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AWARE meets every Sunday 5-7pm at the Urbana/Champaign Independent Media Center, 218 W. Main St., Suite 110, Urbana, Illinois. All are welcome!
The following AWARE commentary, by David Green, is a revised version of an earlier commentary that was originally rejected by WILL-AM 580 in early May, 2004. That commentary was rejected by WILL because even though AWARE's first audio commentary was accepted and broadcast in March 2004, WILL subsequently implemented an editorial policy for such listener-submitted audio commentary that precluded discussion of national or international issues. Subsequently, AWARE pressed AM-580 on what we saw as arbitrary restrictions on this form of public comment at WILL. And finally, in September 2004, WILL responded by initiating a new program of regular, weekly listener-submitted audio commentary. The new program is called The Public Square and David's revised commentary below was the first one aired under this program.
Submitted to WILL-AM 580 on behalf of AWARE by local resident David Green.
According to the Chicago Tribune of September 9th, 39 of the more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq have been from Illinois. According to the website costofwar.com, Illinois taxpayers have paid over $7 billion of the nearly $130 billion that has been spent on this war. As local men and women continue to be enlisted in our government's so-called "war on terrorism," it is vital to place the events of 9/11 and subsequent invasions in the historical context of American global ambitions. But when it comes to Vietnam, the debate in the media-including NPR-seems to be either about Kerry and Bush's military records, or about whether Vietnam is relevant at all in the post 9/11 world.
There are individual heroes, criminals, cowards, evaders, and conscientious resisters on both sides in any war. But both Vietnam and 9/11, as well as our current predicament in Iraq, must be understood in the context of the violent and self-aggrandizing history of U.S. foreign policy. This history broadly includes U.S. relations with Latin America, Asia and Africa. But at the very least we must consider U.S. policies in the Middle East since World War II that have treated the people of this region as pawns in the service of American corporate interests. These interests translate into control over the region's oil resources. Uncensored and unflattering historical perspectives, including our support for repressive regimes in Israel and Saudi Arabia, are vital for an understanding of the continuities of U.S. foreign policy, and the aggressive actions by leaders of both major political parties that until 9/11 had not provoked an action on our mainland.
Apart from controversy regarding Kerry's war record and Bush's lack of one, both candidates share a dangerous historical myopia. Bush's recent actions have repeated the deceptions and illegality of the Vietnam War in Iraq. Meanwhile Kerry writes "it's time to recognize (Vietnam) as an exception, not a ruling example, of the U.S. military engagements of the twentieth century." But I would suggest that Vietnam must be understood as an egregious example of the rule that the U.S. is willing to use force against any country whose popular aspirations threaten the interests and profits of U.S.-centered global corporate capitalism, regardless of the human cost. Since World War II, this rule has been applied with devastating results in Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, Indonesia, Chile, Angola, Nicaragua, and elsewhere, ad nauseum.
In order to avoid another 9/11, we must critically examine the continuities of our history, and then fundamentally change coercive and destructive U.S. foreign policies. It is the view of the Anti-war Anti-racism Effort that continued denial of our violently interventionist past and present only makes future 9/11's more likely. Our imperial actions do have consequences.