The Night That the Sawmill Burned Down

By: Dennis Rahkonen

Wow! Talk about your paradigm shift!

Feb. 14 and 15, 2003, will go down as the time when fresh reality, in a sudden confluence of several rushing streams, completely knocked American imperialism onto its bloated behind.

It began with a New York Times/CBS News survey showing George Bush's popularity at its lowest level since before 9/11, plus majority sentiment favoring delayed military action against Iraq, hinged on the requirement of U.N. approval for such action. The deep significance of this lies in it coming right after the administration's most polished efforts to sell its policy. Obviously, the public saw much "tarnish".

Then, at the U.N., Hans Blix declared there was nothing to support Washington's sensational claim of an imminent Iraqi weapons-of-mass-destruction threat. No such infernal machines had been found, in many weeks of searching. (The closest thing was a modified short-range Iraqi missile, arguably giving it slightly extended range, but posing no bona fide danger to anyone.)

Additionally, Blix poked holes in Colin Powell's presentation of supposedly war-warranting "facts" at the same venue a week earlier, essentially saying the Bush administration's contentions are just so much hooey.

Finally, France came out foursquare for peace, eliciting an outburst of applause from the room. It was an emotional "thanks" from the international community for someone finally telling our tumbleweed Napoleon to, basically, go to hell.

These developments alone brought sweat beads to warmongers' worriedly furrowing brows. But the best was yet to come.

Beginning with Australia's largest antiwar protest since Vietnam, a wave of massive peace demonstrations moved through planetary time zones during the following day, bringing huge crowds into the streets everywhere. Almost a million marched in London, and nearly as many in Rome. Others weren't far behind.

Nation after nation showed - in the mightiest, most unified such expression ever - the universal consensus for: "No blood for oil!"

When it was all said and done, the global balance of power had flip-flopped... from America having been in the driver's seat one moment, to getting thrown into roadside weeds the next, as people power commandeered a vehicle now suddenly bound in an altogether different direction. Away from looming Armageddon, toward peaceful resolution of contested issues.

I've experienced such intense drama only once before in my life.

Late one evening, when I was a boy, every fire engine in my hometown raced through our neighborhood, toward a red glow on the eastern horizon.

Excited by the action, my pals and I chased behind. Finally - all gasping for breath - we saw the town's sawmill being spectacularly consumed by a raging fire. Nothing could stop the inferno.

Ironically, that fire coincided with the end of the stultifying Eisenhower era, and it was followed, in quick succession, by the seminally dynamic political developments of the Rebel Sixties.

Bush's game plan went up in smoke over the weekend.

He'll either have to drop his imperial ambition, or persist under such withering international resistance that American politics will be radically altered, by inexorable demands from both abroad and within.

I'm unaware of the world's people ever having struck a more powerful blow against reaction.