Today is a bittersweet anniversary of sorts. Four years ago, the very same president who has stated that contemporary warfare won't be settled by signing treaties of surrender on battleships, showed the world the size of his commitment to the campaign:

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

This is the very same president who now says, "I'm sorry it's come to this," of course referring not to the course of action taken, but rather to his determination to veto the much-vaunted $100 billion-plus emergency spending bill which includes suggestions for troop withdrawls to have completed by around the fifth anniversary of the invasion.

It is clear that the "top tier" Democratic presidential candidates, Clinton, Obama, and Edwards, who all voted for the bill in spite of Bush's veto threat would love to take credit for the impetus to change course and honor the "will of the American people," but their performances in the South Carolina debates merely rung boastful, hollow, and vetted for any serious assumption of responsibility for cleaning up the disaster we have wrought in the Middle East, let alone presenting tangible ways to actually end the war lieu of Bush's "steadfastness." A few decent ideas came from the "bottom tier," however.

Historically, conflicts have been successfully resolved through sheer brutality and uncompromising behavior when one side is significantly more powerful (which is clearly a failure on the part of both warring camps), or through reconciliation, concessions, the destruction of arbitrary barriers, and honoring the will and dignity of the nonviolent population caught in the crossfire.

So it should hardly be a sign of the progress of the January "surge" that Central Command has taken a cue from the Israeli Defense Forces and has begun construction of a wall to separate/ contain a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, with plans on the table for a wall around the entire capital.

That the idea of erecting walls as a way of solving problems should come back into fashion nearly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, lauded as an emblem of the march of freedom, strikes me as abominable. And the buck doesn't stop there. To address the increase in illegal immigration in the U.S., construction of a billion-dollar separation barrier along the US-Mexico border has commenced in spite of conservative backers being swept out of office in the 2006 midterm elections.

So this anniversary is bittersweet because, after all, it is International Workers' Day.
Immigrant workers and their allies are once again in the streets demanding a more humanistic approach to the question of labor. The list of of demands seeks a non-compromising attitude but based on the common principles of dignity and freedom, including an end to detentions, deportations, and massive raids, a path to citizenship for undocumented workers, and a living wage for all, that exceeds the minimum wage increases planned over the next couple years, assuming it passes the veto-bearing commander-in-chief.

It's time to send the tired old partisanship and capitalist-socialist rivarlies to their resting places for good, and seek a new humanism, a third way that guarantees through collective enforcement, the health and dignity of every community member, irrespective of boundaries, borders, and differences, and that acknowledges that diversity and a peaceful, nurturing environment are the keys to securing a sustainable future for everyone on the planet that participates in its creation.

If those currently in power wish to ignore this growing seed in humankind, then we must abandon them through our cooperation and innovation until the rest of the multitude can emulate the new systems of community or join the exodus in due time.

For today at least, it should be heartening to witness some sacrifice, some humility and some courage, and visions for a new movement of the people.

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(cL 2007