A 10-step plan for antiwar activists: what do we do now?

• Author: Gagnon, Bruce K.
• Position: Thinking Politically - Essay

I often hear from people asking me, "What should we do about all this? How can we stop Bush?"

I would first say that we must move beyond blaming Bush. The fact of US empire is bigger than Bush. Hopefully by now, all of us are more clear how the Democrats have been, and are now, involved in enabling the whole US military empire building plan. It is about corporate domination. Bush is just the front man for the big money.

So to me that is step #1.

Step #2 is to openly acknowledge that as a nation, we citizens benefit from this US military and economic empire. By keeping our collective military boot on the necks of the people of the world we get control of a higher percentage of the world's resources. We, 5% of the global population in the US, use 25% of the global resource base. This reality creates serious moral questions that cannot be ignored.

Step #3 is to recognize that we are addicted to war and to violence. The very weaving together of our nation was predicated on violence when we began the extermination of the Native populations and introduced the institution of slavery. A veteran of George Washington's Army, in 1779, said,

I really felt guilty as I applied the torch to huts that were homes of content until we ravagers came spreading desolation everywhere. ... Our mission here is ostensibly to destroy but may it not transpire, that we pillagers are carelessly sowing the seed of Empire. The soldier wrote this as Washington's Army set out to remove the Iroquois civilization from New York state so that the US government could expand its borders westward toward the Mississippi River. The creation of the American empire was underway.

Our history since then has been endless war. Two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Major General Smedley D. Butler, US Marine Corps, told the story in his book War Is a Racket. Butler recalls in his book,

I spent 33 years and 4 months in active military service. ... And during that period I spent most of my time as a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. ... Thus I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. ... I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of...