by David Keppel davidkeppel@earthlink.net
originally published March 21, 2003 in the Indianapolis Star
at http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/3/030320-6983-021.html
It is an axiom of war politics that when the shooting starts, critics rally round in
support of our troops. On one level, this is entirely proper. We pray for the safety of
the men and women in our armed forces and for their families.
Our sympathies run deeper because it is not the children of elite decision-makers
who are risking their lives in Iraq. Working people who entered the military as the
gateway to education and opportunity did not foresee a war that the world considers
unnecessary and unjust. Nor did they know they would be exposed to the
radioactive ground of southern Iraq, where depleted uranium from U.S. anti-tank
shells in the last Gulf War sickened veterans and caused birth defects in the civilian
population.
Yet, our solidarity with American troops cannot mean acceptance of the policy of
this war. Such acceptance would vitiate democracy.
President Bush himself has voiced the anti-war movement's ideal of patriotism.
Unfortunately, his words applied only to Iraqis. In his March 17 ultimatum, he
warned Iraqi troops it would be no excuse afterward to say Saddam Hussein
ordered them to use biological or chemical weapons. It is ironic that Bush exempts
U.S. forces (and himself) from international war crimes judgment.
The United Nations Charter outlaws preventive war because this was the lesson the
U.N.'s founders had learned from Hitler's aggression. The lesson is equally valid for
the 21st century, where our precedent in Iraq could trigger a nuclear war between
India and Pakistan.
President Bush claims that the Sept. 11 tragedy legitimizes his first-strike policy. But
conquering Iraq may only worsen the global problems of weapons of mass
destruction and terrorism. Iraq has embarrassingly few ties to al-Qaida; Pakistan has
many. Iraq has zero nuclear weapons; Pakistan has 40. If our occupation of Iraq
causes a fundamentalist revolution in Pakistan, will we be safer?
Iran has more terrorist ties than Iraq and is much closer to nuclear weapons. Hawks
in the Bush administration see Iran and North Korea as their next targets. Yet both
these wars, which might involve U.S. nuclear weapons, would be humanitarian and
political catastrophes.
As outlined in the September 2002 National Security Strategy, the Bush
administration has abandoned decades of work in non-proliferation in favor of
"counter-proliferation." This doctrine is a rationale for our own accelerated weapons
programs. The Pentagon is developing a new generation of "usable" first-strike
nuclear weapons targeting non-nuclear states. Our threat gives threshold nuclear
countries such as North Korea and Iran a perverse incentive to rush to acquire
nuclear weapons in the hope that will deter an American attack.
The U.S. military is creating genetically engineered anthrax ("Project Jefferson") and
biological bomblets ("Clear Vision"). Double standards do not work. The tragic
history of proliferation since 1945 shows that others will turn our innovations against
us.
This war cannot stop terrorism. How could it when -- to the civilian victims -- it is
terrorism? With the "Shock and Awe" of bombing come damaged hospitals, water
treatment and food distribution.
Hate creates more terrorists than bombing, spies and torture can ever capture or kill.
"Fear," as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. warned, "cannot drive out hate. Only love
can do that." An estimated 1.3 billion people live on less than a dollar a day. Yet, we
spend a pittance helping them and half the federal budget on the military. At the end
of many wars, economically depleted, internationally isolated, living as a police state,
America would be unrecognizable.
The anti-war movement will not fall silent. It not only offers an alternative vision; it
embodies one. The world knows there is another America beyond the current
administration. These bonds of shared humanity do more to protect our nation from
terrorism than all the president's wars.
With respect and compassion for all, we pledge to continue until America is restored
to its best traditions and to a place of honor in the human family.
David Keppel is a writer and peace activist living in Bloomington, Indiana. He is a frequent contributor to this website.
