[Peace-discuss] Obama and the anti-war movement

[Alfred Kagan]

I have attached our 2003 pamphlet on the connections between war and 
racism.  I will work on updating it.  This is the kind of pamphlet that 
would have worked well at the Obama event.  We also have a section on 
racism in our latest US foreign policy pamphlet, but I can't find it on 
the web.  I am pretty sure I have it on my computer at home.

I am impressed with the work some folks did in taking with Obama's 
staff.  In my opinion, we need to engage with Obama to try to get him 
to see his own self-interest in changing his position.  I think that 
will become easier and easier as time goes on and more people die and 
are injured.  We might even think about sending an AWARE delegation to 
his office.

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On Aug 21, 2005, at 10:15 PM, Ricky Baldwin wrote:

> OK, so that subject line's a little ambitious, but it
> is the topic of the following comment I added to Jan's
> article on our presence at Obama's visit.
>
> Jan thought my interaction with Obama's aide (below)
> might be interesting for some folks because of
> tonight's discussion, which I'm sorry I missed (I
> think).  It sounds like the question of AWARE's
> anti-racism work came up tonite - and I think part of
> this conversation touches on that.
>
> Also, I want to say that when I walked in (late as
> usual) to AWARE's ongoing discussion last week, I had
> mixed feelings.  On the one hand, I thought, why does
> Tim Johnson (of all people) get off easier than Obama,
> who was after all very critical of the war when it was
> a plan that Johnson was supporting?  On the other
> hand, everything in Carl's leaflet was true and needed
> exposing if we are to stand on the principle that we
> claim defines us: we oppose the war and think it
> should stop now.
>
> But after seeing, hearing, talking to Obama and to his
> aide, I was convinced that we had done the right thing
> by being there.  I don't know if my reasons come
> across...
>
> Comment on Jan's article at www.ucimc.org:
>
> This was a very educational event. Our senator has
> obviously been at great pains to agree with the
> growing anti-war sentiment in the country, even
> identify with it, while backing away from the one
> thing that we ask for: troops out now.
>
> He has met with anti-war protesters at a few stops
> now, including his recent birthday bash, and he seems
> willing to spend quite a bit of time talking with us.
> In public and in private. He says the invasion was
> 'stupid', he uses the word 'torture', and then he says
> it's actually elements in the Democratic Party holding
> him back -- which I don't doubt at all -- but he
> opposes immediate withdrawal. And yes, even one of the
> country's most famous peaceniks Tom Hayden, agrees.
>
> Maybe electing these guys is tantamount to easing them
> out of the peace movement.
>
> But I also had a very enlightening conversation with
> one of Obama's aides, who stayed after the senator had
> to go in and give his speech.
>
> I told the aide we have to get out of Iraq now, which
> he said was "impossible." Of course it isn't
> impossible - we just pack up and go. But then he asked
> me if I would like to be "one of the last 100 guys
> [sic]" in Iraq.
>
> Of course I would not - but neither would I like to be
> one of the dozen or more who may get blown up tomorrow
> (or the next day, or the next, ...), or one of the
> thousands who have already been killed there, or the
> thousands more who are likely to die there, nor would
> I like to be a poor truck driver from Mississippi
> getting my head sawn off on the Internet... but what I
> asked Obama's aide was, "Then how can we ever leave?
> Someone would always be last."
>
> And here is the crux of the whole dispute between the
> out-nows and the wait-and-sees. The aide assured me
> that we could leave once we have "stabilized" the
> country. Yeah, the way we've "stabilized" it so far?
> Man, if this is stabilizing, what the hell would
> instability look like?
>
> But here comes another good one. I argued that the
> longer we stay, the more fire we draw. We can't set up
> a "democratic" government, because everything we touch
> in Iraq will have the taint of collaboration with
> foreign occupation. (Even the Iraqis who were glad to
> see us topple Saddam overwhelmingly reject the
> occupation.) That's why they're blowing up Iraqi cops
> -- because WE trained them... So the aide says,
> somebody's got to train the police. I say, let the
> Iraqis train them, they have facilities, they're a
> civilized country.
>
> "No they're not," he says.
>
> I asked him again, just to be clear. "They are not a
> civilized country," he said.
>
> So this is the whole problem, the basic common ground
> with the Bush Administration: they are not civilized,
> that is, barbarians, and our job -- our CRUSADE -- is
> to civilize them. Kipling called it "the white man's
> burden". I don't what we call it now. The American
> burden, I guess.
>
> Would I rather have Obama in the Senate than that
> nutcase they flew in to test the Illinois waters for
> the GOP pollsters? Sure. And I have no doubt he'll do
> a lot of good things there. But he won't stop this
> idiotic war. He won't even speak up for calling it
> off. Why?
>
> "We have to win elections," he said. Which elections?
> He won his hands down. He must be referring to a
> higher calling...
>
> But what's the point of winning elections? I kept
> asking, as the aide walked away. If you choose your
> positions in order to win elections, instead of the
> other way around -- [instead of] running for office in
> order to push for what's right and sane and important
> as life and death -- then what is the point?
>
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Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu