There has been a lot of internet chatter in recent days among Americans who style themselves as “leftists,” primarily because they admire Democratic politicians who believe they could do a better job of slaughtering Afghans, Iraqis, and coming soon, Iranians than the Republicans, and because “we can’t just cut and run.”
The crusade is undeniably popular, with politicians and their corporate sponsors as well as with voters, even though the voters have not, at least yet, received a benefit.
While fans may state different reasons for their support, as far as the voting classes are concerned, America does speak with one voice.
Unfortunately, it is a voice that willingly funds, and advocates crimes against humanity, and constitutes a much graver danger to ordinary Americans than any gaggle of CIA assets ever could.
Staying in Iraq is by definition, pro-war, or more accurately, pro-colonization, since a war tends to imply some sort of parity, which in Iraq, there is not.
In their unstinting efforts to outdo the right at the popular new American game of Good Germanhood, some “leftists” have been reduced to making the argument that while it is morally reprehensible, it is pragmatic.
It is, after all, making quite a bit of money for those who are intended to make money from it, and even people who have not received a benefit support it.
Therefore, any politician who wishes to continue in politics has little choice but to support it, and those who support him have little choice but to go along.
It is indeed the official policy of both monied political parties, and the number who oppose it, always small, shrinks daily.
That old unbridgeable gap again: it is just as impossible for Americans to comprehend the idea that the oil, and the people, and the land, are NOT US property by divine right, as it is for people in the Middle East to entertain the notion that they are.
A few hardline obstructionists, enemies of freedom and terrorists like myself find ourselves unable to resist the temptation to ask the pro-crusade faction questions like: If Iran decided that it did not like America’s form of government, and appointed itself the boss of the US and sent in Iranian gunmen and torturers and sexual predators to enforce its views.
What sort of arguments could Iran make that would successfully address American objection to this?
How could Iran successfully put down the anti-Iranian “insurgency?”
What would be your level of enthusiasm, if your town were Fallujized, for the Iranians sticking around, under any pretext whatsoever?
Under what circumstances, and for what price, would you join up with the Iranian occupying forces to become part of the New American Army, and on their orders, kill those of your neighbors that you were ordered to kill, and inform the occupation authorities if you suspected a friend or relative of harboring anti-Iranian sentiment?
Is it likely that you and your Bush-supporting neighbor might find yourselves fighting shoulder to shoulder against Iranian gunmen who have hauled both your sons off to be “interrogated” and destroyed both your homes?
Even though you might have some very big differences of opinion on just what type of government you want the US to have, would you be unified in your resolve, to use a popular meme, that it will be a government decided on and fought over by Americans, without the benefit of Iran?
Would it really matter to you, or your Bushista neighbor, what the Iranian government thought of your views, or his? Or would you both be focused on ousting the gunmen who were murdering your children, your neighbors and friends?
Is it possible that you might hold, even express the opinion that the United States does not belong to Iran, and it is none of Iran’s business what kind of government you have?
Do you think that even the most pro-Iranian Americans might say that by invading the US and occupying it and committing a host of atrocities against its people, had forfeited the right not only to even opine, or offer counsel, on the subject of the United States, but had also waived its right to be considered a sovereign nation with a legitimate government.
Do you think that pro-Iranian would be moved when it was pointed out that for Iran to withdraw from the United States would mean a certain, sudden and sharp decrease in revenue for several key Iranian corporations?
Would he to look at the burned and battered body of his little daughter and understand that for Iranian politicians, her slow, agonizing death was simply pragmatic?
Asking these questions, I think, puts an impossible burden on Americans, but it can be informative, too.
Americans simply cannot imagine themselves in such a position. It is beyond difficult, and I have come to accept, quite possibly culturally impossible, for Americans to follow an “it could be me” train of thought. That sort of thing does not happen to Americans, not regular people like your co-workers, your neighbors, your family.
That kind of thing happens to brown people far away who wear funny clothes and do not speak English, as seen on TV.
The reality divide is the problem. Iraqis see themselves as real live human beings, regular folks, with the same intensity that Americans see themselves that way.
When their children are maimed and murdered, their brothers tortured, their sisters and daughters shamed, the emotions they feel are exactly the emotions Americans would feel. There is no difference at all.
And no bomb, no napalm, no gas, no pain ray, no torture that can change that.
If only they were able to perceive it, Americans today are surrounded by an unprecedented smorgasbord of insight into just how events unfolded in Germany in the 1930s.
Lots of food for thought.
There is a lot here in your post to think about and discuss, which I’ll do later, but this one point struck me:
I was against the Iraq invasion from the time it first appeared on the horizon. I was against the Afghanistan one, too, for that matter. But both oppositions, no matter how much I talked about ‘civilian casualties’ and so on, were pretty much academic. I’ve never been in a war, so there is no real way I can feel the absolute terror and know the full horror. I argued and ranted against it, got angry and frustrated and snide, and all that stuff, but never at a true depth.
However, on the day of “Shock and Awe”, when we sat there and watched, on live TV! Big ratings!, the bombs raining down on the city of Baghdad, with the buildings and the palm trees silhouetted against the twilight sky… that is when I felt like I had been pierced through the heart and sat there with tears streaming down my face. Why? Because it looked to me just as if they were bombing my home, California. I did feel “it could be me”, and indeed felt almost as if it was.
There is no way, of course, that this can compare to those actually in the midst of war, but because of that quirk of geographical similarity I think I’ve come a little closer to understanding, which may also be why Fallujah had such an impact on me.
Anyway, I think (and hope) that there are more of us than it seems at the moment.
And I fear for the safety of every one as much as I fear for the safety of every person in every nation targetted by the US.
But as you will have discovered, yours is not the mainstream view, it is so far from the mainstream view that your own countrymen will, at best, call you all kinds of names, and at worst, applaud as you are seized and led off.
You are, to them, a wacko radical deserving of laughter and contempt, because there are so few of you.
If there were more, or if those few manage somehow to gain a voice, they will be the Enemy Within.
gadfly. You even get under my skin. Which is, undoubtedly, a good thing. I love Ductape.
I have certainly been called worse.
I prefer to think of myself as that annoying whine of steam that tells you you have a very limited time to either make tea or watch the kettle burn. 😉
Not to worry though, I called names right back. “Peacenik!” “Bloodluster!” (and this was a conversation with a Democrat 😉 Luckily, I’ve not been dragged off just yet.
I was amazed, the other day, to hear my views described as “fringe”. Not directly to me, of course, I was reading a few ‘left leaning’ blogs, and noticed that even they are getting more and more dismissive of anti war views, or the idea that there are other options rather than staying in Iraq, or more bombing of this or that place, etc. There seems to be more of a concerted push going on to make that a ‘fringe’ view, while the ‘responsible’ view is to just manage the wars better, not not have them at all.
What you’re saying is that we are a nation without empathy. We talk about Bush’s bubble, but we as a nation have also insulated ourselves and in the process have forgotten how to feel. We were ripe for the Neocons… we’ve done this to ourselves in a lot of ways. How sad but I’m afraid it just could be true. Words fail here.
We are talking about human beings, after all, who do have that capacity.
What we see now in the US is the result of generations upon generations of extremely insular thought, a sort of cultural solipcism, that has smothered and atrophied some capacities, and this is one.
If you have ever had the chance to speak with North Koreans, you will have noticed a startling (or not) familiarity in this regard.
One of the reasons I am here at BooMan, is DuctapeFatwa’s passion and courage. Booman himself, another reason. Susanhbu and her talking from the heart, and soul another. There are other patriots that I have discovered here. Since seeing their work at Kos, and surfing on over. Love the feisty women at Booman’s. Kos at times seems to suffer from his success. Suffering at times from tooooooo much information. Which in itself a good thing. The passion of the posters here at BooMan, a cut above. I see more courage here, than the other sites. DF, is not afraid to throw a punch, he is not afraid to throw a hay-maker. This country will self-destruct, if the Patriots do not start getting vocal. Americans need to begin, and/or continue to sacrifice, to bring their country back from the dark side. This is one fight worth fighting, this is one fight that needs to intensify. Cheers, EtJ
To all: keep up the fight, no room for fear, for what will come from inaction, is what is truly frightening.
We need a Bobby Kennedy..he was told he would be committing political suicide if he came out against the Vietnam War and wanted troops home. And yet instead of killing his political campaign he was as popular or more popular than ever.
Well Duct, your diary makes perfect sense to me. I’ve been doing this for 30 some years in any discussions I’ve had over the years-making people stop and put themselves in the shoes of the person or country-whatever they happen to be ranting about.
Of course the bad part is that many people who are usually ranting/raving simply can’t comprehend even trying to put themselves in the other persons place.
The whole horrible mess of Fallujah is a good example. I live next to a city about that size and have mentioned repeatedly how would we feel here if that town was destroyed and for no good reason. What would happen to the people, the children, the economy here. I’m getting used to blank stares…as you say people just don’t seem to comprehend what is really happening in Iraq. That real people with families, children, grandparents who live,love, laugh and cry and worry about what to make for supper and all the ordinary mundane things that we all do here…how can they think killing or bombing them out of existence a good thing?
Too many similarities for my comfort. One glaring example, the superior race. Better to kill them, better there than here. We will pattern them, after ourselves. Our roadmap, for their peace. Squawks of jealousy, squawks of hating America(duh, wonder why). Add attacks on dissenters as unpatriotic, or worse stating that patriots hate America, for speaking out. The silence of the media understood. They have their hands tied, and to go a step further; the media have become operatives of the government. Daily doses of bleeding, disfigured, and dead Iraqi children, would put a quick end to their satanistic cash cow. Daily doses of the torture, and the results of the torture would even do. Daily does of our dead, heck at least do them the honor of not hiding their caskets, and for God’s sake, call them caskets. Our living troops deserve the people to see what may become of them, if this satanistic cash cow continues. Peacefully, we must work on the sheeple, we must point out the poor job our media is doing. We must look for every little window of opportunity to expose the bush gang, and his controlled media to the sheeple. Cancel every penny of support to the main stream media. Educate oneself on the enemy, and have arguments ready to make a joke out of the bunk that is being fed to the sheeple. As DF has done, try to put them in the Iraqis places. Remind them of do unto others, as you would like done upon yourself. Remind them of what goes around comes around, basic karma. Do this with caring, and compassion. Do this patiently. EtJ
PS, and point out ever similarity to Hitler. Remind them everytime these thugs, remove another of our rights. Connect the dots for the sheeple, they are sheeple for a reason.