The
Air Force vs.
Rev. Lennox Yearwood
By Kevin Zeese
04 July, 2007
Countercurrents.org
If
you have heard Rev. Lennox Yearwood speak against the continued occupation
of Iraq and express outrage at how Katrina has been handled you have
no doubt been in inspired. He is a speaker in the mold of Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr., who not only can move people to tears with his words
– but more importantly, move people to action. And as the Chairman
of the Hip Hop Caucus he reaches youth, especially African American
youth – the people the U.S. military needs to continue its occupation
of Iraq. This is probably the threat that moved the Air Force to seek
to discharge him on the basis of “behavior clearly inconsistent
with the interest of national security.”
What is this behavior? Rev.
Yearwood has pointed out that the military attack and occupation of
Iraq are illegal – that the U.S. is engaged in an illegal war
of aggression. And, he argues the Iraq occupation can be opposed not
only for its devastating human impact on Iraq civilians, U.S. soldiers
and families in both countries, but also because it undermines U.S.
national security.
There are many ways in which
the Iraq occupation undermines U.S. security. The continued presence
of U.S. troops in Iraq is causing violence in Iraq, creating enemies
for the United States – enemies that will impact future generations
of Americans. The bombings this week in England show how the occupation
is exporting tactics to western nations – car bombs are a threat
that the UK and U.S. will have a hard time combating. When they hit
U.S. shores, as is sadly likely, remember that their roots began to
grow in Iraq.
In short, the occupation
stretches the U.S. military too thin while strengthening those who oppose
the United States while doing nothing to face-up to the underlying causes
of anti-Americanism. We are undermining U.S. national security every
day we stay in Iraq.
Rev. Yearwood’s view
that the Iraq occupation is a threat to U.S. national security is not
a novel one. Indeed, many in the foreign policy establishment –
retired military officers, intelligence officials and Foreign Service
officers – have said that Iraq is undermining national security.
A declassified National Intelligence
Estimate dated April 2006 provided a stark assessment – the U.S.
invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of
Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since
the Sept. 11 attacks. The NIE, which brings together the findings of
16 intelligence agencies, attributes the Iraq war with a direct role
in fueling radicalism against the United States. The most recent thirty
page NIE described the war in Iraq as a primary recruitment vehicle
for violent Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential
terrorists around the world whose numbers are increasing faster than
the United States can capture or kill them.
Last week one of the leading
foreign policy experts in the U.S. Senate, Republican Richard Lugar
of Indiana, noted the threat the Iraq occupation poses to U.S. national
security. He said “Unless we recalibrate our strategy in Iraq
to fit our domestic political conditions and the broader needs of U.S.
national security, we risk foreign policy failures that could greatly
diminish our influence in the region and the world.”
Sen. Lugar is not alone in
the foreign policy establishment for criticizing the occupation of Iraq
other examples include ret. General William Odom former head of the
NSA and a national security adviser to President Carter and Reagan,
Brent Scowcroft a national security adviser to President H.W. Bush,
John Deutch, head of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1995 and 1996
and deputy defense secretary 1994-1995, Zbigniew Brzezinski, national
security adviser to President Carter, Melvin Laird, the Secretary of
Defense for President Richard Nixon, Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, a retired
four-star general, was Commander in Chief of the U.S. Central Command
(1991-94) – these are just a few example among many.
Rev. Yearwood is certainly
not alone in advocating an end to the occupation because it undermines
U.S. security. Indeed, if the military wants to target Rev. Yearwood
for threatening national security with his words they may also want
to consider targeting ret. General William Odom and other former generals,
colonels and officers who have criticized the Iraq invasion as a blunder
of historic proportions that undermines U.S. security.
It is important to note that
Rev. Yearwood does not define U.S. national security narrowly as merely
military security. He has a broader perspective as he argues we must
update our understanding of what the real threats to national security
are.
Rev. Yearwood has not only
spoken out, over and over about the need to end the war, but he has
also been a leader in efforts to face up to the disaster of Katrina
and its root cause global climate change and lack of investment in urban
areas. And, on all of these issues he also reminds Americans that our
government has its priorities wrong – rather than focusing on
the disparity of wealth, widespread poverty and ecological disaster
– which all threaten national security, the U.S. spends half its
discretionary income on preparing for war – as much as the whole
world combined.
I have worked with Rev. Yearwood
on efforts to end the war and one issue he brings up as one that opponents
of the occupation should highlight is the diversion of massive tax dollars
to Iraq at a time when the basic necessities of life for many Americans
are not being met. This is particularly true, he notes, for his “brothers
and sisters in arms, returning vets,” who face an overrun and
underfunded Veterans Administration. Because of lack of funding the
VA is unable to provide vets with the services they desperately need.
An issue on which the reverend
has spent a lot of time is the government’s response to Hurricane
Katrina and the climate chaos that stoked its deadly force. Like Iraq,
this is an issue of human devastation but it too is an important national
security issue. The occupation misuses critical funds needed for basic
domestic infrastructure, the basic necessities of the American people,
our national guard, and the reconstruction of New Orleans for an illegal
occupation of a foreign country.
On the issue of climate change
being a security threat, the Department of Defense has published two
public reports on the relationship of climate change to future military
conflict. The UN Security Council now considers climate change a security
issue. In 2005, former Secretary General Kofi Annan identified global
warming as the emerging threat to global peace and security. Richard
A. Clarke, counterterrorism advisor to five presidents, wrote in the
Washington Post in December, 2006 that climate change is the nation’s
number one security threat but it is being ignored because of the Iraq
war. Numerous reports have documented that environmental degradation
and the struggle for resources including fossil fuels, land, food and
water due to global warming and now bio-fuels will increasingly be sources
of conflict.
Further by facing the issues
of militarism, ecological disaster and disparity of wealth the United
States will come to recognize that to solve these problems will require
nations working together. To achieve peace in the world, restore our
environment and prevent ecological catastrophe, as well as to achieve
economic fairness requires the nations of the world to join together.
Multi-nationalism – a true family of nations – is central
to a secure international future. Compliance with international law
would have avoided the catastrophe in Iraq. The illegal war of aggression
and ongoing occupation of Iraq is counterproductive to real security.
In fact, when people look
back on this era of militarism in the United States, Rev. Yearwood will
be on the side of speaking for real national security – economic
security, ecological security and security from terrorism by dispossessed
people of the world injured by U.S. foreign policy. And the military
that attempts to intimidate him will be on the wrong side of history
seeking to control countries through force while misusing resources
that could really solve the root causes of insecurity.
Rev. Yearwood lives up to
the Air Force axiom “first an officer, always a leader.”
For more information or to
help Rev. Yearwood:
You can read Rev. Yearwood’s
“Open Letter to America” at http://www.countercurrents.org/yearwood030707.htmwhere
he pledges to challenge the U.S. Air Force efforts to intimidate him.
You can also donate to his defense fund at www.hiphopcaucus.org
or send checks, money orders or cash to: Hip Hop Caucus1112 16th St.
NW, Suite 600 ,Washington, DC 20036.
Kevin Zeese is director of
Democracy Rising (www.DemocracyRising.US) and Chair of Voters for Peace
(www.VotersForPeace.US).
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