The US, The UN and Iraq

Maoists for "Peace"
By John Perazzo
FrontPageMagazine.com | February 28, 2003


By now, most Americans have heard, somewhere along the way, at least a passing reference to the Not In Our Name (NION) project - a self-described "peace" movement that has produced, most notably, two documents publicly denouncing our country's post-9/11 policies, both foreign and domestic.

These documents have received a groundswell of support from many prominent artists, academicians, and activists. Among the tens of thousands to publicly endorse NION's objectives are Ed Asner, Oliver Stone, Ossie Davis, Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon, Alice Walker, Ramsey Clark, Tom Hayden, Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, Gloria Steinem, Medea Benjamin, Leslie Cagan, and Noam Chomsky.

The NION "Pledge to Resist" condemns "the injustices done by our government" in its pursuit of "endless war"; its supposedly greed-driven "transfusions of blood for oil"; its determination to "erode [our] freedoms"; and its eagerness to "invade countries, bomb civilians, kill more children, [and annihilate] families on foreign soil." Mocking President Bush's "axis of evil" reference, the pledge adds: "Not by our hearts will we allow whole peoples or countries to be deemed evil." This, of course, is a gross distortion of Bush's words, which clearly identified the ruling regimes of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea - and not those nations' populations at large - as "evil." If anything, Bush has repeatedly taken pains to express his compassion for the millions of hapless victims living in terror under those regimes.

A separate document, the NION "Statement of Conscience" condemns not only the Bush administration's "stark new measures of repression," but also its "unjust, immoral, illegitimate, [and] openly imperial policy towards the world." According to NION, it is the American government - and not that of Iraq, North Korea, Iran, or any other nation - that leads the way in posing "grave dangers to the people of the world."

The NION project was initiated by a man named C. Clark Kissinger, a longtime Maoist activist. Currently a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and a contributing writer for the socialist publication Revolutionary Worker, Kissinger began his public activism in the early 1960s when he was the national secretary of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), founded by Tom Hayden. The leading radical organization of its day, SDS later split into several groups, among which was the militant, revolutionary Weathermen.

Kissinger also worked closely with Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party, and openly supported Mao Tse-tung's notoriously oppressive Cultural Revolution in China. Kissinger continues to enjoy strong support from the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM), which, by its own words, "upholds the revolutionary communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism," and views the Chinese Cultural Revolution as "the farthest advance of communism in human history."

MIM frankly declares that it can only achieve its ends "by building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle." Chief among its objectives is to foment "revolution [in] North America, as the [US}military becomes over-extended in the government's attempts to maintain world hegemony." Such are the ideals of Mr. Kissinger and his benefactors. Such are the "peace-loving" roots of the lofty-sounding Communist front group, Not In Our Name.

Wherever there has been a cause aiming to harm or humiliate the United States, Mr. Kissinger has been there. He was a strong supporter of the Iranian revolution, and actually traveled to Iran in 1979. Four years later, he was in West Germany demonstrating against US plans to station cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe. As history has shown that those missile deployments were crucial to the eventual fall of the Soviet empire, it is not at all surprising that Kissinger and his fellow Communists-posing-as-peace-demonstrators opposed them so vehemently ...

... The next time you hear a Not In Our Name spokesperson piously bleating for "peace," remember the man and the organization underpinning the NION movement, and remember the things for which they stand.

Subject: A truly Canadian Apology to the USA...
Courtesy of Rick Mercer from This Hour Has 22 Minutes CBC Television:

On behalf of Canadians everywhere I'd like to offer an apology to the United States of America. We haven't been getting along very well recently and for that, I am truly sorry.

I'm sorry we called George Bush a moron.

He is a moron but, it wasn't nice of us to point it out. If it's any consolation, the fact that he's a moron shouldn't reflect poorly on the people of America. After all it's not like you actually elected him.

I'm sorry about our softwood lumber. Just because we have more trees than you doesn't give us the right to sell you lumber that's cheaper and better than your own.

I'm sorry we beat you in Olympic hockey. In our defense I guess our excuse would be that our team was much, much, much, much better than yours.

I'm sorry we burnt down your white house during the war of 1812. I notice you've rebuilt it! It's Very Nice.

I'm sorry about your beer. I know we had nothing to do with your beer but, we Feel your Pain.

I'm sorry about our waffling on Iraq. I mean, when you're going up against a crazed dictator, you wanna have your friends by your side. I realize it took more than two years before you guys pitched in against Hitler, but that was different. Everyone knew he had weapons.

And finally on behalf of all Canadians, I'm sorry that we're constantly apologizing for things in a passive-aggressive way which is really a thinly veiled criticism. I sincerely hope that you're not upset over this. We've seen what you do to countries you get upset with.

Thank you.

Take the 'War'-on- Iraq IQ Test
Do you know enough to justify going to war with Iraq?
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8. Q: How many people have died in wars since World War II?
A: 86 million

c.i.

Beyond the testimony of a dead man, how exactly would it be proved that they have been destroyed?