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Wimp out for peace!
Chris Hedges, former Middle East bureau chief of the New York Times, writing in The Nation:I will not pay my income tax if we go to war with Iran. I realize this is a desperate and perhaps futile gesture. Not to mention a felony. But an attack on Iran--which appears increasingly likely before the coming presidential election--will unleash a regional conflict of catastrophic proportions. This war, and especially Iranian retaliatory strikes on American targets, will be used to silence domestic dissent and abolish what is left of our civil liberties. Mr. Hedges knows full well that his civil liberties haven't been abolished. The secret police will not be rounding him up along with the other "brave" "dissenters"--but it's fun to pretend otherwise. It will solidify the slow-motion coup d'état that has been under way since the 9/11 attacks. "Inside job . . . controlled demolition . . . fire doesn't melt steel . . . " It could mean the death of the Republic. Let us hope sanity prevails. But sanity is a rare commodity in a White House that has twisted Trotsky's concept of permanent revolution into a policy of permanent war with nefarious aims--to intimidate and destroy all those classified as foreign opponents, I'm cool with that. to create permanent instability If by "stability" you mean leaving tyrants (Kim Jong Il, Saddam, Arafat, the Taliban, the Burmese thugocracy, and so forth) alone to pursue their oppression in peace, or even propping them up, then I'd say "stability" is highly overrated. and fear and to strip citizens of their constitutional rights. . . . George W. Bush has shredded, violated or absented America from its obligations under international law. He has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, I hate to keep having to point this out, but Presidents don't ratify treaties, the Senate does. President William Jefferson Clinton declined to present Kyoto for ratification after the Senate voted 98-0 on a resolution which basically said, "Don't bother submitting the treaty, we're not gonna ratify it." But don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant, Chris. backed out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, as specifically permitted by the treaty itself tried to kill the International Criminal Court, walked out on negotiations on chemical and biological weapons and defied the Geneva Conventions and human rights law in the treatment of detainees. Most egregious, he launched an illegal war in Iraq based on fabricated evidence we now know had been discredited even before it was made public. He seeks to do the same in Iran. This President is guilty, in short, of what in legal circles is known as the "crime of aggression." And if we as citizens do not hold him accountable for this crime, if we do not actively defy this government, we will be complicit in the codification of a new world order, one that will have terrifying consequences. . . . We must as citizens make sacrifices to defend a world where diplomacy, broad cooperation and the law are respected. If we allow these international legal systems to unravel, we will destroy the possibility of cooperation between nation-states, including our closest allies. . . . . . . Our long row of candles is being snuffed out. We may soon be in darkness. Any resistance, however symbolic, is essential. There are ways to resist without being jailed. What the hell? Are you afraid of a little jail time? The long row of candles is being snuffed out! We may soon be in darkness! We must as citizens make sacrifices--but only if it doesn't involve any, you know, actual sacrifice. Is that it? If you owe money on your federal tax return, refuse to pay some or all of it, should Bush attack Iran. "Don't you dare start a war before April 15!" If you have a telephone, do not pay the 3 percent excise tax. If you do not owe federal taxes, reduce what is withheld by claiming at least one additional allowance on your W-4 form--and write to the IRS to explain the reasons for your protest. Many of the details and their legal ramifications are available on the War Resisters League's website. I will put the taxes I owe in an escrow account. I will go to court to challenge the legality of the war. Maybe a courageous judge will rule that the Constitution has been usurped and the government is guilty of what the postwar Nuremberg tribunal defined as a criminal war of aggression. Maybe not. I do not know. . . . Okay, hold it, wait a minute, Chris, let me get this straight. The Bushitler Haliburton NeoKKKon Zionazi regime has been shredding the Constitution, spitting on Kyoto, staging 9/11, committing the "crime of aggression"--and all this time, you've been cheerily paying your taxes--yes, financing the Bush Death Machine--as if nothing happened. Now, you're saying if, and only if, Iran is attacked, you're gonna stiff the IRS for the 3% phone tax--but only if you don't personally have to go to jail for it. Know what you are, Chris? A wimp. A wuss. A weenie. A poseur. A sissy. A pantywaist. A hypocrite. A chicken. Buck-buck-braaaawk! Posted by: Mike 2007-11-23 |
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