“No action equals action in our society,” Global Exchange activist Chris Michael, said, encouraging students to stand up against the potential war with Iraq. “By not working to stop the war, you’re actively supporting the efforts of the Bush administration.”
Michael was one of five guest speakers at a teach-in on Nov. 26, at De Anza College that discussed war in Iraq. Students for Justice, a student activism club, organized the program intending to inform students, faculty and the community of questions and concerns of possible war.
“We started planning this event because wherever we turned, we only saw and heard voices pushing our country toward war, a war that 50 percent of Americans have doubts about,” said event co-organizer Nir Shafir.
Popular questions addressed by speakers and audience members dealt with the true motivation behind war, how international war is domestically-manifested and how students can become more active in fighting for their cause.
“It’s obviously a war for natural resources, a war for greed and power,” SFJ member Patrick Ngo said. “Bush senior said, ‘This is a war about oil; Saddam Hussein is going to make our gas prices rise up to $10 per gallon.’ That didn’t convince people, so he changed his views, saying Saddam is evil.”
Ngo sold buttons with inscriptions such as, “No Blood for Oil,” and handed out patches with anti-war messages.
The teach-in opened with guest speaker and former De Anza student Sulaiman Hyatt speaking about the history of U.S. foreign policy with the Middle East and the reasons underlying war.
“It’s not a war on terrorism, it’s a war about imperialism,” said Hyatt. “America represents an imperialist nation. Imperialism is when a country dominates another … for economic gain, and we represent that in every way, shape and form.”
Hyatt also said that the United States interfered unnecessarily with peaceful and effective sanctions put on Iraq by the United Nations for their own economic concerns by implementing bombing attacks on Iraq.
“When you mess with America money-wise, it’s personal. [Then they say,] ‘We’re not just going to take care of you; we’re going to drop bombs on your moms, we’re going to kill your cousins, kick your dog and take your house.’ That’s how America works,” said Hyatt.
The director of the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center and co-founder of the National Network to End the War Against Iraq, Paul George, spoke about what he considered to be the myths and realities behind war.
“This is not a war about weapons of mass destruction. This is not about a brutal dictatorship whose regime needs changing. This is about the deployment, the aggressive extension of U.S. military power into the region that holds the world’s greatest prize: the oil,” said George. “Petro-dollars [are] the greatest source of wealth in the global economy.”
George struck a nerve in the audience when he recalled a quote from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, calling oil “the greatest prize in human history, far too important to be left in the hands of the Arabs.”
“This is the attitude that has driven U.S. policy throughout the years,” said George.
Cynthia Kaufman, a philosophy instructor and SFJ advisor, said, “Many people assume that U.S. foreign policy is motivated by the desire for democracy or out of concern for human rights. It turns out though, the U.S. rarely supports democracy in other countries.”
Kaufman said that all U.S. actions overseas are for national economic, political or military interests, although some seem justified by issues of humanitarianism. For example, when the Soviet Union became a competing imperialist power, the United States justified its attack by calling it a fight against communism.
“An imperialist power tries to maintain conditions in other countries that are favorable to its large-scale domestic businesses,” said Kaufman. “The United States has consistently done its best to overthrow governments that might threaten the ability of global corporations to make profit.”
Global Exchange speaker Ziad Abu-rish discussed the probable domestic consequences of international war.
“There are huge education issues, huge health care issues, huge homelessness issues in the United States, and yet, most of the money that the U.S. government spends is going to the military,” said Abu-rish, adding that the government spends $396 billion per year on military spending.
Abu-rish also said that the violent climate of war can cause violence at home.
“There is a direct correlation between the involvement in international violence and the occurrence of domestic violence,” said Abu-rish.
Abu-rish said that the government generates a war culture of riled-up Americans by instilling aggressive attitudes in people, and by dehumanizing the enemy. “The government wants to make their lives perceived as less valuable to make you okay with killing them.”
Abu-rish said, “When you get society into this aggressive and militaristic mode, people take it out at home on their loved ones. Hate crimes rise against people who are perceived to represent the enemy, because they spend so much time dehumanizing the enemy, that when you see one right in front of you, you can’t help it. You’ve been programmed,” said Abu-rish.
In addition, Abu-rish described the Israeli attack on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as products of America’s “war on terrorism.”
“[It’s] given a green light for numerous repressive regimes to crush revolutionary movements [and] to crush people who disagree with the government,” said Abu-rish. “This was all done under the guise of the war on terrorism. [They’re saying,] ‘Just like the U.S. bombed the hell out of Afghanistan, you can’t tell us not to bomb the hell out of the West Bank and Gaza.’ And the U.S. government couldn’t say anything.”
As an end to the series of speakers, Michael utilized the previous speakers’ messages to motivate students to take action.
“Rights have never been given to us. They’ve always been taken. It’s time for us to implement those strategies to take the power back from our government and the oligarchy we have in place today,” said Michael. “Let’s personally make it our mission in life to make sure they know we are in opposition and we’re going to make their life a living hell as long as they don’t represent us.”
An open forum of discussion and question and answer session followed the conclusion of the last speaker.
A discussion started when a student claimed that mainstream media as well as numerous statements from President Bush led people toward tolerance and understanding of Iraqi people, not demonization, and asked, “If there’s demonization going on in the large-scale, why don’t I see evidence of it?”
Student Elham Mireshghi was quick to address the claim.
“What is harming us the most is that they are making us believe they are unbiased,” said Mireshghi. “We have a very clever media in the U.S. We hear them say that Muslims are good people and at the same time [they’re] showing clips of Muslim training camps, which automatically link minds to terrorism.”
George added, “Examine George Bush’s speech on Oct. 7, before Congress voted. He used the word ‘nuclear’ 20 times in that speech, because he knows that’s the greatest fear factor to people.”
Although the audience filled a less than expected one-third of Conference Room B, attendees agreed the teach-in was informative and thought provoking.
“It brought up some really good points that a lot of people don’t know about or don’t think about,” said student Hoda Bazargan. “It gave me a lot to think about and if more people came to events like this, we would have a more informed society in general and we could make better decisions.”
Darlene Wallach, a community member and activist, said that more events like the teach-in were needed.
“We need to have more of these teach-ins, because too many people are uninformed and brain dead and brainwashed about the issue,” said Wallach.
