Editorial note: Three times a week, I address specific foreign policy issues in this space, from the war in Iraq to the next war just over the horizon. Today, however, I want to step back and give you, the reader, some idea of who we are and why we do what we do.
Antiwar.com is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to the proposition that aggressive wars are the biggest threat to liberty and humanity: our goal is to stop them before they start, and, once started, to mobilize the broadest possible movement to oppose them. Since 1995, our website has been bringing an increasing number of readers the truth about the War Party – its plans, its leaders, and its deceptions. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we have grown to the point where we have an audience that numbers in the millions.
Each and every day we bring our readers the real news about what’s going on in the world, the news our rulers don’t want you to read. We spotted the lies behind the official rationale for invading Iraq long before the “mainstream” media caught on: they were too busy cheerleading the War Party to ask any uncomfortable questions. We did ask those questions, and we continue to ask them in light of the war propaganda now targeting Iran.
The War Party never sleeps – and neither do we. Someone is always on duty at Antiwar.com, watching the news wires and ready to respond to the latest crisis with timely analysis that cuts through the propaganda and gives our readers the facts.
Yet we don’t claim to be unbiased, in the sense that we hold to a definite worldview, one that opposes our interventionist foreign policy and advances a principled, practical alternative: a policy of entangling alliances with none, and economic and cultural exchanges with all. America’s proper role in the world is that of an exemplar, not a conqueror or a savior.
We don’t hold these views in a vacuum: they are based on our understanding of what it takes to maintain our republican system of government. Americans are faced with a choice: will we keep our constitutional republic, or go the way of Empire? We take a side in this struggle, and make no bones about it: yet we are also a journalistic institution, committed to giving our readers the facts and letting them make their own judgements. Our news section is dedicated to giving our readers the truth insofar as we know it at that particular moment, and our opinion section is labeled as such – and we’re proud of both.
That’s what gives Antiwar.com its tang – we’re not just a news site, or a random collection of soap-boxing pundits. Our commentary is carefully culled from the left, the right, and beyond to give our readers a combination of good ideas and good writing – a body of analysis that, taken together, gives them some coherent idea of what is really going on in our war-torn world.
Our goal is to forge a new foreign policy consensus in this country, one based on genuine American interests, rooted in constitutional principles, and shorn of imperial pretensions. We are libertarians, and don’t make any bones about that, either, and yet we are willing to work with any and all who oppose our present foreign policy of global interventionism, whether it be the neoconservative “liberatory” variety or the left-liberal “humanitarian” strain: both have proved devastating to American interests, as well as deadly to its overseas victims, from Iraq to the former Yugoslavia.
We don’t pretend to be the leaders of any kind of organized movement: we are providing a service to our readers, and not any kind of political leadership. We don’t endorse candidates for office, or owe allegiance to any political party. We are concerned with a single issue, and yet it is a very broad one – the complex consequences of a radically wrong foreign policy that has made us less safe, less secure, and less confident of the future.
Our objective is to change that policy, to make it less aggressive and more concerned with actually protecting Americans in our own homeland. We want a foreign policy that puts America first, and not the security of some far-off Middle Eastern country that is arguably peripheral to our own legitimate interests. We want a foreign policy that acknowledges the limits of American power, and abjures the immoral and dangerous doctrine of preemptive war adopted by the Bush administration.
Antiwar.com is a project of the Randolph Bourne Institute, which is dedicated to the study and propagation of anti-war and anti-statist ideas, educating the public in the principles of non-interventionism and supporting journalists, writers, and others to advance the cause of peace. As a nonprofit educational organization, we depend on the generosity of our readers: their tax-deductible donations enable us to stay in business and continue to give our global readership a clearer, truer perspective on world affairs than is available in the so-called “mainstream” media.
We employ a very small staff to do the work that is normally backed up by a major corporate entity: it’s almost a miracle that we’re able to duplicate in large part what is done by a newsgathering organization with many more resources than we have at our disposal. Yet we somehow manage to do it, and have been doing it for over a decade.
We have our readers, many of whom contribute generously year after year, to thank for that. In addition to longtime supporters who understand what we’re trying to do and have provided us with the bedrock support we need to continue, our network of supporters is expanding, worldwide.
Antiwar.com is the major news source for a growing international network of opposition to the War Party – precisely what is needed to stop the dangerous radicals who have seized control of U.S. foreign policy and are driving this country, and its future, over a cliff in pursuit of a wrongheaded “ideal.” Yet there is nothing “idealistic” about a foreign policy based on mass murder, and the military occupation of a country that has never attacked us or posed a threat to our legitimate interests. We don’t just need to get out of Iraq – we need to get out of the mindset that conceives of the world as our personal stage, where America is the director, the producer, and the scriptwriter.
Pride cometh before a fall: it’s an old adage, applicable to nations as well as individuals. Our leaders, of both parties, have been guilty of the sin of hubris, the belief that the American state is endowed with almost godlike powers, that our military can accomplish anything, and that all the Commander-in-chief has to do is will it and it will be so. This has been our downfall in Iraq, and worse is yet to come – unless we change direction and foreswear the temptations of Empire.
American foreign policy is in crisis: the failure of the neoconservative vision of “global hegemony” cannot be denied. What is needed is a complete reorientation away from an imperialist mindset, and a return to a more modest and realistic conception of America’s role in the world.
Our task is clear, and we have a long way to go to accomplish it. Yet we forge ahead with confidence, optimistic that the American people are waking up to the enormous fraud perpetrated by the War Party, and hopeful that we can recapture American foreign policy in the interests of a more peaceful world.
You can help us achieve that goal.
NOTES IN THE MARGIN
I‘ll be speaking in Rockport, Maine, on Monday April 21 (a Monday), at the monthly luncheon of the Mid-Coast Forum on Foreign Relations, at Chez Marcel restaurant in the Samoset Resort. The program lasts from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., including a brief soiree for socializing, my talk – “The Middle East: Turning the Page on U.S. Foreign Policy” – a question-and-answer session, and luncheon. Call 207-236-8288 for more information.
I get to be politically incorrect over at Taki’s Magazine, and I’m loving it. Also, why I’m bitter, too ….
UPDATE: Oh, and before I forget, go check out my semi-regular feature over at Taki’s magazine: "At This Ungodly Hour."
