Saying 'no' to the War In Iraq

[LWolf]

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/259/oped/Saying_no_to_the_war_in_Iraq+.shtml

(Read link today; the archives are only free for 2 days!)

<big snip>

The corruptions of Bush policies in Iraq are infecting the entire nation. Such aggressive violence requires deceit, and lies are more welcome in Washington than at any time since Vietnam. The Justice Department is increasingly an instrument of repression. On the eve of elections, the American people are in the grip of a vast ennui.
So what is to be done? Such recognitions change the context of what is required now. Instead of politics, it is time for resistance. One needn't assert a facile moral equivalence to know that the relevant precedents for the present circumstance in the United States are the broad-based citizen resistance movements that mobilized against Hitler in the 1940s; against the Vietnam War in the 1960s; against the Kremlin in the 1980s. This means:

Hope shifts away from the Democratic politicians vying to replace Bush. By timidly giving the vague appearance of opposition while assuming the broad necessity of America's ongoing military presence in Iraq, the candidates are Bush's effective collaborators.
''Supporting the troops'' gets redefined. Instead of muting criticism out of fear of undermining military morale, declare that US soldiers have been conscripted into an unnecessary and therefore immoral war. The troops must simply be removed from Iraq.

The cutting edge of the political debate becomes money. All funding for the American occupation, including the $87 billion Bush requested last week, must be opposed. Military appropriations must be cut off.
Patriotism is asserted more by opposition than affirmation. The Bush administration has cagily turned large-hearted American expressions of love for the nation into license for a criminal foreign policy. Just as Bush has kidnapped our young people in uniform, he has captured the flag. For now, the way to take it back is to take it down.
Refuse to be deceived even while being lied to. There is no way for an American president to engage in such an unprecedented act of aggression without trying to disguise its true character. The very audacity of Bush's manipulations stimulate a cooperative self-deception in the population. That above all must be resisted.
Mortal danger becomes apparent. Bush policies have reinvigorated suicide bombers across the world while simultaneously igniting a new round of nuclear proliferation. The prospect of that combination -- nuclear weapons in the hands of suicidal fanatics -- poses the greatest risk in human history. Bush himself has thus become the ultimate suicide bomber.
Hence resistance. Public life in America must take its energy now from the word ''No!'' Such opposition does two things. As happened especially in the Soviet empire, it can transform politics, moving even the Democratic candidates from timid calls for adjustments at the margins to demands for substantial change of policy. And meanwhile, a life lived in resistance remains a human life. In a time of rampant public immorality, it is the only way to live humanly.

The catastrophe at Fallujah can be the occasion of such recognition. But catastrophe, as Aristotle also taught, is the occasion of reversal. The time to turn the momentum of Bush's war back upon itself has come.

[Brucey]

1. Right about money.

Average 'Merican Joe supported the war until Chimpy asked for the money (how stupid and arrogant of him to go before the people; why not do it on the sly like he does most things - tell them one thing and do another?). American sheeple understand one thing: their own materialistic pocketbook. When the squeeze is on, they begin to deter. Murder, mayhem, violence, bombing innocent civilians, lies, deceit... these things don't cause a ripple. But put the bite on the pocketbook and 'Mericans wake up!

[indepat]

2. James Carroll's stark assessment is right on target except maybe

this Administration/its policies and ventures are even a worse catastrophe than he describes.

[LWolf]

3. Catastrophe is right.

Long and short term.

I really think our only hope is to wake people up...penetrate that mind-numbing mentality built by passive screen watching; get them to tear their attention away from their media programming and notice the real world around them. If the * catastrophe can't get them to deprogram, what will?