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Shame on Us! From
Theodore Stagger 03/20/03
The
blatancy is shocking and the overt outrageousness makes one genuinely
fear the covert (what are they doing behind our backs?) and thus they
are successful at being more terrifying than the terrorists. We let
these politicians get in the driver’s seat. Now they are threatening
nuclear war (with all of them in their undisclosed bunkers, of course). Shame
on us! We
let these corporate aristocrats threaten the future of our children and
the children of our friends around the world. Shame
on us! We
are a nation of laws, but we claim exemption from examination by
international courts. Shame
on us! We
will not sign the Kyoto agreement as our pollution creating industries
provide needed jobs and money for our ultra-wealthy. Shame
on us! “We
will strike preemptively wherever we feel we need to.” But the only
wars worth fighting are those against poverty and ignorance (and the
latter we need to fight most vigorously at home).
Terrorism
can only be stopped by fighting those good wars. Star Wars defense
systems and many new tanks will just create huge profits for those who
make them, but they will do nothing to stop terrorism. One or two men
with a rifle can take a major city to a standstill. Men with box-cutters
can take down the World Trade Center buildings. Cheney should tell the
truth - what he wants is to declare war on the poor and kill them. The
rest is rhetoric. Do
we know we destroyed clean water supplies in Iraq? Do
we know that our government supplied Iraq with the materials for making
WMD and that we encouraged them to use them? If
we don’t change our regime at home they will lead us into World War
III and we will deserve the chaos that it will bring. Shame
on us! 1.5
million are dead now as a result of the sanctions in Iraq. Will this new
war in Iraq justify the genocide or complete the job? Bush
II declared that “The United States is the greatest country on the
earth.” Indeed.
We
do have more money, more guns and more weapons of mass destruction. We
do create more pollution and consume more food and natural resources. We
have more prisoners than any other country. We are more selfish and more
indifferent to the suffering of others. By those criteria I guess the
president is correct – we are the greatest country on earth. Shame
on us! Capitalism
+ democracy + time = government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
The figures reported in the media don’t make sense to me – 70%
approval rating for Bush II? If this is true then the American model has
failed and many of us find ourselves in this predicament which, quite
embarrassingly, adversely affects our good neighbors around the world.
The desire to apologize is constant and overwhelming and the fact that
this desire is labeled as cowardly and treasonous is supremely
frustrating for many Americans now. Where
do we go from here, oligarchical empire building? If
we can make pre-emptive strikes – if that is the new rule of war –
then our enemies can do the same. So we need a strong military while
education, foreign aid and the environment remain overlooked until this
endless war ends.
Our
leaders are not readers. No intellectuals involved – no philosophers
– and they make up the most powerful regime the world has known. Has
my country irretrievably lost the battle between good and evil? Is world
domination a good idea for America? For the rest of the world? Does
America care about the rest of the world? My
grandfather came to America for the freedom and the opportunity because
Norway was not a good place to live. Two generations later I am looking
longingly at Norway. They say I can visit, but they won’t let me stay.
I will have to go back to America – a place I am growing to fear, much
as my grandfather did Norway. Our
mainstream media has become an increasingly unsubtle disseminator of
propaganda. The big questions are off limits. Nobody questions the
obliteration of a carload of human beings in Yemen, by an aptly named
“hellfire” missile, launched from a drone plane, by a CIA employee
in Virginia USA. The guys in the car were suspected to be bad guys. No
need for proof or trials in this case. The Empire has changed the rules
and if you think that is wrong, “Hey,” says the schoolyard bully,
“are you with us or against us?” Sanctions
against the Iraqi people don’t seem to be bothering Hussein, but they
kill 9,000 poor civilians a month. I guess you can stop a kidnapper by
killing his hostages, but that doesn’t seem to be the best way –
unless you do not value the hostages.
Everything
did change on 9/11 and the world will never be the same again. We now
have a country that thoroughly dominates the world – headed by
right-wing extremists who pray and hear their God telling them to go and
get that oil so Americans can drive increasingly large automobiles on
their Sunday drives. They make their own rules – like Dirty Harry and
all the other loveably uncontrollable Hollywood action heroes. Shame
on all of us for letting this happen. Yet
there is a positive side. The blatancy of the anti-environment
war-mongering policies (tax breaks for the rich, cutting programs for
the poor and anti-environmental legislation) from Washington is waking
people in America and around the world in unprecedented numbers. Peace
and non-violent movements, along with environmental and sane religious
organizations, are coming together – in an international effort that
grows stronger daily. A different kind of outburst is on the horizon. Koffi
Annan said once “…free to speak your mind, raise your children and
pursue your dreams…” Suddenly
in America, we are losing the freedom to speak our minds. We are looking
to raise our children elsewhere, and if we dream we dream of leaving. We
are not allowed to draw parallels between this Washington regime and
Nazi Germany, so I won’t. If
you visit Peace Park in Hiroshima, Japan, you will walk away ashamed to
be a human being. You experience nuclear war there and you lose your
nationality. As a justification for atrocities, patriotism is exposed. A
few hours later you get your anger back and you rejoin your factions –
but you never forget the shame.
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