More Thoughts On Ritter's Art of War

There’s been a movement under way in the last three years to compartmentalize the illegal war and occupation in Iraq as a singular issue. Scott Ritter’s recent essay about the “Art of war” for the antiwar movement suggests the peace movement, while strong in ideals, is scaring away mainstream Americans because of fringe fanatics taking the stage with the antiwar message.
I totally agree with Ritter that chaos and division reigns within the peace movement and new tactics are called for.
I agree new ways other than rallies and feel good marches are called for. I will even go to the point of saying civil disobedience as practiced today by the peace movement is an exercise in futility.
I disagree with Ritter when he calls for the antiwar equivalent of Centcom to focus all the energy on the war while letting peripheral issues take a secondary role.
I see the neo-conservative movement being very organized with a consistency of staying on a simple message. The messages are generally pretty simple, too.
Get rid of most government taxation which gets rid of government handouts, keep homosexuals from having the same rights as heterosexuals, stop abortions and a woman’s right to choose and put only “Christians” into power.
It’s clear the neo-conservative movement has no tolerance for the poor. They have the general attitude the poor could have better lives if they weren’t so lazy and uneducated.
They also have little tolerance for mental illness, disabilities and the hungry. They prefer to leave the handouts to churches of their choice for charitable giveaways which are always tax deductible.
There’s many in the neo-conservative movement who feel the people flooded and chased into the Superdome when Katrina came had it coming because they failed to heed warnings to evacuate.
Of course all this is just codifying for racism. As I heard recently in a tour of the Gulf; “it’s looting when the blacks are taking food from the Wal-Mart but its survival when it’s the whites.”
Scott Ritter makes many valid points in his essay but his argument fails in a very large way. While he expresses a concern the left wing ideologues drive away the moderates and even concerned conservatives, he forgets to discuss the large community of the impoverished, the communities of color and the disaffected communities.
Ritter fails to point out this “antiwar movement” he speaks of is predominately white. He fails to address the movement lacks diversity. I mean true diversity in which black, Hispanic, Latino, Chicano, Asian-Pacific, Native American and mixed race brothers and sisters are included.
Ritter was in the Marines. Has he forgotten the ranks of the enlisted consisted of many of the aforementioned groups?
What Ritter proposes is a “laser-like” approach being nothing less or nothing more than an antiwar movement. He proposes studying the enemy, studying tactics of conflict and when able driving the pro-war crowd into the ground in complete and total victory.
On one hand Ritter derides the peace movement for it’s naiveté in far-reaching goals but then proposes a military type campaign to do what no one to this date has ever done – rid the world of war mongers. While we’re at it maybe we can also wish for a tooth fairy that can end all interpersonal conflict.
I have a great distaste for “military type” campaigns. Whether they are for good or evil they seem to always involve the people in power and the worker bees.
There’s always the “grunts” who will sacrifice themselves and the command group who will always be more than willing to accept credit but seldom responsibility for screw ups.
You see, all we’re really doing is playing toy-soldier again but allegedly this time it’ll be for peace. We need more than that. We need to literally and figuratively take the toy soldier out of the cribs of our children.
We need to look at the proliferation of hand guns and rifles obtained for no other reason than to kill another human.
We need to think about what we allow our children to be exposed to from all forms of media.
Go to a local Target or Kmart video section and see what the predominate video games are. Check out what the kids are playing on their X-Boxes. What are they watching on your DVD’s and VCR’s or cable?
Maybe Scott Ritter doesn’t see this as something to take on at this time but we’d better start doing so or we’ll keep producing generation after generation of new cannon fodder.
At the beginning of this war I told my small group of friends it would end when the American people started to feel it in the pocketbook. This is a capitalistic country that holds money and possessions as dear as it does God.
Well, the people are starting to realize the economic fallout of sending billions to the war and taking it from colleges and highways.
The middle class and rich of America don’t see the black faces outside their walled communities but they see the cost of their kid’s tuition going up in private schools and colleges.
The day of reckoning is coming, however. Soon the United States of America will be a country comprised of more non-white people than white. Soon the majority and most powerful demographic groups will be people of color.
As a capitalist nation, be assured the capitalist will attempt to cater to this group. It’s already happening.
It seems the antiwar movement might want to connect with this group of Americans. It seems if we’re to succeed in our hopes to end war, we should try being in solidarity with communities more likely to not want their children getting killed for senseless reasons.
The strategy of building coalitions with communities already wise to the failures of government might be a place the antiwar movement should go. Instead of the constant lip-service of wanting diversity, maybe actual meetings and negotiations with diverse groups should occur.
Or maybe if the antiwar movement goes to diversity the moderates and concerned conservatives would be alienated? So we should hold up until we get the rest of the white community aboard before we go there?

WM. Terry Leichner, RN
VVAW
USMC combat vet