[Imc] Talk on the US military, etc.

[C. G. Estabrook]

Urbana-Champaign IMC:

I was gratified to hear on today's Independent Media Center's News Hour on
WEFT an account of a talk that I gave at the Illini Union's "Cerebral
Cafe" on October 24.  The talk was entitled, "Mr. Bush's War: How Do We
Stop the US from Killing More?"

Unfortunately, from today's broadcast account, it seems I failed to make
myself clear on at least one important point in the talk, concerning the
American military and the war in Afghanistan.  I was trying to suggest how
we might combat this war, drawing from the example of the US assault on
Vietnam.  I'll take the liberty of including here a whole section from my
notes for the talk, as follows:

"We might take a lesson from how, after horrendous killing, the US was
forced to stop the war in Vietnam.  There were three principal reasons:
[1] the courageous resistance of the Vietnamese people; [2] the revolt of
the American military in Vietnam; and [3] the slow but effective growth of
awareness of the nature of the war and opposition to it in the US.  By the
end of the war, 80% of the US public agreed in polls that the war was not
simply mistaken but immoral, not a blunder but a crime.

"In the case of the present war, tragically, we can count on reason [1]. A
major assault on the Middle East by the US is nothing short of the answer
to Bin Laden's prayers.  It will produce resistance from those whom the US
has oppressed and exploited throughout the region.

"But [2] will not be much of a factor.  The US learnt in Southeast Asia
(as the French had learnt there before) that a colonial war can't be
fought for long with conscript troops.  For every Phoenix-program
terrorist like ex-senator Bob Kerrey, slitting the throats of
non-combatants, there were a dozen American draftees that refused to go
into the jungle.  This was the army that invented "fragging" (rolling a
fragmentation grenade under the bunk of a gung-ho officer) and finally had
to be withdrawn.  So the US went to a "volunteer" military (an economic
draft, to be sure).  And then we have the "Powell Doctrine" -- a war crime
as stated -- "Only attack weak enemies and do it from the air, targeting
civilians and infrastructure, so you don't lose troops."  Under these
conditions, the US military is "reliable," as it wasn't in Vietnam thirty
years ago.

"So it comes down to [3] -- telling the truth and shaming the devil, as
Hotspur says.  The Pentagon and the putative president have announced that
this will be the most secret war ever.  It won't be secret from those whom
the US attacks, but, yes, it has to be secret from those our government
fears most -- the US public.  Our opposition to Bush's killing can be
constructed around the fact that people are not fools.  As in Vietnam,
when the American people come to know what is being done in their name,
they are horrified."

With best wishes for the success of the IMC's work,
	==============================================================
	C. G. Estabrook
	Visiting Professor of Sociology
	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [MC-190]
	109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana IL 61801 USA
	office 217.244.4105 / mobile 217.369.5471 / home 217.359.9466  
        <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>