrown in our faces. Liberation? Sure, killing liberates the soul from this earthly shell. Freedom? Let's wait and see just how free the Iraqi people will be in reasserting their sovereignity.

The problem is that a) Saddams rule has to end and b) the US are the only country strong enuogh to achieve this. No matter what the´"real" motifs are (oil, world domination...) i do not think there would have been a peaceful way to end saddams reign. So when i say "no war" i mean "god, please let the war be over really really fast and make possibla a rebuilding of Iraq under the leadership of the UN." The war has to be brought to an end by the US, there´s no question.

Study up on the beast.

This isn't about Hussein any more than Viet Nam was about Diem.

In this case we're looking at naked empire, as clearly set out in writing by the clique now pulling Bu$h's strings.

You're either for an imperial enterprise, with the understanding that in one way or another you will have to give up your life to serve said enterprise overseas, or you are for the future.

That's all.

Enough to keep me in the street, anyway.

-- .- .-. -.-. --- -. ..

How does this man dare to say for which reason are we fighting?
A fundamental right of the human kind is being harassed by the White House pocker players. The greedy situation that the US citizens face is the start of the abyss. Chaos may reign very soon, because the freedom voice of the only power in the world is behind the bars. We count on the demonstrations of NY and Washington, and LA. We count on you because only the American -especially the middle thinking one who prefer watching a Hollywood movie than the atrocities made by their compatriots in the place where civilization was born- citizen can bring peace to his country by demonstrating. I see that you cannot take the crowd out to the streets. In Greece, we face the same problem. Everybody is against the USA -especially because of the invasion in Iraq- but few people go on the streets. I just hope that the people will someday wake up... before it is too late. Sometimes, I think that what we cannot achieve, and that is the collapse of the Bush government, might happen by the fedayin and the Al Qaeda admirers. But this is a paranoia senario. Bush proves that he can play the globe with his finger. We must cut this finger and let the world breath.

Since this war is progressing amazingly quickly and smoothly., with negligable civilian and allied casualities (it is a war remember ) and since the Iraqis are showing more and more celebration and gratuity to our presence each day, I was wondering when all of you were going to have your "We appologoze for being so fundamentally wrong on this deal" march? I'm looking forward to it. Don't say I didn't tell you so.

fresca- it is NOT going that well, not all Iraqis are celebrating. And even if they are, how long will that last until the US butts in to insert some other ruthless leaders? Wake up and smell the coffee. The only reason you do not see this is because you don't see the truth and probably don't want to. Keep up your delusion and when this country goes to shit, we can all say- told you so dumbshits!

I wrote this essay shortly after the war began - I think it's relevant here...

====

WHY KEEP GOING?
3/22/03

The questions facing many of us – especially those of us newly awakened to the misdeeds and mistrust of our government, and the need, motivation, and method to do something about it – are things like: What good is this movement doing? How can marching and shouting change things when the powers that be won’t listen? Why hasn’t it changed things? Why didn’t it prevent war?

Especially in the past few days, as our dread of war has turned into reality, these questions loom as large as the specter of war itself. Everything seems so huge and insurmountable; few people of influence speak out – and maintain – the antiwar stance, and those that do are summarily ignored by the runaway war machine. Lately, the question has arisen lately of a possible “Bush Wins” scenario, similar to the circumstantial forces that hurt the momentum of the antiwar movement during the first Gulf War; that the war would be brief, short, and without too tangible an impact to US citizens – body bags don’t come home in scores, gas prices fall back to a dollar, and the detachment and complacency within the mainstream stays intact.

Of course, several things are fundamentally different now than from what they were then. First, the September 11th attacks were a tremendous shock to the system; whether on the anti-war or pro-war sides, people everywhere have been shaken out of the complacency and disconnect the “pop” culture of the past twenty-or-so years have slathered upon the public mind. Secondly, the free flow of information and opinion facilitated by the Internet has been an invaluable resource to educate the seeking; those like me searching for meaning after the traumatizing and terrifying events that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that all was not right in the world. More people are starting to connect the dots, to realize that violence, especially politically motivated violence, is not random – rather, it is part of a larger pattern of militarism and brutality that has been around for some time. Many realize that this struggle for social justice goes beyond Iraq - it extends to the militarist culture that the US has spread across the world over the past 50 years and it is a huge job, one that takes the continued efforts of the people, to heal and reverse.

In declaring this “war on terrorism,” George the Younger has, in effect, declared “war without end,” a significant difference from the “quick operation” of Desert Storm. So, everyone knows: Iraq is just the beginning. Even to those disbelieving of the oil argument, in which case the answers are obvious, it begs the questions of who are we to be the world’s policeman? When do we stop? And how far will we go to make “us” safer? The Administration and its advisors, notably Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and the recently disgraced Richard Perle, as well as the dinosaur hawks from the Reagan and Bush I Administrations, have already called for an extension of this war. They have talked about Iran. They have talked about Korea. They are talking about Syria.

We tried to prevent an invasion of Iraq, and they went in anyway. Was it so much of a surprise? Even with the largest peace demonstration in world history thrown in their faces, the hawks were already set in their plans and would not waver. But that does not mean letting off the pressure; you know that something else is coming. To think of quitting resistance now that bombs have started to fall is unresolvable with the same social conscience that motivated us to protest war on Iraq in the first place. It is especially important now that the war has begun to fight harder, demand louder that no more bombs fall, to expose those responsible to public scrutiny and make them answerable to that same public for their actions - so no one sane would think of voting for them or their friends, just as no one sane would vote for Charlie Manson - for they're the impersonal mass-murderers behind the Iraqi casualties of the past 12 years, just as much as Saddam Hussein.

Now that so many more people are aware as to what our country has done in the world and is planning on doing, people have an acute awareness that this goes beyond Iraq. That it is the larger pattern of militarist empire we must seek to stop; that these atrocities will continue to happen around the globe if nothing is done about it. It is evident in the many causes that come together during these protests, and the realization that these seemingly diverse platforms dovetail so well because they are undeniably related. We are all Palestinians, all Jews, all Koreans, all Filipinos and Timorese and Afghanis and Iraqis and trapped Americans and bus riders and laborers and poor; we are all victims of the same “game” of world affairs our elite plays with the people of the world as no more than little pewter hats and wheelbarrows; and that to back down now is to effectively roll out the red carpet for the tanks of empire to roll right over us.

Were the protests useless? Many times while watching CNN the dread question had came into my mind. There’s the cynical, depressed, nihilistic part of me that threatens to say yes. But my heart and gut feeling from being there and participating in the demonstrations of the past few months say an undeniable no. The word *demonstration* is much more accurate than protest, in the context of its effectiveness. The public opinion has been demonstrated in passionate voice, the loudest in human history; and now the Bush Administration’s actions in the face of this overwhelming NO has served to magnify the serious moral violation that it has committed. The headlines do not read “War Begins, Everyone Loves It, Everything’s Fine,” they read “War Begins Among Worldwide Protest.” We are NOT convinced this is right, we have brought to the fore our opinion, and it cannot be denied or ignored; even if it is not on TV it is on our streets, in our workplaces, our schools and our neighborhoods. It is a voice easily heard by those with even the smallest shred of common sense or conscience.

That the war was begun amid worldwide popular and religious dissension of conscience makes the act appear blatantly vile; the more blatantly vile the Administration’s actions appear, the more people will see and think; and the more people see and think, the more they will be outraged and galvanized to act. It is a voice that could not and should not be silenced; it should reverberate, grow in resolve and power in response to every new horrible thing Bush throws at us. It should reverberate through outreach, discussion, and education. It should penetrate through strength in numbers and unity of spirit. It is fed through free flow of information and given form through organization; and these are the things we must defend and nurture, if we are to survive and continue to be effective.

And the activism must expand, to include many of those who would never think to take to the streets. Through education, discourse and dissemination of information, through registering voters and support of candidates who also oppose the tactics of the "Bush Doctrine", we can make certain that an administration who WILL listen to the people supplants the present rule of the lawless.

Power in the streets. Power at the polls. Our power can work for change, even while this President and his ghouls feast on the bones of Iraqi civilians and our own Constitution. And soon he will be swept away by the same voices he’s been so unwilling to hear.

All we're doing is protesting. That's why we haven't stopped the war. There is too much liberalism and social patriotism in the anti-war movement. The white liberal doctrine of non-violence and interventionalism keeps us counterproductive through passive routines of countless picket signs and protest marches. Not that protests and marches are bad. But what we need to really be focusing on is working class grass roots community organizing. The U.S is waging it's wars all over the world. From Iraq to Colombia, Congo, from New York to Los Angeles. There's a ghetto in every city. The U.S wants an occupied military force in Iraq just like they have here at home with police occupying our communities, locking up our youth and people of color. There are more black people in prison than there are in college. That should say something right there. When Bush get's up on TV and say's the war is on. He's right, but not against terrorism. It's a war against you and me. So when bombs fall over Baghdad as people in poor villages of Nigeria get their arms and heads chopped off so oil corporations can take the land with a U.S financed military regime, you better believe the war is on. When police occupy our streets and gun us down for being black or brown. You better believe the war is on. When you can't go to the store anymore to buy food because you've got no money, you better believe the war is on. We all want peace but how are you going to get peace when you've got no freedom. If we want to stop the U.S war machine then it's time we take things to a much higher level. It's time we intensify this struggle and actually start mobilizing a resistance capable of liberating our communities locally and internationally. We need to start taking direct action aimed towards community empowerment so we can establish a real sense of self-suffiencey and community control with the goal of creating liberated territory in our neighborhoods. We need to build community defense programs capable of standing up against repression from the police state. You're not going stop the U.S war machine unless you start taking matters into your own hands. The U.S war machine won't stop unless we make it stop. The problem isn't just Bush. It's the entire united states political and class system which has been manifesting around the world by waging continuous wars. There needs to be some serious resistance in these streets if we ever want change. We need to start creating change in our own communities. We should abandon the idea of setting up collective living communes in rural areas that are alienated from inner-city working class areas. We need to create these type of alternatives right here in working class communities. We need resistance in the ghettos. We need resistance in black communities. Brown communities. Even white communities. We need to focus on empowering our communities just as much as defending them against the state. Self-defense doesn't come with a picket sign. This is a time of war. So freedom before peace.

Well said! Both defano and source0 above are right. We must not stop but instead continue more forcefully as this "War on Terror" will not stop until it culminates in World War Three, and it will. But we can't just continue protesting with signs or ranting about the injustice on the Internet. It's a start but its not enough.

As one recently popular phrase that is catching on that says "There are two superpowers in the world today, the United States and world opinion" has shown, the Internet is a fantastic medium for spreading these ideas in a truly democratic way where people from every city, state and nation in the world can participate and organize.

Just look at the millions who protested here in America and all over the world and you see the power of organizing in massive scale that comes out from free communication through the Internet (unprecedented). Just recently the website MoveOn.org has shown how Americans can be active in politics and jam the phones of government officials for an entire day protesting the war (unprecedented), or how hundreds of thousands of petitions to the United Nations rolled in to oppose the war (unprecedented), or how in the space of one week people donated through the website more than HALF-A-MILLION DOLLARS for helping Iraqi people with humanitarian aid even if not tax-deductible (incredible). And that is where the power lies: direct political involvement in massive numbers and huge donations!

There is still more that can be done in this kind of peaceful but direct action. We can boycott corporations that support Bush or the war, flood media outlets with live commentary, take our money out of the banks to destabilize the market if just for a day, etc. Any more ideas?

That is the power of the Internet. That is the power of organizing. That is the power of money. Pool it together and we have vastly more power than any small numbers of wealthy elites --and the Internet is the key. We also have to our advantage the inherent weakness of those who support the war expressed in their complacency and ignorance, which can be used against them as they will rather continue their lives in oblivion than get involved if there is no visible material gain coming to them. We, on the other hand, are guided by a superior moral force that seeks justice and freedom for the world's unfortunate victims of greed and power without seeking any material benefit but simply the sense of doing what is right.

-G

Peace; the word has some arousing emotions, but what do we mean when we say we want peace ?

10 - 15 million of us marched around the world on Feb 15, calling for a stop to war before it had even begun. Where we following our collective intuition ? Did we know deep in our guts that this war was inevitable? did we some how sense the horror that we have witnessed, thus far, and that which surley waits ahead of us sometime in our future, now that our voices and our presense has been ignored ?

For me, Peace has many consequences. Am i supporting war, and those who profit from it indirectly with my hard earned consumer dollar ? Is what I purchase ethical ? Is it environmentally sustainable ?

We could not stop this war. Bu$h and those around him made up their minds way back in time. and so now, many are dying by Amerikas WMD even the boys sent to fight this war, will come home to a depleted Vetrans benifit uable to assist them with the physcological horrors they have experienced not to mention the silent killer that are the legacy of the US's depleted Uranium weapons.

The question what is peace, what do we mean when we say we want peace, when we march for peace what is it that we are truly asking for ? Does anyone know ? is peace the end of this insane war ? do we then breath a collective sigh of relief and go back to our everyday lives, drive our cars more and walk less, and get back to our massive consumption rate. What is this peace that we seek ?

Amenesty Interntaional along with Human Rights groups, acknowledges that it is the governments themselves that are the cause of toruture, of lost rights and we have already seen that marching in unprecedented numbers on such a global scale had no visible effect on both the UK or USA governments. But it did have an effect on us...it showed us that we are the many, that we are powerful when focused and united over an issue.

If we take that one step further as boycott USA would reveal if we all did it....we as consumers are all powerful, they need us more than we need them....

Peace to me means that I live in a world that is not driven by the spiritual emptiness of massive over consumption on a non renewable unsustaineable resource...Peace to me means looking and activiely promoting the most obvious of alternatives, you know the one that was really popular before the 1920's... before big business colluded with politics and the media to make it illegal ....remember HEMP ! that billion dollar non toxic crop that once could have been our future !

Today just about everything is a dervitive of the oil industry...toothpaste, lipstick, everything....this war is about oil...in a sense its about preserving our preverse lifestyles......

Today the peace movement has to take stock of itself. We have proved to ourselves that when focused we are a powrerul group....THE most powerful group...timing is everything and now is the time for those of us who desire to see a just world a HUMANE world to act, to focus and get involved in brining what is our fadding democracy our corrupt governments our shortsighted and self serving policies in to an alignment that can serve that vision that we have when we utter the words PEACE

Impeace your president. there can be only one law for all, justice must work for all of us... peace is of little use if our prisions are full to over flowing by petty misdomeaners while the highest crimes in the nation and made by those in positions of power and influence

there is an international court for crimes against humanity isn't there ? only another country can start the ball rolling to bring these men to account before an international world court of justice.... start the wheels of justice moving in all the countries of the world, lets demand from our respective leaders that they forgoe 'free trade' with amerika for real FREEDOM. let our marches demand them to act in our names....let our voices reclaim our rights, after all, we are the many and they are the few...if we have any democracy left, let us act on it now and change the system so that it works for all of us and not just the few

Today's L.A. Times poll is very bad news for the antiwar movement, at least in the short term.

Basically, the cycle is unbroken. A president beats the drum for war, the media pick it up, and the usual hard core of rednecks who follow cable news and talk radio as if it were a sports league fall quickly into line. The rest of the people admit doubts and fears, and at some point a majority or nearly so tell the ubiquitous (and very self-reinforcing) public opinion polls that war might not be the answer.

The president, secure in the historical knowledge that he has the power to shape opinion, starts the war anyway. The rednecks wave the flag, again, the cable news channels enjoy tripled ratings, and the theater of blood begins anew, with a 24/7 pageant having very little relevance to real war on the ground, or much of anything else.

Within two weeks, the opposition is irrelevant. It becomes yet another feel-good war, some of the troops come home to parades, and we start the cycle all over again.

The weak point in all this is the media. They are the tool by which the presidents keep the cycle going, one war after another. (The Italians had another name for it... Fascism.) The media bosses will say they're giving the public what it wants, and of course they are right because they've had 20 years now to get all the bugs out and refine this slick machine of blood, guts, and glory.

There's an Army paper that might still be available online. It's called "Winning CNN Wars: Words are the New Bullets, Satellites the New Artillery." Read it.

The government is very hip to this cycle and they're using it as a great wheel to grind our little left into nothing, with 40 percent public opinion swings a matter of course. It's reached the point where the rulers can create one of these at will, merely by committing US troops somewhere. As we see in today's poll, where becomes ever less relevant.

Satellite dishes are weapons. Radio waves are malevolent death from the sky. Their effects must be studied, understood, and turned to our favor. All else leads to the death of everything worth living for.

This thread shows up when the filter for Hidden is set.

Sharpened our censor scissors, did we?

Who gives you the right to decide for the Iraqi people? Is Sadam the only dictator in the world? What about Pinochet in Chile, Franco in Spain, Soecarno in Indonesia, Papadopoylos in Greece and many others I cannot remember who were good friends of USA though bloody dictators? Who is responsible for the democracy in Iraq? Have the Iraqi people the right to decide for their own country? If I am not able to liberate myself, who is responsible to do it? What if North Corea government decides to "liberate" USA from G.W. Bush? Does it have the right to attack USA?

"Since this war is progressing amazingly quickly and smoothly., with negligable civilian and allied casualities (it is a war remember ) and since the Iraqis are showing more and more celebration and gratuity to our presence each day,..."


Exactly in which universe are you living? There is such a thing as evidence. You might want to look for independent reporting and not the propaganda on CNN etc. I would suggest Robert Fisk at
http://www.independent.co.uk. You might also read John Pilger, for instance also at the same web site.
As far as casualties, what you don't count you can't know. However, you can also look at
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=40983

In the mid-1930's, the German High Command (Prussian officers) wanted to depose Hitler because of his madness. The German citizens weren't too keen on a big war, even though they were willing to go along with jailing or otherwise repressing most dissenters (extended to include Social Democrats, Communists, Roma, Jews, ..). The Military didn't have much beef with that, but fighting on two fronts to gain total European domination was too much. Why didn't they succeed? Britain and France collaborated in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia (remember Yugoslavia a few years back?), which increased Hitler's standing (and he almost received the Nobel peace prize, so many years before H. Kissinger).

What does this have to do with today? In the 1970's, we were able to help end the aggressive war against Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Later, the Empire at least didn't dare to directly invade Nicaragua, or Angola. They were restricted to Granada and other defenseless children on the streets. Many lives have been lost by the direct and proxy wars fought and financed by Empire, but how many have we saved?? I would think many. We were not able to achieve victory but we did have some success. America is not this elite of viciousness. We are. If we want to protect even a minimum of democratic civil life in the US and between nations and peoples, then an American loss (in the conventional sense) would be a gain. Saddam is not Iraq. The Iraqi, left alone, would sort themselves out. But which is more dangerous, even for Americans on the streets of NY, LA, SF, ....: A tin-pan dictator with 0.0015% of the wold's armaments, or one with 50%. Do you want to see the tiny bit of international law reduced to justifying and sanctioning what is now happening? Would you have wanted to see the "socialist" states of eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to be "liberated" like Iraq (but necessitating nuclear weapons)? There is no shame attached in losing a wrongful cause.

I love american way of solving things. Negotiations are bored, old and uncool. So why wait when you can kill? It doesn't matter. If you are american you can always KILL! Brainwash your citizens and teach them that they must support their terrorist president . The only path to peace is murder. It's always good to have power and supremacy. It's good to fight at night and from a very long distance. After the enemy is weak then we proceed. It's so cool to manipulate news so assholes believe WE ALWAYS WIN. We need to feel proud when we said we KIILLED 1000 iraqis today. Because Iraqis are not humans, especially if they are wearing uniforms. Our people can't see footage of our casualties because public opinion is our kriptonite. But we can show the enemy casualties because the world must see that we have weapons of mass destruction -by the way it's our cool new phrase- too ! We have done a very good job blindfolding people's eyes so they can't see that there's no difference in our weapons and theirs. ( Ours are more cool aren't they?)

So go out and kill people . Age is not a problem. If you are 18 you are a kid in a bar but a man in a war !

FUCK YOU BUSH. SOMEDAY YOU WILL PAY YOUR MISTAKE. WE HOPE THAT THE VOICES OF THE DEAD PEOPLE MURDERED BY YOUR PUPETS IN ANY COUNTRY GET STUCK IN YOUR HEAD FOREVER.


FUCKING TERRORIST

when two or more family members hold an office or offices in a governmental power isn't that like a family regime or dynasty. A family dictatorship. let's see we had Bush sr., ned, jeb, and now bush jr. sounds kinda odd when kennedy did it thry all died, wasn't Bush sr. in the CIA at that time too. but any ways check out some real shit at guerillafunk.com . peace?........ never

Michael Moore's latest missive adds some words of wisdom and encouragement to those feeling lost in the struggle.

======

My Oscar "Backlash": "Stupid White Men" Back At #1, "Bowling" Breaks New Records

Dear friends,

It appears that the Bush administration will have succeeded in colonizing Iraq sometime in the next few days. This is a blunder of such magnitude -- and we will pay for it for years to come. It was not worth the life of one single American kid in uniform, let alone the thousands of Iraqis who have died, and my condolences and prayers go out to all of them.

So, where are all those weapons of mass destruction that were the pretense for this war? Ha! There is so much to say about all this, but I will save it for later.

What I am most concerned about right now is that all of you -- the majority of Americans who did not support this war in the first place -- not go silent or be intimidated by what will be touted as some great military victory. Now, more than ever, the voices of peace and truth must be heard. I have received a lot of mail from people who are feeling a profound sense of despair and believe that their voices have been drowned out by the drums and bombs of false patriotism. Some are afraid of retaliation at work or at school or in their neighborhoods because they have been vocal proponents of peace. They have been told over and over that it is not "appropriate" to protest once the country is at war, and that your only duty now is to "support the troops."

Can I share with you what it's been like for me since I used my time on the Oscar stage two weeks ago to speak out against Bush and this war? I hope that, in reading what I'm about to tell you, you'll feel a bit more emboldened to make your voice heard in whatever way or forum that is open to you.

When "Bowling for Columbine" was announced as the Oscar winner for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards, the audience rose to its feet. It was a great moment, one that I will always cherish. They were standing and cheering for a film that says we Americans are a uniquely violent people, using our massive stash of guns to kill each other and to use them against many countries around the world. They were applauding a film that shows George W. Bush using fictitious fears to frighten the public into giving him whatever he wants. And they were honoring a film that states the following: The first Gulf War was an attempt to reinstall the dictator of Kuwait; Saddam Hussein was armed with weapons from the United States; and the American government is responsible for the deaths of a half-million children in Iraq over the past decade through its sanctions and bombing. That was the movie they were cheering, that was the movie they voted for, and so I decided that is what I should acknowledge in my speech.

And, thus, I said the following from the Oscar stage:

"On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan (from Canada), I would like to thank the Academy for this award. I have invited the other Documentary nominees on stage with me. They are here in solidarity because we like non-fiction. We like non-fiction because we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where fictitious election results give us a fictitious president. We are now fighting a war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the fictitious 'Orange Alerts,' we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And, whenever you've got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up."

Halfway through my remarks, some in the audience started to cheer. That immediately set off a group of people in the balcony who started to boo. Then those supporting my remarks started to shout down the booers. The L. A. Times reported that the director of the show started screaming at the orchestra "Music! Music!" in order to cut me off, so the band dutifully struck up a tune and my time was up. (For more on why I said what I said, you can read the op-ed I wrote for the L.A. Times, plus other reaction from around the country at my website)

The next day -- and in the two weeks since -- the right-wing pundits and radio shock jocks have been calling for my head. So, has all this ruckus hurt me? Have they succeeded in "silencing" me?

Well, take a look at my Oscar "backlash":

-- On the day after I criticized Bush and the war at the Academy Awards, attendance at "Bowling for Columbine" in theaters around the country went up 110% (source: Daily Variety/BoxOfficeMojo.com). The following weekend, the box office gross was up a whopping 73% (Variety). It is now the longest-running consecutive commercial release in America, 26 weeks in a row and still thriving. The number of theaters showing the film since the Oscars has INCREASED, and it has now bested the previous box office record for a documentary by nearly 300%.

-- Yesterday (April 6), "Stupid White Men" shot back to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. This is my book's 50th week on the list, 8 of them at number one, and this marks its fourth return to the top position, something that virtually never happens.

-- In the week after the Oscars, my website was getting 10-20 million hits A DAY (one day we even got more hits than the White House!). The mail has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive (and the hate mail has been hilarious!).

-- In the two days following the Oscars, more people pre-ordered the video for "Bowling for Columbine" on Amazon.com than the video for the Oscar winner for Best Picture, "Chicago."

-- In the past week, I have obtained funding for my next documentary, and I have been offered a slot back on television to do an updated version of "TV Nation"/ "The Awful Truth."

I tell you all of this because I want to counteract a message that is told to us all the time -- that, if you take a chance to speak out politically, you will live to regret it. It will hurt you in some way, usually financially. You could lose your job. Others may not hire you. You will lose friends. And on and on and on.

Take the Dixie Chicks. I'm sure you've all heard by now that, because their lead singer mentioned how she was ashamed that Bush was from her home state of Texas, their record sales have "plummeted" and country stations are boycotting their music. The truth is that their sales are NOT down. This week, after all the attacks, their album is still at #1 on the Billboard country charts and, according to Entertainment Weekly, on the pop charts during all the brouhaha, they ROSE from #6 to #4. In the New York Times, Frank Rich reports that he tried to find a ticket to ANY of the Dixie Chicks' upcoming concerts but he couldn't because they were all sold out. (To read Rich's column from yesterday's Times, "Bowling for Kennebunkport," go here. He does a pretty good job of laying it all out and talks about my next film and the impact it could potentially have.) Their song, "Travelin' Soldier" (a beautiful anti-war ballad) was the most requested song on the internet last week. They have not been hurt at all -- but that is not what the media would have you believe. Why is that? Because there is nothing more important now than to keep the voices of dissent -- and those who would dare to ask a question -- SILENT. And what better way than to try and take a few well-known entertainers down with a pack of lies so that the average Joe or Jane gets the message loud and clear: "Wow, if they would do that to the Dixie Chicks or Michael Moore, what would they do to little ol' me?" In other words, shut the f--- up.

And that, my friends, is the real point of this film that I just got an Oscar for -- how those in charge use FEAR to manipulate the public into doing whatever they are told.

Well, the good news -- if there can be any good news this week -- is that not only have neither I nor others been silenced, we have been joined by millions of Americans who think the same way we do. Don't let the false patriots intimidate you by setting the agenda or the terms of the debate. Don't be defeated by polls that show 70% of the public in favor of the war. Remember that these Americans being polled are the same Americans whose kids (or neighbor's kids) have been sent over to Iraq. They are scared for the troops and they are being cowed into supporting a war they did not want -- and they want even less to see their friends, family, and neighbors come home dead. Everyone supports the troops returning home alive and all of us need to reach out and let their families know that.

Unfortunately, Bush and Co. are not through yet. This invasion and conquest will encourage them to do it again elsewhere. The real purpose of this war was to say to the rest of the world, "Don't Mess with Texas - If You Got What We Want, We're Coming to Get It!" This is not the time for the majority of us who believe in a peaceful America to be quiet. Make your voices heard. Despite what they have pulled off, it is still our country.

Yours,

Michael Moore

http://www.michaelmoore.com

Well all of this is fine and dandy, but the question remains -- what do you mean when you say "Peace Now!" I am aware that the current administration is full of crap -- as have past administrations. However, this is not the issue, is it? If it is, keep protesting, but keep your banners along the lines of "Bush is Satan" etc. Don't hide behind the 60's throw-back of "Give Peace a Chance" to recruit thousands of generation Y wannabees hoping that their actions are actually going to stop violence. Think about it. If the U.S. were to immediately pull out of this war, before toppling the Baath party and Saddam, thousands upon thousands of Shiites and Kurds will be destroyed for their rebellion. Would that be "Giving Peace a Chance?" -- or would it be more like leading sheep to the slaughter, or (once again) going back on our promises?

The point of this post is merely to say: FIGURE OUT YOUR ENDS BEFORE EMPLOYING YOUR MEANS! If you believe that Bush should be impeached -- go for it. Make a huge commotion. Exercise your First Amendment rights. Bush is not honest; he is not smart. The people in his administration are self-serving. These are all arguments which are easy to validate and make. However, these are not arguments for "peace." Rather, an argument for peace or non-violence should consider the impact of ending the U.S. campaign in Iraq without the fall of Saddam. Now that the Kurds and Shiites have relied upon our promises of "liberation," pulling out prematurely would lead them to slaughter. Therefore, your end of "Peace" would actually lead to "Near Genocide." Rather, the best argument for "peace" appears to be a quick resolution to the conflict, with the U.N. moving in to clean things up.

Id

Better American soldiers than Iraqi civilians. It's true.

Well, if I'm so delusional as to not be able to see the truth, just what is it, pray tell? The same could be said for you. Because we ARE winning the war and Iraqis ARE seemingly pleased with our presence, it causes great rage to all those opposed and who secretly (or openly) wished for the coalition forces' downfall. You make me eternally sick.

There is an essay on this topic at http://www.moraluniverse.org. Just click on "Why We Must Protest" at the left. Then, print some demonstration leaflets while you're on the site and hand them out!

No more war means exactly what it says. Surely we should follow the guidelines of mother consciousness, ie., I don't teach my children to hurt each other, so why don't we try letting the women of each "country" or "tribe" sit down together and try to work things out. Women are the only ones who can. War simply doesn't work. It's always been a failure. So why not try another modus operandi???

It's time to stop erroneously labeling the movement under discussion a "peace" movement. It is a JUSTICE movement against organized crime. Calling it a peace movement now seems a childish idiocy that not only factually misrepresents the scope of the demands of the movement, it also severely limits the ability of the movement to create a wholistic (literally, NOT in the new-age sense), sustained political pressure on an opponent who is clearly already having great success in its coordinated, mendacious, pan-societal wilding.
It should be called the Anti-Corruption Movement because money corruption in government is the true and most crucial issue at the root of ALL of the various problems the movement speaks to: war, erosion of civil rights and education, unconstitutional police and coercive powers, secret tribunals, Enron, tax cuts for the rich (so their kids won't have to pay for the deficit thereby created; your kids will) and a long list of other valid and immediate concerns.
If the movement can make headway against the massive, totalized money corruption of the federal government (which is the enabling mechanism of our current bout of fascismo), THEN all good things will become possible again. The way to do this is to broaden the movement's horizons to a general refusal of, and antagonism toward corruption. Recall that that is what the Tienanmen Square massacre was all about.
Believe Chomsky when he informs you that the biggest threat to the power elite is the threat of a good example. This is a serious and difficult task and will not be achieved solely by activists and weekend warriors. It will require the expertise of economists, constitutional scholars, credible spokespersons, etc.
If one limply calls it a "peace" movement, the moment they pacify Iraq and fewer people are being killed, a great deal of wind will slack from the sails of a movement nominally only focused on peace. Peace is nice, but very limiting. A woman sitting comfortably with a gun to her head can technically be called 'at peace' because there's nothing overtly violent happening, yet the social circumstances are clearly extremely undesirable.
Don't limit your demands, they are legitimate. The wolves have now broken in to the inner sanctum of the constitutional temple and are prepared to devour one of the most successful liberal revolutionary forms of government in human history, successful because it created the truest large-scale experience of liberty in human history.
I deeply hope that the movement can see that the Constitution is the important thing to defend, and that the re-imposition of the system of checks and balances through the elimination of money corruption is the most pressing issue for everyone. Do this, and you will REALLY be winning.
If you let a government get this corrupt, they get to the point where your entire existence doesn't even concern them at all. That is the fundamental truth of unaccountable oligarchs and it has now come upon us.
Others may disagree, but I advocate a generally Jeffersonian anti-corruption/anti-tyranny focus for the movement. I propose that such a movement's relevance would not easily flag, and it is a theme that millions of people from wildly different ideologies can all agree on, perhaps spawning the dread "left/right alliance", an idea that more and more progressives are cautiously exploring for smart reasons.
Would you believe it's time to Get Smart?. Progressives are losing miserably across the board with their current naive, ineffective strategies and their inability to realistically face the implications of how far they have slipped from economic relevance. If Sam is against your position on abortion but he's brilliant at fighting government corruption, you are stupid not to seriously explore an issue coalition. THAT could be a powerful movement! Exclusionary or narrow thinking will keep you on the losing end of the insane trillions of dollars which have been stolen from you and are now arrayed against you. Coalitions are better than defeat.
The geopolitical game at this point is, not capitalism, but ORGANIZED CRIME vs. the last vestiges of socialism, and don't forget that SOCIETY ITSELF is a socialist idea.

How many Arabs do you know?
Would you even try to understand them?
You appear to have absolutely no conception of what is being done in your name, which is not your fault (but unfortunately the world at large may never realise this).

(my comment above was meant for anastasia, a few up)

The antiwar movement has begun to piss me off. I agree with their opposition to President Bush’s foreign policy, but they are allowing themselves to become irrelevant. Being antiwar is fine, but only until war is inevitable. Then you need a solution to a problem. You can no longer deny the existence of it. War is a reality. The situation must be reassessed.
This evening the local news commented in passing that the antiwar movement has now moved to a “bring our boys back” slogan. This is even less intelligent than chanting “No War!” after the fact. Yes, bring the boys and girls back. But not until they’ve finished the fucking job. Not until Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz has cleaned up the mess he’s made.
A regime has been overthrown. Now peace must be restored. Compassion dictates that we must fight, are fighting, for what is best for the Iraqi people. In their name we must now demand that they be protected from further violence, that humanitarian aid be allowed to reach its destination, that farmers be supported as they replant their fields, schools reopened, and a true democratic society encouraged. Leave the oil alone, and focus on the real national resource of Iraq: its people. Explore that field, enrich it, and see what beauty blossoms in the desert. Therein lies the path to peace and stability in the region.

Struggling to reclaim the flag,
Benjamin Orr

I wish all of you cynics could just take something on face worth. Not everyone in the white house has had a secret motive for every war. The fact is that Saddam is a shitty person and deserves to be put out of power and if no one else in the world has the balls to do it I'm glad Bush does. And if we get a little oil out of it so be it. The main thing is Saddam is an genocidal asshole who should feed worms just like all the people he killed in cold blood are doing right now.