I wrote this piece nearly 4 years ago, on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. I stand by it today, and publish it here unedited. I haven't changed a thing, even the misspelling. I do this not to say "I told you so!", because my crystal ball was not perfect then. I do this because I still believe I am right in the principles I put forth here. Please read, "No War".

As there is less greed, less fear, less ignorance in our minds, we naturally live with more kindness and compassion.

From “One Dharma” by J. Goldstein

 

I awoke this morning and remembered my first anti-war demonstration. It was one of the last rallies before the end of the Vietnam War, in Golden Gate Park. Some of the moments I recall center around the Elvin Bishop Band, who played for 30 minutes or so at the very end of the rally, but I also recall there were a long list of speakers who were saying the same thing…..war is wrong, there are ways to settle our differences with other ideologies that do not involve invasion, we must adhere to Golden Rule.

Sure, we were young and didn’t understand that there are bad people in our world.  We were idealistic then. We thought that love could change the world. We felt that if only we thought good thoughts, if only we spread our faith about loving everyone, if only we could explain to the whole world that we are all connected on this tiny planet and that every action affects everyone else, then surely we could all do the right thing, and live peacefully together. “Think Globally, Act Locally” was a popular saying for many years, is it that wrong?

 

 

The United Nations reports that 40 billion dollars would feed, clothe, shelter and educate everyone who is lacking these basic needs today. The Pentagon reports that the war proposed in Iraq will cost over 100 billion dollars, with no estimate on the costs of the occupation and rehabilitation the Administration touts as the conclusion of their efforts.

 

Over 1200 people were detained in the first months following September 11, 2001 without access to lawyers, phone calls or charges. We’ve given up our rights and freedoms in return for an attempt to stay safe. We’re willing to pay any price for revenge. Better our dollars for high tech weaponry than American blood spilled in the sands of the Middle East? But can we find and destroy every last one of the enemy? And if we don’t, it only takes  one……and our safety is lost forever. Even Israel, with 55 years of high-alert security practice, can’t stop a lone suicide bomber.

 

 

We are shocked that anyone could hate us….yet our media has not kept us informed of how our nation’s policies have impacted other nations and peoples in the world, or how much those policies have widened the rich-to-poor gap. When the US asks for support of unpopular policies from Arab governments, their response is often to increase the repression within their own borders, of their own people, to stifle dissent before it can occur.  The Arab world is not a collection of democracies. A poll of six Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and United Arab Emirates, Feb 19 – March 11, 2003 by Zogby International) shows that over 80% of these Arab countries’ population feels the US led invasion of Iraq is motivated by the Western desire for oil. It also shows that these countries have come to view the UN as an instrument of American power in recent years. A UN sanction would do little in their eyes to justify an invasion of an Arab state.  “The irony here is that if America fails to gain support at the UN for a war in Iraq, many Americans will see the organization as being increasingly irrelevant; in the Middle East, most Arabs would see UN defiance as an emergence of it relevance.” Shibley Telhami

 

 

 

Nationalism is the sense that one’s self and neighbors are uniquely virtuous. This feeling led to September 11, 2001. Yet, what gives Americans the perspective to make a decision about the quality of life for a people on the other side of the planet? Who are we, to say how they should live? That they require democracy? That they will be happier with 500 channels available on TV? Why must they act like us? And most importantly, why must they give us what we want?

 

 

“The secretaries and file clerks and young executives in the two Towers and the mothers, fathers, sons and daughters on the 4 planes would not have been the target of hatred, had we Americans better expressed our highest values throughout the world….had our government expressed in all it’s actions the fairness and generosity that characterizes our people.  That disconnection between our people and our government does not excuse the cold mass-murders committed by terrorists, but it helps explain it, and we cannot stop it if we do not understand it."  Doris Haddock

 

UN Food and Agricultural Organization:  35,000 children died of starvation on September 11, 2001. They died without news headlines….without telethons raising millions of dollars for their families….without UN resolutions calling on their government to feed them….

 

National Defense hasn’t been “defense” for decades.

 

“Those who died on September 11, 2001 represent the best that is in us, the calling of our highest selves. We owe them anger, we owe them grieving, we owe them justice. But everything we do now must reflect the best, not the lowest, of our humanity. We pay those precious souls their rightful tribute only be leveling a wise justice, only by exhibiting a tender righteousness. We pay them tribute only by understanding what brought about their deaths, and hewing to those principles that call us to a more abundant life.”  William F. Schulz

 

Our bombs and gunships are destabilizing volatile (and nuclear) regions, blowing up innocents, putting millions into starvation. We ignore past evil in favor of aid today for our objectives, ensuring a market for our goods and access to oil. At least most of the time.  We don’t seem to be handling Cuba this way….we’re just letting Cubans starve because of past evil…..but then Cuba is close enough to strike back at us, while the other countries we destabilize must rely on terrorist attacks to hit back at us. And we act like it’s an unprovoked attack, when we are struck….

 

“Why are Americans deeply reluctant to accept heavy loss of life for military ends? Could it be, sir, because the nation has come to believe that each individual’s life is sacred? Does that belief have moral meanings? Should we extend those moral meanings to our enemies?”  James McKinnon

 

“…like putting out a fire with gasoline…”  that’s what attacking Iraq may turn out to be.  An ironic statement, since it’s possibly the oil resources motivating this attack….  Because of our “blockade” of Iraq, Americans have not been using Iraqi oil, but other countries have. But what would happen to our economy if all the Arab states were angry enough with us, to cut off all Middle Eastern oil? You think $2.25 is too much for gas now? You think our current “high” energy prices are what’s holding the economic recovery back? Without the Middle Eastern oil, these prices will seem cheap!

 

We cannot target only military objectives. Civilians are at risk through the disruption of the infrastructure. Who, who watched the towers fall, can wish for innocents to die for a political statement? Remember the news videos of people walking the streets of Manhattan, holding out pictures of missing loved ones? Is that what you want to happen to fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers outside the US in 2003?

 

“We can choose whether the bin Ladens are seen as heroes or pathetic nut cases, whether they are joined by dozens or millions. Without …. peace, we are outnumbered, defenseless, doomed, condemned to the sort of slow defeat-through-mosquito-bites that happens with “asymmetrical”  wars against an

un-bombable, unquenchable foe. Or worse, the kind of global conflagration in which everyone loses. The only alternative is a peace that will propel us into a new world, a world of six billion family members……In a war in which “everyone must choose”, the best way to defeat our potential enemies is to tear down the walls and befriend them.”    Geov Parrish

 

The true Axis of Evil is Poverty, Racism and War.

This invasion will not address poverty. Despite the rhetoric of “rebuilding” and “reparations”, the Iraqi people will be set further behind the world’s standard of living because of our actions, because of our destruction of their infrastructure, communications and transportation facilities. It will be decades before they have a better quality of life than today. This invasion will not end racism. It will be viewed around the world as Christian vs. Muslim, American vs. Arab. We’ve seen some hate crimes here at home, because of the racial hatred fed to us by our leaders, the us vs. them mentality, the creation of an enemy where there was none before. And no matter the training, the high tech gear, the amount of money you allow the military to spend, the pride you have in “our men” or the expectation of victory (and disbelief in the possibility of defeat!), war is still hell on earth, and innocents die in war.

 

 

You ask for solutions? Multilateral disarmament. Address hunger, homelessness, unemployment, on a worldwide scale. What if, instead of bombing Iraq, we lined up convoys on the Iraqi border….convoys of food and medicines…….and began to drive into the country and delivery these goods. Would the Iraqi army really fire on us to prevent this food distribution? To prevent their own children from receiving medicine? What if our only weapon usage was in self-defense while delivering food? Would there be a war? Would Saddam remain in power? Saddam sees his future as the leader who unites the Arab world. Don’t you think he sees this invasion as playing into his hand? Isn’t the Arab world ripe to unite against the USA? Have we begun to address the reasons why we are unsuccessful in aligning ours goals with theirs? Don’t we ultimately want the same things? Security? Peace? Food to eat? Let’s build bridges, not bomb them.

Let’s transport food and medicine to Iraq, not bombs and infantry divisions. Let’s put some of our military R & D into hydrogen fuel for cars, not hydrogen bomb testing. Let’s be the good neighbor, not the town bully. Achieving a new kind of peace will require refusing to have an enemy…….

 

“If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the dividing line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”  Alexander Solzhenitsyn

 

“Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”  Carl Sagan