Victory?
By Howard Zinn
ZMag
27 July, 2003
The
victory over an already devastated and disarmed Iraq led
Bush, Rumsfeld and their teammates into a locker-room frenzy of exultation
and self-congratulation. I half-expected to see Bush joyfully pouring
beer on Rumsfelds head and Ashcroft snapping a towel at Ari Fleischers
derriere.
But it turns out
that they thought the Iraq game was over, when it was only the fifth
inning. The war did not bring order to Iraq, but chaos, not crowds of
cheering Iraqis, but widespread hostility. No to Saddam! No to
Bush! were the signs, as Iraqis contemplated their ruined historic
treasures, their destroyed homes, and the graves of their dead
thousands and thousands of civilians and soldiers, with many more men,
women, children wounded. And it goes on as I write this in mid-June
an ugly occupation. I see a headline U.S. Troops Kill 70
in Iraqi Crackdown.
With each passing
day, the Bush administrations lies are being exposed. There were
the lies about war being necessary to destroy Iraqs weapons
of mass destruction. But an American army of 200,000, moving aggressively
throughout the country, cannot find them. The only weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq have been the bombs and missiles raining down by the thousands,
the cluster bombs spewing out their deadly pellets, the arsenal of the
greatest military power on earth visiting destruction on a country ruled
by a murderous tyrant, but militarily helpless.
There were the lies
about wanting self-determination for the Iraqis, as the
new officialdom, headed by wealthy exiles, is flown into positions of
power, just as once Ngo Dinh Diem was flown into Saigon by the United
States, proclaiming its intention that Vietnam should govern itself.
Through all this there is a sinking feeling that most of Americans remain
ignorant of these things, and so still support George Bush by a decisive
majority.
But consider how
volatile is public opinion, how it can change (and has done so many
times) with dramatic suddenness. Note the large majority support for
George Bush the elder, and then the quick collapse of that support as
the glow of victory in the Gulf War faded, and the reality of economic
trouble set in.
Think of how in
1965 two-thirds of Americans supported the war in Vietnam, and a few
years later two-thirds opposed the war. What happened in those two years?
A gradual realization of having been lied to, an osmosis of the truth,
of information seeping more and more through the cracks of the propaganda
system. That is beginning to happen now.
A bit of historical
perspective reminds us that governments which seem to be in total control,
of guns, of money, of the minds of the population, find that all their
power is futile against the power of an aroused citizenry. The leaders
awake one morning to see a million angry people in the streets of the
capital city, and they begin packing their bags and calling for a helicopter.
This is not a fantasy but history. Its the history of the Philippines,
of Indonesia, of Russia, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, and
other places where change looked hopeless and then it happened.
There is a long
history of imperial powers, gloating over victories, becoming over-extended
and overconfident, as their citizens begin to get uneasy because their
day-to-day fundamental needs are being sacrificed for military glory
while their young are sent to die in wars. The uneasiness grows and
grows, and the citizenry gather in resistance in larger and larger numbers,
and become too much to control, and one day the top-heavy empire falls
over.
We dont expect
Bush to scurry off in a helicopter. But he can lose the next election,
just as he lost the last one, and this time perhaps not all the kings
judges or all the kings men will be able to put Humpty-Dumpty
together again.
And there are already
people around the country calling for his impeachment. Of course, we
do not expect a craven Congress to impeach him. They were willing to
impeach Nixon for breaking into a building. They will not impeach Bush
for breaking into a country. They were willing to impeach Clinton because
of his sexual shenanigans, but they will not impeach Bush for his pandering
to the super-rich. Still, it is good to bring up impeachment, because
the Constitution allows it for high crimes and misdemeanors
and it is an opportunity to discuss the high crimes of this government.
The change in public
opinion starts with a low-level discontent, at first vague, with no
connection being made between the discontent and the policies of the
government. And then the dots begin to be connected, and indignation
rises, and people begin to speak out, to organize, to act.
Today, all over
the country, there is a growing awareness of the shortage of teachers,
of nurses, of medical care, of affordable housing, of cuts in human
services in every state of the union. A teacher writes a letter to the
Boston Globe: I may be one of 600 Boston teachers who will be
laid off as a result of budget shortfalls. And connects it to
the billions spent for bombs sending innocent Iraqi children to
hospitals in Baghdad.
Rebellion often
starts in the culture, which we are seeing today the poets in
defiance, the actors and writers speaking out, the musicians and rap
groups taking a stand a rebellion that is first ignored by the
major media, and then becomes hard to ignore. We see Michael Moore winning
an Academy Award and speaking his mind to a huge national and international
audience. We see the radical collective Def Jam Poetry Jam winning a
Tony Award as millions watch.
The arrogance, the
posturing of this administration is becoming more and more hollow as
its lies become exposed, its victory in Iraq a sham, its
tax program an obvious theft by the rich.
In the rest of the
planet (and remember we in the United States are only 4% of the world
population) this nation is seen not as a liberator but as a marauder.
After the unprecedented worldwide demonstrations of over ten million
people against the invasion of Iraq, a New York Times reporter wrote:
There are now two superpowers, the United States and world public
opinion.
In Aeschylus
play, The Persians, now playing in New York, we see the
fall of the seemingly invincible Persian empire. The chorus recognizes
a new reality:
All those
years we spent jubilant, seeing the trifling,cowering world from the
height of our shining saddles, brawling our might across the earth as
we forged an empire, I never questioned
.
It seemed so clear
our fate was to rule. Thats what I thought at the time.
But perhaps we were merely Deafened for years by the din of our own
empire-buiilding, the shouts of battle, the clanging of swords, the
cries of victory.
Those of us who
become momentarily disheartened by the cries of victory
should remind ourselves of that long history in which seemingly insurmountable
power fell of its own unbearable weight, but also because of the resistance
of those who refused finally to bear that weight, and would not give
up.