>Like I said to a guy in the elevator today, "Hell, if there was a big statue
>of George Bush in Chicago, I bet we could get ten thousand people to pull it
>down." (I didn't continue: but in that case the armed men wouldn't
>protect us
>and help us, they'd shoot us.)
oh geez. it may have been spontaneous, it is really hard to say. but come on people. there is work to be done! two blocks away, the marines were beating 'em off at the University of Baghdad. How do you think the Iraqi nationalists unhappy about this aggression feel? You think _you_ are depressed? What about the people in the hospitals. How do you suppose they feel. How do you suppose it feels at all to cheer in the streets. Iraqis live in class society, too. Of course, they are going to cheer in the streets--some of them. But it was a minority. And many of them are looking for something, anything, to grasp on to. Many of them are scared witless of what fate may lie ahead and if they're just numb, it's the same numbness that enables USers to sit idly by, feeling powerless, most of them.
what we have is an experience. in case it was only book learning or in case we'd forgotten, we were able to watch the enemy in action and learn for the first time or to remember, yet again, what the fuck we are really up against. but more importantly, we were able to see ourselves in action. we experienced what it was like to use new technologies to mobilize large numbers of people quickly. we experienced comradery. we witnessed small and large acts of bravery and generosity. we had passionate arguments with one another. we learned or we will learn from them. we reasoned through a difficult time--together.
we can use these networks, these bonds, this knowledge of ourselves and "them" in order to keep going, getting better in our analyses, getting better in our arguments, getting better in the ways we can advance struggle. getting better in the way we can throw sand in the machinery. and maybe, just maybe, we can learn how to preempt the ratbastards on _our_ terms.
we will "lose" many battles until then.
kelley
and don't forget, the sn00z is filled with psyops for the Iraqis and information warfare on the u.s.