The previous thread - Libya 17 - is over here.
It now stands. before us on the world's stage in all its brutish, iniquitous nakedness. Empire may well go to war, but it's out in the open now - too ugly to behold its own reflection....Before September 11th 2001 America had a secret history. Secret especially from its own people. But now America's secrets are history, and its history is public knowledge. It's street talk. Today, we know that every argument that is being used to escalate the war against Iraq is a lie. The most ludicrous of them being the U.S. Government's deep commitment to bring democracy to Iraq. Killing people to save them from dictatorship or ideological corruption is, of course, an old U.S. government sport. Here in Latin America, you know that better than most. Nobody doubts that Saddam Hussein is a ruthless dictator, a murderer (whose worst excesses were supported by the governments of the United States and Great Britain). There's no doubt that Iraqis would be better off without him. But, then, the whole world would be better off without a certain Mr. Bush. In fact, he is far more dangerous than Saddam Hussein. So, should we bomb Bush out of the White House? It's more than clear that Bush is determined to go to war against Iraq, regardless of the facts and regardless of international public opinion.
What can we do? We can hone our memory, we can learn from our history. We can continue to build public opinion until it becomes a deafening roar. ... Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness - and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe.
The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling - their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.
Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
2003 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil
I bet the rebels found a pantry full of Doritos chips in his house. If I didn't know who he was I'd said he was some kind of rock and roll party animal.![http://i53.tinypic.com/2603eyw.jpg[/IMG]](http://i53.tinypic.com/2603eyw.jpg[/IMG]){kind=link}