Anti-War Groups Appeal to public to Join Global Protests Tomorrow

by redjade Fri Mar 18, 2005 16:42

Yep, the war is still relevant and yes the bombs are still dropping - yeah, that's right, they are dropping bombs - its not all street fighting.

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Bombs Away
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0511,murphy,62078,6.html

From last May through February, U.S. warplanes flew 13,000 missions and dropped about 490 bombs and missiles weighing a combined 265,800 pounds. That's not much compared to the 41,000 coalition missions flown during the first month of the war in March and April 2003, but in those early days there was an organized Iraqi military with air defense installations and regime headquarters. Those are gone, but the number of bombings rose sharply twice last year, jumping from 13 in May to 127 in August, and from 50 bombings a month in September and October to more than 100 in November, according to numbers obtained from military officials by the Voice. The bombing has since decreased substantially.

[....]

We don't know what all this hardware is hitting, partly because journalists in hot spots like Falluja were busy avoiding death and reporting on the fighting they saw, not what warplanes were doing.

[....]

One reason for this gap in reporting is there are apparently no embedded reporters with air force units or on navy aircraft carriers to notice trends in bombing. That is not a matter of policy, a Centcom officer tells the Voice: The media show little interest in working with those units. For cash-constrained news operations covering the massive story of the Iraq war, air combat is admittedly a tiny piece of the picture. But the bombs are still falling.

by Barry Fri Mar 18, 2005 16:59

I presume a lot of people will be too hung-over to go into this. First i heard of it though. Hey all the last ones made absolutely no difference. Pity. Where has the lefts spine gone, there are no leaders there anymore the're all working for multinationals i suppose.

by Barry Fri Mar 18, 2005 20:31

could you find another name to post under ?
Ive been contributing to this site using the name "barry" for ages now, and i dont want to be confused with yourself.

by skeptomaniac Fri Mar 18, 2005 21:05

Another platform of politicians... 'calling on government', and useless union officials ...'calling on the unions'....to do something.
If these people were really 'leaders' in their respective political office, or union official office,as they lay claim to be they would lead . They are not, they are simply cashing in on the war to better their profile- and in a purely subjective way they are actually supporting the war by doing nothing only calling on the people they claim to lead to do something.
by by.

by Acid Fri Mar 18, 2005 21:57

there'll be gabbar techno. Yay!

by underground gardener Sat Mar 19, 2005 00:33

looking at each other.

been there done that.
end War.
bring the kids home.

give them jobs and a decent life and a lot of therapy.

make Peace.

at home in the mall and overseas.

use all that wonderful 200+ iq stuff in the thinktanks for something other than figuring out what dolphins are really saying about the zohar and if the chinese will breach the time space fabric in nanotech research before we do.

you have no excuses. or would you like some modelling clay?
and the democratic contract requires us to continue telling you till the worms eat your bones.
"we are at the end, on each others side".

by R. Isible Sat Mar 19, 2005 01:55

> I presume a lot of people will be too hung-over
> to go into this. First i heard of it though. Hey all
> the last ones made absolutely no difference. Pity.

I don't think you can say that they made no difference. In fact if you look at the original "Shock and Awe" plans laid out openly by the war criminals in the Bush administration there's a slight case to be made that the large and rapid anti-war protests reined them in slightly.

Public protests _on their own_ will not achieve anything but they're an important part of the recipe for success. They only become a problem when they're seen as the only legitimate way to effect change.

by Michael Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:45

Here's a list of things I think the Irish peace movement have achieved over the past few years. I haven't included names for who done it, as that's not the point here.

* Raising international awareness of Shannon Airport as U.S. military pitstop.

* Raising public consciousness of war, peace and neutrality issue.

* Establishing peace groups in Limerick, Cork, Belfast, Waterford, the Midlands and Dublin.

* Peace House and Peace Camp resistance community experiments.

* Nonviolence workshops and direct actions.

* Taking war issue into the courts/the system.

* Increased cost of policing Shannon Airport.

* MORE (your comments here...)

by mise Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:51

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing
because he could do only a little.

(Edmund Burke, political thinker, 1729-97)

Madness is repeatedly doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.(Einstein)

by redjade Sat Mar 19, 2005 12:11

Iraq in figures: the toll of the conflict so far

- 1,512 US troops killed in Iraq
- 1,157 US troops killed in combat
- 355 US non-combat deaths
- 11,285 US troops wounded
- 86 UK troops killed in Iraq
- 35 UK troops killed in combat
- 91 troops from other states killed
- 17,053-19,422 estimated number of civilian casualties since the war started, according to Iraq Body Count
- 257 number of non-Iraqi civilians killed (30 of whom were British)
- 189 number of foreign nationals kidnapped since October 2003
- 47 number still captive
- 170,000 number of coalition troops in March 2003
- 175,000 number of coalition troops in Iraq in March 2005
- 45,000 number of British troops in March 2003
- 8,930 number of UK troops in Iraq in March 2005
- 30 number of countries identified as members of the coalition backing the war in March 2003
- 38 number of countries which have provided troops in Iraq at some point
- 24 number of states currently providing troops in Iraq
- 5 number of countries currently planning to withdraw troops from Iraq
- 18,000 latest estimate of strength of insurgency
- 1,000 estimated number of foreign fighters involved in the insurgency

by Barry Sun Mar 20, 2005 16:15

At yesterdays anti-war demo in Chicago, a number of Irish Americans planned to picket the British consulate to highlight the plight of republican prisoners in Maghaberry who are denied political status and subject to humiliating and regular forced strip searching and general harassment by the screws.

The British succeeded in getting a federal court order banning the picket. After informing the protestors that their picket could not go ahead the cops then proceeded to read out the message on the protesters banner "support political status for Irish POWs" over the police frequency, just to let everyone know the picket was banned. Helpfully this message was broadcast in full on every police radio in Chicago for the entire day, ensuring the picket recieved more publicity than if it had gone ahead.
Just goes to show the police can often be of great help when your in a spot of bother.