[Peace-discuss] The future of P4P (and a new P4P idea)

[Randall Cotton]

As the war proceeds, some may wonder whether P4P (our weekly "Prospect for
Peace" demonstration) is still relevant now that the war has started. I
think it's fair to say that the major thrust of P4P in the months leading up
to the war was to try to educate and rally others in an effort to prevent
the war from ever starting. At this point I would argue that energy spent
trying to stop this particular war will become increasingly pointless as the
invasion and occupation is completed. Indeed, beyond some point in the
progress of the invasion, it may actually be worse for the Iraqi people (and
the rest of humanity as well) if the U.S. stopped in its tracks, pulled out
and came home. Beyond some point, the damage is already done and pulling out
to let Saddam take over again (or, worse yet, to see the birth of a new
Afghanistan) would only make things worse.

That does not mean, however, that P4P will become increasingly pointless. I
would argue it's more relevant than ever for several reasons.

1. protesting in large numbers may have a positive effect on how the war is
prosecuted (in terms of politically acceptable civilian deaths).

2. Though we all saw long ago that this war was a "really bad idea", there
are obviously still many Americans (perhaps even most at this moment in
time) who don't yet "get it". Just because the killing has started, that's
no time to give up trying to show people this war was wrong. It's more
urgent than ever. We are informed enough to know that this will not
necessarily stop with Iraq. This could easily only be the first war of many
unless America wakes up and "gets it".

Granted, at the moment, it's hard to change minds because the war has just
begun and how it will unfold remains uncertain, but I would argue time is on
our side. The primary reason Americans support the war right now (beyond
equating it with support for the troops) is that they put faith in the
administration's unproven justifications: Saddam links to Al-qaeda and 9/11,
weapons of mass destruction, "liberation" of Iraqi people, decrease of
terrorism, beneficial spread of democracy in the middle east, a relatively
short and easy war with few civilian casualties, and so on. At the moment,
all these justifications are unproven or unprovable, but in time their
validity (or lack thereof) will emerge with more clarity. As events unfold,
the truth comes to light, and these justifications start to evaporate, it's
important for us to use events like P4P to help drive that truth home to the
public.

3. While stopping this particular war is less relevant now, the much bigger
issue at stake remains - the outrageously aggressive official U.S. policy of
unilateral "pre-emption" ("prevention" being the more accurate term) that
laid the foundation for this war. And, of course, the smug, imperialist,
morally-bankrupt hawks surrounding the president who clearly formulated this
policy and are undoubtedly pushing for the even more extreme policies they
have already publicly advocated in the past. The start of this war should be
an alarm call to action, not a sign of defeat.

New P4P Idea
---------------
As I mentioned above, it's tough to change minds right now because
indisputable proof invalidating the justifications for the war isn't yet
available (at least proof that's easily understood by those who haven't
quite caught on yet). I'm confident this proof will emerge in time, but for
the here and now there is one new indisputable fact which sheds doubt on
this war and becomes more clear as each day passes - many people are dying.
The first step in convincing the rest of America that this war was wrong
(and that others should not follow) is to make damn sure they know that. In
particular, the most effective strategy (and this goes double for those that
are hopping on the bandwagon to "support the troops") is to make damn sure
they know *Americans* are dying - the very troops they profess to support. I
propose large, durable foamboard signs (similar to the size we commonly use
already - 40" x 30") each with a photo of a different American killed (at
least 20 so far) with their name, rank, hometown and date they were killed
and a caption along the lines of: "Bush CHOSE this war! He didn't need to
die." or "Bush CHOSE this war! Ask yourself why." The effect would be
greater if we could line up people wearing black, each carrying one of these
signs (perhaps right next to the "Pro-America" demonstrators =8-). Not only
does this force passers-by to face an irrefutably devastating cost of this
war, it also works to counter the false generalization that anti-war people
are "anti-troops". As the war progresses, the cost in blood and treasure
mounts, and the justifications fall away, we can add other signs to
illustrate all that, all the while keeping the portraits of those killed in
prominent view as a damning exclamation point.

I've created a sample of what I'm talking about (showing Capt. Ryan Beaupre,
from Illinois, who was one of the first few killed) at:

http://salty.ncsa.uiuc.edu/beaupre.pdf

(Thanks to John Fettig for posting this on the web). Please respond with
comments, suggestions and whether you're interested in helping put this
together. Depending on interest, I'll make up a few of these on my own (at
my cost). If there's sufficient interest, I can present this at the next
meeting.