Carl Webb refuses to fight for imperialism! Defend Iraq & Afghanistan!

Iraq Veterans Against War convention in Austin, Texas

2010-06-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

RISE TOGETHER: IVAW Convention 2010

Join members and allies from across the country in Austin, Texas!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER DEADLINE: TUES, JUNE 8th

WHERE:

Huston-Tillotson University
900 Chicon Street
Austin, Texas 78702-2795
Phone: (512) 505-3000

WHO and WHY:

All members of Iraq Veterans Against the War are highly encouraged to attend convention. In addition to building relationships with other members, we will be discussing the most important issues facing our GI and veterans movement.

Members will have a chance to discuss lessons learned, brainstorm innovative ideas, and develop a common orientation towards the goals and strategy of IVAW for the upcoming year.

Members will also meet with the current board and candidates, elect members for open board positions, review the status of our organization including finances, and participate in active duty outreach at Fort Hood.

Key allies and supporters are also welcome to attend convention but are responsible for the cost of their own registration and travel arrangements. We are happy to recommend housing accomodations near the convention site.

Preference for on campus housing is given to members and those with disabilities.

Address

900 Chicon Street
Austin, TX 78702

https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5966/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=21064

Did Jewish Slaves Build the Pyramids?

2010-04-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

Did Jewish Slaves Build the Pyramids?

Muhammad Ali's war resistance inspired the URL name of my blog

2009-12-22T23:06:00.000-08:00

Message to Obama: You Can't Have Muhammad Ali by Dave Zirin

On November 19th, President Barack Obama wrote a stirring tribute in USA Today to the most famous draft resister in US history, Muhammad Ali. Obama wrote about why Ali's photo hangs over his desk, praising "The Greatest" for "his unique ability to summon extraordinary strength and courage in the face of adversity, to navigate the storm and never lose his way." On Tuesday, Obama showed neither courage nor strength but the worst kind of imperial arrogance. On Tuesday, Obama spoke at West Point, calling for an increase of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan, with a speech that recalled the worst shadings of George W. Bush's "war on terror."

Marxist sports writer, David Ziren, says that maybe Muhammad Ali has been robbed of speech, but I think we can safely guess what the Champ would say in the face of Obama's war. We can safely guess, because he said it perfectly four decades ago:

"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No, I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here..... If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people, they wouldn't have to draft me, I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been in jail for 400 years."

You can read the full article at http://www.edgeofsports.com/2009-12-03-475/index.html

Iraq Veterans Against War expel leftist

2009-12-11T01:58:00.000-08:00

Carl Webb’s expulsion from Iraq Veterans Against War

Geoffrey Millard explains Webb’s expulsion

December 5th, 2009

A couple of conservative IVAW members sent screen shots to a pro-war website of the entire statement that Geoff (Stolen Valor) Millard wrote on the IVAW website explaining why the board voted to expell Carl Webb. Here’s the first part;

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=15924

http://thisainthell.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/letter1.jpg

Carl Webb refuses to fight for imperialism! Defend Iraq and Afghanistan!

2008-05-07T04:51:00.000-07:00

My name is Carl Webb and I was a soldier that refused to obey orders to serve in Iraq or any place at all. I refused to report for training with the Texas National Guard at Fort Hood and left Austin, Texas back in August 2004. Right now I'm creating a record here where I and others can find information and track the progress of my struggle.

Defend Iraq!

In Iraq today, we have a side against the U.S., its allies and Iraqi lackeys. Our starting point is to demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops and allies. We defend the peoples of Iraq against any U.S.-led attack and repression. Insofar as the forces on the ground in Iraq aim their fire against the imperialist occupiers and their lackeys, we call for their military defense against U.S. imperialism. Every blow struck against the imperialist occupiers is a blow struck against the enemy of workers and the oppressed all over the world. At the same time, we are intransigent opponents of the murderous communal violence against other ethnic, religious and national populations oftentimes carried out by the very same forces waging attacks against the occupation armies.

The call to "Bring the troops home" is an accommodation to those who appeal to the U.S. rulers to get the American troops out of harm's way; this is what Lenin called social-patriotism�expressing concern primarily for the loss of American lives rather than for the victims of U.S. imperialist terror. This call serves to obscure the fact that working people in the U.S. should take a side militarily with the Iraqi peoples against the U.S. military occupiers. The blows directed against the U.S. imperialist occupiers and their Iraqi lackeys represent a just struggle by Iraqis against a neocolonial occupation. And responsibility for the deaths of American soldiers lies entirely with the U.S. ruling class. We say: Defend the peoples of Iraq against the occupation forces! All U.S. troops out of Iraq now! At the same time, we oppose the deadly communalist violence in Iraq against other ethnic, religious and national populations, which is often carried out by the very same forces fighting the occupation armies. During the war we called for defense of neocolonial Iraq against the predatory U.S. imperialist attack without giving an iota of political support to the reactionary Saddam Hussein regime.

The program of pacifism, on the other hand, is based on the false premise that peace can be achieved without overturning capitalism. In this sense pacifism is of great service to the capitalist rulers because it helps them channel discontent with war into an impotent movement crying out "Stop the War!" This is why a handful of capitalist "peace dove" politicians typically come out against the war (while, of course, "supporting the troops")�they appear on the platforms of liberal antiwar protests to keep the "movement" safe for capitalism.

Contrary to popular left mythology, what ended the Vietnam War was the military defeat of the U.S. imperialists by the revolutionary workers and peasants of Vietnam who carried out a social revolution that overturned capitalism. ROTC was successfully driven off hundreds of campuses in the late 1960s and 1970s not because of a mass pacifist movement, but because the U.S. was waging a losing war in Vietnam while facing massive social and class struggle in the U.S.
"The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions." (Marx, The Communist Manifesto)