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The Global and Local Implications
of War: Disenfranchising Truth

By Dave Zirin

November, 2001

Volume 38, Number 9

Dennis Butler summed up all the logic of the last month
when he wrote about the Anthrax scare in an op-ed piece: "While we are
yet to have proof, all signs point to Iraq." He then echoed many calls
for a ground war into a nation that after 10 years of sanctions by the
UN is in a "pre-industrial state."

This Anthrax scare, and its treatment by the media is
the latest example that truth is the first casualty of war. In July,
the U.S. broke a treaty against germ warfare and reportedly said they
were developing a deadlier strain of Anthrax. The U.S. is the biggest
possessor of bio-weapons in the world, and was Iraq's chief supplier
of Anthrax in the 1980's. The media has not been mentioning these facts,
nor have they been asking why the United States made these choices.
The media has refrained from taking a closer look at the Anthrax letter
signed "Army of God," a fringe white militia movement. But since bombing
Montana, and racially profiling people who look like Timothy McVeigh
is not an option, we look toward Iraq, and independent news is shut
out.

This is not to minimize anyone's fears of Anthrax, but
we should not be blind to what this scare is allowing the government
to push through. What we have on our hands is a war abroad that is looking
like a human rights nightmare of famine, disease and death; and a war
at home on our civil rights, our unions, and our immigrant brothers
and sisters.

We are glossing over the scale of the crisis in Afghanistan.
According to Doctors Without Borders, we are potentially looking at
one of the worst human rights catastrophes of the last hundred years.
As bombs rain down on cities and ground troops have entered the fray,
relief organizations have been forced out - worsening a famine that
could claim as many as 7 million lives. On September 19th, Dominic Nutt
from the relief organization Christian Aid, said, "It's as if a mass
grave has been dug behind millions of people. We can drag them back
from it or push them in. We are looking at millions of deaths." Apparently,
the U.S. is making good on Robert Toricelli's promise to "unleash hell"
on the Afghani people.

We have a promise to extend this war into other nations.
The Bush doctrine says "You are either with us on the side of freedom,
or with the terrorists." So the U.S. partners with other beacons of
freedom like China (with the highest prison rate in world) and Russia
(excusing their brutal war on Chechnya), all in the name of freedom.

The war abroad is used to justify the war at home against
immigrants, civil rights and our unions. John Ashcroft appealed to people
to "report all suspicious behavior," a tactic right out of the 1950's
red scare. As many as one thousand people are caught in a dragnet -
unable to see the evidence against them, and according to a mass civil
rights suit, being beaten in jails around the country. Violence is not
limited to jails: the official anti-immigrant hysteria has already led
to a racist backlash on the streets across country, resulting in 10
murders and hundreds of reported assaults.

The attacks have been not just in the streets but in the
corporate boardroom as well. Bosses have pushed through thousands of
layoffs, and the Government has looted previously untouchable trust
funds for billions of dollars.

By some bizarre logic, this war has allowed Bush to make
the case that the best way to fight terrorism is more tax cuts for the
rich, and more free market policies the world over. As John Sweeney,
who supports the war, said, "In the wake of September 11 some in Congress
are using the nation's tragedy to engage in tax profiteering. They aim
to exploit the nation's desire to stand together for an agenda that
predates the crisis and would do nothing to solve it." This is especially
true in regard to corporate globalization. Colin Powell has spoken of
"Fighting terror with globalization." Robert Zoellick, the U.S. trade
representative, spoke of the WTC attacks as underlining the need for
Fast Track legislation. They are using and exploiting this tragedy to
maraud the world looking for profits.

Once you get rid of the smoke and mirrors the new "Operation
Enduring Freedom" is little different from the military adventures that
have always ruled our country. Nick Curran made this point:

And why? In those less media savvy times the reasons
were on the table: Senator Albert Beveridge stated in 1898 that "American
factories are making more than the American people can use. American
soil is producing more than they can use. Fate has written our policy
for us. The world must and shall be ours."This system of empire building
and military muscle behind the brains of bankers is called imperialism:
capitalism at its most naked, when the military and high finance are
openly wedded.

The climate of fear is emboldening some to eliminate the
code words and speak openly about empire as if it were 1898 all over
again. Mark Steyn, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote,
"It is time for neo-colonialism. If that name makes you squeamish, give
it some yuppie Clinton Blairite name like 'Global Community Outreach,'"
he sneered in a column headlined, "Imperialism is the Answer." Rich
Lowry in the National Review, in a column titled, "End Iraq,"
writes, "The US should jettison half measures like sanctions and bombing
and invade and occupy Iraq." Welcome to the 21st century - looking a
lot like the end of the 19th.

The imperial aims of the US military make the world a
more unstable place, and do so for the benefit of a tiny minority -
the richest of the rich that benefit from corporate globalization.

America can't be an imperial power on the cheap. Each
B-2 stealth bomber costs 1.5 billion dollars. Ten of them would save
the lives of all the 30,000 children under the age of five that die
every day. Five B-2s could educate every child in the world for a year.
We need to have the backbone as a movement to ask why billions go to
weapons that kill when hospitals and classrooms are understaffed? Keep
in mind how vulnerable the District of Columbia really is: the city
has closed DC General, 45 percent lack health care, and DC has the highest
gap between rich and poor of any major city in the nation.

The anti-war movement is underway in DC. In this last
week alone there has been a tremendous amount of activity. Black Voices
for Peace organized a conference at Howard Law, District residents gathered
to discuss their perspectives in Mount Pleasant, and 150 people attended
a debate at the University of Maryland. Religious groups gathered for
demonstrations and discussions about peace, there was a fundraiser for
Afghan refugees, coalitions have held planning meetings, people have
been door knocking to share their perspectives with neighbors, and these
are just a few of the many activities in a single week.

DC is organizing against this war, and we will continue
to organize to bring about a lasting peace. We need to demand immediate
changes to halt the underlying conditions that give rise to terrorism.
We must reduce the poverty that plagues a third of the world by ending
the massive third-world debt to Western lending institutions. We must
lift the deadly sanctions on Iraq. We must end the massive military
and political support of Israel's illegal occupation and repression
of the Palestinian people. We must stop the systematic CIA and U.S.
military training of terrorists at the School of the Americas in Fort
Benning Georgia and elsewhere. It is their side that has no solution
to this crisis - they can only offer more war. We can do better - let's
organize to make it happen.