Dr. King on "strange liberators"

[welshTerrier2]

U.S. military has flattened the Iraqi city of Falujah ... it's gone ... American troops have routinely cut down date and palm trees, torn down fencing used to protect farm animals from wolves, and polluted both the land and the water ... The production of electricity is less than when the U.S. first invaded ... many Iraqis now see more hope from what the "insurgents" can offer than what the Americans have brought to their lives ...

strange "liberators" indeed ... sadly, it appears not a single DNC Chair candidate, nor the Party's platform itself, has called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq ...

it is sad that we apparently have learned nothing from our tragic history ... here is what Dr. King had to say on the subject of liberators during the Vietnam War:

"They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least 20 casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?

We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only noncommunist revolutionary political force -- the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?"

[tgnyc]

1. a video montage to go along with that speech

is at www.intelligencesquad.com/id101.html

[meppie-meppie not]

2. TY both! these were great, and much appreciated :-) n/t

[Stepup2]

3. Powerful, even more so now

imo.

Thank you for this post.

It seems many people are familiar with MLK's "I Have a Dream Speech. but so many of his writings/speeches are timeless.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if his writings were not germane because we had evolved a little beyond them.