I wrote this as a comment to Amy Goodman’s article, “Obama’s Coalition of the Unwilling.” It was suggested by a reader that I nail it to the door of the Oval Office. I’d love to, but I guess this is a good second best.
Amongst other things, we need to change our thinking and our language. For the US government and the press, every person that takes up arms in any way to protect himself and family, or to drive the occupiers out of his country is a “terrorist” or “insurgent” and probably trained by the often sought, but never found, Al-Qaeda.
If we had enough empathy in this country to realize that most of the violence we see in the Middle East is from people who are, to their own people, patriots! If the tables were turned and we were the occupied country, having our citizens shot and our towns bombed by the invaders, we, too, would be “terrorists” and “insurgents,” planting IEDs, cutting throats, sniping, anything to drive the invaders and their Quisling officials out of our country.
So it has been with any occupation. If we cannot learn to sit down and talk these things out; to at least come to a mutual understanding, we shall just go on, spending huge sums to kill each individual patriot until we run out of money.
Afghanistan has been eating foreign armies since the time of Alexander. They are very good at it. Ask the British. Ask the Russians. Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan are tribal areas, linked by blood and clan. They do not recognize the artificial borders set up primarily by the West. A relation killed on one side of the border will be avenged, if necessary, by a relative on the other side.
Every time we hit a village or a house with a half-million dollar Hellfire missile, hoping to kill a guy or two with a gun, we create yet another blood feud with a people who do not forgive or forget. I would not be a Russian or American tourist in either country, even in the 22nd century, for there will always be somebody who will remember.
We could be an agency for good, providing engineers, doctors and builders, but we will accomplish little at the point of a gun. It may already be too late. I watched an interview with some Afghans the other day. Several said, “We don’t want your bridges and your schools and hospitals, we want you out of our country, and out of our lives!” I think this is, perhaps, the best solution. Just bring the troops home, then concentrate on healing our own, badly damaged, country.
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Eating armies is right. But isn’t that what our masters in DC want? Well, not too many casualties, but plenty of weapons, and bombs, and tanks, and contracts and all kinds of profitable goodies
Awesome post, Steve! We definitely need a change in thinking. Reminds me of a great quote from John Adams:
“The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”
The people in the white house at the time. Played on 911 fear. The AMERICAN people are very strong and willing to fight for this country. We will do almost anything to protect our republic. If you give information to our country that is lacking in fact and the news media picts up on the story for sensationalism they, the news media runs with it. So then it is thrown in our faces for a long time. We the the people of AMERICA will support our elected officials and go for what appears to be rite. Presented by popular NEWS MEDIA. We are a very strong people who will fight to the last breath to protect our country. However the politicians and big business play on our weakness , we are to busy to really pay attention and dig into the facts. We are so busy in life that we do not stop and say hold on. Let us start paying attention to what is going on in our government!!!!!! This THE ONLY WAY to stop the problems in our government. If we do not start now , well any thinng that happens is OUR FAULT, because we are to busy to pay attention.
Fear is definitely what they played on Keith, and that’s what governments always do. Without fear, they’d wither away. They keep us frightened that without them some rambling horde will come and kill us all, that we’ll be killing each other, we’ll be illiterate, we won’t have roads, we won’t be able to have safe jobs, we won’t know how to drive, and on and on and on.
Nice post. I would however like to add that this is not ground breaking thinking. It is common sense to the rest of the world.
Hi Nick. No, it is not ground breaking. I wrote the same thing in another article back when Iraq was being planned under the title A Fatal Flaw in our Alleged Foreign Policy. It was picked up by various news services, translated and went around the world, but nobody here listened. I don’t think they are, yet.
I think this is common sense to plenty of us here in the US too. Just not the politicians. And if anyone really thinks the government “works for us” well, it should be obvious by now that this is not the case. We work for them – whether we want to or not.
Here is a quote to remember.
“Naturally the common people don’t want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same for any country.”
Herman Goering to Gustave Gilbert at Nuremberg, 18 April, 1946
here’s another one from Herman:
“Education is dangerous – Every educated person is a future enemy”
“Education” is a cover for many things. I recently watched a tape of a college professor, probably in his forties, lecturing a room full of eighteen to twenty-one year old students on the “history” of the Great Depression. According to him, everything was fine until FDR regulated and otherwise interfered with business, then everything crashed. He then started WW-II which further deepened the depression, which continued until Reagan deregulated big business and everything became prosperous and safe again. The Great Depression was finally over. History? Sheesh! Those of us that went through it remember it well. We thought Roosevelt was the second coming! Work again, and food on the table!
I fear we are about to learn the lessons of the thirties and forties all over again. All of them.
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