King's
Message on Vietnam
is Relevant to Iraq
By
David
Krieger
President, Nuclear Age Peace
Foundation
TFF
Associate
February 6, 2004
In a lecture in late 1967 over the Canadian
Broadcasting Company, Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed
the subject of "Conscience and the Vietnam War." His
conscience was clearly telling him that this was a war
that made no sense and must be stopped.
"Somehow this madness must cease," King said. "We must
stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the
suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land
is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed,
whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of
America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes
at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a
citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast
at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the
leaders of my own nation. The great initiative of this
war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours."
King went on to say in his speech, "The war is Vietnam
is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the
American spirit." Within a few months, that malady would
result in King's assassination, and over the years since
King's death that malady would lead America into other
wars in other places.
Today, King's words could be transposed from Vietnam
to Iraq: "I speak as a child of God and a brother to the
suffering poor of Iraq." And it is still the "poor of
America" who are paying the greatest price, the ultimate
price on the battlefield and the loss of hope at home,
while corporations such as Halliburton reap obscene
profits.
Over the decades the "malady within the American
spirit" that King named persists. It is a malady of
power, arrogance and greed, a malady that takes our high
ideals and smashes them in the dust, along with human
life, by bombs dropped from 30,000 feet. With the power
to wage war, our leaders have again thumbed their noses
at the international community and sent our young
soldiers to fight and die in an illegal war, authorized
neither constitutionally nor under international
law.
King concluded his speech by saying, "We must move
past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak
for peace in Vietnam and for justice throughout the
developing world that borders on our doors. If we do not
act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark and
shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess
power without compassion, might without morality, and
strength without sight."
The world warned the US against going to war in Iraq.
The UN Security Council refused to be forced into war or
to authorize it, and the US president called the UN
irrelevant. Millions of people throughout the world took
to the streets, and the US Administration dismissed them
as irrelevant.
Today, the US Administration has had its way, and the
terrible scourge of war has again been unleashed.
Thousands have died, including more than 500 American
soldiers. Tens of thousands have been injured and maimed,
including thousands of American soldiers. Saddam Hussein
has been pulled from power and his statues toppled, but
Iraq is in chaos as a result of the US invasion and
occupation, and experts are predicting that a terrible
civil war lies ahead. No weapons of mass destruction have
been found in Iraq, although the US president assured us
they were there, and American soldiers are being
confronted daily by bullets, bombs and
scorn.
What would King say to us today? Would he be
resilient, or would he be broken by the "shameful
corridors" through which our leaders have dragged us?
Surely, he would be resilient. He knew the pain of
struggle and he knew that war and violence only breed
more war and violence. But how his heart would ache for
the lost promise of those destroyed by this war and for
the poor who bear the burden most. How his heart would
ache if he could see how little we have progressed in
overcoming the maladies of power, arrogance and greed.
Surely, King's message would be constant, and he would be
leading a nonviolent struggle today to find the way to
peace and respect for human dignity in America, Iraq and
throughout the world.
©
TFF & the author 2004
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