Hope Out of Quagmire: New Peace Movement Opportunities

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With enough grassroots momentum, we could begin pressuring key elected officials to take a stand in favor of a shift to full UN control. Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has recently spoken out in favor of major US troop withdrawals. John Kerry has spoken more generally about the need for greater UN control. It will take work to get the more conservative Democratic candidates and elected representatives to follow suit (and maybe even some independent minded Republicans) to take as strong a stand as is needed. But given the shifting polls, if we muster enough citizen pressure, at least a few will decide that the political risk is worth it. We'd want to offer even those who supported the war the opportunity to say: "I backed Bush in good faith and I'm glad Saddam Hussein is out. But now the WMD evidence still hasn't surfaced. We've alienating the rest of the world by going in alone. And I don't like having been lied to. Since the Iraqis want us out, it's time to stop putting our brave young soldiers at risk."

Could this campaign actually force Bush to turn Iraq over to UN administration? Assuming that the situation continues to be a morass, Bush will face increasing pressure to cut his losses, declare victory, and leave. Although some in his administration are ideologically opposed to any major UN role whatsoever, with enough pressure and media debate the pragmatist wing might actually view withdrawal as politically preferable to facing an election year with American soldiers continuing to come home from Iraq in body bags.

This raises a difficult question. Is it the job of the peace movement-or the global community--to help Bush clean up the mess that he's created? Shouldn't we simply let him stew in it?

If Bush quickly shifted Iraq to UN administration, it might raise his re-election prospects. But it's extremely unlikely that his administration will readily accede to this demand. Powerful economic, strategic and ideological motivations led them to attack this oil-rich nation to begin with. These motivations make it extremely unlikely that they'll give up the opportunity to try to control Iraq's political and economic future without a fight. And the more they dig in their heels and resist, the more time the peace movement will have to expose the ways in which this war was not about bringing freedom and democracy to a long-oppressed people, but about controlling the future of Iraq's natural resources and projecting American power in the world. Forcing the US genuinely to release control over Iraq would be a major setback for the politics of empire.

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