USA: PEACE MOVEMENT
Published in B&E- 28 June 2007
Activism in tears!
No respite for peaceniks
Julia Ward Howe, the well-known American writer of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, had written more than a century ago, “From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says – Disarm, disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.” It is this inner voice, which led Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a slain US solider, Casey Sheehan (the 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in Baghdad in 2004), to take up cudgels on behalf of peaceniks. But on this Memorial Day, Cindy could no longer bear the ignominy and innuendoes heaped on her by the warmongers. Her disillusionment with the politicians reached such a pass that she finally decided to give up her struggle against the unjust war in Iraq. “Good bye America... you are not the country that I love and I finally realised no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it. It’s up to you now,” said Cindy while tendering her resignation from the anti-war movement.Cindy became the darling of the American left when she began protesting against Bush. But as soon as she started directing her wrath against the Democrats for their hypocrisy on troop withdrawal, she was soon branded as a ‘stooge of the right’. Reacting against decrepit political system, Stephen Soldz, Director, Center for Research, Evaluation and Program Development at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, told B&E “Given the corruptness of our system, it is not surprising that Cindy needs a break from public engagement. But she is not the anti-war movement. Only ending the war will reduce the fury of so many Americans at the endless waste and destruction.” The movement will continue without her, as others step in to play leadership roles,” added Chuck Collins, Senior Scholar, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, while talking to B&E. Beyond doubt, Cindy was used and misused by the politicians of all hues. That peace is no-partisan is hardly understood by those who intend to profit from war. It is these very people who justify war atrocities either as ‘military necessity” or as “collateral damage”. Only when the world begins to prioritize human lives over the wealth creation needs that we will be called civilized.
Julia Ward Howe, the well-known American writer of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, had written more than a century ago, “From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says – Disarm, disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.” It is this inner voice, which led Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a slain US solider, Casey Sheehan (the 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in Baghdad in 2004), to take up cudgels on behalf of peaceniks. But on this Memorial Day, Cindy could no longer bear the ignominy and innuendoes heaped on her by the warmongers. Her disillusionment with the politicians reached such a pass that she finally decided to give up her struggle against the unjust war in Iraq. “Good bye America... you are not the country that I love and I finally realised no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it. It’s up to you now,” said Cindy while tendering her resignation from the anti-war movement.Cindy became the darling of the American left when she began protesting against Bush. But as soon as she started directing her wrath against the Democrats for their hypocrisy on troop withdrawal, she was soon branded as a ‘stooge of the right’. Reacting against decrepit political system, Stephen Soldz, Director, Center for Research, Evaluation and Program Development at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, told B&E “Given the corruptness of our system, it is not surprising that Cindy needs a break from public engagement. But she is not the anti-war movement. Only ending the war will reduce the fury of so many Americans at the endless waste and destruction.” The movement will continue without her, as others step in to play leadership roles,” added Chuck Collins, Senior Scholar, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, while talking to B&E. Beyond doubt, Cindy was used and misused by the politicians of all hues. That peace is no-partisan is hardly understood by those who intend to profit from war. It is these very people who justify war atrocities either as ‘military necessity” or as “collateral damage”. Only when the world begins to prioritize human lives over the wealth creation needs that we will be called civilized.
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