We Won't Be Fighting for Freedom in Iraq
by Robert Jensen
Dissident Voice
January 2, 2003
The Defense
Department's "Defend America"
Web site reads, "Dear member of the U.S. military: Thank you
for defending our freedom." Fill in your name and hometown and click to
join the more than 2 million who have sent the message.
The sentiment seems
hard to argue with. No matter what one thinks of the coming war against Iraq,
can't we all send such a message to those who serve?
Not if we want
to be honest about U.S. war plans, for those troops won't be defending our
freedom but defending America's control over the strategically crucial energy
resources of the Middle East. They will be in the service of the empire,
fighting a war for the power and profits of the few, not freedom for the many.
To some, that
statement may seem disrespectful. But resistance to the coming war against Iraq
doesn't signal a lack of respect for those who do the fighting. I never have
served in the military, but my family and friends have, and I have empathy for
people on the front lines who face the risks.
If I truly am to
respect them – as human beings and as fellow citizens – I should be willing to
state clearly my objections to this war.
That requires
distinguishing between the rhetoric and the reality of U.S. foreign and
military policy. Every great power claims noble motives for its wars, but such
claims usually cover an uglier reality, and we are no different.
For most of the
post-World War II era, the United States' use of force against weaker nations
was justified as necessary to stop Soviet plans for world conquest. The Soviet
regime was authoritarian, brutal and interventionist in its own sphere, and it
eventually acquired the capacity to destroy us with nuclear weapons.
But the claim
that the Soviets were a global military threat to our existence also was a political
weapon to frighten Americans into endorsing wars to suppress independent
development in the Third World and accepting a permanent wartime economy.
With the Soviet
Union gone, American planners needed a new justification for the military
machine. International terrorism may prove more durable a rationale, for
organizations such as al-Qaeda are a real threat, and we have a right to expect
our government to take measures to protect us.
But the question
is: Which measures are most effective?
U.S. intelligence
officials have acknowledged that the U.S. attack on Afghanistan did little to
reduce the threat and may have complicated counterterrorism efforts. But the
war was effective at justifying a continuing U.S. military presence in Central
Asia. A war against Iraq, being marketed as part of the war on terrorism, is
even more obviously about U.S. control of the region's oil.
So, we have to
separate what may motivate people in the armed forces from the real role of the
U.S. military.
I have no doubt
that many of the people who serve believe they are fighting for freedom, an
honorable goal we should respect. But they are doing that for a government with
a different objective – to shore up U.S. power and guarantee the profits of an
elite – that we shouldn't support.
There is no
disrespect in urging fellow citizens who have joined the military to ask,
"What am I really fighting for?" and, "Who really benefits from
the risks I take?"
If we civilians
truly care about the troops – as well as the innocent people of Iraq who will
die in a war – we should make it clear to Washington that we won't support wars
for power and instead demand a sane foreign policy that seeks real freedom and
justice, not dominance and control.
My message to
the troops would be: "Thank you for being willing to defend freedom, but
please join the resistance to this unjust war."
That is a
message of support for the troops and a plea for solidarity among ordinary
people who want to build a better world, not serve the empire.
It is a reminder
that, as John McCutcheon put it so eloquently in song: "The ones who call
the shots won't be among the dead and lame/And on each end of the rifle we're
the same."
Robert Jensen is an associate professor of journalism at the University
of Texas at Austin, a member of the Nowar Collective, and author of the book
Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream and
the pamphlet “Citizens of the Empire.” He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.