Americans, instead of acting like sheep, ought to start thinking of a peaceful world and how we might attain it. It is possible. The benefits of peace would be enormous.
The conflict currently being used to sustain America’s vast empire (more than 700 foreign military bases and intelligence installations) and its attendant military-industrial complex is essentially one we created.
Terrorists the world over did not declare war on us. The overwhelming majority are concerned with local issues in their own countries. Only one organization, al-Qaida, declared war on us. It has probably less than 1,000 members. We don’t need 1.2 million men under arms, an ocean-girdling fleet, a $400 billion defense budget and a $40 billion intelligence budget to deal with 1,000 or fewer individuals.
We could even consider what they say their demands are. They want us out of the Arabian Peninsula. That’s not a bad idea. We don’t need to station military forces on the Arabian Peninsula. Oil has a peculiar characteristic: If you don’t sell it, it’s more or less worthless. Since the countries in Arabia are neither industrialized nor have much else to sell, we need not worry about who governs them. Anyone who governs them will sell oil, because for the government it’s sell oil or revert to poverty.
The notion that America needs military forces to “protect the oil” is a self-serving myth.
The second demand is justice for the Palestinians. That one is easy. All we have to do is join the rest of the world in demanding that Israel obey international law and remove its settlers and its forces from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. We should have done that a long time ago. Israel has become nothing but a pain in America’s rear end.
As for Afghanistan, we should simply get out. We destroyed the Taliban and reinstalled the warlords and their opium business. We should simply say, “Good luck with your elections and farewell.” The notion that Afghanistan is going to transform itself into a Western-style democracy is as crazy as the notion that Iraq will do the same thing.
And as for Iraq, we should also wish the Iraqis well on their elections and simply say “Goodbye.” The Iraqis are capable of electing a government and recruiting an army, provided we leave them alone. The idea that American forces have to remain in Iraq for years and years is another lie. If our own president were truthful, he would admit that we came to loot rather than liberate.
Now, having withdrawn militarily from these areas doesn’t mean we can’t help with civilian reconstruction. Most of the destruction in Iraq is of our doing anyway. We should help. But as long as we maintain a military presence, the Iraqi people will know that “transfer of sovereignty” is nothing more than a charade, and they will continue to resist the occupation.
What a revolution it would be if the American government said to the world: “If you need food or medicine or civilian infrastructure, we are ready to help, but we will no longer sell you arms, station military forces in your territory, interfere in your internal affairs or take sides in your quarrels with others. What kind of government you wish to adopt is your business, not ours.”
It would be nice for Americans to be admired and welcomed once again as we used to be before this monstrous empire was constructed during the Cold War. Now, the imperial government in Washington, despite the absence of a Soviet Union, wants to maintain the empire and more or less rule the world. That is the path of perpetual conflict and eventual ruin, as it has been for every empire in human history. Dwight Eisenhower warned us of the dangers of the military-industrial complex, and we ignored the warning.
It’s not too late, however, to elect men and women with brains enough to know that peace, not war, is the proper goal we should pursue. That can happen if the American people make it happen instead of acting like Romans and getting giddy every time they see the emperor or one of his generals.
