“War, what is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.”
Edwin Starr, “War”

It is the refrain from a famous anti-Vietnam war song. Maybe we should dust off the old record and play it once again.

It is understandable why 85 per cent of Americans support George Bush’s call for a “war against terrorism.” Their country has been attacked, thousands of their people killed. There is no more justifiable reason for war than self-defence. The problem is that this enemy was born and bred in war. Only peaceful solutions can defeat it.

In Canada, the United States and elsewhere around the world, we have an important choice that will profoundly affect the course of human history. We can support the U.S. government in whatever they decide to do. We can join what will no doubt be a senseless war that will increase civilian casualties on a massive scale, strengthen Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East and foment even more hatred and racism around the world. Or we can stand with our neighbours in their grief, but stand up to them in their anger.

Like thousands of other Canadians, I attended a vigil on Sunday. This one was in downtown Toronto, in front of the peace garden in Nathan Phillip Square. The message was the same from every speaker. Sorrow at the terrible loss, and a determination to stand up against the calls for vengeance and the racism already rearing its ugly head.

Immediately following the vigil, people went to a meeting in city hall to talk about the danger of racism. Since Tuesday, mosques have been vandalized. Moslem schools in Montreal and Calgary have been shut down in face of threats. A Hindu temple in Hamilton was burned down on Saturday, in what police suspect was a racist attack. Moslem organizations are receiving death threats.

Almost 300 people packed the gallery in the City Council Chamber for the meeting. Here, the reality of the situation began to strike home.

“I am Yugoslavian,” said one young man. “The world didn’t change for me on Tuesday. I have lived with the death of loved ones through war and terror most of my life. If it took the death of North Americans to make you realize the reality of death around the world, that really scares me.”

Another Yugoslavian warned about how quickly ordinary people can turn to hatred in a war environment. A young man of Palestinian descent came to the mike and said, “I was hanging out with some Arab friends this afternoon and I asked them to come but they were too afraid to come.” And this was a meeting organized to combat racism.

The organizers had wanted a more reflective meeting, but the majority attending felt an urgent need for action. They established a Coalition Against War and Racism and formed committees to begin organizing. Many of the people attending this meeting have been involved in the anti-globalization movement.

As in Canada, the anti-globalization movement in the U.S. could form the basis of a broad anti-war movement. Internal opposition to the war in Vietnam took years to develop. In the U.S., internal opposition to the coming war, while it might not be yet reflected in the mainstream media, is already visible.

For such a movement to succeed, it has to identify with the terrible feelings of loss and vulnerability that Americans are experiencing. Whether or not there have been worse atrocities than the attack on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon is irrelevant. This was a terrible crime that has caused devastation for tens of thousands of people. Those still alive who planned and carried out this horrific mass murder should serve the time they deserve.

Americans, by and large, don’t know what their country has been doing around the world. They don’t understand the hatred against them that would provoke such a horrendous attack. A caller from Los Angeles to CBC radio’s Cross Country Check-Up said, “the difference between them and us is that we don’t kill innocent civilians.” No doubt he really believes this – evidence to the contrary is almost never presented in the U.S. media.

In Counter Punch, Middle Eastern expert Edward Said writes:

“You’d think that America was a sleeping giant rather than a superpower almost constantly at war or in some sort of conflict, over the Islamic domains. Inevitably, then, collective passions are being funneled into a drive for war that uncannily resembles Captain Ahab in pursuit of Moby Dick, rather than what is going on, an imperial power injured at home for the first time.”

An injury at home is a grave violation of a personal sense of safety. Turning grief, fear and anger into a positive force for change in the world will take a lot of courage and determination. A generation ago, young people stopped the hand of their government in a war. Today the task is even greater.

Judy Rebick

Judy Rebick

Judy Rebick is one of Canada’s best-known feminists. She was the founding publisher of rabble.ca , wrote our advice column auntie.com and was co-host of one of our first podcasts called Reel Women....