AFS Cinema
Time to Think Back to Objections to Iraq Invasion
RECEIVED Tue., June 15, 2004
Dear Editor,
With so many new facts about the war on Iraq coming out in recent months, I keep thinking back to the marches here in Austin and all over the world in opposition to war. At this point we can pretty much all agree that there were no WMD's and Americans have finally had to face a fraction of the horrors of war with the prisoner abuse scandals. Now is a good time to take a step back and reassess the march to war that preceded the U.S. government going to war on Iraq and killing 10,000-plus Iraqi's and 800-plus Americans in the process.
The voices that called for internationalism and alternatives to war should now be embraced in an effort to immediately start turning around the course that we are currently on. And what leader can we look to for this change? This is Bush's war. Kerry voted the powers of war to Bush. And, as much as I respect Ralph Nader's work for consumers, I don't remember ever hearing about him at any anti-war rallies. So it is looking back on those marches that I understand we must come together and demand real democracy. All people in this country must learn to hear the variety of voices in our community. With a political system run by two parties, an election that narrows the perspective of debate into a simplified battle of party ideals serves the two parties well. What we must do, as people with a rich tradition of democracy, is break through the limited perspective of party officials and pundits and have true public debates. How we do this is up to those of us who understood or now understand the critical decisions that our leaders are making in our name but without our input.
With so many new facts about the war on Iraq coming out in recent months, I keep thinking back to the marches here in Austin and all over the world in opposition to war. At this point we can pretty much all agree that there were no WMD's and Americans have finally had to face a fraction of the horrors of war with the prisoner abuse scandals. Now is a good time to take a step back and reassess the march to war that preceded the U.S. government going to war on Iraq and killing 10,000-plus Iraqi's and 800-plus Americans in the process.
The voices that called for internationalism and alternatives to war should now be embraced in an effort to immediately start turning around the course that we are currently on. And what leader can we look to for this change? This is Bush's war. Kerry voted the powers of war to Bush. And, as much as I respect Ralph Nader's work for consumers, I don't remember ever hearing about him at any anti-war rallies. So it is looking back on those marches that I understand we must come together and demand real democracy. All people in this country must learn to hear the variety of voices in our community. With a political system run by two parties, an election that narrows the perspective of debate into a simplified battle of party ideals serves the two parties well. What we must do, as people with a rich tradition of democracy, is break through the limited perspective of party officials and pundits and have true public debates. How we do this is up to those of us who understood or now understand the critical decisions that our leaders are making in our name but without our input.
Matt Simpson