Silence Is Not an Option

People in the US are now in a very uncomfortable position. The government of the territory we live in is preemptively attacking other countries. It has accumulated the largest military on earth. It appears bent on empire and total world domination. It is ruled by a group of men who are very skillful in their use of fear, nationalism and lies to sway the population. These men aren’t accountable to anyone — if they want to order war, they are free to do so and no one can stop them.

But those of us living in the US don’t have to cooperate with this madness.

Those of us living here, in the heart of the aggressor, are in an uncomfortable position because we have to choose — are we Americans, or are we human beings on the planet Earth? If we’re human beings, we need to stand with the rest of the World, against America. Against this aggressor nation. We need to refuse to cooperate. We need to actively prevent the empire from killing our people — the people of the world. We need to join the war, and fight on the side of the people of the world, and against the USA.

This is a profoundly uncomfortable position because if we stand with the people of the world, our lives are at risk. We may be shot, blown up, tortured — killed by the aggressor American empire. If we stand with America, then we are already dead, for we have lost our soul and our humanity to ally ourselves with a monster of murder and domination.

Our position is uncomfortable because you can’t avoid making this choice. To remain silent, to go about our business while the US empire slaughters our people — this is to choose to be an American — to support the empire. Your work, your participation, your money, your silence makes the murder possible.

Now is not the time to be a good American and cooperate, even passively, with military aggression and murder.

If you think you can just wait this war out because it’s against someone else far away, think again. While the US has been building up its troops in the Middle East, the government has been proceeding with plans for a vastly expanded domestic surveillance and security state. In the same way that the US regime seeks total world military domination, the regime must also seek total internal military domination.

The US may be able to attack and defeat Iraq. But history has never permanently rewarded those who use naked military aggression. America’s war is going to unite the entire world against the American empire. When those of us here fight America, we join the rest of the world. And we ultimately struggle for our own liberation, because in seeking total power, the US empire must first defeat and destroy its own people.