This war has spawned a generation's political awakening

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
ALBERT PETRARCA
April 15, 2003

Letter to the Editor

Having failed to prevent a war that initiates George W. Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive wars without end, at least two promising consequences of America's brutal onslaught against Iraqi society have emerged: the birth of an unprecedented global peace movement and the political awakening of a new generation. The "shock and awe" numbers and determination of anti-war activists have clearly achieved several victories.

From forcing Bush to initially work through the United Nations to emboldening the Security Council to resist U.S. bullying and bribery, this moral and political alternative has risen to counter the imperial designs of rabid ideologues such as Richard Perle, an adviser to the secretary of defense, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. This movement, already under way in the pre-9/11 anti-globalization demonstrations, has posited the hope that another world is possible.

The young people ushering in this alternative completely reject the Republican- and Democratic-sanctioned paradigm of America as judge, jury and executioner. Here in our town, the Pittsburgh Organizing Group and the Pittsburgh Association of Peaceful and Proactive Youth have infused the local culture with a new idealism and activism that have challenged the presumption that young people are too preoccupied with "Joe Millionaire" or the latest sneakers to make a difference. In other parts of the world, the overthrow of apathy among the young has been even more dramatic.

The American war machine will undoubtedly fully defeat the bestial Saddam Hussein. However, the largest peace movement in history being fueled by a newly politicized youth has served notice that the U.S. corporate drive to dominate the world's peoples and resources will not go unchecked.