Maj. Danny Sjursen, a vet of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, is arguably the most prolific antiwar activist and critic of US Middle East policy, while remaining on active duty (!) in the US Army. Here, he speaks about some of his recent articles on Antiwar.com dealing with the need for a march against America's wars similar to those for women and gun violence, why thus far there has been no antiwar activism worthy of the name and not even a whiff of antiwar sentiment in Congress and the choice voters had to make between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, among other things. He attributes the absence of an anti-war movement to Nixonâs elimination of the draft in 1971 which eliminated the majority of Americans from the equation and to focus instead on issues that affected them or members of their families. Moreover, that there is no anti-war segment in either the Democrat or Republican Party requires serious activists to forget the left vs. Right divide and unite with elements with which they have differences on social issues but agree on ending US wars and interference in other countryâs governments, e.g. Libertarians and antiwar conservatives. Sjursen, memorializing the last anti-war Democrat, Sen. George McGovern, a certifiable hero in WW2, noted that since Vietnam, the Democrats have been afraid to be seen as âsoftâ on going to war and McGovern is seen as the personification of failure after his trouncing by Nixon in 1972. He points to the fact that members of the Senate, 10 of whom were Democrats, voted against even having a vote on the criminal role the US has been playing, assisting the Saudis in their slaughter in Yemen. He speaks of the influence of the Israel Lobby and the Saudis in that regard, resulting in the US military functioning as a protector of Israel with no benefit to the US and as an air force for the Saudis. He points out that criticizing Israel is to risk allegations of antisemitism and is the âthird railâ of American politics. As for the 2016 election, he said the American people were faced with the choice of an unpredictable wild card, Trump, or the most hawkish presidential candidate in living memory whose every foreign policy decision and position, he pointed out, had been wrong and that had she been elected there would have been a strong possibility of war with Russia. And thereâs much more to check out.
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