"Democracy is a beautiful thing, and that people are allowed to express their opinion," President Bush uttered, in one of his non-sentences, after the massive anti-war demonstrations on Feb. 15 and 16. Even The New York Times, notorious for its routine denigration of protest, had to acknowledge on Feb. 17 that "there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion."
When 10 million protesters take to the streets worldwide, a million in the U.S. alone, many would say that the people have spoken. One would think that a million people standing up for anything would at least give the leaders of U.S. pause. But when asked if the protests would influence his policy on Iraq, President Bush said, "It's like deciding, 'Well, I'm going to decide policy based upon a focus group.'"
In fact, the events of Feb. 15 revealed to many people the profound lack of democracy in this country. In New York, many people came to their first protest ever, only to be prevented by police from even reaching the main rally. As half a million packed First Avenue for a mile between 49th and 72nd Streets, tens of thousands more were trapped behind police barricades on Second, Third, and Lexington Avenues. On Second and Third Avenues, police attacked demonstrators with pepper spray and clubs, charged horses into tightly packed crowds, and arrested dozens of people who were standing on the sidewalk or simply trying to leave the demonstration.
In the days since the demonstration, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have increasingly tried to present war on Iraq as a humanitarian mission. But after seeing the NYPD stomping on our First Amendment rights in New York City, it is hard to imagine the U.S. military would do any better in Baghdad. How can we believe that the U.S. government would be interested in, or even capable of, bringing democracy to Iraq when we see how it behaves at home? When Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against the Vietnam War, he described it as "taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem."
The U.S. government has no interest in freedom or democracy for people in Iraq or America. In the past week, U.S. officials revealed finalized plans to install General Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central Command, as the military ruler of a "post-Saddam" Iraq. At the same time, John Ashcroft is drafting yet another piece of police-state legislation. A non-profit watchdog organization called the Center for Public Integrity recently obtained a leaked copy of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003. The legislation would, among other things, create a "Terrorist Identification Database" by taking DNA samples from persons labeled "suspected terrorists."
It is not a coincidence that the government that rains cruise missiles on Baghdad also sends the NYPD to break up peaceful protests. The government that may have backed up an attempted coup in Venezuela is the same government that detained Arab and Muslim men without charge after Sept. 11. The government that, according to the organization Global Exchange, funds death squads to attack trade unionists in Colombia is the same government that uses the Taft-Hartley Act to attack trade unionists on the West Coast docks. This is true not just because the U.S. government is brutal and corrupt to the core, although it is. Our leaders wage war on us at home in order to wage war abroad.
Every war the U.S. has waged has been accompanied by a wave of domestic repression by the government, and every war has been accompanied by an anti-war movement that challenges the agenda of the government. It is when our government is doing its most barbaric deeds abroad that media must be censored and dissent must be crushed. Conversely, massive dissent at home can weaken the U.S.'s hand abroad. During Vietnam, the revolt against the war became so widespread that the government had to choose between losing control abroad and losing control at home. Nixon made the choice and pulled out of Vietnam.
Today, the people who run the U.S. are waging war on us in another way, too. Not only are they cracking down on dissent, but they are stealing billions of dollars from us to pay for their war. They are stealing from our schools, our unions, our state and city budgets, from Medicare and Medicaid, from Social Security, from welfare programs--all while managing to provide massive tax cuts for the rich. When one looks at the destruction our government is prepared to wreak at home, it is hard to believe that the enemy is in Baghdad. The greatest threat to our security is in Washington, D.C.
Laura Durkay is a Columbia College junior majoring in history.