My Country Is the World
(A Speech Delivered at the Nov.3 Peace Rally On Boston Common)

By: Howard Zinn

On September Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of innocent people died. That was terrorism. The United States immediately declared it was at war, and bombed Afghanistan, killing thousands of innocent people. That, too, was terrorism. The so-called "war on terrorism" has never made any sense, because war breeds terrorism. War is terrorism.

If we are serious about ending terrorism we will take the planes that carry bombs, take the warships, fill them with food and medicine and send them to the Middle East, to Africa, to wherever people are hungry and sick. It is shameful to drop bombs on people who need food and medicine. It is a crime against humanity. It is our country and we do not want to be ashamed of it.

Why is our government making plans to bomb Iraq, to invade Iraq? Why? To get rid of a tyrant? To bring democracy to Iraq? That will be something new in our foreign policy.

We have always supported tyrants, we have put tyrants in power, we have given tyrants guns ands helicopters to kill their own people, we have overthrown democratic governments, and replaced them with military dictatorships, for the benefit of IT&T and United Fruit and the oil companies of the Middle East.

If our government really wants democracy in Iraq, it will lift the sanctions, let the people of Iraq live and breathe, and in time they will get rid of their tyrant, just as people in other places of the world have gotten rid of theirs - in Eastern Europe, in Latin America, in South Africa, by their own efforts, not by American guns and bombs.

Yes, regime change is needed in Iraq and wherever governments commit crimes against their own people.

And is it not a crime against the people of the United States to take the wealth of this country, which is needed for health care and housing and education and use it for war? We need a regime change, right here.

Will we go to war because Iraq may have weapons of mass destruction. Because it may develop one nuclear bomb in two or five years? Israel has 200 nuclear weapons. The USA has 20,000 nuclear weapons. Yes, let's dismantle all weapons of mass destruction, everywhere.

It makes no sense to think that Iraq, a fifth-rate military power, already crippled by two wars and 10 years of economic strangulation presents a clear and present danger. At this moment, George Bush and his administration, preparing for war, are a clear and present danger to the peace of the world.

If we bomb and invade Iraq there is no certainty at all that Iraq will then be a democracy. What is certain is that we will kill tens of thousands of innocent people. Consider this: When you go to war against a tyrant, you kill the victims of the tyrant.

The deaths of all these people will be explained to the American public as it was done in Vietnam, where two million people died, with lies and deceptions: Sorry, it was an accident, and that was an accident, and this too was an accident.

And we only aim at military targets. Truman considered Hiroshima a military target. In the Gulf War of 1991 the American military declared an air raid shelter in Baghdad as a military target and bombed it, incinerating and crushing to death 400 or 500 men, women, and children. Collateral damage, they will say. That is the language of terrorism. But people will be left without limbs, or burned by napalm, or crippled bycluster bombs, or left blind.

And after all that, will Iraq be a democracy? The real question is: Will the United States be a democracy?

If we go to war we will do enormous damage to the people of Iraq. Yes, we have high tech weaponry so if we go to war we may not lose many Americans. All that we will lose will be the soul of America.

We need to reconsider patriotism. True patriotism is not marching off to war because the government tells you we must. Surely those 58,000 names on the Vietnam memorial should make that clear. And it is not patriotism to look the other way when the government rounds up people who look different and holds them without trial or legal counsel, as did the Gestapo and the Soviet secret police.

When the government violates our civil liberties, when it behaves towards other people in the world in a way that makes us ashamed, patriotism requires disobedience and resistance.

True patriotism is not obedience to government but love of our country and its people and its principles.

We need to enlarge our notion of patriotism. Tom Paine, our great pamphleteer of the American revolution said: "My country is the world."

Yes, our country is the world. If we believe that, we cannot go to war, because then we will be killing our own countrymen, our brothers and sisters. If we believe that the children of Iraq have an equal right to life with our own children, then we cannot make war on Iraq.

Deep down, most people understand that. That is why the movement for peace is growing. There are anti-war rallies in Alaska, in Oklahoma, in Arizona, all over the country.

Yesterday [Nov. 2], I received an e-mail message that today [Nov. 3], at this very hour, an anti-war demonstration is taking place in Boesman, Montana. I'm surprised that you never heard of Boesman, Montana? Well, now you have. With your permission, I would like this afternoon to send a message of solidarity to the people of Boesman, Montana from the thousands of people gathered here on the Boston Common.

During the Vietnam war, it was here on the Boston Common that we assembled, again and again and again, until the government withdrew from that war. If our government insists on gong to war, against the interests of the American people, against the objections of the people of the world, we will keep coming back here, as long as it takes, to full our responsibility to our countrymen and the world, to save the soul of America.

We live in a beautiful country. Just look around. People all over the world live in beautiful countries. We have no right to destroy them. Yes, this is a beautiful country, and it has been taken over by men who believe in guns and bombs. We need to take our country back.