[Peace-discuss] "Cry the beloved country"

[Morton K. Brussel]

A view by an impassioned student of lefthook.org. --mkb

You Can't Be Antiwar and Pro-Occupation: A Christmas Eve Reality Check
Christian Wright

I've have some things that I have just got to say.

I had a very wild experience last night. I was waiting in the airport  
to come home and I met a woman a little younger than me who is going  
home from New York to W VA for Christmas. She was talking about how  
their unit is getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan for a year next  
month. She were really upset and worried, like, physically really  
nervous and agitated looking about it. She had the same horror  
stories I've heard before about having to buy equipment she needed  
out of her own pocket, and about how much her officers were jerks  
(this stuff is systemic. Soldiers having to buy their own gear is  
screwed up. It's a tax on their wages)...

Anyways, it was just insane that this person is being sent over  
there. Still, today, a week before it's 2006. They should be in  
college doing semesters abroad, not in the military fighting a war  
that by now everyone admits was a mistake and should end. How do you  
ask someone to be the last person to die for a mistake? The Army told  
her that after Afghanistan she could go anywhere else she wants, but  
that's not very comforting if your killed in action in the interim.  
Also, nothing the Army says even means anything anymore because of  
all the stop-loss and the extension of deployments.

I've been doing antiwar stuff for a while but I was just thinking  
there on Christmas Eve how fucked up it is for this person. I'm not a  
very religious or ceremonial person but I had had a nice day and I  
was really feeling relaxed, and looking forward to going home for a  
while, taking a break from school, and from activism too. And then  
just BAM- it hit me again... and I knew that I was delusional.  
There's nowhere anyone can go to "get away" from what's happening.

So I just have to break it down: This war needs to end. NOW. Not  
tomorrow, not in six months, but now. All these people say "we can't  
leave yet". They talk about "maybe in six months", "maybe in a year".  
That is bullshit, because that is exactly what they said 6 months  
ago, and also exactly what they said a year ago. Well time's up. How  
much longer is this going to continue?

By fall of 2006 we will have been at war with the mid east for 5  
years, and what do we have to show for it? All these people are  
saying that "we can't leave yet" and that "we" have to stay until the  
job is "finished". Well what I want to know is, if this is what we've  
accomplished so far, what does 'finished' look like? I agree with the  
onion (Us Troops Draw Up Own Exit Strategy, Dec 21)- troops out now  
is what we've got to do. Over 80% of Iraqis, according to a British  
Ministry of Defense poll, want us to leave. A majority of Americans  
want to bring the troops home. A growing minority want to bring them  
home NOW. All these politicians, and smart aleck's who think they're  
politicians, speak all this talk about how "we" can't leave yet. Well  
who exactly is "we"? Bush says "we" can't leave- but it's not him or  
his daughters that are the ones stuck over there. It's always the  
soldiers themselves, and their families, as well as the Iraqi people,  
whose voices are left out of these mainstream "debates" on withdrawal.

That we can't leave yet, that we have to wait until the job is  
'finished', is a PRO-WAR argument. You can't be antiwar and pro- the  
occupation, because the occupation is just another name for the war.  
Iraqis know that- soldiers know that, so why do we kid ourselves  
trying to pretend that some politician's sweet nothings being  
whispered in our ears about "phased" withdrawal or "timetables" is  
really some kind of alternative to the continuation of the war?

And after what the US has done to Iraq, who are we to say that we  
really know what's best? If you hire someone at your job, and they  
keep fucking up, you'd probably fire them. Why should it be any  
different with this occupation? Bush says we got to stay- because  
we're building democracy there and that's important. Man- and I  
thought Iraqis had it bad before! Now the country whose president was  
installed by a 5-4 vote of unelected Supreme Court justices that  
decided not to count the ballots in the election that only have the  
electorate voted in is going to be giving THEM lessons in democratic  
governance! May I ask, if this new US-imposed government is supposed  
to be 'democratic', well, what exactly kind of democracy is it that  
requires over 170,000 foreign troops to prop it up? Why should we  
send our kids, brothers, sisters, parents, and friends to die in a  
war to protect an unpopular government that Iraqis themselves don't  
even want to fight for?

So I'm tired of this- sitting around watching people go to war. I'm  
sick and tired of it. And I'm sick and tired of just sitting side by  
side people who proclaim to be antiwar but side with Bush when they  
say the occupation must go on. If that is really what you think, and  
you do want to be part of a broad movement to end the war, well fine,  
I will work with you, but I'm not just going to ignore and paper over  
our differences. I'm not going to let your opinion just go on un- 
checked and un-debated with, and I'm not going to let anyone,  
anymore, say I shouldn't raise "troops out now" because it's  
divisive. Damnit, bombs and artillery are divisive! They blow cities  
apart! 50 Cal machine guns are divisive- they blow people in half!  
Yet some people out there want to call me "divisive" for saying that  
I'm going to make people argue and defend their points? That's  
bullshit. There was murder and atrocities perpetrated in Iraq today,  
yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that. And you  
don't even have to guess, you KNOW there's going to be another one  
tomorrow- and another one the next day, and the next day, and so on  
and so forth- and if you really think that another minute of these  
atrocities being imposed on the Iraqi people are absolutely necessary  
well I'm going to call you on it and you better have a pretty damn  
impressive argument to back it up because this is serious. I'm not  
coming all the way to these meetings and these demonstrations just to  
bullshit.

In the sixties, LBJ said he was for "peace" when he escalated the war  
in Vietnam. Then Nixon ran in the 1968 election as "peace candidate".  
He said it was for the sake of a speedy "peace" when he escalated the  
war into Cambodia and Laos, and when he carpet bombed the North. Now  
Bush wants "liberation", "democracy", and a lot of other things you  
WON'T find in New Orleans, and says we got to stay in Iraq to get it.  
He says we're fighting against the "violent, deranged, murderous  
terrorists", and that we got to stay until the killing ends. Well if  
that's what you really think you're just going to have to stay in  
Iraq until there is no one LEFT to kill- because everytime you kill  
an Iraqi, you're destroying a family. And every time you do that,  
more Iraqi patriots have just been born. And they will avenge the  
wrong they've been done and they're not going to stop until they die.  
I know that if you killed my wife or my son that you would have to  
kill me too because nothing would stop me from avenging them. So this  
is just going to go on and on, and it will never "de-escalate" as  
long as the occupation continues- because the occupation is the  
source of the resentment, and it's the source of the insurgency. Any  
government the occupation creates is going to automatically be seen  
as illegitimate by the Iraqi people so why even waste your time  
trying to do this?

So I'm tired of all the Bull. I'm tired of papering over our  
differences. I'm tired of seeing GOOD PEOPLE repeating the same  
nonsense, twisted, justification for the war's continuation that some  
soulless hack in the white house has invented and that a racist, war- 
mongering media has trained them in. Who says "we can't leave"? What  
kind of people designed that argument? What to they really have to  
gain or loose from us staying or leaving? And exactly whose interests  
is it that they really have in mind when they say that?

What they're trying to say, but which they're afraid they can't just  
come right out in public and say, is that the prestige of the United  
States, its status as a global "hegemon", the power that comes with  
being perceived as militarily omnipotent- is something that is sacred  
and that it is worth continuing the war to protect. If they leave,  
the US looks weak, but if they stay, well it's not like *we're*  
really getting any stronger is it? Try telling it to Cindy Sheehan  
that America is stronger now that her son is dead. Try telling it to  
this and every other person I've ever met whose being deployed  
against their will and against their conscience to fight in an  
illegal and immoral war that they are "stronger" for it. Right now  
there's a family somewhere in America going to bed tonight on  
Christmas day praying that their son or daughter will still be alive  
tomorrow. But they won't be. Try telling it to them that the status  
of an empire is worth the price they have just paid. Try telling it  
to the people of New Orleans' 9th ward that cutting levy re- 
enforcement programs so Congress could pass another 80 billion to the  
war in Iraq is really making this country stronger. Try that.

But don't try telling it to me. Because I'm not going to sit here and  
take it. I know what's going on and I'm going to stand up and I'm not  
going to stop until this butchery is OVER.

When the US leaves Iraq- and the US will leave Iraq- if not tomorrow  
like I'd prefer- then later it will- but only later after an untold  
greater number of lives have been needlessly destroyed... when they  
leave with their tail between their legs, defeated by a war in which  
they can win every battle militarily but only at the cost of  
suffering in every battle a new political defeat- when the US  
military leaves Iraq, with its tail between its legs, then the people  
of the world- the people of Venezuela, Argentina, Palestine, and,  
yes, even people struggling right here at home, will know that the US  
can be defeated, and people will be more willing to stand up for  
themselves without the fear of American omnipotence.

When the IMF witchdoctors set the third world down trying to sell  
them some discredited program, people are going to be able to stand  
up and say "no". When the military threatens some politician  
somewhere with the dignity to take a stand to improve the lives of  
his people, and the US says they better back off of they'll  
intervene, the leader is going to say "no". They're going to say that  
the US CAN'T just tell everyone to do whatever it wants because no  
matter what the US tries, resistance is possible, and resistance can  
win.

That is the only reason why the US cannot leave Iraq. That's why it  
can't even bring itself to say the word "withdrawal". John Murtha's  
resolution was for "redeployment" of troops from Iraq to another mid- 
east puppet country- NOT "withdrawal". Withdrawal sounds too much  
like "defeat". And for those in the white house and in Congress-  
every one but the three who last month DID have the courage to vote  
for an honest "out now" resolution- who every day tell us "just a  
little longer", and who every six months to a year tell us we can  
leave in maybe six months to a year, each day they are doing that is  
a day that they are telling you that their empire's status is  
something that is more important to them than are the lives of  
yourself and your family.

I say Troops Out NOW- and imperial prestige be damned. If Bush is  
defeated in Iraq, it will be a victory not just for Iraqi patriots,  
but for us, right here at home. Let's leave and apologize. Let's pay  
war reparations. Let's let Iraqis decide how they want their country  
to be. Could they really do any worse of a job than we are doing?

So waiting at the terminal in this airport, I talked like that for a  
little, about how fucked up the war is, and how nobody really ought  
to be over there. After everything I said she agreed. She told me  
almost everyone in their whole unit agreed. Apparently, though I'm  
supposedly supposed to be some kind of "radical" for saying "out  
now", what I said just really sounded to both of us like common  
sense. And I don't think we're the only ones.

Still, it never really gets any easier having that kind of  
conversation with someone. Every time I see someone going over there  
and not wanting to it really hurts, and you know it probably should  
hurt, because no one should have to see that. What the hell do you  
say to somebody like that, being dragged off the war? "Good luck?"  
"Hope you don't get killed?" "Gee that's too bad?" I was brought up  
to have some table manners but I don't think anybody ever gets taught  
how to talk to someone like that.

I did what I could but I still felt kind of powerless. I gave her  
away my last copy of the CAN newspaper and I tried to point her in  
the right direction, telling her about the GI rights hotline and Iraq  
Veterans Against the war as some places she could go to talk to some  
people who might be able to offer her some advice, but it was still  
pretty tough to have that conversation. Here and there a few people  
like Kevin Bendermen, Camilo Mejia, and Pablo Paredes have refused to  
deploy, and their stories are inspiring and important, but it's not  
like you can just tell someone "hey well don't go" and it's just that  
easy. The army has its whole machinery of repression there, and it's  
very risky for people to do this. It's not anything you can really  
work out in one half hour conversation.

Still I think it's important that we *do* publicize and tell people  
about the cases of those who do refuse. Already several people have,  
and maybe that can give confidence to the people who haven't yet.  
When the 343rd quartermaster's corp. refused a suicidal order, they  
stood up together and said "no". And you know what? The army backed  
off. Maybe when more people start standing up, not alone, but  
together, it'll get a little easier for people to do the right thing.

The military talks a lot about honor and sacrifice, and how hard  
that's supposed to be, but when it comes to Iraq, all that talk just  
seems to go right out the window, to be replaced by a sort of  
therapeutic "it's just a job", "it's just a contract I'm obliged to  
fulfill" sort of self-rationalization. I don't buy that though for a  
second. I do think there's something honorable about this war, but I  
don't think you have to go all the way to Iraq to find it. You can  
find it right here, and you don't even have to break the law. The  
Uniform Code of Military justice says that no one can be punished for  
disobeying an "illegal or unethical" order. The Nuremburg trials said  
that "just following orders" just doesn't cut it, and that every  
soldier is ultimately responsible for their actions.

If nothing else, while so many people are still going to Iraq despite  
anything that I or anyone else could say about how great it would be  
for more people to stand up like Camilo, maybe we can at least do  
something hook them up with some groups in the movement so they can  
at least know more about their rights, and, if later they do do  
something like file for CO status or refuse and illegal or immoral  
order, they won't be alone cause they will already be connected to a  
crew of some folks who can back them up. IVAW and the GI rights  
hotline are a few good places to start, so are the Central Committee  
for Conscientious Objectors and the Citizen-Soldier group.

But most important of all, I think, for whoever has bothered to read  
this thing this long, is what YOU are doing. What are you doing to  
let you government know that its actions are unacceptable and will  
not be met without resistance? What are you doing to let the troops  
know that it's actually a perfectly natural thing for them to be  
freaking out about deployments right now, and that *if* they do want  
to try and do something to get out of it, that there will be people  
there behind them to support them and back them up?

The starting point for any of this has to be Troops Out Now. You  
can't even begin to think seriously about how to "end" the war if you  
don't even yet think that you *must* end the war. "We can't leave  
*yet*" is a pro-war argument that is designed to sap all sense of  
URGENCY away from the antiwar movement. You can't build a movement if  
you're not passionate about the cause, and if someone tells you that  
they don't want to be deployed to Iraq, but Bush has you thinking  
that there's just "no alternative" to them going over there and  
getting shot at- then your entire potential effectiveness as a  
compassionate human, as a source of comfort, as a political pole of  
attraction that can help point out alternatives to people, has been  
totally neutralized. You can't fight the war if you fundamentally  
agree with the justifications for it.

Christmas is the giving season. And you've just been given some good  
advice.

TROOPS OUT NOW! COLLEGE NOT COMBAT! RELIEF NOT WAR!




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