Iran: Who is the real threat?

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Cheers!

Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist, author of Persepolis:

"If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same...

"The secular people, we have no country. We the people — all the secular people who are looking for freedom — we have to keep together. We are international, as they” — the fanatics of all religions — “are international.”

From an interview conducted in 2005:

WikiLeaks

Discover the truth

of the unjust, illegitimate war in Iraq and Afghanistan: WikiLeaks releases hundreds of thousands of military records revealing thousands of civilian deaths, execution squads,
other war crimes.

The Guantánamo Files

documenting torture, abuse, and years of unjust imprisonment.

Watch "Collateral Murder"

The military's own video documenting the killing of 12 Iraqis from a helicopter circling above

Help Stop these Crimes: Collateral Murder Video Showings and more...

Support Bradley Manning

The young soldier accused of releasing the US military records.
Find out more.

NATO Summit Protests

Chicago Spring:
Protest the War Criminal (NATO) Summit!

The "North Atlantic Treaty Organization" (NATO) promotes its mission as “security, cooperation among nations, and peace keeping.”
In fact,it is an organization led and dominated by the world's best-armed war criminals, led by the United States.
Join us in protesting NATO
in Chicago May 20/21!

Stop the Drones

Drone Wars

The use of Predator drones (unmanned flying vehicles
that are often armed with video-guided missiles) by the
US military and CIA is a largely untold story of the "Global
War on Terror / Global Contingency Operation" - yet has caused thousands of deaths in Pakistan and Afghanistan, many of whom are women and children.
Find out more and take action to stop the drones.

Obama to Women: I am not your Friend

Sunday, 18 July 2010 21:20

By Lina Thorne

On July 15, the news broke that the Obama administration included a ban on abortion coverage that basically meets the notorious Stupak restrictions that had been the focus of attention months ago within the health care reform debates.

This means that the compromise that was satisfactory enough to the anti-abortion Democrats months ago to push through the "reform" has been surpassed with this measure; leaving many pro-choice activists asking "why did he do that? he didn't have to!"

Here's the answer, women, short and sweet: Obama is not your friend, advocate, or representative.

He represents the US empire. And while the Democrats' program has some significant differences compared to the Republicans, when faced with the pressure of maintaining social cohesion "at home" while sustaining years of occupation in 2 countries, ongoing military strikes in at least one other (Pakistan), extreme economic instability and the prospects of domestic upheaval from those committed to racism, religious obscurantism, the subordination of women in every public sphere and ignorant answers to every important question of the day (from the destruction of the Gulf to the ongoing economic crisis), who do you think he's going to go to bat for? You? Sorry to break it to you, but you are easy to throw under the bus. Your faithful loyalty to the Democrats ("ask Obama why?") means you will never get the change you need and want.

For more on what this new ban means, here's the ACLU:

"[T]he White House has decided to voluntarily impose the ban for all women in the newly-created high risk insurance pools. What is disappointing is that there is nothing in the law that requires the Obama administration to impose this broad and highly restrictive abortion ban. It doesn't allow states to choose to cover abortion and it doesn't even give women the option to buy abortion coverage using their own money...

"Unless the Administration reverses this decision, some of America's most vulnerable women—those with pre-existing conditions who have been denied health care coverage on the individual market—won't be able to purchase abortion coverage except in the case of rape or incest or to save the pregnant woman's life."

Meanwhile, in Charlotte, NC, violent anti-abortion activists affiliated with Operation Save America are gathering for a week of protests aimed at closing down the long-standing clinic there, Family Reproductive Health (there are other clinics as well, but this is the focus of their attack). On Saturday morning, 50 of them showed up (with their kids in tow), pushing their message of hate and yelling into the faces of about 14 abortion rights defenders. One anti-abortion protester was arrested when he tried to build a scaffolding against the wall of the clinic.

This group of "fringe lunatics" (ones with political initiative and connections to money and power though) has been postering neighborhoods of Charlotte and stalking doctors with Family Reproductive Health - threatening not just their livelihoods but their lives, and upholding the murder of doctors like Dr. George Tiller. This mobilization continues throughout the week in Charlotte, and local organizers estimate next Saturday, the 24th will be the largest day of protest.

Then, Operation Rescue, the Wichita-based anti-abortion group with demonstrated links to the admitted murderer who killed Dr. Tiller, is sending "missionaries" to Albuquerque, NM, this summer to spearhead a new campaign targetting Dr. Curtis Boyd there. They might be hoping to tap into the whipped up anti-immigrant fascist mood in the southwest but thankfully local activists are not taking a "wait and see" approach. Already they are calling for a preemptive protest rally on July 30, and the NM Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice has started circulating a petition.

People on the ground in Charlotte and Albuquerque (as well as in front of countless clinics across the country) are acting to do what must be done to protect clinics from violence and threats. But the majority of the pro-choice movement, which thought that electing Barack Obama would allow a respite from the constant (and constantly slipping) struggle for the right to have control over one of the most basic decisions affecting women's lives needs to face facts. Obama and the Democrats are in power. And power, as Fredrick Douglass said, concedes nothing without struggle.