This Is No Time
For War
by Angana Chatterji
Dissident Voice
February 4, 2003
I write this to
echo a million voices resolutely calling for peace. I write this in dismay as the
United States prepares for another racist and futile war. Why is this
administration so eager to bomb Iraq? Is it the insatiable, unsustainable
hunger for oil? Is it its misguided attempt to eradicate terrorism through
enhanced state violence? Is North Korea next? Iran? Where does it end? If
President Bush scorns the United Nations, ignores international criticism, and
acts unilaterally in Iraq, we will bear testimony to the continued desecration
of democratic process in the 21st century. In the current global order the
United States is failing to act for justice, peace and real economic
improvement. Democracy is a hollow phrase in these times, bankrupt of meaning
for those without privilege.
The United
States is a magnificent land, of courage, freedom, resilience, and enormous
genius. It is as well an imperial democracy; a state built on genocide and
slavery, sustained through inequity and dominance. It is a society divided by
history, race, class, religion, gender, and isolationism. Freedom here is made
up of increasingly private dreams that remain distant for so many. Freedom is a
condition to which they aspire, with their bodies, imaginations, hopes. This
nation relies on their labour, often forgetting its promises to them.
The present
government in the United States makes peace and justice increasingly
vulnerable. It has elected to assail civil rights and affirmative action and
remain inattentive to the suffering of Native nations within its borders. The
United States, 4.6 percent of the world’s population, houses 25 percent of the
world’s prisoners. 37.6 percent of those incarcerated are African-American
males, even as African-Americans are just 13 percent of the population. More
than 300,000 women are raped each year. This government has supported the
campaign for a right-wing judiciary, and the privatisation of healthcare and
social security. It has exhibited contempt for environmental sustainability and
safeguards, remained silent on affordable housing, and shown support for
anti-abortion. This government has blurred the lines between “safety” and
“freedom”. The ethnic profiling of Muslims, registration programs, searches and
detentions without charge or due process threaten the civil liberties of all.
Such disfigurement of human rights. This administration has participated in the
collapse of the economy, offered tax breaks to the rich and inadequately
addressed corporate crimes. In the last two months the economy has lost 189,
000 jobs. There is a dramatic increase in homelessness. 41.2 million remain
without healthcare. The country’s foreign debt totals $2.5 trillion. The
world's most affluent nation is the largest defaulter to the United Nations
owing more than a billion dollars. Is war this administration’s strategy to
divert public attention from domestic ills?
Amidst the
staggering magnitude of internal disarray, the United States struggles to
create support for its war with Iraq. Stories of imminent danger circulate
freely. Yet, the dominant “truths” that American actions are beyond reproach,
driven only by good intentions, are frayed. The people are fatigued. Discontent
reigns. The health of the union is falling apart. In response, the
administration advocates irresponsible corporate and military globalisation
that persists through class wars, fomenting the very conditions that breed
despicable acts of terrorism.
“Shock and Awe”?
800 cruise missiles in two days to asphyxiate Baghdad? The United Sates is
bankrolling international support. Turkey, a critical ally whose citizens are
vigorously opposed to the war, was offered a $16 billion loan through the
International Monetary Fund and a $4 billion grant. The United States is
preparing to attack Iraq not because there is substantial evidence of Iraq’s
immediate danger to the “free world,” or because UN inspections inscribe it.
Neither can this war be a pretext for avenging the horror of September 11. No
convincing evidence links Iraq to al Qaeda. The reason offered is that Iraq
poses a long-term threat. Yes, Saddam Hussein is contemptible. Yes, that regime
must turn. But does the Unites States reserve the right to bomb Iraq? Will the
United States sanction all states that attack each other based on potential
threat? What about other “evil” regimes whose power the United Sates is
committed to enhancing? What about states whose foreign or military policies
the United States does not support? Such arrogance of empire.
If there is a
war, what of the aftermath? As the military withdraws while innocent bodies are
shovelled into mass graves, the living will face new wars of poverty, disease
and rage. Is the United States able to honour its promises for a better
tomorrow to those whose lands it invades? Let us ask this of the women in
Afghanistan today. What about self-determination for the dispossessed in Iraq?
Will the United States uphold the demands of the Kurdish people for a separate
state in northern Iraq? Turkey would not approve. Let us remember how the
Kurdish people were abandoned to the slaughterhouse when the first Bush
administration retracted its support for the Kurds after encouraging their
revolt in Baghdad.
What will
President Bush’s war get America – more hatred? Is violation the only
intervention that nations can dream? Destruction and brutalisation the only
pathways to “justice”? The Progressive Caucus, co-chaired by Democrats Barbara
Lee and Dennis Kucinich, deserves America’s support in its efforts to halt the
government’s plans to play war without the consent of its people. Can the
United States uphold democracy elsewhere if it is incapable of practising it
within its borders?
Hundreds
of thousands march in protest across the United States. Even the corporate
media is increasingly critical of Bush’s plan. There is no support for
terrorism and little support for state terror. Broad based coalitions for peace
are emerging in strength. “Code
Pink” is leading a women’s delegation to Iraq. Even those frightened of the
wrath of their government refuse to let fear stifle protest. There is a
movement, growing, reverberating, louder and louder. Dissent, palpable and
enduring. This is no time for complicity. This is no time for war.
Angana Chatterji is a professor of Social and Cultural
Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. http://www.ciis.edu/faculty/chatterji.htm
Email: Angana@aol.com