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Iraq War: The Missing Measure of Our Outrage
If most of us can agree the Iraq War is a colossal failure, why aren't we doing much about it?
How do you measure war?
It is a question that many of our greatest political philosophers have wrestled with for thousands of years. What number, what unit, what fields of inquiry could possibly describe the progress (or in our present conflict, the lack thereof) when it comes to the mess of war? Is it the number of dead soldiers? The dead plus the injured? The new alliances and government infrastructure? The "collateral damage"? Can it be measured by an absence -- of terrorist attacks, of tyrants, of dreams?
As our Democratic-led Congress looks towards answering this question, or at least attempting to, I have been mulling it over myself. And of course rather than leading to an answer, it seems to have left me staring down another, perhaps even more difficult question: how do you measure a public's responsibility to end war?
I sat drinking beers among family friends on a recent Sunday evening, discussing just this topic with a group of people hailing from both coasts and many places in between, spanning political persuasions from loyal Republican to anarchist, and at all stages of life, from a recent widow to a puppy in love. We were boomers and echoes of the boom, the moneyed and the starving artists. And we were all totally stumped as to what our responsibilities as citizens were in a war, that -- regardless of party affiliation or tax bracket -- we all agreed was a colossal failure.
Why haven't we been more outraged? And if we have, why hasn't it manifested in desperate action?
There were a couple of Vietnam vets in the room, and they were convinced that one of the reasons we have failed to feel strongly about the Iraq War is, sadly, a matter of personal interest. In all of Vietnam, there were somewhere around 58,000 U.S. soldiers killed. In our four years so far of the Iraq War, we haven't even suffered 4,000 yet. There are simply far fewer of us who have had to deal with the war in an acutely personal way. (Though injuries are on the rise because of new forms of warfare.)
My mom teared up as she remembered how many of her friends disappeared to the draft, their empty seats in class like open wounds among those remaining behind. My cousin did two tours of duty in the unforgiving Iraqi desert. I'm proud and lucky to report that he is now studying history at UCLA, galvanized by his mix-bag experience as a Marine to understand the legacy of war and the way that our world is changing.
But among my college-educated friends, I am an anomaly. Most of them don't know anyone who has actually served in Iraq, much less lost anyone. We, the children of Desert Storm and the teenagers of September 11th, experience war through an unarguably class-determined lens. Those of us who grew up with trampolines and college guides know little of IED's beyond what we have read online.
You may think I'm creeping dangerously close to advocating a reinstatement of the draft. In fact, I think that the idea is unconscionable, not just because booming young cities like Denver and Austin would be ghost towns and Canada would be rich with innovative, young blood, but because it is morally indefensible -- as is manipulating the poor and the newly American into chaotic war. Why add more cracks to our already broken moral character as a country?
But if not a draft, than we need something, anything, that would help us override the basest of moral reasoning -- "If it affects me or mine, I'll protest" -- and move into a more enlightened zone -- "If people are suffering, dying, losing hope, then it affects me and I'll protest." We have developed technology that allows us to email from Antarctica and send songs to strangers via wireless connection on the streets. How can we not develop some new sense of our interconnectedness, and as a result, our responsibility to do something about a war that we -- by and large -- don't believe in? Today, according to CBS, a full 69 percent of the American public disapproves of the war.
In a war that has highlighted how complex identity politics are, how much our technological advances have changed the look of and loss during war time, how wide the abysses have grown between economic classes, it is imperative that we still see the simple truths.
We are all, every last American, responsible for this messy war. We must demand a new moral accountability from ourselves that transcends self-interest. If we are truly principled, it shouldn't matter whether the death toll is 1 or 100,000, whether we know someone directly affected by war or not. We must take the war personally simply by virtue of being American, and even more radically, simply by virtue of being human. And last but certainly not least, we must find a way to move, to act, to affect change.
I grew a bit embarrassingly passionate, to none of my family's surprise, as the conversation meandered from Vietnam-Iraq contrasts and comparisons to the elephant in every room: What the hell do we do? I looked one of the 50-something-years olds deep in the eyes and asked, "But seriously, what do you suggest we do in order to actualize our outrage? I've been to protests, and they were called focus groups. I've signed online petitions that, as far as I can tell, just got lost in the internet ether. What do we do?"
She shrugged her shoulders, as did the other balding conservatives and aging hippies around the table. "Things are changing," they swore. "Bush is getting closer to pulling the troops out."
Okay. Fine. Time and plunging public opinion may have whittled away Bush's cowboy confidence to the point that he will concede some defeat. Perhaps some soldiers, even some Iraqi civilians, will be spared by the constant barrage of criticism the current administration has incurred from pundits, politicians, bloggers, antiwar vets and activists. I am grateful for that, though I still believe that too many have done too little to end this seemingly endless war. But American civilians are no closer to understanding how to harness our own outrage, how to live in a modern world where poor kids die while rich kids fight ever harder to get into Harvard, how to go to bed with a peaceful sense that we have done what we could to end war.
We remain angry and inert, privileged and distanced, a nation of living rooms loud with debate and proverbial streets empty and silent. The only way to measure our silence will, I fear, be the deafening echo of what this war does to future generations.
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80 Comments so far
Show AllI work for a US company which has over 100,000 employees throughout the world. Am I a bad person?
Dear Tampa Mike,
That's one way to use those critical thinking skills! It is refreshing to see the first neocon visit this thread. I for one, am quite sure that many neocons are reading these threads either by confusion or accidental google search.. but they remain silent and "lurk" as they are shocked by the changing tide of sentiment throughout the mainstream citizenry of the U.S, and now the seed of doubt is growing in their sheltered brains that this thing could be worse than Vietnam ever was......
In the past, neocon responses would be immediate crying "treason!", "support the troops!" and "my country right or wrong," such as your comment. But yours did not surface until several dozen anti-war comments. More and more, I see fewer of the Dr Strangelove solutions proffered such as yours. But I want to welcome you to the "infant discussion," and hope you will share some more pearls of wisdom with us. Perhaps you have a plan B you want to share with us? Besides suicide? :-) We all have to live with the government we tolerate and it wouldn't be a good government with only one viewpoint considered.
God I Love sites like commondreams.org! They are fantastic outlets for venting! And for making friends. And infinitely more entertaining than anything on the satellite or cable! I am not the first to say that many times your comments are as good or better than the articles themselves! Pure, raw, free speech by citizens who love the country and are worried about it. And now that every redneck in every trailer has a walmart computer and a dial up... there is hope of reaching them.
Despair not my friends! The enemies of the United States constitution are outnumbered! They secretly love liberty but only behind the manicured lawns of gated communities; and only for themselves. I am heartened by all the great suggestions in the above comments; sans mike. I think you are all on the right track. As in Union struggles, the only thing that forces capitulation by management is something that negatively affects the bottom line.
This is how the 1610-1775 American generations first fought their own King George the Third. They boycotted all products from Britain, made their own clothing, substituted coffee for tea. In this analogy:
King George I was Sen Prescott Bush who was investigated for trading war materials with the Nazi's during W.W.II
King George II was George Bush Sr who used CIA contacts to trade arms in Iran-Contra
King George III is the silver-spoon tyrant who now occupies the white house and channels war materials and services through Haliburton and others in the form of no-bidd contracts
Are we seeing a war-profiteering pattern yet with this crime family?
Now these colonial boycotts were initially effective but merchants didn't adhere to them very long. But it set the stage for people power, which eventually lead to greater things.
I just finished reading "John Adams" by David McCullough and I want to share with you a quote by the second president (who refused to join any party and by doing so lost his reelection.)
"But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people." - John Adams
I must say, restoration of the constitution, of liberty and the bill of rights is now in the minds and hearts of more
Americans than ever before.
pacplyer
First, I just want to comment on the irony of the author asking fifty-something "aging hippies" what could be done and getting washy, limp, let's pretend-Bush-will-seddenly-do-the-right-thing responses...while my 20 year old daughter is telling me "you're too radical..."
It's true that voting is useless until we are able to cure the corruption of the system, marching in DC is useless as long as the media is on the other side and most people believe in the mainstream media, and personal purification won't solve the Iraq war problem although it's all good advice.
One more time, here's my two cents on the TACTIC I think the majority of the public could use to force Congress to act: a national strike, in which nobody goes to work or class or buys anything on preset days. It doesn't require people to drive to DC or face down cops. It does require some reduction in income (and outgo) but if people can't face that in these desperate times then we don't deserve to survive. It would only be effective if enough people participated--which is to say, we need to do a great deal of organizing in advance. We should also plan on using the days where everyone has time to kill and nowhere to go to put on teach-ins in every city and town, to bring our fellow citizens up to awareness of various things the mass media never tells them.
It seems to me that there are a couple of possibilities. First, as Bakunin mentioned, we could organize a tribunal to effectively dissolve the government (I wish Rich M. was on this thread to legally weigh in on this), somewhat along the lines of the Declaration of Independence. The other thing we could do in addition to growing our own food, carpooling (or doing away with driving) is to go after the places that have meaning to politicians (for example, George Bush is part owner of the Texas Rangers. If a group of protestors repeatedly showed up with "End the War" signs, it might turn off fans so much, that attendance plummets, and then the owners can not afford to pay taxes, the team, the lease for the ballpark, etc.). If they bank with a particular financial institution, boycott that bank. It is painfully obvious we longer can rely on politicians to get us out of this mess because both parties are complicit in the illegal occupation of Iraq, among other high crimes. In my estimation that ought to be enough to dissolve this government.
Yes, i'm sure there are lots of people that stumble upon this site. I thought it was a liberal blog at first, but shortly came to realize it was a socialist site. This stuff is pretty funny.
RoundAbout September 10th, 2007 1:11 pm
I signed and thanks for the link. I hope you don't mind if I post it EVERYWHERE.
No, the people are not responsible, they are not by and large privileged. They may be distanced in the sense that they aren't being engaged or empowered. They are also tired, busy, distracted, and disenfranchised. It has happened to me also.
The elites started this war. The people did not nor did they elect this man.
Bush doesn't have "cowboy confidence". He doesn't suffer from tunnel vision. He's not clueless. He and the people who serve as puppeteers KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
I heard some of Gen. Petraeus' remarks today on the radio while working, and I couldn't believe how insincerity of it all. As if these people truly went into Iraq for liberation and defense as opposed to imperialism and war-profiteering.
It's time for the self-righteousness to end as well as the self-loathing. Neither has ever served as an agent of positive change.
"Today, according to CBS, a full 69 percent of the American public disapproves of the war."
If the above is true and if the U.S. is truely a democracy, all you need to do to end the war is wait until the next election, don't you? Why are Commondreamers sweating? Am I missing something?
miketampa1, Your quite right, all these liberal progressives should drink cyanide. Socialist must mean something bad. Then they'll all die. You can go on on in your career, being a slave prole in your "job" employing 100,000. Must be huge. What stupid job do you have? Wait don't tell me, must be financial investment. Waiting for your responds
I bet if we gave Hillary, say, 40 million dollars and promised to give her and all her friends millions too, we would get whatever we wanted. I mean whatever we want. Then,we would be playing the game. And our competition will be those in power now.
Daemon13
You can't even write and you're calling me out and calling me a slave? Why jump to the personal attacks right away? I don't consider myself a slave at all, so that means I'm not a slave. Maybe you are a slave because you make yourself one. You call my job stupid and you don't know anything about it. I'm not in finance. I didn't say socialism is bad, why do you put words in my mouth? Why can't you just post an intelligent response? I did ask a serious question. Try answering it. I work for a computer company that empowers your dumbass to post this garbage. I would say that computers wouldn't be around if it weren't for the "corporations" that invented and produce them. Why would you bash what empowers you?
miketampa1
I did notice the attack on you from another discussant. It's not fair nor nice.
However, I think when some of the people above discuss slavery they are talking about wage-slavery.
That means that our typical career plans, decisions made at the workplace, etc. are directed by reward/punishment systems external to each of us and are, in no way, rationally and consciously organized by us.
Just imagine yourself as being guaranteed a 5,000.00 per month check (into today's dollars) for the rest of your life. That would include an iron-clad pension plan, free healthcare of your choice, and a nice house and reliable transport vehicle thrown in.
What type of education would you have chosen? What would be your career or life choices? Where would you really like to live? How much shit would you put up with on the job?
Because an elite group controls access to the important resources, we non-elte are, essentially, slaves, donkeys, or whatever.
A power pyramid consists of Masters (the rule-makers and order-givers), Overseers (delegated power in order to develop longterm plans, and maintain, control and regulate the Master's manpower, machines, money, media, the multitude, ...can you think of any other m's?) and Slaves (order-takers).
The benefits go up, and the costs go down this pyramid.
The first order of business if you want to cast off an enslaved consciousness is to go through the "de-donkeyfication" process. I
n other words, start systematically questioning the Master's carrot (consumerism) and his stick (economic powerlessness).
So, for example, what are computers actually used for: liberation or keeping the old, increasingly inhumane system going?
One of history's biggest organized scientific and technological endeavors, the Manhatten Project, didn't need computers.
More Americans hit the streets and flexed their collective muscles during the Depression, Vietnam War, before computers came into play.
Maybe, under the auspices of a power pyramid, each newer technology is merely a new type of vacuum cleaner that sucks increasingly larger amounts of wealth and power(benefits)into the hands of the few?
Good luck!
I know what they meant when they said slavery. But still, I don't consider myself a slave, and I don't think you should either. Yes, I work for a company, but I like what I do. I enjoy my work, I get to work with cool technology, and it interests me. I'm sure many so-called "slaves" feel the same. I have ventured with my own businesses as well, some successful, some not so much. Everything I have done is what I wanted to do. Where's the slavery in that? Only the elite control the resources? I was able to personally invent a product, have it mass produced in China, and sold across the US in every mall.. at the age of 24. I had an idea and I made it happen. I'm not trying to brag, but trying to make a point. The world is open to you, especially as an American, if you are lucky enough to be one. You have the power to break out of that pyramid you speak of, should you take advantage of it. I'm nobody special. I was ridiculed on another page here, another person immediately started assuming things about that weren't true.
If I had the pension you spoke about, of course I would venture out and do more different things to expand my experience.
"What type of education would you have chosen? What would be your career or life choices? Where would you really like to live? How much shit would you put up with on the job?"
I would have still gotton at least my masters degree, I would probably still live in beautiful Florida near family, and of course I would not put up with shit at work, just like now. What was the point of that hypothetical situation? Does your plan of what our country should be give me $5000 per month?
"So, for example, what are computers actually used for: liberation or keeping the old, increasingly inhumane system going?"
What kind of question is this? I think you know that computers are used for millions of different things, and have the potential to do both of what you mentioned. From what I read on this site computers are used frequently to complain and attack those that disagree. I've surfed the web a lot and infrequently see as much anger as I do here. I'd propose that some people are a slave to their anger and hatred.
BigNoseKate September 10th, 2007 10:30 pm
Thank you Kate. Post away.
I suppose it is all right for poor people to join the armed forces. But does it really make any sense for partents who have established trust fund for their kids, to send them to die in the slums of baghdad?
Numbers matter. The military plus their families are only 0.5% of the population. A million man march as protest is about 0.33% of the population. Bush & Co are totally rational in ignoring these pitiful demonstrations. The US population has doubled since Nam and the military has shrunk. Our military is a Foreign Legion force that is out of sight of the general public.
The worst slave is one that doesn't see their own slavery. If you can't live your life on your own schedule and are tied instead to the whims of management, if you can't just drop everything and go to a week or month long protest -- yes, you're a slave. As for the Prole's job, no I'm, no big-wig. I make less than 25K but I know who is who in the scheme of things and I know who is represented in this corporatocracy. That's why we need to represent ourselves with a major effort at an alternative party -- down with the GOP and the DIMs, bring on the SOS -- Save Our Society Party. We could learn a few things from Chavez.
Outrage implies anger and no peace movement can operate on anger. It can be originally fuelled by outrage over injustice but in order for a viable peace movement to achieve anything, it must have love and peace running through the organisation's veins.
The Vietnam protests were suited to the generation at the time. 40 years on, it's something else that needs to move us. It needs to be the internal peace we all yearn for that is addressed (and I don't mean through Prozac!) - and once that is done then, and only then, will peace in the outside world come to fruition.
We need to stop looking to politicians for the answers - they are only reflections of ourselves and if we're putting them on pedestals and allowing them to get away with crimes against humanity then it is only ourselves we have to blame. Politicians are human - with the same ego attachment the rest of us hold. Only once we have each, individually, addressed our own ego issues will we see a difference in the world. We must be dedicated to practising peace in our own daily lives - without exception.
And until the majority of us have the guts to vote for someone like Kucinich then we will continue down this very damaging path...
To quote Marianne Williamson who says what I wanted to say above in a much more eloquent and succinct manner:
"Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one."
no more washington dc protests til they are first posted EVERYWHERE...it makes us look feeble and small in number...there needs to be a build up of encouragement and excitement...take a page out of the administration's strategy and start spinning (the truth on this one) weeks and months before the march/protest date...use guilt if necessary just make sure the masses are informed!!! where are the full page ads for the PROTEST AGAINST THE ATROCITY???
Maybe this world system has not advanced morally during the last 500 years. I find it difficult to claim that this system can be called "better" than the previous ones. It has created unseen amounts of polaritazion on the globe. Imperialism as well as socialism is intrinsic in this system, no surprises. "Capital for more capital accumulation" seems to be an irrational and ineffective axiom. This virus had already been operating before the 16th century, somehow human societies everywhere were not letting them to complete their meta chains.
Though the Bush administration operates with barbaric and ill-informed assumptions with regard to policy, its spinmeisters are competent sophists. And one argument they use, which they do so dishonestly but which can be used in good faith, is that it is difficult to know how bad things would have been if they had not done what they did. Sometimes it might serve those of us on the left to reflect on how bad things might be if we did not do what we do.
It can always get better and it can always get worse, and where it is now is a function of all the pressures from all directions that have been applied in the past. It cannot serve one's purpose to stop applying pressure towards a preferred direction.
"We have to do something to make NBC, ABC, and CBS do what they're supposed to do..."
-Future
What could be more true? How about targeting them in demonstrations. Ring them round with protesters. Go to the licensing
hearings and challenge those licenses so freely
dispensed. They are still by law obliged to act on behalf of the public "interest, necessity and convenience." Reporting the news, not dispersing lies, etc.
Remember about a decade ago when a false
front page with a New York Times mast head
was printed up with a story apologizing to
the readership for not covering the slaughter in Central America and disavowing the truth of the EL Mazote massacre ? This page was
wrapped around nearly every Times paper in the vending machines in N.Y. Drove them crazy.
A few hundred people protesting the CBS
decision to dump their liberal commentators
in l947, among them William Shirer, author of
RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH, drove the
head of CBS (Bill Paley) to distraction.
Unfortunately such actions are isolated and rare... but ever so effective.
MikeTampa1 - It is true that large corporations provide jobs, create wonderful new technology, and even fuel the economy. And obviously they are not any more inherently evil than human beings. (Unless you are a believer in the whole Adam and Eve in the garden mythology - then humans are inherently evil and probably corporations are part of the hand of god, keeping us mortals in check.)
The problem is a matter of balance. Corporations in the US originally needed charters which could be revoked if their activities went against the benefit of the people. But in the 1800s, the supreme court bestowed personhood upon them, making it nearly impossible to maintain checks and balances. More recently, corporate money has been equated with freedom of speech.
At this point, large corporations have more freedoms and rights than individuals. A person cannot burn trash (which is a good thing) because of air pollution, but businesses are allowed to dump huge amounts of toxic waste into the air and water because to restrict them would "hurt the economy." The Bush administration went so far as to try to prevent restrictions on children's toys made in China with lead because it would drive up the price at Walmart! (Not sure how that has been resolved - can't keep up with all the atrocities.)
Businesses are permitted to perform drug tests on job applicants and workers because "they don't have to work here if they don't like it." But, to follow this line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, if the government began testing all citizens or putting listening devices in their homes, one could also say "they don't have to live here if they don't like it." Saying that if you are not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about is not the point here - it's that businesses are given greater latitude and have more freedoms than human beings. And have more control over our lives than they reasonably should.
Everyone has to work to make a living, and if all businesses drug test or tell us what kind of car to drive or what to do on our own time, our individual freedoms are taken away. Business has taken over the job of monitoring US residents.
Tort reform was meant to protect businesses from regular people, but more often the real "clogging" of the courts comes from business activity, not from citizens who sue. Tort reform did not restrict businesses from suing each other, from what I have read.
One difference between conservatives and liberals is that conservatives want to allow corporations to do whatever they want in the name of economic growth (they are the grownups, so Daddy Government has no right to tell them what to do), but they want to control what people do (if people behave badly, use drugs, don't earn enough money, belong to the wrong organizations, they are children, so Daddy Government must keep them in line). Liberals and progressives believe one job of government is to control destructive behavior and protect the country from excesses, while allowing private behavior the freedom it deserves. Strict parent vs nurturing family.
You are not a bad person because you work for a large corporation. You are fortunate to enjoy your job. Big business is not bad in and of itself. It just needs to be reined in a good bit more.
I worked for DuPont for a few months about 20 years ago. It was a great job in many ways, but I did feel guilty about it and was delighted to get a job working for the county school system. I believe in the product. Again, DuPont does develop some good products, but they also create a lot of pollution and other bad side effects along the way. I'm a programmer and I like technology. For me, it's about priorities. People over organizations every time!
LeeAnnG,
I do not feel comfortable with the "strict parent" vs. "nurturing family" dichotomy, but I really liked the way you represented the choice as between being strict with corporations or with individuals (we could certainly use a strict parent for some of the predatory corporations we have today). Corporations generally can attain much greater power, and thus can abuse much greater power, than individuals and so it follows that any utilitarian-based legal and governmental system would apply strict rules and regulations to corporations. But we all know our lobbyist-run government uses utilitarian arguments (dishonestly) to follow non-utilitarian policies.
And though it might be that "Big business is not bad in and of itself," I find value in Lord Acton's maxim that "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," and that leads to the conclusion that if not necessarily evil, big business is dangerous and must be closely watched and regulated. The same rule applies to powerful members or factions within government, but that is why separation of powers and multiple independent levels of government are essential.
Kivals - actually, it's the "strict father" vs nurturing parent. Not my idea, of course - it's right out of George Lakoff's "Moral Politics," which I found to be much more coherent than his book "Don't Think of an Elephant."
Not everyone agrees with Lakoff's premise, but it really presented me with a lot to think about. It explained, at least to me, many of the reasons conservatives and liberals don't see eye to eye. If you haven't read it, it's worth a look. Many of the family values issues came into focus.
I totally agree with the power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely principle. As a person who is neither a leader or a follower (I like to think of myself as a free spirit), I don't understand the desire for power. However, I recognize the quest for power when I see it. Somehow, it seems to be addictive and becomes an end in itself.
I also believe that accruing power, like making exponentially more money than anyone needs, gets to be a game. The gamble, the rush when you win, the strategy, become all-consuming. Ultimately, with power and money, it's no longer really about the economy, patriotism, or family values. It's winning. That's where government should step in and regulate.
I suppose that's where the strict father/nurturing parent metaphor breaks down. When the game is everything, and when people in positions of power begin to think of themselves as "players," nothing but destroying the opposition will suffice.
One of the major differences between Vietnam and Iraq is a draft. Republicans knew that if they instituted a draft back in 2003, Americans would go bat shit like we did back in the 60s and 70s about Vietnam.
If the ongoing talk of Bush bombing Iran to take out their nuclear and weapons capability (and the corresponding collateral damage)...if it appears more likely, I'm sure we'll see (and hear) more Vietnam-war like demonstrations. Despite the threat of Patriot Act punishment...Americans can not and will not take much more of this BULLSHIT.
Use passionate words to attack the bland
enablers of this war who are all over the place (I mean that in two different ways).
Take nothing for granted and humiliate them
constantly and don't let up for one single
second until we're completely out of Iraq.
Break them with the thing they can't stand--
scorn. Delivering it would be fun if the task weren't so important.
eyuckk,
I like your passion, and armed revolts might work against the national guard, who are good guys and would be reluctant to shoot their own citizens; but would they work against out-sourced security armies like Blackwater who now do about 50% of the Iraq "policing?" They are poorly trained, unregulated, and, at least in bagdad above the law. Common Thugs. Even if they are now under a military code of justice, they never turn in fellow employees for shooting innocent victims because the all-powerful corporation will terminate any "trouble makers". And they are assuming more and more "insurrection" responsibilities in the U.S. The U.S. order for 400,000 more federal prisoner space this year is clearly aimed at the common citizen when Bush declares martial law. We'll wake up one morning and some city gets nuked by "the secret enemy living in our cities". Just like 911, bush may not actually be the trigger man, but he will look the other way, leaving us wide open at ports and borders. Remember: He wants to be the holy war president. 911 is the only time in his presidency that anyone thought highly of him.
Those private blackwater goons are headed back to the u.s. soon. And let's face it. Because of bushco trashing the right to no unreasonable search and seizure, even most local law enforcement are abusing the proper code of conduct as well because they know they can get away with it. So I think a poorly thought out armed rebellion is doomed to fail at this stage. What is first needed is the support of sympathetic Billionares who mourn the loss of America's reputation as competent world leaders and good guys. Then a mass defection to and a mass funding of a new Libertarian party needs to happen.
The solution to the "Liberal smear" in my opinion, is to point out, that in fact, Bush is the biggest liberal we've ever had as a president. His LIBERAL spending policies (some estimate a trillion u.s. dollars total war pork) and his LIBERAL change of corporate laws and LIBERAL corporate WELFARE handouts have depleted the general fund and jeopardize the economy and the country.
He is without any doubt, the worst president the U.S. has ever had. Start slapping on Impeach Bush bumperstickers and holding up impeach bush signs everywhere you go. Neocons hate that more than anything. It get's the rest of the fencesitters thinking.
Keep the Faith baby!
pacplyer
miketampa1
Just because you subjectively enjoy what you do, doesn't translate into you not being a slave to the system.
During the time of Southern slavery, there were slaves who enjoyed what they did: artisans, craftsmen, teamsters, musicians, poets, writers, etc...but they were still slaves.
Some slaves were even reponsible for various agricultural innovations. And they were usually given more scraps from the Master's tables, the status of being recognized by the Master.
In the antebellum South, the Masters -backed by the state- controlled the collective reward/punishment system; the enslaved had little to do with consciously and rationally constructing this system.
Today, under wage slavery, certain occupational roles are given higher rewards than others. Not because the these roles and their products are better for the natural environment, society or for the individual.
The better rewarded and more recognized occupational roles are those that fit within the Masters' reward/punishment system.
As a result, "ambitious" individuals tend to direct their activities toward those well remunerated goals set by the Masters. These goals, of course, are all directed toward expanding the wealth and power of the Master.
In our type of society, people need money in order to gain access to the material basics of life. Of course, beyond that, some people want more money in order to gain more security against the insecurities generated by the system. Last, a few people need much more money because they want power over others.
If one needs or wants money, that individual must go to those that control it. To increase this individual's possibility of gaining access to money, he has to behave as the Master wants him to behave. To gain more access, the slave must contribute toward solving technological, or organizational problems that block the Master's accumulation of wealth, status and power.
To submit to the Masters' wealth/punishment system requires an individual becoming primarialy extrinsically-motivated rather than intrinsically-motivated.
In other words, one doesn't start the journey of self-enlightenment, or self-actualization (Maslow); instead, one follows the trip laid out by the Master. The end result is the Master's...not yours.
How can you know what is yours if you don't explore and reflect on who you are? (Know thyself and be true.)
Most posted comments do not seriously address Ms Martin's question, "What can WE do to end the war?" even though some, such as those of LeeAnnG, are insightful and thought provoking. As a veteran of WWII and Korea I watch sickening amounts of C-SPAN and agonize over USA decline during my lifetime. My views/answers for the Martin question are:
1 - Leave your comfort zone and GET SERIOUS.
2 - Recognize that money-driven US governance won't yield to electorate anger without vicious fights in all elections and in congress.
3 - Organize a "Stop the War" national party, collect dues from members, then dispatch delegates/watchers to the Wash DC HR gallery to monitor and report, thru this website and possibly thru C-SPAN, ALL floor activity.
4 - Demand that congress defund all US Iraqi activity not directly related to immediate orderly change in strategy to include withdrawal and abandonment of oil thievry.
5 - Demand that the HR initiate immediate (do not wait for 2008) impeachment action against Cheney and Bush in that order. If Iraq had no oil we'd not be there today!
Given perseverance and lots of blog/C-SPAN publicity, such a course of action will not only provide a moral cartharsis for the American people but will show current power brokers that electorate opinion is not to be lightly taken for granted. It will also provide the foundation for an absolutely necessary third party.