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Battle scene
No one in America ever has to apologize for being antiwar.
Anyone who lived through the Vietnam war or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 knows how easily U.S. politicians can be drawn into self-destructive wars with enormous costs in American lives and collateral damage to our nation lasting for decades.
Vietnam, the last war to draft young Americans to die for old men’s political decisions, removed the automatic support for “my country, right or wrong” politicians should never have in a democracy. Future secretary of state John Kerry, speaking for Vietnam Veterans Against the War to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, concluded with the moral question: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
Young Americans’ support for the antiwar movement in the 1960s was a natural extension of their involvement in that decade’s civil rights movement. College and high school students, both Black and white, were the foot soldiers demanding democracy live up to its founding principles of equal rights for every American, regardless of race, gender or national origin.
Human Rights Worldwide
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was among the first to make the direct connection between respecting the rights of all Americans and ending the colonialism of military involvement by the U.S. and European countries to create puppet governments in nonwhite nations. King’s leadership on both issues earned him even more hatred from White supremacists and a Nobel Peace Prize.
Young activists have provided national leadership ever since to protect decades of progress in creating a more inclusive democracy that MAGA Republicans are desperate to roll back. That includes reshaping the debate over U.S. involvement in the current war between Israel and the Palestinians.
There was never any question President Biden would declare unwavering U.S. support for Israel to defend itself after Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 Israelis and captured 200 hostages. U.S. support for Israel has been crucial for its survival ever since its creation in1948 surrounded by hostile Arab nations determined to destroy it.
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But young Americans are way ahead of their elders in also calling out the inhumane treatment of Muslim Palestinians living in Gaza by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government. Gaza is described as the world’s largest open-air prison. More than two million people are densely packed into a 25-mile strip under an Israeli military blockade preventing people and goods from entering or leaving the territory.
That’s a breeding ground for terrorism, not protection from it. That’s why Biden has emphasized providing humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinians trapped in the crossfire between Israel and Hamas. A soaring death toll for civilian Palestinian men, women and children could create more terrorists who feel justified in attacking Israel than it eliminates.
Fanning Hate Crimes
The Biden administration successfully negotiated a week-long humanitarian pause in combat resulting in Hamas releasing 134 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. It continues pressing for more negotiations to free all the hostages and end the war.
Republicans keep trying to blame college campuses in the U.S. for the rise in antisemitism related to the war in Israel. There’s no mystery about the source of the tremendous increase in antisemitic and racist hate crimes in the last seven years.
The first major national gathering of violent Nazis and Klansmen was the Unite the Right street riot in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 celebrating Trump’s election. The last gathering closing out Trump’s presidency, which attracted many of the same participants from those hate groups, was Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.
The reason for the close personal relationship between the last president and Netanyahu is not because Donald Trump has any respect for Jewish people. In fact, he’s condemned Jews who fail to support him, possibly because of his support for Netanyahu.
The friendship is because the personal corruption and authoritarian political tendencies of Trump and Netanyahu are mirror images. They’re both under criminal indictment. Before the attack by Hamas became the total focus of life in Israel, Netanyahu’s attempt to destroy Israel’s court system to stop it from prosecuting him had sparked street protests throughout the nation. Trump is promising to do the same to the U.S. Justice Department.
Religious freedom in the U.S. for anyone other than rightwing Christians also will be threatened by Trump’s Supreme Court and his supporters in Congress. House Republicans passed an ugly resolution of religious intolerance censuring Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the only elected Palestinian American in Congress. She was accused of antisemitism and supporting terrorism for criticizing Netanyahu’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.
Tlaib defended her sincere support for the Palestinians she represents as “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction or hate.” Choking back tears, Tlaib said, “I can’t believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable. We are human beings just like anyone else … The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me.”
That compassionate message on behalf of the victims on both sides is why every healthy nation needs antiwar voices.
