Every day, the media and the spokespeople for the Bush administration bombard us with warnings and threats, new claims about the supposed lies and deceptions of the Iraqi regime or of potential attacks by al-Qaida, or by other nameless and shadowy terrorist bands. It is a propaganda war that resembles nothing so much as a mass media version of the tale of the boy who cried wolf. And the target of this war is not so much Iraq or the shadowy bands of terrorists — as it is ourselves.
This propaganda war itself hides another war, one that has been going on for a long, long time. I am talking about the social war of the rulers of this social order against all of us, a war that does not kill quickly, but slowly and gradually, draining the life from us to feed their wealth and power.
It is ironic that the reason the United States gave for attacking Iraq is their alleged programs for producing weapons of mass destruction — chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The irony lies not only in the facts that U.S. policies in the 1980s were what permitted Iraq to begin such programs, nor merely in the fact that the United States itself has its share of such weapons.
The real irony is that while the U.S. government and the media feed us their tales of terror, we are daily under attack from the chemical, biological and nuclear wastes of military, industrial and “post-industrial” enterprises that are slowly poisoning us and our environment. The needs of the rulers of this order to constantly expand their wealth and power are the source of these attacks, and it is nothing less than an ongoing social war.
With the war on terror, the rulers of this world expanded their war against us, the exploited of this world. They created new laws and institutions that serve no other purpose than to stifle dissent. They have carried out a psychological war of terror to frighten us into accepting this extension of police powers against us, this criminalization of all revolt.
They have done their best to make us feel helpless in the face of a terrifying world, and willing to accept their “protection” that is really suppression.
The attack against Iraq is simply an intensification of this ongoing war. It is necessary to oppose this intensification. A people who have been suffering horribly for over a decade because of sanctions will have further suffering poured upon them, not just from bombs and guns, but also from the environmental devastation caused by military action.
But it is not enough to oppose this particular war in favor of a “peaceful resolution,” because a “peaceful resolution” offered by those who rule us will simply be a continuation of existence as usual, of the social order that impoverishes our lives and poisons us. Thus, we need to reject both their war and their peace, and instead create an insurrection aimed at the destruction of the state, capital and the poisonous technological apparatus through which they impose their rule.
Anything less will mean an ongoing cycle of war, repression and police action.
Steven Gider is a Eugene resident who works with the Break The Chains Collective.