Be Freedom
January 23, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" - The
rapid response to US war moves against Iran has been
an exciting start toward rebuilding the anti-war
movement we so desperately need. Thousands took to
the streets in more than 80 cities. It’s
a great beginning. But, if we want a movement of
millions we are going to have to reach everyday
people outside of the existing movement, outside of
partisan politics and outside of strictly moral
appeals.
We start by waging peace because the anti-war
movement is the main path to anti-imperialist action
— or so
the history of the Vietnam Era would suggest. If
we want to grow from a radical movement of thousands
to a disruptive movement of millions our job is to
help people discover their own economic and
political interests for opposing war and empire. In
other words, we have to help people see war not
simply as a morality play, or electoral politics, or
as a separate “foreign policy” issue but as a power
struggle — their struggle.
|
Are You Tired Of
The Lies And
Non-Stop Propaganda?
|
Ten anti-war messages in no special order:
- “We should never have been there in the
first place.” By the end of the Vietnam War,
this straightforward idea was popular
anti-imperialism and it challenged the US role
as cops of the world. It was stock wisdom among
millions of everyday anti-war Americans. We
should have never been in the Middle East, or
anywhere else, in the first place.
-
Empire abroad means empire at home. War and
empire do not defend democracy but destroys it.
It was the empire that undermined what little
remained of representative democracy once the
Executive Branch took over all war-making powers
and everyone else fell into line. When the
Military-Industrial-Complex and the secret
police became major players in the government
and media, democracy
gave up its last ghost.
Proof? We
have not had a constitutional declaration of war
since WWII. If the highest law of the land is
routinely violated for 70 years — so much for
the rule of law.
- Stop the Poverty Draft! The lack of decent
wages, universal health care, and free higher
education are the main recruiters for the
poverty draft. The
1.2 trillion we spend annually for war
enforces austerity at home by diverting funds
and resources. Only the 1% get rich on war. The
war machine thrives on and creates poverty.
- Hate and fear of the “other” is the culture
of war. Hate and violence abroad and the culture
of hate and violence at home exist in a vicious
feedback loop. It’s not a coincidence that the
hate demanded by the wars inflicted upon black
and brown people abroad find a direct domestic
parallel in the militarized penal system aimed
at black, brown and poor and the attacks on
immigrants of color.
- And make no mistakes, its
war that drives climate change. Not only is
the military the largest consumer of fossil
fuels, its the enforcer of an oil empire. War
captures resources and forces countries to
submit to a global regime where the US dollar is
the only acceptable currency for trading fossil
fuels. Stand outside of the oil empire –refuse
to pay imperial tribute — and its regime change
time for you.
- Defend democracy and national sovereignty.
Not only does the US routinely violate the
national sovereignty of other countries but also
attack legally elected governments. This is not
debatable but plain fact —
know the history.
- “We are sick of being lied to.” We have
decades of proof that the war-makers lie — the
Afghanistan Papers being the most recent.
Every claim made by every political official
should be judged in that light. The public
record is clear — war is based on
lies and deception. Remember: “In
War Truth is the First Casualty.”
- Listen to anti-war soldiers and veterans.
The greatest challenge to war is anti-war
soldiers and veterans because they completely
upset the empire’s narratives and are the most
effective of all protestors. The peace movement
from within the military’s ranks is a bridge
between some hard-won,
down and dirty knowledge about war and millions
of people who do not currently define themselves
as anti-war.
Support
About
Face,
Vets
for Peace and
Veteran’s Power.
- Empires rise and empires fall — without
exception.
American Exceptionalism
has
conditioned us to see the US as a moral force
outside of history. Exceptionalism is a
master narrative of war that blinds us to the
dangers of an empire in decline.
The liberal
aspects of Exceptionalism are the hardest to see
but they encourage us to understand war as a
morality play with the US acting as a force for
good in the world.
- Imperial wars are unwinnable wars. Eighteen
years in Afghanistan and over 25 years of
on-again-off-again war with Iraq prove that
these wars are unwinnable. Unwinnable wars are
just permanent military occupations — the
hallmark of empire. Sooner or later the facts
become obvious to the people under US control
and they want their countries back.
What should be our most important anti-war
narratives? Let’s start out right with the goal of
bringing the US empire into view as a target for
political action. We
need stories that help reveal to millions of people
the true nature of empire. We need stories that can
help us organize actual constraints on the war
machine. We need
stories that help us to find the beginnings of
freedom in the end of empire.
This article was
originally published by "Be
Freedom" -
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