By David Robinson
Thirty years ago, the United States ended its decade long involvement in Vietnam. More than 58,000 U.S. lives were lost and more than two million Vietnamese were killed during that illegal and immoral war. The U.S. Catholic bishops finally pronounced the war in Vietnam “unjust” in 1971. By that time, the damage was almost beyond imagining.
In a recent briefing on Capitol Hill, Daniel Ellsberg spoke about the similarities between the war in Vietnam and the current quagmire in Iraq. Foremost among them, the lies being put forward by the White Houses: then and now. Not the least of which was, and is, that the U.S. must “stay the course” because we “owe it to our Vietnamese/Iraq allies.”
Today, the Bush administration continues in that same tradition: speaking of democracy, touting “freedom” and claiming fidelity to those we are “liberating.” We are consistently told that U.S. forces will remain in Iraq “until the job is done.” But what is that “job?” Regardless of what administration spokespersons like Condoleezza Rice or Dick Cheney say, the facts on the ground make clear that the purpose of the U.S. military occupation of Iraq is no less than the realignment of U.S. forward deployment worldwide. Iraq and Afghanistan, along with our newest allies around the Caspian Sea are providing the U.S. the long awaited opportunity to create a string of compliant client nations in that region to host U.S. military forces for decades to come.
It is no secret that the military-industrial-petroleum complex is a major back of the Bush administration and Republican-controlled Congress. According to Eric Margolis, writing in the Toronto Sun in December 2003, defense spending driven by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will top $3 trillion by the end of 2005 (in constant dollars, that’s more than we spent on World War II!). More than 10,000 civilian contractors currently receive billions of U.S. defense dollars, mostly channeled to a handful of corporate conglomerates and their hundreds of “subsidiary” companies. Most are hefty contributors to Republican candidates.
Less known is the extent to which the Bush administration is laying the groundwork for a permanent realignment of U.S. military power through the construction of a system of permanent military bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. These bases, acquired or constructed since the war in Afghanistan are now being linked through a permanent military communications system that is being constructed to tie in these bases with existing U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf dictatorships of Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
In Iraq, the U.S. has built or is building some 14 military bases, four of which include the types of amenities for housing and entertainment that clearly signal a very long U.S. presence.
There has been virtually no discussion, debate or public comment on the implications of these bases in Iraq: not in Congress, not in the press and certainly not during the President’s most recent news conference.
What kind of democracy are we constructing in Iraq when U.S. rhetoric states that our military will stay “as long as they want us” (who “they are is unclear) and the American people are told that our sons and daughters will continue to die and to kill in order to show Iraqis that we will “stand with them,” all while Pentagon planners move ahead undeterred in establishing a permanent U.S. military outpost in Iraq?
The Iraqi elections made one thing crystal clear. Regardless of the party, Iraqis voted to end the occupation. Post election polls showed more than 90 percent of those who voted did so under the impression that by participating in the election they would shorten the occupation.
What lesson in democracy will the Iraqis learn from the realization that despite their heroic participation in the election, the occupation – particularly in the form of permanent U.S. military bases – will continue “for the next several decades?”
What is needed now in our efforts to end the occupation and bring home the troops is a clear legislative alternative to the Bush administration’s deadly deception.
I attended that recent congressional briefing in order to signal Pax Christi USA’s strong support of an initiative developed by our colleagues at Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). Their proposal, initiated at the briefing, was for a grassroots campaign seeking a congressional resolution that states: “It is the policy of the U.S. to withdraw all U.S. military troops and bases from Iraq.”
The intent of this initiative is to have churches across the nation discuss, debate and then adopt the resolution that is worded as a call upon Congress. Pressure must then be brought to bear on every congressional office with the intent of initiating an honest debate over the true goals and actual future of our involvement in Iraq.
The lesson we must learn from the debacle in Vietnam that finally ended 30 years ago is that demonstrations alone will not bring home the troops. That war ended only when public demonstrations against the war were coupled with a clear and enduring strategy to develop congressional opposition. In the case of Iraq, the administration’s own declarations and lies about our intentions form a solid basis for the congressional resolution. Moreover, the people of the U.S. have made clear that while they may have been lied into the war, they will not support an ongoing occupation and establishment of a permanent presence along with the mounting casualties that will entail.
Of particular concern to Pax Christi USA is how to elevate the voice of the faith communities in this debate. The Vietnam War went on for more than a decade before the U.S. Catholic bishops declared the war unjust and publicly stated its support for conscientious objection and selective conscientious objection. Our Church and our nation cannot wait a decade before we unmask and name the U.S. government’s intentions in Iraq as deceitful, deadly and immoral as in the case of Vietnam. A clarifying of U.S. intentions through deliberate discussion, dialogue and debate in the pews and in Congress is urgently needed. Silence translates into support for administration aims, and it is this very support that must be withdrawn.
David Robinson is the executive director of Pax Christi USA.
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