It’s 3:00 a.m. on a Sunday.

Once again Bush’s goddamn war has woke me up. I’ve checked the email to see if anything is stirring in the peace movement. Since I’ve seen nothing, all I can do is write to you, to try and feel like I’m doing something that matters.

And right now, what I can hardly keep from screaming (since the bride is upstairs asleep) is this:

We finally have begun making some inroads with the Downing Street memo. I’m glad for that. Perhaps it will get some people thinking. But dear god…did we NEED the DSM to know that:

• On September 12, 2001, the very next day after what would become Bush’s justification for war, the peace movement said “War is not the answer?”
• In January, 2002 after Bush’s insane “axis of evil” State of the Union address, the peace movement said: “War is not the answer?”
• In April, 2002, when Blair met Bush at his pseudo-ranch in Texas, and the press was agog at how war was THE topic of conversation, the peace movement said: “War is not the answer?”
• In July and August and September, 2002, when Bush bombed the hell out of Iraq at a frightening pace, the peace movement said: “We have BEEN in southern Iraq when the bombs fell outside Basra. We KNOW what is going on. War is not the answer!”
• In September and October, 2002 when Bush lied to Congress about the need for war, the peace movement said: “He’s LYING! War is not the answer!”
• In February, 2003 when Colin Powell lied to the U.N., the peace movement said: “HE’S LYING!! War is not the answer!”
• On February 15, 2003, over 10 million people around the world rose up and said: “WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER!”
• On that same day, I stood on a bridge over the Tigris River in Baghdad with over 200 international peace activists and said, “War is not the answer.” When a Spanish journalist asked me “What about Bush’s statements to the contrary,” I looked straight into his camera and replied, “GEORGE BUSH LIES.”

Don’t ever let a politician or reporter get away with “Gee, we didn’t know,” or “Golly, we were lied to.” Yes, Bush and company lied to them—that’s their job as guardians of empire, for Chrissakes! But that does not excuse the press or Congress. There were always plenty of credible witnesses…those of us in the peace movement…speaking out, getting arrested, going to Iraq and testifying from first-hand experience… who were NOT lying and who pointed the way to the truth and to sanity.

That politicians and reporters chose to be deafened by Bush’s war drums is to their eternal shame. They have no excuse for their complicity in what are now crimes against humanity.

How did the peace movement know that war is not the answer and that Bush was lying? We are not clairvoyants with crystal balls! It’s simple: presidents always lie about going to war and war is NEVER the answer. Until we get that through our heads and into our hearts we will ALWAYS be susceptible to thinking that “Well, maybe THIS one is necessary” because we will always be lied to about going to war. And there will always be another generation of young people to get suckered into fighting it.

Until we take war off the table as an option we will always look to it as “the last resort,” and sigh resignedly when talking becomes too difficult, or slumps in the polls, or when some leader lies smoothly enough.

If you or someone you now is not convinced, I recommend a trip to Iraq. If that is out of the question, at least visit a nearby V.A. hospital. Multiply what you see and hear and feel by a thousand to begin to understand what it’s like under the bombs. You may begin to understand why war can never be the answer. No matter how well a president lies.

Mike Ferner is a writer from Ohio and a former Navy Corpsman who served during Viet Nam. He is a member of Veterans For Peace.

© 2005 by Mike Ferner