[Peace-discuss] Bacevich: Vietnam vs. Munich, and Creating an "Iraq/Afghanistan Syndrome"

[Robert Naiman]

Campaigning for President, Senator Obama said: "I don't want to just
end the war, but I want to end the mindset that got us into war in the
first place." But as Andrew Bacevich notes in his new book,
"Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War," as President,
Obama has done the opposite: he has promoted and acted on behalf of
the mindset that leads to war. Bacevich's book is a call for Americans
to reject the Washington consensus for permanent war, global
counterinsurgency and global military power projection, and to demand
instead that America "come home," as Martin Luther King called for in
1967, and focus on resolving its own domestic problems rather than act
as a self-appointed global police and occupation force. Because of his
personal background and establishment credentials, Bacevich may be
able to move Americans currently beyond the reach of the peace
movement. This is important, because a key task for ending our current
wars and preventing future ones is to break the current
near-monolithic support for permanent war among the dominant
institutions of the Republican Party - a stance that effectively
disenfranchises the substantial minority of Republican voters who
oppose the permanent war.

This is why Bacevich's new book is potentially important for the U.S.
peace movement. Get the book, read it, give it to a Republican friend,
and talk to them about it. Join Just Foreign Policy on September 24th
for a "Virtual Brown Bag" with Andrew Bacevich, and try to virtually
bring your Republican friend.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/bacevich-vietnam-vs-munic_b_669502.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/8/3/17494/90841

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/662
--
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

Urge Congress to Support a Timetable for Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern