Democrats: Time to stop the wars

In 2006, American voters elected a majority of Democrats to both houses of Congress so that they would stop Bush’s wars. They didn’t.

In 2008, American voters elected Democrat Barack Obama to the presidency so that he would stop Bush’s wars. He hasn’t, and in fact is escalating the war in Afghanistan and advancing it into Pakistan.

So, Democrats, what next? Now that you have the power in the White House and Congress, are you going to stop Bush’s unconstitutional, unjust, and unconscionable wars?

Maybe.

Tom Hayden

Tom Hayden, the former 1960s anti-Vietnam War protester, says “Doubt will turn into dissent” in an interview with Der Spiegel:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: As a veteran of the protests against the Vietnam War, you know a lot about public resistance, and now you’re promising a “storm of protest” against the US war in Afghanistan. What will that entail?

Hayden: The emotion that people are feeling is deep disappointment over the Afghanistan policy of Barack Obama and the US Congress, which now registers as a surprising 70 percent disapproval rate for the war among Democrats. Doubt will turn into dissent; it will manifest in congressional districts. The Democrats will find it hard to ignore their base. The slightest loss of support from the 2008 antiwar base will be very threatening to their electoral success.

Ironically, Obama may be able to continue Bush’s wars only if Democrats lose their control of Congress, and Republicans — who remain pro-war even though backing Bush’s wars got them booted out of power by voters — give him the support he needs. Maybe Obama should just become a Republican. After all, he’s almost exactly like Bush.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why is this disillusionment already so deep?

Hayden: Obama is caught between the social movements that made his presidency possible, including the anti-Iraq-war movement, and the Machiavellians, who are accustomed to running everything with little or no interference from the voters.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You seem to be saying that Obama should be careful about taking the support of the left for granted. How are you planning to remind him of that?

Hayden: We are currently organizing in about 75 congressional districts, where people still hope the president listens. The dissent in 75 districts will turn into 150 and keep growing when next year’s request for war funding is presented in January. At this point, we have a unique situation in which huge numbers of people want Obama and the Democrats to succeed domestically — but will not be silent about the war.

Nam then, Afghanistan now

What’s different about the anti-war movement this time is that there’s no draft. In the 1960s and early 1970s, guys got drafted and sent to Nam to die face-down in the mud, then come home in a body bag.

Even though President LBJ and Secretary of Defense McNamara didn’t believe the war could be won. These war criminals sacrificed 58,000 brave young American boys and 3 million Vietnamese on the altar of their political ambition.

I still argue with some conservatives who say, “We could have won in Vietnam.” But how can you win a war the two top leaders think can’t be won?

What that pointless war really was like was described today by Fred Reed, a wounded Marine from the Vietnam War, who still suffers from what earned him a purple heart. (All of Fred’s writing is worth reading.) A 30-year war correspondent, he writes:

Then there are the enlisted men. In these hobbyist wars, and to an extent even in peacetime, it is crucial to keep the enlisteds from thinking. In some three decades of covering the military, I saw this constantly. If I went to Afghanistan today as a correspondent, I could argue in private about the war with the colonel. If I suggested to the troops that they were being suckered, the colonel would go crazy. Next to keeping the public quiescent, keeping the troops (and potential recruits) bamboozled is vital. If a high-school kid saw what awaited, if he saw the cartilage glistening in wrecked joints, he wouldn’t sign.

After a while, the kids caught on and protested in the streets, burning their draft cards. The anti-war movement died down in 1973, when the draft ended and American troops were withdrawn from Vietnam.

Hey, Hey, Obam-A…

Even though there’s no draft, today’s Vietnam Wars – in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and maybe Iran — need to be opposed. Today, the new anti-war movement needs is a slogan. He’re’s one I came up with:

Hey, hey, Obam-A,
How many kids did you kill today?