General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Oh Fuck... I'm Gonna Throw Up... [View all]struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)We lost that political fight
A lot of us marched against the war, and a lot of us contacted Congress prior to the war, hoping to prevent it. A lot of us knew the Congressional resolution would lead to military action within days, despite all the commentary at the time to the contrary. A lot of us instantly knew those beating the war drums were liars. A lot of us knew that the administration's game at the time was to keep cheap oil flowing to the US. A lot of us also knew that an object of the war was to buy political support by shoveling vast money to big business without much oversight. A lot of us also knew that the resulting huge addition to the federal debt was part of a Republican strategy, dating back to the Reagan era, to bankrupt the federal government to eliminate regulatory enforcement and the social safety net. It was already clear very early in the war that Iraq would gain nothing from the military intervention but would be left in shambles. And it was clear, almost from the beginning, that the administration would torture people: they had put their mouthpieces and fellow-travelers and useful idiots on TV regularly long before the war pretty much saying that flat out. The whole story is shameful
IMO it's well worthwhile to continue analyzing what happened, why we lost the political fight, and what we need to do next time so we don't lose again
Politics is not a matter of simply expressing opinions: it involves organizing people and putting them into action. That requires public education work, and wearing out shoe leather on the pavement, and blistering fingers by phone-calling. It's not a casual matter: it's hard work -- and our side failed that challenge dreadfully a decade ago. And we'll fail next time, too, unless we take that lesson to heart
Wars are easy to start but have an enormous inertia, once set in motion, so are difficult to end: the Vietnam war continued long after a majority of Americans turned against it
The politics of a war usually continues long after the war is over, as one learns (for example) from the American civil war. One might reasonably say that the US owes Vietnam reparations for the damage of the Vietnam war, but such reparations will never be paid. One might similarly say that the US owes Central America reparations for the damage of the Reagan's vicious adventures there, but such reparations will never be paid either. In the same way, one might think the US owes Iraq reparations for devastating that country, but that won't go anywhere either. You might find it an instructive exercise to try to analyze dispassionately, based on current politics in the US, why no such amends will ever be forthcoming, because if you do so you will be forced to confront in a rational way certain realities about political forces and political dynamics. A lot of us find these realities deplorable, but they will NOT be dispelled by simple denunciation: the only way to fight against them is by long, hard, flexible, and intelligent campaigns of public education and organizing. It is easy to play the prophet and to think words alone are enough -- but words are useless, unless they stir people to appropriate and sustained action
I read the President's speech. I feel I understand what he is saying. And I do not think it is a bad speech. His objective is not to provide a cogent analysis of Iraq war, just as his objective yesterday was not to provide a cogent analysis of WWI. If you want to investigate why progressive forces were unable to prevent WWI, you might first look at the Second International's 1912 Basel Declaration, in which everyone pledged to oppose the coming war by organizing against it within their own countries, and then consider their actual nationalist behavior when the war came: that also might be an instructive exercise regarding political forces and political dynamics. As I have indicated above, we ourselves need similar accurate analyses regarding the politics of the Iraq war -- but being outraged, because the President didn't provide us with a defensible analysis of that war, in a speech to NATO on an entirely different topic, doesn't get us anywhere: it's a pointless waste of time
Do you know the saying The world needs sages, not prophets? It is often easy to speak in prophetic, denouncing others -- and somewhat harder to find ways out of the deadly dynamics of our time