| Create Your Own Tax Cutopinion by Joel HansonThe dust has yet to settle on the American military's illegal invasionof Iraq and already George Bush is engaging in a diplomatic offensiveregarding Syria, accusing Iraq's northwestern neighbor of harboringIraqi leaders and stocking chemical weapons. Are Bush's accusationsnothing more than tough talk in the aftermath of an easy militaryvictory or do they signal phase two of the Project of the New AmericanCentury--Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz's not-so-secret planto establish worldwide economic dominance via military means? Time will tell but the anti-war movement can't afford to wait aroundand find out. A new, more aggressive strategy is needed to counter thepotential military threat against Syria. The anti-war movement,however, appears to be headed in the opposite direction. While themost technologically advanced army in the world was rolling throughthe Iraqi desert, groups like Direct Action to Stop the War and UnitedFor Peace and Justice were curtailing their acts of non-violent civildisobedience in order to re-shape the anti-war movement's image in theface of negative media coverage. This makeover may attract greaternumbers to the long-term cause but it also signaled an abandonment ofthe immediate goal of stopping the fighting in Iraq. Is it not possible for the anti-war movement to fight the battle onboth fronts: devising a long-term goal of attracting more supporterswhile taking bolder steps to thwart the administration's immediatemilitary ambitions? Ironically, the actions of the Bush administrationmay provide the anti-war movement with the sort of aggressive strategyit desperately lacks. By invading Iraq without UN authorization, Bushhas essentially sanctioned law breaking when it suits one's interests.If the protest movement wishes to prevent future wars, are we notjustified in breaking the law, too--but this time in the interests ofthe anti-war majority? According to Gore Vidal's latest book Dreaming War, 51 percent oftaxpayer revenue is redirected to the Pentagon's astronomical militarybudget: well over $1 billion per day and rising each year. Bycontinuing to pay our taxes, we are tacitly supporting ourgovernment's imperialist foreign policy and undercutting the goals ofthe anti-war movement. Perhaps the Bush administration might listen to the anti-warmovement's demands if millions of people threatened to withhold futuretax dollars, like tenants with a legitimate grievance against adelinquent landlord, until our demands are met. And after demanding aslash in the Pentagon budget, we could also demand that our taxdollars be used to address the most pressing social/political concernsin America: 1) establishing universal healthcare for all Americancitizens, 2) creating a $12-an-hour living wage for America's minimumwage workers, 3) expanding the welfare state for the poor (anyonemaking less than $25,000 a year), 4) increasing the funding forschools (who will no longer need to turn to corporate advertising tomake up for federal budget cuts), 5) and rebuilding our country'scrumbling infrastructure with high-speed subway systems in every majorcity--thereby decreasing America's dependence on foreign oil. If Bushcan propose a $726-billion tax cut for his already wealthy corporatedonors in a time of war, shouldn't we create our own tax cuts with theaim of establishing a lasting peace?
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