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The following is the speech by Carole Seligman to the February 16th mass demonstration in the San Francisco Civic Center, representing Bay Area United Against War.

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The American people join the majority of the world’s people to demand “No War on Iraq!” The government, with the collusion of the TV and newspapers, has lied about the war to keep the people ignorant. For example, most Americans who oppose this war against Iraq believe that the Bush Administration has hijacked American foreign policy.

The truth is that the war against Iraq did not start on September 11, 2001. Nor did it start with the Gulf War in 1991. The truth is that for nearly a century the industrialized powers of the West have been fighting over the oil-rich Middle East. The Western powers, including the United States have lied, cheated, conquered and divided territories, corrupted and assassinated leaders, paid Israel to kill and expel Palestinians from their lands, and done whatever they felt was necessary to satisfy their greed for oil and empire.

One year Saddam Hussein is a friend and the United States, and Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan supply him arms, including poison gas. A few years later, Bush senior, Bill Clinton, and now Bush junior bomb the children of Iraq as their mortal enemies.

Why this reversal? In the first period Saddam Hussein helped fight against the Iranian revolution, which threatened to push all Western oil companies out of the Middle East. In the second, Saddam Hussein tried to say that Iraqi oil belongs to Iraqis.

You and I are not supposed to know that every American president, including Carter, Clinton, and Bush, has been a tool of Big Oil. When these politicians, and now George W. wave the flag and say “Mom,” and “apple pie,” or “fight terrorism,” we are supposed to salute and sacrifice the lives of the young, and stay ignorant.

We will not do it. The truth must be told.We will march. We will rally. We will walk off our jobs and out of our classrooms, but we will not support this dirty war!

We will not shed blood for oil! Bring the troops home now!