On September 11, 2001, and for weeks following, the U.S. had a precious opportunity, a moment with new possibilities. Not since the end of World War II had there been such a moment when a huge step forward was possible toward building a community of nations. If the U.S. had responded to 9/11 by sending NATO forces and Army Rangers after al Qaeda, rebuilding Afghanistan, and creating new networks of collective security against terrorism, it would have gained the world's gratitude. Instead it took a course of action that caused an explosion of anti-American hostility throughout the world, a torrent of bitter feeling that has not abated.
Forty years ago, Senator William Fulbright warned that the U.S. was well on its way to becoming an empire that exercised power for its own sake, projected to the limit of its capacity and beyond, filling every vacuum and extending American force to the farthest reaches of the earth. As the power grows, he warned, it becomes an end in itself, separated from its initial motives (all the while denying it), governed by its own mystique, projecting power merely because we have it. That's where we are today.
After Obama is elected president, we will need a peace movement as much as ever. We will need a movement that says, "I don't want my country to invade any more nations in the Middle East. I don't want my country to be dragged into wars that don't come remotely close to being a last resort, inflaming resentments that will last for centuries. I don't want my country to plant permanent military bases for itself anywhere in the Middle East. Not in my name do you invade any more Muslim nations in the name of making America safe."
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