Ramsey Clark: 'Act against coming war in Iraq'
By G. Dunkel
New York City
Over 200 people came out on a hot August night in New York
City to hear former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark say, "It
is time for people to stand up, speak up and act--to stop the
coming U.S. assault on Iraq."
Clark put war threats against Iraq in the context of U.S.
involvement in Colombia, Venezuela, Equador, Peru and
especially Palestine, where Washington supports Israel's
attempts to crush the Palestinian people. He also brought up
Afghanistan, so assaulted by the United States that "to get
married there is to risk a U.S. bombing attack."
The International Action Center sponsored the Aug. 13
meeting at the New York Joint Board building of the Amalgamated
Clothing and Textile Workers Union.
Brian Becker, a spokesperson for the International ANSWER
(Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) coalition, outlined plans
for an internationally coordinated day of local protests Oct.
26 and a major mobilization in Washington in October or
November.
Sara Flounders of the IAC, who chaired the meeting,
explained: "Sanctions are a true weapon of mass destruction. In
the 12 years that they have been applied to Iraq, they have
caused the death of over 1.5 million people."
Some of the suffering caused by war comes home. Citing a
recent study, Flounders reported that "Of the 700,000 GIs who
served in the Gulf during the war, the Department of Veterans
Affairs is paying compensation to 370,000 of them because they
are suffering from Gulf War Syndrome."
Migiwa Kanazawa, an IAC activist, spoke about commemorating
the U.S. nuclear attack on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945.
She said: "Dropping nuclear weapons on those cities was not
intended to end World War II but to start a new war, the one we
call the Cold War."
A photo exhibit from Japanese progressives about the effects
of the nuclear attack lined the walls of the meeting hall.
According to Kanazawa, the display had been rejected by the
Smithsonian Museum in Washington as "too gruesome," but it was
really rejected for being too revealing about U.S. war
crimes.
Reprinted from the Aug. 22, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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