It is not only Iraq that is occupied. America is too - Zinn

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Sat, 13 Aug 2005 05:20:45 -0700 (PDT)

It is not only Iraq that is occupied. America is too - Zinn

 

 

 

Howard Zinn is issuing a wake-up call as to the occupation from

within. It is now our duty, our job... to heed it.

 

J> wrote:

 

It is not only Iraq that is occupied. America is too

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1547587,00.html

 

 

But more ominous, perhaps, than the occupation of Iraq is the

occupation of the US. I wake up in the morning, read the newspaper,

and feel that we are an occupied country, that some alien group has

taken over. I wake up thinking: the US is in the grip of a president

surrounded by thugs in suits who care nothing about human life abroad

or here, who care nothing about freedom abroad or here, who care

nothing about what happens to the earth, the water or the air, or what

kind of world will be inherited by our children and grandchildren.

 

More Americans are beginning to feel, like the soldiers in Iraq,

that something is terribly wrong. More and more every day the lies are

being exposed. And then there is the largest lie, that everything the

US does is to be pardoned because we are engaged in a " war on

terrorism " , ignoring the fact that war is itself terrorism, that

barging into homes and taking away people and subjecting them to

torture is terrorism, that invading and bombing other countries does

not give us more security but less.

 

The Bush administration, unable to capture the perpetrators of the

September 11 attacks, invaded Afghanistan, killing thousands of people

and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes. Yet it still does

not know where the criminals are. Not knowing what weapons Saddam

Hussein was hiding, it invaded and bombed Iraq in March 2003,

disregarding the UN, killing thousands of civilians and soldiers and

terrorising the population; and not knowing who was and was not a

terrorist, the US government confined hundreds of people in Guantánamo

under such conditions that 18 have tried to commit suicide.

 

The Amnesty International Report 2005 notes: " Guantánamo Bay has

become the gulag of our times ... When the most powerful country in

the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it

grants a licence to others to commit abuse with impunity " .

 

The " war on terrorism " is not only a war on innocent people in

other countries; it is a war on the people of the US: on our

liberties, on our standard of living. The country's wealth is being

stolen from the people and handed over to the super-rich. The lives of

the young are being stolen.

 

The Iraq war will undoubtedly claim many more victims, not only

abroad but also on US territory. The Bush administration maintains

that, unlike the Vietnam war, this conflict is not causing many

casualties. True enough, fewer than 2,000 service men and women have

lost their lives in the fighting. But when the war finally ends, the

number of its indirect victims, through disease or mental disorders,

will increase steadily. After the Vietnam war, veterans reported

congenital malformations in their children, caused by Agent Orange.

 

Officially there were only a few hundred losses in the Gulf war of

1991, but the US Gulf War Veterans Association has reported 8,000

deaths in the past 10 years. Some 200,000 veterans, out of 600,000 who

took part, have registered a range of complaints due to the weapons

and munitions used in combat. We have yet to see the long-term effects

of depleted uranium on those currently stationed in Iraq.

 

Our faith is that human beings only support violence and terror

when they have been lied to. And when they learn the truth, as

happened in the course of the Vietnam war, they will turn against the

government. We have the support of the rest of the world. The US

cannot indefinitely ignore the 10 million people who protested around

the world on February 15 2003.

 

There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social

change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming

together at points in history and creating a power that governments

cannot suppress.

 

· Howard Zinn is professor emeritus of political science at Boston

University; his books include A People's History of the United States

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1547587,00.html