Editor,
Why There Is No Massive Anti-War Movement” By Tom Engelhardt (BeyondChron, February 4, 2015):
An incise piece by Tom Engelhardt.
I had the honor of meeting I.F. Stone.
His voice, I.F. Stone’s Weekly, was instrumental in drawing our nation’s attention to the tragedy of the Viet Nam War as it was being waged.
I.F. Stone’s journalism, which pricked our nation’s conscience during the Viet Nam War, stands along with the horrific photos of the babies, women, and men killed in the My Lai Massacre, the young Vietnamese girl Phan Thi Kim Phuc burned by napalm, the raining of bombs by B-52’s daily over Hanoi and Haiphong, the spraying of the herbicide and defoliant Agent Orange over Viet Nam’s lush landscapes, and the resulting deformities, monstrosities, and cancers from Agent Orange borne by Vietnamese since that time.
Our nation’s invasion against Iraq and the resulting decimation of a sovereign nation and its people pricks our individual and collective consciences, then and now. The declaration, “Mission Accomplished,” in the first few days of the “Shock and Awe” campaign of 24-hour bombings of Bagdad, will be more than a footnote in the history books that our children and grandchildren will read.
I.F. Stone’s Weekly reminds us still of both the tragedy of war and the unspeakable horrors and atrocities of it.
Guest Editorial: Who Will Speak on Behalf of the 3-Year Old Iraqi Boy?
By Anh Lê‚
BeyondChron
April 2‚ 2008
In the New York Times (“Sadr City On the Edge,” 3/29/2008), there is a photo of a 3-year old Iraqi boy whose body lies on the floor at the Sadr City hospital morgue. The caption states that the boy was killed in the “exhanges of fire between American aircraft and Mahdi Army fighters.”
Who will speak on behalf of this Iraqi boy? We are reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King’s words, when he spoke out against the Vietnam War and called for its end: “(After reading an article entitled), ‘Children of Vietnam,’never again will I be silent on an issue that is destroying the soul of our nation and destroying thousands and thousands of little children in Vietnam.”
As Dr. King agonized over the tragedy of the Vietnam War, he stated that he “saw an orderly buildup of evil, an accumulation of inhumanities, each of which alone was to make men hide in shame. What was woeful, but true, was that my country was only talking peace but was bent on military victory. Inside the glove of peace was the clenched fist of war.”
“I now stood naked with shame and guilt, as indeed every German should have been when his government was using its military power to overwhelm other nations. Whether right or wrong, I had for too long allowed myself to be a silent onlooker . . . The time had come – -indeed it was past due – – when I had to disavow and dissociate myself from those who in the name of peace burn, maim, and kill.”
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, when asked by a reporter about her vote to authorize the U.S.’s invasion against Iraq in 2003, said that it was a “sincere vote” she cast. Senator Barack Obama has been strongly calling for the end to the war.
Since the U.S.’ invasion, U.S. Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen – – Democrats and Republicans alike – – have continued to vote to fund the war in Iraq, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars and exceeding a trillion dollars. The votes to fund the war include those cast by Democrats who say they oppose the war but whose votes perpetuate the killing and bloodshed.
Senator Robert Byrd (D., West Virginia), the elder statesman in the U.S. Senate, has stood on the Senate floor to urge our nation to stop the killing in Iraq. His call continues to be ignored.
Who will speak on behalf of the 3-year old Iraqi boy?
Let us reclaim our belief in the sanctity of human life.
Let us together demand the end to the war and bloodshed in Iraq now!
