War: Never Pure, Never Easy

by Ted Kane

"As people assemble, Civilization is trying to find a new way to die."
--Pete Townshend, Pure and Easy.

Well, this space was originally going to be filled with an account of my annual trip to Tucson for spring training and a visit with my folks. But, a funny...actually, no, a tragic thing happened on the way to my writing the PotLuck column for this month's issue. On March 19th, 2003, a day that will live forever in infamy, the United States unleashed a dastardly attack upon the nation of Iraq in defiance of--for starters--international law and the better part of the world's popular opinion. I know a lot of people feel that now that the war is on it's not appropriate to criticize the President or the war effort. I'm not one of those people, however, although I am to a certain extent sympathetic to the concerns held by those who hold to that point of view in good conscience. (a clause which would exclude virtually anyone in the employ of the State Department (and/)or Fox News) The following is intended to be a stream of consciousness account of my attitudes toward the ongoing war and, as such, is unlikely to be the best piece of writing I will have ever produced. So, I ask you to bear with me as I feel that it is important to try to do this, for my own sake if nothing else.

As for the war and the motives behind it, I feel that my recent piece Iraq 101 still reflects my opinion reasonably well, though I'm coming more and more to view the current war and the Gulf War as a single entity. At any rate, I neither wish to repeat myself nor particularly believe that anything I may say at this historical moment is likely to sway anyone's opinion regarding the legitimacy of the war. The questions I want to address here have to do with what are appropriate responses to the current situation for those of us that find themselves anywhere between uneasy with to downright ashamed of our government's preemptive strike on Iraq. Inasmuch as it is relevant to such an inquiry, I would also like to deconstruct the terminology of the self-appointed patriots who are attempting to belittle the concerns of those of us who are opposed to war in this particular instance and/or more generally.

Should we protest? Should we keep silent and be content to pray, in our own individual manner, for peace? Now that U.S. forces are committed, should we back them despite our reservations? These are hard questions, and anyone who tries to tell you they aren't is most likely not thinking about them seriously, or at least not afresh. It is one thing to critique various policy options, after all, and another to criticize the actual decisions that are made in our name as Americans. That said, it is because they are made in our name that we must criticize them. To the extent that we have voices, to the extent that we believe that this is a democracy--nay, to the extent that we believe in the values of democracy that are at present being flagrantly and systematically betrayed, and to the degree that we believe that human life is something other than a matter of predestination and that individual lives are more than mere tokens to be wagered in a game played by power-mad fools, we must raise our voices in order to help achieve the world we want to live in. That is why I went out into the streets this weekend, raising banners against George W. Bush and the war he and his advisors wanted so badly and have at last plunged us into.

I think it is only right, though, to answer those who claim that dissent in this matter is aiding and abetting the dictator Saddam Hussein and disrespectful to the troops that are right now fighting "for our freedom." Although I don't agree with the supposition that our freedom is at stake in this battle in any non-Orwellian sense—far from it, in fact, I feel that Bush, John Ashcroft and the rest of their cabal represents a far more serious threat to the values of freedom embodied in the Constitution than Hussein or any other world leader-- and while I question the motives behind many of those who publicly make such claims, I also and absolutely have no desire to either disrespect the rank and file soldiers from here and from the UK that are charged with carrying out the criminally flawed war policy or to provide or appear to be providing any support whatsoever for the sick regime of Saddam Hussein. I wish the troops...that is to say, our friends, our neighbors and our family, people that are acting according to what they believe to be right...had never been sent to Iraq in the first place. And I wish that the Reagan and the George H.W. Bush administration had never helped create the monster that is Saddam Hussein.

The current campaign is being called Operation Iraqi Freedom, a cruel joke if ever I heard one. American policy towards Iraq has never viewed "Iraqi Freedom" as a significant goal. Indeed, regardless of their claims to the contrary, the last four administrations have unhesitantly and unfailingly pursued a course that has pushed the amount of Iraqi suffering beyond the maximum limits of human endurance.

First, the Reagan administration funded and armed both sides of the Iran/Iraq conflict in the evident belief that the resulting massive bloodshed was a desirable end. (The polite term for this type of thing is "Realpolitik", though, coarse fellow that I am, I prefer to call it by the proper name of "Evil". The Gulf War of George Bush the Elder should be familiar to everyone, though the inhumanity of the subsequent "sanctions" policy continued by the Clinton and second Bush administrations have tended to be glossed over. Just as the myth of the "smart bomb" allowed many of us to turn off the sound of our consciences a decade ago, the current propaganda of "Shock and Awe" is designed to drown out the voices from The hospitals and streets of the current conflict. But don't believe it.

Support Our Troops

Could the Ministry of Truth itself have come up with a more brilliant propaganda phrase? I doubt it. The continuing popularity of this phrase represents the success of the right wing in deflecting the culpability for military aggression from the people who order it to those who are charged with implementing it. But, really, dissenting from the war is not about the troops. It's about the policy. The policy is wrong. I wish no ill of the troops--I want them to come home, I don't want them to die. I oppose the policy of war, of unprovoked aggression. And I resent having to clarify that point.

And, Christ, I'm tired....

(to be continued, inevitably)