No US War:
Military Retaliation Is Not The Answer
Wednesday, September 26, 12-1 pm

On September 26, 2001, over 300 people joined the PRC on the UI quad for a rally in protest of threatened U.S. military response to the recent terrorist attacks. People from campus and the community joined together for a solemn rally featuring local activists and veterans of the anti-Vietnam War movement. We spoke out against United States military retaliation, curtailment of civil liberties and harrasment and scapegoating of Muslim, Arab and Arab American people.

Speech by Laura Haber, former leader of the Committee Against the War in the Gulf

These are dangerous times. How do we conquer our fear and achieve true safety?

Since the awful events of Sept 11 we have been overwhelmed by fear and dread. We have watched endless repeated images of the massive towers consumed in fire and collapsing with people helplessly trapped inside, people jumping to their deaths from 100's of feet up, people running in terror from the spreading devastation, families mourning the loss of loved
ones. We feel as if life has changed forever - our previous sense of safety and ease has disappeared and we are left searching for answers, searching for stability, searching for a sense of security.

We ask ourselves in disbelief how this could have happened. Why would anyone hate us so much? Are we not a people who uphold freedom and justice? We ask
these questions because we have been sheltered from the realities of US foreign policy. We see ourselves as a beacon to the world of democracy,
good-hearted people who help each other in times of need and come together in times of crisis. So how could millions of people see us otherwise? We do
not realize that our ideals are contradicted by the actions that our government takes in our name.

How can we reconcile our ideals with the fact that the US is the biggest arms dealer in the world? How can we reconcile our ideals with the guns,
money, and training that the US has provided to dictators all over the world? The US assisted Indonesia in its bloody occupation of East Timor. The
CIA collected names of dissidents within Indonesia and supplied them to the Indonesian military, crossing off the names as a million people were killed.
How can we reconcile our ideals with the fact that our tax money supports the School of the Americas, which trains foreign soldiers in torture techniques to be used on their citizens? How can we reconcile our ideals with the reality that over a million people have died in Iraq as a result of US sanctions. Half a million children have died at a rate of 5,000/month -
roughly the scale of a Sept 11 disaster every month. Surely Iraqi women watching their children die for lack of clean drinking water or medicine
have the same emotions as we do. When our actions stray so far from our ideals and cause such suffering, is it any wonder that some people would
hate the US so much that they would lash out in blind rage? What distinguishes us from the terrorists?

None of this is meant to excuse the horrific events of Sept 11. Brutally violent acts that target civilians and fail to distinguish between
combatants, policy makers and innocent bystanders can never be justified. But if we ask the question "how could this happen?" we must be prepared for painful answers. And we must realize that we are no longer exempt from the anger and violence that we have helped to foster in the rest of the world.

These are dangerous times. They've already been dangerous for Iraqis, for Columbians, for East Timorese, for Palestinians, for much of the rest of the
world. But this event has forced us to participate in the fear and insecurity that much of the world already lives with. It has burst the protective bubble that had allowed us to be blissfully oblivious of the world beyond our borders.

These are dangerous times not just because we are no longer cocooned in our ignorance, not just because we feel under attack, but because we are on the
brink of a huge catastrophe. The understandable fear, dread, shock, anger and horror engendered by the Sept 11 events are being harnessed and
mobilized to support a course of terror and bloodshed that can only lead to further violence leading to further fear and anger in an endless cycle of retaliation.

We feel helpless and exposed. We want to reassert normalcy, a sense of justice and order. We want to do something. But what are we doing? What will
ensure our safety?

In the name of justice and safety and security Bush has declared a war on terrorism. It is a war with unclear goals and indefinite means, against an
unspecified enemy - potentially a permanent war with ever-shifting battlegrounds. Any state or group could be designated as enemy. We risk a global conflagration that we cannot predict or control.

Bush has said that "we will not make distinctions between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." This means that we will not
distinguish between terrorists who commit violent acts, governments of nations in which they reside, and civilians who are guilty of living in
those nations. We plan to attack indiscriminately, without regard to International Law and human rights, without realizing that every innocent person killed leads to more embittered enemies.

Not only is this new war a war against terrorists abroad, current and yet to be discovered, it is a war against the terrorists within, with any
oppositional group potentially defined as terrorist. Peaceful groups in the US, such as Reclaim the Streets and Carnival Against Capital have been
designated as terrorist. In this climate of fear and flag waving, peaceful dissent has been declared a threat to national security. Our fear and
hatred, rather than being soothed, are being nurtured and fanned in order to make us more tolerant of bloody conflict, less tolerant of dissent and more accepting of limitations on our civil liberties.

With such vague goals, such dangerous forces unleashed, with potential terrorists lurking everywhere and new ones being created out of the blood
and bones and ruins of our bombs, how will we know when we have won? When will we finally be safe?

- if we indefinitely detain people of Middle Eastern descent will we besafe?
- if we wiretap citizens, read their e-mail, spy on groups will we be safe?
- if we militarize all public places will we be safe?
- if we build a fortress around our country will we be safe?
- if we bomb Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia or any of the 60
other countries that might be harboring terrorists will we be safe?

What will make us safe?

To be safe, we cannot squash democracy in the name of protecting it. This is a test of how strong we are as a nation - but it is not a test that is
passed by flag waving and cries for unity. It is a test of whether we can learn from our mistakes. Can we tolerate the critical thinking and dissent
that we so need to pull us out of this mess? Can we sustain our liberties in the midst of such fear?

To be safe, we must align our foreign policy with our ideals and stop arming, funding and training repressive regimes, groups and individuals all
over the world. If they don't uphold human rights, if we wouldn't want to live with them, we shouldn't be sponsoring them.

If we want to stop fighting terrorists we need to stop training and funding them. The CIA trained Osama Bin Laden. The US sent $43 million to the
Taliban rulers of Afghanistan as recently as last May as part of the war on drugs, despite the Taliban's brutal reign of terror over its populace.
Saddam Hussein was our friend before he became a Hitler. We sent him money and looked the other way when he was killing Kurds and his citizens. If we
want to discipline any state who "sponsors, shelters or supplies terrorists" we need to start with our own.

To be safe we must be world citizens rather than reckless cowboys. We must adhere to International Law and uphold the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

To be safe we must recognize that we exist in a web of mutuality. We have contributed to the impoverishment and suffering of other countries and then
hope to shield ourselves with our wealth and our guns. But our only shields are justice and compassion.

To be safe we must stop talking about freedom, justice and democracy as if they are empty ideals and start enacting them. We must conquer our fear with collective action for peace.