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CounterPunch
September
11, 2002
Resisting Bush's
"Relentless War"
by David Krieger
In an article reflecting on the anniversary of
September 11, President Bush wrote, "In an instant, America
was transformed from a nation at peace to a country at war. We
were called to defend liberty against tyranny and terror. And
we have answered that call with the might of our military and
the spirit of a nation inspired by acts of heroism."
I am in complete accord on two issues.
Yes, there was a horrendous attack on two major structures that
symbolize our country's economic and military power, the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon, costing thousands of innocent
lives. And yes, there was genuine heroism shown by those who
resisted the terrorist attacks and by the emergency workers who
sacrificed selflessly for the victims of September 11.
But was America, as Bush claims, instantly
"transformed from a nation at peace to a country at war"?
If it was transformed in this way, it is because this is the
direction in which Bush and his advisors transformed it. Becoming
a country at war meant to the Bush administration an opportunity
to expand US military forces while constricting civil liberties
for ordinary Americans. Starting with his candidacy, Bush has
pressed for increasing funding for the military. The September
11 attacks, along with a frightened and compliant Congress and
American public, provided the opportunity to do so.
We responded to September 11 with "the
might of our military," which pummeled Afghanistan and attacked
al Qaeda training camps, leading to  a regime change in Afghanistan. But all
of this military might has failed to apprehend Osama bin Laden,
the individual purported to be responsible for the attacks. Has
the use of this military might against Afghanistan truly made
us any more secure?
There are few signs that Americans are
more secure now than they were before the terrorist attacks.
Our airports and other potential targets remain penetratable
by terrorists, and virtually nothing has been done to address
the root causes of terrorism. Our policies on the Middle East
have become less even-handed, and we no longer seem to have sufficient
respect in the region to play the role of "honest broker"
in a peace process. Our dependence on foreign oil has not diminished.
We have been an obstacle to upholding and strengthening international
law in virtually all areas.
Bush and his military team have not spent
much time addressing the reasons that the terrorists chose to
attack symbols of American economic and military power. They
have simply used the blunt instrument of military force to strike
out at a regime viewed as dangerous. The United States under
the Bush administration appears more like a helpless flailing
giant than a country basing its responses on reason, law and
morality. The Bush administration seems oblivious to the "decent
respect for the opinions of Mankind" referred to by the
founders of our nation in the Declaration of Independence.
Our attacks against Afghanistan have
resulted in the deaths and injuries of thousands of innocent
Afghanis due to our high-altitude bombing. Our response to September
11 has probably killed more innocent Afghanis than the number
of innocent persons who died in the terrorist attacks. But our
President tells us we are a country at war, and dismisses the
deaths of the innocent people we kill as collateral damage.
"This will be a long war,"
Mr. Bush tells the American people, "and unprecedented challenges
await us." It will be a long war because we are failing
to take necessary steps to achieve peace. It will be a long war
because we are led by an administration that has no vision of
peace or of a better world for others. It has no vision and few
resources for alleviating poverty, or for building schools instead
of tanks. It has no vision of preserving the environment and
natural resources for future generations because it is intently
focused on goals that merely serve corporate interests. It has
no vision of halting arms sales, an area where the US remains
indisputably number one in the world. Nor does it have a vision
of bringing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction under
control. We are an empire and empires require double standards.
Thus, "this will be a long war."
The concepts of war and defense have
often been confused in the minds of Americans, and appear particularly
confused in the minds of Bush and his advisors. Through most
of our nation's history, we had a War Department, but in 1947
the name of this department was changed to the Department of
Defense, one suspects largely for purposes of public relations.
Commenting on this change, novelist Joseph Heller astutely observed
that since switching the name to Department of Defense, we have
never again been in danger of war, only of defense.
Now we are in danger of perpetual war.
The United States under the Bush administration is leading the
world in exactly the wrong direction, away from international
law and toward increasing reliance on military force. Although
no connection has been found between Iraq and the terrorist acts
of September 11, Bush and Cheney are eager to wage war against
Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein because Hussein may have weapons
of mass destruction. But other countries, including dictatorships,
actually have weapons of mass destruction. Possession of weapons
of mass destruction has never been the litmus test for launching
a pre-emptive and aggressive war. If we considered the elimination
of nuclear weapons truly important, perhaps we would model the
behavior we seek for others.
It is highly unlikely that Saddam Hussein
would attempt to inflict injury on citizens of the United States
even if he had weapons of mass destruction unless, of course,
he was attacked by the United States. Such an attack would put
American soldiers in harm's way of Hussein's arsenal, and give
Hussein the right under international law to act in self-defense.
This right would still not include using weapons of mass destruction,
although he might still choose to use them illegally when confronted
by overwhelming US force.
Bush has called for our government "to
wage an effective and relentless war against terrorists."
Perhaps we should think instead of waging peace against the terrorists,
acting with such justice and decency in the world that we would
again be viewed as a positive model.
How does a country wage peace? There
are some seeds of an answer in Bush's advice to the American
people: "Overcome evil with acts of goodness. Love a neighbor.
Reach out to somebody in need. Feed someone who is hungry, teach
a child to read...." These were Bush's suggestions for what
Americans can do to help in the "war on terror." But
imagine if these suggestions were followed by our country in
our policies toward the rest of the world. What if America sought
to overcome evil with acts of goodness, rather than military
might? What if America reached out to people everywhere who were
in need of food, shelter, health care and education?
Americans must choose the direction they
wish to take. If left to make the choice itself, the Bush administration
will lead the United States into a potentially devastating war
against Iraq, which will undoubtedly increase the already simmering
hatred toward the United States in most of the poorer areas of
the world. The only way that Mr. Bush can be derailed from the
perpetual war he seeks to wage is if the American people make
their voices heard so clearly and persistently that Congress
will have no alternative but to stand up to the President and
say "No!" If the American people choose to docilely
follow Mr. Bush into war against Iraq, we should not be surprised
when the next front of the war returns to America in the form
of increased terrorism.
David Krieger
is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He can be contacted
at dkrieger@napf.org.
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September
7 / 8, 2002
Bill Christison
A
Year Later: It's Happening Here
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Tenth Crusade
Susan Davis
Mr. Ashcroft's
Neighborhood
Bruce Jackson
When
War Came Home
David Krieger
Looking
Back on September 11
Mike Leon
Bush and War
Peter Linebaugh
Levellers
and 9/11
William McDougal
September 11 One Year On:
That's Entertainment!
Riad Z. Abdelkarim
and Jason Erb
How American Muslims Really Responded
to 9/11
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The Trouble
with Normal
Tom Stephens
Rise Up...Dump Bush
September
6, 2002
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Stolen
Trust
Gale Norton, Indians and the Case of the Missing $10 Billion
September
5, 2002
Ben Tripp
Jesus vs.
George the Second
William Hughes
McKinney's
Defeat:
Undue Meddling
Gavin Keeney
Beaux
Reves, Citoyens!
Wayne Saunders
War
Begins; Nobody Notices
Irit Katriel
Drunk
with Power:
Israeli Chief of Staff Calls Palestinians a "Cancerous Demographic
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of Iraq?
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and Jeffrey St. Clair
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