|
January 31, 2003/Shevat 28 5763, Vol. 55, No. 23
Changing with the timesBRIAN BLUM"No to Death and War. Yes to Life!""No War for Oil!" "Blessed are the Peacemakers!" These were some of the signs seen at protest gatherings last week, as tens of thousands of young people converged on Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. It was all deliciously nostalgic. When I was in college at the start of the Reagan years, I was there, too. And yet, I have changed with the times. Living in the Middle East has transformed my basic worldview into something I barely recognize. Back then, it was so simple to be a pseudo-college radical. President Ronald Reagan was pushing for a resumption of the draft. Every young person under a certain age was supposed to register by postcard with the draft board. No way could we politically correct college freshmen allow this. It would be tantamount to aiding and abetting our corrupt government's desire for global domination. Or something like that. I deposited my draft postcard squarely in the circular file. But a number of years later, when I was living in Israel, I did send it in. I found it hypocritical to protest against the draft when my own sons would have to serve in the Israeli army. But the real change is this: After passing my 20-year college reunion earlier this year, the latest anti-war protests now seem to me naive at best, dangerously misguided if taken too far. It's not that I've suddenly become a neo-conservative power hungry warmonger. Far from it. But the world is different. I want to shake the protesters and say to them: 'Don't you get it? We're already at war - 3,000 people murdered in New York and Washington; 200 more in Bali; more than 700 Israelis and many more Palestinians; and that's not counting Kenya, Tunisia, Yemen and Kuwait.' And of course there's the personal element. My cousin, Marla Bennett, didn't die in a car crash. She was murdered in the July 31, 2002, terror attack at Hebrew University. Maybe there are other ways to fight Iraq than through a massive military build-up, but fight we must. But the only thing that's going to make a real difference is to start cutting off the compensation to the families of the suicide bombers. Stop the funding that buys the chemicals that are transferred into the hands of terrorists and rogue states. Put an end to the cash flow that pays for the guns and the bombs that killed Marla and many more in Israel and around the world. If people had told me when I was 20 years old that I'd be supporting potential military action when I was 42, I would have laughed in their faces. But then again, I would never have believed that my children would be drafted - willingly and proudly - into the army. As for our more idealistic youth across the ocean, they should yell and scream. Their role is to constantly remind us that killing is a bad thing. At the same time, if we don't fight with all our might for our survival, then I'm afraid there won't be any idealistic youth left to protest the wars to come. Brian Blum is a Jerusalem-based writer. E-mail him at brianblum@mail.com. |
