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Martin Luther King Day
January 15, 2007
Today is Martin Luther King day. We can re-visit his “I have a dream” speech or better still, as suggested by Gary Younge in UK Guardian, to re-read the transcript of what Dr King had said about American Imperialism.
The number of people drawing parallels between Iraq and Vietnam is growing. If you ever wonder why, read the following excerpt from Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” (note: I have changed “Vietnam” to “Iraq” and “China” to “Iran” which are marked in RED)
- Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of
VietnamIraq. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption inVietnamIraq. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.
- - snipped -
- If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in
VietnamIraq. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goadChinaIran into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war against the people ofVietnamIraq immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play.
- - end of quote -
Surely, as Dr KIng said, “The Madness has to Stop”.
Posted to General at January 15, 2007 06:36 PM :
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Comments
Absolutely amazing. Dr. King saw not just the war in Vietnam, but what we as a people (and our leaders) have yet to understand. The U.S. is exporting American democracy through military intervention. The intervention further fragments local ideology as it has in Lebanon. Iraq is simply our latest export failure. It troubles me that our president has ignored the American people and even Congress in pressing for more troops in Iraq.
posted by: Driver8 ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.hollymolly.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 17, 2007 02:19 AM
People in government often tend to forget that they are serving their people. Unfortunate and even more so when it happens in a free society like yours.
posted by: missgugu at January 18, 2007 12:59 PM
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