Demilitarizing entire American economy our last hope – activist
Americans need to stop the military control of the US democracy, believes professor of law at Northwestern University, Bernardine Dohrn, the former leader of the radical American anti-Vietnam War organization Weather Underground.
“We have grown up in an era of American exceptionalism. The last 70 years, where the US somehow has not bound by the other laws of history, but of course we are bound by these laws.”Dohrn says that while the hundreds of American military bases abroad constitute a great danger to the world, the militarization at home after 9/11 is also quite significant.She assures that as veterans of the recent American wars return home, the anti-war movement grows only stronger.“There is no question that the American people oppose the Iraq war, continue to oppose it and think that we should leave. They oppose the escalation in Afghanistan… and they already oppose the Libyan war.”It is true that like any other empire, the American hegemony probably declines but its military power remains very strong and that is a “tremendous danger, because you can turn everything into a military opportunity instead of social and human opportunity.”Wars and the occupation of three countries by the US have certainly brought suffering to the rest of the world, believes the peace activist. She says that is despite the fact such wars cannot be won whatsoever and everybody knows that. Bernardine Dohrn says people voted for Barack Obama as a peace president – who only brought more military operations abroad, so let’s have an end to this. “The death of Bin Laden should be a moment when we say: yes, America now withdraw from occupation.”The decline of the American economy is becoming particularly apparent with the tremendous acceleration of the income gap in the US over the last decade, making an uprising similar to the situation in the Middle East quite possible in the United States.“Most of us are getting poorer. A tiny handful, less than one per cent of the population is getting extravagantly wealthy,” Dohrn points out.“Demilitarizing the entire American economy is our last hope,” Bernardine Dohrn concludes, agreeing that, “In the war on terror the US is also a terrorist.”
