IAWM BUlletin: Beorge Gush

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report Wednesday April 07, 2004 04:03 by iawm cyborg

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IAWM Bulletin 06 April 2004
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- : Anger at Bush Visit Builds
- : US Secretary of State Powell admits that intelligence on WMD 'was not
solid'

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As the final remnants of credibility crumble away even the Whitehouse
insiders are
deserting the arguments they made for invading Iraq. The WMD story is
totally
discredited with even US Secretary Colin Powell admitting that the evidence
'was
not solid'. Anyone with half a brain could have told him that after his 'son
et
lumiere' powerpoint show at the UN last year was just not believable. Only
Bertie Ahern seems now to be repeating the WMD lies - obviously he was taken
in by Powell's
cartoons of mobile laboratories!

Another great lie of the US/UK invasion was that the occupiers would be
greeted
by the ordinary Iraqi people - especially the Shia population - as
liberators. While
the vast majority of Iraqi of all origins welcomed the end of the Saddam
dictatorship,
there is no sign that anyone except a tiny minority view the 'coalition
forces' as
anything but brutal imperialist occupiers.

The lack of any democracy after one year of occupation, the obvious running
of the
country for the occupiers' own ends (oil, reconstruction contracts etc.) and
the
brutal way 'security' is enforced (dawn raids of private homes, encirclement
of
villages with barbed wire fences, check points etc.) have given the lie to
the
invaders claims of liberation.

Now the Shia population is beginning to fight back - with dreadful
consequences
for the occupation forces. Already in the first week of April more
occupation troops
have been killed than in the whole of February. The death toll was March was
the second
highest in any month since the end of 'major hostilities' and the fall of
Baghdad. Of
course, it is not the the likes of George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Richard
Pearle or
their Irish apologists, Bertie Ahern, Brian Cowen, or John Waters than are
paying
the price. The soldiers that face death and injury will almost certainly
never benefit
from the profits that will be made by this imperialist adventure.

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STOP BU$H CAMPAIGN
The IAWM has joined with the NGO PA, PANA and other organisations and
political
parties to mobilise against the Bush visit. The 'Stop Bush' campaign has
been
officially launched - see the website http://www.stopbushcampaign.org .

We expect that Bush will land at Shannon at about 2 am in the morning of 26
June
and then go by helicopter to another location probably in the mid-west (e.g.
Dromoland Castle) for the EU/US summit meeting at about 9 am - 11 am with a
departure from Shannon at lunchtime. Bearing in mind that this is still
conjecture
and that no definite plans can yet be made, the following has been decided
by the
STOP BU$H Campaign:

25 June 7 pm STOP BU$H Demonstration
Assemble: Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin

25 June 9 pm Cavalcade of buses and cars to Shannon and/or
Summit Location (depending on location and feasability)
from all cities and towns in Ireland
to unWelcome George W. Bush to Ireland

26 June Morning Protest at summit location

More local protests are possible and may be announced later.

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Activists have noticed a real anger among ordinary people that Bush has been
invited
here and that Ireland will be used as a prop in his election campaign.
Queues of people
have been lining up to sign the petition (down load it from our website at
http://irishantiwar.org/images/mid_section_content/petition.doc . You too
can help to
set up your local 'STOP BU$H' campaign.

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Upcoming anti-war events

21 April  STOP BU$H Campaign Launch, Dublin North City
                8 pm, St. Peter's Parish Hall, St Peter's Rd.,
Phibsborough, Dublin 7

14-16 May Demonstration and Alternative Environmental Summit
organised by
South East Social Forum

As part of Ireland's EU Presidency, the EU environmental ministers will
be meeting in Martin Cullen's constituency, Waterford on May 15th/16th.
The South East Social Forum is organising a protest and alternative
summit under the title of 'People and Planet Before Profit -
Another Europe is Possible'.

The protest assembles in the Glen, Waterford city centre at 2.45pm on
Saturday 15th May to march to the Waterford Institute of Technology
where the EU summit is happening. For more info see
http://irishantiwar.org/calendar/item.tcl?scope=public&calendar_id=734