12/02/09
Tonight the president and the pentagon ordered 30000 more people to kill or die in Afghanistan. While a silent surge of US and NATO forces has been underway in Afghanistan since Obama’s inauguration, tonight marks a public commitment to the legacy of militarism and exploitation that has characterized the American political regime since its bloody inception. In this sense, the decision to send more troops is less about any particularity of the situation in Afghanistan than it is about the perpetuation of wars for profit that benefit a powerful few. We are already familiar with what the outcome of this decision will be—thousands of people suffering and dying under a false promise of liberation.
This occupation of Afghanistan will not be stopped or even disrupted with more lobbying, opinion polling, or passive sign-holding. While these rituals may make us feel as though our objections to the war are being registered, tonight it is clear that there is no practical relationship between these activities and actually challenging the war. As the possibility for peace through policy has inevitably failed, it is now up to US residents to stop the surge through the direct disruption of business on a massive scale. We must show that we will not tolerate the murder of Afghans or the sacrifice of US military personnel under the guise of peace-keeping, and that we will not begrudgingly accept a policy of bloodshed because it flies under a blue banner. It is time to demonstrate that if the state refuses to stop the killing, then we will actively refuse to obey the state in our opposition. No surge, no war.
