A Weak Spot in America's War Machine

Millions of people throughout the world marched against the possibility of war with Iraq in early 2003, including hundreds of thousands of Americans. The notion of going to war wasn't particularly popular with even those Americans who would never think of attending a political protest. But against all logic, evidence and popular opinion, Bush went to war anyway. His regime has murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and has sent over 1600 Americans to their death.

At first, after the war began, many Americans fell into line. (Refusing to whole-heartedly support a war once it has started is considered traitorous by many Americans - the equivalent of not supporting the troops and nearly the equivalent of supporting enemy troops.) But Americans are now learning the same lesson generations learned 30 years ago, and a majority now opposes the war once again, or at least believes we should pull our troops out. Yet the Bush regime refuses to compromise, blasting all critics of their murderous adventure, and refusing to talk about an exit strategy. Were this a more democratic country, we might have an opposition party that represented the majority of Americans who want us to leave Iraq. Instead, the Democrats are . . . fundraising? "compromising" with the Republicans by allowing right-wing judges throgh the Senate? trying to rid their Party of the word "choice" as Howard Dean recently said? holding out false hope for progressives who still cling to the Democrats?

Beyond the two Parties, the anti-war movement continues. It is not strong, but it is still alive. Counter-recruitment is breathing new life into the movement.

Military recruitment is a huge weak spot for the American war machine because it is where the right-wing foreign policy fantasies meet reality. The notion that U.S. soldiers are fighting for freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, or even against terrorism is increasingly difficult to sell, particularly to those who must put their bodies on the line for those rotten, spoiled hawks in Washington. The barage of lies about American foreign policy is getting harder to cover up, and even the corporate media is having trouble changing the subject fast enough (e.g., everyone heard about Newsweeks huge mistake, but many of us later learned that the underlying facts may have been completely accurate).

On this note we are seeing a lot of counter-recruitment efforts across the country. These range from offering alternatives to military service for young people, to protesting military recruiters and forcing them off of college campuses, to calling on school boards to end ROTC programs in high schools. I was able to speak this Saturday at a College Not Combat rally in the Mission. They were kicking off a campaign to have the Board of Supervisors (the equivalent of the city council for San Francisco) pass a resolution that would call on the removal of recruiters from schools. It isn't clear what effect this would actually have on the recruiters, but it would certainly send a powerful message.

The military has been missing its recruitment goals for the past several months, and in combination with the increasing number of deserters, and the number of soldiers killed and injured, we may see this war end just as the Vietnam war ended - in a loss not for Americans, but for U.S. imperialism.