Washblog

When it goes back up, you can print off a copy of the Citizens' Injuction and take it to your local democratic institution (labor union, branch of the NAACP, local Democratic club, etc.)  Once you have the Injuction passed, mail a copy to the Port of Grays Harbor.  Their website is: www.portofgraysharbor.com

Also send copies to The Daily World, Aberdeen's hometown newspaper: www.thedailyworld.com

Such activities fail to differentiate between the military, military leadership, our troops and the genuine authors of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

For the most part I deplore the tactics the military has had to use to shore up it's numbers via deceptive recruiting, stop-loss and narrow interpretations of a soldier's right and duty to refuse illegal orders. But I do not hold the military responsible for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Radical activism sometimes appears to be getting wild-eyed and feeling partiotically dissentful while at the same time forgetting the humanity and circumstance of our military family neighbors and their loved ones caught in a contractual bear trap.

Although not widely known, there was controversy over the final wording of the report from the recent Citizen's Tribunal held in Tacoma.

This because incredibly powerful and legitimate testimony about the illegality of the war seemed for the most part to take a back seat to a deteriorated focus on troop behavior, reported atrocities and anectdotal accounts pounced upon despite very little second and third-source verification or confirmation.

The illegality of the war was and is not established by individual acts of soldiers. War crimes can be established that way, and the intent of a tribunal supposedly by definition is to reach a valid conclusion as to the original premise.

The Port of Grays Harbor is less than 40 miles from my home in Bay Center, but my time is better spent lobbying and agitating for fixed time frames  for troop withdrawal and for presidential CIC accountability rather than whining about the loading and shipping of war equipment that includes in its design and intent protection of our troops.

Removing the troops seems the best way to get the troops to stop using equipment for killing while risking their own maiming or death in an invasion and occupation whose blood is on the hands of a leadership gone over to the dark side of force.

Arthur
You sure you ain't staking too much on yer theories? Not enough common sense?

I see the most effective civic action as that which takes place in cooperation with others -- or in peaceful protest or disobedience.  Neither type of action implies the kind of us-against-them attitude that I think of when I hear the word "struggle".  

Our economy, now fed to such a degree on blood and oil, is not something alien  -- but is an outgrowth of human nature that we all share and of a consumer society that virtually all the people who are protesting the militarization of this port take part in.

For these reasons, although I support Tahoma Activist's underlying cause of social justice and an end to the war, I see this action in very different terms than his language leads me to believe he sees it.  Tahoma, I'd be interested to hear your take on this.

Based on previous demonstrations organized by the same or related groups, the reality is that the Gray's Harbor "struggle" is one in a series of peaceful protests that began in Olympia (seemed to drive the military operations out of there to Tacoma), continued in Tacoma (seemed to drive military operations out of Tacoma) -- and now have begun at the next port, Gray's Harbor.  If military operations were moved in response to these demonstrations at all (and I think they probably were) -- this was a response to peaceful protests in the best American tradition.  We'll see how it goes today.

As for revolution -- that's a loaded term, isn't it.  Depending on how it's used it can mean something very fruitful -- or destructive.  The way it's used in this piece strikes me as a bit slogan-ish.  I feel the term should be used  carefully, not in a slogan-like way, as it can imply violence -- or even imply the support of violent means.  

Tahoma Activist, did you mean violent revolution?    It would be really interesting to get your thoughts on the words, struggle and revolution.