[Peace-discuss] Why Peaceniks Should Care About the Afghanistan Study Group Report

[Robert Naiman]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/why-peaceniks-should-care_b_712333.html

There is a tradition among some peace activists of striking a pose of
annoyed indifference to the question of how to get out of an unpopular war.
"There are three ways to get out," goes one waggish response. "Air, land,
and sea."

This is funny and emotionally satisfying, and also represents a truth for
peace activists: ending the war is a first principle, not something
contingent on whether a particular means of doing so satisfies someone
else's notion of what is practical.

On the other hand, peace activists can't be satisfied with being right; they
also are morally compelled to try to be effective. And part of being
effective is giving consideration to, and seeking to publicize, arguments
are likely to end the war sooner rather than later. It's not likely, for
example, that discussing ways in which the war might be useful for the
long-term maintenance of the "capitalist world system" will turn the
Washington debate against war in the short run. If, on the other hand,
central to the official story is a claim that the war is a war against Al
Qaeda, but senior U.S. officials publicly concede that there is no
significant Al Qaeda presence today in Afghanistan, that is certainly a fact
worth knowing and spreading.

This is why it is important for as many people as possible to read and
digest the short and accessible
report<http://www.afghanistanstudygroup.org/>of the "Afghanistan
Study Group <http://www.afghanistanstudygroup.org/>" which has been publicly
unveiled this week. The assumptions and conclusions of the ASG report should
be the subject of a thousand debates. But there are a few things about it
that one can say without fear of reasonable contradiction. The authors of
the report oppose the war and want to end it. The principal authors of the
report are Washington insiders with a strong claim to expertise about what
sort of arguments are likely to move Washington debate. The authors of the
report have a strategy for trying to move Washington debate so that at the
next fork in the road, the choice made is to de-escalate the war and move
towards its conclusion, rather than to escalate it further. Therefore, the
arguments made deserve careful consideration. They may not be particularly
useful for making posters for a demonstration. But for lobbying
Congressional staff, writing a letter to the editor, or making any other
presentation to people who are not already on our side, the arguments of the
Afghanistan Study Group are likely to be useful.

[...]
-- 
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
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