false wars and smokescreens
Feb. 7th, 2006 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonI kind of went to town in a comment on a friend's journal about the so-called war on terrorism, so I'll post it here. Guess I'm a little pissed.
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The whole "nation at war" smokescreen drives me up the wall as the most transparent and flimsy justification for a bare-faced power grab. An ever-increasing number of actions totally antithetical to freedom and liberty are rationalized as "well, we're at war." And nobody, on any side, has yet had the balls to shout back, "no, actually, we're fucking not!" for fear of being labeled as soft on defense, or failing to honor those who died in the World Trade Center, or not "supporting the troops." Bollocks. We're simply not at war, or at least not the kind and scope of war that requires anywhere near the massive power-grab and freedom-slashing that the government is doing in the name of the illusory chimera of "homeland security."
Yes, we are at war, in Iraq, but only because Bush choose to invade, for reasons which, at the time, and in retrospect, were flimsy, flawed, and wholly inadequate. Yes, we're at war, in Afghanistan, for much the same reason. But taking those two sinkholes of lives and money totally aside for the moment (along with the distinct possibility that by our choices of how, where and when to invade, we've nourished and perpetuated the terrorist threat far more than we've disabled it), the concept that because a few raggy-ass bands of religious extremists are out there plotting various bad things against the U.S., it justifies some of the most sweeping changes in governmental balance of power in this nation's history, is absolutely and totally unsupportable, IMNSHO.
This whole fear-mongering mess is, as far as I am concerned, nothing more than pure paranoia-feeding pretense for governmental power-grabbing. Yes, there are terrorists. Yes they can, and they will, do damage, and take lives, some of it on American soil. Welcome to the world much of the rest of the globe has lived in for quite a while now. But no, these terrorists are not a threat to our country, our democracy, or our way of life. They simply are not. Unless we respond to them by doing their job for them, in effect allowing them to leverage all of our resources to induce us to destroy ourselves. That role of Destroyer of Liberty is taken gleefully and with vigor by the neocons, those in power who claim to be defending us, and they're doing a pretty good job so far of dismantling our democracy, piece by piece. And we are allowing it to happen.
It took the anti-freedom forces in this country just 15 years or so to create another convenient bogeyman they could use in the same manner that the "international communist menace" was bluntly wielded for the previous 50, as the universal unanswerable argument to any complaint against actions fundamentally antithetical to American principles and laws. Which is not to say there there wasn't, and isn't a threat, in fact many threats, but rather, that those threats are hugely overblown and many of the actions taken in response not only unsupportable, but immensely poisonous to our democracy. I wonder if we'll wake up in time, now, while there's still an America left to save that even remotely resembles the ideals envisioned by our founding fathers.
I hope so, because I do believe in this country, and I truly believe in the ideals I was brought up to believe we represent as a nation. And that belief is sorely tested every day, with each new action by those running our government, those who explicitly or complicitly allow us to become more and more a force for tyranny and injustice, here and around the world. And if we fail, if the Republic-become-Empire falls, as it must if we do not change our course, the greatest tragedy will be the failure to achieve what we had the potential, the possibility of achieving -- creating a way of life not always governed by the least-common denominators of force and brutality, not entirely beholden to the greediest and least principled among us, where extremism is not the norm and indeed, freedom is the law of the land.
Perhaps that dream can still live in reality, or perhaps it is now, once again, just a dream, waiting for another time and place to spring forth from the human psyche. Time, and our choices, will tell. And even as much seems muddled now, future historians will point to this period of American history as either the turning point, or the point where the downward slide became impossible to reverse. We, the people, have the power. Will we use it?
-------
The whole "nation at war" smokescreen drives me up the wall as the most transparent and flimsy justification for a bare-faced power grab. An ever-increasing number of actions totally antithetical to freedom and liberty are rationalized as "well, we're at war." And nobody, on any side, has yet had the balls to shout back, "no, actually, we're fucking not!" for fear of being labeled as soft on defense, or failing to honor those who died in the World Trade Center, or not "supporting the troops." Bollocks. We're simply not at war, or at least not the kind and scope of war that requires anywhere near the massive power-grab and freedom-slashing that the government is doing in the name of the illusory chimera of "homeland security."
Yes, we are at war, in Iraq, but only because Bush choose to invade, for reasons which, at the time, and in retrospect, were flimsy, flawed, and wholly inadequate. Yes, we're at war, in Afghanistan, for much the same reason. But taking those two sinkholes of lives and money totally aside for the moment (along with the distinct possibility that by our choices of how, where and when to invade, we've nourished and perpetuated the terrorist threat far more than we've disabled it), the concept that because a few raggy-ass bands of religious extremists are out there plotting various bad things against the U.S., it justifies some of the most sweeping changes in governmental balance of power in this nation's history, is absolutely and totally unsupportable, IMNSHO.
This whole fear-mongering mess is, as far as I am concerned, nothing more than pure paranoia-feeding pretense for governmental power-grabbing. Yes, there are terrorists. Yes they can, and they will, do damage, and take lives, some of it on American soil. Welcome to the world much of the rest of the globe has lived in for quite a while now. But no, these terrorists are not a threat to our country, our democracy, or our way of life. They simply are not. Unless we respond to them by doing their job for them, in effect allowing them to leverage all of our resources to induce us to destroy ourselves. That role of Destroyer of Liberty is taken gleefully and with vigor by the neocons, those in power who claim to be defending us, and they're doing a pretty good job so far of dismantling our democracy, piece by piece. And we are allowing it to happen.
It took the anti-freedom forces in this country just 15 years or so to create another convenient bogeyman they could use in the same manner that the "international communist menace" was bluntly wielded for the previous 50, as the universal unanswerable argument to any complaint against actions fundamentally antithetical to American principles and laws. Which is not to say there there wasn't, and isn't a threat, in fact many threats, but rather, that those threats are hugely overblown and many of the actions taken in response not only unsupportable, but immensely poisonous to our democracy. I wonder if we'll wake up in time, now, while there's still an America left to save that even remotely resembles the ideals envisioned by our founding fathers.
I hope so, because I do believe in this country, and I truly believe in the ideals I was brought up to believe we represent as a nation. And that belief is sorely tested every day, with each new action by those running our government, those who explicitly or complicitly allow us to become more and more a force for tyranny and injustice, here and around the world. And if we fail, if the Republic-become-Empire falls, as it must if we do not change our course, the greatest tragedy will be the failure to achieve what we had the potential, the possibility of achieving -- creating a way of life not always governed by the least-common denominators of force and brutality, not entirely beholden to the greediest and least principled among us, where extremism is not the norm and indeed, freedom is the law of the land.
Perhaps that dream can still live in reality, or perhaps it is now, once again, just a dream, waiting for another time and place to spring forth from the human psyche. Time, and our choices, will tell. And even as much seems muddled now, future historians will point to this period of American history as either the turning point, or the point where the downward slide became impossible to reverse. We, the people, have the power. Will we use it?
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 05:59 pm (UTC)I think there is genuinely some question of whether we actually have the power or not. With increasing numbers of questions being raised about election reporting and the fact that without political clout and money it isn't possible to get nominated, much less elected, I don't know if it is actually possible to elect people who will work against the current system.
When you have the same people who have the money legislating where the money will go, you have a problem. The multi-billionaires who have had family money for generations are so out of touch with the huddled masses that they can't legislate reasonably, even if they were 100% honest.
There was a letter to the editor in the Post a few years ago where the writer said he thought anyone who broke down on the Beltway and held up traffic should be heavily fined. *He* keeps his car in good repair and doesn't want these people in 20 year old heaps holding him up. I'll bet he never had to wonder whether to pay the rent or the electric bill.
More and more I think we will have to have a French style Revolution to redistribute wealth and power. The problem with that is that there is always bloodshed and anarchy with that sort of "solution."
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 06:15 pm (UTC)I remember a history of government class where it was pointed out that there is a direct corrolation between the shape of the wealth distribution in a society and the inherent stability/volatility of the society. The more people you have who are desperate and feel they have nothing to lose, the more likely it is that the whole pyramid will flip violently (and typically, repeat the same pattern over again with a new "top"...) The lower-middle class tends to be even more fiercely protective of orthodoxy than the rich, because they have the most cause to be insecure. The rich can afford to be out of touch with what is "reality" for most, but the lower-middle-class knows very well that for them, poverty is just a paycheck away. So, whether intentional or not, the neocon's war on the middle class has been effective, in a way, reducing the size of the mid and upper-middle class, and disempowering the poor. But...by reducing the overall size and strength of the middle class, transferring more power to the ultra-wealthy and increasing the size of the lower-class, the whole society becomes less stable overall. Maybe that pattern is just human nature, but besides increasing injustice, it's also one of those trends that plants the seeds of its own destruction, I believe.
Cynicism 101
Date: 2006-02-07 06:27 pm (UTC)Re: Cynicism 101
Date: 2006-02-07 11:02 pm (UTC)Re: Cynicism 101
Date: 2006-02-08 01:46 am (UTC)Dissent.
Date: 2006-02-07 06:40 pm (UTC)There's hope. Somewhere in there, there's hope - even if it starts with one of us at a time - each dissenting and fighting for what we KNOW can be. Giving up is the worst thing any of us can do.
Re: Dissent.
Date: 2006-02-08 01:52 am (UTC)Re: Dissent.
Date: 2006-02-08 03:58 am (UTC)Either way, the Reign of TaliBush is a dangerous thing - and dissenting is to my mind (and conscience) the best way to show the troops I support THEM and want them home safe and alive and whole and that we can maybe try to change things. There's no way to change the regime if we stay silent there won't be *any* change - but the more we dissent, the more we show that to disagree with *them* doesn't mean you're a traitor to America or American ideals (whatever THOSE are this week!) the more we'll be able to bring the needed change - and THAT is what gives me hope - we can only bring change if we keep on fighting the good fight with our words and our deeds - those who dissent aren't traitors, quite the opposite, we're Patriots. Finest Kind.