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News :: Miscellaneous |
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A Former US Special OPS on why activism must NOT stop now! |
Current rating: 0 |
by Stan Goff/Macdonald Stainsby
(No verified email address) |
20 Sep 2001
Modified: 22 Sep 2001 |
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A brilliant analysis of the situation, and why activists for human rights, peace and development must NOT stop but INCREASE activity NOW!!! |
PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
A Former US Army Officer turned radical has responded to the opinion that we must scale back our political activism.
I pass this on for your consideration on what to do next. The local newspaper--the Contra Costa Times today editorialized that some of us were naive if we thought this was going to be a short "war." The paper said we should be prepared to fight this "war" past our lifetimes. Combined with its editorial yesterday about how our civil liberties will be eroded (including, maybe the targeting of whole groups), I am sure you might be as concerned as I am about what sort of an unspeakable society institutions of power are now advocating. The time to act against this is now, in my opinion, and not only with pro-civil liberties and anti-xenophobia actions, but with the issues addressed below.
In reply to another Rad-Green listmember who believes we need to scale back our demands/actions in face of what is coming- stating that we have no real power based on the situation (as it currently is) here and in America. Retired US Army Veteran-come radical Stan Goff speaks on what we must do. I ask people to forward this far and wide- it is important right now, and Stan is (as usual) helping find clarity during a blackout. I urge you all to get people reading this.
Macdonald Stainsby
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I couldn't possibly disagree more. Since the savage attacks of September 11th, we have seen the unfolding of a national ritual denunciation of this crime that is much more than an expression of outrage and sadness. If the ritual is performed incompletely or incorrectly, one risks the charge of heresy. It's the new McCarthyism, and this is the new loyalty oath. A disciplined military-financial-industrial press is harmonizing us, and the orchestra director is our de facto executive branch.
Heresies include:
(1) the failure to call for war or support out "leaders" when they call for war
(2) the denial that this can be reduced to a test between good and evil,
(3) the refusal to accept official explanations,
(4) the temerity to suggest that our own rulers have committed equally offensive actions,
(5) and finally, that our own financial, political, military, and intelligence establishments bear a portion of the blame.
I retired from the Army in February, 1996, after some 24 years of service. "Special operations" was my field. That gives me a perspective on this military-macho posturing that seems to have seized the whole country. The military, industrial, and political establishment are cashing in on this tragedy, and it shouldn't serve as an excuse to be stupid. This can not be allowed to provoke a retreat by progressives.
The admirable and poignant solidarity of New Yorkers, and many across the nation, is being contaminated by a military fetish, a mindless phallic nationalism, and instead of seeking solutions, we are seeking enemies.
And we'll find them.
History sent us a warning, but we're not listening. Herr Hitler announced with a familiar combination of grief-stricken solemnity and manly outrage, on February 27, 1933, "Gentlemen, the Reichstag is on fire." We ought to pay attention to this. We've got to interrupt this war talk, and we've got to do it aggressively and on a mass scale, because MUCH is at stake. And we've got to interrupt it with more than an appeal against xenophobia and the abrogation of civil liberties.
We are responsible to shift attention from the motives of "Usama bin Laden and his legions of demonic followers" to the motives of the Bush Administration and the capitalist governments of Europe. I've come to assume, from my own experience, that anything I hear from the State Department or the FBI is apt to be... less than truthful. Officialdom doesn't make statements to represent reality. It constructs stories to pursue interests. Whether those stories conform to reality is incidental.
This attack will benefit the militarists in this country far more than it will benefit anyone else, and I remember the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Progressives in the US have reason to be afraid. This unforgivable act of inhumanity will be used as an excuse to crack down on dissent here, to engage in military aggression against other peoples, and to whip up an already more-than-latent anti-Muslim xenophobia. But the key thing to understand here is that this is pulling a lot of political and economic cookies out of the fire, or so dangerous buffoons like Bush believe, and is leading us to disaster.
There is quite simply no security system in the world that can not be bypassed, and there is no way to protect absolutely against these kinds of attacks. When we accept this premise, we have to conclude that overwhelming violence in retaliation for these kinds of acts will not bring such acts to an end, but escalate the levels of overall violence. An Israeli-like response will bring with it an Israeli-like situation, on a global level. In a very short step, we can tumble from chauvinism into the abyss of repression and tribalism.
U. S. military might and the willingness to use it is not only not the solution, it's a powerful contributing factor to terrorism, when it is combined with the arrogance and impunity of our foreign policies. We have the capability to overwhelm any conventional military force in the world, so no one in the world has the option to oppose those forces in a conventional way. When those forces or allied forces are the ultimate guarantors of intolerable situations, or when the sovereignty of nations is swept aside, unconventional means will inevitably be employed. If I would rather die fighting than go on living as I am, and I can't build a Tomahawk Cruise missile, then I can learn to fly a Boeing 767. Progressives can't withdraw from the scene. I urge people to revisit the post by Mark Jones on the world energy system.
QUOTE "The extremely finite nature of petroleum reserves was always the Achilles heel of industrial capitalism, and even now it is the great blind spot, the great point of denial at the heart of the priesthood's theology of growth and accumulation. "World oil is already in sharp and irreversible decline. We remain more than ever dependent on Saudi and Iraqi oil reserves. Everything else is being or has already been, used up. Yet it is precisely here in this volatile geopolitical tinderbox that America and its allies are now planning to wage new, intensified war. It is hard to imagine a more suicidal course of action. As often before in history, the hubris of ruling classes conceals some real stupidity. "War in the Middle East and South Asia and Afghanistan is ultimately going to be a war for control over oil. WHAT SEEMS TO BE IN PROSPECT IS A MILITARY OCCUPATION OF THE OIL FIELDS BY THE MAJOR CAPITALIST STATES [Stan's caps], against the will of the masses there and in the teeth of furious resistance. This does not look like a promising way to guarantee long-term and vital energy supplies. Without Persian Gulf oil, world capitalism will be snuffed out quicker than the Mayan empire was. Waging war against the local population seems to be the one surefire way to lose Arab oil forever." CLOSE QUOTE
That's why action, even action with risks, is so critical. Mark further pointed out that events are out of the control of the global bosses, who are now blundering from one reaction to the next in a system that was already incredibly unstable. We were already, before this catalytic event, somnambulating into the hell-hole of this global ecological, economic, and political crisis. I think it's absolutely certain, with the course we're now on, that there WILL be massive dislocation, suffering, and degradation-and we shall not be spared this time.
This attack on September 11th did not happen in a social or historical vacuum. If the conceit of our rulers is contributing directly to the bewilderment of the people, this implies to me that for clarity among the masses, the solution is not support for this priesthood of the market, and not acquiescence to this de facto political leadership, but on the contrary, its replacement.
The struggle is not for justice, but for survival. These loons are talking about WWIII, because in their undying hubris they really believe they can win it, because they think it will bolster the economy, and because they see what looks like an opportunity.
If we are to fight for sanity and survival, it's our duty now to be stubborn and have the courage of our convictions. Something to seriously consider. The local newspaper today in an editorial stated that Americans were being naive if they think this is going to be a short "war." They stated in sociopathic rants that this may well go on past our lifetimes. In addition to their civil liberties must go editorial yesterday, what sort of a political order are they advocating here, it seems pretty clear to me--it has the ugly whiff of fascism. It is time to roll and oppose this. Now is not the time to go silent and wait this out. It's not going to blow over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From a purely tactical standpoint, NOW is the best opportunity we will have to fight back, NOT after this madness has had more time to develop. And given the climate that will develop if this madness progresses, there will be risks. There will be witch-hunts. Ironically, we are now in the same position, I think, as the pilots of those planes that were hijacked, forced to choose between bad and worse. Denial of this dilemma only contributes to the problem. Right now is the time for progressives to show up and grow up.
Audre Lorde summed up our situation about as nicely as anyone I can imagine, so I'll close with her statement: "Your silence will not protect you."
Stan Goff
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See also:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
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Comments
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and get away from obsolete forums |
by damn fool
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
22 Sep 2001
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As one who has marched in circles (literally) with the left for way too long, I want to promote that those following Goff's encouragement go beyond obsolete forms of demonstration (which the police are all too ready for these days), and try new ideas out.
Here are some:
Go into the nice, quiet neighborhoods of the liberals and conservatives and do your sit-ins and nonviolent blockages. Go to their parks, and their morning coffee hangouts.
Go door-to-door in these places before, during, or after a large demo in these places. When the police come to break the demos up (sit-ins, etc), disperse and go door-to-door with 3-4 persons each. Affinity group comes to mind.
Talk to the husbands and wives of police officers, professors, policy makers and upper echelon implementers. Talk to the people who can make a difference when they become adequately informed (instead of just relying on the same old doctrinaire media). You may have to talk to them on their terms, about matters that concern them most, but that will be good for you.
Okay, there's something for starters. |
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