Author: The Wall Street Journal
Publications: The Indian Express
Dated: September 21, 2001
LAST week, Lee Weiner, a 1960s radical
and one of the Chicago Seven, did something he's never done before. He
hung an American flag outside his house. Weiner fiercely opposed American
military involvement in Vietnam, but last week's terrorist attacks New
York and Washington obliterated his pacifist inclinations. "I think that
one of the responses to evil has to be an honest and complete struggle
against evil - and that struggle includes violence," Weiner, now 62 years
old says.
Now 1960s peaceniks, who demonstrated
against the Vietnam War on campuses and in the streets, are feeling patriotic,
in some cases for the first time. While struggling over what an appropriate
response to the terror should be, a surprising number are concluding that
the action must include military strikes against the culprits, and maybe
even war.
'Ten years ago, Danny Kaiser, a
Sarah Lawrence College professor who marched in countless anti-war demonstrations
in the 1960s and counselled students on how to dodge the draft, tore down
the yellow ribbons people tacked to his door as a symbol of support for
the Persian Gulf War. "The Gulf War I felt very bad about, I hated the
outpourings of patriotism," says the 65-year-old Kaiser.'Now I see a larger
perspective.'
The proximity and scope of the destructoin
makes all the difference to Stew Albert, a self-described pacifist and
a founder of the Youth International Party, better known as the Yippies.
"This is Manhattan getting attacked, not Kuwait" says Albert, who asserts
that 'surgical military interventions is an appropriate response. But as
they cautiously--even guiltily--advocate some kind of military action,
these former flower children say they are also filled with misgiving, sadness
and confusion.. "I fear the world may be spinning out of control" Albert
says. They cringe at the words "collateral damage." They fear that the
Bush administration might rush to go after its prime suspect Osama bin
Laden, before it is absolutely certain that Osama is responsible. In other
words, they still don't trust the government.
"The problem with a surgical military
intervention is I'm not confident the US can do it" says Albert. Others
are deeply troubled about the potential erosion of their hard-fought civil
liberties. Noam Chomsky, a leading dissenter on the Left and a professor
of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, maintains
that non-violent alternatives are readily available. 'There certainly is
an appropriate response, and we know exactly what it is," writes Chomsky
via e- mail. "Determine who the perpetrators are present some minimally
credible evidence and then follow the rule of law."
One thing many old-line activists
agree on is that age brings with it the ability to accept the complexity
of a crises. "When you've lived through the missile crisis, assassination,
racial conflict, war, resignation and impeachment of presidents, you appreciate
the frailties of public life," says Paul Gorman, who helped organise the
Congressional delegation to Selma, Ala., in 1965 and the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee hearings on Vietnam in 1966 and 67. "So the call now
is for moral maturity, to balance several goals at once: Protect the people,
hold criminals accountable, treat other cultures with nuance, and admit
we have much to learn"
Grace Paley, a writer and a long-time
peace activist, says she's not convinced that any of her 1960s comrades
'suddenly have become great warriors." She has a suggestion. "Maybe we
should send three tons of wheat and rice to Afghanistan - they're starving
- and call that the big bombing."