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TechnoratiForever The Victims
Talk about bad timing. It is unfortunate that the much-anticipated September accounting of "progress" in Iraq, centered on this week's congressional testimony by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, overlaps with the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. American ears still ring from the blow we took on that crisp morning, and whenever the images of smoldering New York reappear on screens, the worst aspects of the trauma reassert themselves. The enormous injustice of that day comes back, and with it an unsatisfied longing for recompense.
It is clear that the Bush administration took a compliant America to war in Iraq for no rational purpose, but out of a welter of emotions, not least of which was an unfocused impulse toward revenge. Having now learned from the disasters that followed in Bush's war, we citizens might be able to face directly the truth of what we have been doing, but when we sink again into the torpor of 9/11 woundedness, such reckoning comes hard.
Meanwhile, the war-prolongers say that how we got into the present mess weighs less on a moral scale than how we get out. A "realistic" assessment, yet that nicely deflects any hard examination of US policy - from invasion to "surge" - that might lower our high opinion of ourselves.
"Why do they hate us?" we asked six years ago, thinking of the terrorists and all who cheered them. The question assumed our innocence and good will. Didn't our enemies know what we stand for? The United States is the last best hope of Earth, the city on a hill, a freedom-loving people. Our virtue is as self-evident as the truths we hold. When we finally caught our breath in 2001, it was to ask how anyone could have so wished to hurt us?
If we went mistakenly to war, it was with good intentions - and elevated purpose continues to define the character of our ongoing occupation of Iraq. What is most striking about current measures of "progress" in the war is that, across the ideological and political divides, they assume that the moral deficit belongs exclusively to Iraqis. The US fighting force may have made an honest mistake with its invasion, but events that followed rendered America's blunder morally irrelevant, as truly wicked forces were unleashed not only in Iraqi cities and villages, but in Iraqi breasts. Whatever kept them quiet before, that nation's devils have been loosed, as various factions, tribes, and clans have set to blowing each other up. The sum of all evil now is "sectarianism." Never mind that, from the Iraqi point of view, sectarianism is what you do to protect your loved ones when a foreign power has destroyed the multiethnic civic culture that once kept your family safe.
In the "benchmark" assessments on debate this week, Washington's question is whether the "feckless" and "corrupt" Iraqis are any longer worthy of the virtuous presence of American forces. The war-prolongers say yes, the out-now people say no - but most accept the moral divide between good Americans and bad Iraqis.
This calibration is partly a result of the universal impulse to regard individual US soldiers as innocents. It is hard to conclude that United States policies are bad if the people carrying them out are only good. Indeed, as Thomas Friedman said last week of American troops he observed in a field hospital, "We don't deserve such good people." But then, repeating what has become a Friedman trope, he added pointedly, "Neither do Iraqis if they continue to hate each other more than they love their own kids." Notice Friedman's move: children are a lesser value to Iraqis, unlike Americans, even as we ship our children off to that blood-drenched hospital.
The real purpose of such punditry, like this week's focus on imagined terms of a US exit someday over actual effects of the US occupation this day, is American self-exoneration.
Why do they hate us? Perhaps an answer is embedded in this visceral insistence on innocence as the defining note of the American character.
If the United States finds a way, eventually, to withdraw from Iraq without ever having reckoned the war as an expressly American evil, then the world will be at risk for its savage replay. That is why this week's debate matters. It must be informed, above all, by clarity as to who the victims are, and who the perpetrators are. Six years ago, having suffered, we cloaked ourselves in victimhood, which made us dangerous.
James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.
© 2007 The Boston Globe
28 Comments so far
Show AllWe have become Israel. Not by our, the citizen's, choice, but by the choice of "our" Imperial Congress.
There is only one single candidate who has not and will not fly to Israel to declare his everlasting undying allegiance to our "special friend," that phoney baloney democracy for which "we" stand.
And let's not forget that other "evil" nation, Syria.
Matthew Rothschild, in an editorial in September's The Progressive, describes a Bush directive called "Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or Its Democratic Processes and Institutions." This order responds to the "national emergency" created by Syria's alleged support of Hezbollah.
Any of us who pose "a significant risk of undertaking" actions in support of Syria's alleged perfidy can have our assets (and those of a spouse or children) frozen by the Sec. of the Treasury. Donations of food, clothing or medicine to a person whose assets are frozen are banned.
Rothschild's editorial talks about three such executive orders, each of which arrogates more PREEMPTIVE or PREVENTIVE power to Bush. Congress just has to put impeachment on the table fast before our rights and Syria's peace go kaput.
The concept of connecting war with progress is akin to dividing by zero in mathematics. Any answer you get after dividing by zero is fundamentally nonsense.
The groundhog saw his shadow. One more year of occupation/war.
Betrayus presented a Crocker of Bullshit to Congress. The war is going along well except maybe for the Iraqis in exile, those living in the wrong part of the country, etc...
Remember one thing, folks. There are enough people out there looking for a steady paycheck. In the military you get health care, thirty days paid vacation a year, enlistment bonuses, reenlistment bonuses, housing allowances, travel pay, food allowances, plus free or reduced rate recreational privileges, commisary (supermarket) food stores and the px/bx department store with more reduced prices. And retirement after twenty years service (regardless of age) at 50% of your highest paygrade with annual cost of living increases. I may have left a few goodies out. This is proof that SOCIALISM works, but others may disagree. They'll tell you about the 'hardships' they have to endure, and all sorts of reasons why the military is not a form of socialism, but it is and it works! I'll take socialism or true anarchy anyday over greedy insatiable capitalism, but my point is this...we can entertain ourselves writing in the comments section day and night and very little will change. The 'escalation' of troops in Iraq, or, if you follow the party line, the word 'surge', will continue for the things stated above. It's all about economics 101. Makin' a livin' without worrying about layoffs, downsizing, offshoring, cuts in pay, benefit reduction, the threat of no pension when you are ready to retire...the list goes on.
War is murder and like anything else in the universe can be rationalized in enough ways to justify it. Not everyone is gullible, but the majority are, and like WW1 ace Hermann Goering said, it's easy to convince the people to do your bidding by using a few key words, like patriotism, homeland, terrorism, etc. I don't have the full quote at the moment, otherwise it would be included in this post.
So, we 'lamenters' or peacefull progressives work ourselves up, frothing from our mouths day after day, and type our solutions and frustrations on the computer for a small, select group of like-minded souls to read and respond to. It feeds our egos, ( it does mine ) when another ( or others ) praise our words of wisdom. Nothing wrong in this. But the violence continues and the tyrants persist in the quest for imperial domination.
As long as the military can recruit enough cannon fodder, and as long as the public is unwilling to change the formula, the Washington D.C. crooks and liars create more havoc in the world.
I told the boss I'm not working tomorrow, as a one day protest and the man was sympathetic. Can you imagine millions of citizens in all 50 states doing the same? And if the governmental racketeers bomb Iran, how about a national work stoppage by WE THE PEOPLE, citizens of what used to be a great country. It can be done, only if YOU insist.
I predict the war in Iraq will gradually wind down as the war in Iran cooks up. The new boogieman next door, Iran has been threatening for a long time to flood the world with cheap oil, and no self-oil-respecting, war-profiteering Texan can stand that! We will simply move the rest of our troops (check the map; it's right next door) over there (American oil wells are already over there according to scott ritter (former weapons inspector who is used to looking at satellite photos; see his article on commondreams.com) and other sources; oil wells visible for now in Iran on Google Earth,) so it follows that some "Bin Forgotten" messages are going to come out, and then some staged beheadings of Americans videos will be leaked to the internet...... then the bushmonkey decider will drink himself the courage to stand up to the microphone and read Cheney's latest script about attacking over there, so we don't have to fight them here......
Didn't we just do all this?
Are we that dumb?
These morons are starting a nuke war right next to china..... Do you think maybe the Chinese are going to object to a fallout cloud drifting over their country?
I feel just like Peter Sellers the RAF officer trying to stop the "GO CODE" from starting a nuke war in "Dr. Strangelove"
At least Bush and Cheney can protect their bodily fluids under mount Cheyenne and wait to be beamed up by the rapture......
But for the rest of us here after the drink hitler's hemlock in the bunker will experience: The Planet of the BushMonkeys! We're f*cking dooomed.....
President Bush father in Kennebunkport:
Please tell Quaggenbush that he is acting
very neurotic and paranoid, like a cross-section of extremely insecure Americans
who were MORE THAN NATURALLY SCREWED UP
by 9-11 .
Explain to him, please, that terrible as
that spectacle and national experience was,
it had nothing to do with Iraq, and that
death is death, and you are the same amount
dead whether you jump from a skyscraper or
get killed in your car, which is more
likely.
Ask him, please, if he doesn't think the
"terrorists" (spit when you say each consonant to make sure he understands the same word) would prefer another country than Iraq for their launching platform: one with fewer explosions aimed at them by local tribesmen and more Hilton hotels and running water and electricity and airplanes.
webwalk: Agreed! I hadn't thought of that one. I got stuck on the term "war" when in fact what BushCo did was Invade and Occupy a sovereign nation. Oh well....
By the way, even if you can't be in DC for the anti-war protest on the 15th, do something locally to support the effort. Be there or be square!
Hi,
Archive wrote: "And now America has an official policy of "preemptive war" whenever they please."
Actually we have a "preventive war" policy. "Preemptive war" would be if someone is preparing to attack you, and you "preempt" their attack by attacking them instead. "Preemptive war" is considered legitimate under some theories of war, as long as the people you attack actually ARE preparing to in fact attack you.
"Preventive war" (completely illegal under any theory of war, except for evil doers like Hitler and Bush) is when you claim that in the future someone may attack you, so you attack them now to prevent that possibility from happening. We bombed and invaded Iraq not because we could claim they were marshalling their forces to attack us, but because we claimed they might attack us in the future. Now we are making the same claims about Iran.
i know, language technicalities of war thoery are pretty meaningless in the face of WWIII, i'm sure it would make a big difference if we all just used more precise language... FWIW.
"Why do they hate us? Perhaps an answer is embedded in this visceral insistence on innocence as the defining note of the American character.
If the United States finds a way, eventually, to withdraw from Iraq without ever having reckoned the war as an expressly American evil, then the world will be at risk for its savage replay"
The wall in DC is the perfect expression of American self-absorption -- where are the names of the people who died under American bombs, of American carcinogens, in free fire zones, in ditches all across Vietnam?
"In the "benchmark" assessments on debate this week, Washington's question is whether the "feckless" and "corrupt" Iraqis are any longer worthy of the virtuous presence of American forces. The war-prolongers say yes, the out-now people say no - but most accept the moral divide between good Americans and bad Iraqis."
The chariman of the Armed Services Committee this morning was heaping scorn on the Iraqi parliament for "sitting on their thumbs while young American men and women aer dying" -- never mind that they are dying while killing Iraqi men, women, and children of all ages in the name of "stability".
Why does the Pentagon work for the oligarchy and not for We the People?
Hey frank569,
And now America has an official policy of "preemptive war" whenever they please. For self-defense of course.
Also, Americans have lost their civil rights. No right to habeas corpus. No right to free speech. Americans are like Jenna Jamison.
Pangloss - so true - round and round we go, holding on to the tiger by the tail. Big power (i.e. big wealth, big politics, big media) understand completely why "they" hate us. We rule because we are ruthless and our methods insidious and to let go that tiger's tail would mean we are tiger food.
Of course "they" hate us. "They" don't want to become another fully owned subsidiary of western wealth.
That policy which pretends to aspire to peace not unerringly generates war, the policy of continued preparation for war, the policy of meddlesome interventionism. There was no corner of the known world where some interest was not alleged to be in danger or under actual attack. If the interests were not Roman, they were those of Rome's allies; and if Rome had no allies, the allies would be invented… The fight was always invested with an aura of legality. Rome was always being attacked by evil-minded neighbours, always fighting for a breathing space. The whole world was pervaded by a host of enemies, and it was manifestly Rome's duty to guard against indubitably aggressive designs.
JOSEPH SCHUMPETER, Sociology of Imperialism, 1919.
Round and round and round we go!
Jackgay hit the nail on the head. The Iraq occupation is a two point wealth transfer exercise.
1) The oil that is now the property of Iraq is becoming the property of multinational oil companies.
2) The US Treasury is being drained by the miltary industrial complex, leaving no money for domestic needs.
General Betayus and Ambassador Crockof____ are towing the regime's line to assure that maximum wealth transfer occurs.
Americans have always been the "victims." The original settlers fled here because their were victims of religious oppression. We massacred the Natives because they "hated" the white man's good intentioned theft of their land. And every time we've blown the living shit out of someone since, it was because we were "under attack" or "hated" or whatever.
Every dictator in history has claimed to be the "victim" of something that has "forced" him to act only in "self-defense" and for the betterment of "mankind," especially "childrenkind."
Yeah, Rebel Farmer. It's our country, government depends on the consent of the governed. Let's govern!
As soon as I read Friedman's comment, I thought, "And the powers that be in America love war more than they love their children."
I guess it also follows that the warmongers hate Iraqis more than they love their children.
Such hypocrisy! Of course, it's not their children who are fighting, so perhaps it's just that they love war and hate Iraqis more than they love other people's children.
"...what has become a Friedman trope, he added pointedly, "Neither do Iraqis if they continue to hate each other more than they love their own kids."
Forget fine definitional words like "trope", Friedman's remark is simply racist.
DO SOMETHING!!!! Join a protest 9/15!
Watching news coverage of the election, every day and for every damned thing any candidate does, we wonder why we're still stuck in Iraq. Sure. LOOK at that tv. See Britanny? See the parents who might have off-ed their kid? See all the other crap that doesn't mean a damn, in between the never-ending and frequently repeated (when did that start to happen?) commercials? See them give equal time to conservative nutjobs? And pretty women in trouble. Anna Nicole. Paris.
I think we can comfortably blame MSM for getting us, and keeping us, in Iraq. All they're doing is distracting us as policy, and they lie for this Administration. The mightiest superpower in the world, brought down by a bunch of media nerds and ad execs. Military-industrial complex couldn't have done it without them. So I say blame them. They never had to play along, it was their choice to play misinform the USA. It was their choice to abet treason and murder. Many of us were dragged into the war kicking and screaming, and now most of us want out, but THEY made it happen.
MSM intentionally lies and deceives the United States.
Maybe we need to boycott MSM. I wonder how that would work.
Neither side will let us out of Iraq because the political fallout of loosing the quagmire is more important to our polititians than the lives of our troups. This disaster will have to play itself out in its own bloody, expensive, and wasteful, course. We citizens have been rendered impotent by both parties and can only watch the slow train wreck unfold before our eyes. Hide your children and your money because this corrupt government will eventually want to come after both.
James Carroll...Do you live in Disneyland? On what ride are you? Wake up and smell reality! Oil! Oil! Oil!
The longer the usa is there the more power and money certain people get. If the war ends so does the need for all those billion dollar private contracts. Obviously those in charge do not want that.
We are stuck in Iraq until the inevitable catastrophe. Get used to it.
Well, since the Democrats have gotten us into the past 4 major wars (World War I, II, Korea, Vietnam) I guess it was the Republicans turn to screw up. Get the troops out of IRAQ. Let the Iraqis sort it out.
I always said that when this war started, they had no plan but to keep us quagmired there, specifically to stuff the coffers of the Military Industrial Complex. Republicans don't care what happens because it is always the Democrats who save their sorry asses!
America proclaiming its innocence is like Jenna Jamison proclaiming her virginity.
Like Jamison, the list of people America has fucked is long and public.