by Dennis Loo
On March 24, 2009 Norman Solomon in a truthout.org article entitled “These Colors Won’t Run … Afghanistan” calls for a “national debate” about Obama’s escalation of the war upon Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He begins the article:
“Is your representative speaking out against escalation of Afghanistan war?” Solomon then goes on to cite approvingly the letter signed by eleven Congress members asking Obama to “reconsider” his escalation in Afghanistan and complains that there ought to be far more representatives signing this letter.
The question that ought to be posed here isn’t “what is your representative doing?” The question that Solomon should be asking is: “what are you doing to create a political atmosphere in this country that forces Obama and his war- and empire-makers to back down from their war crimes and policies?”
Solomon in this article is continuing along the same path that led him before the election to tout Obama’s election as the key to advancing the anti-war movement’s (and the “progressive” movement’s) aims.
The result of this line by Solomon and others like him in UFPJ (United for Peace and Justice)? The election of a man who made no secret of his intentions to escalate the wars on Afghanistan and Pakistan. In other words, Obama’s doing precisely what he said before the election that he was going to do about Afghanistan and Pakistan.
I am reminded here of this Native American story:
The little boy was walking down a path and he came across a rattlesnake. The rattlesnake was getting old. He asked, "Please little boy, can you take me to the top of the mountain? I hope to see the sunset one last time before I die." The little boy answered "No Mr. Rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you’ll bite me and I’ll die." The rattlesnake said, "No, I promise. I won’t bite you. Just please take me up to the mountain." The little boy thought about it and finally picked up that rattlesnake and took it close to his chest and carried it up to the top of the mountain.
They sat there and watched the sunset together. It was so beautiful. Then after sunset the rattlesnake turned to the little boy and asked, "Can I go home now? I am tired, and I am old." The little boy picked up the rattlesnake and again took it to his chest and held it tightly and safely. He came all the way down the mountain holding the snake carefully and took it to his home to give him some food and a place to sleep. The next day the rattlesnake turned to the boy and asked, "Please little boy, will you take me back to my home now? It is time for me to leave this world, and I would like to be at my home now." The little boy felt he had been safe all this time and the snake had kept his word, so he would take it home as asked.
He carefully picked up the snake, took it close to his chest, and carried him back to the woods, to his home to die. Just before he laid the rattlesnake down, the rattlesnake turned and bit him in the chest. The little boy cried out and threw the snake upon the ground. "Mr. Snake, why did you do that? Now I will surely die!" The rattlesnake looked up at him and grinned, "You knew what I was when you picked me up."
* * *
In readers’ comments about Solomon’s article at truthout as of this morning (March 27), nearly all of the posts correctly pointed out that the US war upon Afghanistan is a) a war in pursuit of empire, and b) not winnable and counterproductive (even if it were legal and just, which it isn’t).
Some of the comments also correctly note that Obama wasn’t coy about his intentions in this regard before his election. But then several folks go on to say that we are screwed, can do nothing about it, and blame the American people as a whole for being credulous.
One commenter, for example, begins by saying that “We have no business in Afghanistan” and ends by saying: “These people know we [they] are lying… and we are too ignorant to see it.”
Another writes: “Truth be told, Obama, like Bush before him, and Clinton before that, will do the bidding of the ruling elite. They are the ones who profit (handsomely) from war without end. They are on a roll here — the military-industrial-corporate complex. They own our government, have owned it for quite a while. They are not about to cede power. And we are too timid and dumb to challenge their game plan. We dutifully pay our taxes; they use what they deem appropriate to further the cause of empire.”
These comments, while containing a great deal of truth, reflect a failure (present within Solomon’s approach as well) to see beyond the confines of electoral politics. We are not impotent as a people in the face of lying from high places and from policies that are murderous to the Afghani and Pakistani people and against the interests of the American people.
While it is true that the American public has been (and is still) too gullible in the face of pronouncements from on high, the fault for these wars/occupations/escalations doesn’t principally lie among the people. We didn’t invade Iraq and Afghanistan and launch military assaults upon Pakistan because the American people voted to do this. The American people mistakenly thought that by voting against Bush in 2000 and 2004, in the 2006 midterm election, and in 2008 for Obama, that they were voting against these wars and policies, and that the political leaders would hear the people’s demands and abide by them. It was not the American people’s express wishes that these invasions happen.
The blame for those invasions and occupations lies principally with, and squarely in the laps of, this country’s ruling elites. The blame also lies with misleaders such as Norman Solomon who fought so hard before the election to win people to the idea that getting Obama in office was key and in so doing contributed substantially to the anti-war movement’s liquidation and the spreading of misconceptions and false hopes about Obama (and about elections as a solution more generally). Solomon is persisting in this error by arguing that the people’s role in this should be to align ourselves with some members of Congress who are raising questions about Obama’s escalation.
The solution isn’t to rely upon the very institutions that have brought us disaster after disaster and war crime after war crime. Congress gave more money for these unjust and illegal wars than even Bush asked for. They gave the Bush regime everything they wanted, including the stripping of habeas corpus rights, the approval of torture, allowing presidential signing statements (that negate the law’s letter and spirit) and massive, illegal, unwarranted and warrantless domestic surveillance. Both major parties are up to their necks in crimes against humanity. This system is a rattlesnake with poisonous venom. You can’t trust a snake not to bite you, no matter how charming or charismatic that snake may be.
The solution here lies in ourselves – to rouse ourselves and demonstrate/speak out and for the people to assert their independent political power as a political force on the scene via the literal and metaphorical streets.
That power is something that is both immense and long overdue in its open and effective expression.
Don’t blame others for their gullibility and inaction. If you want others to be strong then be strong yourself. Expose what’s going on and set an example to others about what can and must be done. Change the terms.
Quit hoping snakes will be friendly.