[Northampton-GP] FW: My availability to speak against the war and occupation

[Scott McGinley]

----------
> From: Rudy Perkins <rudyperkins at yahoo.com>
> Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 10:13:51 -0700 (PDT)
> To: David Ebony Allen Barkley <e.zok at verizon.net>, Vanessa Bliss
> <vanessa at green-rainbow.org>, Ron Francis <ronwf777 at yahoo.com>, gary hicks
> <gooberthink06 at yahoo.com>, Gerthy Justafort <glahens932 at aol.com>, Dan
> Melnechuk <isis at isisdesign.com>, Gil Obler <gil at massgreens.org>, Grace Ross
> <Gracegrnrnbw at aol.com>, Aimee Smith <alsmith at mit.edu>, State Com
> <statecom at green-rainbow.org>, Keith Wright <keith.wright at comcast.net>
> Subject: My availability to speak against the war and occupation
> 
> To members of the Green-Rainbow Party Ad Com and State
> Com,
> (bcc?ed to other friends and Green-Rainbow/Green
> colleagues)
> 
> re:  My availability to speak against the war at local
> Green-Rainbow/Green, peace and community events
> 
> As you may know, I have been coordinating the Cost of
> War Project within the Green-Rainbow Party for much of
> the past year.  (Go to www.green-rainbow.org and
> scroll down to the Cost of War link on the party home
> page if you haven?t seen any of these materials.)  In
> that capacity I have done a lot of research on the
> Iraq war and related history and policy.  Springing
> from that work, over the past year I have given quite
> a few public talks against the war.
> 
> I would be happy to speak at any Green-Rainbow /
> Green, peace or community event you are planning.  I
> have found that these talks are a very good way to
> communicate the serious reasoning behind, and the
> extensive evidence supporting, the anti-war position
> and the practicality of the non-violent alternatives
> to war.
> 
> I have worked up a variety of talks and would be happy
> to speak at your event about any of the following:
> 
> 1) THE COST OF WAR -  Focusing on the Iraq war, this
> talk examines the human, economic, and environmental
> costs of war and the damaging impact of the ?war on
> terrorism? on our civil liberties and democratic
> processes.  (See Cost of War leaflets #1-4 and #8 to
> get an idea of some of the material that would be
> covered in this talk in expanded and updated form.)
> 
> 2) THE REAL REASONS FOR THE WAR ? This talk debunks
> the official reasons for the war and explores some of
> the likely real reasons for the war, including the
> American aim to control Persian Gulf oil reserves and
> permanently base U.S. forces there, the war as part of
> the administration?s goal of U.S. global military
> predominance, and the war as part of the Republican
> domestic political agenda to influence the 2002 and
> 2004 U.S. elections.
> 
> 3) A WAR FOR OIL -  This talk examines the history of
> Anglo-American efforts to control middle eastern oil,
> often through the use of the CIA and Anglo-American
> military incursions.  It begins with Winston
> Churchill?s advocacy of converting the British
> imperial navy from coal to oil in the early 20th
> century and his consequent drive to secure Persian
> Gulf oil sources, and continues through:
> - the CIA coup in Iran to overthrow the nationalist
> leader Mossadeq and re-install the Shah of Iran in
> 1953, 
> - the Suez crisis in 1956,
> - the landing of U.S. and British forces in the middle
> east in response to the nationalist coup in Iraq in
> 1958, 
> - the 1963 Iraq coup in which the CIA supported the
> party that would later bring Saddam Hussein to power,
> - the Nixon Doctrine and U.S. support for the brutal
> shah of Iran in the 1970s,
> - the 1979 Iranian revolution and the 1980 Carter
> Doctrine, 
> - the U.S. support for Saddam Hussein during the
> Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, and
> - the oil aspects of the Gulf War of 1991.
> It concludes with some of the compelling evidence that
> the current U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq is a
> continuation of this policy of U.S./British wars and
> subversion to control Persian Gulf oil.  (See Cost of
> War leaflet #5 to get a highly abbreviated idea of
> some of what this talk covers.  The talk goes into
> much more detail about the history of Anglo-American
> intervention to control Persian Gulf oil.)
> 
> 4) THE NONVIOLENT ALTERNATIVES TO WAR -  Using the
> Iraq war as the case example, this talk examines the
> proven, practical, nonviolent alternatives to war for
> dealing with dictatorships, weapons of mass
> destruction and terrorism.  (For an abbreviated
> version of the material covered in this talk, see Cost
> of War #7, available through the Restoring American
> Democracy link at www.thedovetailgroup.org and soon to
> be available through the Cost of War link at the
> Green-Rainbow Party?s website.)
> 
> 5) WHY PREVENTIVE WAR IS WRONG ? Focusing on the Iraq
> war, this talk lays out the case against the Bush
> doctrine of ?preventive war.?  The talk explains how
> so-called preventive war is illegal under
> international law, immoral on the scales of justice,
> counter-productive in national security terms, and
> unnecessary.  
> 
> In my experience these talks provoke interesting
> questions and discussion about the war and the
> non-violent alternatives and can be used as an anchor
> point for a local organizing event.  With the U.S.
> occupation of Iraq getting bloodier and costlier by
> the day, many Americans are open to hearing these
> arguments and coming over to the side of Green and
> peace politics.  The time is ripe to reach out to
> them.
> 
> These talks take a minimum of 20-25 minutes to give.
> 30-45 minutes is better, with at least a half hour to
> an hour allowed for questions and discussion
> afterwards.  I can combine some of the topics and can
> give the talks on either a non-partisan or Green /
> Green-Rainbow partisan basis, as is most appropriate
> for your event.  
> 
> The talks will be most productive if you arrange to
> have Green / Green-Rainbow Party literature (including
> printing some of the Cost of War series --
> particularly leaflets #7 and #8 which were written
> after the war was officially launched), party
> membership forms, and voter registration cards there
> for people to take home with them.  My preference is
> to talk to groups of at least 20 people.  By way of
> additional background, I am an attorney and am also a
> member of the U.S. Green Party?s national coordinating
> committee ? although I am speaking here, and would be
> speaking at any event, in an individual capacity and
> not on behalf of the state or national party.
> 
> You can reach me at rudyperkins at yahoo.com or by phone
> at 978-249-0923.
> 
> Thanks. 
> --  Rudy Perkins
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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