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Caribbean at the turn of the century, then into the Philippines, and then repeated Marine invasions of Central America and long military occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. After World War II, Henry Luce, owner of Time, Life, and Fortune, spoke of “the American Century,” in which this country would organize the world “as we see Wt.” Indeed, the expansion of American power continued, too often supporting military dictatorships in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, because they were friendly to American corporations and the American government. The record does not justify conWdence in Bush’s boast that the United States will bring democracy to Iraq. Should Americans welcome the expansion of the nation’s power, with the anger this has generated among so many people in the world? Should we welcome the huge growth of the military budget at the expense of health, education , the needs of children, one-Wfth of whom grow up in poverty? I suggest that a patriotic American who cares for his or her country might act on behalf of a di¤erent vision. Instead of being feared for our military prowess, we should want to be respected for our dedication to human rights. Should we not begin to redeWne patriotism? We need to expand it beyond that narrow nationalism that has caused so much death and su¤ering. If national boundaries should not be obstacles to trade—some call it “globalization”—should they also not be obstacles to compassion and generosity? Should we not begin to consider all children, everywhere, as our own? In that case, war, which in our time is always an assault on children, would be unacceptable as a solution to the problems of the world. Human ingenuity would have to search for other ways. An Interview with Cindy Sheehan, “The Peace Mom” David Barsamian march 2006 q: You’ve said, “We get up every morning, and every morning we see this enormous mountain in front of us. We can’t go through it, we can’t go under it, so we have to go over it.” cindy sheehan: Just waking up and getting out of bed after you’ve buried a child is almost too much to ask one person to do. I realize that bringing the troops home and having somebody held accountable for Casey’s needless death is an immense undertaking, but we can’t go back. As much as we’d like to go back to before Casey was killed, we can’t. So we have to go forward and we have to go up. Every day is an 260 part 12 waging peace uphill battle. Sometimes you make progress, sometimes you slide back. But it’s the only way to go. q: Talk about the support you’ve received from other military families. sheehan: It’s so important. I know in my own organization, Gold Star Families for Peace, not only do we advocate for an immediate withdrawal of the troops, we’re also a support group. We all have lost a loved one in war. I say lost, but I don’t like that euphemism because Casey wasn’t lost; he was killed by George Bush’s murderous policies in the Middle East. q: Why do you think Bush went to war in Iraq? sheehan: I really think you would have to look at where these billions of dollars are going. They’re going to the Halliburtons, the Bechtels, the Blackwaters. If you read something like War Is a Racket by General Smedley Butler, then you know why our country goes to war. A hundred percent of the time it’s to feed the war machine, it’s to make the war proWteers richer. q: What do you think about the uses of faith and the invocation of God to justify war? sheehan: George Bush has made the Christian faith an obscenity. To rationalize what he’s doing in Iraq because God told him to do it or to make Jesus some kind of warmonger is another immorality. And for people in America to buy that? I was a Catholic youth minister for eight years. I am a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ. And I know that the Jesus that I studied about in the Gospels would not approve of what George Bush is doing. I believe that religious extremism, whether it’s Jewish, Muslim, or Christian, has caused a lot of problems in the world for centuries . Leaders misuse religion...

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