Sinister: A Call to Action, from Noam Chomsky, et. al

[Robert Morris]

I would like to belong to just one mailing list where Chomsky never comes
up. Is this too much to ask? Thanks for the Spam Jeffrey.

                   Robert Morris
                   winboog at gis.net

now playing-Elvis Presley, the Memphis Record
----------
> From: Jeffrey David Hyslop <hyslopje at xxx.edu>
> To: sinister at majordomo.net; nandre at bgnet.bgsu.edu; galaxie at listbox.com;
barth.33 at osu.edu; accraig at bgnet.bgsu.edu; ferrell.55 at osu.edu; Marta Maria
Kline <klinema1 at pilot.msu.edu>; hover.10 at osu.edu;
ra274798 at oak.cats.ohiou.edu; Sarah Megan Brown <brownsa5 at pilot.msu.edu>;
Douglas Glaser <glaserdo at pilot.msu.edu>
> Subject: Sinister: A Call to Action, from Noam Chomsky, et. al
> Date: Saturday, January 09, 1999 4:30 PM
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *****************
> Please distribute as widely as possible
> *****************
> 
> 
>  A Call to Action on Sanctions and the U.S. War Against the People of
Iraq
> 
>        by Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Edward Said, and Howard Zinn
> 
>                                 January 8, 1999
> 
> At the end of 1998, the United States once again rained bombs on the
people of
> Iraq. But even when the bombs stop falling, the U.S. war against the
people of
> Iraq continues through the harsh economic sanctions. This is a call to
action
> to end all the war.
> 
> This month U.S. policy will kill 4,500 children under the age of 5 in
Iraq,
> according to UN studies, just as it did last month and the month before
that,
> all the way back to 1991. Since the end of the Gulf War, at least
hundreds of
> thousands -- maybe more than 1 million -- Iraqis have died as a direct
result
> of the UN sanctions on Iraq, which are a direct result of U.S. policy.
> 
> This is not foreign policy -- it is sanctioned mass-murder that is
nearing
> holocaust proportions. If we remain silent, we are condoning a genocide
that is
> being perpetrated in the name of peace in the Middle East, a mass
slaughter
> that is being perpetrated in our name.
> 
> The time has come for a call to action to people of conscience. We are
past the
> point where silence is passive consent -- when a crime reaches these
> proportions, silence is complicity.
> 
> There are several tasks ahead of us.  First, we must organize and make
this
> issue a priority, just as Americans organized to stop the war in Vietnam,
and
> to protest U.S. policies in Central America and South Africa. We need a
> national campaign to lift the sanctions.
> 
> This kind of work has already begun, and those efforts need our help. For
the
> past several years, individuals and groups have been delivering medicine
and
> other supplies to Iraq in defiance of the U.S. blockade. Now, members of
one of
> those groups, Voices in the Wilderness in Chicago, have been threatened
with
> massive fines by the federal government for "exportation of donated
goods,
> including medical supplies and toys, to Iraq absent specific prior
> authorization." Our government is harassing a peace group that takes
medicine
> and toys to dying children; we owe these courageous activists our
support.
> 
> Such a campaign is not equivalent to support for the regime of Saddam
Hussein.
> To oppose the sanctions is to support the Iraqi people. The people are
> suffering because of the actions of both the Iraqi and U.S. governments,
but
> our moral responsibility lies here in the United States, to counter the
> hypocrisy and inhumanity of our leaders.
> 
> Also, there has been a virtual embargo on news of the effects of the
sanctions
> in the mainstream media. For the most part, the American people do not
know
> what evil is being carried out in our name. We must continue to apply
pressure
> on journalists at all levels -- from our local papers to the network news
-- to
> cover this tragedy. We should overwhelm the major press with letters to
the
> editor and put pressure on journalists to cover the story.
> 
> And we must realize this could be a long struggle. Preparations should
begin
> for all the possible strategies, including civil disobedience once a
sufficient
> number of people are committed. Direct action that forces a moral
accounting
> likely is going to be necessary.
> 
> Whatever else we are doing, we should treat this as an emergency and put
it at
> the top of our agenda.  Existing groups can work on the issue, new groups
may
> need to be formed, and national networks need to be built. A good central
> source of information exists on the web at http://leb.net/IAC/.
> 
> Without action by us, the horrors will go on, the children will continue
to
> die. We must appeal to the natural sympathies of the American people, who
will
> respond if they know what is happening. We must therefore bring this
issue, in
> every way we can, to national attention. The only way to avoid complicity
in
> this crime is to do everything we can, and much more than we have been
doing,
> to end the sanctions on Iraq. This issue must be discussed in every
household
> and every public forum across the country.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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