Where do we go from here?
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What do we do next? Protests every day seem silly to me. This isn't Vietnam. God willing, our troops won't be bogged down in Iraq for 10 years. Indeed, part of the reason this war is so unjust is that it's an unprovoked attack by the world's greatest power on a third world country.
Once the war is over, the anti-war movement needs to hold Bush's feet to the fire over his promises. He must not be allowed to sell out the Kurds. He must provide money to re-construct Iraq. He must fully commit to building a strong democracy in Iraq. And we must work with the global anti-war movement to show the Europeans and Arabs that not all Americans are insane.
The anti-war movement failed this time, but we're growing in strength. We must and we will stop the next war before it starts. It's no secret that the ultrahawk neo-conservatives in the Bush administration have designs on the entire Middle East: to reshape it with pro-American democracies with the barrel of a gun. Who will be next? Syria? Iran? Saudi Arabia?
Most of all, we must never let our eyes off our number one goal: to get Bush out of the White House. We have to translate our marches and protests into concrete political power. Now is not the time for fractous disputes on the left. We have to unite to defeat him. Democrats, independents, Greens, Libertarians, and moderate Republicans all stand to gain from his defeat. Millions of Americans said no to this war. Bush didn't listen to us. We must show him the price of his arrogance: utter defeat in 2004.
Let's keep our eye on the prize, fighting Bush every step of the way until November 2004.
