Utterly Unreptentent and Unsupportive

You know I kind of looked forward to writing this page. All you patriots and jingoists out there knew what you were getting when you wandered in here and if you didn't, you're going to find out now.

I did not support the current war or present occupation in Iraq, and I don't support the troops fighting there either.

Why the War Was and Still Is Wrong

Iraq did not do anything to us in the last ten years. We were busy bombing them and starving them with sanctions. W had to make up one reason after another for the war until the troops went in. When a country goes in to a war for reasons other than self defense, it may call it a &qot;preemptive strike" but it is really aggression.
It was and still is against international law. That's right, for the last three hundred years it's been illegal to be the aggressor in a war. In fact one of the counts against the Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg was starting an aggressive war. No wonder the Security Council would not give us permission for our &qout;preemptive strike."
W lied. At least as of this writing, no caches of weapons of mass destruction or documents linking Saddam Hussein to Osama Bin Laden have been found. By the way none of the 9/11 hijackers was Iraqi. Most of them were Saudi Arabian and the Saudis are still fairly staunch allies of ours.
Two thousand plus Iraqi civilian casualties. That is a lot of casualties and that is a conservative figure, but that's the one at Iraqbody count. And for the ones left alive, the streets are not safe to walk, the sewer and water systems are still in disrepair and in some places the power is not turned on again. Schools are not open. Is this liberation?
Winning doesn't make it right. Just as when any other bully beats up a much weaker opponent, the United States behaved as a rogue empire. Yes, and I'm stuck living here. I was born here. I didn't choose it and I'm not proud of my citizenship. There are plenty of democracies in the developed world, and no I would not mind living in Europe, especially France. I have a good reading knowledge of French and probably would acquire a speaking knowledge within months. Five years of a foreign language in high school does that.

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The Means of Resistance

So you probably want to know how I don't support the troops. First, resisting the rush to rogue empire is not easy. It takes access to the media or time spent on a busy street corner. I did get to attend one fantastic rally in Chicago back in late March. There was a line of picketers backed up outside the city limits on Lakeshore Drive.

But you can't go to a rally every day of the week and with the empire still there, resistance goes on or at least I believe it should. So what can one do?

Empires need money, so withhold yours. Yes, there is such thing as war tax resistance. Don't pay all or part of your income tax. Unfortunately, this is more easily said than done. If you are a student, you may be engaged in casual labor such as babysitting or tutoring. You are paid off the books already. If you work on the books, the government takes your taxes out of your pay check via a W-2. You never get a chance to withhold them.

Of course there's always the phone tax. On your phone bill there is a three percent phone tax and you can refuse to pay this. It is a symbolic gesture of course and a few people have had their phone cut off for it. In my case, the phone is not in my name.
Speak your mind. Fear and silence equal complicity and I'm not complicit in this rogue empire. Putting up this web page is an act of resistance.
Refuse to participate in the patriotic circus. Don't put bunting all over your web page and claim to be a "keeper of the light." This recent war was fought not by sweet loving mothers, little boys, and teddy bears but by young people a bit older than I am who dropped cluster bombs. It was fought by troops who protected the Oil and Interior ministries while the museums and hospitals were looted.
And just say no to jingoism in public. Stop pledging the flag. This is perfectly legal though the first time you do it, it takes a bit of guts. It's really quite simple. If asked to rise, keep your rear in the chair. If asked to stay standing, put your rear there. The pledge is voluntary and your actions don't disrupt any one else's.
Remember that no one has the right NOT TO BE OFFENDED. Just because you have a relative in the military doesn't mean you can't bear to watch me expressing my opinion in public or on paper. If the soldiers' psyches were so fragile that they could not stand my show of opinion, they would never take being in battle and they surely would need and have all their news censored. It's time to tell all the military relatives that no one died and left them royalty. They're no more special than any of the rest of us.
And as for that claptrap about soldiers maintaining my freedom. I didn't ask them to do and I don't want them doing it. Maintaining domestic order and tranquility belongs to the police. Civil rights and first amendment cases are decided in the courts by lawyers in white shirts. Those who fight for those rights and who win sometimes are ordinary citizens like me. If you want to see how soldiers defend the right to free speech, read this.

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Conclusion

So you won't catch me saying "united we stand" and when it comes to "God Bless America" I listen to my niece, Caltha. She's six years old but she has a conscience that hasn't been sullied by a lot of garbage. She says "God bless America... That's not right. What about the rest of the world. You're leaving them out too." No, I'm not a patriot. I'm a citizen of the world just like Caltha. I hope she keeps her conscience. I'm going to keep mine. I'm not standing with those united chauvinists or jingoists. I'm not proud to be a citizen of a rogue empire. I'm still resisting, utterly unreptentent and unsupportive.

Haldis Kulus Guerrin
5/24/03

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