DR. KING’S SPEECH ON VIETNAM SOUNDS LIKE IRAQ – by Eric Stoner

Forty years ago last month, on April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. rose to the pulpit of New York's Riverside Church to deliver his first public antiwar speech regarding Vietnam.

As anticipated, critics railed against him roundly at the time, not only those from the mainstream media, but also from allies such as the NAACP. Now, however, history has vindicated the truths that Dr. King so bravely spoke that day, and his testimony is widely seen as a prophetic masterpiece.

While still mesmerizing, the address can also be disconcerting. By simply swapping the word "Iraq" for "Vietnam," and "terrorism" for "communism," Dr. King's speech literally could be given today. Before describing how the United States betrayed the Vietnamese, first by supporting "the French in their abortive effort to re-colonize Vietnam," then by propping up the "vicious" dictator Diem, and finally by nearly wiping the country off the map through its extensive bombing and use of napalm, Dr. King said: "They must see Americans as strange liberators."

In Iraq, parallels abound. The United States supported Saddam Hussein as he massacred his own people during the 1980s, obliterated the country during the first Gulf War, imposed deadly sanctions for nearly 13 years, and finally invaded and occupied it in 2003. In place of napalm, the U.S. military now uses a more effective chemical to burn Iraqis – white phosphorous. And in our noble effort to bring democracy, we've also littered the country with cluster bombs and thousands of tons of poisonous depleted uranium.

Strange liberators, indeed.

Speaking of the soldiers, Dr. King said: "We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor."

One can only imagine the cognitive dissonance of our soldiers today, knowing that every reason that they originally were given to kill and be killed has been thoroughly debunked. Moreover, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority's effort to privatize nearly everything in Iraq, and our current advocacy for Iraq's new oil law –- which if passed by the Iraqi Parliament will be highly advantageous to American oil companies –- can leave little doubt whose side we're currently on.

Speaking on the bogeyman of his time, Dr. King declared: "War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons." The greatest defense against communism, he argued, "is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops." The same undoubtedly can be said for terrorism, which cannot be defeated by violence. Even the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that our wars have only worsened the threat of another attack and fanned the flames of extremism.

Dr. King is perhaps most relevant today, however, when he takes that extra step in his analysis to address the roots of the conflict. "The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit," he noted, brought on by "the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism." Calling the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," Dr. King issued a piercing warning that reaches us across the decades loud and clear: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

As the bloated Pentagon budget swells further – this year to over $600 billion – America becomes more of a one-trick pony, known the world over not for its kindness and generosity, but rather its brutality and quick trigger.

While that spiritual death seems closer now than ever, I believe Dr. King would still hold out the hope that we could live up to ourselves. To do so, we must snap out of our culturally induced coma and lead that "revolution of values" of which we are so desperately in need.

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Eric Stoner has written on peace and international affairs for numerous publications, including "The Nation" and the "Peoria Journal Star."