Howard Zinn speaks

[0007]

09/03/06 "Boston Globe' -- --

THERE IS SOMETHING important to be learned from the recent experience of the United States and Israel in the Middle East: that massive military attacks, inevitably indiscriminate, are not only morally reprehensible, but useless in achieving the stated aims of those who carry them out.

The United States, in three years of war, which began with shock-and-awe bombardment and goes on with day-to-day violence and chaos, has been an utter failure in its claimed objective of bringing democracy and stability to Iraq. The Israeli invasion and bombing of Lebanon has not brought security to Israel; indeed it has increased the number of its enemies, whether in Hezbollah or Hamas or among Arabs who belong to neither of those groups.

I remember John Hersey's novel, ``The War Lover," in which a macho American pilot, who loves to drop bombs on people and also to boast about his sexual conquests, turns out to be impotent. President Bush, strutting in his flight jacket on an aircraft carrier and announcing victory in Iraq, has turned out to be much like the Hersey character, his words equally boastful, his military machine impotent.

The history of wars fought since the end of World War II reveals the futility of large-scale violence. The United States and the Soviet Union, despite their enormous firepower, were unable to defeat resistance movements in small, weak nations -- the United States in Vietnam, the Soviet Union in Afghanistan -- and were forced to withdraw.

Read the rest here

[diddlysquat]

1. Link doesn't seem to work.

[0007]

3. Works for me!

[Briar]

2. It's available here too:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14820.htm

Brilliant piece - tears the "they were hiding among civilians, so that's okay" excuse to pieces.

[bemildred]

4. Kick. nt

[GuvWurld]

5. What he implies but doesn't overtly state is...

the stated goals are never the actual goals of those committed to war. His more obvious message is clearly true, that the acts we can observe do not deliver the stated goals. However, these same acts often do serve the unstated actual goals. That doesn't justify the acts. It simply means that we often choose the incorrect target of our protestations.

[Joanne98]

6. "Bringing democracy" was never the objective.

Bush has destroyed our democracy. He's not even the President. He committed MIHOP! He's destroying the constitution. These type of comments from the left are "strawman". When is anybody IMPORTANT going to spit out the simple truth. I like Howard Zinn but considering the mess we're in this isn't cutting it. Bush HATES democracy. Is that so hard to say!

[CollegeDUer]

7. He KNOWS that

He repeatedly stated that since before the war started that the likely motivation for the war was imperial, not to bring democracy. However when writing to the general public he has to disprove the Bush analogy of democracy for their readings' sake.

[Catrina]

9. That struck me too ! WMDs was the stated reason

for the War in Iraq. When we buy into the 'Bringing Democracy to Iraq' lie, we are helping Bush get off the hook for the WMD excuse he used to invade that coungry.

The only acceptable reason for a pre-emptive strike is an imminent threat to this country. That's why they did NOT use 'bringing democracy to Iraq' as a reason.

I like Zinn too, but the focus needs to stay on the lies they told about an imminent threat coming from Saddam's WMDs.

[indepat]

8. But this neocon bunch will never cut and run: they'll stay the course

until their agenda is complete.