Howard Zinn, a critically acclaimed historian and political scientist, is author of the "People's History of the United States," a radical and popular retelling of United States history. Zinn, 83, has written fifteen books and is a longstanding critic of U.S. foreign policy. He is now a professor emeritus at Boston University.
These are just snippets from an Amazing Interview, Read More at:
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/As_Iraq_votes_liberal_historian_looks_1215.htmlRaw Story: So basically democracy under the gun is not democracy.
Zinn: Yeah, exactly.
Raw Story: If you were a Democratic member of Congress and involved in shaping the party’s plan and statements with regard to the Iraq conflict, what would you tell your colleagues? What would you tell the country?
Zinn: If I were Nancy Pelosi I would certainly say to my fellow Democrats, “If we want to win the next election we better get with the American people, they’re way ahead of us. The American people are forthrightly against the war and we’re forthrightly about
.” The American people are much more bold and forthright. If I were any Democratic leader, if I were Howard Dean—who unfortunately has been the kind of silent head of the Democratic National Committee—I would say to my fellow Democrats, wake up. If you don’t give the American people what the American people want, then you are going to go down in history as a party that loses and loses and loses.
Part two: Liberal historian looks to Vietnam as Iraq votes
John Byrne
Zinn: I think the war is about several things... about the availability of oil, because if we didn’t control the oil, Iraq would have to sell the oil; they would sell it to us and to everybody else. The war isn’t really about oil but about the price of oil which makes the loss of life even more horrendous.
The control of oil is certainly a major factor. All of our policies since the end of World War II have been based on the control of oil, hence the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 over his nationalization of oil. Beyond oil, it’s a matter of empire. Were the French in Indochina because of rubber? Yes, but that was only part of it. Did Mussolini go into Ethiopia because the Italians needed land? No, Mussolini wanted to restore the glory of the Roman Empire, and the United States is hellbent on creating the greatest empire in world history. It’s oil, and its empire and it’s business. And it’s control. Wars create a situation where the ruling party is better able to control the situation, hence the Patriot Act, and war is an opportunity for profiteering.... I remember during the Vietnam war one of the great posters was done by a quite well-known artist Seymour Chwast, and the poster simply said in big letters: “War Is Good for Business: Invest Your Son.” Very chilling, but true.
Raw Story: Do you think we can win in Iraq?
Zinn: The overall sense is not even it’s a question of being a winnable war, it’s a war we shouldn’t win. If we were winning that wouldn’t have made it right—the point is we shouldn’t be there in the first place. We don’t belong there. We invaded that country. It didn’t attack us. It’s as clear cut a case of naked aggression as you can find. People were sentenced to hang at Nuremberg in World War II for engaging in a war of aggression against other nations and that’s what we’ve done in Iraq. Just reading about Tookie ... and here is Schwarzenegger showing no remorse... Bush and Cheney and the whole White House group are responsible for the killing of millions of people. They have shown no remorse. So we are in a crazy world where this black man who may have killed four people twenty years ago is sent to prison and other people who are killing people daily right now are free. We’ve living in absurdity.
http://www.rawstory.com/
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