This has been a great year for me at college. I didn't get arrested, I didn't go to the hospital for alcohol poisoning or contract any STD's. Despite not locking my bike almost all year it wasn't even stolen. These are respectable achievements for anyone in Bush's America, because the people are hurting for money and when that happens your car stereo gets stolen. It's not that I expected to get arrested, or was even doing anything wrong but this is also after all a time when you can get arrested for wearing a t-shirt. Cindy Sheehan was arrested for a t-shirt with the number of Americans dead in Iraq. Since she wore that shirt a thousand American troops have died needlessly. People have been arrested in malls for wearing anti-war shirts. I was arrested for wearing a t-shirt when I was 17, but that's another story and those charges were bullshit and never prosecuted.
So for me it was a great year. I partied, I met a lot of people, I was seduced by a bikini clad temptress into oatmeal wrestling in a kiddie pool on spring weekend (huge party weekend). I'm on the escalator to graduation, success and the suburbs. In the past year in Iraq on the other hand tens maybe hundreds of thousands of people have died of violence or disease and I didn't even get arrested protesting it.
My friend Pat Korte gets arrested all the time trying to stop the war. Pat was a high school senior around the time the NSA warrant less wiretap scandal broke. That was December 2005 and Pat told me how he wanted to bring back Students for A Democratic Society, an organization that was at its peak in the late 60's and was the largest peaceful student anti-war group. It broke up into a few groups at it's last national convention. I didn't want to go help start SDS with Pat at that time, though I wished him well. I got involved in the Alito filibuster fight, some environmental activism in the summer and then the Lamont primary and the mid-term elections. I went the electoral route, Pat took it to the streets. Now I see Pat and the new SDS in the media regularly. Shows like Democracy Now have SDS people on as guests. NPR did a feature on Pat and the new SDS and the Nation magazine had them on their cover a few weeks ago. The new SDS is making an impact and I can't help but feel that I'm missing out on the fun.
The new SDS has been most popular in the South surprisingly and they have grown explosively. Pat's genius was, and something I didn't see, was how powerful the name itself was and how it gave the group a lot of media attention and members.
The group is taking the anti-war movement in a new direction. They are engaging in sit-ins inside recruiting centers. Recently they shut down a recruiting center for a few hours until the police dragged them out. They were all arrested for criminal trespassing. The new SDS is being funded by the older generation and their group MDS, movement for a Democratic society. They have legal protection and they're back out right away. We ask a hell of a lot more sacrifice from our soldiers in Iraq. Pat and the new SDS operate out of a deep love for the soldiers and are working to bring them home to safety. They support the troops a hell of a lot more than people who put yellow ribbons on their cars.
So my advice to you is to save a soldier and go out and stop the war. There are no more troops, the surge is a fantasy position, kind of like double standing reverse cowgirl, it only exists in porn. A surge of 300,00 troops only exists in the war porn of hawks, a place where American military violence is a limitless and virtuous panacea. The troops just don't exist, and if there's a draft the country will explode and the streets will fill with tear gas.
The occupation of Iraq can't be won, it can only end. It's either going to end in six months, one or two years or decades if Bush's people get their way. The longer it goes on the more people die needlessly. The more people who get out and protest the war the faster it will end. We have to make the Democrats unable to ignore our demands.
I'll tell you what will happen when we leave, Moqtada Al Sadr will be elected president. I really don't care if Maliki or Al Sadr run the country, do you? Enough to die for? Maliki is an American stooge and his government is full of people who torture people with drills. Maliki's government is not worth fighting for, and that's what Bush's Iraq policy is. Remember when your grilling, drinking beers this summer that the boot on Iraq's neck right now has an American flag on it, and we all have American flags tattooed on our foreheads. It's pretty simple they want us to leave and we won't leave. America wants to leave, Bush doesn't. Bush is the problem here.
Saturday April 28th at 1:00 on Horesbarn Hill at the University of Connecticut a group is spelling out IMPEACH with human bodies and an aerial photographer is going to capture it. It is part of national impeachment day, and impeachment fever is sweeping the country. On Colbert, the Daily Show or Bill Maher whenever impeachment is mentioned the crowd goes wild. And there's one thing everybody agrees on is Bush is the biggest impediment to moving forward in Iraq. The Founding Father's put impeachment into the constitution for Bush and Cheney. I like the sound of President Pelosi and with Abu G's lying and growing public support and the recent impeachment resolutions in the House it's looking more likely everyday. War is Over, Bush is Over, if you want it. John Lennon had the right idea with his WAR IS OVER campaign and I think it's time to do it again, the rallying cry for impeachment should be BUSH IS OVER because America is so over his administration and we can't wait two more years.