Dublin GPO Mon.4pm-6pm Vigil - U.S. Military Out of Shannon

by Ciaron - Dublin Catholic Worker/Ploughshares Mon Sep 22, 2008 05:27

The Catholic Worker has been publicly vigiling on the streets of Dublin
(primarily GPO and the Aviation Authority) against Irish complicity in
U.S.invasions of Iraq (most U.S. troops in Iraq passed through Shannon Airport)
and Afghanistan since 2002.

We have an anti-war and sensible ecological policy of not forcing leaflets on people.
So it was quite a surprise when a Dublin City Council official appeared in front of me
last Monday at the GPO holding one of our leaflets up to my face, threatening to fine me
as he claimed an unknown recipient had dropped it 100 metres down the road. My reponse
was to snatch the leaflet from his hand, take two strides past him and begin to address passing
pedestrians regarding the issue of free speech and selective prosecution.

I soon had an audience of 20-30 people as I carried out a prosecution of the City Council
official and the superiors who had sent him. I asked him and the crowd did this
make his way to Supermac /Mc Donalds/Burger King Headquarters everytime his minions
picked/vaccumed sucked a fastfood packaging? At high volume, I put it to him, and primarily
to the gathered crowd, that this was selective political persecution of dissent and a misuse of the
litter act.

He went to report this to a Garda stationed at the GPO. As he did this, I gave a running
commentary to the gathered crowd on his behavior and its political cpnsequences. I pointed to
the GPO, and observed, at high decibels, that people had died in there in 1916 to achieve freedoms
that this man and his superiors are trying today to intimidate us from using. I made the point that the
rich and powerful in Irish society have no need to leaflet or speak in the streets like this while they
pollute our land with billboards and trash tv! I pointed out how the rich and powerful in Irish society
are deeply complicit in the deaths of 1 million Iraqis and 4,000 young Americans who have passed
through Shannon Airport over the past 5 years to kill and die. I showed them a photo (taken the previous
week/clipped from The Observer and glustuck on a placard) of Jason Cupples making his way back to
County Cavan the previous week in a flag (British) draped coffin from Afghanistan and reflected that as
the recession hits, the wars expand and the recruitment lies resonate with the young - there will be many
more such coffins making their way back to the 26 counties. About 8 people waited to shake my
hand and express their solidarity at the end my tirade. Free speech -use it or lose it.

War expands Over the Weekend Passed
This past weekend the attack on the Marriot Hotel photo in Islamabad
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080921/img/pts-firefigh....html
described as the worst to hit Islamabad so far.
Report http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080921/tpl-uk-pakistan-....html
is a sure sign that the U.S. war has moved over the border from Afghanistan.
The Pakistan media are describing it as "Pakistan's 911". As surely as Fr. Dan
Berrigan SJ reflected "the war has come home" following the NYC 911
attack, the war has now come back with a vengeanc to the birthplace of the Al Qaida/Taliban
phenomenon. Midwived by the U.S. government and Pakistan military to fight the
Soviets in Afghanistan in the '80's and employed by the Pakistan military
in its war with India over Kashmir, this movement continues to bite the hand that
once fed it.

In their own terms of reference, the mass murder carried out in NYC was
militarily successful, with the U.S. military surrendering to the Al Qaida demand to vacate the
Holy Lands of Saudi Arabia, ironically in the same weeks that Bush was landing on
the U.S. aircraft stalled off the Californian coastline to declare "Mission Accomplished in Iraq".

This past weekend's terror attack on the Marriot left 58 dead,(4 foreigners - Czech Amabassador/his
Vietnamese partner and 2 U.S. military assigned to the U.S. Embassy) 266 wounded (11 foreigners)
and a crater 7 metres(24 feet) deep/18 metres (59 feet?) wide. Speculation is that the initial target was
parliament where new/relatively U.S. alligned President Asif Ali Zardari (due to meet President Bush on
Tuesday)/ widower of assasinated former President Benazir Bhutto, was making his initial speech as
head of a Pakistan that is on the verge of economic collapse and becoming a nuclear armed failed state.

by BBC Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:40

BBC Reports that Pakistan President, Prime Minister & Military Chiefs were due to dine at the Marriot but changed plans at the last minute......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7628964.stm