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Optimism From Off The Hill
A Brown alum on community nonresponse
. . . by Anna Galland

When I can’t fall asleep these days, my anxieties are surreal and apocalyptic. In his last speech, President Bush signaled the inevitable onset of a preemptive war that is unsanctioned by the U.N.; a war that is actively opposed by millions of people across the world; a war that is denounced by the governments of France, Germany, China, and Russia, among others. There has been an unprecedented global outcry against this war, and we’re going ahead anyway. Our “coalition of the willing” is said to include Britain, Afghanistan, Australia, and Bulgaria. Those are the ones who are willing to go public, anyway.

Even my war hawk friends are freaked out by this. “How did we mangle our diplomacy so thoroughly?” they ask. How could we be so inept at maintaining the U.S.’s global public image, in a culture that has professionalized “spin?” How is it that we are in the process of converting a megalomaniacal, ambitious tin-pot dictator into a global anti-imperialist hero?

Difficult Questions
The peace activist community—myself included—is worried in those and other ways. What sane foreign policy, we wonder, could countenance a unilateral attack when there are clear, though imperfect, alternatives? How can our government be so cynical as to apply a veneer of liberal humanitarian rationales to a war which has never been motivated by such values? Why did we decide that taking out Saddam was important enough to justify undermining the fragile international norms and precedents that have been so carefully erected, bit by bit, over the past half-century? And most of all, most concretely, most horrifyingly, how can we be so cavalier about the potential for massive civilian casualties in Iraq? Those are real cities underneath our “shock and awe”-inducing rain of bombs. Those are real people.

President Bush is the lightning rod for much of this war-related anxiety and emotion. I have a visceral, morbid fear that our President’s rhetoric, his reckless use of religious imagery, his smug American exceptionalism, his credible threat that we’ll use tactical nukes in response to conventional weapons, together have already done irreversible damage. I’m scared that we won’t be able to step back from whatever brink it is that we’re standing on; that regardless of how the war goes, we are now stuck with the heightened rage of religious extremists; stuck with the damage done to the U.N.’s credibility; stuck with a world that despises America.

People will talk
But even in the midst of the swirling currents of anxiety and fear about this war, there are important points of light. We’ve accomplished a huge amount in the past months in strengthening a vibrant, diverse grass-roots peace community. I’ve been amazed at the progress we’ve made in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. Over 1,200 people marched through downtown Providence this past Sunday, calling on our government to “Bring our troops home safely, now!” Many hundreds more gathered on Sunday night on the State House lawn, and in many other places around Southeastern New England, with candlelight and quiet singing.

This is where the hope kicks in. In gatherings like these, we’re part of an enormous and historic global movement. We are showing that the Bush administration’s policy of preemptive war will not go unopposed by thoughtful citizens around the world. We’re raising moral questions about war in general, moving our planet a little further away from knee-jerk militarism, reminding people of the humanity and agency of Iraqi (and all) civilians, promoting international consciousness, and putting a few road-bumps in the road to military and economic empire. And maybe most importantly, we’re undermining the validity of war as a tool of foreign policy. As Dr. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, recently said, “Never before in the history of the world has there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue and conversation about the very legitimacy of war.”

So that’s where the peaceniks are taking heart. Even in the midst of anguish, even as we mourn and fear and continue speaking out against this war, take heart! We’re part of a transformation that is even bigger than Bush’s war plans.

Anna Galland ‘01.5 is the program coordinator of the southeastern New England office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker-based peace and social justice organization with an office in Providence. For more information, contact 521-3584, or see www.afsc.org/sene.htm.

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