It’s time for the peace movement to challenge the president’s foreign policies.
The author protests on August 23 in front of a Raytheon building in
Largo, Fla., where activists believe military drones are being built.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
BY Medea Benjamin, In these Times, Nov 25, 2012
The overwhelming majority of Americans think this war is not worth fighting.
Foreign policy played a minor role in a presidential election that
focused on jobs, jobs, jobs. But like it or not, the United States
is part of a global community in turmoil, and U.S. policies often fuel
that turmoil. The peace movement, which lost steam during Obama’s first
term because so many people were unwilling to criticize the president,
has a challenge today to reactivate itself and increase its
effectiveness by forming coalitions within the progressive movement.
This revitalized peace movement must address five issues.
The first is Afghanistan. Despite Obama’s talk about getting out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014,
the U.S. military still has some 68,000 troops and almost 100,000
private contractors there at a cost of $2 billion a week. And Obama is
talking about a presence of U.S. troops, training missions,
Special Forces operations and bases for another decade. But the
overwhelming majority of Americans think this war is not worth fighting,
a sentiment echoed in a recent New York Times editorial “Time to Pack Up.”
It is indeed that time. The peace movement must push for an
immediate withdrawal and for ruling out any longterm presence in
Afghanistan.
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