Should Donald Trump have gone to Congress in accordance with the law before sending missiles into Syria? No. I went to an event where Senator Tim Kaine made this claim. I disagree. Congress should have forbidden, cut off any funding for, and threatened impeachment over that war, the war on Yemen, and every other war. But Trump going to Congress for legal permission to blow up people in Syria is a dangerous delusion. Congress has no power to make crimes legal. I asked Senator Kaine about this. You can watch it on my Youtube page. I asked him how Congress can legalize a violation of the UN Charter and of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. He admitted that it could not, and then immediately and nonsensically went right back to claiming that Trump should come to Congress to get his crimes legalized. If Canada bombed Berkeley raise your hand if you would care whether the parliament or the prime minister did it. There is nothing gained by claiming that Congress can legalize a treaty violation. It's not necessary in order for Congress to prevent or end a war; in fact it works against that goal.
It matters how we talk. When we oppose a weapon because it doesn't work well enough, or a war because it leaves a military too unprepared for other wars, we don't advance the cause of ending all war. And it's not in any way helpful toward our immediate ends. It's gratuitously shooting ourselves in the foot.
We also miss out when we censor and maim various activist movements so as to avoid opposing war. The U.S. war machine kills primarily through the diversion of funds. Tiny fractions of U.S. military spending could end starvation or the lack of clean drinking water on earth or invest more in environmental protection than environmental groups dream of. Meanwhile the military is one of the greatest destroyers of the earth, and it's given a pass by treaties and by activists. Free college would cost no more than the Pentagon regularly "misplaces." The abuses that civil liberties groups oppose are driven by the militarism they won't mention. We would have a dramatically stronger multi-issue coalition if most organizations working on good causes were not utterly intimidated by flags and national anthems. That, in addition to opposing racist murders, is why some of us cheer when athletes take a knee. We'd like to see the Sierra Club or the ACLU find the same courage and decency as a football player.
Some of the most encouraging activism in recent years has been the people turning out at airports and elsewhere to oppose the Muslim ban and protect refugees. It's a shame that the same sort of concern has not been generated to protect the victims of bombings -- even when we have video of little children on a bus -- and to prevent the destruction that turns people into refugees.
We've been inspired by high school students denouncing the gun lobby following a mass shooting in Florida. But their absolutely disciplined restraint in never ever mentioning that the killer was trained by the U.S. Army in the school cafeteria and was wearing his ROTC shirt when he committed mass murder is given little thought. Their promotion of videos that suggest that soldiers and police officers ought to have guns while others ought not to results in little criticism that I'm aware of.
It was gratifying three years ago to see an agreement between the United States and other nations with Iran win out over cries for a war on Iran. But one side falsely claimed that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons and should therefore be bombed, while the other side falsely claimed that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons and should therefore not be bombed but inspected. Now that the inspections have demonstrated what was already knowable, namely that Iran has not been pursuing nuclear weapons, there are few people capable of hearing that. And Israel, which has nuclear weapons but no inspections, and its allies in the U.S. government have a U.S. public in a better place for Iran war propaganda than before the agreement was reached. And I say give the military credit for its green policies: it is going to recycle 100% of its Iraq propaganda for Iran.
When Trump was threatening to nuke Korea, many objected vociferously. But when he made any movement in the direction of peace, most of the same people objected just as strongly. Despite the fact that the United States arms and trains most of the world's dictators, merely speaking with one in North Korea is such a sin that the great resistance will likely pursue charges of treason if Trump allows the Koreans to finally make peace or they go ahead and make it without him.
And please -- I know I ask in vain -- but don't get me started on Russiagate. What is it that I'm supposed to imagine Putin has that could embarrass Donald Trump, a man who intentionally embarrasses himself daily in whatever manner he calculates will most boost the ratings on the reality show he imagines he is living in? Which part of a completely bought and paid for, racistly purged, corporately communicated, primary-rigged, voter ID'd, violence openly incited by a candidate, unverifiable black box election system am I supposed to think has been corrupted by Facebook ads that almost nobody saw but the prevention of which is closing down the internet to viewpoints that challenge power? Now see, you went and got me started.
OK, so we're doing some things wrong. What should we be doing? We should be working locally and globally, with less activism as well as less identification of ourselves at the national level.
World BEYOND War is working on a couple of projects in addition to education. One is closing bases, which allows people around the world to combine our efforts for a single goal. Another is divestment from weapons, which can bring people together for relatively achievable victories -- including in Berkeley -- and at the same time educate society and stigmatize profiting from murder.
We should be strictly nonviolent and publicly commit to being strictly nonviolent in everything we do. The power that could come from doing that on a large scale may be greater than we imagine.
And we should replace our concern over hope or despair with a concern over whether we are working together wisely enough and hard enough. The work itself, as Camus' Sisyphus said, is our enjoyment. It is fulfilling when we do it together as well as we are able, aimed as directly at success as we can get it. Whether we predict success or failure is irrelevant, and the worse things get, the more reason we have to work, not the less. Great changes have often come to the world surprisingly swiftly, but always because people had dedicated themselves to working for that change so intensely that they did not have time to be bothered with hope or despair. Those are luxuries we cannot afford right now. If that doesn't motivate you, maybe reading Joanna Macy will help! But one way or another we need everybody in this room and millions more outside it on deck and active from here on out. Let's end all war together.
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