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Get Out of Iraq!
By Norman Solomon
Why Iraq Withdrawal Makes Sense
President Bush just told reporters that he has no intention of setting any
timetable for withdrawal. "Our troops will come home when Iraq is capable of defending herself," he said.
Powerful pundits keep telling us that a swift pullout of US troops would be
irresponsible. And plenty of people have bought into that idea -- including
quite a few progressives. Such acceptance is part of what Martin Luther King
Jr. called "the madness of militarism."
Sometimes, an unspoken assumption among progressive activists is that the
occupation of Iraq must be tolerated for tactical
reasons -- while other issues, notably domestic ones, are more winnable on
Capitol Hill. But this acceptance means going along with many of the
devastating effects of a militarized society: from ravaged budgets for social
programs to more authoritarian attitudes and violence in communities across the
country.
"The bombs in Vietnam," King said in 1967,
"explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America." He rejected the insistent
claims that it would be more prudent to avoid clear opposition to the war in
order to concentrate on domestic issues. "I speak for those whose land is
being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being
subverted," he said. "I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price of
smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam."
As spring 2005 begins, many who like to praise Martin Luther King are going
out of their way to evade the fundamental destructiveness of this war. Of
course, throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, a prevailing argument was that
removing US troops would be a betrayal of US
responsibility to the people of South Vietnam. Today, likewise, opposition to a swift US pullout from Iraq
is often based on the idea that the American military must stay because of a
responsibility to the people of Iraq.
But most Iraqis want the US military
out of their country -- pronto. As Newsweek reported in its Jan. 31 edition:
"Now every major poll shows an ever-larger majority of Iraqis want the
Americans to leave." Yet we hear that US troops must stay for the good of
the Iraqi people -- even though most of those people clearly want US troops to
leave. (Are we supposed to believe that Americans know better than Iraqis
whether American troops should stay in Iraq?)
To paper over such illogic, a media-stoked myth tells us that getting out of
Iraq is a notion remaining outside the
boundaries of what the US public could take seriously. Most
politicians and pundits insist that it's off the table. But polls are telling a
different story.
"According to a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken after the Iraq elections, 59 percent of the public believes the United States should pull its troops out of Iraq in the next year," Amy Quinn of the Institute
for Policy Studies wrote in early March. "Yet the ranks of those actively
demanding that the president produce an exit strategy from Iraq are slim."
In mid-March, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found that a large proportion
of the US population has a negative view of
the war. For instance, the poll asked: "All in all, considering the costs
to the United States versus the benefits to the United States, do you think the
war with Iraq was worth fighting or not?" Only 45 percent said "worth
fighting," while 53 percent said "not worth fighting."
Such nationwide poll numbers hardly indicate a country where few people are
interested in proposals for extricating US troops from Iraq. But the point is not only that political space
exists in the United
States for a
grassroots movement to effectively organize for a swift pullout. It's also the
best alternative for Iraq.
Consider the perspective of David Enders, a brave American journalist who
has been in Iraq most of the time since the
invasion. While writing for such outlets as MotherJones.com, the Nation
magazine and the British daily Independent, he actually covers Iraqi society
firsthand rather than staying behind American lines. Days ago, responding to my
questions via email from Iraq, Enders provided some of the
reasons for his assessment that American troops should leave rather than stay.
For instance:
¥ "It is the will of the Iraqi people." Enders cites a recent
survey by Iraqi pollster Saadun Al-Dulaimie, who found that 85 percent of Iraqi
people want US troops out of their country as soon as possible.
¥ "The US does not provide security for the
average Iraqi, and it never has."
¥ "The US has not prevented a civil war from
taking place. If anything, it has exacerbated it."
¥ "It is not morally derelict to pull out; it's morally derelict to
stay. Returning real control and sovereignty to Iraqis is the most effective
way to prevent the country from breaking apart. US troops complain Iraqis don't want to stand up and fight for themselves,
and a big part of the reason is the occupiers' presence."
Meanwhile, Enders voices enthusiasm for the resolution sponsored by more
than two dozen members of the House of Representatives "expressing the
sense of Congress that the President should develop and implement a plan to
begin the immediate withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq"
(House Concurrent Resolution 35, http://www.woolsey.house.gov/newsarticle.asp?RecordID=401).
This spring, as US activists work to build a strong
movement against the war, the need to pressure Congress is clear. What's less
apparent is the need to also push -- and, if necessary, confront -- hesitant
progressive organizations that are taking the easy way out by refusing to
challenge the ongoing war.
Fortunately, some national organizations are providing forthright leadership
to pursue the goal of getting US troops out of Iraq. Those groups -- including United for Peace & Justice,
Progressive Democrats of America, Military Families Speak Out, TrueMajority,
Iraq Veterans Against the War, Code Pink, Campus Antiwar Network, Veterans for
Peace, Iraq Pledge of Resistance, American Friends Service Committee, Democracy
Rising and US Labor Against the War, to name just a dozen -- inspire as they
organize.
Only clear opposition to the war can change the terms of the national
debate. Taking the paths of least resistance won't get us very far.
______________________________
Norman Solomon's latest book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits
Keep Spinning Us to Death," will be published in early summer. His columns
and other writings can be found at: www.normansolomon.com