2) The Need for a Complex Anti-War Position, and to Avoid Cliches
These remarks are addressed to those who like myself are convinced that a US military response is more likely to aggravate the problem than to resolve it.
This is the first conflict in which a significant number of Americans have clearly been among the innocent victims. To be of service, any remarks we express must show compassion towards these victims and their families, as well as towards the oppressed of other countries who are likely to suffer from a US response.
We are unlikely to see and hear again the worst anti-American rhetoric from the 1960s, when the left isolated itself from the US mainstream by burning flags and declaring Amerika to be the enemy. But there is a more difficult challenge for people who like myself believe in non-violence, global understanding, and addressing root problems like poverty and the inequality of wealth.
We have to address the fact that the problem posed by terrorism is a real one. We must accept that there will be a US response which goes beyond an appeal to international prsecutorial and judicial procedures. We have to acknowledge that the US, as well as other countries, has real needs which have to be addressed.
For myself, this means a distinction between an anti-terrorist program, the principle of which I accept, and a war campaign, which I predict will end badly for everyone in the long run. I regret that the US did not at the outset announce that it was pursuing a crime, instead of mobilizing anti-US opinion abroad by loose talk of (Wolfowitz's repeated phrase) "ending states."
Others will have different positions. My appeal here is to recognize the unprecedented complexity of the position opponents of war now face. No one should simply resort to the anti-war and anti-US rhetoric of the past.
Each of us will have design our position and remarks carefully after considering criticisms from many sources. On this website, for starters, I am putting up both the remarks of Noam Chomsky on the ZNET, and also The Nation, which has carried different remarks by Richard Falk, Christopher Hitchens, and others. Chomsky, as usual, has spoken out many times. I particularly want to recommend his lecture, "September 11th and Its Aftermath: Where is the World Heading?" at the Music Academy, Chennai (Madras), India: November 10, 2001, as well as the Question And Answer Session which followed.
Whatever we do, should be aimed at (1) lessening hatred, and (2) helping to build an effective majority against clear excesses such as the current bombing campaign. To this second end, I think we should take heed of the current (10/29/01) advice of former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, even though I think he has not adequately defined the nature of the problem in Washington.