The Real Story: Socialist Debates & Political Struggles in the Anti-War Movement: From Gulf War to Today
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2021
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brian Becker reviews the history of heated debate within the socialist movement over the necessity of taking a principled, anti-imperialist position in opposition to the U.S. war machine. Almost 18 years ago, George W. Bush launched the invasion of Iraq, a conflict that would ultimately take the lives of over a million Iraqis. Whether and how to oppose this war -- and others like the 1991 Gulf War or the 2011 war on Libya -- has been a persistent topic of debate.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Next week marks the 18th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. |
| 0:07.6 | Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in a war based on lies, a mass movement organized against that war. |
| 0:16.2 | Today we will explore some of the profound debates among socialists and anti-war organizers over |
| 0:23.7 | strategies and tactics in the movements against war, against militarism, and for peace. |
| 0:31.8 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. The Welcome to The Real Story on the Socialist program. I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 1:12.2 | If you enjoy the show, please support this independent programming by going to |
| 1:17.7 | Patreon.com forward slash the socialist program and subscribing. |
| 1:23.9 | We can keep doing this show with your support, but not without it. |
| 1:30.5 | Today, one week before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we're going to review the war in Iraq and |
| 1:38.5 | the debates, as I mentioned in the introduction that took place within the anti-war movement, |
| 1:44.1 | which was a truly global |
| 1:45.6 | movement to stop the Iraq war before it started, and then in opposition to the U.S. |
| 1:51.6 | occupation of Iraq afterwards. During this entire month, we're focused on the Middle East. |
| 1:57.9 | Last week, we talked in depth about why the U.S. was at war constantly with Syria, |
| 2:04.5 | why it was trying to overthrow the Syrian government. The fact of the matter is, the last five |
| 2:11.2 | presidents of the United States, starting with George H.W. Bush, have been at war in Iraq. Every president since 1990 has been |
| 2:22.5 | bombing Iraq. I've been to Iraq multiple times. I was there during the 90s. I was there right before |
| 2:29.5 | the first Gulf War. I was there right before the second war, the invasion of Iraq. |
| 2:36.1 | When I talked to Iraqis, they always asked, why are you doing this? |
| 2:40.9 | Why is your government doing this to us? |
| 2:43.3 | Why is it bombing us? |
| 2:45.0 | Why is it imposing economic sanctions depriving people of food and medicine? |
... |
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