RE: Angela�s Plan

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 Duende wrote:

I will be posting this on the forum set up at Across The Pond as I feel 
that may turn out to be the natural home for Angela's Plan, since it is 
both British and American troops who must withdraw. But I want to 
have some feedback here aswell. 

I�ve been reading posts on other forums with nothing to do with 
politics (Peakoil.com) where Americans are talking a lot about the 
Israeli bombings of Lebanon. I�ve read comments posted by readers 
on news and information sites commenting on articles about Israel�s 
use of white phosphor, cluster bombs, targeting civilians etc. I have 
been shocked at the level of bloodlust some people show, who are 
confident in their assertions that force and war is the only answer. 

But most of all I have been struck by the ease with which we all judge 
and justify our own and other�s remarks and beliefs. It seems to me 
that so long as we justify our disagreement with someone/something 
with judgements such as: �that�s what I�d expect from a lefty/ 
commie peacenik coward�, or such as these: �she�s just a left-wing 
feminist�; �he�s a Moslem radical�; �he�s a rabid liberal� etc. there will 
be no progress towards settlement, there will be no negotiation. The 
first obstacle is oneself. We do not need to put people into boxes in 
order to understand what they are saying. The comment: �I see 
where you�re coming from� means: �Ah, I see you are a liberal/ 
communist/ atheist/ orthodox Jew etc. The idea that someone has 
�an agenda� buys into the same rigid and limited concept that we are 
all just defending our political or religious viewpoints, rather than 
defending our deeply held need to live in peace, and without the 
threat of war. 

When the Angela Plan was first mooted as a �movement� I saw 
nothing but difficulties and obstacles, and saw no future for any such 
initiative. The war in Iraq has become such a Behemoth of a problem, 
involving corporate plundering, the violence we all know about, and 
the undeclared civil/internecine war, that I saw only complicated and 
insurmountable problems. Now I have actually narrowed my focus 
and this is what I think we can do: rather than found a new 
organisation, we should try to bring existing organisations together 
under one common cause: American withdrawal. This needs to be 
done in America, as international viewpoints are barely taken into 
consideration by the xenophobic G.W. Bush admin. I feel The Pond 
may be the natural home for this initiative since it is both America 
and Britain who must withdraw, hence it is the American and British 
public who must form the critical mass of opposition to the American 
led occupation. 

There are many grass-roots organisations working for peace and 
campaigning to bring the troops home, the American public (or so 
we are told) are increasingly turning against the occupation, Bush 
has the lowest ratings of any president before him and his party are 
desperate to maintain their powerbases at home. Experience shows 
that only when opposition at home reaches a critical mass (Vietnam) 
does the administration start thinking about doing what the people 
actually want. Reaching that critical mass MUST NOT take as long as 
it did to end the Vietnam war. It must be reached soon, and I think 
one way is to draw the various groups who currently don�t have a 
link with one another together: strength in numbers. 

For this, I suggest we form the umbrella pressure group which will 
put these organisations together with the sole aim of becoming such 
a loud noise that the government will have to sit up and listen. We 
want the troops out of Iraq. 

I also want the Israeli�s and Palestinians to get back to a negotiating 
table, and I want all foreign troops out of Afghanistan. These don�t 
necessarily have to be separate issues. With a working pressure 
group dedicated to bringing all non-violent activists with a common- 
ground together, we could also turn our attention to these problems. 

Maybe this is a lazy way out? I mean, I�m sort of taking advantage of 
all the work done by those who have formed and who run the various 
pressure groups which already exist. But I just feel it would be a 
waste of hard work to set up yet another non-governmental peace 
organisation, and the time it would take to get it up and running is 
time Iraq doesn�t have. 

I know there are groups out there which are founded by Christians 
and Moslems, groups affiliated with political parties or charities 
owned and run by churches. I feel the organisation which brings 
them together should be officially neutral, without political or 
religious affiliations although members will of course come from all 
sorts of backgrounds. 

This is something like the negotiating table differing parties are 
forced to sit down at during any labour strike. It would be a little bit 
like the moderators sitting back and encouraging negotiation and 
communication between the employers and the employees. 

It�s not a big idea, it doesn�t involve lobbying for support from 
politicians or corporations. But please let me know what you think, 
and add suggestions. I have no need to listen to more rhetoric about 
why America should not withdraw now, or any other argument in 
favour of arms, or war. I�ve read enough and seen enough. 

Bismillah,
Duende, I read this and searched for it so that I could reply to the text you wrote that I have bolded above. 
I agree with this and believe it is the most important thing we can work on together here at IC and everywhere else.  That is, next to stopping the devastation of the world by American-backed bombings.
Why call each other names anyway?  People change.  That's what the forgiveness of Allah, SWT, is about.  Allah, The All-Knowing, knows human nature and has decreed that His Mercy is greater Than His Wrath.  Why do we humans have to switch this around?  Looking at the world today, the powers-that-be exercise no self-control and seek disproportionate revenge, and we the citizens of the world, are modeling this in our daily interpersonal interactions.  AstagfirAllah.
Salaamu Alaykum

Edited by herjihad

RE: Angela�s Plan

�If I were in the States, I would be out pounding the streets ��