[Peace-discuss] Right/Left Antiwar Alliance

[C. G. Estabrook]

The Book Has Been Written on the Right/Left Antiwar Alliance
by John V. Walsh, February 23, 2011

A year ago this week on Feb. 20, about 40 antiwar activists, writers, and 
organizers, gathered in a basement conference room in Washington, D.C., to 
launch an antiwar organization spanning the political spectrum. As a first step 
we agreed to publish a book of essays by meeting participants and others, now 
out with the title ComeHomeAmerica.US. The organization has also launched a Web 
site <http://comehomeamerica.us/>.

That meeting was remarkably friendly, given that the editors of The Nation and 
The American Conservative were contained within the same four walls. The keynote 
was given by Ralph Nader, at the insistence of the Right.

About 65 percent of Americans oppose the wars in the Middle East and Central 
Asia. And yet this majority is unable to prevail. One reason is that those who 
oppose war do not work together. In fact, we often are at one another’s throats 
even when we are in agreement. Some of that is principled difference – all to 
the good. But some is simply based on stereotypes of “the other,” a recipe for 
failure.

As Eugene McCarthy often said, the war in Vietnam ground on because antiwar 
Democrats put party above principle. And today we see many who passionately 
opposed the war under Bush have vanished into the woodwork with the rise of 
Obama. Certainly there is no call to “Impeach Obama” although he is carrying out 
the same policies as Bush. The same happened on the other side under Bush, 
albeit to a lesser degree if we are to be honest. Those who would put partisan 
interests above a principled antiwar stance will not find a Right/Left alliance 
very congenial. But such Democrats and Republicans, whether unthinking loyalists 
or crass careerists, hold the antiwar movement back. Their absence is to be 
welcomed. It is another powerful feature of a movement like Come Home America.

As the two War Parties are fond of proclaiming, politics should stop at the 
water’s edge. We should take up the same cry; our differences over domestic 
policy should stop at the water’s edge, and there we should unite to oppose 
empire and war.

What do the Right and Left bring to the antiwar movement? At this time, the Left 
brings greater numbers because the Cold War has led the Right away from its 
traditional “isolationist,” i.e., anti-interventionist, stance, to which it is 
only beginning to return. But the Right brings something equally powerful to the 
antiwar movement, and that is its vocabulary. The paleocons and libertarians put 
their opposition to war in words that are widely understood and accepted in 
conventional mainstream discourse. When the paleos declare America should be 
first, that cry resonates far and wide to a populace facing economic hardships. 
And when libertarians declare that government is a threat to liberty, with 
military being a large part of the government, that is something Americans have 
been taught to understand and respect since their grade-school years. The 
antiwar movement benefits enormously from this conventional and traditional 
American vocabulary. It is not readily assailed.

America’s wars are a scourge unto millions of humans. From a moral point of 
view, we in the metropolis of empire have a duty to stop the bloodshed and 
suffering perpetrated by our elite. In this quest, dare any of us turn away 
allies? Can we be so sure of our own views that we will consort only with the 
like-minded even at the price of other humans? How can we square that with our 
deepest instincts to preserve life? Those who would refuse such alliances must 
look deep into themselves to discover what justifies that.

The Come Home America movement has begun. Later this year a national conference 
will be called that will hopefully attract hundreds of participants. Meanwhile 
the book and the Web site beckon to all who are interested.

John V. Walsh can be reached at John.Endwar at gmail.com. There is also a first 
local chapter of Come Home America (CHA) in Boston. If you live in that neck of 
the woods, then look us up.

http://original.antiwar.com/john-v-walsh/2011/02/22/the-book-has-been-written/