It's Time to Create a Little Shock and Awe in the Streets
by Beth Quinn

I get occasional e-mail from readers complaining that they're sick of my writing about Bush's war.

Well, by golly, me too. I'm entirely sick of writing about it.

I'm sickened by it, too. I want to throw up I'm so sickened by it.

Who can even keep up with each new Goal Of The Day this president claims to have in Iraq? I'm exhausted from trying to follow the bouncing ball as he careens from one rationale to the next.

I was hoping I could take a nap from it all after the mid-term elections. Ah ha! I thought. The Democrats finally have some power — now they'll fix the mess!

But here we are — four years from Mission Unaccomplished with most of America sick to death of this stupid, pointless war. And what have we got from the new Democratic Congress that we had such high hopes for?

We've got a non-binding resolution. Whooee. We've got a compromise on war spending. Whoop-de-doo. We've got a debate about blah blah blah blah blah blah.

They all sound like the grown-ups in a Charlie Brown special.

Where is everyone's backbone? Where is the outrage over the 3,164 dead and 23,677 wounded American soldiers? Where is the remorse over the 650,000 dead Iraqis?

Where is the despair over the $279 million per day we're spending on a war apparently planned with crayons, construction paper and a little Elmer's Glue to hold the glitter?

Where are the congressional hearings about that smarmy, smirky little liar in the White House? About the missing money? About the torture and imprisonment without habeas corpus?

Where is the impeachment?

In case you haven't heard the news from the rest of Earth, Bush has caused half the world to hate us and he's put us into debt to the other half. Even Tony Blair has figured out there's no percentage in throwing more British bodies into the Iraqi civil war. Lithuania, for cryin' out loud — the vanguard of Bush's "coalition of the willing" with its army of 53 soldiers — they're pulling out, too.

But not George Bush, Boy Genius. Despite the clear will of the American people to leave Iraq, Bush is escalating. He's sending more soldiers without armor to their death in a place that doesn't want them and where it's not even clear who the enemy is or what our purpose is.

So now I gotta listen to my own self talk again. On and on and on. I'm sick of it.

But I can't stop. You can't stop either. You shouldn't. We voted, and Bush ignored us. We gave the Dems our fealty and so far they've disappointed.

So we have to take it to the streets.

A protest march on the Pentagon is set for 11 a.m. on March 17. Busloads of Hudson Valley activists will travel to Washington to join thousands of other Americans as they bring their anti-war demands directly to Shock and Awe Headquarters down there.

The protest will begin with a rally at Constitution Gardens at 23rd Street and Constitution Avenue, then head across the Potomac to the Pentagon for a rally calling for immediate withdrawal of the U.S. military from Iraq.

Buses are slated to depart from Kingston, Poughkeepsie and New Paltz, sponsored by the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter. The cost is $50 with discounts for those on low budgets and students if they so request.

To join the trip, contact organizer Jack Smith at jacdon (at) earthlink.net or call 255-5779. State your name, town, e-mail and phone number, and how many seats you want to reserve. Then mail a check to Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter, Box 662, New Paltz, NY 12561.

Smith will let you know the time (probably about 5 a.m.) and departure locations once he knows how many people are traveling with the group.

By coincidence — or perhaps not — this is the 40th anniversary of the historic march on the Pentagon against the Vietnam War, a tipping point for what became a powerful anti-war movement.

It's time for another tipping point. There are 687 days 'til Jan. 20, 2009. The devastating damage Bush has done to this country continues. Do you really want to wait until the clock runs out before we get rid of him?

Not me. I'm sick of it.