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Add an EventWoolsey's Sound Bites for Peace
In reading Chris Coursey's "Opposing War in Five-Minute Increments," which appeared in the Press Democrat on March 28, I gained an increased admiration for Rep. Lynn Woolsey. Her lonely evening vigil in the nearly-deserted House chamber, where she bears witness to the folly and evil of war, may seem quixotic on the surface. On the contrary, her campaign against the Iraq War is exactly the sort that one should wage against an opponent of superior force: small, incremental victories that wear down that opponent over time. It is the strategy of Fabius over Hannibal, Washington over Cornwallis, Giap over Abrams.
Nearly 2200 years ago, Marcus Porcius Cato the Censor invented the sound bite by ending every speech in the Roman Senate, regardless of its subject, with the words "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam" -- "In conclusion, I believe that Carthage must be destroyed." One can imagine that Cato's colleagues thought him quixotic, and some may have laughed at him in secret when he brandished a branch of figs, allegedly of Carthaginian origin, as "proof" of Carthage's resurgence as a Mediterranean power and a mortal threat to Rome. Yet armed with this flimsy evidence, much as Colin Powell played tape recordings to the UN Security Council two years ago, Cato eventually won the day. Carthage was destroyed.
But Cato could not have foreseen the consequences of victory. Whereas many of his contemporaries were only to glad to believe that Rome's pre-emptive war against Carthage was an act of self-defense, history has judged otherwise. Rome paid dearly for its hubris; in the course of the next century its republic was battered down by its own imperialism. Rome was destroyed.
Quo vadis, America?
It is a historical fact that the persistent drumbeat of oratory can drive a great nation down the road to war. Perhaps our generation can answer this question: can the patient vigil of one person of conscience move a great nation down the road to peace?
In conclusion, I believe that Lynn Woolsey must be re-elected.
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Thomas Gangale is an aerospace engineer and a former Air Force officer. He is currently the executive director at OPS-Alaska, a think tank based in Petaluma, California, and an international relations scholar at San Francisco State University. He is the author of the California Plan to reform the presidential nomination process.
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The Afghan War and the Iraq War are two separate issues, and conflating them only demonstrates how effective Karl Rove's propaganda machine has been... even among progressives! Lynn Woolsey has excellent reasons for supporting the former and opposing the latter.
The Afghan War was a direct response to the 11 September attacks. Under international law, the Taliban government bore responsibility for harboring Al Qaeda, a terrorist organization. Terrorism is an international crime. Therefore, by international law, the 11 September events constituted an attack by Afghanistan upon the United States. The US had every right to respond militarily in proportion to the threat. It was a just war.
However, the justification for the Iraq War has been an embarrassing tissue of lies, and should be opposed. There was no connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, and Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. On neither count did Iraq present a credible threat to the US. It is an unjust war.
With regard to proposals for oil and natural gas pipelines in Central Asia, there can be no doubt that such projects have the potential to develop the infrastructure and economy of this desperately impoverished region, and to improve the material lives of its people. However, the repressive and corrupt regimes of the region make problematic the equitable distribution of the economic benefits of these projects to the people. There are difficult problems to solve in Central Asia, but knee-jerk opposition to such projects can only serve to keep Central Asians impoverished and prostrate under the boots of dictators.