Most of my regular readers – indeed, all of them – know one thing by now: if you’ve come here for the usual bullshit, rah-rah for Our Team conventional wisdom, you’re bound to be disappointed. There are plenty of other places to go for that: I won’t name them, but you get the idea. Here I try to challenge my readers – and myself – and examine the underlying assumptions we’re all supposed to accept. Of course, it would be easy for me to go along with the conventional wisdom and not make any waves: but actually, it would bore me to death. And I guess it would do the same to my readers (at least, I hope it would).
It’s a privilege to be able to do this, and believe you me I don’t take it for granted. It’s made possible by the incredible dedication of the Antiwar.com staff, especially our managing editor and all-around problem-solver Eric Garris, and I don’t lose sight of that for a minute. It’s a privilege and a great responsibility to be able to write this column the way I do, i.e., without regard for what Everyone Else is saying, and often in direct contradiction and opposition to what most of my readers think and believe.
It’s a risky strategy, but I’ve managed – I think! – to pull it off. I’ve been right more than I’ve been wrong: I’ll stand my record up against any of the "mainstream" pundits.
I haven’t been afraid to challenge my readers and myself – but now I’m facing my greatest challenge. Most of my readers are aware of my recent cancer diagnosis: it’s been a real life-changer, to say the least. Thanks to the miracle of modern science, I’m still alive – and thriving – and able to write these words. The latest discoveries in anti-cancer research, which I’m lucky enough to have access to, have allowed me to defy Death – so far.
My diagnosis and condition have given me a whole new perspective on my work, on world affairs, and the affairs of humankind in general. Or, perhaps, they’ve sharpened views I held already but hadn’t really thought all that much about.
What I’ve come to realize is that my job, and Antiwar.com’s mission, has always been to defy Death, to fight Death to the bitter end. For the War Party is truly the Party of Death, and this has been brought home to me rather vividly in my reading of Dan Ellsberg’s The Doomsday Machine, his insider’s account of the nuclear "priesthood" and its rationalizations for mass murder on a scale we can hardly imagine. For what those "priests" were – and are – planning for is the virtual eradication of the human race in a nuclear holocaust initiated by the United States (we are always the initiators in their war scenarios).
We are fighting against Death itself, and its allies here on earth. And we need your help.
Yes, this is a fundraising pitch, although it doesn’t really read like one. But let me tell you: the legions of Death are not lacking in financial resources. Oh no. They have but to ask their sponsors and collaborators, and their coffers are filled to the brim.
We, on the other hand, have no such assurances. We only have you, our readers and loyal supporters, many of whom have stuck with us down through the years – as far back as the Kosovo war! And we – I – am turning to you once again for the support we need to keep going.
So now it’s up to you. The American people are sick and tired of foreign wars: our message of peace and nonintervention has never been more popular. Yet the political class resists the popular will – and the War Party is more determined than ever to lead us down the road to perpetual conflict. We really need your support at this crucial juncture: we can win the battle for peace, the opportunity is there – but we can’t do it without you. That means we need your tax-deductible donations now – because they’ll have double the impact with our matching funds program.
If we all get together and make that final push we can make our goal. Every donation counts, no matter the amount.
