Some Reflections & Consequences of Saturday - A Beautiful Day

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday February 18, 2003 13:22 by Anonymous - Left-Wing / Humanitarian

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What an incredible day is all I can say about Saturday in Dublin and all around the globe.

The organisers were only expecting about 20,000 ya? I thought it would only be between 10 & 20,000.

It totally took me and everyone else I knew by surprise. In a world so full of evil, hate, poverty & war, it felt like such a reprieval. At last the ordinary people of the world were coming out in their masses and expressing their disgust for what is going on in the world. There was such a great atmosphere and an incredible, palpable feeling of goodwill.

It gave me some hope for the future of humanity. And I felt there might be some "chance" this might stop the war, and others I were with thought it really would.

But alas, back comes the awfulness of humanity again, as usual, and from all reports, it looks like this will not stop it. I would still say 80% to 90% chance of the Americans (et. al.) going in, and soon.

I was watching all the news channels for hours on Sunday, including several American ones, and it does not look like Saturday is going to stop it.

The Americans are going to use the excuse that to stop at this stage would be to send out all the wrong signals to all the other "dodgy" nations around the world, like North Korea etc.

They will play more on the card, that this is what the Iraqi people want, like I saw the secretary of state for Northern Ireland argue vehemently for yesterday.

They have invested too much in this, their vested interests are too huge, Bush & Rumsfeld are too lunatic, etc. etc. to stop now.

Germany, Russia and France have backed down about Turkey.

Watching the midnight court on Sunday night, it didn't look like anything majorly had changed. It really disgusted me how nearly all the panelists were afraid to say the words "anti-American". And I have seen this all over the place as well. No-one is anti-american per say, but they should have been screaming, roaring from the roof tops, how anti American administration & establishment they are. If Saturday cannot give the confidence for people to say this, then it worries and gravely disappoints me.

Did anyone see the Kissinger programme on Network 2 earlier on, on Sunday? I know most of it all already and I'm sure a lot of people here do - but how disgusting and obscene was it and is it? Words cannot describe the awfulness and absolute horror of what Kissinger, Forde & Nixon and so many others did during those years. And now we have Bush & Rumsfeld to continue to fly the American flag and perform equally horrific acts. And obviously in the Western/Capitalist world, the U.S. is not the only nation of terror.

I think it only came out very recently exactly how close we were to Nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis. Listening to Chomsky on Radio 1 on Sunday, he certainly emphasized how unbelievably close it actually was. And when asked would Saturday make any difference, he just did not know.

But I think it will make a difference. It has to. The question is how much of a difference? It certainly has strengthened the hand of all those governments who are trying to stop the war. And even if it does not ultimately stop the war, the ordinary people of the world have finally been mobilized. Finally its not just the “few” people who log onto this site and are involved in left-wing and humanitarian movements. Ordinary people have finally actively engaged themselves in world affairs. The world is beginning to “wake up” to the horrors of America (& other western nations), and to capitalism in general. Finally, the importance of oil in the gulf, is explicitly demonstrating the linkage between capitalism & war & poverty etc. What for so long, the Americans, the British and others have been able to keep covert from the ordinary people of the world is now slowly beginning to come out in the open, and Saturday was a big stepping stone to that effect.

But as I alluded to earlier, the evilness in humanity and the deception of ordinary people, especially the American people, is still very strong. Saturday on its own will probably not stop the war, but if the world wide anti war movement continues, and continues to gain in momentum then it is just possible. And I’ve said even if it doesn’t, the war on Iraq is not the only horror in the world. There are countless numbers of them. And the anti-war movement is helping to galvanize the whole world to counteract all the other present and future horrors of the world, that it is being subjected to primarily by capitalism, globalization and imperialism.

My unending congratulations to all the organizers of that amazing day on Saturday. Hopefully war in Iraq can be averted and all future wars and poverty in the world etc. eliminated.

It was "A Beautiful Day".