NBCNews.com Blog: What Is An Antiwar American To Do?

My column is up at NBCNews.com. I’d appreciate it if you’d spread the word, and consider commenting.

P.S. Also, if you’ve read my Book of Obama, please comment at Amazon!

4 Comments.

  • In 1964, Johnson warned that if people voted for Goldwater, the US would find itself in a Vietnam quagmire. Sure enough, people voted for Goldwater (a tiny minority, but still…) and the US found itself in a Vietnam quagmire.In ’68, the choice was between Humphrey, a rabid leftist who promised to continue Johnson’s policies of a Vietnam quagmire, or Nixon, who had a ‘secret plan’ to achieve unconditional victory. Some anti-War types tried to get the Democratic nomination, but they were prevented by the Party Bosses, and Nixon won, easily.In ’72, new rules let the rabid, left-wing Democrats nominate the anti-war McGovern, and he lost about as badly as Goldwater. Eight years earlier, voters had voted against war; four years earlier, the Party Bosses made sure they couldn’t vote against war, and in ’72 the voters had a real choice, and chose unconditional victory (much good did it do them).In ’76, a pacifist was elected, and the Iranians kidnapped US diplomats from US soil (foreign embassies count as territory of the country that is represented by the embassy). Carter sent a poorly planned, poorly executed rescue mission that lost the rescue team. Carter was duly booted out of office, and renewed the stench attached to pacifism since Munich, ’38.Reagan fought a glorious war against an attack by Grenada, winning handily to the adulation of the American people. Bush, Sr. led an attack against Panamá. After the Panamá War, Ben Sargent drew a cartoon of a trophy room with the heads of two mice, and the Great Hunter toasting his safari with a snifter of brandy. So Bush, Sr convinced Saddam to attack Kuwait, and then killed more than 200,000 Iraqis in retaliation in a 100 hour ground war.Clinton stopped using ground troops, but used the USAF to distract voters from his sexual pecadillos. And then Bush, Jr had 9/11 as a causus belli.At least Obama is being far more frugal than Bush, Jr, using drones to kill the people he designates as the enemy at a cost a tiny fraction of what Bush, Jr’s ground wars cost.Tom Paxton sings of the $500 toilet seat. That money goes to the defense company executives, and they give part of it to those who got them the contracts. And as long as this is the case, the wars will continue.Vote Republican or Democrat, the wars will continue, only the names of the companies awarded the no-bid contracts will change, and the names of the politicians they must pay for the opportunity. I’ve voted for anti-war Third Parties at least four times in Presidential elections, but never to the slightest avail.The only way to be happy is to fully support all of the neo-colonial wars in which the US is engaged.That $500 toilet seat is an Oriental hole in the ground and Sharia Law. To support such a law, I’d need a full frontal lobotomy, and I don’t have the necessary health insurance at this time.

  • The column closes with: “Where is a pacifist to go?”

    I’m not sure about “where,” exactly, but wherever it is, do heed these guidelines: 1) don’t all go to the same place 2) don’t publicize the locations(s), and 3) don’t leave the country.

    The less you heed the three points above, the more likely a drone will find and atomize you.

    (I note among the comments at NBC news that our self-proclaimed intellectual superior is still exhibiting the notion that discussing the reasons for political change, can in no way be considered part of the “real work” of attaining political change.)

  • There is no place to go.
    We’re worse than Al Qaeda.

  • Ted,

    We aren’t pacifists. We simply don’t want to be inconvenienced by war. We’re currently paying something like 53 cents of every tax dollar for defense-related expenses. (A sidebar: remember how the military used to be called the Dept. of War? That’s a very clear thing. The Dept. of War could ask for an increase in spending for pretty much one reason: we’re at war. But the Dept. of Defense? Hell, that’s the biggest loophole in the world to drive through. Gotta have a military base in Macedonia. Why? Defense! Never know when Macedonia’s gonna flex its muscle and wipe us off the face of the Earth.)

    Why pay so much? Because all our wars are fought far, far away. And that’s how we like it. We have 60″ TVs, drink $5 lattes, live in cookie-cutter houses, and shop at Target and Wal-Mart. If some brown-skinned/undereducated/poor/lower-middle class teenage has to suffer to make that happen, so be it. What’s on my 2,000 cable channels?

Comments are closed.

css.php