Looking back at the earlier part of 2003 makes me remember the tension that the US-led war on Iraq has brought about, and almost (if not) everyone's consensus was for or against the war coming from a very anti-imperialist background I was compelled to write this which in turn I e-mailed to everyone in my yahoo addressbook, which as it turn out got in the hands of my friend Agee from the Acid Cow Collective who was at that time organizing a DIY anti-war gig, which I later learned that this piece was the primer that they reproduced and distributed to the concert goers.
March 2003
In the wake of the September 11 attack on the United States paranoia has been the prevalent temperament among the Bush Administration. By declaring a global war on terrorism the United States have put itself on a pedestal that denounces notions that do not go along with their interests. And with that pronouncement has lost a majority of the goodwill that it received in the rouse of the WTC bombing.
With the first leg of their global war on terror the USA unleashed its military might on the people of Afghanistan, under the pretext of liberating the Afghan people from the clutches of the Taliban who are also said to be harboring the Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda Terrorist network the United States along with other countries such as the United Kingdom sent troops to flush out the Muslim extremists from Afghanistan. Keeping in mind that the said attack is a rhetorical form of retaliation, the USA liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban, and made the political climate of Afghanistan into a somewhat free-for-all condition, thus making the country and its people prone to other forms of exploitation that ranges from the Northern Alliance, which is basically a resistance movement made up of Afghan warlords who want to further their control of Afghanistan as well as from the remaining vestiges of the Taliban regime.
It has been a known fact the Taliban themselves were formed and trained by the United States Central Intelligence Agency as an organized opposition against the former Soviet Union, that once occupied Afghanistan. And upon the withdrawal of Soviet troops gained control over the Afghan people and installed a Fundamentalist Muslim state under their rule. Thus making them a friendly country for Muslim extremists that are against the evils of the Western World.
But if we look at the history of the United States we will not help but heed and understand why so many people hate the United States.
In the local context wasn’t the United States who bought our country from Spain, in the Treaty of Paris? And upon their occupation of our land under the guise of ‘benevolent assimilation’ have committed genocide of Filipino patriots that fought in the Revolution of 1896.
During World War Two weren’t they the ones who deserted us and a number of their troops upon the arrival of the Japanese Imperial Army, and then declared Manila as an open city, making our capital free for the Japanese Army to plunder? Well, sure they returned but a bulk of their victory against the Japanese could be attributed more on the collective victories of guerilla units all over our country.
Weren’t they also the ones who dropped the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed thousands of Japanese civilians, and have caused the other remaining survivors and their descendents to suffer from cancer and other genetic alterations in their body?
In the wake of the Red Scare weren’t they the ones of declared wars of aggression against North Korea and Vietnam? And in turn condemning a number of their youth to their deaths for a war that was never worth fighting for. More so was the effect of the Agent Orange and the napalm bombs that they dumped on Vietnam, so that they could exterminate the North Vietnamese guerillas, as if they were mere insects.
Does any one of you still remember their attack on Panama, against Noriega? Can anybody still remember why such an attack was made? Nor weren’t they also the ones who backed Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War?
To look at it in a non-sectarian manner the Communists of the now collapsed Soviet Union or in the People’s Republic of China, or the Nazis or even the Islamic Fundamentalists also committed a score of human rights violations but none at the scale that could be compared to that of the United States have committed, against a number of countries all over the globe.
Moreover is their continued manipulation of the global economy along with their cohorts under the WTO and the other financial institutions that emerge under the guise of the IMF, WB and ADB have continuously caused economic collapse in the 3rd World.
With their slogan of globalization, and the notion of the ‘free market’ domestic economies that are dependent of backward modes of production such as farming, fishing and herding of livestock, have died and that countries with economies such as those mentioned above have, become stockrooms of corporate surplus and other decadent by products of capitalism such as electronics, fashion clothing, jewelry, accessories and fast food chains.
Not to mention their encouraging of the ‘morality of spectacle’ which blinds our minds with the patronage for designer clothing, over priced athletic shoes and the pollutive meat industry. The face of globalization has also razed rainforests into herding grounds for cattle gazers that fuel the demand of Mc Donalds and other fast food chains. And that the farmlands of 3rd World countries are systematically being converted to their sad fate of becoming factories or subdivisions. More so is the recent upsurge of urban sprawls within the cities.
And in the context of the 911 attack on Manhattan the Bush Administration along with reactionary bunch of republican dimwits, dare claim that America was innocent. But we could look at the issue in both ways, America as a nation controlled and manipulated by their so-called democratic aspirations was guilty, but the American civilians who have been blinded by the impression of freedom and liberal-democracy are innocent and that the terror attack on their land is indeed unjustified as it was also night right for the Japanese Imperial Army to launch a pre-emptive strike on Pearl Harbor, during World War 2.
But to put the September 11, attack, as a pre-text for declaring a full-scale war, surely is not a war that is worth fighting for. Especially for a country that has a long track record of manipulating world events to fuel is financial mechanisms and encourages the fascist tendencies of countries that are bounded under the yoke of poverty, self-evidently has not the moral ascendancy to do so.
With the recent presentation of Collin Powel of their evidence of Iraq’s amassing of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons at the United Nation’s Security Council meeting indicates the war mongering tendencies of the United States that it no longer recognizes International Law, nor do they have faith in the capabilities of the UN Inspection team to deem findings that are in a sense more conclusive and more un-biased than that of the United States and its monarchial puppet Great Britain.
It saddens me though that the Macapagal-Arroyo regime has been so blindly playing a puppet for G.W. Bush. It saddens me that despite the global anti-US sentiments that has been rising all over the world she chose to side with the United States and chose to blame the outbreak of a full-scale war in the Middle East on the hands of Saddam Hussien, without going into a consensus with here administration, who have been constantly lambasting her for her militarist attitude towards disenchantment that comes from the revolutionary Left and the secessionist Moros.
She speaks in front of the TV camera as if it is the national unanimity of the Filipino to give their support for the sham war that the United States is declaring Iraq, she even points out that it is the national interest of the government and that she even sites the Gulf War of 1991 as the rational response to America’s call to arms against Iraq.
With regards to President Arroyo’s pronouncement, does she not know that for her statement to become of national interests she must follow the Constitutional provisions which are provided by our rule of law, nor that her statement is a pathetic contortionist statement given to her by her Red, White and Blue Masters, it is evident that a majority of the Filipino are against war, and why shouldn’t they?
War after all means death, destruction and the promotion of the sentiment that men should give in to their savage tendency to kill anything what they perceive as their enemy without given a just cause. More so was that in one way or another our country will be affected if in case we a war breaks out in the Middle East, given the fact that more than a million of our countrymen are there working.
As for the Bush Administration and its war mongering tendency we dare say that their incisive paranoia against Islam, might lead to an eventual declaration of a Holy War against other religions mainly upon Christianity which comprises the majority of the world’s populace, given the fact that most Muslims who believe in Islam have the notion that they are assured of Allah’s piece of heaven if they die for their religion.
To resolve this we all cannot deny the fact that Iraq is not an idealistic and peace loving country. It is common knowledge that they invaded the country of Kuwait way back in 1991 and have committed deplorable crimes against humanity, we also cannot deny the fact that there is also that strong possibility might really be stocking up on weapons of mass destruction, like North h Korea but it is also common knowledge that the United States too has an arsenal that makes Iraq’s arms seem like toy guns.
And that the idea of Iraq’s non-conformity to a number of UN’s directives on their nuclear weapon’s program for the past 12 years, doesn’t put them in a pedestal. But the same argument could also be raised against the United States the mere fact that it does not recognize the actions taken by the UN, does not make them any better than Iraq.
But we should also focus our attention as why does the impending war must be resisted, it is for the fact also that more than a million Iraqi civilians have already died due to the economic sanctions that was implemented by the United States on them right after, the war on the Persian Gulf.
More so also is the United State’s biases towards the militarist response of the Israeli people to the disenfranchised Palestinian people, in the Gaza strip. And their all out support for the blatant attacks of the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians.
It is also worth considering as to why hasn’t there been much of a huge resistance within Iraq against the government of Saddam.
If justice means the removal of Saddam Hussein from power let us let that initiative come from the Iraqi people after all is not their nation and aren’t they the ones who’ll be directly affected if in case a war breaks out
As for the United States the war mongering paranoia of their government has caused their populace to live in fear and that it now encourages religious, ethnic and racial sectarianism within its people more so is that the people of America now realizes that the good old US of A is not the guardian of liberty that it claims to be. Shouldn’t they rather work upon the making their amends for their previous felony against their rivals and former rivals rather than rally support for a war that might mean the absolute annihilation of our planet’s denizens.
In conclusion is it not the absolute aspiration of all sentient inhabitants of this planet is peace and unity. So in response to this issue, let us chose not the attitude of fault finding which the United States is doing right now. Let us all chose neutrality, and peace as a solution for this predicament that faces this planet. More so we should also stretch our hands in solidarity with all movements that are against this war, and lastly resolve it within ourselves that we should pray that the growing hatred of the United States and Iraq against each other be met with a genuine resolving of their differences and a more sincere attitude towards implementing a lasting peace agreement between the Arab and Western world.
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