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Tag(s): Community; Demonstrations; Future; Iraq; Peace; Peace; Peace Advocacy Activism; Peace_War; Reconciliation; Success; (more...) Veterans; Veterans; Wars (less...)
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April 9, 2008 at 06:24:00

What the Peace Movement Has Wrought and Opportunities for the Future

by Olga Bonfiglio Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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However, a year later the momentum changed. A February 2008 Pew Research Center poll found an even split (48-48) among Americans who believe the military effort in Iraq is going well and those who don’t. Obviously, the administration that sold this unjust, immoral, unnecessary war is now doing another PR job on Americans by touting the success of the surge.

Unfortunately, they are believing it. And it’s no wonder. These days there is precious little mention of the war in the mainstream media and certainly nothing on the death and displacement of Iraqis or the destruction of their country.

During the presidential primaries, candidates largely skirted the subject.

Concerns about the wobbling economy and dire mortgage crisis have superseded concerns about the war even though half a trillion dollars have been sunk into this fiasco.

One other difficult development peace activists have been unable to prevent is the increasingly negative perception of Muslims. The Progressive (February 2008) reported on the dastardly ways Republican presidential candidates tried to capitalize on Americans’ fears of Muslims by associating them with terrorism.

Likewise, films like Stop Loss illustrate that we are fomenting dangerous prejudicial feelings in our soldiers who fight in the Middle East. This stuff will spread as frustration over the endless war and the sinking economy increases.

Finally, if the peace movement has one glaring failing, it is in its relationship to the U.S. military. That work seems to have been taken up by military families and Bush supporters in the form of sending care packages and participating in send-off and welcome home ceremonies.

However, peace activists have a real opportunity here to demonstrate that peacemaking is about reconciliation. Returning soldiers need to be reunited with the community as full and participating citizens, says war psychologist Ed Tick in his book War and the Soul.

Tick, who has been working with Vietnam veterans with PTSD since 1978 and is now working with Iraq and Afghanistan War vets, says that soldiers must be forgiven for the acts they have committed on behalf of their nation. Who better than peace activists can do that!

Reconciliation with our Republican neighbors is yet another opportunity for peace activists in order to heal the divisions of our country after this disaster of an administration leaves office. I’m finding that more and more Republicans are expressing their painful embarrassment, utter dismay and sorrowful disorientation at having lost their party to the Bush gang.

So bemoaning and denigrating Bush (especially after he’s gone) does little for the real work ahead of us including environmental degradation, global warming, universal health care, housing, restoration of the public domain, post-carbon energy alternatives, education, etc.

Hope and integrity are qualities that characterize peace activists even though many Americans consider these qualities naïve. Let’s show them we CAN make a difference!

This article appeared on Common Dreams on Tuesday, April 8, 2008

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Olga Bonfiglio is a professor at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and author of Heroes of a Different Stripe: How One Town Responded to the War in Iraq. She has written for several national magazines on the subjects of social justice and religion.

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3 comments

Having lived six decades now, I've had a lot of experiences! Grew up in a family often oppressed because of our faith - we stood for peace and against war, and for the rights of all regardless of ethnic background. Active from youth in peace and civil rights. Vietnam-era draft resister. Worked for a while for peace and social justice groups, and then became a civil servant. Felt a call to a consistent life ethic, and am currently serving as President of Consistent Life. All this is out of Chr...

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Bill SamuelHaving lived six decades now, I've had a lot of experiences! Grew up in a family often oppressed because of our faith - we stood for peace and against war, and for the rights of all regardless of ethnic background. Active from youth in peace and civil rights. Vietnam-era draft resister. Worked for a while for peace and social justice groups, and then became a civil servant. Felt a call to a consistent life ethic, and am currently serving as President of Consistent Life. All this is out of Chr...

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Peace activists?

I have to disagree with the statement that millions of peace activists were unable to prevent the Iraq War from starting. I'm not sure there were even millions of activists against going into Iraq, but even if there were most were not peace activists. They simply thought this particular war was inadvisable.

Barack Obama's speech against going into Iraq would be very useful to study in this regard. He devotes much of the speech to elaborating that he is not for peace. He stresses that he has no objection to wars, but he thought this particular war was stupid.

I think a lot of opponents of going into Iraq were more like Obama in their approach than were actual advocates of peace. This view is a mere opinion, not really unlike (except in having much greater consequences) a difference of view of whether Product A or Product B is of better quality and more effective. It doesn't carry the moral force of a peace conviction.

If many of those against this particular war are moving towards a peace position, which what is reported here may possibly suggest, that is a good thing. We will keep having wars as long as most people accept the view that wars can be a positive thing.

by Bill Samuel (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 330 comments) on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 2:39:25 PM

CPA, University Lecturer Risk Finance, Major Royal Australian Infantry (Inactive) RFD, Former Mayor City of Greater Dandenong, Wife from Arabic speaking coutry, Former Lecturer Arabic & Islamic culture - Army Reserve Command & Staff College.
kwalshCPA, University Lecturer Risk Finance, Major Royal Australian Infantry (Inactive) RFD, Former Mayor City of Greater Dandenong, Wife from Arabic speaking coutry, Former Lecturer Arabic & Islamic culture - Army Reserve Command & Staff College.

War is a symptom.

Our whole government and economic structure is built on a foundation of violence. The state enforces the rights of those people it supports ultimately via the use of coercion.

Any movement away from this will require a sea change in people’s attitudes, considerable intellectual development to develop an alternative model, will be fiercely resisted, will need time to develop widespread support and will create short term instability for which we will probably need a defence capability to cope with.

To cry for peace is to focus on the symptoms, to work for peace is to work on developing the sort of world we want 'all' our kids to inherit.

by kwalsh (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 217 comments) on Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 12:44:30 AM

I'm an old hippie chick who was part of the Woodstock Generation and the New Left back in the 1960s and '70s. I was enamored with Stephen Gaskin, who led his group to settle on The Farm in Tennessee. For the last few years, though, I've joined a small group of others who are trying to spread the word about the work of the messenger who goes by the pen name of Joseph J. Adamson. I believe that his work, even though it has been rejected by his generation so far, will eventually be spread and help ...

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Sarah MorganI'm an old hippie chick who was part of the Woodstock Generation and the New Left back in the 1960s and '70s. I was enamored with Stephen Gaskin, who led his group to settle on The Farm in Tennessee. For the last few years, though, I've joined a small group of others who are trying to spread the word about the work of the messenger who goes by the pen name of Joseph J. Adamson. I believe that his work, even though it has been rejected by his generation so far, will eventually be spread and help ...

to see more of bio, click on member name

The greatest opportunity for peace

It's not electing a good Democrat as president, although that would certainly be better than what we have now, and it would help in the short term.

But, the partisan political pendulum would keep swinging.

Even if we did elect a good democratic president, it would only be a matter of time before another right-wing demagogue could rise to power waving the flag, thumping his bible, and rattling his sword, as Reagan and Bush did.

No. The opportunity to end the conflict, division and war does not lie in the perpetuation of partisan politics.

The greatest opportunity for peace lies in this message, because it is the truth, and nothing but the truth, that will liberate and empower us all:

http://reformationcomingsoon.bravehost.com

by Sarah Morgan (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 176 comments) on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 7:20:36 PM