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Memo to Obama, McCain: No one wins in a war
Jul 18, 2008 By Howard Zinn
http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/3558
BARACK OBAMA and John McCain continue to argue about war. McCain says to keep the troops in Iraq until we "win" and supports sending more troops to Afghanistan. Obama says to withdraw some (not all) troops from Iraq and send them to fight and "win" in Afghanistan.
For someone like myself, who fought in World War II, and since then has protested against war, I must ask: Have our political leaders gone mad?
Have they learned nothing from recent history? Have they not learned that no one "wins" in a war, but that hundreds of thousands of humans die, most of them civilians, many of them children?
Did we "win" by going to war in Korea? The result was a stalemate, leaving things as they were before with a dictatorship in South Korea and a dictatorship in North Korea. Still, more than 2 million people -mostly civilians - died, the United States dropped napalm on children, and 50,000 American soldiers lost their lives.
Did we "win" in Vietnam? We were forced to withdraw, but only after 2 million Vietnamese died, again mostly civilians, again leaving children burned or armless or legless, and 58,000 American soldiers dead.
Did we win in the first Gulf War? Not really. Yes, we pushed Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, with only a few hundred US casualties, but perhaps 100,000 Iraqis died. And the consequences were deadly for the United States: Saddam was still in power, which led the United States to enforce economic sanctions. That move led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, according to UN officials, and set the stage for another war.
In Afghanistan, the United States declared "victory" over the Taliban. Now the Taliban is back, and attacks are increasing. The recent US military death count in Afghanistan exceeds that in Iraq. What makes Obama think that sending more troops to Afghanistan will produce "victory"? And if it did, in an immediate military sense, how long would that last, and at what cost to human life on both sides?
The resurgence of fighting in Afghanistan is a good moment to reflect on the beginning of US involvement there. There should be sobering thoughts to those who say that attacking Iraq was wrong, but attacking Afghanistan was right.
Go back to Sept. 11, 2001. Hijackers direct jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing close to 3,000 A terrorist act, inexcusable by any moral code. The nation is aroused. President Bush orders the invasion and bombing of Afghanistan, and the American public is swept into approval by a wave of fear and anger. Bush announces a "war on terror."
Except for terrorists, we are all against terror. So a war on terror sounded right. But there was a problem, which most Americans did not consider in the heat of the moment: President Bush, despite his confident bravado, had no idea how to make war against terror.
Yes, Al Qaeda - a relatively small but ruthless group of fanatics - was apparently responsible for the attacks. And, yes, there was evidence that Osama bin Laden and others were based in Afghanistan. But the United States did not know exactly where they were, so it invaded and bombed the whole country. That made many people feel righteous. "We had to do something," you heard people say.
Yes, we had to do something. But not thoughtlessly, not recklessly.
Would we approve of a police chief, knowing there was a vicious criminal somewhere in a neighborhood, ordering that the entire neighborhood be bombed? There was soon a civilian death toll in Afghanistan of more than 3,000 - exceeding the number of deaths in the Sept. 11 attacks. Hundreds of Afghans were driven from their homes and turned into wandering refugees.
Two months after the invasion of Afghanistan, a Boston Globe story described a 10-year-old in a hospital bed: "He lost his eyes and hands to the bomb that hit his house after Sunday dinner." The doctor attending him said: "The United States must be thinking he is Osama. If he is not Osama, then why would they do this?"
We should be asking the presidential candidates: Is our war in Afghanistan ending terrorism, or provoking it? And is not war itself terrorism?
Howard Zinn is author of "A Power Governments Cannot Suppress" published by City Lights Books.
On May 6, 2007, Inspired by the writings of Zinn, I wrote:
All We Are Saying is Give Peace a Chance
Before the USA attack on Iraq, 10 million people in fifty countries of the world rose up on one day to say no to war.
Estimates range from 300,000 to 500,000 patriotic Americans rose up and surrounded the Capitol building on January 27, 2007 to say end the occupation of Iraq.
The Declaration of Independence gives the power to we the people, that when a government becomes destructive of basic human rights it is the duty of the people to "altar or abolish it."
Politicians seek to obtain and keep power and those with the deepest pockets, get to buy 'democracy' in the U.S.A.
There are 64 lobbyists per congressional representative.
AIPAC/American Israel Public Affairs Committee represents minimal votes, but multi-millions of dollars to politicians.
Jesus called politicians foxes-meaning they only look out for themselves.
I propose for every AIPAC trip congress takes, equal time must be spent in occupied territory.
Estimates by American Arabs inform this reporter that there are over two million Arab Americans with voting rights. I wonder if 25 million AIPAC dollars is worth all those potential votes.
Over fifty years ago, Edward R. Murrow warned that the republic would be dumbed down by corporate controlled television that seeks to entertain not enlighten.
The Fourth Estate brought the first Gilded Age to its knees, but today they are siphons for Big Brother's propaganda. Over 1.2 million Americans watch Comedy Centrals political satire shows, The Daily Show and Colbert Report that are more informative than the incessant chatter and non-news the lame mainstream talk-news-entertainment shows dwell upon.
Once upon a time in America, the media was a thorn in Big Brother's side, not a collaborator.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…" JULY 4, 1776 The Declaration Independence.
"An unjust law is out of harmony with the moral law."-Reverend Martin Luther King
There is a moral emptiness in government unless it is filled by the actions of citizens on behalf of justice.
"Thoreau's writings get to the heart of the matter. He took on the most incendiary issues of his time…he addresses the obligations of citizens to the government…he asks [us]…how shall we live our lives in a society that makes being human more difficult?"-Page 122, A Power Governments Cannot Suppress, Zinn, Howard.
A good response is to do something and get connected to the rapidly growing international solidarity movement which persistently challenges the military might of the empire with nonviolent resistance and acts of civil disobedience.
When the USA Government was on the verge of invading Iraq in 2003, ten million people in over fifty countries of the world protested in solidarity on a single day. But, this Administration and Congress in collusion with corporate controlled media led us to where we should not go; as destroyers of and now occupiers of an other's homeland.
The role of occupier robs one of ones own basic humanity, for one is forced into the role of having to deny inalienable human rights to the 'other' the occupied.
For there to be peace, there must be respect for the basic dignity and rights of every person. Politicians haggle over boundaries, areas, territories, and neglect the intrinsic need of every child, woman, man to self-determination; liberty from oppression and occupation and freedom from the shackles that privilege one ethnic/religious group/tribe over any other.
Most Americans believe Bethlehem is an Israeli town inhabited by a mixture of Jews and Muslims, according to a nationwide survey by top U.S. pollsters Zogby International. Only 15 percent of Americans realize that Bethlehem is a Palestinian city with a mixed Christian-Muslim community, lying in the occupied West Bank and is nearly dead.
The wall being built around Bethlehem's urban core is one mile from the Green Line, Israel's pre-1967 border with the West Bank. The wall separates Bethlehem from neighboring villages and threatens to cut off 70 percent of Bethlehem's land, thus facilitating the expansion of Israel's West Bank settlements, which are illegal according to International Law.
The second week of June 2007, marked forty years since the occupation of The West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day war. This is the longest military occupation in the history of the world. International Law requires occupation is to be temporary, maintain the status quo, not transfer populations or pilfer the occupied resources. Israel has NOT complied, and has been aided and abetted by USA hypocritical foreign policy, a media that does NOT report the facts on the ground and our American tax dollars.
The Israeli government evades negotiations that would end the occupation and lead to a just peace which is the only guarantee of security.
Israel has previously chosen instead to continue to impose daily control and crush the human rights of the indigenous people of the Holy Land via checkpoint closures, economic strangulation, land confiscation to build Jewish only settlements and the continuing destruction of ancient communities which are now open air prisons. American supply $1.5 million per mile to the thirty foot high Concrete Wall/Electrified Fence, which the International Court of Justice has deemed illegal and must come down.
Violence in the region continues to supply the ideological fuel for the G8 governments in their ‘War on Terror’ that justifies their own violence by explicitly declaring a never-ending, pre-emptive global war to justify their Orwellian Universe that erases civil liberties, supports oppressive regimes and the creating of refugees.
Everyone is a victim of all wars and occupations. Injustice anywhere affects us all.
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."- Margaret Mead
"If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem."-Eldridge Cleaver
Injustice is unsustainable and only in nonviolent solidarity against the empire do "we have it in our power to begin the world again."-Tom Paine
Do something and never, never, ever, never give up pursuing justice if you want peace.
Act Now to Oppose Resolution 362 - War-like sanctions on Iran
House Concurrent Resolution 362, calls for a US naval blockade of Iran, severe sanctions against Iranian banks, and travel restrictions on Iranian diplomats. This proposed naval blockade could force oil prices even higher and be the “trigger event” leading to all-out war with Iran. In fact, some have referred to this as a virtual declaration of war.
It should be noted that Council for the National Interest strongly opposes the proliferation of nuclear weapons; however, Iran has the legal right to enrich uranium as fuel for power plants. The only way to ensure the peaceful use of non-military nuclear technology is to utilize the full breadth of international diplomatic and regulatory mechanisms.
Before taking the provocative actions called for by H. Con. Res. 362, the US should adopt the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group Report, and utilize robust diplomatic engagement. We, as Americans, refuse to be led into another needless war by “war-first” special interests and shoddy intelligence.
Please Do Something-learn more and contact your representative @
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/586/t/1310/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25084
