- One can almost sense a palpable shifting of momentum,
from an unrestricted Bush war-juggernaut rolling to its bloody unfolding
to an administration caught between Iraq and a hard place, condemned if
it unleashes the dogs of war (imperial warmonger), condemned if it pulls
back and bides its time (wimp).
-
- In a sense, what's transpiring reminds one of the delicious
secret of "The Wizard of Oz": more and more people are beginning
to sense, and sometimes even see, that the "all-powerful" governmental
leader behind the curtain is just a flawed little man broadcasting to an
overly-awed (and/or frightened) polity. Or, to shift fairytales: "The
Emperor's New Clothes," where the leader, who has been nude all this
while for all to see, suddenly finds that his subjects, heretofore willing
to swallow the illusion of the emperor's new garments, realize that he's
not wearing any.
-
- In short, Bush is just another leader -- not even an
elected one at that -- who, to disguise his incompetency and true motives,
has lived on propaganda and falsification, and now the jig is up. His citizens
are beginning to see through the charade -- even many who once supported
him, including a good many ordinary, moderate Republicans, appalled at
the powers assumed by Big Government and its willingness to eviscerate
the Constitution in its push toward more and more authoritarian control.
-
- Certainly those outside the United States have seen through
America's ostensible leader, and they, being more familiar with imperial
arrogance, have not liked what they've seen. No, not at all. Even though
they know they might pay a high price for telling the emperor to his face
that he's full of bullbleep and that they refuse to have blood on their
hands just because he says it's time to go to war, they have stood up.
(Sad to say, there are some signs of wavering these days.)
-
- What's about to come down over the next several weeks
doesn't look hopeful. Bush & Co. are pulling out all the stops -- threatening,
bribing, cajoling, arm-twisting, bullying -- in an effort to smooth the
path to war, to give fig-leaf cover to their rush to military onslaught
devoid of overt evidence to justify the haste.
-
- There IS going to be a war, you know. Bush & Co.
will not have it any other way. The Bush & Co. domestic and global
agenda requires it. How can you get your extremist domestic agenda passed
unless a frightened Congress and populace rallies around the flag being
unfurled in a Mideast desert? How can the U.S. exercise its "benevolent
hegemony" of the globe (and totally by coincidence, have effective
control of the world's natural resources) unless would-be upstarts get
bombed to smithereens, to demonstrate to others that they'd better not
make the same mistake of getting in our way? So, it's full speed to Baghdad.
-
- Doesn't matter if the allies are opposed, doesn't matter
if thousands of Iraqi citizens get slaughtered as the missiles rain down
(no wonder "Guernica" was covered up when Powell arrived at the
U.N.), doesn't matter if North Korea insanely is threatening nuclear war
against the U.S., doesn't matter if the American citizenry doesn't want
a pre-emptive war on its conscience, doesn't matter if America is torn
apart by dissension and economic disaster, doesn't matter if millions are
demonstrating in the streets of America even before bombing has begun --
none of that matters. (Reminiscent of what Bush once told an ordinary citizen
when that man deigned to criticize him at some public event: "What
do I care what you think?")
-
- But, let's clear up something right away. Iraq War #2
already has begun. U.S. special forces are currently operating in northern
Iraq, moving to protect the oilfields from Saddam's orders to destroy them.
U.S./British bombing of military targets is happening on a more frequent
basis. Propaganda leaflets are already being released from U.S. planes
over Iraq, warning soldiers not to follow the orders of their superiors
to use biological or chemical armaments or risk "war crime" trials
later.
-
- So the war is on. All that's missing is "Shock &
Awe" -- the U.S. plan for the first several days of missile attacks
(hundreds and hundreds of them) aimed at Baghdad and Basra and elsewhere
-- this to break the back and morale of Iraq's defense forces and to keep
civilians from wanting to fight when the U.S./British troops arrive in
downtown Baghdad.
-
- There is little doubt that the U.S. onslaught will defeat
the Iraqi forces -- ignoring for a moment what might happen if and when
Saddam uncorks his biochem agents and aims them at the invaders. But, per
usual when it comes to Bush foreign/military policy, little thought has
been given to the consequences of what happens when the dogs of war are
loosed on the world scene, especially on that ready-to-explode part of
the world. (But this is in keeping with Bush & Co.'s we'll-deal-with-the-consequences-later
domestic agenda -- for example, pushing for more tax cuts for the wealthy
and corporate sectors in the face of an economy that already is in shambles
because of earlier take-the-money-and-run policies.)
-
- So, here we are -- we liberals and progressives and radicals
and moderates -- congratulating ourselves on our marvelous work of the
past few months, building a stop-the-war coalition here and abroad that
culminated in those fantastically impressive marches and rallies and demonstrations
around the world and throughout the U.S. last weekend (perhaps as many
as 11 million! peacefully protesting). True, those demonstrations were
effective morale boosters and put the fear of electoral defeat in the rulers
of a number of countries as they saw millions of their normally passive,
ordinary citizens marching in the streets.
-
- But Bush & Co. will have their war. So, what we in
the opposition need to do now is to start reckoning with an overt, shooting-war
situation: How can we throw sand into our government's war machine? How
can we mobilize for peace candidates? How can we help the Democrats become
a true party of opposition? How can we best help educate more of our fellow
citizens -- the ordinary, somewhat-troubled middle-class ones sitting on
the sidelines for now -- about the duplicity of our rulers and the dangerous
policies being carried out in our names? How can we move toward impeachment
for this incompetent, dangerous-to-American-interests Administration?
-
- In short, how can we use the energies displayed on the
streets in the past few months to build a dynamic, unstoppable Movement
for peace and justice and economic recovery?
-
- Those of us who were active in the civil rights/anti-Vietnam
War Movement of the '60s and '70s know how much work is involved in building
to critical mass. it took years and years of hard, slogging work to educate
and agitate and begin to change the way the great American muddle class
saw the world and their political leaders devoid of illusion.
-
- That transition can be accomplished much faster in 2003
-- especially given the speed with which news and information and communications
can be disseminated these days, via the Internet and television and cell
phones.
-
- Don't get me wrong. It's not going to be easy. And it's
going to come at a heavy price for many -- who will be persecuted, arrested,
beaten, perhaps killed, censored, etc. -- as the forces of reaction fight
tooth and nail to hang onto their greed-and-power agenda.
-
- But none of us doubts that the battle needs to be waged
-- in as creative and life-affirming way as possible. Let's continue to
try to stop the war from happening, but, if -- as seems likely -- we can't,
let's get our nascent Movement in gear and revved-up for the fight ahead.
If you love your country, and your Constitution, and the world, and your
kids, we can do no less. Onward!
-
- Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., has taught government & international
relations at various universities, worked as an activist journalist during
"The Sixties," was with the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly
20 years, and is co-editor of The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org).
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