Works In Progress - June 2003 - Say It Proudly: The Peace Movement Was Right About Iraq

For many months the peace movement was articulating many reasons why a war on Iraq would be wrong. After March 19 those rotten eggs started to hatch, and the stink has become overwhelming!

· Where are the "weapons of mass destruction"?

· Why aren't the Iraqis welcoming our "liberation"?

· Which US puppet will we install in the guise of "democracy"?

· Which US corporations tied to the Bush regime will profit from the reconstruction and oil contracts?

· How is military spending affecting our federal, state and local budgets?

· How are other nations reacting to Bush's war?

· Has the war defeated terrorism, or is it provoking more terrorism?

On point after point, the peace movement is being proven correct! We should be telling the public, the media and the government "I TOLD YOU SO!"

The war did not represent a failure of the peace movement. Although many peace activists are feeling defeated, licking their wounds, and feeling depressed, we actually should be standing up proudly and affirming our prescience.

Even though we did not prevent this particular war, we did build the biggest and most broad-based peace movement in history! We strengthened the foundation for an eventual overhaul of US foreign policy. The peace movement has not won that victory - yet. Let's celebrate what we have accomplished and strategize how to make the peace movement even stronger.

Nor do Bush's bullying and the US military conquest represent a real success for the US. They exposed the raw abuse of power against civil democracy in the US. They also exposed to the world how arrogant and violent the US empire has become. The seeming successes are only short-term. Actually, the long-term effects are to undermine global tolerance for the US empire and unite world opinion to demand a radical change.

The US, which enjoyed decades of prominence as the leader of the free world, is now widely seen as a rogue nation whose arrogance and violence are out of control. Will the Iraq war turn out to be the straw that broke the camel's back? Will the world allow the US to control the world in violation of international law? To launch "preemptive wars" whenever we feel like it? To complete our "hostile takeover" of the global economy?

People used to say that September 11 changed everything. Actually, the Bush regime's attack on peace and democracy is what is changing everything. The rest of the world knows it, and anyone in the US who cares about peace, democracy, civil liberties, the environment, human rights, and constitutional government knows it too.

In early March 70% of the American people opposed Bush's war unless he had UN approval or a lot of allies. He started the war with neither. If the peace movement sharpens our strategies and organizes skillfully, we can bring millions of those Americans back into actively opposing current and future wars.

If progressive activists sharpen our strategies and organize skillfully now - in mid-2003 - we could expose and discredit a whole slew of the Bush regime's policies and decisions. We have enough time to totally change the political climate that will be in place when the November 2004 election takes place. Remember that in the spring of 1991 the older Bush had just won the first Gulf War and had sky-high approval ratings. Everybody assumed he was a shoo-in for re-election. But the economy worsened, and he was voted out!

Smart organizing now could change the current political climate. Let's focus on discrediting the incumbent regime rather than bog down squabbling over the competing candidates. The so-called "electable" Democrats supported Bush's war. We must challenge the real issues head-on, or else Democrats will run as "Bush lite" and continue with Clintonesque militarism (our "bi-partisan" foreign policy).

Voters hate to be lied to. We can expose the lies and hypocrisy about this war and about the Bush regime's other policies and actions. We can hang this war around his neck and make other candidates run away from it. The peace movement was right, and we can change the political climate!

Summary: Even after the so-called victory over Iraq:

· The truth is still the truth.

· The war is just as wrong now as it was before March 19.

· Civil liberties and human rights are just as important now as they were before September 11.

· War is still not the answer; it is the problem.

· More and more people in the US and around the world understand these truths.

· We can continue building a bigger and stronger peace movement.

· We must change the political climate in order to significantly affect the 2004 election.