On Saturday, May 31 United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) held a National Teach-in on Iraq, Preemptive War & Democracy in Washington, D.C. It was a wonderful event that many people came from out of town to attend. Groups rented buses to come to D.C.

There were panels of speakers on several topics during the course of the afternoon. Featured speakers included Ralph Nader, Damu Smith, Cynthia McKinney and Hussein Ibish.

I heard the panel on the Realities of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. The first speaker on that panel, Rania Masri, works for the Southern Peace Research and Education Center. Masri, an impassioned orator, said that Iraq has suffered massive destruction from the war but what the U.S. is going to do in Iraq is not rebuild or reconstruct it. She explained that reconstucting a place means to make it like it was before it was damaged. The U.S. is not going to make Iraq like it was before the invasion.

She said that what the U.S. is going to do is deconstruct Iraq. The U.S. and its corporations are going to privatize every service in Iraq from electricity to water to transportation, and, of course, control Iraq's oil profits and production.

She called for congressional hearings on war profiteering by corporations. Such hearings were held after WWI and the Korean War according to Masri.

She also said that if people oppose the occupation of Iraq then they must oppose Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza too. She stated that no occupation brings freedom or democracy. She called for the U.S. to withdraw all of its troops from Iraq immediately. Masri also supports the right of return for the Palestinians.

She condemned the U.S. as the only country that has used nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and said the U.S. has the most weapons of mass destruction of any nation on earth. The U.S. used nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Masri explained, and used chemical weapons during the Vietnam War when it sprayed Agent Orange on the forests. The use of a biological weapon was in another century when blankets were deliberately infected with smallpox and given to Native Americans.

Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness, spoke to the audience via satellite. She talked about the suffering of the Iraqi people and sorrowfully recounted the destruction of the Museum of Antiquities. Allowing the theft of these priceless artifacts is a crime against the culture and history of humanity. She said that the artifacts belong to the people of the world as well as to the Iraqis.

Andy Shallal, an Iraqi citizen, spoke next and said that important records in every area of life were all destroyed during the rampant vandalism and theft after the regime fell. So now people can't prove they graduated from a university or qualify for a certain trade or own their own house. Iraqis are afraid to travel out of the country or even go out of town because they fear losing their house, if someone else moved into it while they were gone. No records exist to prove ownership of property. Civil chaos exists there.

The next speaker, Phyllis Bennis from the Institute for Policy Studies, said that the war was not a preemptive war. Iraq was not going to attack the U.S. so the war did not preempt any action. She stated that it was a war of aggression, and what is new is that the U.S. is justifying this war of aggression which is condemned by international law. Wars of aggression are the beginning of every other war crime.

Bennis spoke of the second super power, world public opinion. She said that the power of people can overcome military power.

Howard Zinn, author of "A People's History of the United States," spoke next via satellite and said the U.S. has engaged in empire building before. He told about the U.S. going to war against Mexico in the 1840's for trumped up reasons because this country wanted to steal half of Mexico. The U.S. took California and Arizona. Zinn said that empires fall and this one can fall too.

While I was not able to hear every speaker at the teach-in, it was certainly a great program. The speakers gave the audience a huge amount of information to digest and consider. It was educational and thought provoking and worth the time of everyone who attended it.