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Alumnus of the Week Nov 8-Nov 15: Joan Didion '56
Joan Didion is one of America's foremost political and social essayists. The S.F. Chronicle recently asked her opinion on the war debate.
Voices of the War Debate
The San Francisco Chronicle
Interviewed by John M. Hubbell
October 14, 2002
Sagging economy, New worldview
Although Congress has granted President Bush the power to wage war with Iraq, many in the Bay Area continue to voice concern over what they perceive as a lack of adequate public discussion on the subject. The Chronicle is featuring voices from a variety of perspectives, seeking to highlight some of the key questions and issues involved.
There has been a real readiness to toss out what has been a fairly successful foreign policy since World War II, which has been based on containment. Suddenly, we aren't doing that anymore. Obviously, there were things wrong with containment; it didn't always work. But it kind of, in a very muddled world, got us through up until this point without undue disasters.
I don't think going into Iraq is motivated by Sept. 11. There are no new events in Iraq that I've been able to isolate. They're pretty much the same, right? It's motivated by this new worldview.
But it's hard in my mind to disassociate the sudden need to engage on a new world front . . . from the state of our own economy. I think some people think we will be helped by (a war), or certainly a distraction from it. . . . There's going to be more defense spending in the short term, but what happens with the cost of oil? I don't think the next couple of years are going to be very pretty. Someone said to me the other day, "I wouldn't think we'd be going to Iraq if the economy was better and if Osama bin Laden was in a cage at Guantanamo Bay." Neither one of those things do we have.
The Debate in Congress
I think most members of Congress were simply covering themselves. They don't want to get hung with a vote (against war), or even a statement against. It's not the kind of thing they want to go into an election with if they face an opponent who might use it against them. That's the tragedy of the American political process: not enabling anyone to get those sound bites to be used against you. There would be more debate if that wasn't in play. There was beating up on (Vice President Al) Gore for the speech he made, which probably reflects the party's view of Gore as a candidate again. It wasn't a great speech, but he asked some perfectly legitimate questions. On the other hand, we've all seen the rhetoric: "This is part of our war against terror." "We will do it alone." All of that has a resonance among certain voters.
And on the off chance that it turns out to be a quick, popular war -- I don't see that happening, but if it does -- then they don't want to be out there with a statement against it. And if it doesn't turn out to be a quick, popular war, everyone voted with them.
The Anti-War Protests
I don't think there is really a wide-based anti-war movement. I wish there were. There are some people who have been active on other social issues and have transferred that activism to the war. But I don't see it as having penetrated to people outside the sort of small world of people who are active in political issues. One way you might see it happen is to produce legislation for a draft. It makes you almost sick when you read about these reserve units being called up; one guy was 59 years old. I don't think too many people who are driving the rhetoric for this war are going to have relatives fighting it.
The Missed Issues
One is international: Where does it take us if we rearrange the Middle East? Where are we going to come out on that? The other is domestic: Where is our own economy going to come out? I don't think they're being addressed out on the streets. There could be unintended consequences for the administration. A major war and a major depression were two of the things that the far right believed could bring about the moral rearmament of America. That would not be a good outcome, and it would not improve our process. I'm afraid it will be like Vietnam. I don't mean the war will be like Vietnam, but if there is an extended war or if there are extended consequences, rather than bring the country together, it could drive the country further apart in that there would be so much rhetoric, 24-7, that it would end up with everybody shouting at each other rather than feeling united in a useful way.
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Joan Didion '56
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