Can virtual world protests work?

Second Life still has only 25,000 people at a time so one might think that protesting there might have the effect as staging a rally in my hometown of Ada, OK. Yet many of the people in SL are very connected with circles within and without that virtual world and the press has often taken an event in SL and amplified it because of its novelty.

Thanks to Rik and Beth for the heads up on a anti-escalation protest scheduled tomorrow - Monday at 2 pm PST in Second Life - Avatars Against the War! Actions for peace in the Metaverse Jan 27-29.

Iraq: More lessons from the Vietnam war

Peter Beinart in Time magazine 1-29 edition re: the fear of Iran taking over Iraq:

"Americans worried during the Vietnam War that if we left, Hanoi would become a puppet of its wartime patron, Bejing. Instead, four years after the U.S. evacuated Saigon, Vietnam and China were at war. When American troops on your doorstep it's easy to make common cause."

In the New Yorker 1-22 reviewing Bush's announcement of escalation:

"In a sincere tone of voice, the President also announced a door-to-door campaign "to gain the trust of the Baghdad residents."

and later

"This was the advice given by McGeorge Bundy to Lyndon Johnson in a memo dated Feburary 7, 1965, concerning an escalation plan for Vietnam that Bundy thought might have as little as twenty-five-per-cent change of success:

"Even if it fails, the policy will be worth it. At a minimum it will damp down the charge that we did not do all that we could have done, and this charge will be important in many countries, including our own.""

This advice coming almost ten years before the end of the Vietnam War. Don't tell me there is a chance we will still be fighting in Iraq in ten years.

Various thoughts about Iraq

Two of Saddam's associates were hung recently. One of them was beheaded, perhaps accidently. A spokesperson from the Iraqi qoverment said that this execution showed that they were making great progress in terms of exectutions. This may be true considering that Saddam's had elements of being lynched by Shiites.

Bush apparently thinks that anything Congress tries to do to cut funding of the increase in troops won't have any effect for at least a couple of month's. He is hoping that he will have some positive results to show by then. If he is right about the timing then the possible upside is that when the lawmakers do get around to cutting funding (and if Bush doesn't have any positive results) that they will be so pissed off at him that they will be talking about forcing an overall withdrawl rather than simply blocking the escalation.

In Bush's speech he blamed Iran and Syria for much of the trouble in Iraq. This tactic flies in the face of the independent report that called for us to negotiate with Iran and Syria to help figure a solution. One analyst said that the recent raid on an Iranian embassy was designed to provoke Iran into doing something that the US could use an excuse to retaliate. The scary thing is that if Bush is determined to go his own way despite the lack of public and expert support, then why wouldn't he go ahead and bomb Iran and Syria?

Apparently one unit of the Iraqi army that the Iraqi goverment is promising to send to Bagdad is Kurdish. I've long admired the Kurds since they seemed like such underdogs and don't have their own country. But sending them into this mess - where as I understand it they don't speak Arabic and they are hated by both the Shiites and Sunnis - seems like a huge mistake. In a way it's a microcosm of sending US troops in. Both sides will stop shooting at each other and turn their guns on the Kurds and the US troops as soon as we show up.

Dean wants you to write a letter to the editor

In a mass email from the Democratic party, Howard Dean says "The most effective thing you can do right now is send a letter to the editor of your local paper about escalation, and let them know that you demand a vote on any troop increase. Writing your letter to the editor is simple using our PartyBuilder advocacy tools. Just click here to get started"

I did it and it's easy. I sent a email letter to the SF Chronicle and the NY Times in one stroke. Afterwards the site prompted me to email the link to ten friends.

This feels more productive than writing representatives somehow. Perhaps because it seems that it's a new thing and the newspapers might respond to hundreds of thousands of letters even if they don't print the one you send.

Feinstein needs a call?

My wife went to the anti-escalation rally at San Francisco City Hall at noon today and the word there is that Diane Feinstein has not yet come out against Bush's proposed increase in troops for Iraq. On her site it lists: Phone: (202) 224-3841 Or in California - (415) 393-0707.

What's the best way to bring the troops home?

Bush announced an escalation of the war in Iraq on Wednesday night.

For the first time in a long time it feels like history is hanging in balance and that an expression of popular opinion might tip it in positive direction.

I'm ready to email my friends and ask them to join in effort to counter Bush's plan for more troops and email their friends as well. But it's not clear to me what's the best action to suggest.

(Edit on 1-9 - One thing seems clear to me. One person acting won't make any difference. The only way to defeat this is if you contact your friends as well.)

There is Moveon.org's petition . It automatically sends the petition to your particular representative. You can also make a contribution there to pay for advertising. I signed a personalized note and contributed $25.

(Edit on 1-9 - I also found Care2's petition and signed it. Very easy. The plus is that you get to see the comments from the people who preceeded you. Plus you can see that there is a new one every 15 sec. That helps.

These efforts are important because I can imagine someone saying "well, we never saw that many signatures so quickly from that group, there must be something going on."

I encourage you to take advantage of these petitions since they are set up to do this sort of thing at the moment. But I realize that that any message filtered through these groups is suspect from the POV of many recipients of the message. So...)

I'm looking for additional actions to take and to recommend to others. What would best get the attention of the people who might stand up and vote down the escalation? I appreciate your ideas.

(Edit 1-9 - My smart, connected friend (who shall go nameless since she terminated our IM session to take a call) says to focus on Kennedy's effort and use phone calls, faxes, and letters to key representatives, especially those other than Pelosi and the California Senators. So, here's a site of the contact info for Senators. And another for Congress.)

Here and here are earlier thoughts about getting out of Iraq.

(Edit 1-9 - if you act based on this post, please add a short comment - that helps move the thing along.)

Another great way to push commuters out of their cars and onto trains would be to provide a wifi signal.

I read yesterday that Autonet Mobile is offering a wifi signal for cars for $50 a month and it supports multiple users. Other orgs offer similar services.

Apparently Google already offers a wified van to pool it’s employees who live in SF.

And here is someone in Seattle offering guerilla wifi on a commuter train.

It sounds good to me especially on the newer trains that are smooth running and have lots of tables for laptop use. I can imagine current car drivers thinking through the possibility of getting a headstart on their workday rather than listening to the radio whle stuck in another traffic jam.

I’m writing this on the train in fact but no way to post it until I get home.