On the Aftermath of the visit

galway | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Saturday June 26, 2004 23:34 by Sedition

On the tasks needed to be fulfilled post-Bush's vist

Armoured tanks drove freely around Clare in a display unseen since the times of British occupation. The Gardai, in their luminescent jackets, were ubiquitous. Overhead, helicopters flew in constant observation of us protestors. Ten million euros were spent on one the states largest security operations. And all this for what? To protect the greatest threat to humanity in existence- a Mr George Walker Bush.
Listening to his interview with Carol Coleman yesterday and his press conference today, one could be lead to assume that George is really a “nice guy”, just given a lot of bad press by the media. However, Bush’s specious comments must be exposed for their blatant mendacity. A task that all of us, who took part at the demonstrations at Shannon and Dromoland Castle, should feel proud to have fulfilled. For this rapacious plutocrat should never be allowed to set foot on any country in this world without protest. We cannot allow him to escape the reality of humanity- this being, the fact that we do not want war, but peace.
I believe that this week following his visit is an important one for us. For, we must not permit the media to propagate a benign view of this visitor. Already I have seen ridiculous arguments printed questioning why people aren’t protesting against Al-Queda, terrorism etc. We must inform these papers that terrorism is not a spontaneous occurrence, perpetrated by evil men against basic freedoms. But, in actuality, a result of centuries of imperialism, racism, domination, and exploitation (in that order) by those who now feel shocked that a backfire has occurred.