"THERE IS ONE THING STRONGER
THAN ALL THE ARMIES IN THE WORLD:
AND THAT IS AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME."
Statement from
Veterans For Peace
Regarding current
events in Northern Africa
January 30, 2011
Events unfolding in Tunisia
and Egypt
hold much hope for the people of that region and indeed the entire world. What do those events show us?
The demonstrations are succeeding because in the
main people are relying on the power of nonviolence. People are demonstrating nonviolently and
young troops are refusing to violently stop them.
Two weeks ago, few people thought the events in Tunisia and Egypt could ever happen but they are happening.
In northern Africa, the
words of Victor Hugo have come to life. "There
is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea
whose time has come."
There is absolutely no reason Victor Hugo's words can't come
to life in our own country.
- A clear majority of U.S.
troops and U.S. residents
oppose the wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq
but few believe we can bring the killing to a swift conclusion.
If a small percentage of U.S. troops refused to fight and an even smaller
percentage of U.S.
residents halted business as usual by simply staying home from work and school,
the killing would end.
Anyone who thinks Hugo's words are only a dream today in
Egypt or America should be aware of what has already come to pass in Egypt, as
in so many other places since then.
In Egypt,
grassroots organizing during World War I led to a demand, only two days after
the November 11 armistice in 1918, for a meeting to discuss independence with
the head of the British forces that had occupied Egypt for 36 years.
The British refused, but the
growing movement refused to back down.
When four of its leaders were arrested in March, 1919 trying to
represent Egypt
at the Versailles Treaty talks, people began a general uprising.
All social classes participated. Organizers adopted as their symbol the
"Crescent and the Cross," uniting majority Muslims and minority Coptic
Christians. Within a week Egypt was
economically paralyzed by strikes of every sort. The protests were mainly nonviolent in the
cities but when the British tried to suppress the demonstrations violently, 800
Egyptians and nearly 30 British soldiers were killed by that summer.
Years later, Egyptian women chose March 16 as Women's Day
because on that day in 1919, 300 women demonstrators led by Hoda Sha'arawi denounced
British occupation and Hameida Khalil became the first woman to give her life for
independence.
This mostly nonviolent revolution forced the British to
recognize limited Egyptian independence in 1922. The following year, Egyptians adopted a new
constitution.
Since the 1978 Camp David “Peace Accords,” the U.S. has given Egypt
over
$50 billion in military aid, plus forgiving $7 billion in
military debt for Egypt’s support in the 1990 Persian
Gulf War. The U.S.
has a huge responsibility to see that Egypt does not use the weapons we
gave it to crush a democratic movement.
"There
is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea
whose time has come."
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