We Have Met the Enemy

by Mary Shepard, WAMM

To add more words to the thousands spoken since September 11, 2001, seems futile. There are no words that can express the enormity of the tragedy and the ominous implications of what happened in New York City, rural Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.

People in the peace movement have been expecting and dreading this moment, but we failed to make ourselves heard. We may have thought we were ready for it, like an expected death in the family, but the reality turns out to be more devastating than we imagined. The reactions of U.S. citizens run from futile expressions of anger and desire for revenge to quiet resignation. As usual, grassroots workers for peace and justice who are trying to restore reason to the little dialog are scarcely represented in the media.

Our administration and our politicians seem to believe that bombast and empty promises to "find the perpetrators" and "eliminate them" will lift our spirits. They only frighten us more because we can see they have not yet grasped the reality of our terrible vulnerability. Expressions of patriotism only remind us that we are no longer the proud democracy we once thought we were. Flying the flag seems to make many people feel better, but we can now see how horrible a symbol it has become to the victims of our violence worldwide. As in past wars, any criticism of our nation is regarded as treasonous. Such thinking makes a reasoned response to our plight impossible.

When we planned this issue of the newsletter, this article was intended to be a critique of the Star Wars plan and the drive of the military-industrial complex to militarize space. In light of the events of September 11, Star Wars seems all the more absurd. It is still instructive, however, to see the brochure, "Vision for 2020." The brochure, published by the U.S. Space Command, describes what Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld had in mind to make the world secure for corporate investments. In their madness, they may still believe this vision to be possible.

"Vision for 2020" is illustrated in color and looks like a child's comic book, but there is nothing funny about it. The creators of this insane vision, which expects to make us rulers not only of the world but the heavens too, are quite frank about their interest#which is not the safety and security of U.S. citizens. It is the corporations and banks that must be protected. The hubris this brochure exhibits is so extreme that it is fair to say it is pathological. It advances a plan to use untried laser weaponry, fired from platforms in space. This plan would not only bankrupt the nation, but would surely result in unintended consequences of epic proportion.

Both myth and history have, since the beginning of time, warned us of the consequences of pride. One can think of the myth of Icarus, son of Daedalus, who forgot when he thought he could fly, that the wax affixing his wings to his shoulders would melt as he reached the sun and he would fall into the sea. One can think throughout history of the many failed plans for perfect security that turned out to be useless: the China Wall, the Spanish Armada, and the Maginot Line, which was supposed to keep the Germans from ever running over France again. At least these were passive defense measures. Star Wars is an aggressive threat to the peoples of the whole world, a fact not lost on those who would use terroristic violence to attack the U.S.

With Star Wars as a measure of the insanity of our leaders, we should not be surprised by their continuing claim that they can find and root out a network of terrorists in hiding in 60 countries. While they are pumping themselves with illusions of our invincibility, their war talk is alienating people around the globe#even some of the allies that were initially ready to support us. The war talk is frightening to anyone who has grasped the full meaning of the fact that we are living on an atomic time bomb. Wars are not "won" any more, if ever they were.

Particularly distressing is the support the U.S. Congress has given to these madmen. By what right do they offer billions of dollars of our money and all the military support he wants, to a president we did not elect who intends to wage a global war?

All wars bring out the best and the worst in people, and we have seen both. By and large representatives of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, have been helpful. The firefighters who risked their lives and, in many cases, lost them, have earned the high praise they are getting. We join with the nation in grieving for the dead and their families. Our new realization of how much we need each other is a healing of sorts.

As for the media, here is a letter to a North Carolina newspaper from Phyllis Lisle. She expresses what many of us feel: "In the midst of horrific tragedy that continues in our country today I would make a plea that our grief and sorrow of inexpressible loss will not turn to revenge. I plead for restraint so that innocent people will not suffer in our response to this despicable event. . . . I would also plead for the media to stop expressing national feelings for us. They have no right to tell me how I or we should feel, and many do not share or experience what they express. They are driving anger by their words and putting words in my mouth that are not true or there inside me. I am not alone. Why do they do this?"

There is an old adage that a finger pointer who wants to identify the blameworthy never notices that three of the fingers on the pointer's hand point back at the pointer. In three weeks of searching for terrorists all over the world, no one in the mainstream media has suggested the U.S. as the major terrorist of the globe.

When former President George Bush was director of the CIA in 1985, a Cuban airliner was shot down. Later, our Navy shot down an Iranian airliner over the Persian Gulf. Biological warfare? How about the spreading of dengue fever in Cuba? Chemical warfare? Have we forgotten Agent Orange and depleted uranium? Assassinations? Remember Lumumba and Allende?

Harboring terrorists? How about Emile Constant, living free in New York. He was head of the Haitian paramilitary group responsible for murder, torture, public beatings, machete attacks, and arson during the coup against the popularly elected Aristide. Weapons of mass destruction? Let's remember that the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction was a U.S. invention. This is the ultimate terrorism.

The architect of U.S. terrorism, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, not only lives unharassed among us, but is trotted out by pundits as an "expert" on terrorism. All his machinations are in the public record. In fact, U.S. citizens who have been among Kissinger's victims have filed a lawsuit against him.

So what should we be doing? Each person will have to decide for herself or himself, but I suggest sending what help we can to the suffering, joining peace demonstrations wherever they are held, and reaching out to Muslims who are suffering even more fear than we.

The way to peace is to stop the arming of nations around the world and, of course, to stop the bombing of Iraq, lift the sanctions which continue to kill innocent children by the thousands, refuse to keep funding Israel's occupation of Palestine, and stop threatening assassinations. All this continues even as we mourn our own losses. As Pogo said, we have finally met the enemy and it is us.