By Jack Balkwill
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jan 30, 2007, 00:31

On Saturday, American citizens responded to an illegal war they were forced to support with their taxes and the blood of their children. The war on the people of Iraq has taken hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and created havoc for Iraqis still living.

The people marched on the nation’s Capitol Saturday, expressing their outrage with the start of a months-long rebellion that will be told in future history books. It was not a protest of wild-eyed radicals, but one of mainstream Americans, who have had enough of tyranny. Elderly people could be seen, combat veterans, and even people from my neighborhood, the conservative Tidewater region of Virginia -- Pat Robertson country.

It was here in Tidewater that Thomas Jefferson was educated at the College of William and Mary. Jefferson foresaw that the people might run into such a dilemma as an illegal foreign war, and backed an amendment [1] to the Constitution, with the proposition that it is the right of the people peaceably to assemble, as they did Saturday.

Although a clear majority of citizens want the troops out of Iraq [2], neither the executive nor legislative branches have a plan to comply. We are hearing from the Congress only suggestions of resolutions that our troops should, sort of, not be increased in Iraq, perhaps. President Bush and Vice President Cheney have responded sternly that they don't care what Congress thinks, they will overrule any such whimpers as these.

From here in the Tidewater region of Virginia, home to dozens of military bases, forts and stations -- the most militarized and conservative region in America, we sent hundreds of protesters to the capitol Saturday demanding that the troops be brought home from Iraq.

Among the speakers in Washington were Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Congressman Dennis Kucinich (the other presidential candidates did not show their faces after voting for an illegal war and/or appropriations with which to sustain it). House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers voiced the will of the people at the rally, “Out if Iraq immediately. This year. We've got to go.”

Jefferson wrote his friend and fellow Virginian James Madison from Paris on another January day in 1787, "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical." Saturday the people took him up on that, and participated in opening a rebellion with skirmishes planned to come.

Anticipating that the war may not stop as a result of Saturday’s march, the people have more demonstrations planned for this ongoing rebellion. On February 17, when a new appropriation of some hundred billion dollars more for Iraq war is considered, comes "No More Money for War Day," with local protests across the country to demand the cutoff of all war funding. But if those in power do not listen, an escalation is planned.

On March 17 comes the "March on the Pentagon -- Stay in Washington" protest. The Troops Out Now Coalition is working with the ANSWER Coalition and other national groups to organize a massive march on the Pentagon on the fourth anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq. This time, protesters plan to stay in Washington until Congress cuts off all war spending -- it will be a time to move from protest to resistance, as Jefferson encouraged. Check the Troops Out Now website for details, updates, and transportation from your area.

It is an exciting time here in the Tidewater region of Virginia, where we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown this year, the first English settlement in the New World leading to the birth of our nation, nearby at Yorktown, with the defeat of the British army in 1781. But something is missing, as we are bogged down in the kind of foreign war the Founding Fathers dreaded in their writings.

People are being killed in Iraq every day, and the experts tell us the biggest cause of violence is the presence of Western troops. Most of the attacks are on Americans. With Western troops out; the violence will be reduced by at least half, probably far more than that. Neighboring countries should be able to provide Islamic troops for temporary security-- with regional political talks leading to the kind of solution that has the best chance for success. Democracy cannot be spread by gunfire.

Jefferson went about as far as one may go with rebellious words in his Declaration of Independence, about times like these, when reason breaks down and our rulers fail to listen to the people, "That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it."

Notes

[1] Actually introduced by his friend James Madison.

[2] In fact, a Zogby poll last year found that even 72% of troops stationed in Iraq thought the troops should leave within a year, and nearly a quarter of them thought immediately.