During Bush's reign, I honestly believed that when the Democrats came to power, the U.S. Empire would end the war in Iraq and maybe even Afghanistan. I didn't consider myself very naive, I actually considered myself quite hardened to the reality of politics.
The last 3 years have stripped all or nearly all of my naivete pertaining to the American Ruling Class and their great instrument, the U.S. Government. But it didn't dispel my confusion, I could understand why leftist politicians would be supportive of Empire's perpetual wars once the left was in power. But I just couldn't wrap my head around why such a great number of the grassroots left, of those who excoriated Bush with such vigor for his mass murder, would make such an about-face on their support for such crimes as the War in Iraq and Muslims in general.
I have read an article that has helped me understand Why the Left Won't Stop the Wars
The harsh truth is, most leftists who are moral and ethical people in their private lives are not when it comes to their advocacy in politics. Criticism of Bush for his wars didn't have much to do with ending mass murder and a whole lot to do with posturing to defeat the Red Team and get the Blue Team in power.
With the Blue Team in power, the war is relegated to the backseat in favor of transforming our medical industry from organized along fascist economic lines to more socialist ones. Or pursuing costly environmental policies based on poor, ideologically motivated science that has corporations slavering at the mouth for a government created multi-billion dollar global warming industry (Meanwhile the globe cools).
The author's conclusion brought things into perspective for me.
For the left, the state is all that stands between a people and total ruin. It is what brought us out of the Depression, stopped private greed from wiping us out or turning us into serfs many years ago, keeps children out of coal mines, and protects us from industry that seeks something supposedly more evil than political power—wealth. The state is seen as being corrupted by money, rather than the other way around. The state’s retrenchment and deregulation caused the financial crash. It could never be government itself. Private interests are greedy, the cause of all our problems. The state is what binds us, what defends us, what makes us human.
Loving the state means loving it despite its flaws. And so the wars are never confronted head on for what they are—the fulfillment of statism, the extension of statist principles to their logical conclusion. Obama is not seen for what he is: the willing heir to Bush’s murderous policies, a man who sought the job he got and always promised to carry through with it, only tweaking it around the edges.
Does the left hate war? Many of them do not. Many of them do, but not sufficiently. There are other things they seem to hate more: Republicans, conservatives, the free market, the prospect of giving up their domestic priorities or living without the state’s protection. To turn against the state fundamentally is worse than to turn against a mother or father or maybe even a child. The state is the head of the leftists’ family, and so, when the partisan dynamics are right, the political points can be scored, and the liberal state will come away from it looking all the better for the cameras, the left sighs in confusion, shrugs its shoulders in resignation, or even cheers in ecstasy as its beloved institution destroys millions of human beings and enlists a whole generation in the worst of all barbarities.
I am reminded of a Venn Diagram of the three dominant ideologies in America.
Venn Diagram Nothing to Fear
Much of the left isn't motivated by being anti-war, it is motivated more by fear of ceding responsibility from the state to the individual and of liberty in general.
Those leftists who still have a principled bone in their body, whose moral fiber hasn't been shredded by compromise, practicality and expediency; Make your voices louder. Confront the Great Evil of Our Time. Strike the Root of Evil, instead of dumping miracle grow on the tree and putting such energy into damaging a few of its leaves. Stand squarely against the murder of the innocent, no caveats, no shyness, just total opposition to mass murderers.
Hold the standard for peace high, uncompromising, and with time enough people will be drawn to that standard that we can create real, positive change.