The Anti-War Movement's Challenge

Geov Parrish, Seattle Weekly
October 8, 2001

The overt military phase of the War on Terrorism has begun. And so, too,
have the demonstrations, both in the Islamic world and through the cities of
the Western democracies -- including the U.S.

Past polls have shown an overwhelming majority of the world opposed to U.S.
military retaliation for the atrocities of Sep. 11 -- 80 percent to 90
percent in much of Europe and Latin America. But in the U.S., the "peace
movement" faces a number of challenges in making its case against this, the
first military skirmish in what promises to be a very long War on Terrorism.

The Taliban are (were) not exactly sympathetic; the U.S. has a right to
defend itself. The problem, of course, is that those two truths aren't
connected. Attacking the Taliban -- who have not even been indirectly linked
to Sep. 11 in any meaningful way -- does little to either bring its
perpetrators to justice or alleviate future terrorist threats. As civilians
die, in fact, it dramatically increases the fanaticism of many anti-American
radicals. And the steps necessary to remove the networks such radicals might
use remain the province of police and courts, not militaries.

To date, visible public protest, in D.C., New York, San Francisco, Seattle,
and around the country and world, has been focused more on past U.S. policy
sins and knee-jerk rhetoric than anything else, and in doing so, has been
basically irrelevant. Given the stakes, and liberal big city tendencies,
such street activity is expected. But the whole enterprise seems off-base,
and not just out of respect for the dead or national unity. Protesters want
our leaders to make new and different choices in treacherous terrain, but
protesters themselves are falling back on comfortable, familiar tactics and
iconography.

Public agitators now have U.S. attacks to decry, but so far they've failed
to answer the most obvious question attached to criticisms of the War on
Terrorism: "Well, what, then?" Many people, including many Pentagon
generals, doubt that full-scale military action is the best way to succeed.
But by implying that nothing should be done, peace signs and "no war!"
posters run counter to the sensibilities of nearly everyone, alienating what
are in fact oftentimes potential allies.

We need not just a demand for "peace," but sound bite language advocating
positive steps that would combat terrorism far more effectively than bombing
Kabul. That program might look like:

- Better domestic security, without sacrificing civil liberties;

- Better global police and intelligence cooperation, without giving covert
operations freedom to act illegally; and

- Demanding that all governments, including ours, act in ways that promote
the ideals of freedom, democracy, and economic opportunity that the U.S.
wants to stand for, so as to address many of the conditions that incubate
terrorism.

The ambitious might throw "religious tolerance" on to that last list, or
suggest a role for the U.N. or World Court in trying crimes against
humanity. But the point is that, as never before, activists must begin by
rallying support for what they favor, not simply emphasizing what they're
against. In these times, war is a failure of imagination -- and so is the
traditional peace protest. Folks need to hear the better alternative.
Without it, what should be a massive street movement risks sliding, week by
week, into irrelevance.

Am I angry, that the US is once again dropping bombs and killing innocent
people, all in the service of a goal more effectively pursued in other ways?
You bet. And sad, that yet more lives have been lost and yet another cycle
of violence and retribution has been jump-started? Definitely. Discouraged,
at the lack of creativity and relevance shown by most public anti-war
activism so far? Absolutely. And grieving, fearful, horrified, because World
War III is still a short and plausible sequence of events away. It makes me
want to weep, rage, shake the world and ask "why"?

But still...part of me is hopeful. Very hopeful. Because across this
country, people who never before paid attention to what was being done
elsewhere in their name are now paying attention. Quite apart from both big
media's propaganda machine and leftie anti-war activism, people are asking
questions, having conversations, about a war that doesn't add up to the
urgent goals it has promised. If the goals can't be achieved that way,
they're asking, how can they be achieved?

The real anti-military-response organizing is elsewhere, and everywhere.
It's happening in one-on-one conversations, between people in their
workplaces, schools, churches, on the Net or phone, or over back yard
fences, as people share fears, anger, worries, and their doubts about the
wisdom of an open-ended "war" against an undefinable enemy spread throughout
the world.

Those are, in simplest terms, the generals' concerns. But in this "new kind
of war," the traditional divisions don't apply; there's no reason a vision
of a world of greater peace and economic justice cannot be wed to what makes
strategic sense. We should, in fact, demand it.