The atrocity of Fallujah will haunt this generation forever.
Rent the DVD of "The Pianist" and you'll see horrible documentary footage of the Warsaw ghetto. Compare that visual record with the photos coming out of Fallujah, particularly the images of maimed and dead children. Historians may not agree that our actions are worse than those of the Nazis -- but in terms of visceral visual impact, the more recent outrages certainly look worse.
A new generation of red state youth is learning a lesson carefully hidden from it by the conservative brainwashers who control their media, pulpits and schools. American soldiers in Vietnam were called "baby killers" because they killed babies.
We had zero right to enter that country. We have zero right to remain in Iraq.
Many American military men are fundamentalist Christians -- in other words, they subscribe to a competing variant of the same evil that wreaked havoc on the innocent blue state of New York. Theocratic fundamentalism -- in all of its forms -- is THE THIRD MENACE.
We defeated Nazism and Communism, the first two menaces. We must now understand that you cannot use one form of fundamentalism to combat another, any more than you can extinguish a kitchen fire with a cigarette lighter.
I do not recognize these Bush-voting, red-state warriors-for-Christ as my fellow Americans. I do not weep when they die. While I will not spit in their faces when they return from their overseas butchery, I will not feel angry if someone else takes such a symbolic action.
These professional mercenaries are not citizen soldiers in the tradition of Joshua Chamberlain, Sergeant York, Harry Truman or Audie Murphy. They do not fight for this country or for any of its values. They have invaded a foreign land for one reason only: To steal oil.
Many of them understand this fact, although only a few will admit it aloud. Because most of them support the crime boss who initiated this theft, they cannot shirk responsibility for the atrocities they have committed. These ill-educated red-state killers-for-Christ are not victims when they fall in the name of King George -- their king. They are victimizers, invaders, conquerors, thieves. They deserve their fates because they support the conservatives cultists who have emptied our treasury and ruined our good name.
Was Saddam Hussein evil? Of course. But consider this haunting historical analogy:
Most would agree that Saddam Hussein's rule was far less despotic than that of, say, Tsar Alexander I, who ruled Russia during the war of 1812. Napoleon -- a more enlightened ruler than the Tsar ever was -- cited treaty violations as his pretext for invading Russia, much as Bush did when he invaded Iraq. (Napoleon's case was stronger.) Even so, when we read War and Peace, or see one of the film versions of that story, we root for the Russians.
Why? Because no foreign soldier has ever had any right to set foot on Russian soil. Any French soldier who marched outside his nation's borders deserved to die in agony. The relative merits of the Emperor and the Tsar simply do not enter into the calculation.
Taking the analogy further, I would argue that the psychic wounds of Napoleon's invasion set back the cause of political reform in Russia. The Decembrist rebellion of 1825 might have succeeded if French imperialism had not blackened the cause of modernization.
Lesson: Political reform comes from within. Attempts to impose reform from without will only strengthen nationalist reaction (which we are now pleased to categorize as "terrorism").
"Emperor" Bush insults the French when he should have studied their history. Those who follow him will end up like those who followed Bonaparte across the Nieman river.
5 comments:
First. Please don't beat us all with the same stick. Even in my home state, Alabama, 37 people of of every 100 went to the polls and voted for sanity. We read, we though, we blogged, we contributed, we fought, we taught, we tried. Please remember that even Alabama was just a brighter shade of purple. There are still a lot of us who belong to the ACLU and give the the Southern Poverty Law Center. We explain things to our friends and write letters to the newspapers. Some days we even stand tall enough to fight for freedom from religion. We have a awfully long row to hoe. Please don't write us off.
Second. I agree with you. Bush lied, cheated, and stole, so why, oh why, have the Dems just rounded ourselves back up for more circular firing squads. I've still got the strenght to fight back too. Maybe, as a red state woman, I'm just used to fighting all the time. But I don't have to roll over and play dead. We can fight this too. We must.
Third. The military is not all red either. Some of them hate this as--maybe more--than we do. Others are so young. I beg tolerance for the young until they have time to grown. They are not the real villans here. This is the work of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Pearl, Wolfowitz, etc.
Lets' fight but let's aim carefully.
Thanks. I appreciate your efforts very much.
The reason hard truths are called hard is because it is so difficult to listen to them. But I couldn't agree with you more.
I really don't want to hear any softening of these truths. I don't want to hear any mitigating factors, any righteous pieties about take this into consideration or that good reason why we've done what we've done.I don't want to hear from people who take the high road and try to put a good face on the mess our government has put us in, in Iraq. When the US has gone to war we have done horrible things. War is horrible. I know that there have been times in the past when we probably had no choice. But we had a choice about going into Viet Nam (and we shouldn't have done it) and we had a choice about occupying Iraq and again we shouldn't have done it. The men who put us in Iraq are immoral and they are fascists.
Thank you for standing up and saying what you did. The truth is hard. We need to hear it.
Ratfuck Diary (http://ratfuckdiary.blogspot.com?
Something I think we need to look at, although no one is likely to want to see, is why we keep showing the world our worst side? I mean, Bush does represent us...the worst in us. How many of us complain about corporations' destruction or pollution of the environment, but continue to lead lifestyles that support those very corporations? How worried are we about global warming, as we drive gasoline-powered vehicles, instead of refusing to pay into that system and riding bikes, walking, and using mass-transit? We worry about Walmart driving out small business, but we shop there for their low prices that make it possible for us to consume even more of everything they sell, made by corporations that recklessly pollute, waste, and employ slave-labour. We know they pay their employees poverty wages, but we continue to shop there. We give them the money they need to do what they do.
How can we blame Bush for sending our troops to kill people we don't want killed, and get killed, when we pay taxes and don't say "no, we won't go. This war isn't right, and I won't go kill these people for your oil profits." If all those soldiers had said "no" just how many of them would have been injured or killed in this war? Many of them knew it was a bad war, but still followed orders. Many of them didn't know it was a bad war, and wrong, and that's worse. We failed to teach our young right from wrong.
How many times have I accidentally or carelessly cut someone off in traffic because I was in a hurry. So the person I cut off wasn't in a hurry? Why is my mission more important? Am I the only one who pays the taxes that builds and maintains the road? No. But by behaving in such a self-centered, callous manner, am I any better than Bush when he thumbs his nose at the world or we the people?
We must look at ourselves and accept responsibility for our actions. Until we treat each other with the respect we say Bush should show the world; until we refuse to support the systems that are destroying our environment, health, children's future, we will continue to elect, or allow to have power, those who reflect the worst in us.
We are generous, compassionate, warm, loving people. We have a good and beautiful side. So why do we continue to allow our worst side to dominate our world and environmental presence? We've got to look for the good in people, and accept responsibilty for the situation. Only then can we change it, and reverse the downward trend in which we're trapped. It isn't just about our votes being counted. If we're unwilling to give up a lifestyle that condones the destruction of our natural resources and the middle class, and we continue to bank with corporations that steal from us, and buy products made by hurting other beings, whether human, animal, or plant, and don't say "no" when told to do something we know to be wrong, and cut people off in traffic, and think nasty thoughts about anyone we think is in our way... how on earth can we blame Bush for his behaviour? Isn't it a bit like the pot calling the kettle black?
Bush can have a very important role for our betterment: we can study his actions and let him show us how NOT to behave! Knowing how it feels to be sacrificed for big business and a few power-hungry rich people who think we're here for their fodder, we can look at how we treat people in other lands and in the neighbourhood and on the streets, and find a better way to be. Then our representatives will show the world our best side, and we can all feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Dem in Chatham County NC: Absolutely agree that a lot of military are furious over Iraq (and Bush). F911 was cheered at movie theater in Fayetteville NC (home of Fort Bragg) by a military audience.
My county has not sent many young men to Iraq because unemployment rate here is low. Plus local community college means kids can further education while living at home. But as to the draft, the military does not want to return to having to wash out all the useless draftees, or return to the days of the overall cynical and rebellious draftees of the later Vietnam years.
However, while BushCo has cut back on college funding (as well as so much else), additional "tax reform" measures could well put more young men (and women) and their families into the vice where "volunteering" (and contracting) for military service is only option for a paycheck. This I think is how they will don it. College will become a priviledge for the rich.
As I recall, of top three states with citizens in the military are new york and california, not sure what the 3rd was but I'm pretty certain it was also a "liberal elitist" state, which is heartening to know in the event of scession :D. Maybe the "military contractors" are fundis, but more likely they're amoral soulless bastards like mecenaries from all through history. As for the fundamentalist Christians/evengelicals/literal interpretors/etc, arent there meant to be like 34 or 43 million of them in America? If they were to fairly contribute to the military I doubt there'd be personal shortages, but to paraphrase Dick - "they've got better things to do" (anybody else seen any pictures of him from the 1970s? He looks like a used car salesmen)
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