There are certain moments when just about anything is possible. Moments when people start asking questions they thought they knew the answers to. A skillful politician will close down these moments to make their own agenda seem all but inevitable. A strong movement will ask the questions anyway and shout them out until answers are given. Friends, it is time to shout.
Our generation may well be defined by the wars we fight in the Middle East and Asia but we will be just as defined by the wars we stop. There are a dozen countries that could easily erupt into violence and precipitate an ever-larger global war.
The President of the United States has set forth a new doctrine for a military might. War has been declared not on nations or even on specific terrorist organizations but instead on the slippery chimera of “terrorism.” A war on terror can never be won because terror is always the bedmate of political oppresion and where oppression is left to grow terrorism will fester.
Rather than face the hard work of fixing problems the American military hand threatens to crush all violent dissent and revolution. We are on the brink of history now, where we could easily slide into ever crazier cycles of terrorism between groups like Al Qaida’s and the U.S. military.
The Bush Doctrine, if passed, would let the U.S. attack any country it found hostile to it’s dominance and a threat to it’s ego. No credible evidence of a renewed Iraqi threat has been presented, but then none is really needed. Bush is ready to attack anyone independent of the United States and that readiness increases with every drop of oil under its sands.
What Must Be Done
It is time to shout out about hypocracy, to ask “why war,” “why now.” To ask who gets rich when oil flows get disrupted. To ask whose approval ratings go up just because bullets are flying. This war is not inevitable. And we must not acquience to it. We must shout out every day that this is NOT our war and that WE WILL STOP IT.
How? Over the next few weeks we need to contact Washington. I usually smile indulgently about those who advocate writing one’s congressperson. But right now, it really is needed and really can make some changes. Politicians in Washington will do nothing unless the folks back home are making a stink. Call or fax Washington. Organize speakers, hold signs at intersections, give them a grassroots outcry which they can respond to.
The current articles linked on the Nonviolence.Org homepage are full of ideas and actions. Let’s get out there and stop this war. And let’s not be discouraged as the inevitable seems to start unfolding. It is time to stand for truth and time to mark our generation. We must stop war and we must stop all cause of war. War is to stop today. War is to stop with us.
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