Matthews, Shakira on the War
As President Bush leads us toward what seems like an inevitable war
with Iraq, many musicians are doing their best to resist. During a
recent Pearl Jam show in Australia, Eddie Vedder ad-libbed, “I wish
I was president. Keep us out of war — that’s what friends are
for.” In England, Coldplay’s Chris Martin was even more blunt: “We
are all going to die when George Bush gets his way.” Here, six more
of the biggest names in rock air their views on the possibility of
war with Iraq.
Dave Matthews:
“I’m very scared at this point in our history. There’s this idea
going on in our administration that one plus one equals ten. Or
five times two equals one. I have no idea how they’ve come up with
the concept that if we get into a conflict with Iraq that
any of the results that they’re anticipating will come to
pass. I think, in fact, it’s so obvious to me that I think they
have to know that fighting Iraq will make al Qaeda
stronger. And that turmoil is somehow, sinisterly something that
they want. That unbalance. I don’t see how you can look at the
world right now and say destroying Iraq, what’s left there to
destroy, is going to in any way strengthen our position in the
Middle East.”
“We forget that bombs and missiles don’t fall on top of
cardboard dummies, they fall on people — children and mothers. The
leaders are lacking love, and love is lacking leaders . . . The
values of the world are twisted and we need to go back to
principles of love and forgiveness. That’s the only way to survive.
New leaders have to emerge, leaders who talk about love. Like
Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Where are they? The thinkers,
the journalists, the artists of this generation are the ones who
determine the thoughts of a generation, and we have to pronounce
those thoughts so people wake up, so we prevent future disasters .
. . If we don’t demand from our leaders a peaceful solution to the
conflict, then we aren’t even going to be alive to regret it.”
Peter Buck of R.E.M.:
“It certainly seems that if we’re gonna have a war, Vietnam
would have taught us that you should figure out why you’re having
it and who you’re fighting. And I haven’t seen that anyone’s
figured that out yet. I especially don’t want to see any young
people die so that we can continue to have cheap oil.”
Stephen Malkmus
“I don’t think it’s as clear cut as peace advocates — who say
war is automatically bad — say it is. People are dying there
because of [Hussein]. It’s not only our interests, although that’s
why we’re going in. I’m not saying for a minute we’re going in to
save Iraqi people. People have been tortured . . . It’s not so easy
to say we shouldn’t be there.”
John Mellencamp
“Thou shalt not kill. God said that, not me. It’s hard for
musicians to know where to they stand. We haven’t dealt with the
threat of war for a long time. Everybody was preoccupied with young
girls in stretch dresses. There has to be more to music than
that.”
Tom Morello
“Clearly, there is no credible reason to wage war and inflict
tremendous civilian casualties, in the name of some empty canister
shells — which is all the inspectors have found so far. The aim of
practical politics, and of this war on Iraq, is to keep the public
alarmed. The Bush administration is carrying out an assault against
the general population, and future generations, in the interests of
narrow sectors of wealth and power. And Saddam Hussein’s just the
latest one in a long series of hobgoblins.”