A basic principle long embedded at the core of western legal systems is the right to use force to protect oneself, family and community from harm. Bush has gone to war to "protect" America, that's how unquestionable the right of self-protection is.

But Bush fabricated an enemy. He is running a protection racket, just like any other group of gangsters. In this sense, his war is not real in terms of its justification. It's built on a big pile of lies.

On the other hand, the people of the world have a REAL enemy and a real and very serious threat to their peace and freedom - the same things Bush is supposedly protecting. And, confronted with such a threat, we are surely justified in taking whatever action is necessary to protect ourselves, individually and collectively.

Why do we continue to swallow the propaganda that strong, effective action is wrong, that it's inconsistent with peace? Sometimes you just have to stand up tall for your rights and do what you have to do to protect them.

This is a very critical point in world events. There could be a global people's revolution or we could just resign ourselves to living the slave-life on a prison planet. And it's dreadfully obvious that if we don't get out of passive mode and tool up for more serious and effective engagement, then our fate will shortly be sealed.

One of the most powerful tools available to us is the Internet. Indeed, the Indymedia network and many other alternative news sites are evidence of this. So is the amazing ability now of activists to quickly organize global actions. However, this is not unique to the activist community. Anyone can do it now. The world has gone global. It's just that the Internet is still in its early days and hasn't been hijacked yet (not for lack of trying).

But there are other ways the Internet can be "used". This war is mainly a propaganda war at its core and the war machine is using electronic tools to the max. Look at how many Arab and alternative websites have been continuously hacked since the war began. Why aren't we doing this too as a counter measure to check their propaganda? Are we just going to let them spout off their lies and do nothing practical to shut them up? It doesn't make sense to just sit there and do nothing, under some pretense of being "peaceful".

I consider myself a pacifist. I don't like to fight. I don't even like moderate confrontation. But this situation has got so out of hand and is so dangerous for the whole world that I now believe it's ok to hack down someone's website if they are part of the Big Lie on which today's insane situation is built. I believe I have not only a right, but a DUTY to myself and my world, to do everything I can to remove this cancer from humanity.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not going out with a gun. There are better ways to make a difference. Once of them is something we can all, collectively do quite easily, and that is to coordinate attacks on selected websites that are primary sources of pro-war propaganda. This can be done so easily, yet few are doing it. Why not? Because it's "illegal"? The anti-war movement has already, falsely, been given credit for it, so what are we waiting for?

DDOS (distributed denial of service) may be a 4-letter word, but we shouldn't be afraid of it. It's really our friend. And since it's mostly the corporate/government world that has all the websites and mostly the little people who have all the computers that visit those websites, we have the perfect scenario. If only we would use it.

There are simple little tools that you can run from your own computer to attack a website simply by requesting a whole whack of pages. If many people conspire to do this at the same time their servers could grind to a half, depending on what kind of traffic they can handle.

A basic DDOS tool is extremely simple to make. Using one does no permanent damage. For information, try these websites for a start. They have downloadable online action tools. A search on Google will probably reveal others.

 http://epidemic.ws/antimafia/ (WOW!)
 http://www.fraw.org.uk/ehippies/ (targets vary)
 http://www.kbiz.ca/wartools/ (media related)

Articles:

 http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,13483,00.html
 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/032510downi.html
 http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/11/07/DoS.attacks.idg/
 http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=60162&group=webcast