How do you stop a war? If I knew for sure, then I could repopulate Ft. Bragg. I’d bring back my neighbors. I‘d bring back the fathers and mothers of the children who attend the schools where I work. I’d bring back the thousands of teenagers who made the move from high school to combat in a few short months. Unfortunately, there are a hundred or so soldiers from North Carolina who are already back in the states, in coffins.
Despite what the government propaganda machine puts out and despite what you probably didn’t learn in school, many wars don’t end with victory or defeat. They end because a critical mass of thinking people decides that they have had enough of the evil obscenity that defines combat. Despite Dick Cheney’s beady eyed vision, this perpetual war on terror he proposes will end. With your help, that end can come sooner, rather than later.
Only the Iraqis who receive money or power as a result of the American occupation want foreign troops to remain in their country. The armed resistance, or as the Army inanely calls them, the “Anti-Iraqi Forces” fighting for self determination in Iraq represent no united front. Instead, a myriad of groups with differing agendas but a common goal wage war in whatever way they can. They wage war the same way Americans would if the tanks and troops of a foreign country patrolled Interstate 95. Occupied nations resist.
Some on the ultra-left in the US advocate a position of supporting the Iraqi resistance. Short of sending checks to Moqtada Al-sadr or joining an international brigade to parachute into Falluja, I’m not quite sure how that support plays out. What I do know is that the best way to support Iraqi self-determination is to work for a withdrawal of US troops, the “Bring Them Home Now” approach. Americans aren’t doing anything in Iraq that Iraqis cannot do for themselves. When you break something in a store, you don’t fix it. You pay for it. We should take the hint.
A country can’t wage war without warriors. After years of mismanaged insanity, the US Army in Vietnam ceased to be an effective fighting force. Soldiers refused to follow orders. No one wanted to be the last man to die for a mistake. The Viet Cong didn’t defeat the US Army. The US Army defeated the US Army.
There may still be an SUV or two that doesn’t have one of those obnoxious “Support Our Troops” decals that are providing so many jobs for underpaid Chinese workers in the magnet industry. The antiwar movement has to support our troops too, sans magnets. We have to support men like Jeremy Hinzman, a Ft. Bragg paratrooper who applied for refugee status in Canada on the grounds that he was being compelled to fight in an illegal war. We have to support men like Michael Hoffman, a former Marine from Camp Lejeune who co-founded Iraq Veterans Against the War.
One of the more effective ways of impacting the ability of the government to wage war is effective counter-recruiting activism. As the military’s need for manpower increases, its ability to attract enlistees is eroding. Informed and angry citizens presenting facts to counter the lies that attract young people are needed. Someone has to be there to tell potential recruits that unemployment is higher among veterans than among non-veterans. Someone has to counter the myth that the military is some sort of college aid program by pointing out that only 15% of those who join the military ever get a degree.
The Iraqi people don’t want to be occupied. More and more American troops don’t want to be occupiers. Still, if George Bush and company (including, unfortunately, the loyal opposition) think that beating the war drum will win them votes, then what Iraqis and disaffected GIs want will matter little. This is where you come in.
If you disagree with the war, then make that known. Write letters. Call congress. Attend demonstrations. Don’t just admire the antiwar movement. BE the antiwar movement. Join with the millions of other Americans who are tired of a war based on lies. You really can make a difference. You really can save lives.
