Here’s the Smell of the Blood Still
The following essay is adapted from Norman Solomon’s new book, Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State:
When Martin Luther King Jr. publicly referred to “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government,” he had no way of knowing that his description would ring so true 40 years later. As the autumn of 2007 begins, the reality of Uncle Sam as an unhinged mega-killer haunts a large minority of Americans. Many who can remember the horrific era of the Vietnam War are nearly incredulous that we could now be living in a time of similarly deranged official policy.
Despite all the differences, the deep parallels between the two war efforts inform us that the basic madness of entrenched power in our midst is not about miscalculations or bad management or quagmires. The continuity tells us much more than we would probably like to know about the obstacles to decency that confront us every day.
The incredulity and numbing, the frequent bobbing-and-weaving of our own consciousness, the hollow comforts of passivity, insulate us from hard truths and harsher realities than we might ever have expected to need to confront — about our country and about ourselves.
Of all the words spewed from the Pet Crock hearings with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, maybe none were more revealing than Petraeus’s bid for a modicum of sympathy for his burdens as a commander. “This is going on three years for me, on top of a year deployment to Bosnia as well,” he said at the Senate hearing, “so my family also knows something about sacrifice.”
There’s sacrifice and sacrifice.
“It is as bad as it seems,” longtime activist Dave Dellinger told a gathering of protesters outside the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach as it prepared to re-nominate a war-criminal president. “We must achieve a breakthrough in understanding reality.”
I listened, agreeing. But it was, and is, easier said. How do we truly grasp what’s being done in our names, with our tax dollars — and, most of all, with our inordinate self-restraint that tolerates what should be intolerable?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
From an Oval Office tape, May 4, 1972: “I’ll see that the United States does not lose,” the president said while conferring with aides Al Haig, John Connally and Henry Kissinger. “I’m putting it quite bluntly. I’ll be quite precise. South Vietnam may lose. But the United States cannot lose. Which means, basically, I have made the decision. Whatever happens to South Vietnam, we are going to cream North Vietnam…. For once, we’ve got to use the maximum power of this country … against this shit-ass little country: to win the war. We can’t use the word, ‘win.’ But others can.”
By mid-1972, U.S. troop levels in Vietnam were way down — to around seventy thousand — almost half a million lower than three years earlier. Fewer Americans were dying, and the carnage in Vietnam was fading as a front-burner issue in U.S. politics. Nixon’s withdrawal strategy had changed the focus of media coverage.
The executive producer of ABC’s evening news, Av Westin, had written in a 1969 memo: “I have asked our Vietnam staff to alter the focus of their coverage from combat pieces to interpretive ones, pegged to the eventual pull-out of the American forces. This point should be stressed for all hands.” In a telex to the network’s Saigon bureau, Westin gave the news of his decree to the correspondents: “I think the time has come to shift some of our focus from the battlefield, or more specifically American military involvement with the enemy, to themes and stories under the general heading ‘We Are on Our Way Out of Vietnam.’”
The killing had gone more technological; from 1969 to 1972 the U.S. government dropped 3.5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam, a total higher than all the bombing in the previous five years. The combination of withdrawing U.S. troops and stepping up the bombardment was anything but a coincidence; the latest in military science would make it possible to, in President Nixon’s private words, “use the maximum power of this country” against a “shit-ass little country.”
In December 1972, Nixon delivered on his confidential pledge to “cream North Vietnam,” ordering eleven days and nights of almost round-the-clock sorties (Christmas was an off day) that dropped twenty thousand tons of bombs on North Vietnam. B-52s reached the city of Hanoi. During that week and a half, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg later noted, the U.S. government dropped “the explosive equivalent of the Nagasaki A-bomb.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visiting Baghdad near the end of 2002, I looked at Iraqi people and wondered what would happen to them when the missiles arrived, what would befall the earnest young man managing the little online computer shop in the hotel next to the alcohol-free bar, who invited me to a worship service at the Presbyterian church that he devoutly attended; or the sweet-faced middle-aged fellow with a moustache very much like Saddam Hussein’s (a ubiquitous police-state fashion statement) who stood near the elevator and put hand over heart whenever I passed; or the sweethearts chatting across candles at an outdoor restaurant as twilight settled on the banks of the Tigris.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
That winter, movers and shakers in Washington shuffled along to the beat of a media drum that kept reporting on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as a virtual certainty. At the same time, millions of Americans tried to prevent an invasion; their activism ranged from letters and petitions to picket lines, civil disobedience, marches, and mass rallies. On January 18, 2003, as the Washington Post recalled years later, “an antiwar protest described as the largest since the Vietnam War drew several hundred thousand … on the eve of the Iraq war, in subfreezing Washington weather. The high temperature reported that day was in the mid-20s.”
The outcry was global, and the numbers grew larger. On February 15, an estimated 10 million people demonstrated against the impending war. A dispatch from Knight-Ridder news service summed up the events of that day: “By the millions, peace marchers in cities around the world united Saturday behind a single demand: No war with Iraq.” But the war planners running the U.S. government were determined.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
During one year after another, the warfare intensified in Iraq. And an air war kept escalating. The U.S. media assumed that almost any use of American air power was to the good. (Exceptions came with fleeting news of mishaps like dropping bombs on wedding parties.) What actually happened to human beings every day as explosives hit the ground would not be conveyed to the reputedly well-informed. What we didn’t know presumably wouldn’t hurt us or our self-image. We thought ourselves better — incomparably better — because we burned people with modern technology from high in the air. Car bombs and detonation belts were for the uncivilized.
One of the methodical quirks of U.S. Air Force news releases has been that they consistently refer to insurgents as “anti-Iraqi forces” — even though almost all of those fighters are Iraqis. So, in a release about activities on Christmas Day 2006, the Air Force reported that “Marine Corps F/A-18Ds conducted a strike against anti-Iraqi forces near Haqlaniyah.” The next day, it was the same story, as it would be for a long time to come — with U.S. Air Force jets bombing “anti-Iraqi forces” on behalf of missions for “Operation Iraqi Freedom” in order to “deter and disrupt terrorist activities.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In my kitchen is a dark-red little carpet with black designs, imported from Baghdad. I bought it there one afternoon in late January 2003 at the bazaar (not so different, to my eyes anyway, from the market I later visited in Tehran). My traveling companion was a former high-ranking U.N. official, Denis Halliday, who had lived in Baghdad for a while during the 1990s before resigning as head of the “oil for food” program in protest against the draconian sanctions that caused so much devastation among civilians. Denis was revisiting some of the shopkeepers he had come to know. After warm greetings and pleasantries, an Iraqi man in his middle years said that he’d heard on the BBC about a French proposal for averting an invasion. The earnest hope in his voice made my heart sink, as if falling into the dirty stretch of the Tigris River that Denis and I had just hopped a boat across, where people were beating rugs on stones alongside the banks.
Often when I look at the carpet in the kitchen I think that it is filled with blood, remembering how one country’s treasures become another’s aesthetic enhancements. I had carted home the rolled-up carpet and less than two months later came “shock and awe.” Now, more than four years afterward, the daily papers piled up on the breakfast table a few feet away tell of the latest carnage. I don’t think the rug has ever given me pleasure since the day it unfurled across the hardwood floor. It hasn’t been cleaned since presumably it soaked up the Tigris water during its last washing. There’s blood on the carpet and no amount of trips to the dry cleaners could change that.
Macbeth, Act V, Scene 1: “Out, damned spot! out, I say! … What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? — Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? … What, will these hands ne’er be clean? … Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”
Norman Solomon’s new book “Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State” has just come off the press. For more information, go to: www.MadeLoveGotWar.com. The documentary film “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” is based on Norman Solomon’s book of the same title. For information about the full-length movie, narrated by Sean Penn and produced by the Media Education Foundation, go to: www.WarMadeEasyTheMovie.org
A death metal band called ‘Slayer’ released a song called “The Final Command”
Screams of terror across the sea
Begging for mercy in their one final plea
Soldiers prepare to fight to the death
Fighting and killing to their very last breath
Blitzkrieg tactics of the German command
Born with the power of God in his hand
He makes his move to conquer the land
Turning all hopes of life to sand
[Chorus:]
Machine gun fire, blood level higher
Visions of torture and terror to all
Ready for battle awaiting the final command
Hiding in darkness from enemies unseen
Awaiting our victory ending his dream
Cursed are the souls who defy his will
All of which are tortured and ruthlessly killed
Blitzkrieg tactics of the German command
Born with the power of God in his hand
Shocking the world with his mass devastation
He puts all his power in the trust of one nation
[Chorus]
At the crack of dawn they storm again
Hunting, fighting and killing all men
The end is near our time now short
Our kingdoms have fallen as a result of his sport
Blitzkrieg tactics of the German command
Born with the power of God in his hand
Withdrawn from fighting he now takes his leave
Seeking out goals that can’t be conceived
It was written in 1983. Sounds alot like Iraq now.
This is what happens when humanity and rationality are replaced with hatred and violence.
Blood doesn’t just wash off. I thank God that I never voted for bush and protested attacking Iraq long before the first bombs fell. Unfortunately the blood of thousands of Afghani’s remains on my hands because I said nothing when we attacked them and occupied their country. The blood on my hands reminds me to THINK. Reason and rationality are precious commoditites after you have been harmed.
When they say on the news that the ‘terrorists’ will follow us back here if we leave Iraq they are partially right. The ‘terrorists’ won’t but their blood will. It’s stench is only cloaked by the stronger smell of lies.
Senator Clinton is our Lady Macbeth.
I work in Richmond, California, the most violent city in the state and the eleventh most violent in the entire nation. There are shootings and murders here practically every day. Yesterday there were eight shootings. So I’ve had a tiny idea of what transpires in Iraq. Someone should take the Horst Wessel Twins, Bush and Cheney, and drop them at midnight on 4th and Barrett and let them try to walk home.
Actually, crude oil has a stronger smell than blood. Work around it enough and eventually your clothing and even skin will have the odd stench of crude which is difficult to remove. Vietnam vets will tell you that napalm and human flesh burning is another smell that creates a persistent memory.
We are definitely repeating history with the imperial war crimes in Iraq. And there are reports the “surge” has been fortified with increased bombing meaning more “collateral damage”. What portion of those bombs contain depleted uranium would be difficult to determine. In the case of agent orange, the Vietnamese still live with the effects.
One unfortunate difference between the two conflicts is that real war photography has been censored in Iraq. The U.S. military made their position very clear following the invasion by shooting and shelling journalists. Some of the classic war images from Vietnam remain part of our national memory. They helped bring and end to the horror by educating the public.
But one of the crazy facts about Vietnam was they never had resources as valuable as Iraq, yet we still tried to turn their country into a parking lot with a vicious and vindictive bombing campaign.
That type of aerial cruelty may be the psychological dark side of “leaders” from both parties, LBJ, Nixon or Bush. It takes a very sick mind to murder the innocent to satisfy either greed, pure power, or ego.
The big question is whether or not these leaders represent a significant element of our national character.
Yet, while this vivid essay brings the horrors of Iraq to center stage, I would hope the book gives an interpretation of the economic and political forces behind Iraq and Vietnam policies. Strangely enough, many of the same political players are active again. If anything is to change, more people need to understand the cruel economic philosophy behind such crimes.
The irrational madness behind the Iraq occupation is they are spending more money on “war” than the oil resources are worth.
One logical conclusion about the scenario in Iraq is the warmongers, and their corporate friends, actually have economic interests in both the war machine and the oil industry. They make money, at the public expense, win or loose. Hence, the White House and Congress do not want to shut down the occupation no matter how bloody and pointless. They are all in on it, directly or indirectly.
And although they have yet to begin bombing the average American, the moral, spiritual and economic effects on Americans are real.
A very reasonable discussion of the underlying forces behind the current crimes against humanity, contrasting Vietnam and Iraq, can be found in the following Chomsky interview. The complicit corporate media must have missed this one.
http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20050131.htm
And once everyone in this country understands these ideas (most of the world already knows) we can start planning for a government, economy and way of life that is not dependent upon an active imperial war machine. This can be done, but not overnight. Cultures do change over time.
Visiting Baghdad near the end of 2002, I looked at Iraqi people and wondered what would happen to them when the missiles arrived, what would befall the earnest young man managing the little online computer shop in the hotel next to the alcohol-free bar, who invited me to a worship service at the Presbyterian church that he devoutly attended; or the sweet-faced middle-aged fellow with a moustache very much like Saddam Hussein’s (a ubiquitous police-state fashion statement) who stood near the elevator and put hand over heart whenever I passed; or the sweethearts chatting across candles at an outdoor restaurant as twilight settled on the banks of the Tigris.
Human beings, just like us and our neighbors.
And soon to be joined by the ordinary human beings of Tehran, if I understand right.
We were so outraged by two attacks on one day six years ago. Is it so strange that others would be able to summon up so much more anger and resentment for four-plus YEARS of the same?
Unless I completely missed it somehow, didn’t all of those statistics and colored graphs and bomb count vs body count projections contained in General Petraeus’s report and testimony remain strangely silent on the status of the air campaign during the surge?
Were the number of sorties up, or were they down, over what the total was six months ago, or compared to the same months in 2006 or 2005? What about tonnage of munitions dropped? What about the number of casualties on the ground attributable to bombs, or missles, or strafing by helicopters or gunships? During the surge, has there been an increase, or a decrease, in the number of ground attacks upon US planes and/or US helicoptors?
And of course the ultimate question: if statistics showed that the US air war escalated, or that the US air war declined, what does it supposedly prove about the “success” or “failure” of the surge strategy anyway?
On a lighter note, Norman Solomon’s reference to the Pet Crock hearings belongs in the Bush era humor archives right alongside MoveOn’s ad about General Betrayus, and Sunday’s hysterical Berkeley Breathed cartoon, in which Opus is serenaded out of his sleep by George Bush singing “Maria” from West Side Story with new lyrics. I’ve always been drawn to gallows humor, in times of stress and strife like these.
Nixon’s 1972 taped conversation with Al, John and Henry K is echoed today by the Bush regime: if we can’t beat ‘em, at least we can make our enemy’s victory a Phyrric one.
Small wonder Osama bin Laden’s latest script writer claims that the American “regime of the generals” invaded Iraq largely because those responsible for the debacle of Vietnam were never prosecuted, and instead crept back into power.
For this one time on this one thing, I think Osama’s absolutely right.
Bill from Saginaw
Bill from Saginaw….you nailed it…spot-on…
I love when the arrogant politicians of both parties as well as our military keep exclaiming that the Iraqis are incapable of governing themselves and that is the reason we need to stay. (Apparently not the OIL) This is one of the oldest civilizations on earth with one of the oldest written languages and one of the first with a written set of laws. They are perfectly capable of figuring out how to rebuild their country once we stop reducing it to the stone-age. This would, of course, mean that they would own their own OIL rather than Exxon, Shell, or BP/
The key is “our tax dollars.” Without them, this criminal government can’t commit anymore crimes.
Mr. Bill:
from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19763898/
Iraq ‘surge’ taking place in the skies, too
U.S. Air Force quietly ramps up bombing, ground support missions:
AP: 6:22 p.m. MT July 14, 2007
” BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq - Away from the headlines and debate over the “surge” in U.S. ground troops, the Air Force has quietly built up its hardware inside Iraq, sharply stepped up bombing and laid a foundation for a sustained air campaign in support of American and Iraqi forces. ”
This is mainstream media. It is probably much worse. But what the morons managing the war crimes fail to recognize is that bombing of this sort almost always hardens hearts and the will to resist. The brutal bombing of civilians in Fallujah rivaled the fascist bombing of Guerinca back in 1937 which was supposed to have been one of the low points in human history. The result of the brutality in Fallujah was an immediate intensification of Iraqi resistance.
Ideas on bombing civilians worth the read:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1740381,00.html
But, the Iraqis are in it for the long haul as it is part of their history and culture to resist occupation. They still talk about driving out the Mongols 800 years ago as if it were only yesterday. A brief and interesting walk through history is found at:
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/butler.php?articleid=2533
The Iraqis drove out the Brits as well but it did take time. We are presently accomplishing nothing while burning up over $3 Billion per week making new enemies for the empire.
Excellent article!!!! Probably for the first time I have read an article with an “honest look” at the REAL AMERICA.
This reminds me of Chavez’s comment on Bush in the UN that he could smell sulphur on the dias. This is the smell that the Americans would carry whereever they go in the world!!! Ofcourse with the blood-stained clothes on!!!!
You are right-on, LWHUNT!! I ditto your comments.
Thankyou to Norman Solomon for the main article.
And thanks also to you guys who have posted comments above: Such compassion and heartfelt responses show that there are indeed still sane and rational, *sensate* human beings left on this planet.
Within such responses as yours I find hope and encouragement, ~ all is not lost for as long as there are such caring beings as you.
__________________
Whilst we as a race slept, the most UNHOLY beings were plotting all of this; (carnage).
They are not of our breed; they are seemingly from a ‘Planet Darth Vader’ or some such.
~ Given the opportunity to do and say ‘the right thing’ (those things which would most serve and benefit humanity) they instead chose / choose to do all in their power to harm and hurt their fellow beings…
We all know they are insane, -of that there is no doubt, but I feel they are even worse than crazy, I feel they epitomise some sort of dark malevolence which intends only the corruption of all that’s ‘good’, - and instead solely wish the unleashing of evil upon our planet.
So what to do?
We need, -as a race, to fully awaken to the threat posed by these monstrous creatures of darkness, - (be that the poisonous politicians themselves, and / or their craven supporters in the mEss media, et al.)
As a race we need to be aware that these criminals need be eradicated *forever* from our planet and sent back to the Hades from whence they crawled.
We need wake, and wake soon.
Let’s do all in our power to help awaken our still-sleeping fellows to the danger posed by the venomous ghouls who have come lodge like deadly insects in the corridors of power.
There will never be such a thing as this much vaunted *freedom* thing, until we are rid of the toxic menace which at present rules our various lands…
And seeing as how *the most disreputable* seem most drawn towards the seats of power, maybe it’s time we did away with that honey pot which so draws these harmful insects? Maybe it’s time we designed a NEW system, ~ one which wasn’t so prone to being usurped by these ‘creatures of the night’, but instead fitted sane and wholesome human life on planet Earth, - not that which aids and abets the most corrupt villains to worm their way into power?
THEY won’t ever design a new and better way, so it’s down to us.
Amateurs we may be, but we at least have the vision and verve to do what MUST be done, -for the sake of a new and better world.
any new way will need to become imbeded in the popular culture.
a new way will need to honor honest self-consciousness and honest historical analysis over and above instant gratification and tunnel-visioned self-interest.
the collective epistemology of average americans is no where near this; the popular culture remains idiotic, and there’s nothing on the horizon that’s acting to bring about enlightening change.
With close to fifty military bases in Iraq, many that are permanent bases, it seems unlikely that the USA is leaving Iraq in the next ten to twenty years.
It seems to me is that the USA will find that to leave one must stay in Iraq.
If you side with those that say we ought to leave, then you are siding with the people that will cause the USA to stay in Iraq longer, however, if you side with those who say we must stay then you are on the side that wants the USA to get out of Iraq sooner.
THREE CARD MONTY anyone?
Favonian:
“any new way will need to become imbedded in the popular culture”
Absolutely.
And because I choose to hang on to ideas that give me a reason to get up in the morning, I think eventually this culture will change. The American empire is on shaky ground in many ways and that could lead to growth for the better. Look at the French, they eventually gave up on militaristic imperialism as did many European nations. We are still very young.
The current hypocrisy in Washington is actually a dark comedy as they are trying to pretend they are not imperial war criminals since somewhere in their minds they realize that is not acceptable. Denial is a very human trait and can be overcome.
I was rambling earlier today on my post and ended with, “Cultures do change over time”. I should have said something to the effect that cultures are capable of changing over long periods of time.
Example: I had a life-altering cultural encounter with Tibetan refugees in India/Nepal back in the early 70’s. They once had a warrior culture and raided their neighbors. Over more than a century, principles of Buddhist thought replaced the old kill and plunder mentality. They were lucky in a geographic sense being isolated and could preserve their relatively non-violent culture for about nine centuries. But eventually they were overwhelmed by the military power of China. Tibet could have done without their feudal aristocrats, just like we would be better off without our ruthless oligarchs, but no one in Tibet wanted Chinese rule and the loss of their autonomy and cultural heritage.
And what will the ultimate ripple effect of that be misfortune be ? At the moment, thousands of publications spreading Tibetan wisdom/psychology are now circulating around the world. Not a revolution but a seed.
America is still trying to integrate the best ideas from the 60’s that evolved from earlier cultural movements. Round and round we go.
More than likely none of us boomers will live long enough to see a more ideal and just America, but that is all the more reason to keep rocking the boat in some way and thinking the good thoughts, or just talking to each other for sanity and brain exercise.
Things do improve, as when I first became aware of “civil rights” in high school they were still lynching blacks and killing activists !
Put another way, to paraphrase Dickinson, we can create a better world in our minds right now until the “real” world comes around:
I dwell in Possibility–
More numerous of Windows–
Superior–for Doors -
Impregnable of Eye–
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise–
With Metta
Lady Mac Pelosi
Like Lady Macbeth “she begins a slow slide into madness.” Will she be “reduced to sleepwalking through” the congress and will she be “desperately trying to wash away an invisible bloodstain?” It seems though that Lady Mac Pelosi unlike Lady Macbeth will however be able to cope and she will allow her madness to maintain the bloodshed for years to come.
lwhunt330, Have you ever met anyone from the region?
Your song and dance,
“This is one of the oldest civilizations on earth with one of the oldest written languages and one of the first with a written set of laws.”
I have had plenty of middle-eastern friends, they are knuckle-heads. Their philosophies border on the stone-age. Why? Their barbaric religion. You thought fundamental Christians are hard to deal with? Try Muslim men. Don your berka and join the harem.
Aaahh damon13,
What Swiftboat were you on? Don’t distract from issues by your racist views!
Why don’t you go volunteer? I’m sure you would shine in bootcamp and Iraq.
Or better yet, why don’t you support bringing the troops home immediately so they won’t be tainted by being in the same country as those Muslim men?
Of course, there’s a good chance one of your neighbors might be a Muslim. Maybe you should hide under your bed and let facts dictate this thread of thought instead of uninformed, illiterate, racist and Islamophobic rants.
Favonian and JConrad: Thanks to both of you for intelligent, thoughtful replies.
Favonian, I of course agree that at present the prognosis doesn’t seem all that favourable.
You write: “…the popular culture remains idiotic, and there’s nothing on the horizon that’s acting to bring about enlightening change.”
I know what you mean there, but then, we don’t generally see what’s just OVER the horizon! Bon chance! It may well be better than we ever imagined!
(Certainly I feel it would be a grave error to deny the POSSIBILITY of great beneficial changes occurring? ) And I agree with your comment as regards ’self-interest’, - selfishness is a sad *self poor trait* indeed…
Which leads me on to JConrad’s reply:
“…I think in time even this culture will change. The American empire is on shaky ground in many ways and that should lead to some changes, perhaps for the better… We are still very young.”
~Too true! The USA is still a spotty, stroppy, selfish teenager, and the present administration has led the nation into a quagmire wherein the nation will soon either sink into ignominious obscurity or rise, phoenix-like, up out of it’s near demise. I’m hoping for the latter, but it may well take a big kick in the pants to help initiate that change of consciousness. Nature herself may well oblige us here.
JConrad again: “…but that is all the more reason to keep rocking the boat in some way and thinking the good thoughts, or just talking to each other for sanity and brain exercise. We can create a better world in our minds until the real world comes around.”
Yup! Those are good reasons to keep the ball in the air. Without pre-visioning the needed changes they aren’t very likely to come into being. Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ was useful for exactly that reason; we need to first imagine how we want the world to be, prior to creating it.
At the moment many of us are very focussed on all this stuff, - but would we be, -if the riotous devils of Bush Inc had not played their crooked hand? Were it not for them, would more of us even now be hanging out at the shopping mall, the bar, the sports venue, the drug dealers, the car showroom, - as it were? - Have they forced our hands into ACTION?
Maybe that’s the *one* solitary thing we might ever thank them for?
:p
UN-common:
I am betting Arudhati Roy was “right on” when she wrote, “Mesopotamia. Babylon. The Tigris and Euphrates.” She has East-West wisdom and divine syntactical activist talents.
“ Despite the pall of gloom that hangs over us today, I’d like to file a cautious plea for hope: in times of war, one wants one’s weakest enemy at the helm of his forces. And President George W Bush is certainly that. Any other even averagely intelligent US president would have probably done the very same things, but would have managed to smoke-up the glass and confuse the opposition. Perhaps even carry the UN with him. Bush’s tactless imprudence and his brazen belief that he can run the world with his riot squad, has done the opposite. He has achieved what writers, activists and scholars have striven to achieve for decades. He has exposed the ducts. He has placed on full public view the working parts, the nuts and bolts of the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire.”
Complete essay at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,927849,00.html
JConrad September 12th, 2007 8:48 pm
So it seems the self-destruction of Bush and his corporate supporters have done more damage to American imperialism than the Russians, the Chinese and every other manufactured foe the USA has.
Now we see the USA for the paper tiger it is and so does the rest of the world. I would not want to be an ally of the USA in the Middle East. Perhaps the USA does not have an ally in the Middle East anymore.
We have Israel as an ally who is pushing us to take on Iran.
And the drums are beating louder every day.
Mr. Shiblikov raises a very good point…. if I may summerize it by saying that many Americans suffer under terrorist acts committed here daily in the U.S. of A.
Acts committed by fellow Americans and by government agents.
I don’t think it is a strech to label some forms of drug enforcement actions, forced evictions, and other anti-poor economic policies as terrorism when you listen to the stories of families broken under the pressure of ethnic and institutional bias. The roots of the violent turf wars on our streets can be traced to these prejudices, and the conditions they bring to our communities.
There is hope for our communities if we take back responsibility. Stop letting the ‘higher-ups’ set the agenda. We can prove to be plenty capable of restoring the welfare and structures that make our communities great.
As it has been said before…. “Keep the Faith”
And yet that ‘chicken shit little country ‘- despite well over 3 million dead ( and countless more maimed ) ,despite having had more mega-tonnage dropped on it than during the entire WWII , and despite the horrific depredations of Agent Orange ( which have ,and will continue to blight generations of Vietnamese well into the future -on a scale against which Thaliomide pales in comparison) - has had the last laugh.
It has picked itself up , dusted itself off -and has turned into one of the most forward-looking societies ever , and one of the true economic miracles of our times .
In contrast , America and its fellow-Western allies , despite their incalculable wealth,power and leverage over the rest of the world , have become rotten to the core .And look all set to be riven and torn apart by internal strife and dissension.
JConrad has raised a very valid point here : “The big question is whether or not these leaders represent a significant element of our national character.’ Well , I’d say ,its hard to distance yourselves from them. Though they may have used ( or perhaps subverted ) the system to rise to the very top - yet they epitomize an ethos ( twisted perhaps ) that truly venerates aggression and militarism and puts a virulent Robber-Baron Capitalism on the highest possible pedestal.
Strangely enough it is Gandhi , the apostle of non violence , who the world will continue to remember for countless generations to come . Long long after these morally-stunted latter day incarnations of Hitler and Stalin have been cast into the dung heap of History .
To her credit , Lady Macbeth , was at least convulsed by remorse for her foul deed. One doesn’t see too many of our Western leaders ,of recent times, having such compunction and remorse . They seem to unleash depredations after depredation and massacre after massacre - absolutely serene and unruffled-with nary a twinge of conscience .
If only they’d had the gumption -and the courage of their convictions -to send their ’sturm-troopers’ in , to the strains of the Horst -Wessel song . That would really have been in the fitness of things.
“Strangely enough it is Gandhi , the apostle of non violence , who the world will continue to remember for countless generations to come . Long long after these morally-stunted latter day incarnations of Hitler and Stalin have been cast into the dung heap of History ”
It’s forgotten that non-violence is a tactic necessarily employed by those who’ve been reduced to servant or slave status. Those who have greater access need to employ more inventive and riskier tactics.
Sixty years after his death, Gandhi is nothing more than a memory. No conflicts are resolved by Gandhian appeals. No armies are disarmed, no tyrannies undone.
It’s time to drop the Gandhian delusions and admit that Gandhi and King are abslutely irrelevant to the form of struggle now.
Last night, PBS aired the documentary on the war resisters in Camden, New Jersey, who were acquitted for breaking & entering the local draft board & shredding files. It was the first, and I believe the only time such an act of civil disobedience did not end in the conviction of the participants. The documentary showed them singing “We Shall Overcome”.
And there they were thirty years after, protesting the oncoming invasion of Iraq.
No one overcame, and we will not overcome by these methods. You cannot teach peace to the frightened; you can only subdue them, emasculate them, paralyze THEM with fear, till they can’t find anyone in the system to assist them. The whole world could be awash in non-violence, and they would STILL invent the enemies they need to have in order to justify conquest and subjugation.
Turn the oppressors ON EACH OTHER.
And remove their support from below by every means conceivable.
How many divisions has the US Public?
GW Bush
As Dichterfreund said-
Those with better access need to employ “more inventive and riskier tactics”.
Yes!!
I couldn’t agree more strongly!!!
Dichter:
Few issues are black and white, more like infinite shades of gray.
Liberation movements always have more than one aspect. Malcolm X coined the phrase, by any means necessary, which was interpreted to mean both physical and metaphysical and or psychological means. Driving the imperial British out of India was a combination of moral and physical resistance. By fasting nearly to death, Gandhi brought global attention to India’s struggle thus putting tangible political pressure on England. Gandhi’s refusal to compromise in principle set the stage for the overall victory. He managed to hold the moral high ground in the war of ideas. But, at the same time guerrilla warfare tactics were occurring within India making the British occupation more costly although never rising to the level a major engagement. Psychological operations (psy-ops) are in some cases more critical than actual combat in “war” as victory is often determined by who has the will to sustain the conflict, sometimes for decades. The other form of Gandhi’s passive resistance was the economic boycott. There are numerous examples of how imperialists, corporate criminals or nations have been affected by boycotts. For most of the functioning psychopaths on the planet, the bottom line is money, thus if you can kick them where it hurts the most, they just might change their evil ways. And finally, whether it is Gandhi, King, Guevara, or Bin Laden the ideological principles defined by the philosopher/revolutionaries are what motivates a liberation struggle and provides inspiration to the combatants. Political power comes from the barrel of a gun and also the mind and spirit.
Dichterfreund , you show remarkable restraint in alluding to the ‘delusional’ aspect of Gandhi . Believe you me he’s been called far worse . In his time , he was regularly derided and was often at the receiving end of choice epithets and imprecations - all by his own people.
His arch-rival Subhash Bose used to scathingly refer to him as ‘that old fossil’. And in the 50s and 60s ( after his death) he continued to be the butt of many an Indian classroom joke -thanks to his well publicized eccentricities.
However many of those who earlier mocked him seem to have mellowed ( thanks to age ,experience -and being at the receiving end of life’s hard knocks )and see him in a different , more charitable light .
Even if his non-violence was ‘a tactic necessarily employed by those who’ve been reduced to servant or slave status’ - the fact remains it worked . And brought the mighty British Empire to its knees. ( Notwithstanding all of the very macho war hero Churchill’s ferocious bluff and bluster .)
You’re probably right : non violence is perhaps totally alien to the Western ethos . Therefore they’re unlikely to be able to pull it off -via the non violent route . ( All those massive mass mobilizations and street protests have not deterred the Western Establishment ,one bit, from its relentless military adventurism - involving riding rough shod over the rest of the world .)
JConrad : “Political power comes from the barrel of a gun and the mind.’ How so very true . Though going by all accounts in Gandhi’s case it was also his steely indomitable will - and in the way he was able to galvanize a nation wide mass movement that too in an era when communication was quite primitive .
As you’ve rightly pointed out ,the economic boycott he catalyzed ( Swadeshi) brought significant parts of British Industry to its knees.This is ,very likely, where it hurt the most.
Although it is a remarkably effective tactic - kicking the psychopaths and the robber barons where it hurts the most - in the West it would be a non starter. Simply because , even the most hard boiled revolutionary , armchair socialist ( or wanna be anarchist ) is far too addicted to creature comforts and to the ‘goodies ‘ of the Consumer Society .
RJKT:
” non violence is perhaps totally alien to the Western ethos . Therefore they’re unlikely to be able to pull it off -via the non violent route . ( All those massive mass mobilizations and street protests have not deterred the Western Establishment ,one bit, from its relentless military adventurism - involving riding rough shod over the rest of the world .) ”
Again, the answer is yes and no. Sometimes non-violence works, and is perhaps the only route open. In other cases you have to literally stand and fight rather than be killed. And then there is the philosophy of “fight and run away and live to fight another day”.
King’s non-violence was extremely effective during the civil rights movement and translated into real legislation. Rosa Parks just refused to go to the back of the bus and started a social revolution. A morally tough lady. And would it have worked better to use violence in that situation ? The pigs had nearly all the power.
On the other hand, when Huey Newton and others engaged in a gunfight with the Oakland police that changed things in Oakland. Sometimes a bully has to be confronted in a language that he understands. Self defense does have a place. But eventually the superior force of the state snuffed the Panthers as an political organization in spite of the fact that they stood for much more than just self defense.
King’s ideals are still alive and well while most people have forgotten about the Panthers.
And don’t think for a minute that the protests of the 60’s did not change things. Were it not for the memory of that public outcry, Reagan would have gone for a full invasion of Nicaragua during their revolution. No doubt the entire imperial war machine was not dismantled, but the “establishment” has been slowed down more than once. However, I fear that it is the Iraqi resistance that will be the deciding factor in that situation, but a lot can be done from this side of the ocean by keeping the pressure on the war criminals. Again, cash is often the bottom line and the empire is being financed with a bad credit card at the moment. Time will tell.
Give the martial art of Aikido some thought. The energy of the enemy is deflected or transformed and used defensively as the conflict is resolved with a minimum of effort or damage to either combatant.
Dichterfreund September 13th, 2007 4:21 am
Your logic of becoming the oppressor is the reason it is said, “the more things change the more they stay the same.”
Speaking of blood, I recall that every state in these United States gets a portion of the “defense” budget, manufacturing military-related hardware of one sort or another. If the war stops, millions will lose their jobs and may go hungry because their livelihood depends on it. To these people, I like to remind one thing when they gather at the table to eat: The bread you are eating is soiled with the blood of innocent Iraqis.
damon13 :
You need to read the history of the Middle East. Islam is only about 1428 years old. Persia was a great empire at the time when your ancestors were grazing in the pastures.
JConrad . Thank you for the insights you ‘ve shared and for that link to the article in the Guardian.
The part of your comment on Aikido was really profound and opens up a whole new set of perspectives. Thanks for sharing.
“any new way will need to become imbedded in the popular culture”
Agreed also.
And the extent that this did successfully happen, for a few years in the Nixon and post-Nixon years, can be seen in the lyrics of the biggest commercial, pop-music hits of those days - playing on the radio several times an hour, from to “Scrborough Fair/Canticle” to “Peace Train”, to most of CSNY’s stuff - and even into the 80’s with Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” (no, dear Reagan, he was not praising the US) to Bruce Cockburns’s “Nicaragua” and “If I had a Rocket Launcher”. Any station playing the latter one would probably get a visit from the FBI if played today.
I can’t emphasize how much air play these tunes got - blaring from every car radio and big home stereo - saturating the culture. Sure, we have dissident band and folk-artists but can turn on to my local clear channel station and hear Anti-Flag, RATM, Ani DiFranco etc? Fat chance!
And no, access to dissident music by from teh internet through I-pod earphones, or even a “sirius satellite radio” channel is NO substitute for broadcasting it repeetedly at 50,000 watts accross a large city.
RJKT:
And thanks for your ideas. Your mention of Gandhi’s “steely will” is historically true and often overlooked by putting him in the category of a milk-toast pacifist. He was essentially a tough non-violent spiritual warrior. One might even say his non-violence was a form of intense passive aggression founded on good intentions. Another key to his effectiveness was the use of the media.
These comment discussions seem to branch out and explore alternate views. I am surprised every day in how I react to the other writers. Great therapy for those who “think too much” or perhaps live with a dog that only knows 20 words !
I occasionally put opinion items in our local paper and the “war” of ideas is constantly evolving so it pays to keep thoughts fresh. Newspaper reader opinion items are one of the few media routes open to ordinary people. The politicians or at least their staff do read such things.
And the “establishment” spin masters are always fine tuning their propaganda lies.
Yes, the Aikido culture is amazing as it paralleled the rise and fall of Japan’s deadly militarism. The founder, Morihei Ueshiba lived through this history and evolved his ultimate martial “art” after trying nearly everything. His original studies were hard styles of striking and destroying the opponent. He also served in the military.
In the end, he created what is not only a “blending” non-destructive technique but a path of enlightenment and peace. The end goal of Aikido is harmony or becoming “one” with the so-called enemy. Some say a real “master” can neutralize inter-personal violence before it even becomes physical.
The Aikido philosophy can even run into translation problems as English does not have all the same meanings as Japanese, but one translation of the essence of Aikido I have heard is “Love Light”. And keep in mind this is not romantic love but more like altruistic love and infinite kindness. Perhaps this is similar to the much neglected Christian doctrine of “love your enemies”.
Quick thought: in the “war on terror” we are trying to kill an enemy that we have created, and are creating more enemies in the process ? Talk about negative cycles of cause and effect “karma”.
There’s a good Aikido read at Wikipedia. This page and the links can really open the old doors of perception.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aikido
As the Dalai Lama once said, WAR IS OBSOLETE.
J CONRAD: Illumined thread, and your comments today were truly profound and inspiring. Thank you for sharing them…
SRose:
Thanks so much. Every day is different.
And as they say in England, “That’s what we like about Americans, they keep trying until they get it right.”
JConrad. Thank you for that extremely illuminating backgrounder on Aikido . Am most interested in checking out the wiki link you ‘ve provided.
I did follow the link to Ms. Roy’s article and read through it . A riveting read . (Though if you’ll excuse my saying so , your writing is far more elegant and insightful than hers .) She clearly writes for effect . Her words , expressions and idiom are chosen for maximum impact . Refinement , elegance and insight seem the last thing on her mind. ( One realizes one is being disloyal though -considering she is the daughter of a family friend.)
Re. your thought on Karma : thus far ,the West seems to have beaten the odds . Despite having done all that it has - the Jolly Roger invasions ( of Iraq), the cold blooded murders of innocents and the creation of more and more enemies - the West seems to have got away with it.
Is it proof against Nemesis . Only time will tell.
RKJT:
What an honor as I assume you are from India !
I appreciate your compliments but I think you may be going over the top with kindness.
I do not write at the level of Ms. Roy who is very accomplished and unique as someone bridging cultural realities. I think she does tend to drop rhetorical bombs at times, but part of what she is doing is about breaking down misconceptions and apathy. Irony and a bit of stylistic hyperbole can help to open a reader’s mind in a relatively short political essay. She also creates clever one-liners and succinct truths that are easy to recall after the reading is over. The purpose is to make the reader more aware and alter their views for the better. Yet, I may be responding as much to her humanitarian content, courage, and idealistic passion as an activist as I am by her technique.
And to digress a bit into tantric theory, I see her as having both feminine and masculine creative powers and sensibilities. In one sentence she may give you a hug and in the next she might be punching you in the nose to wake you up ! She seems both gentle and strong. Whatever her art and artifice may be it works for me.
Our appreciation of the finer points of writing is to a degree a matter of taste very much like other arts such as painting or music. I am actually a photographer and doing this much writing is a new avocation. Internet posts are also a curious form of expression being typically spontaneous and in response to other writing. Improvised writing has a dynamic quality different than prepared or reworked material.
I am glad the Aikido discussion resonated with some effect. If I do write something I begin with actual experience and use that as a point of departure. I was fortunate to study Aikido for a year with an accomplished sensei who trained for 16 years in Japan. And, I could compare and contrast that with youthful experience in somewhat violent American contact sports. I have also practiced high-risk non-violent protest being hit with a police baton while not reacting. Surprise, it hurts a lot !
And before I knew where I was going with the martial arts train of thought, the description became a metaphor for the Japanese experience with warfare and cultural change as well as the ongoing American experience. Conflict resolution is a universal human condition and dilemma that humans will never escape. I think we have all learned something from this thread.
And on the karma reference, I have to say I hesitate to use that word in this day and age. It has become a cliché abused in a variety of ways. In a similar manner it is difficult to use the word compassion now that it has been politically mangled by Bush spin writers. If you recall, Big Bush ran for office with the slogan of a “kinder and gentler America” after doing deadly things when in the CIA. Politics is almost always a total lie comprised of calculated deceptions.
I personally do not believe in an absolute sense of karma as religious doctrine related to rebirth or even as producing absolute results in this lifetime. Some villains do terrible things to others and escape with material wealth, on the other hand I have know some very sad and jaded people surrounded by luxury. Who knows about the next “life”. But in a general sense of cause and effect there is a great deal of truth to the karma concept or law of behavior not unlike the physics of energy and motion. In most situations there are consequences for negative or destructive activities. I am certain there will be a price to pay for the current crimes in Iraq, but it may be imposed upon or shared by the average American . The elite warmongers may manage to stumble along with their affluent and utterly meaningless lives. However, on the most basic level Iraq has been the undoing of the Republican party. Cause and effect often comes true. I prefer to believe that the horrors of Iraq will become a teaching and in the end the evil events will eventually shape a better world very much like a child learning from mistakes.
Namaste-gi !
opps, typo: “I have known some”
And let’s not forget to thank Mr. Solomon for his fine work:
“The incredulity and numbing, the frequent bobbing-and-weaving of our own consciousness, the hollow comforts of passivity, insulate us from hard truths and harsher realities than we might ever have expected to need to confront — about our country and about ourselves.”
JConrad. You guessed right. An Indian yes ,though perhaps one who is a bit of an oddity -hardly ever having had the benefit of ‘exposure’ to very much of intelligent or enlightened discourse. Hence the rather gauche and unaccomplished intellectual meanderings..which i hope you’ll excuse.
You’re probably right . Ms. Roy uses words , irony , imagery and emotion either as bludgeons or as rapiers . She tends to pull it off , time and again , because one can never predict what’s coming next -the bludgeon or the rapier. “Excuse me while I laugh ‘ was perhaps a sheer stroke of genius on her part.To my mind ,it makes far more of a mockery of the powers-that-be than the most grotesque caricature ever could .
The very quality of your response ( which may i say was greatly appreciated )reinforces my point about profundity of thought , clarity of insight and elegance of language . Lines like : “Our appreciation of the finer points of writing is to a degree a matter of taste very much like other arts such as painting or music” or ” Conflict resolution is a universal human condition and dilemma that humans will never escape’ -to name just a few - could hardly ever be deemed run of the mill.
One wishes one could but think - or write - like that .
RJKT:
I think this website attracts people who are looking for intellectual freedom.
Our exchange has been a pleasure and a link for me to memories of travel in India. One aspect of that experience I learned much from was meeting well educated people like yourself and having cross cultural conversations. I found the Indian mindset to be very refreshing as opposed to someone locked into the limitations of an American perspective.
I also think we are on the same page in terms of not having enough opportunities for “enlightened discourse”. Whether by the limits of the community we happen to live in, or due to embracing eclectic ideas, an inquiring mind can easily become isolated. I loved world travel, but after exploring other places and people sincerely, one can become suspended between worlds.
Jesus Christ, Great Caesar’s Ghost, Christopher Columbus, and God Save the Queen ! I actually watched a dusty red sun rise over the Ganges river stepping gently through time down worn stone steps into the river to be purified alongside ash covered Sadhus ! I truly enjoyed the ancient atmosphere of Benares.
However, I think Roy has evolved from the tradition of satirical social commentary. Swift wrote at a time when intellectual paradigms and social customs were extremely reserved. Roy tends be a more of a “loose cannon”. I had forgotten about this essay but it remains a good read several centuries later. As your history reveals, British imperialists can be heartless.
I understand Swift was lucky to not ended up headless or in the Tower of London for this one !
Excerpt from A Modest Proposal:
http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/modest.html
“ IT IS a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants.
I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.
I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.”
Cheers and Best Regards !
John
We are using CD spaces here, so if you want to chat, I am at lamagonzo@hotmail.com but title the email in some way that I can identify you.