A few days ago we had a dialogue about the war in one of my classes. One of my students (who works in the Financial District) was complaining about the anti-warprotesters who laid down in the road and prevented people from going to work. She said (and I'm totally paraphrasing here) something to the effect that she was against the war as well, but she had to go to work, she was paid by the hour, and that she had to walk several blocks because the buses were prevented from entering the entire area.
The smart-aleck answer would have been, "Well, your inconvenience is nothing compared to the residents of Baghdad who have to dodge bombs falling on their heads," but my student was absolutely right. She was only trying to go to work so she could keep earning money to go to school -- just like those poor schmucks who join the army because they couldn't find a job, or because they couldn't afford a college education.
(I don't really want to write about the whole "Support The Troops" movement -- of course I support the troops (they should be brought home now!), but I wouldn't wear a yellow ribbon because the movement has been completely hijacked (if not started in the first place) by real pro-war hawks. Instead, I'll post a link to a debate on the Bitter Shack of Resentment blog.)
(There's another angle to this as well: namely, the difficulty in sympathizing with the soldiers interviewed on CNN and Time who, on the eve of war, would be quoted as saying "I'm itching to play," as if war were some kind of football game. Madeline would probably say that the soldiers simply didn't know any better, but that sounds a bit presumptuous. One of my other students, during the dialogue, was very adamant that all the soldiers had a choice. Where are the conscientious objectors, indeed?)
Then a few days ago someone on the Filipino Studies e-mail list wrote, essentially saying that the anti-war movement had failed -- that it was beating a dead horse, and that it was time to move on to other things, other battles. I disagree -- as Madeline said as well, that doesn't mean people should shut up about it -- since troops could be pulled out, and missiles could be prevented from launching.
But the poster was probably partly right as well. Bush has shown no sign of bothering to listen to any anti-war protestors -- indeed, he has gone well out of his way to suppress dissent, acting as if the war was a fait accompli -- so why should he listen now? Perhaps other battles could be fought now, other struggles that could only begin if the war comes to a quick end: ensuring that sufficient money is allocated for rebuilding Iraq, fighting for UN involvement in the Franks regime that will be installed in Baghdad, demanding that the Bush regime be held accountable to international law, or, much closer to home, dealing with the California budget crisis and ensuring that school teachers (or Sonoma State University lecturers) not be fired.
Posted by the wily filipino at March 26, 2003 07:57 PM