Fallujah

(that's the American Consulate in Scotland)

Yesterday the "liberal media" was awash in personal stories of US soldiers pumping themselves up for the invasion of Fallujah, currently 4,000 troops strong and underway. Some yahoos even went so far as to complain about the alleged "rules of engagement" (whatever those are), saying, "we're not murderers, you know, but it's about defending ourselves here..." Maybe this was one member of the heavy metal prayer group crusaders? In any case, for some excellent analysis and plenty of information on Fallujah, this fellow PBA blog is highly recommended.

Lest it be forgotten, amidst all this spin about "moral values," there happens to be a progressive movement afoot. Some excerpts from this important article:

The two-year rise of anti-war opposition has been under-reported but unprecedented. Beginning with marches of 100,000 or more in fall 2002, and millions in February 2003, the anti-war forces inevitably flowed into electoral politics through the Dean and Kucinich campaigns, just as many went "clean for Gene" McCarthy and Robert Kennedy in 1968. The new movement still produced 500,000 marchers at the Republican convention in New York while absorbing over 1,000 arrests, and remaining steadfast to the strategy of maximizing the anti-Bush vote on Nov. 2.

Now, however, the movement must reassemble, attack and expand...

[...]

[T]he role of the anti-war movement remains crucial to ending the occupation of Iraq. The bloody quagmire is likely to deepen. So is the strain on US combat troops, especially the reserves. Already 14 of 32 countries in the "Coalition," or almost half, have withdrawn, reduced their force numbers, or signaled their intention to do so, In every case, domestic anti-war movements have been crucial in persuading their governments to resist the imperial American attempt to conscript their people to fight our war. The only exceptions so far are England, Italy, Australia and Japan, where massive anti-war movements have shaken, but not yet toppled, their regimes so far...

[...]

[T]he Democratic Party and numerous single-issue groups have lost their traditional roots in populism, leaving a vacuum that cultural and religious issues fill...

[...]

To build a truly populist movement, however, the traditional organizational cadres will have to recognize that the new volunteers, the "Deaniacs" and others, are more than "troops" to be commanded to do the work of calling voters, knocking on doors and sleeping on floors. A transition to a new generation of leadership – not a power rivalry between the generations, but a real transition – is needed if the massive outpouring of activism of the past year is to flourish and be funded for the future...

("Learning from the Loss," By Tom Hayden, AlterNet. Posted November 8, 2004)

[Update: The distinguished blogs, Lenin's Tomb and American Leftist have important posts up on the latest act of US terrorism: the razing of a Fallujah hospital. Needless to say, they have some good links as well. Go read them now. They go beyond putting the corp media to shame. But not to worry, ye sticklers for the Geneva Convention; according to the US military, this was not a hospital, and it's abundantly clear to all which side God is on.]