[Peace-discuss] here's an opinion that might interest

[Susan Davis]

Here's an opinion that might be of interest.  Thanks to all doing such good 
work on the  UPTV issue.  I was out of town Monday and was shocked to read 
about the mayor's behavior in the newspaper.

SD


September 15, 2004


A Movement in Disarray


Oppose War, Not Just Bush

By RON JACOBS

It's time the antiwar movement got off its tail. The lackluster organizing 
currently going on will insure nothing but more war and greater 
frustration. While one would be a fool to think any antiwar movement can 
force Washington's hand into pulling US forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan 
before Inauguration Day 2005, I can guarantee that unless we start 
organizing again right now to stop this war, it will be like starting all 
over again the day after the inauguration, no matter who is the US president.

Why is the antiwar movement in disarray? The most obvious answer is the 
Anybody But Bush phenomenon. The personalization of the war around George 
Bush has created a misguided belief among many people who oppose the war 
and the imperial drive it represents that this war will somehow end if Bush 
and his cohorts are given their walking papers. Unfortunately, this is not 
the case. This war, as has been said many times before, is more than Bush's 
war; it's a war for total US domination of the world. That domination 
project is a project held dear by the leadership of both the Democrats and 
Republicans and is guided not by party politics but by the economic 
realities of the world capitalist system. This system is dominated by the 
United States.

Why is it dominated by the United States? To be brutally frank, the US 
dominates the world because of its military superiority. Sure, it got to 
where it is today through a combination of economic and military strength, 
but it sits at the top of the pile now solely because its military is 
larger, better equipped with the most deadly weapons, and trained to 
brutalize its opponents into total submission, Geneva conventions be 
damned. This fact does not change when a Democrat is in the White House. 
One need only look back to the bombing of Serbia and Kosovo in 1999 if they 
desire proof of this.

The Republicans have their Project for a New American Century (PNAC). The 
Democrats have their own take on how to maintain and expand the Empire. It 
is a plan that they call Progressive Internationalism: A Democratic 
National Security Strategy. Its only discernible difference from the GOP 
approach is a greater emphasis on using international organizations like 
the United Nations and strategic alliances like NATO to keep those opposed 
to the US's
[]
dominance suppressed. Utilizing a Wilsonian moralism, the Democrats' 
document places the war on the world in terms that are not much different 
than the GOP's Project for a New American Century. This one quote from the 
forward says it all: "Democrats will maintain the world's most capable and 
technologically advanced military, and we will not flinch from using it to 
defend our interests anywhere in the world."

So why are at least two of the primary antiwar organizations in the United 
States-MoveOn and United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) promoting the idea 
that John Kerry in the White House will mark a significant change in US 
foreign policy, especially as it regards the war in Iraq? Furthermore, why 
are they joined by dozens of activist spokespeople, antiwar entertainers 
and other from the media world? Whether these groups and people state 
openly that US voters should vote for anyone but Bush or whether they 
tacitly encourage such an action, they are setting up the millions of US 
residents who sincerely oppose the war in Iraq and want the troops out of 
there now, not tomorrow.

What to do, then? To me, the answer is actually quite obvious. We need to 
organize around a clear set of demands that reflect a conscious 
anti-imperialism. This means that we should not get bogged down in 
discussions about the United Nations or NATO, nor should we fall for the 
argument that a US presence in Iraq or Afghanistan will bring democracy to 
those countries. After all, it isn't democracy that the United States wants 
to install, it's capitalism. Why else is Washington so keen on privatizing 
every industry and service in Iraq that was previously state-owned? If I 
were to present a potential set of organizing demands to a national antiwar 
organization, they would read something like this:

We demand:

The US must begin the immediate and total withdrawal from Iraq, and must 
publicly set the date by which all US military forces will be removed.

An immediate cease-fire between US forces and those in the Iraqi Resistance.

An end to the imposition of Allawi and other US-picked administrators on 
the people of Iraq in order to insure their right to self-determination, 
and so that all political prisoners currently incarcerated by the US and 
its client regime can be released.

We support:

Elections in which all Iraqis can participate freely without the presence 
of any foreign troops, unless invited in by all those Iraqis involved.

The discussion of procedures to guarantee the safety and political freedom 
of those Iraqis who have collaborated with the US or with the US-supported 
regime.

The incorporation of the freely elected Iraqi government into the 
international community on terms freely negotiated by that government and 
the appropriate international institutions.

A similar set of demands could be applied to Afghanistan, with some 
tailoring to the situation in Afghanistan written in.

It is only when we in the antiwar movement decide to go beyond the stunted 
thinking of those in the US political and economic leadership that we will 
create the opportunity to end this murderous and destructive war. The 
politicians are unable to think in terms that transcend their paymasters, 
no matter how much they would like to. If we allow the agenda to be set by 
their politics and elections, we will fail. It is up to us to create a 
popular momentum that those in power cannot ignore. Only then will they 
feel secure enough to look beyond their corporate masters and actually do 
what the people want them to.

Ron Jacobs is author of 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga>The Way 
the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground, which is just 
republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in 
CounterPunch's new collection on music, art and sex, 
<http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html>Serpents in the 
Garden. He can be reached at: <mailto:rjacobs at zoo.uvm.edu>rjacobs at zoo.uvm.edu