Caros amigos,

Como já devem saber, Bush vem a Bruxelas de 20 a 22 de Fevereiro. A sociedade civil está a preparar acções de protesto para esses dias. Uma dassas acções terá lugar no domingo, 20 de Fevereiro. É uma acção cultural militante, organizada pelo BRussells Tribunal (ver pormenores a seguir). Queremos que a comunidade mundial proteste contra a política devastadora deste governo neoconservador.

Vocês assinaram a nossa petição "Stop The Escalation". Se têm uma mensagem para Bush, por favor façam-nos saber. Pode ser uma declaração, um poema, um cartoon, qualquer coisa que queiram dizer-lhe, na lingua que preferirem (inglês, francês, holandês, espanhol). Nós transmitiremos essas mensagens ao público em Bruxelas e colocá-las-emos no nosso website.

Mostremos a Bush que NÃO é benvindo.

Solidariamente,
O Comité Organizador do BRussells Tribunal 

[A poem for the BRussells Tribunal by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, recognized as one of the most influential and important poets of the Beat movement ]

FOR PRESIDENT BUSH (SEE BELOW) THANK YOU.
LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI

DRAGON'S TEETH

A  headless man is running
down the street
He is carrying his head
in his hands
A woman runs after him
She has his heart
in her hands
The bombs keep falling
sowing hate
And they keep running
down the streets
Not the same two people
but thousands of others & brothers
All running
from the bombs that keep falling
sowing pure hate

And for every bomb that's dropped
up spring a thousand Bin Ladens
a thousand new terrorists
Like dragon's teeth sown
From which armed warriors sprang up
Crying for blood

As the smart bombs sowing hate
Keep falling and falling and falling

Dear President Bush,

Do we need to learn, generation after generation, that war, whilst solving one problem poses ten more in its place?

If the American regime had spent half the money it has now spent on the war in Iraq on humanitarian projects around the world, perhaps it would have had a better effect in deterring would-be terrorists.

Stephan Collishaw FRSA
Author (UK)

One sign, which I am prepared to support, should read: "President Bush: Europe holds you accountable!"

With all good wishes,

Hans von Sponeck (former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq) (Germany)

The Honorable Mr. George W. Bush

The President of the United States of America

 

Dear Mr. Bush

 

It was regrettable that you were not allowed to see and talk to ordinary Iraqi citizens, during your sneak visit to Baghdad on Thanksgiving Day last year. Those Iraqis whom you met during that visit were part of the American installed client state that came on the back of the American tanks. Naturally they told you what they thought you wanted to hear. More over, Mr. President, they lived, like your other advisors in Iraq, in their isolated bubbles in the secured “green zone” with very little contact with ordinary Iraqis.

 

I am sure that had you talked to ordinary Iraqis you would have gotten different opinions than those being passed to you by your Americans or Iraqi advisors. As an ordinary Iraqi citizen I would like to share my thoughts on the Iraqi dilemma that America has found itself in.

 

More than a year ago you promised the Iraqi people that “the torture chambers and the secret police are gone forever." Mr. President, I honestly wanted to believe you then. I discovered later that your American solders were torturing the Iraqi people since May 2003. I discovered also that your army generals knew about it and wrote reports to their higher authorities about such abuses of human rights. I will give you, Mr. President, the benefit of the doubt and say that your advisors did not tell you the facts.

 

Having known the facts, you did not apologize for the victims of the American torture but went ahead putting the blame on only the “seven bad apples”. That did not STOP the torture or the human rights violations committed by your troops in Iraq. Reports are still coming to date confirming that torture is being committed against the Iraqis in the American detention camps. I am sure that your advisors will tell you that this is necessary to protect the security of America, several thousands of miles away from Iraq.

 

Your partners in the “coalition of willing” are not doing any better! The British and Danish armies are both torturing Iraqi detainees. Now we discover through human rights reports that the “new Iraqi army”, created and trained by your government, is also torturing the Iraqis. It is clear to me, Mr. President, that while we were tortured, before the “liberation”, by one force of evil, now we are being tortured by at least four evil forces after the “liberation”. It looks to me, Mr. President, that contrary to your announcement, the “torture chambers” may truly be here forever.

 

Allow me, Mr. President, that your blaming of “only seven apples” did set the legal precedent for every dictator in the world to escape the responsibility for the torture and human rights violations. Like you, every dictator will pin the blame and the responsibility on the seven, ten, or twenty bad apples in his forces. I am sure that decent American legal scholars would tell you this excuse is very dangerous and would not stand in a proper and impartial court of law.

 

Actions are judged by the results and not rhetoric. Ordinary Iraqis, like your American soldiers, are faced with threats against their lives. The general lawlessness that still exists, as a result of your occupation of Iraq, makes the life of ordinary Iraqis miserable. We Iraqis are afraid to go out for the fear of being kidnapped by criminal gangs rooming the country with an ineffective police force. We are also afraid of going out for fear that we might be killed by a bomb directed at your troops or killed or shot at by the trigger happy and nervous American troops.

 

The innocent Iraqi population is not using armored personal carriers nor do they use armored cars to help them protect themselves. More innocent Iraqi civilians are killed by your troops shooting at them than those killed by the criminal gangs. You probably know, Mr. President, that your trigger happy and nervous troops enjoy freedom from prosecution for these unlawful killings. From what I have witnessed those killers do not even stop to say sorry for their actions.

 

Allow me respectfully to remind you, Mr. President, that now more than 60% of the Iraqi working forces, in your “liberated” Iraq, are unemployed as compared to 30% before your liberation. It looks that your action has doubled the number of Iraqis “liberated” from earning a decent pay or a decent work.

 

The US congress issued a report on Iraq at the end of June 2004. In that report they say that in May 2003 (just after the invasion) 7 out of the 18 governorates had more than 16 hours of electricity per day. It also says that this number was reduced to one governorate in May 2004, one year after the invasion. Now we are very lucky if we get 6 hours of electricity per day in Baghdad, a city of 5 million people.

 

Health services have continued to deteriorate during the past 22 months of occupation. Hospitals still lack even the simplest things. Drugs are not available. Fewer patients seek medical treatments or examination because of the security situation and the closed streets. Doctors are not safe at hospitals because they have been physically attacked by relatives of patients blaming, or venting their frustration at the poor helpless doctors.  

 

Due to lack of security and poor police force, criminal gangs have kidnapped for ransom a few hundred doctors. Some were threatened. As a result, hundreds of highly qualified doctors have fled the country and it has resulted in further deterioration of health services. These highly qualified doctors did not run away from the tyranny of the dictator, Mr. President, but because of the chaos and lawlessness in your “liberated Iraq”.

 

Records show, Mr. President, that the Iraqi government smuggled up to a hundred thousand barrels a day of refined desil fuel through Turkey, with your government’s knowledge. These figures indicate that the Iraqi refineries had an excess refining capacity allowing it to export refined oil products.

 

During the “liberation” of Iraq refineries were not targeted, like in 1991, so one assumes that the damage was minimal. I wonder why refineries are not fixed yet after 22 months of “liberation”.  I still can not understand why Iraq continues to import refined oil products from Turkey, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia and to my amazement from Israel. We Iraqis need to know why our money is being spent, unwisely, to import Gasoline now when we were an exporting nation. I might understand that Halliburton and KBR needed to import gasoline for few months but not after 22 months of “liberation.”

 

In 1991 our refineries were severely damaged by the bombing. We the Iraqi people were able, despite of the sanctions and without the help from the Halliburtons, to fix the refineries in only a few months. We kept them working and going for 13 years and we were exporting products. Similarly the Iraqi people were able to restore the electricity in a few months. The Iraqi people reconstructed every building damaged by the war of 1991 in less than a year. Seeing the lack of any reconstruction efforts after 22 months of “liberation” makes me sad.

 

Mr. President, In 1991 America promised that Iraq will be returned to the “pre-industrial” age and they nearly did that by bombing and destroying everything. The Iraqi people surprised the world by reconstructing what was bombed. On top of that, new projects were implemented despite the sanctions. As an Iraqi this makes me extremely proud of our achievement in 1991. We the Iraqis set the standards of reconstruction. After 22 months of “liberation” and the lack of honest and visible reconstruction work I feel that America miserably failed to meet that standard.

 

For 13 years Iraqis were living on food rations given by the government. We were told that our government was robbing us and providing us with only 2200 Kcal per day. The “liberated” government of Iraq after the liberation is still providing us with about 2200 Kcal per day of food ration.

 

The government of Iraq used to spend about 150 million dollars a month to import and distribute the food rations. According to your CPA Inspector General, 8.8 billion dollars were unaccounted for in one year. Mr. President, these 8.8 billion dollars are enough to feed all the people of Iraq for nearly 60 months. This fiscal irresponsibility and the lack of transparency in spending our money make me wonder about the aim of the “liberation” of Iraq. I’m sorry to say that the Iraqi people are being robbed blind. We are being “liberated” from our wealth also.

 

I am sure, Mr. President, that our traumatized kids will never forget what was done to their future by your “liberation”. I am sure that your kids have to deal in future with our traumatized kids. I am also sure that your kids will have to repay for all the damages and the stolen money. I can see that the price will be very high.

 

I do not want to be like the rest of your advisors giving you the rosy picture. They have told you about the WMD, the Al-Qaeda link, the 9/11 link, the Iraqis welcoming your troops as “liberators” … and it is proved that they were not telling you the truth. It is about time that you listen to other people.

 

We do not hate America for its “freedom or democracy”. We don’t hate America. We hate the crimes, the destructions, and the devastation committed by America against the innocent people in our country.

 

Respectfully,

 

Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar

Baghdad, occupied Iraq (witness of the BRussells Tribunal)

Give this to Bush when he comes....

Regaining My Humanity
By Camilo Mejia CodePink.org
Thursday 17 February 2005

I was deployed to Iraq in April 2003 and returned home for a two-week leave in October. Going home gave me the opportunity to put my thoughts in order and to listen to what my conscience had to say.

People would ask me about my war experiences and answering them took me back to all the horrors-the firefights, the ambushes, the time I saw a young Iraqi dragged by his shoulders through a pool of his own blood or an innocent man was decapitated by our machine gunfire. The time I saw a soldier broken down inside because he killed a child, or an old man on his knees, crying with his arms raised to the sky, perhaps asking God why we had taken the lifeless body of his son. I thought of the suffering of a people whose country was in ruins and who were further humiliated by the raids, patrols and curfews of an occupying army. And I realized that none of the reasons we were told about why we were in Iraq turned out to be true. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. We weren't helping the Iraqi people and the Iraqi people didn't want us there. We weren't preventing terrorism or making Americans safer. I couldn't find a single good reason for having been there, for having shot at people and been shot at.

Coming home gave me the clarity to see the line between military duty and moral obligation. I realized that I was part of a war that I believed was immoral and criminal, a war of aggression, a war of imperial domination. I realized that acting upon my principles became incompatible with my role in the military, and I decided that I could not return to Iraq.

By putting my weapon down, I chose to reassert myself as a human being. I have not deserted the military or been disloyal to the men and women of the military. I have not been disloyal to a country. I have only been loyal to my principles.

When I turned myself in, with all my fears and doubts, it did it not only for myself. I did it for the people of Iraq, even for those who fired upon me-they were just on the other side of a battleground where war itself was the only enemy. I did it forthe Iraqi children, who are victims of mines and depleted uranium. I did it for the thousands of unknown civilians killed in war. My time in prison is a small price compared to the price Iraqis and Americans have paid with their lives. Mine is a small price compared to the price Humanity has paid for war.

Many have called me a coward, others have called me a hero. I believe I can be found somewhere in the middle. To those who have called me a hero, I say that I don't believe in heroes, but I believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. To those who have called me a coward I say that they are wrong, and that without knowing it, they are also right.

They are wrong when they think that I left the war for fear of being killed. I admit that fear was there, but there was also the fear of killing innocent people, the fear of putting myself in a position where to survive means to kill, there was the fear of losing my soul in the process of saving my body, the fear of losing myself to my daughter, to the people who love me, to the man I used to be, the man I wanted to be.
I was afraid of waking up one morning to realize my humanity had abandoned me. I say without any pride that I did my job as a soldier. I commanded an infantry squad in combat and we never failed to accomplish our mission.

But those who called me a coward, without knowing it, are also right. I was a coward not for leaving the war, but for having been a part of it in the first place. Refusing and resisting this war was my moral duty, a moral duty that called me to take a principled action. I failed to fulfil my moral duty as a human being and instead I chose to fulfil my duty as a soldier. All because I was afraid. I was terrified, I did not want to stand up to the government and the army, I was afraid of punishment and humiliation. I went to war because at the moment I was a coward, and for that I apologize to my soldiers for not being the type of leader I should have been.

I also apologize to the Iraqi people. To them I say I am sorry for the curfews, for the raids, for the killings. May they find it in their hearts to forgive me.

One of the reasons I did not refuse the war from the beginning was that I was afraid of losing my freedom. Today, as I sit behind bars I realize that there are many types of freedom, and that in spite of my confinement I remain free in many important ways.

What good is freedom if we are afraid to follow our conscience?

What good is freedom if we are not able to live with our own actions?

I am confined to a prison but I feel, today more than ever, connected to all humanity. Behind these bars I sit a free man because I listened to a higher power, the voice of my conscience.

While I was confined in total segregation, I came across a poem written by a man who refused and resisted the government of Nazi Germany. For doing so he was executed.

His name is Albrecht Hanshofer, and he wrote this poem as he awaited execution.

Guilt

The burden of my guilt before the law weighs light upon my shoulders;

to plot and to conspire was my duty to the people;

I would have been a criminal had I not.

I am guilty, though not the way you think,

I should have done my duty sooner,

I was wrong,

I should have called evil more clearly by its name

I hesitated to condemn it for far too long.

I now accuse myself within my heart:

I have betrayed my conscience far too long

I have deceived myself and fellow man.

I knew the course of evil from the start

My warning was not loud nor clear enough!

Today I know what I was guilty of...

To those who are still quiet,

to those who continue to betray their conscience,

to those who are not calling evil more clearly by its name,

to those of us who are still not doing enough to refuse and resist,

I say "come forward."

I say "free your minds."

Let us, collectively, free our minds, soften our hearts,

comfort the wounded, put down our weapons,

and reassert ourselves as human beings by putting an end to war.

Dear President Bush,

hoping that you have time to think for a while why you are not welcome, even in the States when the noble media  shed a light on your crimes in Iraq and elsewhere. Hoping again that you won't be another Saddam Hussein, hearing and seeing nobody but yourself, surrounded by greedy and lying followers. So Mr. President, listen to us for the sake of the world and humanity.

During the severe years when Iraq was totally embargoed, millions of Iraqis ended under the poverty line; hundred thousands of people dead; hundred thousands of children left school for work to help themselves and their families; we demanded the lifting of the sanctions, otherwise the coming Iraqi generations would hate America forever. But the Administration refused to listen to us. Now this unfair brutal American occupation is giving the young Iraqi's reasons for not understanding. Yet nobody is ready to see the results of the fatal American faults in Iraq while applying the famous rule "either with us or with the terrorists". Every Iraqi is a terrorist as long as he is against occupation. Let me tell you how the Americans raid the houses here, in Baghdad and every Iraqi city. They have the right of entering, ransacking any house and if the owner or the resident refuses, the Americans have the right to arrest him (if he is lucky) or kill him. The American vehicles are in every Iraqi street, carrying banners saying: "stay away 100 meters to avoid being shot". Have you any idea how many civilians Iraqis were killed by those vehicles?

Through your policy in Iraq we discovered the real American style. "Freedom" means: "I have the freedom to destroy everything".
You were right saying that "we can defeat terrorism by terrorism". You brought the terrorists to Iraq to make the world safer for the Americans. Yet until now you did not admit that terror is an American industry. Terror according to UN means killing innocent civilians. If you go through the American history, from killing the native Americans up till killing the "native Iraqi's", you will discover that terror is a pure American industry.

Assassinating Rafiq Hariri astonished me. Still this painful crime has given "some" right to those Iraqis who boycotted the elections. The assistent Secretary of State asked the Syrian forces to withdraw, otherwise the Lebanese elections would lack legitimacy under the occupation!!! But why then the elections in Iraq had legitimacy under the occupation? Could you answer us?

Could you imagine, Mr. President, the daily life in Iraq? We are still surviving till now by chance, because the car bombs and the American "friendly" fire missed us. We are struggling to survive at this moment without having hope for future. I said "surviving", not living. Do you know the big gap between surviving and living?

Iraq was once a dream turned into hell when Saddam became "our man" as Rumsfeld said in 1983, then became a nightmare under your administration. According to the annual report of Amnesty International, there are a lot of human rights violation in America. The American Administration, whoever the President is, has the right to invade any country because of the human rights violations; still who dares to invade the United States? We do not want to invade the States. The CIA proved that Iraq was not threatening USA, still the occupation is going on, the Iraqi blood is being shed while the WORLD is watching, saying nothing as long as you are the major Worldpower.

You are not welcome anywhere; please leave us, so we can find our way. Would you?

 

Nermin Al-Mufti.

Journalist (occupied Baghdad)

I would like to add a statement to your protest:

I, Katherine Bellows Cassidy, of the United States stand firm in my solidarity with those of you in Brussels who are standing up and making your voices heard against the corrupt, violent, oppressive military and economic policies enacted by the Bush administration in the name of United States citizens.

I abhor this current administration and all it stands for. I am embarassed that there are 50 million people in my nation who possess such arrogance and shortsightedness and voted to place this man back in office another four years. The present self centeredness which is rampant throughout US culture and many of it's citizens is sickening and frightening. This arrogance leads to the mentality that it is alright to engage in pre-emptive war, oppressive economic activities and much much more.

As a mother, a daughter and as a citizen of this planet, I stand with you in protest, in anger, in sadness, in hope and in courage.

Blessed be the peacemakers......stay strong and keep fighting the good fight.

In peace and solidarity,

Katherine Bellows Cassidy.

Bush is a disgrace to civilization in general and to America in particular.

J. B. Neilands
Prof. Emeritus UCB
Investigator for Russell Tribunal N. Vietnam 1967 (USA)

Message to Bush on the occasion of his visit to Brussels.

 

The newspapers tell us that, since the fall of Saddam Hussein, there are growing fears in US government circles -- especially since the period leading up to and after the elections in Iraq --  that Iran is interfering in Iraq, “to impose theocracy in Baghdad”. Interference or no interference: what does the US government think it is doing by its constant propaganda, opposing Shia against Sunni, considering the demographic facts in Iraq? And what is new about this policy? Weren’t the Shia always the good guys, because they opposed Saddam?

 

To us out there in the real world, particularly in the Middle East, blessed by current attempts at liberation by you, Mr. President, it has been clear for some time that the rising tide of fundamentalism in the US is echoed by rising fundamentalism in the Arab world. Forget about your ‘theocracies’ and look at countries that ostensibly have secular regimes. Are they not given fantastic military resources under the pretence to help them to hit hard against ‘terrorists’, i.e. Muslims who might be engaged in some sort of political action? And are these not the same regimes who are closing both eyes and in fact, encouraging religious trends in their societies? What could the result of that possibly be?  

 

You, Mr. Bush, and your team of neoconservatives, are the sorcerer’s apprentices who let the genie out of the bottle, before making sure you know how to put it back again. Wake up and recognise that the trouble in the world is not this regime or that, nor even this ‘terrorist group’ or that, but the power of that genie of fundamentalist mania everywhere, ravaging civil liberties in the US, Europe and all over the world and throwing deadly strife between religious communities which – since the Middle Ages – have lived together in peace, be they Sunni, Shia, Copt, Orthodox Eastern Christians and other Christians, as well as Hindu, Buddhist, etc…

 

Now, you guys who started exploiting religion for political and economic purposes, but mostly to gain dominance over other peoples – you’d better think of a solution how to put the genie back into the bottle! Go back to the master sorcerer! Above all, don’t imagine that by smashing a country’s entire infrastructure, its water supply, electricity and security, by liberating thousands of civilians from the miseries of existence – you can achieve anything but what you are getting: more violence and less of everything that makes life worth living.

 

Gerda Mansour

Cairo (Egypt)

Nedhal Abbas: Iraqi poet. She published her first book of poetry “Dreams of invisible pleasures”, in Arabic, in 1999.

Poems translated by Haifa Zangana (Iraq / UK)

Witness of the BRussells Tribunal

Freedom carol

Nedhal Abbas*

 

Ah

I’ll say it again:

There are few things

On which we all agree;

Sooner or later

You’ll be free.

 

Democracy is new for you

But never mind

We will teach you

 

Marines;

Move forward

Go on

This is what you trained for

You are the hunter

You are the predator

Freedom is beautiful

Do you hear?

 

Soldiers march,

On natives bodies

Battling a stench

They chant

Freedom is beautiful

 

By tanks

By warplanes,

Apache, Kiowa, marine cobra.

Smoke grenades

By Sniper shots

We‘ll end your demise

 

They deliver.

Wrapped in democracy,

Coloured in freedom,

Packages of

Un- named mutilated naked burned

Blown apart un-counted bodies

 

We receive

137,000

Men women and children

 

 

Mohamed, Ali, Omar, Jawad

Selma, Nadia, Fatima, Suhad

Hussein, Ahmed, Salam, Azad

Aysha, Amal, Maysoon, Nuhad

Faisal, Raad, Zaid, Widad

Nuha, Haifaa, Kifah, Souad 

 

From a distance’

Chorus of freedom recite:

 

Ah

We’ll say it again;

Can’t you understand?

It’s our mission

To put an end

To your demise. 

 

Sura- Mn -Ra’a* 

Nedhal Abbas

 

On Friday morning

In Sura-Mn-Ra’a

A young man lays in pieces

Torn a part by sniper’s fire

 

A woman

In Black A’baya

Passes by

Holding her toddler by the hand..

 

The child

Stares at the remains,

At a hand opened to the sky.

He reaches for a touch,

Wondering

Could it be his father’s? 

 

* Sura-Mn-Ra’a : “ A delight to the seer”, the old name of modern city of Samarra which(سامراء) stands on the east bank of the Tigris, 125 Km north of Baghdad. Famous for its Great Mosque with its unique spiral minaret built in 847.

In October 2004, The US occupation forces led an assault on Samarra. Hundreds of people were killed. Bodies were left in the streets , could not be collected for fera of American snipers..

YA ALI*

 Nethal Abbas – Baghdad - 29/8/2004

 

This is not by any means

The whole story

 

We can see the end

Not the process

The consequences

Not the causes

 

In Najaf

At Imam Ali’s shrine

A sad recognition of…

What? I ask.

 

Ya Ali

A woman mourns

Cuddling her dead son

Looking at the sky

Not the shrine

As if...

What? I ask.

 

A bomb falls

 

On a house

Not the shrine

Al hamdullilah

 

Ya Ali

In the haunting miles

Of Wadi Assalaam

Gravediggers

To bury their fear

Conjure the blessings of

The murdered Imam.

 

F16 strikes

 

Silence no more

Noble, dispassionate,

Unsentimental

One and a half million Dead

Bound to no one

They murmur

Ya Ali 

 

In the Sahan*

By the shadow of the Imam

A young fighter

Rests

An old book in hand

He reads

“Proclaim the truth”

“Stand by the oppressed not the oppressor”*.

 

Apache helicopters fire

 

Thick black smoke rises

Smell of burnt flesh

Fills the air

Is he some one we know?

I ask.

 

Yaaa Aliiiiii

I hear no answer. 

 

* Ya: To call and plead.

* Imam Ali: Cousin and son in law of Mohamed, the prophet. In Iraqi popular culture Invoked for help especially by women in need. He is buried in Najaf city.

* Sahan: court yard of a shrine.

* Wadi Assalam: Valley of peace, in Najaf, the largest cemetery in the world.

* Sayings by Imam Ali

Statement for Brussels

To: George W.  Bush

The world calls upon you to respect the principles that you claim to uphold: democracy, human rights and freedom around the world. To regain any moral or legal standing the world, the United States of America must renounce its illegal, immoral and irrational unilaterally declared war against Iraq, its continuing occupation and, more broadly, the so-called "war on terror".  The United States must also accept responsibility for the deaths of innocents, the torture of prisoners and the lawless manor of its actions in the world.  The United States has an old tradition of liberty and constitutionalism that is respectable.  At its core lies Thomas Jefferson's insight that we must show a "decent respect for the opinions of mankind."  The American policy of preemptive war and the so-called war on terror, both shielded in the rhetoric of freedom and human rights, does the opposite. It enacts an empire of oppression.  Desist and accept responsibility for the injustices you have wrought. It is in the interest of the people of the United States as well as the world world that the United States of America renounce its current lawlessness and violence and pursue, instead, a course of justice and reconciliation.

Amy Bartholomew
American Citizen
Professor of Law
Carleton University
Ottawa , Canada

Editor of the book: Empire's Law: The American Imperial Project and the 'War to Remake the World'

(Witness of the BRussells Tribunal)

Unfortunately I can't be in Brussels on next 20th February.

However, I would like to write a sentence against Bush and against USA world policy.

I write it down in Italian (my language) and in English too.

 

BUSH, TU SEI IL PIU' GRANDE E TEMIBILE TERRORISTA DEL MONDO INTERO: MA STAI ATTENTO, QUANDO TRA BREVE L'ARMATA INVINCIBILE DEI PACIFISTI TI SCONFIGGERÀ, NON CI SARÀ PIÚ POSTO PER LE POLITICHE ARROGANTI E IMPERIALISTE DEGLI U.S.A.! LA LOTTA È APPENA COMINCIATA, INIZIA AD AVERE PAURA DI NOI: SIAMO MILIONI!

 

Bush, you're the greatest and most dreadful terrorist of the whole world: but be careful, when shortly the invincible pacifist army will defeat you, there won't be any more room for the arrogant and imperialist U.S.A. policies! The fight has just begun, start having fear of us: we're millions!

 

I really hope it will be a great demonstration.

 

Roberto Villa (Milano, Italy)

Thank you for writing.  Here is my message for President Bush. 

It's a poem about our unforgivable invasion of Iraq. 

Thank you for acting on site in Brussels and best of luck,

Michele F. Cooper

 

The Way the War Gets Born

                        1

the way the announcement comes

the way the face leans over the altar

the way it stands on the teak platform

and doesn’t whistle or totter or lisp,

the way the crowd hushes

for the intimacy of the short teeth

and pink lips not half an inch from

the spongy head of the mike,

TV cameras zooming in for the eyes,

in for the glittering kill, the take,

the wrap-up at 11, Congress and citizens

on the edge of their leather seats

for the whole-world secret they’ve already

digested, and everything makes sense

the way he separates,

the way he separates the words

We                  will                  bring

them               to                    justice

free                 the                   people

the                  weapons

the                  oppressed        millions

the                  children           the oil

the                  guns                the chemicals

We                  will                  bring   

them               down!

                           2

The way the generals and secretaries

collect their stars and stripes

and might and right and merge them

into a brass ball they can roll

down the polished floors

to kingpins in foreign capitals.

The way the people cheer on camera

and off, the way they discount

the unaccounted billions

against the raucous tally of 9-11

and their gut feelings and fear

of lights on the world stage,

the barbed-wire borders and

bargains and brisk internet banking.

The way the commander’s voice

rises five keys the next afternoon

when the megaphone sputters

his in-your-face marching orders,

hasty shorthand taking the last

pleasure out of the coffee, the last hand,

the last bite, last page, last minute

to think a private thought.

                          3

The way their meals squeeze out of the tubes,

yesterday’s extras for garnish, walk a mile

three times a day keeping the smells

from the insects and rats, food the color

of putty, of green mud, carrots and yams

like melon and orange, paste on

the tongue, juices in the mind.

The way 80 percent of the people thrill

out loud at the power and glory,

give quiet thanks five and ten times a day

they can stay alive in their condos and

townhouses, watching the troops on the news,

cameos ignoring the desperate villagers

with their prayers and dwindling meals,

their last warm milk, last cloudy wine,

last clean water they can see through.

The way the regimental banners wave

in the wind, the way the anthems

backdrop the bombs,

the way the money changes landscapes,

collapsing five-year plans.

The way the earth quakes as the tanks

rumble up from hidden bases in the south,

cross the barren hills, trample the wheat

of uncles and grandfathers, distant

hoof beats thudding from the north

over dry fields, ancient stirrups tied with knots,

others swelling in broken shoes.

                          4

The way the troops take formation,

pack their 70 pounds of guns and

ammo and gas masks and grenades,

hurl themselves over the hundreds

of barren miles to the core of the

country, the radio stations, the airport,

eight and ten palaces dotting

the riverbank with gold sinks and

marble floors, the portly president

and army sons shipping their kin

and their cash to southern France,

then pounding their fists

under thick black mustachios

shouting relentlessly, as one:

We             can

We             will

We             will              not          fold          

Praise         Praise!         Allah

Will            not              be           taken

No             matter         who

No             matter         what

No             matter!

                          5

The way the bright flags whip and curl

around the ropes flailing off the poles,

the way the fabric rips from the edges in,

the way the red rags, and the white,

the way they fall limp as the black

and blue smoke explodes

into magnificence of orange fire,

the way the people will never cheer

when the

last

bombs

blow.

Bush is not welcome in many parts of the world ! As an American Citizen I am embarresed when people ask me ...Where are you from.. Why? because America is a place where people preach about Human Rights yet we attack many countries in the name of homeland security. We are an aggressive nation. We attack and kill many innocent civilians all over the world in the name of freedom.
 

I am a wittness to the brutal occupation of Palestine. I have seen the Israeli soldiers use weapons I call weapons of mass destruction (the illegal Dumb Dumb) Yes it is a weapon of mass destruction. It destroys the body when it enters the Human being and this weapon is against international law. And who gives Israel the money for this weapon.
 

The good Old United States Of America. I have seen many children in The West Bank of Palestine . I have taken over a thousand photos that I use to re educate the people of America to the truth of what this brutal occupation is doing to the Palestine people . I have seen the soldiers attack innocent men, women and children. I have seen them humiliated. I have seen them killed. Wait! I should say assassinated, for in the West Bank one, if he or she is a Palestinian, is given the death sentence without a trial ... Without reason really just for the sake of being a Palestinian. I refuse to be a part of this genocide and I left America for this very reason and I now reside outside of my country.
 

I am ashamed of Bush. I am appalled to call him my President. He is no different than Hitler or Sharon in my opinion... A warmonger, a dangerous man to run a country. A hated man by many. I do not want to be a part of his plan. To take my tax dollar to kill innocent civilians. I wanted to state that I am against his foreign policies and I ask God to forgive us as a nation of aggressors.
Almarie Calvert
I am from the beautiful state of Kentucky  I miss my home but I refuse to be a part of the cruelty that this President inflicts on so many innocent human beings. (USA)

Si Bush veut réchauffer les relations transatlantiques, qu'il s'occupe d'abord du réchauffement du climat de la planète. Et, s'il prend enfin une heureuse initiative, qu'il en profite, dans le même temps pour abolir la peine de mort, pour signer les conventions relatives à l'interdiction du travail des enfants et à l'interdiction des mines anti-personnelles. Qu'il participe au Tribunal Pénal International, sans restriction. Qu'il abolisse le système Echelon avec la complicité coupable de la Grande Bretagne et de son valet Blair. etc, etc...

Non, les valeurs de cette Amérique là ne sont pas les miennes, et je n'ai aucune envie de voir nos relations se "réchauffer".

 

Jean-Pierre Viseur
Conseiller Communal
Ancien membre de la Chambre des Représentants (Belgique)

President Bush,

Unless you and your henchmen are honestly committed to diplomatic solutions in Iraq, you should stay in the USA and out of Brussels. You are an embarrassment to me and many other USA citizens.
The EU is disgusted with our USA imperialistic behavior. (USA)

2005-02-06 Message for President Bush:

Mr. President, your refusal to sign on to the statute of the International Criminal Court in The Hague obviously comes down to an admission that you and your country are involved in war crimes, and risk prosecution. (The Netherlands)

Dear President Bush,

 

my name is Jean Jones and I was born and live in my America the once beautiful. Progress and big business has turned my country into a land of pavement,roads,big houses,etc. There is hardly any land left.Money is going for war and instruments of war. The God of all gave us this earth to CARE for.We have failed.

We have also failed at being PEACEMAKERS. We have failed at caring for the sick and helpless. Our one triumph is that we are the most war-like nation on earth. We are the best at killing life. God said to revere life; that it is precious. I am free, because God created me free. I will die for freedom. Mine and every human life. We are leading humanity to a desperate doom.

You, more than any human on this wonderful planet can change this horrenous path. In chosing peace, equality, justice and compassion you would be remembered by history as the hero of the 21st century. I pray you make that choice because the God of the Christians says "DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO TO YOU".

May God lead you to LOVE.

Sincerely, Jean (USA)