From Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row
Give 'war' a chance
Published Mar 4, 2007 9:35 PM
From a Feb. 2, 2007, audio column. Go to www.prisonradio.org to hear more
columns.
A lifetime ago, when the British rock band, the Beatles, were at the top of the
charts, and before cable TV and the reign of computers, anti-war activists sang
a haunting chorus as they demonstrated by the tens of thousands at the
Pentagon: “All we are saying, is give peace a chance.”
Decades later, and there is still war (albeit in another place, and for another
‘cause’), and demonstrations seem far less potent than in times
past.
American imperialism, unshackled by the prospect of a true global rival, now
fairly bellows in the face of its own unpopularity (in the voice of its
acolytes, like George W. Bush): “Give war a chance.”
The Iraq invasion and occupation has been an admitted disaster, and those who
called for it the loudest are deserting that sinking ship like rats on a
wharf.
The U.S. imperial president, flirting with disapproval numbers that rival
Nixon’s at the height of the Watergate scandal, is overwhelming only in
his irrelevance, and perhaps his inability to convince anybody to believe his
blather about the so-called “war on terror.”
So, in light of the administration’s latest maneuver to support the
flagging war with “new ideas” about a “surge,” the
White House and its minions on the Hill are asking Americans to “give the
president’s plan a chance.”
In the face of this catastrophe, what is the role of Congress?
It proposes to debate, and then, after debating, to issue a nonbinding
resolution [that recently passed the House—WW] which condemns the current
troop build-up and also critiques the president’s present handling of the
war.
In essence, Congress agrees to say, “We don’t like what
you’re doing, but we won’t stop it.”
This, in a time of war, a war launched on lies and subterfuge.
Apparently, over 600,000 dead Iraqis, over 3,000 dead Americans, and over 400
billion dollars lost in this failing effort, isn’t quite enough.
In fact, the Congress could stop the war today, by cutting the war budget. But
it won’t do this, for it might endanger a congressman’s future
political prospects.
Most of the millions of people who voted in the mid-term elections did so to
send a strong anti-war message.
The majority party heading both houses of Congress has indeed changed, but
little else has. It has resolved to issue words, while the president launches
bombs.
And given his profoundly neoconservative bent, it is entirely possible that,
before the remaining two years have passed through time’s hourglass, the
U.S. may have launched a strike against Iran.
Even now we hear the media stirrings, provocations meant to soften up the
American populace for a new “preemptive war.”
What did your votes really mean?
Do you really still believe that you live in a democracy?
What you voted for, and what you believe, is ultimately irrelevant.
The words of the legendary Black freedom fighter, Frederick Douglass, echo
through the annals of time: “Power concedes nothing without demand. It
never has, and never will.”
Voting is never enough.
These ruinous wars didn’t begin in a voting booth; nor will voting,
standing alone, end them.
It will take much stronger stuff.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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