opinion

by john rodgers and christopher d. cook

The enduring war

PEACE BY CHRISTMAS ? With the Taliban vanquished, an interim government nearly assembled, and the Marines' noose tightening around "OBL," it would seem conceivable.

But Washington, in keeping with past practice, has designs not on peace and justice but rather on expanding U.S. control in oil-rich Central Asia and other geopolitical hot spots. So expect continuing bloodshed in Afghanistan (perhaps soon extending to Iraq, Somalia, and other recalcitrants) and an enduring war on civil liberties at home.

Wartime breeds amnesia and denial on a startling scale. Even some on the "left" – eschewing "knee-jerk" opposition to war – have declared guarded support for the U.S. bombings in the name of rooting out terrorists. After all, it's said, we've got to do something.

Trusting in the virtues and stated objectives of U.S. foreign policy requires a blanket denial of history. Our government says it aims to make Afghanistan a better place and to minimize civilian casualties. But America's track record is an uninterrupted trail of blood and deceit. Below is an abridged accounting:

• Dropping nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 1945): 210,000 civilians killed

• War in Vietnam (1964-75): 1 to 2 million deaths

• Supporting military dictatorship in Chile (1973-90): 3,000 people executed

• Funding and arming Israel's crackdown on Palestinian intifadas in the Occupied Territories (1987-93 and 2000-present): 1,350 deaths and counting

• Funding and arming Salvadoran government linked to death squads (1980-92): 75,000 killed

• War against Iraq (1991): 200,000 deaths

• Economic sanctions against Iraq (1991-present): 4,500 children under five die every month; more than 350,000 total deaths

• Bombing Afghanistan (ongoing): 3,500 and counting.

Each policy had its own cause and context; in some cases, such as Vietnam, limiting civilian casualties wasn't on the agenda. But ultimately that's the point: U.S. war actions have consistently compounded misery, death, and enmity, not diminished them.

After the bombings, typically, come American declarations of "peacetime" – while America's victims abroad endure decades of aftershocks, including debilitating diseases, economic dependency, and ecological devastation.

Now is the time to pressure our government to change its ways and not rely on hopelessly misguided policies as if there are no alternatives. One can be a patriotic American, upholding the traditions of democracy and equality, while recognizing the U.S. government's well-documented history of undermining these principles here and abroad.

The United States aided Osama bin Laden and fueled the Taliban's rise to power, just as our government long nourished Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, and innumerable dictators, usually at the expense of democracy and human life. These perilous alliances are not isolated tactical errors – they are elemental components of U.S. foreign policy making, the goal of which has always been to tip regional power balances in favor of U.S.-friendly regimes. To expect anything different is to ignore history.

The deeper purpose is, in a sense, just as President George W. Bush and his predecessors advertise: to preserve, protect, and defend America's way of life. That is, a way of life based on excessive and unsustainable reliance on fossil fuels; equally unsustainable consolidations of corporate and individual wealth and power; and, as a corollary to both of these, a deeply ingrained culture of ignorance and denial about the sordid history and purposes of U.S. foreign policy. Fighting this injustice and ignorance is the war at home.

John Rodgers is a health care researcher and analyst. Christopher D. Cook is an award-winning journalist who has worked as city editor of the Bay Guardian.