| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Zizek, Angry Man!" |
| Date: |
30 Aug 2006 10:00:01 AM |
| Object: |
How Long Will America Spill Blood for Liberty's Hijackers to Save |
How Long Will America Spill Blood for Liberty's Hijackers to Save
Face?
by Pierre Tristam
On Dec. 29, 2002, The New York Times published this brief letter by
Rita Lasar: "Since my brother died on Sept. 11, 2001, his death has been
used to justify the deaths of thousands of Afghan men, women and children.
His death has been used to justify the possible pre-emptive strike against
Iraq. His death has been used to justify the rounding up and incarceration
of many ordinary citizens of Islamic heritage, all in the name of making
America safer. I don't feel safer, and if you ask most Americans, neither do
they. And now the steel removed from the World Trade Center is going to be
used to build a Navy warship to bring death to countless others. Is there no
end to this senseless killing our country is embarked on?"
Apparently not.
Sometime in the next two weeks, maybe even on the fifth anniversary of
Sept. 11, the number of American soldiers who have died in Iraq and
Afghanistan (2,955) will exceed the number of people killed on Sept. 11 --
if it hasn't already. The number exceeds the Sept. 11 figure by several
hundred if contractors, journalists, adventurers and mercenaries are
included. And let's not forget the Iraqis and Afghans who have been killed.
Conservative estimates put the figure at 41,000 to 45,000 in Iraq alone in
what can only be termed a slaughter so disproportionate to the Sept. 11
attacks, and so out of whack with its origins, that two words should come to
mind by now regarding America's response: war crimes.
Actual crimes highlighted by a few spot cases catch a few headlines on
slow days: Soldiers' allegedly premeditated March rape and murder of a
14-year-old Iraqi girl in an Iraqi town named for the Prophet Muhammad; the
massacre of 24 Iraqis by Marines in Haditha last year (where the Marines now
stationed there are treated to soft-porn Vegas-type live shows); the torture
and humiliation of prisoners in Iraqi jails; the burning of Taliban fighters
in Afghanistan. But the crime that'll never be prosecuted is the larger
transformation of Afghan and Iraqi societies from indigenous to American
versions of hell. The difference is in who supplies the flames' fuel.
Repressive regimes are history's parasites. So long as they stay
within their borders, containing them, maybe subverting them, is wise.
Invading them makes us the parasites. The Bush administration violently
shattered two broken but nevertheless functioning societies without a clue
about putting them together again. On a human level, the result is worse
than whatever existed before 2001. The crime wasn't the original intent to
liberate and democratize, but in the subsequent immersion in failure at the
expense of two nations in order to save face for America -- to not "cut and
run," as jingoists who don't mind spilling other people's blood put it.
We always knew what terrorists were capable of. They didn't
disappoint. After Sept. 11 we were led to believe that America still stood
for a vision that once inspired the world. We were deceived. After five
years it's no longer credible to say America has a higher moral purpose than
terrorists when American occupation in Iraq fibrillates the country into a
permanent state of war, and a static presence risks doing the same to
Afghanistan. It isn't so simple as putting the blame on sectarianism in Iraq
and tribalism in Afghanistan. That's the old Orientalist view -- "They're
backward, they don't know better." Did we?
The Middle East is more than ever the cradle of civilization's
enemies, but the United States is rocking that cradle while it shatters its
own moral and constitutional legacy. A year after the attacks, The Times
asked many prominent writers to reflect "on an America Transformed." Newt
Gingrich yelled for pre-emptive wars. He got them. Kathleen Sullivan, the
dean of Stanford Law School, worried about a severe back-sliding on civil
liberties. Her worries now seem quaintly understated. Muhammad Ali was
"saddened to think that one of the effects of 9/11 is the fearful way in
which many Americans now look at Muslims" -- the way blacks were looked at.
Stephen Carter, author of "The Culture of Disbelief," had been heartened by
the patriotic response in the months after the attacks but worried about
"our accelerating slide toward the way things used to be."
Yet the country is more divided, less secure, less free, more
universally reviled abroad than at any point in history, and economically
flimsy on top of that. Reclaiming the way things used to be would be a
triumph, a restoration of law and reason over madness. If only we recognized
who the true hijackers of American values really are.
Tristam is a News-Journal editorial writer. Reach him at
ptristam@att.net or through his personal Web site at www.pierretristam.com.
© 2006 News-Journal Corporation
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