By David Brooks on January 19, 2024
MLK tribute – Havana Cuba, photo: Bill Hackwell
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal,” declared the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when he proclaimed himself against the war in Vietnam; at another time he stressed that “in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
This past Monday was officially Martin Luther King Day and, of course, the talking heads will only speak of his dream of racial equality and his principle of nonviolence, but they will make no reference to his condemnation of this country’s imperial wars, nor his ultimate campaign against America’s profound economic injustice. These are still too dangerous and contemporary words.
“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first speaking plainly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government,” King declared in his famous – but almost never quoted by the official world – speech in 1967, when he spoke out against the war in Vietnam and offered his anti-imperial vision, linking the struggle of the oppressed within this country to their counterparts around the world.
In that speech, he noted that it was necessary for Americans to ask what is happening to the people who are suffering from the war waged by Washington, as in the case of Vietnam, where he imagined how “they watch while we poison their water, while we kill a million acres of their crops… They come to hospitals with at least 20 casualties from U.S. fire for every wound inflicted by the Vietcong. So far we have killed a million of them, mostly children.”
He called for an immediate cease-fire, recognition of the enemy’s right to negotiate given their popular support, withdrawal of all troops, and so on. He insisted that every possible method of creative protest must continue to be pursued in demand for an end to the war.
It is not hard to imagine King today breaking the silence around America’s criminal complicity in Israel’s war against the Palestinians, now broadcast to the world live every day, to which we are all witnesses.
Another fierce silence breaker, Noam Chomsky, one of the wisest dissenting voices to the official policy of Washington and Tel Aviv, has not been able to physically participate in the great debate on the ongoing war against the Palestinians for health reasons, but his criticisms and condemnation over the past years are still very much present (constantly circulating on social networks).
“There are two states that attack the Middle East, assault and violate, carry out terrorist acts and illegal acts on a constant basis, both are huge nuclear powers: the United States and Israel, the two main rogue states in the world,” he stated a few years ago.
In another forum he stated that “there are two countries that are not only calling for a nation not to exist, they are destroying it – that’s the United States and Israel, that’s their position on the Palestinians. They’re not just saying it, they’re doing it day in and day out, those are the policies they’re pushing in front of our eyes,” he said several years ago.
Once again thousands marched in Washington on Saturday against their government’s complicity with Israel and demanding a ceasefire, once again breaking the silence – including a daughter of Malcolm X and radical theologian and presidential candidate Cornel West who marked the reverend’s legacy – as hundreds of thousands, if not already millions, have done here and around the world over the past three months.
In the face of what is happening in Gaza, people continue to demand, among other things, that governments that claim to adhere to international rights and/or be ethical, break their silence by endorsing the genocide case against Israel before the South African-driven International Court of Justice.
“An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” King said 60 years ago.
Source: Rebelion, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English