Posted on 09/28/2001 11:39:22 AM PDT by Sir Gawain
—Pearl Jam, "Do the Evolution"
The September 11 attacks have inspired many people to predict that America will unite to fight the menace of terrorism, despite the costs. The image they wish to evoke is of a mighty country, united in its resolve to combat a menace threatening the shared values, hopes and ideals of its populace. Unfortunately, a more-than-superficial look reveals that nothing could be further from the truth. America is far from a united country.
Our hundreds of millions of people represent a cross section of the world's population unlike anything anyone could have ever imagined. Gone are the days, however, when people from around the world crossed an ocean to be assimilated into a culture of liberty—they now land on the shores of a country torn apart by gang fighting, welfare-statism, frivolous lawsuits, mind-numbing political correctness and pressure group warfare. Once proud and free, we are now a petty, bickering people—though saying so will surely bring cries of "Treason!" from the mindless, flag-waving masses that wax so eloquently about the "American spirit".
So where, then, is this spirit? Where is our resolve to fight a bloody war that could last years and cost thousands of American lives? Because the latest Zogby poll shows eighty percent of Americans favor blasting Afghanistan from the face of the earth? Many mistake this emotional outpouring as the symbol of an uprising, but they are sorely mistaken. To unite in the face of adversity requires a common goal, a common sentiment about the justness of one's cause—and in this case, the justness of one's country. But decades of tragic foreign policies and collectivist domestic squabbles have left most people with only a sense of unease about the American way of life. And adding salt on the wounds are those flowery poetics that dish out such tripe as the idea that America somehow "lost its innocence" when the World Trade Center was attacked. As an Irish newspaper editorialist said some years ago, America and innocence go together like babies and napalm.
President Bush and many others are constantly trotting out the line that the "enemies of freedom" attacked America, because "it is free". It is an insult to one's intelligence that in such serious times we are being subjected to the tired old cliches that better define a presidential campaign season than a period of national crisis. I don't wish to kick this country while it's down. I only think that we should shelve the patriotic, misty-eyed mumbo-jumbo that makes up the content of our endless news shows, and take a good, hard look at the country that was attacked on September 11.
So let us first examine the contention that America was attacked "because it is free". Believing this bit of silliness requires that one swallow the idea that Osama bin Laden, or some likely cohort, just woke up on September 10 and said, "Let's go blow up some buildings in the US tomorrow, shall we?" America has long been the hated ally of Israel, the most hated country in the Middle East. There are many noteworthy qualities about the Jews, but Americans more closely resemble an ostrich with its head in the ground than intelligent human beings when they drift through life completely oblivious to the history of bloodshed that defines Arab-Israeli relations. America took a side in that ruthless quagmire decades ago—finally, we understand what that means.
Another fact often overlooked by most people is that Islamic terrorist organizations are resentful because the United States has troops in the "Holy Land"—bin Laden in particular (a native of Saudi Arabia) finds the presence of US troops in his country unbearable (Imagine). Naturally, continued American presence in the Middle East is most often justified because of the threat still posed by arch-tyrant Saddam Hussein, who invaded the "free" country of Kuwait. Never mind that Kuwait's "free" society is as rigid and theocratic as the rest of that region—it was for their "freedom", we are to believe, and not their oil that we called in the cavalry.
And finally, what about the United States? While we're casually bouncing the idea of "freedom" around, why not take a look at "the land of the free", and see if it lives up to its image. Surely we are one of the freest countries in the world, but that is hardly a threat to the people of other nations. After all, prosperity and liberty is anything but a zero sum game. For the people of one country to experience unprecedented wealth and personal freedom has only ever meant a general increase in the standard of living of those who trade with them. If the people of the Middle East honestly despise blue jeans and McDonald's—versus stealth fighters and blockades—cutting off trade is hardly a difficult thing for them to accomplish.
And how could our "freedom"—which pundits of both sides of the political spectrum now define, with straight face, as "American democracy"—mean a damn thing to some sheepherder in the mountains of Pakistan? Does the 50 percent of our income still allowed us by our government threaten Kabul? Does an SKS semi-automatic (fully registered with the FBI and the BATF, of course) in the hands of Joe Six Pack of Topeka, Kansas, really mean a damn thing to a starving mother in Baghdad, whose child cannot receive medicine because of a UN embargo? Exactly which of America's remaining "freedoms" is the source of animosity between the people of the one hundred plus countries currently hosting US troops, and the thousands of people buried at the bottom of the World Trade Center?
In the United States, the government of our "country united" has imprisoned hundreds of thousands of its own citizens for nothing more than using some arbitrarily demonized substance. The American government sues our most productive corporations for the crime of being too successful—and Americans applaud it. In this country, parents are forced under threat of criminal prosecution to send their children to state-run educational facilities, where they are indoctrinated into hating the very principles America was founded on. In America, ninja-suited storm troopers assault churches full of women and children, and shoot nursing mothers in the face, because a gun's barrel length is alleged to have been a quarter of an inch too short—and Americans say "they got what they deserved". In America, demagogic "leaders" of the black minority are demanding that the pockets of their fellow-citizens be picked to pay for the institution of slavery— abolished a century and a half ago—while turning a blind eye to black slave trading that still goes on in the world today. In America, white mobs are attacking Mosques and calling their fellow-citizens of Middle Eastern descent "rag heads". And we're to believe that this country is united?
The simple, cold hard truth about what happened in New York (and aboard a plane over Pennsylvania) is that this generation has finally seen the brutal face of war—the kind of war that the United States has been helping foreign governments wage for decades. The reason for so much ignorance about US foreign policy—and thus absolute astonishment that anyone could ever really be this mad with us—is that a nation divided into paltry, bickering tribes of adolescent power brokers has better things to do than worry about weapons sales to Latin American dictators, and other forms of overseas atrocities. Such trivial distractions are for others to worry about—as long as Monday night football rolls as scheduled, the welfare check is in the mail, and no one ever says anything "unpleasant".
Though this may be like rain on parade day, it is time that someone had the courage to admit that the United States is not united. It is Rome in the dying days of Empire—and the barbarians at the gate are laughing at us.
I love the "I hate what the US stands for, but I sure love living here" crowd. What a joke. Most of these morons have never even been out of the country.
Yup, a bunch of people were sitting around trying to decide whether they should ban Camembert or titanium - then someone suggested crack.
Miraculously, after crack was arbitrarily chosen for no particular reason, people started becoming addicted to it and began to steal and kill for it. Just randomly. Go figure.
I think he's an idiot who does make a few good points. But that end statement is that of an alarmist. This country isn't dying, and if there are barbarians at the gate laughing at us, then let them laugh. It's the likes of stupid Arabs who totally reject everything about our society, as well as the America haters within our borders, that laugh or point fingers. This country didn't become great on their backs, and they won't stand in our way as we all move forward from this event of Sept. 11.
He also spews about (I'm guessing here) Ruby Ridge, excessive federal taxes, the war on drugs, and many other things where I don't catch the allusion. I could deal with each one of those issues individually (and yes, some mistakes HAVE been made), but why should I? He doesn't-- he doesn't think he needs to-- he just spews. Just who the heck is the audience for this guy anyway?
Serious questions should be asked and debated about exactly what the US role should be in regards to the rest of the world. Other than calling us an "Empire", he doesn't address the issue. I would find that funny if it weren't so sad-- I can't think of any nation LESS interested in conquering it's neighbors or enemies than the US. Whoever this jerk is that wrote this stuff is simply not much of a thinker-- he just "feels". Well, that's not very useful. We've got a war to fight, a country to run, and a future to work out. Garbage like this contributes nothing to any of those objectives.
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