|
Anti-Empire Report
Refuse to fight
The world is very weary of all this and wants to laugh again
By William Blum
09/11/07 "ICH" --- -- Okay, Bush ain't gonna get out of Iraq no
matter what anyone says or does short of a)impeachment, b)a
lobotomy, or c)one of his daughters setting herself afire in the
Oval Office as a war protest. A few days ago, upon arriving in
Australia, "in a chipper mood", he was asked by the Deputy Prime
Minister about his stopover in Iraq. "We're kicking ass,"
replied the idiot king.[1] Another epigram for his tombstone.
And the Democrats ain't gonna end the war. Ninety-nine percent
of the American people protesting on the same day ain't gonna do
it either, in this democracy. (No, I'm sorry to say that I don't
think the Vietnam protesters ended the war. There were nine
years of protest -- 1964 to 1973 -- before the US military left
Vietnam. It's a stretch to ascribe a cause and effect to that.
The United States, after all, had to leave sometime.)
Only those fighting the war can end it. By laying down their
arms and refusing to kill anymore, including themselves. Some
American soldiers in Iraq have already refused to go on very
dangerous combat missions. Iraq Veterans Against the War, last
month at their annual meeting, in St. Louis, voted to launch a
campaign encouraging American troops to refuse to fight. "Iraq
Veterans Against the War decided to make support of war
resisters a major part of what we do," said Garrett Rappenhagen,
a former U.S. Army sniper who served in Iraq from February 2004
to February 2005.
The veterans group has begun organizing among active duty
soldiers on military bases. Veterans have toured the country in
busses holding barbeques outside the base gates. They also plan
to step up efforts to undermine military recruiting efforts.
Of course it's a very long shot to get large numbers of soldiers
into an angry, protesting frame of mind. But consider the period
following the end of World War Two. Late 1945 and early 1946 saw
what is likely the greatest troop revolt that has ever occurred
in a victorious army. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of
American soldiers protested all over the world because they were
not being sent home even though the war was over. The GIs didn't
realize it at first, but many soon came to understand that the
reason they were being transferred from Europe and elsewhere to
various places in the Pacific area, instead of being sent back
home, was that the United States was concerned about uprisings
against colonialism, which, in the minds of Washington
foreign-policy officials, was equated with communism and other
nasty un-American things. The uprisings were occurring in
British colonies, in Dutch colonies, in French colonies, as well
as in the American colony of the Philippines. Yes, hard to
believe, but the United States was acting like an imperialist
power.
In the Philippines there were repeated mass demonstrations by
GIs who were not eager to be used against the left-wing Huk
guerrillas. The New York Times reported in January 1946 about
one of these demonstrations: "'The Philippines are capable of
handling their own internal problems,' was the slogan voiced by
several speakers. Many extended the same point of view to
China."[2]
American marines were sent to China to support the Nationalist
government of Chang Kai-shek against the Communists of Mao
Tse-tung and Chou En-lai. They were sent to the Netherlands
Indies (Indonesia) to be of service to the Dutch in their
suppression of native nationalists. And American troop ships
were used to transport the French military to France's former
colony in Vietnam. These and other actions of Washington led to
numerous large GI protests in Japan, Guam, Saipan, Korea, India,
Germany, England, France, and Andrews Field, Maryland, all
concerned with the major slowdown in demobilization and the uses
for which the soldiers were being employed. There were hunger
strikes and mass mailings to Congress from the soldiers and
their huge body of support in the States. In January 1946,
Senator Edwin Johnson of Colorado declared "It is distressing
and humiliating to all Americans to read in every newspaper in
the land accounts of near mutiny in the Army."[3]
On January 13, 1946, 500 GIs in Paris adopted a set of demands
called "The Enlisted Man's Magna Charta", calling for radical
reforms of the master-slave relationship between officers and
enlisted men; also demanding the removal of Secretary of War
Robert Patterson. In the Philippines, soldier sentiment against
the reduced demobilization crystalized in a meeting of GIs that
voted unanimously to ask Secretary Patterson and certain
Senators: "What is the Army's position in the Philippines,
especially in relation to the reestablishment of the
Eighty-sixth Infantry Division on a combat basis?"[4]
By the summer of 1946 there had been a huge demobilization of
the armed forces, although there's no way of knowing with any
exactness how much of that was due to the GIs' protests.[5]
If this is how American soldiers could be inspired and organized
in the wake of "The Good War", imagine what can be done today in
the midst of "The God-awful War".
Iraq Veterans Against the War could use your help. Go to:
http://www.ivaw.org/
William Blum is the author of: Killing Hope: US Military and CIA
Interventions Since World War 2, Rogue State: A Guide to the
World's Only Superpower, West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir,
Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire.
Portions of the books can be read, and signed copies purchased,
at www.killinghope.org
NOTES:
[1] Sydney Morning Herald,
September 6, 2007
[2] New York Times, January 8,
1946, p.3
[3] New York Times, January 11,
1946, p.1
[4] Ibid., p.4
[5] For more information about
the soldiers' protests, see: Mary-Alice Waters, "G.I.'s and the
Fight
Against War" (New York, 1967), a pamphlet published by "Young
Socialist" magazine.
Click
on "comments" below to
read or post comments
Comment
Guidelines
Be succinct, constructive and
relevant to the story.
We
encourage engaging, diverse and
meaningful commentary. Do not
include personal information such
as names, addresses, phone
numbers and emails. Comments
falling outside our guidelines
– those including personal
attacks and profanity – are
not permitted.
See our complete
Comment
Policy and
use
this link to notify us if you
have concerns about a comment.
We’ll promptly review and
remove any inappropriate
postings.
Send Page To a Friend
In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational
purposes. Information Clearing House has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
|
