I'm not united. I never was. How about you?
This morning I told Natasha that Obama was sending 30, 000 more soldiers to Afghanistan. Natasha said, But wasn’t he against he war? We had some interesting conversation, and I talked about how even though we knew Obama thought the Afghanistan war was ok, he had been opposed to the Iraq war, and he was still better than McCain and no different than Clinton on war issues. Then Natasha said, “I wish I’d told you to vote for the other person who was anti-war…the one was was a woman AND African American?” “Oh, yes,” I said, “Cynthia McKinney would not have made war, that’s true.” I really appreciate how my kid keeps looking for other options, other avenues, other alternatives. There I was, saying, well, what Obama is doing sucks but he was the best option, and Natasha was able to remind me that no, there was actually another option, as there always is.
Whenever you are told THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE, you know someone is trying to get you to shut up and fall in line. There is always another alternative. ALWAYS. When they say “there is no alternative,” what they are saying is, we like this alternative, we are committed to this world view, this hegemony, and we want you to stop thinking about other options, other approaches. They want you to stop thinking creatively, to accept their worldview as the only option, stop resisting and stop trying to build alternatives.
At the end of Obama’s speech he said this:
It is easy to forget that when this war began, we were united - bound together by the fresh memory of a horrific attack, and by the determination to defend our homeland and the values we hold dear. I refuse to accept the notion that we cannot summon that unity again.
I remember that time, and I can tell you, I was not united. I was pissed and horrified. I was protesting outside of the ICE offices as hundreds of arab and muslim men were rounded up just for being arab and muslim. I remember my horror at hearing about how the daisy cutter bombs and the food aid packages looked the same, meaning kids running for food were getting blasted to bits. I remember that most of the people in my community were opposed to making war on Afghanistan. I remember the analysis coming from RAWA and other radical women of color, and the ways the US war makers used women’s rights as a cudgel to beat people into line on this war.
I know that I never once believed that making war on Afghanistan had anything to do with defending our homeland and I still don’t. I never thought the Afghanistan war was ‘the good war,” and I don’t believe in “good wars.”
Obama is attempting to rewrite history by pretending there was no opposition to this war then as a way of undermining opposition now. There has always been opposition to this war. To the extent that there was unity among the lawmakers, it came from ugly reactions to fear and a desire for vengeance, and it’s sad to see Obama embrace that.
Were you united with George Bush and the warmakers and imperialists as the war on the people of Afghanistan began? If not, tell me what you can remember from that time, what you did to express your opposition, not just to the war but to the “war on terror” in it’s manifestations at that time. It was 8 years ago. We can surely own our own history.
Whenever you are told THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE, you know someone is trying to get you to shut up and fall in line. There is always another alternative. ALWAYS. When they say “there is no alternative,” what they are saying is, we like this alternative, we are committed to this world view, this hegemony, and we want you to stop thinking about other options, other approaches. They want you to stop thinking creatively, to accept their worldview as the only option, stop resisting and stop trying to build alternatives.
At the end of Obama’s speech he said this:
It is easy to forget that when this war began, we were united - bound together by the fresh memory of a horrific attack, and by the determination to defend our homeland and the values we hold dear. I refuse to accept the notion that we cannot summon that unity again.
I remember that time, and I can tell you, I was not united. I was pissed and horrified. I was protesting outside of the ICE offices as hundreds of arab and muslim men were rounded up just for being arab and muslim. I remember my horror at hearing about how the daisy cutter bombs and the food aid packages looked the same, meaning kids running for food were getting blasted to bits. I remember that most of the people in my community were opposed to making war on Afghanistan. I remember the analysis coming from RAWA and other radical women of color, and the ways the US war makers used women’s rights as a cudgel to beat people into line on this war.
I know that I never once believed that making war on Afghanistan had anything to do with defending our homeland and I still don’t. I never thought the Afghanistan war was ‘the good war,” and I don’t believe in “good wars.”
Obama is attempting to rewrite history by pretending there was no opposition to this war then as a way of undermining opposition now. There has always been opposition to this war. To the extent that there was unity among the lawmakers, it came from ugly reactions to fear and a desire for vengeance, and it’s sad to see Obama embrace that.
Were you united with George Bush and the warmakers and imperialists as the war on the people of Afghanistan began? If not, tell me what you can remember from that time, what you did to express your opposition, not just to the war but to the “war on terror” in it’s manifestations at that time. It was 8 years ago. We can surely own our own history.