War On

So it has begun. "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is the call name.

"The pundits are already predicting that the antiwar movement will wane as people in the United States and United Kingdom 'unite behind the troops,'" says Ali Abunimah. "This is an understandable sentiment. But we should resist the pressure to make a virtue of blind conformity. If the war was wrong before it started, the dropping of bombs does not suddenly make it right. It is still wrong. We must oppose it. I support the troops. I support them not being sent to be killed in a distant country that presents absolutely no threat, and to kill innocent people and destroy and occupy their country. I support them being brought home at once. Not one American or British soldier should die in this war. We should also remember that America's armed forces are disproportionately composed of the economically and socially disenfranchised, people who, denied a slice of the 'American dream' at home by failing schools, racism, the prison industry, and growing economic inequality, must seek to escape by joining the military. Empires have always sent their poorest, least educated and most marginalized to fight in the distant provinces."

"The Administration hopes that a quick victory will not only silence critics and confer an ex post facto legitimacy on the war but also give momentum to its larger political agenda," the editors of The Nation write. "But even if there are minimal casualties and devastation, that will not justify overturning international norms developed over sixty years. Nor can it legitimize a worldview that will make Americans the target of international outrage and make the world less secure."