Letter from an-Iraqi American

[3MTA3]

An Iraqi-American that is on this bloggers email listserv thing sent this out today...thoughts?

/* begin letter

All

Despite the claim that the protest contained a good mix of participants, the reality was that the vast majority, overwhelming even, was of young white boys and girls, generally twenty-somethings and generally of the subculture variety. No big surprise there.
Before anybody decides to go out and join more protests, maybe it would be fair to provide an alternate view. I, as you may have gleaned, am an Iraqi-American. Actually Assyrian-Iraqi-American. Most of my family was in Baghdad during the first Gulf War--some were in Kuwait. My aunt Margaret tells me that during that war, they would wait until night and go sit on the rooftops and cheer the bombing. The American attacks were so concise, she said that they would bet on which government or utilities building would be hit, and were more often than not correct. Civilian targets were always accidental. Think about it: what military objective would be served by hitting a civilian hospital, when the opposing army is surrendering en masse (not fighting and getting injured)?
For the last six months on al-Jazeera television, Iraqi defectors have been appearing on talk shows begging--literally, begging--the other Arab nations to support the US in this war, to finally free the Iraqi people. Without fail, their counterparts from other nations stated that they preferred Hussein to the USA.
Here are some figures. Since taking power officially in 1978 (although he was the functional leader since 1971), Hussein has executed somewhere in the range of 3m political prisoners. He launched chemical weapons against Assyrians and Kurds in the North. He drained the marshes in the south, which the Shi'ites need to survive, causing a "famine-on-purpose" in the style of what Stalin did to Ukraine in the 30s. Every day in Iraq, 2,500 children die from malnutrition and lack of medicine, because Hussein has been kicking out UN (not US) inspectors for 11 years. Two thousand five hundred children die every day. So do not dare, for one instant, to protest this war on behalf of the Iraqi people. To do so is to spit in the face of the millions of people who yearn for freedom from his regime. Hussein is not Castro.
Uday Hussein, his son, is the head of athletics in Iraq. He owns a football club. For years, whenever they wouldn't perform to expectations, he would bring them to his personal prison and torture them ruthlessly. He maintained a harem of hundreds of women whom he would rape, defile, and murder.
The few hundred Iraqi civilians who may die in the bombing raids are a pittance compared to the millions Hussein has killed as well as the appalling number of children who die every day due to his arms program stubborn-ness. How many more can die so a bunch of addle-brained do-gooders can get on TV waving placards?

It is hypocritical and worse irrational to oppose this war on behalf of the Iraqi people. They don't know the desires of the Iraqi people, or the apalling suffering of the Iraqi people. The only reason to protest the war would be because you are opposed to any and all war, opposed to sending US troops anywhere, ever. In which case kudos to you, I suppose, for returning to the turn-of-the-century style isolationism that indirectly lead to the horrific casualties of World War I and II. The world depends on superpowers to lend coercive power to international regimes.

The best are those signs that say, "No Iraqi Blood for Oil." How about, "No More Iraqi Blood for French Interests," since the French opposed this war solely because they have hundreds of billions of dollars tied up with the Iraqi regime, money they will lose if Hussein is oustered because international regimes stipulate that a nation is not responsible for the debts of a deposed, illegitimate regime. The same goes for the Russians and Germans. The Russians have invested billions in Iraq's nuclear program.

And to answer those who argue that the US is only engendering more hate among out European allies: Whose fault is that? Ours? Bush is an inept, almost moronic leader who angered many when he imposed a steel tariff, pulled out of the Kyoto protocol, and so forth. But in this case, the US is trying to remove an unpopular, ruthless, Stalin-esque dictator and free a nation of people who live every day in terror (see Samir al-Khalil's book "Republic of Fear"). Should we allow him to continue to kill ruthlessly so that the French will like us? Keep in mind that Chirac is a Gaullist, and like a true Gaullist, his opposition to the United States is not predicated on any ideal, but rather on the desire to enhance French prestige--as the "alternative" to the US.

Oh, the protestors are so cute with their "Fuck Bush" signs and slogans and thrift-store clothes and un-informed opinions about international politics. However they are also wrong, dead wrong. There is nothing more painful for people with real experience of the Iraqi regime than to see young kids mugging for television cameras and their peers, waving signs that purport to support the Iraqi people. It is truly painful to see that when the victory of the Iraqi people is so close at hand, a group of pseudo-intellectuals prefer playing pretend--pretending to be politicos--to rejoicing with us and supporting the liberation of a nation of 22 million. Protest this war and you are naive, willfully ignorant, or enraptured by yourself and your "fight for freedom."

Foul; base; cruel; evil; wicked; vain; these are the only words that can describe you.

yours all
*Name removed to protect the innocent*

end letter */

I do not think this persons heritage adds any weight to their opinion, I just found it relatively concise and thought I would share it...

[Koliedrus]

Worth reading more than once.

[Venus]

Honestly, I don't think protestors are protesting the war as much as they're protesting Bush. They want something to bitch at him about, and he gave it to them.

[Billyman]

Very, very nice read.

Find a protester, just one, any one, have them sit down with you for a discussion. You will quickly find that they actually don't know a goddamn thing about what's really going on.

[Deadpool]

"Despite the claim that the protest contained a good mix of participants, the reality was that the vast majority, overwhelming even, was of young white boys and girls, generally twenty-somethings and generally of the subculture variety. No big surprise there. "

At a recent conference for student anti-war activists on the west coast, 24 U.S colleges were represented and over 100 participants attended. The conference, which was held at San Francisco State University, a campus that boasts a 66% diversity rate, and organized with students from UC Berkeley (a university with a 57% diversity rate,) yielded a turn-out rate of roughly eight students of color. At most.
Although this number was alarmingly low, it is most definitely not a rare occurrence when it comes to conferences and meetings of this sort. In fact, events like these, unless they are organized by or for people of color, are almost always predominantly white. Many of the veteran peace workers whom I work with have been active for decades and have expressed their concerns toward the white, paternalistic nature of our current peace movement, telling me the issue of racial exclusion has been a persistent and pervasive one. So I am not alone when I say that student peace activities like the one at SFSU only hint at a much larger problem: the widespread exclusion of immigrants and people of color from a movement that one would assume supports equality for all.

The authors of “An Open Letter to Activists Concerning Racism in the Anti-War Movement” say it best: “A persistent dynamic of white supremacy/racism and white privilege within many organizations, and the resultant perpetuation of racist practices, takes various forms: resistance by predominantly white organizations to sharing leadership with, much less following the leadership of, activists and organizations of color; the failure of predominantly white organizations to endorse or participate in anti-war activities sponsored by people of color groups; a discussion climate that excludes or demeans the contributions of activists/organizations of color, and disparaging or insensitive remarks made by individuals. These practices have alienated individuals and organizations, and they have prevented cooperative bonds from forming as we work to build broad and deep opposition to war.”

Perhaps it is because so many of us assume that a movement supporting peace must be all-embracing, anti-hierarchical and colorblind that we fail to remember that structures of power and privilege pervades all causes unless a conscious effort is made to defy them.

Some would argue that being in these particular spaces should not make me self-conscious about race. If I could somehow become unconscious of my physical body as being marked by difference, I might be able to enter these rooms as just a human being who wants peace and justice. I might be able to enjoy these spaces as safe and empowering without feeling a conflict inside me. But my body is marked, wrapped over completely with yellow skin, and I cannot escape these markings of difference because others will, without exception, always notice.

As I was sitting alone reading in a corner, one of the organizers of the SFSU conference approached me before the meeting began, and asked if I wanted to sit on their discussion panel. I asked him why-- although I already knew the answer. The organizers wanted “greater ethnic diversity” on their panel. So they asked me. Apparently, all I had to do was be “ethnic.” No other qualifications required. I could’ve had absolutely nothing to contribute to the panel, yet as long as I was “ethnic” enough, I could sit with the big kids at the long table. Yes, I wanted race to be acknowledged, but this was a tokenization of race that accomplished nothing besides putting up a façade of diversity.

Some organizations, like “Not In Our Name” or “International A.N.S.W.E.R“, are founded on principles of diversity, but are not always as inclusive as they could be. Other organizations, such as the “Coalition of Asian Americans Against Violence” (CAAAV), the “Alliance of African/African American Peacemakers” (AAAP) and other grassroots community organizations, focus on the needs of specific communities. And while these organizations are important, we must ask ourselves why these race-specific coalitions were created in the first place, and what issues they are addressing that should be addressed by the more powerful anti-war organizations, and thus, the mainstream anti-war movement itself.

In thinking about this question, consider the possibility of a movement that brings together individuals and groups across boundaries of race and class, and truly embraces and understands the “spectrum of needs, aspirations, goals, intellectual resources and colors of a multiracial, multinational, multilingual, and multi-class mainstream.”

I have to say that the idealistic part of me, the part of me that believes that human beings are inherently just human beings, wishes I didn’t have to be self-conscious or disappointed that people of color are so little represented in a movement I am so passionate about. Yet, the realistic part of me must confront, and insist that others confront, the systematic ways in which people of color are excluded from participation in our movement-- one in which technology is relied upon heavily as a way of distributing information, organizing events, and facilitating communication between bodies of people.

So it isn’t a surprise, then, that those who have little access to technology would be that much more disadvantaged when it comes to having access to information and the connections that are built through the internet via websites, email, online petitions, and such. To better understand who has access to the information that most of us reading this article probably take for granted, consider the statistics recently reported by the U.S Department of Commerce: “Despite the increase in Americans who have ownership of personal computers, Internet access and telephone connections, a serious disparity between minority and Caucasian households still remains. Amongst the lowest income bracket…only 6.6% of African Americans own a computer, while 17.5% of Caucasians of that comparable economic status owns a computer.”

Part of having access to information includes not only knowing how to utilize technologies, but having literature that helps you understand how political issues affect you and your family and being able to read the literature that is available to you. Beyond access to information, many people of color lack the kinds of resources that are needed in order to participate in our movement.

For example, when I organized the buses going up to the San Francisco peace rally last semester, most of the people who showed up parked their cars in a nearby lot. Meanwhile, a Latina mother and her two children had to take a train, a bus and a short walk to get to the Claremont campus in order to ride our bus up to San Francisco. More often than not, people from less privileged communities do not have the luxury of taking time off work or from their families to attend rallies and meetings, nor do they have the financial freedom to put money into activities and causes that are not essential to their survival. And for immigrants to this country, many do not feel they are safe enough in this country to offer dissent, while many others have been trained to believe they must be grateful for what very little they have. In the end, many do not believe they have the privilege of dissent--something that most of us do not recognize is a luxury. The amount of time, money, and a sense of personal security needed in order for an individual to participate in our movement, however insignificant it may seem to us, is of great significance to many others.

As an immigrant to this country, I am concerned about how such communities are affected by politics and government. As a Taiwanese/Thai/American transnational who constantly moves across borders, I am concerned about the global impacts of our government’s political decisions. As a person of color in this country, I am similarly concerned about how ethnic minority groups are affected by these issues. I want to feel as though there is always a place for these particular concerns when I enter rooms that are designed to promote peace and justice. And it’s always difficult for me to explain the conflict that I feel when I participate in anti-war activities. As a student activist, I always feel empowered by the large number of individuals that have come into a space created for leftist politics and peaceful ideals.

Yet, as an individual concerned about racial politics both here and abroad, I feel a silence surrounding issues of race and class. It seems as though it’s okay to talk about how racism is bad in a conceptual sort of way, but when the discussion becomes too explicit, too personal, we run the risk of revealing the racial power dynamics that are at work even in places created for peace and justice. I can only guess that many of the people who refuse to acknowledge that racial segregation exists in this movement are unwilling to acknowledge their unconscious contributions to this segregation.

It isn’t easy to admit that one’s privileges aren’t immediately erased when one rallies behind a cause that claims to support equality. And while we understand, quite naturally, that whiteness and paternalistic ways of being fuel the pro-war campaign, we seemingly ignore the fact that the mainstream anti-war movement is also fueled by such. The closer we get to recognizing racial segregation in the anti-war movement, the closer we get to unifying all communities in our fight for peace and justice. I end by quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

By Diana Ming Yin
Scripps College

[Minimaul]

What if I just don't care? At all. Period. I don't care. I got my internet, I got my porn. I got my video games , boose and bitches. I don't care about anything else.

In anyway am I a protestor? I am a white 21 year old. A sub-culture, so to speak too.

[Billyman]

No mini, I think not.

Anywayz, this morning on the talk radio station I sometimes listen to, there was this lady, speaking out and voicing her opinions of protesters. She said she was an Iraqi-American and from what she was saying, I think it was the same lady that wrote the letter in this thread. I hope there was a helluva lotta people listening to that.