[B5JMS] ATT: jms Why do you oppose a war agaist Iraq?

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: Hal Vaughan <hal at thresholddigital.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 03:43:30 GMT
Lines: 44

Jms at B5 wrote:

>>Why do most people don't see Saddam as a threat?
> 
> There's threats and there's threats.  To his own people?  Sure, same as
> any
> tyrant in any country around the world.  To the US?  Again, no more than
> anybody else, and probably less, given that his military is in a shambles,
> his economy is a mess, there hasn't been one shred of evidence to support
> the thesis that he can hurt anybody outside his own borders...on and on
> and on.

Joe,

You give some EXCELLENT reasons for not going to war with Iraq.  When I was 
a student, I had a great history teacher who went over, in detail, how 
Hitler rose to power.  All through B5, until the new Earthgov was toppled, 
I kept having a strong sense of Deja-vu, thinking back to all the tricks we 
learned about Hitler pulling.

The scary thing is I'm getting that Deja-vu feeling again, but it's not from 
fiction -- it's from Bush (the best president money can buy...).

As a Quaker, I stand completely against war, especially this one.  I have to 
agree with all of your reasons (and pretty much felt the same way even 
before I read your post.

But, after reading it, I have one question (actually two).

People are showing disapproval of the war by marching on Washington and 
other cities.  There are protests and letters to our representives in 
congress.  However, Bush doesn't seem to care about anyone's opinion but 
his own.

So -- What are you doing (if anything) to take a stand against the war?  And 
do you have suggestions for actions that are not run-of-the-mill that could 
actually have an effect on whether or not Bush orders an attack on Iraq?

I am asking, not to corner you, but because I've seen you come up with some 
pretty creative ideas, both in and out of your scripts, and it would be 
interesting to hear your thoughts on activism.

Hal


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 24 Jan 2003 05:18:03 GMT
Lines: 60

>As a Quaker, I stand completely against war, especially this one.  I have to 
>agree with all of your reasons (and pretty much felt the same way even 
>before I read your post.
>
>But, after reading it, I have one question (actually two).
>
>People are showing disapproval of the war by marching on Washington and 
>other cities.  There are protests and letters to our representives in 
>congress.  However, Bush doesn't seem to care about anyone's opinion but 
>his own.

I don't know if it's that he doesn't care about anyone's opionion but his own,
as much as he cares about catering to the extreme right wing of the party. 
(How else to explain such things as nominating to the Presidential Advisory
Commissoin on HIV and AIDS Jerry Thacker, a Pennsylvanian marketing consultant
who has characterized aids as "the gay plague" and called such alternate
lifestyles "deathstyles" while saying they could be cured by faith and that
condoms do nothing to stop the spread of HIV.  He's done similar things to
commissions on the rights of women and other areas.

(But I digress.)

>So -- What are you doing (if anything) to take a stand against the war?  

Well, this is part of it.  I think that democracy works best when all sides are
free to talk openly about their concerns.  It's only in open discourse that the
truth wriggles free.  Raise questions.  Pursue the news past the gloss of CNN. 
Read the USA Patriot Act, don't just go from the synopses.  

>And 
>do you have suggestions for actions that are not run-of-the-mill that could 
>actually have an effect on whether or not Bush orders an attack on Iraq?

In my opinion, and this is only my opinion, there is nothing that can be done
at this point to stop an attack on Iraq.  You don't move nearly 200,000 troops
halfway around the globe and not use them; it would be a huge loss of face for
Bush.

That boat has, literally and metaphorically, left the docks.  

What we can do is to remain an informed and quarrelsome electorate, and when
the time comes to exercise our rights as citizens to vote, to side with the
president if our conscience dictates we do so, based on the evidence, or vote
for the opposition, based on the same evidence.

For me, thus far, the truth of this current situation is this: Iraq is a target
of opportunity, not a target of conscience.  We're hitting there because we can
find Iraq on a map, whereas we can't find Bin Laden (of whom Bush & Company
haven't uttered a word of late) on any extant maps.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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