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Norman Solomon Presents War Made Easy
Urges Anti-War Democrats to Unseat Mike Thompson
The Arena Theater Film Club presented War Made Easy in Point Arena on Monday, August 6, 2007 to a crowd of about 80 people. Norman Solomon, who is interviewed extensively in the film, was on hand to answer some of the audience's questions afterwards.
The film covered a significant part of the history of wars of aggression by United States of America in the last 100 years. It focused on how various administrations lied to the public and did their best to keep voters supportive of war aims. While the current Iraq War under Republican Party administration was in heavy focus, many of the clips and comments were about the Vietnam War. The parallels between Democratic Party President Lyndon Johnson's lies about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and George W. Bush's lies about the former Iraqi regime were clearly drawn.
Though it ignored the U.S. invasion of Korea after World War II, the film did do a bit on the "minor" wars against Panama and the Dominican Republic. It even reminded us that President Clinton also bombed Iraq between the two Bush administrations.
Afterwards Norman Solomon urged activists to work both outside the electoral system and within the system to end American military aggression. He is working with a group called Progressive Democrats of America that is trying to turn the Democratic Party, which he acknowledged is a war crimes organization, into a vehicle for peace.
Mr. Solomon repeatedly referred to what he saw as the defects of Point Arena's (and 1st Congressional District of California's) Congressman, without actually calling our Mike Thompson by name. Norman said that the district needs someone in the House of Representatives who is genuinely against U.S. wars of aggression and who has a commitment to social justice. He urged local progressive Democrats to run a peace candidate in the coming primary. He deflected my question as to whether Democrats should support a peace candidate who is not a Democrat.
Talking to local Democrats afterwards, I found no one had an idea of who could be run against Mike Thompson, much less beat a guy who has a $2 million dollar war chest, a district gerrymandered to his tastes, and a Democratic Party organization trained to attack all critics with the magic words "You are just helping the Republicans."
Still, War Made Easy is a thought-provoking movie that is available on DVD.
