Martin Luther King would have backed Iraq invasion?

Martin Luther King probably would have supported the forced liberation of Iraq, King’s long-time friend Clarence Jones says in a soon-to-be-published book, “What Would Martin Say?”

“A complicated King emerges from Jones’s portrait—not the familiar pacifist but a likely supporter of the Iraq War who in Jones’s words might believe that military action is an unavoidable option that even those who are otherwise committed to non-violence must be prepared to consider now in order to save many more lives later.”

I’m not sure how Jones will prove his case, but it’s an interesting thesis. How will Jones be able to explain King’s opposition to the bloody and prolonged U.S. battle against the Communist take-over of South Vietnam?

War and color. Would King, who was assassinated in 1968, say his opposition to U.S. military action in Vietnam was based solely on drafting too many black Americans to fight then? Look at the U.S. casualties. The proportion of the U.S. Vietnam war dead who were black (13 percent) was only a little higher than the proportion of U.S. Iraq war dead who were black (10 percent).

(The black population is about 11 or 12 percent of the U.S. population.)

In 1963, King said, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed,” and “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Though he did promote nonviolent resistance to repeal unjust laws, he never seemed strictly turn-the-other-cheek. But who knows whether he thought oppressed people ever are entitled to military assistance from the outside?

What did Jones hear that we didn’t? In his book, he had better show some convincing evidence.

Frank Warner

Comments

[jj mollo]

Just to be clear, you are talking about the percentage of war related deaths that were classified as black people, not the percentage of the black population that was killed. Sorry, I know that I should address what you mean, not what you say. It's just a professional tic on my part.

[Frank Warner]

Good point. I'm referring to the part of the U.S. war dead that was/is classified as black.