The Jaded Prole

A Progressive Worker's Perspective on the political and cultural events of our time.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

A Rational Alternative

Every rational and honest person not warped by blind faith agrees that Bush's escalation is a delusional disaster in the making but what other solutions are being offered? Can Iraq, as broken as it is be stabilized? Are the Iraqis capable or willing?

Apparently they are and have been working together on a plan for a future. They have even been working togather across ethnic lines and as Medea Benjamin writes, peace is possible but the US seems to be against the idea. Here are 10 points for Iraqi reconcilation and peace agreed on by represntatives of all factions in Iraq:

1. End the occupation of Iraq.
2. Create a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops that is synchronized with the implementation of the Iraq reconciliation plan.
3. Disband the militias created after the occupation.
4. Revise Bremer's Orders and allow the Iraqis to rebuild their army.
5. Rewrite the Iraqi Constitution.
6. Keep Iraq as one state and do not partition into multiple states.
7. Begin the promised reconstruction of Iraq. Employ Iraqis and not foreign workers or contractors.
8. Acknowledge Iraqis' right to resist the U.S. occupation, negotiate with the resistance, and give amnesty to Iraqis resisting the occupation.
9. Investigate all the crimes that were committed by the new Iraqi Government and by the occupation forces in Iraq.
10. Make a fair distribution of oil income and natural resources.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Democrats, Pelosi Cave to Escalation

After stating that she will not fund Escalation without justification Nancy Pelosi and others in the Democratic Leadership will Cave and support it. What it the justification? "Benchmarks". As the NYT states, "Among these “benchmarks” are steps that would draw more Sunnis into the political process, finalize a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue and ease the government’s policy toward former Baath Party members, the officials said." and “There will be an approach and a strategy that reflects not only the desire for the Iraqis to take more responsibility but the need for the Iraqis to step up.” Of course this could take another year or two . . . But this will serve to justify escalation and though "Benchmarks" are not the same as "time tables" they are a close enough sound byte, The Repugs, as always will frame the debate so that refusal to go along will be tantamount to "not supporting the troops" and "supporting the terrorists" . . . Count on Kuninich, Conyers, Murtha and a few others to stand up to this bunk. Count on the rest to cave and send more to Iraq, after all, they are mostly on the same team and one must remember why we fight.

Only our added protests and constant demands can end this debacle and remove these thugs.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Escalation!



Looks like the predictable plan is in as Bush will announce his plan to sacrifice more troops in the imperial quagmire in Iraq. We too must escalate our resistance starting with the D.C. March on January 27. It's time to demand not only an exit from Iraq but an end to gulags, torture and police state legislation. Most of all, we must demand an end to this nightmare administration and justice for the perpetrators of crimes against our country and humanity and we need to make it a campaign. Contact your misrepresentatives daily. Visit their offices with petitions calling for impeachemnt. Organize others to do it and clog their phones, email and mailboxes.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Will They Come for You?


As I have said here repeatedly, we in the progressive community need to be building the institutions of the future today. We know this system is unsustatinable both economically and ecologically and in it's collapse, we need to have something in place. But progressives aren't the only ones preparing for that future. The ruling class has their blackshirts in training to supress us and maintain thier feudal power. Make no mistake, with the addition of the Military Commissions act and the extended Patriot Act, the legal framework for fascism is in place. It has not been implimented in practice because it has not been necessary to do so as long as the system, such as it is, holds out and remains largely unchallenged. When that changes, the "War on Terror" will come home to roost and the truth that we are all Iraqis, Palestinians, al-qeada . . . will be inescapable.

Liberal's may have thier illusions be we must face the facts and do what we can to undermine their ability to form these storm trooper brigades and to prepare for them. As the poet Robert Edwards wrote in a back issue of the Blue Collar Review:

Liberal's Epistle to the Intelligencia

So we'll explain it to the raving crazies,
and when they lunge at us with a knife,
we'll argue that violets can't possibly
grow on the moon. We'll work our way
through every ward west of Manifest Destiny
where the Hitlers and Napoleons greet
therapy with threats. Therefore, the Angel
of Reason will be ready and well exercised
when the Army of God comes marching
in million dollar boots over the last hill
and brandishing the cold steel of His Love,
We'll sing them a poem, dance them a song,
and show them an award-winning documentary
about the misery of the starving poor,
which I'm sure will stop the burning of books.
We'll say, amen, Brothers, Sisters, let us break
bread together, and invite them to a gallery
opening of abstract art -- with wine & cheese!
Just after they've bombed all the museums,
and just before they kick our teeth in,
they'll tell us, there never was a Holocaust--
and we'll say, but I don't need a shower.
Of course, such a hypothetical misunderstanding
could never really happen because we'll quote
Lao Tzu, Chief Joseph and all the Golden
Statistics when they put on the smiling mask
of the latest Presidential candidate and crank
up the chainsaw. I'm sure they'll listen
to the facts when they've got us on our knees
and are loading laws into their guns. Yes,
I know there are some who would advocate
that the time to stand up is always NOW,
and that the best argument to make is with
a brick upside their heads. Not to worry,
gentle citizens, or disturb your rational
luncheons and debates. Let us suppose
that they will accuse us with a sentence
that will take an encyclopedia to defend,
and we fall asleep in the intricate middle
of our own innocence. Justice will prevail.
We have cool logic and common sense
on our side. What if they sic their hounds
and hitmen on us and raise the bloody
banner of corporate jihad over the Hoods
and barrios and ghettos? In that case
we shall whisper sweet formulas of Peace
to counter the loud faith of their hate.
Giggling into their surgical masks,
scalpels and bonesaws gleaming on a tray,
they'll turn on the anesthetic and tell us
to breathe deeply, to count backwards,
all the way to the Middle Ages,
and we'll express our hope and good-
will for
the world just
before
the
lights . . .
go. . .
out. . . .