[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Zinn / Victory? / Jul 24

[Morton K.Brussel]

Worth remembering.

MKB

Begin forwarded message:
>
> ZNet Commentary
> Victory? July 24, 2003
> By Howard Zinn
>
> The "victory" over an already devastated and disarmed Iraq led Bush, 
> Rumsfeld and their teammates into a locker-room frenzy of exultation 
> and self-congratulation. I half-expected to see Bush joyfully pouring 
> beer on Rumsfeld’s head and Ashcroft snapping a towel at Ari 
> Fleischer’s derriere.
>
> But it turns out that they thought the Iraq game was over, when it was 
> only the fifth inning. The war did not bring order to Iraq, but chaos, 
> not crowds of cheering Iraqis, but widespread hostility. "No to 
> Saddam! No to Bush!" were the signs, as Iraqis contemplated their 
> ruined historic treasures, their destroyed homes, and the graves of 
> their dead -- thousands and thousands of civilians and soldiers, with 
> many more men, women, children wounded. And it goes on as I write this 
> in mid-June -- an ugly occupation. I see a headline "U.S. Troops Kill 
> 70 in Iraqi Crackdown".
>
> With each passing day, the Bush administration’s lies are being 
> exposed. There were the lies about war being necessary to destroy 
> Iraq’s "weapons of mass destruction". But an American army of 200,000, 
> moving aggressively throughout the country, cannot find them. The only 
> weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have been the bombs and missiles 
> raining down by the thousands, the cluster bombs spewing out their 
> deadly pellets, the arsenal of the greatest military power on earth 
> visiting destruction on a country ruled by a murderous tyrant, but 
> militarily helpless.
>
> There were the lies about wanting "self-determination" for the Iraqis, 
> as the new officialdom, headed by wealthy exiles, is flown into 
> positions of power, just as once Ngo Dinh Diem was flown into Saigon 
> by the United States, proclaiming its intention that Vietnam should 
> govern itself. Through all this there is a sinking feeling that most 
> of Americans remain ignorant of these things, and so still support 
> George Bush by a decisive majority.
>
> But consider how volatile is public opinion, how it can change (and 
> has done so many times) with dramatic suddenness. Note the large 
> majority support for George Bush the elder, and then the quick 
> collapse of that support as the glow of victory in the Gulf War faded, 
> and the reality of economic trouble set in.
>
> Think of how in 1965 two-thirds of Americans supported the war in 
> Vietnam, and a few years later two-thirds opposed the war. What 
> happened in those two years? A gradual realization of having been lied 
> to, an osmosis of the truth, of information seeping more and more 
> through the cracks of the propaganda system. That is beginning to 
> happen now.
>
>
> A bit of historical perspective reminds us that governments which seem 
> to be in total control, of guns, of money, of the minds of the 
> population, find that all their power is futile against the power of 
> an aroused citizenry. The leaders awake one morning to see a million 
> angry people in the streets of the capital city, and they begin 
> packing their bags and calling for a helicopter. This is not a fantasy 
> but history. It’s the history of the Philippines, of Indonesia, of 
> Russia, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, and other places where 
> change looked hopeless and then it happened.
>
> There is a long history of imperial powers, gloating over victories, 
> becoming over-extended and overconfident, as their citizens begin to 
> get uneasy because their day-to-day fundamental needs are being 
> sacrificed for military glory while their young are sent to die in 
> wars. The uneasiness grows and grows, and the citizenry gather in 
> resistance in larger and larger numbers, and become too much to 
> control, and one day the top-heavy empire falls over.
>
> We don’t expect Bush to scurry off in a helicopter. But he can lose 
> the next election, just as he lost the last one, and this time perhaps 
> not all the king’s judges or all the king’s men will be able to put 
> Humpty-Dumpty together again.
>
> And there are already people around the country calling for his 
> impeachment. Of course, we do not expect a craven Congress to impeach 
> him. They were willing to impeach Nixon for breaking into a building. 
> They will not impeach Bush for breaking into a country. They were 
> willing to impeach Clinton because of his sexual shenanigans, but they 
> will not impeach Bush for his pandering to the super-rich. Still, it 
> is good to bring up impeachment, because the Constitution allows it 
> for "high crimes and misdemeanors" and it is an opportunity to discuss 
> the high crimes of this government.
>
> The change in public opinion starts with a low-level discontent, at 
> first vague, with no connection being made between the discontent and 
> the policies of the government. And then the dots begin to be 
> connected, and indignation rises, and people begin to speak out, to 
> organize, to act.
>
> Today, all over the country, there is a growing awareness of the 
> shortage of teachers, of nurses, of medical care, of affordable 
> housing, of cuts in human services in every state of the union. A 
> teacher writes a letter to the Boston Globe: "I may be one of 600 
> Boston teachers who will be laid off as a result of budget 
> shortfalls". And connects it to the billions spent for bombs "sending 
> innocent Iraqi children to hospitals in Baghdad."
>
> Rebellion often starts in the culture, which we are seeing today -- 
> the poets in defiance, the actors and writers speaking out, the 
> musicians and rap groups taking a stand -- a rebellion that is first 
> ignored by the major media, and then becomes hard to ignore. We see 
> Michael Moore winning an Academy Award and speaking his mind to a huge 
> national and international audience. We see the radical collective Def 
> Jam Poetry Jam winning a Tony Award as millions watch.
>
> The arrogance, the posturing of this administration is becoming more 
> and more hollow as its lies become exposed, its "victory" in Iraq a 
> sham, its tax program an obvious theft by the rich.
>
> In the rest of the planet (and remember we in the United States are 
> only 4% of the world population) this nation is seen not as a 
> liberator but as a marauder. After the unprecedented worldwide 
> demonstrations of over ten million people against the invasion of 
> Iraq, a New York Times reporter wrote: "There are now two superpowers, 
> the United States and world public opinion."
>
> In Aeschylus’ play, "The Persians", now playing in New York, we see 
> the fall of the seemingly invincible Persian empire. The chorus 
> recognizes a new reality:
>
>
> "All those years we spent jubilant,
> seeing the trifling,cowering
> world from the height of our
> shining saddles, brawling our might
> across the earth as we forged an
> empire, I never questioned....
>
> It seemed so clear -- our fate was to rule.
> That’s what I thought at the time.
> But perhaps we were merely
> Deafened for
> years by the din of our own
> empire-buiilding, the
> shouts of battle, the clanging of
> swords, the cries of victory.
>
> Those of us who become momentarily disheartened by "the cries of 
> victory" should remind ourselves of that long history in which 
> seemingly insurmountable power fell of its own unbearable weight, but 
> also because of the resistance of those who refused finally to bear 
> that weight, and would not give up.