The picture of Arafat slouching and disgruntled trying to lean as far away from retired general Anthony Zinni as he can is torturously comical. He sits begrudgingly in his chair as if it’s a holding cell – or a cage on Camp X ray. He is not sitting with a president, or a vice president or a senator or a former president – he, like the rest of America, is getting the news and the score from a retired general. The military is doing the talking and the rest of the world in need of a peace process must listen.
Retired generals and colonels are broadcast to us every hour on the hour. They are the adjudicators of the events – no overview or perspective, just blow by blow. The same way Nixon told America that invading Cambodia would save lives and the way we were told that the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved American lives and the way Bush Sr. told us that the Gulf War had restored stability to the region– we are told that our security and hope for peace is in the hands of the military consciousness – active and retired – the military will negotiate our peace. Like the cure that is worse than the disease we are asked to open our veins to the military therapy. It’ll work – give it time – give us money – give us your sons and daughters.
Retired military are the only doctors we are hearing from. No second opinions broadcast or televised. Ramsey Clark – Jerry Brown – Wendell Berry – a Quaker – a poet – Edward Peck, the former ambassador to Iraq – Jimmy Carter – Cornel West - could they be sitting in that chair next to Arafat? Could they adjudicate the events with a perspective different from the video game auditors’ who let us know how it’s going, taking for granted that “why” has been and continues to be satisfactorily answered? As the retired brass give us a guided tour of practice and tactics, Americans are being asked to leave Pakistan and will most likely be asked to leave other countries. As bombs drop and damage gets increasingly collateral the American passport is becoming a bull’s eye.
Retired generals say things like “mopping up.” This phrase gives us a consoling image – soldiers, like energized janitors, polish a beleaguered dance floor. We get the picture of military personnel killing a few human leftovers and restoring the natural beauty of a damaged land. It may be true that there are people who are like hand grenades with the pins pulled. They may be past being defused. They will be tried and will meet Texas justice. But what pulls the pin? Is that a question a retired general might ask? The prevailing answer at the moment to that question is that we don’t need to care why the pin gets pulled.
The president read something today that said poverty is the breeding ground for terrorism. What made him say such a thing? It has a ring of complexity to it. It implies that intolerance has a limit and that the military can attack only the consequence of a condition, not the condition itself. It implies the possibility of a non-violent solution to problems that often precede violence. It was inevitable that the war on poverty would eventually dovetail the war on terrorism. I don’t think he saw it coming but if enough speeches get written for enough conferences the truth has a way of collapsing in on you.
Is he saying that of course nothing excuses terrorism – but something might explain it? Is there an explanation or an alternate solution we hope to hear from the steady stream of retired generals and colonels and CIA agents? Or are they put in the room as armchair analysts – decorated saints giving benedictions to a pre-ordained reality of pervasive military action.. They are part of the cable programming the way Zinni is part of the Bush program – they are useful in their uselessness.
Bill C. Davis is a playwright http://www.billcdavis.com/
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