[Peace-discuss] Revised Commentary Submission

[David Green]

According to the CNN website, 37 of the 968 U.S.
soldiers killed in Iraq have been from Illinois.
According to the website costofwar.com, Illinois
taxpayers have paid over $7 billion of the nearly $130
billion that has been spent on this war. As local men
and women in our military continue be enlisted in our
government’s “war on terrorism,” it is vital to place
the events of 9/11 and subsequent wars in historical
context. But this past March, NPR’s Morning Edition
aired a commentary by Ruben Navarette titled “Enough
with Vietnam.” Navarette claimed that our current
world began on 9/11, and that reflecting on our
experience in Vietnam is irrelevant to preventing a
future attack on our soil.

Indeed, he expressed no interest in any of the
historical context relevant to an understanding of
terrorism as a response—however immoral--to U.S.
foreign policy. This imperial history broadly includes
U.S. relations with both Latin America and Asia, but
at the very least must consider U.S. policies in the
Middle East since World War II that have consistently
viewed the people of that region as pawns in the
service of American interests. These interests
translate into control over the region’s oil
resources. Uncensored and unflattering historical
perspectives—including our support for Israeli
expansionism--are vital for an understanding of the
continuities of U.S. foreign policy, and the
consistently aggressive actions by leaders of both
parties that—until 9/11—had not resulted in an attack
within our borders.

Apart from the diversionary charges regarding Kerry’s
war record, Bush and Kerry share this historical
myopia. Bush has repeated the deceptions and
illegality of the Vietnam War in Iraq. Meanwhile Kerry
writes in A Call to Service  “it’s time to recognize
(Vietnam) as an exception, not a ruling example, of
the U.S. military engagements of the twentieth
century.” But I would assert that the key to
understanding Vietnam is as the most egregious example
of the rule that the U.S. is willing to use force
against any country whose popular aspirations threaten
the interests and profits of U.S.-centered global
corporate capitalism. Since World War II, this rule
has been applied with bloody results in Iran,
Guatemala, the Congo, Indonesia, Chile, Angola,
Nicaragua, and elsewhere.

We all want to avoid the pain of another event like
9/11. But to do so we must critically examine the
continuities of our history—including Iraq—and then
fundamentally change coercive U.S. foreign policies.
It is my view, on behalf of the Anti-war Anti-racism
Effort, that continued denial of our imperialistic
past and present only makes future attacks more
likely.






		
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