With the fourth year of U.S. occupation in Iraq approaching, Iraq is no more stable than it was during the reign of Saddam Hussein's regime. Despite many very clear condemnations by the American public, the Bush Administration has done almost nothing to proliferate peace in Iraq.
In response to this, the Madison chapter of the Wisconsin Campus Anti-War Network is sponsoring a march on the Pentagon. This march will take place next Saturday, March 17, two days before the fourth anniversary of the occupation.
One may argue that protest does not really matter, that it does not accomplish anything. This is simply false. Protest does three very important things: It emboldens the general public that may feel isolated in its disapproval of a controversial subject; it demands that Congress and the Bush Administration end the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Protesting does, in fact, threaten these governmental power structures.
Although one protest will not end the war, one protest will build and strengthen a movement to end the war. Finally, it fosters support for troops who are questioning the war and have deep-seated convictions concerning their dissent for the occupation but feel isolated and unable to express said convictions.
Another question that may arise is, ""Why do Congress and President Bush need to be pressured?"" The Bush Administration should be pressured because it has ignored blatant specific urgings to quell the bedlam in Iraq. Congress should also be pressured because they are misallocating funds to stabilize Iraq.
""The entire appropriations for Iraqi defense forces for fiscal year 2006 [$3 billion] is less than the United States currently spends in Iraq every two weeks,"" according to Page 9 of The Iraq Study Group Report.
The Democrats are attempting to give Bush a larger budget for war than he has asked for. Instead of defunding war, Congress and the Democrats are funding it more. In the past few years, tuition has risen over 60 percent at UW-Madison, minimum wage has not increased at all, and we still have a natural war zone of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina that are no closer to functioning status.
With all of these factors, can Americans really support a government that spends billions of dollars every month to continue an illegal occupation of another country?
Although one never has the luxury of revisionist history, the anti-war movement in the lead up to the war in Iraq rightly understood the true motives and lies this war was founded upon. Some may be worried about exiting Iraq because of the chaos that would ensue, but is there not already chaos?
The chaos will exist as long as the American occupation of Iraq continues because it is only proliferated by U.S. bullets and bombs. Iraq cannot by pacified by the point of a sword, but must be won through diplomatic efforts internally and throughout the Middle East as a whole, something Iraqis are fully capable of doing themselves without the ""help"" of the U.S. military.
The anti-war movement needs to connect the issues of the economic war on the American people to the war in Iraq; we need to demand that funds be allocated for education and health care, not for war and occupation.
These demands and struggles are not isolated but should be brought together along with our demand of ""TROOPS OUT NOW.""
There is a growing soldiers' resistance movement in this country. Today, AgustA-n Aguayo is facing court-marshal in Germany because he refused a second deployment to Iraq. This man has seen the horrors of war as a medic, never loaded his weapon while in Iraq and has the courage to stand up against this war. We too can stand with him.
