tom_thinks

I wrote this last week or so, before I started this blog, as a letter to the editor. I haven't sent it, my local paper will only allow me one letter a month at most. So I'm posting it here.

President Bush has done much to frame the military actions since 9/11 or the ‘war on terror’ as it is often referred to, as a battle between the forces of good and evil. Bush has made it clear that God is not neutral in this conflict, but is on the side of ‘freedom’ and America. Despite the fact that Bush’s initial justifications for invading Iraq (WMD & Al-Qaeda ties) have been proven false, Bush and his cabinet have maintained that our cause is still morally superior to that of our ‘enemy’ in Iraq.

When seen through this frame, do not the ends justify the means? If God is truly on our side, then isn’t anything we have to do to win sanctioned by God? It is through this frame of good vs. evil, that the greatest atrocities have been performed by mankind. The terrorists that caused 9/11 also claimed God was on their side. In every war, every side believes God to be their ally. This is both the folly and the horror of war.

That this moral superiority has again become the justification for abuse and humiliation should not come as a surprise. Why then does it come as such a shock to Americans that this abuse is occurring in Iraq? The answer I believe is that Americans have largely bought into Bush’s rationalization for this war. There still persists a belief that this war was right and just, that this was a war of liberation from tyranny and oppression, that this war was somehow different from the horrors of the past. Americans largely believe themselves and their countrymen to be immune to the corrupting forces of war.

But that belief is false. We cannot sterilize these horrors. War is not clean, neat and humane. It is the manifestation of the darkest parts of our nature and should always be avoided. We shudder in revulsion when seeing these pictures, terrified that such abuse is going on in our name. We are appalled; yet we’ve known from the beginning our government doesn’t even keep track of how many civilians have been killed.

So who is responsible? In the military, the chain of command goes directly up to the President, but this war and the horrors that have occurred would not have been possible without the support from the citizens of this country. Too long have we allowed ourselves to be deceived about the realities of this war. While the bulk of the responsibility lies with those who committed these acts and those that ordered them to be carried out, we all have a responsibility to stop the horrors of this war and the only way to do it is to stop the war itself. Apathy towards the voting process or ‘I didn’t vote for him’ arguments are no excuse.

The response by the administration on this issue has been of course a cover up. Last night I think the Daily show summed up the administration's approach

"Remember, it's not important that we did torture these people. What's important is that we are not the kind of people who would torture these people."

Reading The Nation today, I came across a great piece by Eric Alterman. In it he writes,

Excuse me, but just what was so hard to understand about this bunch? We knew they were dishonest. We knew they were fanatical. We knew they were purposely ignorant and bragged about not reading newspapers. We knew they were vindictive. We knew they were lawless. We knew they were obsessively secretive. We knew they had no time or patience for those who raised difficult questions. We knew they were driven by fantasies of religious warfare, personal vengeance and ideological triumph. We knew they had no respect for civil liberties. And we knew they took no responsibility for the consequences of their incompetence. Just what is surprising about the manner in which they've conducted the war?

Hopefully these events will be a wake up call to American voters this November, but then again Rush Limbaugh has called these acts, "letting off steam." I wonder how many people agree?