The word is obviously a way of magnifying the import of some imagined policy. But in fact the likelihood of a 'war' in any ordinary sense could be very slight. War means using your military to wreck and possibly take control of a nation -- displacing one state with another. It is not at all clear that will happen. It could be a lot more like the "War on Drugs," albeit with a lot more violence at the start.
The 'enemy' being conjured up is neither a country nor a state. The exception is Afghanistan. I daresay taking over a couple of Afghan cities would not take very long, but dealing with the ensuing guerrilla movement could take forever. More like an endless policing operation. Meanwhile lots of bloodshed in Muslim nations as governments deal with Islamic radicalism.
So in a way the peace movement may be stalking an imaginary foe, at the same time that it associates itself with the notion of not hunting down the perpetrators of terrorism. In other words, it takes a rhetorical target -- "war" -- for a real one, while the public interprets antiwar rhetoric for a real rejection of retribution.
So I maintain the best way to let the air out of the balloon is to accept the inevitability of retribution and discount the utility of ill- defined proposals for a wider war.
The best peace policy is revenge.
mbs
Brief summary of the Forum from a City Universit part-timers, list
I attended the anti-war meeting held at the Brecht Forum this afternoon. Over 66 groups were represented (I saw several people from CUNY). The thrust was to discuss and plan for activities that would advance our survival as a planet (my words)--teach ins, community support, media correctives. I don't think that those who want to avoid a war are any less patriotic, realistic, or compassionate than those who think that a war will achieve the advancement of humanity. Let us at least give each other the benefit of good will, even if we differ in our judgments. The following letter, I think, sheds some light on the complexity before us. Also, this aft it was reported that there were 46 instances of attacks on Arab looking people in the city. Marcia
Jacob Segal