I write from the capital of progressive proaction: San Francisco. Each month thousands of bicyclists, who call themselves the Critical Mass Movement, halt the major thoroughfares of San Francisco's beautiful city streets - without organization, and only for the purpose of advancing bicyclists' rights. That's it. No hippie anti-war message at all. Just bicycling - and the right to do so free of the cars' perpetual molestation. I am personally ambivalent about the hot debate that surrounds - or more accurately, follows - the Critical Massers wherever they go, seeing as I hate cycling.
But these thousands who can stop the spinning of San Francisco's axis like something out of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" got me thinking about what it means to be proactive and when and where it is a necessary and appropriate response to an unacceptable situation - trivial or otherwise.
I classify bicycling as trivial; our foreign policy is important. Continuing a futile war in the Middle East when it is peace that is the ultimate goal ... that's just foolish.
Our world and our nation's relation to it are in a purgatory, waiting for the next shoe, suicide bomb or cruise missile to drop. Our foreign policy "experts" in the current administration have only muddled things up: The day after Sept. 11 we were a beacon of freedom to the entire world. Now we are suddenly imperialists?
No, I do not actually deem our occupation of Iraq to be imperialism. But others do, including the majority of Iraqis, according to almost every poll taken. And we all are aware of the lack of support our "allies" have given us, from Europe to Russia and China.
Two-thirds of Americans believe Bush is soiling the office of the presidency and losing the war in Iraq. The Iraq Study Report detailed several immediate and (thankfully) concrete measures to get back on track. Bush spurned them all. Instead, he responded with his foolhardy surge.
So what is one to do? And what are those in power to do?
I say: Be proactive. Our commander-in-chief wants a war czar, which is an oxymoron, or at least moronic, considering our constitution delineates clearly the duties of the president and they include leading our nation in war. The CEO shouldn't have to hire a CEO, now should he?
We cannot rely upon Bush or his cronies for diplomacy (clearly) and we can't rely upon them for war (equally clear), so we must be proactive ourselves and in support of our more progressive leaders to get us out of Iraq and help restore a stable Middle East.
In Democratic House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., we find an excellent example of one who refuses simply to wait (she hails from San Francisco, by the way). Pelosi recently completed a journey to Lebanon and Syria for substantive talks, as the report had advised Bush to so do. Thus, political cover is not an issue.
There are still many, however, who deemed Pelosi's trip to Lebanon and Syria a bold move, an upstaging of the president and an emasculation of his power and right to conduct foreign policy. Some even claim she empowers terrorists and have lambasted her for doing so.
I say hallelujah! We must engage with foes as well as friends. Diplomacy is requisite. Did we learn nothing from World War I? Each side thinking it can destroy the other quickly - each side as deluded as the other?
It is about time someone stepped up, proactively, and called upon the Critical Mass of America - the not-so-silent-anymore majority - to help restore our leadership role in the world, so that Americans need not be embarrassed when they travel abroad.
I find laudable those Democrats (and the few Republicans) in Congress who have finally decided to exercise their constitutionally-endowed right to conduct oversight on matters of foreign policy.
Hold hearings. Go places. See things. Have your say. Write bills. Let President Bush threaten a veto. Be proactive; do the right thing. I urge all those in Congress to follow in Pelosi's footsteps, not to undermine anything, but rather to be proactive. Call upon this Critical Mass of anti-war advocates to pick up the pace and halt President Bush's cluttered 20-car-pile-up traffic. I call upon Congress to remain stalwart in its defense of the new Iraq spending bill with a timeline attached: troop withdrawals by 2008.
We have lost the war in Iraq. But we have not lost the world. Not yet. No more blood need be spilt in a war that can't be won. It's like investing: You don't throw good money after bad. Only it's not money; it's American and Iraqi lives.
