I got email from a former housemate living in the UK, offering some suggested reading. It was an editorial carried by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation pointing out that most of the current wave of US imperialism was meditated well before September 11th. It’s an excellent article.

In the email, my friend reminded all of the recipients that it’s important to keep in mind America’s real motivations, no matter how often it’s suggested America wants what’s best for Iraq. I agree but disagree. I spammed out this email:

Subject: Re: America’s motives
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 12:40:24 -0500 (EST)

Reply Reply All Forward Delete > Message List

Alanna and folk,

It’s a good article, read it. As a Canadian living in the big US and
A, I think there’s a couple extra points worth making.

Alanna said

> It is important to keep in mind why this is really happening, no
> matter how many of us want to believe America wants to do what is
> best for the Iraqi people.

Remember one thing: George Bush, the Bush Administration and the
select few neo-conservative “think tanks” who have their ear are not
America. America is a lot of things and a lot of people. But the
wing-nuts who are responsible for US foreign policy and who guide it
with the goal of world domination, make up only a tiny thread in the
great American quilt.

There are plenty of people here who do support their war. Probably,
yes, the numeric majority. A lot of them yelled their reasons at me
from their cars as I protested on the streets of Sacramento
yesterday. None of them wanted global hegemony. They wanted to
secure peace and safety, and they felt some risk was worth it.

I disagree with them. And I’m not alone here. San Francisco was
essentially clogged with protest actions yesterday. I haven’t heard
the numbers from New York but it was likely phenomenal, following on
the greatest wave of protest there since Vietnam. Likewise LA.
Likewise Boston. Likewise, for all I know, Sheboygan. In Sacramento
(the californian capital, believe it or not) the response to our
little vigil was phenomenal. Resigned and dissapointed? Nope. Try
widespread anger and cheerful protest. There is a commitment among a
lot of soccer moms, ex-vets, school girls, homeless people, religious
groups, guys in suits, doctors, bakers and candlestick makers to
resist the local dictatorship cheerfully and unyeildingly. I am
frankly suprised at how wide and how deep the resistance here is.
This is also America.

Don’t be fooled by the polls and the media. The pollsters and the
media mostly belong to the same people who designed the war. If you
could hear the steady cacophny of car horns our “honk for peace”
signs raised hour after hour you wouldn’t feel threatened by
Americans. Feel threatened by Bush, by all means. Feel even more
threatened by the hardened schemers who surround him and are now
having their moment, as described in this article. But when you feel
that way, keep in mind you do it together with a whole great heap of
America.

Hugh