The Racism of the Anti-War Movement

I watch with puzzlement as MoveOn and other liberal interest groups make Cindy Sheehan the central figure in what they hope will be a revitalized anti-war movement. Like everyone else, I have nothing but sympathy for someone who has lost a son. However, I have to question the shallowness of a movement based off of the concept that our children are dying over there for no good reason, so we need to bring them home ASAP.

Really? That's as deep as the critique goes? We shouldn't be over there, our kids are dying, so let's bounce? It just seems rather shallow and egocentric to say that the overarching reason for leaving the war is that our poor kids are dying. At least in mainstream media coverage, there is no sense of an overall analysis of the reasons we are in Iraq on the left -- or at the least, an acknowledgement of the suffering of Iraqi mothers and fathers along with American ones.

As far as I can tell (and given Howard Dean's punt on "Meet the Press" a couple of weeks ago when asked what the plan for Iraq should be: "We're waiting on the President's plan!"), there's no sustained critique of the Iraq debacle beyond (a) the President lied us into war (which he did) and (b) get our troops out now! To me, I think the lack of a credible alternative policy on the left says a lot about the impotency of the Democratic elite and the futility of many of the new liberal interest groups.

Why? Because a thoroughgoing critique of the Iraq debacle, to be effective, has to go much further than the mismanagement of the project. After all, if you are arguing mismanagement, then you're ceding the legitimacy of the occupation. And it's not legitimate. A real critique involves critiquing America's imperial project as it is being pursued in Iraq, and the real goals of the administration. Only when they embark on that analysis can the anti-war left expect to gain any traction with an American public clearly fatigued about the war. Critiquing the imperial project also helps frame the issue not just as, how do we get our boys out, but also as, what does America owe to the Iraqi people for fucking up their country? To which the answer should not be, six enduring bases and at least 5 more years of occupation.

In any case, Naomi Klein lays out a credible critique of the war project and what a real anti-war movement would look like in this In These Times piece. I don't need to re-invent her wheel, I co-sign her 100%.