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CounterPunch
October
4, 2002
"Without
Struggle, There is No Progress"
Friend, Americans, Countrymen...
by RON JACOBS
October 20, 1990--Twelve years ago almost to the
day I was at a rally in Olympia, Washington that was called to
oppose the upcoming war against Iraq. Back then, we were told
by the administration in DC that the reason for that war was
to drive Iraq from Kuwait-a country it had recently invaded and
occupied. Today-almost twelve years later, the regime in DC is
proposing to do the exact same thing to Iraq-invade and occupy
it. Why? Well, it depends on which week's White House press release
you read. According to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest of
the axis leaders, it is necessary to make war on Iraq because
(and these are just the first four supposed reasons that pop
into my head):
a) Saddam's military is a nuclear threat,
b) Saddam's military used poison gas
against the Kurds in northern Iraq and against Iranians in wars
where the United States supported Iraq, or the US needs to make
war on Iraq because
c) (and I love this one) Such a war would
liberate Iraq's women-yeh right, Old GW, the Susan B. Anthony
of the 21st century (today Iraq's women being more equal to men
than most other countries in the world much less the Arab world).
d) He has weapons of mass destruction
that threaten the region.
Let's talk about these: the reasons given
by the Bush administration are not only poor reasons to go to
war, they are just plain lies. Some of you might be shaking your
heads and thinking I'm misinformed and misguidedor, even worse,
an apologist for Saddam. After all, Saddam might have nuclear
weapons and he definitely gassed those people. Heck, maybe he
even has other weapons of mass destruction. Without granting
legitimacy to these possibilities, let me make a couple things
clear-every single international agency that studies nuclear
proliferation has stated quite clearly that Iraq does not have
nuclear capability and is years away from even beginning to develop
such weapons. Hell, even Tony Blair's dossier said this-probably
one of the few truths in that entire piece of hearsay. As for
the gas-yes this did happen-what's left untold in this story
is that the US provided the chemicals and lent tacit support
to the attacks because at the time Iraq's war against the Kurds
and Iranians were seen as serving US interests. On top of that,
the man who ordered some of those attacks, General Nizar Al-Khazraji,
is now one of the United States' top candidates for Saddam's
job if the US is able to defeat the Iraqis and put in a client
regime. What about those weapons of mass destruction? I say,
what about them? One certain way for them to be used (if they
even exist in the physical plane and not just in the minds of
Bush and Cheney) is to attack Saddam's military. Additionally,
one can easily argue that it is the US weapons of mass destruction
that truly threaten the region, not Iraq's.
But all these reasons are ultimately
irrelevant. The real reason for this attack can be found in a
paper Dick Cheney finished writing not too long before that rally
I was at twelve years ago-a paper whose composition was funded,
by the way, by Gulf Oil, the chemical and munitions industries,
and Rockwell International, the defense and aerospace conglomerate.
As many of you probably know, the premise of that paper (which
is now the primary operating document of the Bush foreign policy
team) is that the US has every right to be the only superpower
and should use that power to expand and ensure its continued
domination. Of course, the language is not usually that blunt.
Instead, this plan for world domination is phrased in terms like
security and democracy. And freedom. Unfortunately for everyone,
it will bring neither, not even for those who champion it. It
won't bring security for Bush and crew because it will only breed
greater enmity against them. It won't bring democracy because,
after all, Dubya, Rice, Cheney, et al. don't have a clue what
democracy is. As for freedom, the only freedom guaranteed by
world domination is the freedom for the rulers to go wherever
they want, take whatever they want, and use what they take however
they want. In other words, the freedom to exploit at will.
Not too long ago, when asked by a congressperson
if the plan was to colonize Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld answered, "We
covet nobody's land." You know what, I believe him. I really
do. They don't want the land-they just want the oil that lies
underneath it, the strategic position that military bases built
on the land would provide, and the potential labor source and
markets the people living there represent. No, they don't covet
the land, they just want to suck it dry.
***********
I'm gonna' ask you all to step outside
of yourselves for a minute. Out of this room, out of this life,
out of this country. Are you there? Now, place yourself in Iraq.
If you are a college student here, than now you're a college
student in Iraq. If you are a teacher or a nurse here, than you're
one there. If you work at a clothing store here, than you work
at one in Iraq now. And so on. You have a lover or maybe you
don't. You live with your parents or you live with friends. Maybe
in the city, let's say . When you finish your day's studies or
work, you go out for coffee or a beer. You discuss politics or
you ignore them completely. For the most part you don't get too
involved in them, though, because they don't seem to mean much
in your daily life. Now, imagine your sleep interrupted by the
sound of 500 pound bombs falling nearby, the smell of fire and
smoke, the screams of children piercing your sleep and the sound
of sirens blaring as you run down the stairs of your apartment
building with only a minimal amount of clothing on. After finding
a bomb shelter and hiding there through the night, you finally
hear the all-clear siren and you head out into the light. Your
world is in ruins. This continues for weeks. Every night you
hide in a cellar. School and work are meaningless. You wonder
how your friends in the countryside are doing. Then, one day
the foreign soldiers arrive, swaggering through the city streets,
breaking into houses and stores and dragging men and boys out
into the streets where they are pushed around and arrested, hauled
off to who knows where. All the while you are just trying to
keep your sanity. You help out in a hospital or a food shelf.
You cry when you see the children and the old ones as they wonder
what happened to their world. Already so many of them have seen
their cousins taken ill because of hunger caused by US sanctions
and now this. Some of your friends are angry, most are resigned.
None are happy.
*************
WAR! The rulers of this country have
chosen violence solely because they can use it and get away with
it. They have chosen violence because they do not seem to have
the intelligence or the will to try something less harmful. They
have chosen violence because what the rulers of this country
and the money that backs them want is inherently unjust and greedy
and can only be obtained through the force of excessive violence.
This is the violence of imperial war. This is what I oppose.
I can't repeat it often enough-this war
is about global domination. It is not about freedom for Iraq
or a future of peace and justice free of the threat of war. It's
not about when to go to war or whether Saddam should be killed.
It is about global domination, starting with Iraq, and those
who are calling for it know no shame.
And although the rulers in DC would like
to convince and cajole the UN and other of their ilk in other
countries of the world to go along with their plan, they don't
really care if they don't. They would also like to convince those
men and women we elect to represent us to go along, too, but
they don't really care if they don't. Even if they do, that still
does not make this war right. It only means that these people
have received their thirty pieces of silver. When all is said
and done, this war is still primarily about killing, Indeed,
it is about killing when several other options exist. This is
why this war is still wrong and unjust. The cooperation of Congress
and the UN Security Council only means that they too will have
the blood of innocents on their hands.
If we fail to prevent this war, then
we must work even harder to end it once it begins. Even if the
warmakers get their man and kill Hussein, this war is wrong.
There is no morality in one group of mass murderers killing another
mass murderer. Especially when, if the killers in DC are telling
the truth, the defeat and occupation of Iraq may be just the
beginning of a war without end that would move its savagery and
destruction to Iran, Korea, and even China. This isn't the plan
of a sane group of individuals. A boring group of individuals,
yes. A drab group of individuals, too. But calling them sane
requires a particular definition of the word that allows for
planned mass murder in the pursuit of power and money. This is
why I consider their plans to be psychopathic madness.
WAIT! There is hope. And that hope lies
with those of us who oppose this war. It is essential that everyone
who does not want to see this war begin get into the streets
in their hometowns and in DC and San Francisco. Go to your classrooms
and your churches. Your workplaces. Your hangouts. Get people
to think seriously about this horror perpetrated in their names.
Get them to join you. If you know folks in the military, talk
with them about what they could be doing. Let them know there
is a choice. Nobody has to fight. Structures exist to get them
to a safe place. Remind them that Dubya never went to any war.
Nor did Cheney or Rumsfeld or a good number of the folks who
want them to go fight for oil profits. Get people together and,
then make as much noise as you can. Be willing to risk arrest,
your studies and your job. Whatever you think this effort is
worth. Let me repeat myself. If they start this war despite our
protests, it's even more important to protest. Indeed, we should
step our protest up. We can't do that you say? After all, we
need to support our troops. Of course we do. But we need to support
them as human beings, not as war machines. We need to support
them in their lives as our friends, brothers, sisters, mothers,
fathers, and partners, not as killers for the empire. In short
we need to bring them home.
Of course, our struggle will not be easy.
At times, we will want to quit. At times we will question the
point of our resistance. But we must never quit. No! We must
raise our level of opposition to a greater level then. Sometimes
we will offend some folks, maybe even our family or friends.
Sometimes we will be verbally abused or physically assaulted.
We must not, no, can not, give in. More than that day twelve
years ago, more than the 1960s, in fact, I would endeavor to
say more than ever before, the future of the planet depends on
us not giving in. Like the great fighter for the liberation of
black people in this country from slavery , Frederick Douglas,
said, in a manner so eloquent it bears repeating over and over:
If there is no struggle, there is not progress. Those who profess
to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops
without plowing up the ground. They want rain without the thunder
and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of
its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may
be a physical one; or it may be both mental and physical; but
it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand.
Remember Douglass' words. Remember them and commit yourself to
the struggle we are engaged in. Our children, those who live
today and those you will have in the future, are counting on
us.
Ron Jacobs
lives in Burlington, VT.
He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
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October 2,
2002
Carol Wolman,
MD
Is the
President Nuts?
Diagnosing Dubya
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Something
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Might Sharon
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Joanne Mariner
When
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Peter P. Mahoney
A Vietnam
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From the
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Manufacturing
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On the
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Cockfight
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Ron Jacobs
Born Without a Spine
Scott Loughrey
Mysteries
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Collective
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Troy
Black Feather on
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Sam Bahour
Wake Up
and Smell
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Richard Harth
Contrary
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Lists Upon
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Dave Marsh
The Troubador's
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Bush's
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Hunting with George
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James T. Philips
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Life of a Bum
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Too True North
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Case of the Missing Terrorist
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The American
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Smear Mongers
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International
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Jack Wheeler
Janet Reno: America's Saddam?
Linda S. Heard
Portrait
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