Most Americans oppose war

WHILE US President George Bush and the Republican leadership in the White House and the Capitol Hill are beating the war drums, the American public is by and large either against such a pre-emptive war or just resigned to the fait accompli.

The debate on war with Iraq in the country was truncated and bulldozed by the patriotic fervour although several Democrats, and some Republicans too, led by Senator Robert Byrd, have vociferously opposed any pre-emptive war with Iraq. There have been many insightful articles and commentaries in mainstream American papers issuing caveats against such a policy.

Senator Byrd, in his speech to the Congress, summed up the intentions of the Republican ideologues: “Why are we being hounded into action on a resolution that turns over to President Bush the Congress’s constitutional power to declare war? This resolution would authorize the president to use the military forces of this nation wherever, whenever and however he determines, and for as long as he determines, if he can somehow make a connection to Iraq.

“It is a blank cheque for the president to take whatever action he feels is necessary and appropriate in order to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.

“This broad resolution underwrites, promotes and endorses the unprecedented Bush doctrine of preventive war and pre-emptive strikes — detailed in a recent publication, National Security Strategy of the United States — against any nation that the president, and the president alone, determines to be a threat.”

Byrd warned: “We must not allow any president to unleash the dogs of war at his own discretion and for an unlimited period of time.” And he lamented: “Yet that is what we are being asked to do. The judgment of history will not be kind to us if we take this step.”

Yet the voices of the people of the United States were drowned in the patriotic piousness that killed any meaningful debate on the issue.

One American icon, actress-filmmaker and Democratic Party activist Barbra Streisand gave the whole charade an ironic perspective by quoting William Shakespeare from his drama Julius Caesar.

“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervour, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword.

“It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind... And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done.

“And I am Caesar.”

Her rendition of the famous song Memories, creatively geared to the present times, is in fact the microcosm of the divided and sacred society America is today. Some of its excerpts are worth a read:

Barbra Streisand:

Memories,

Of the way we were

When I sing that song now, I can’t help but think about it politically.

Scattered pictures

Of the house we left behind

Lovely Democratic mem’ries

Of the way we were

It was 1993... a time of hope... of new possibilities. We believed that our children and grandchildren would live in an age of extraordinary opportunity. We had a Democratic Congress that put the country on the road to prosperity ... passed the family and medical leave act .... legislation to increase funds for education...an anti-crime bill that banned assault weapons and violence against women... safe water and clean air acts. We had a president who enforced the peace agreement in Bosnia... helped reach the peace accords in Northern Ireland... We were even on the verge of a settlement in the Middle East.

The American dream was alive and well...

Unprecedented growth in the economy:

The Dow was up, the deficit was down.

Become more frightening every day.

“Talk about frightening... Shortly after George W. Bush was elected... sort of... I saw him on television say, ‘If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck-of-a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.’ And he laughed... You know people never really joke. That was very revealing... a taste of things to come... the arrogance of wanting unlimited executive power... a government that operates in secret... keeping presidential papers secret... holding secret meetings with oil companies. I find George Bush and Dick Cheney frightening... Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft frightening. I find the erosion of our civil liberties in the guise of ‘homeland security’ frightening... I find the shrinking ozone layer and the melting icecaps frightening... I find bringing the country to the brink of war unilaterally five weeks before an election questionable — and very, very frightening.”

Ms Streisand echoed the anti-war sentiments of most Americans who are getting more and more weary of a war scenario as the economy of the country becomes more fragile. A war they think would further undermine the pocket books of the citizens. Things will get much worse before the war economy kicks in and they cannot risk that.

On Sunday some of the most massive ant-war demonstrations, since the Vietnam war, have been organized by various ant—war groups in the United States, with hope that the people’s wrath would sway the Bush administration’s agenda.