Wednesday, April 09, 2003
There are many happy Americans today. Bush was so giddy, he could just burst. Now that Saddam statues are littering the landscape, their hope is being vindicated. And just like monday morning quarterbacks the ranks of pound I-told-you-so's will swell as the victories continue to come our way. I seriously doubt that many of these happy people will let their joy be diminished by the number of, dead and injured civilians, or the fact that Iraq was attacked pre-maturely. All that counts is that we are winning. Our citizens are exactly as the Bush administration, wants our citizens to be, focused on. "Good is winning over Evil" no other subjects other than, imposing the new government, are available for discussion.
Follow our leaders. The President MUST know something that he has not shared with us This rationalization is wearing thin on me.
After September 11th we wanted our leaders to make us feel safe again, but I could not have dreamed we would have allowed our President to take us where we are today. I am sure this is how many German people felt back when Hitler attacked Poland. We automatically turned off our sense of decency and embraced a subservient idea that we have to fall in line because our troops deserve our support and by extension, the Commander in Chief.
The support for the President's war, has been reluctant by many, because of the unconvincing arguments our Administration made to us. We solve the internal conflict between the blood shed, the misery being carried out in our name and our view of ourselves as a generous, decent people who do not willfully injure others by not seeing. We absolve ourselves, by finding excuses, by seeking refuge in "the mindlessness of the group mind" and by bowing to authority, yet again
We are a country full of conformists by nature. We may be somewhat cynical but not skeptical about authority figures. We respected our parents as children, so my extension we respect our elected leaders. We align ourselves to the officially sanctioned position because we don't want to stand out, and seem troublesome, or in other words, be someone who could easily be labeled as anti-american.
The funny thing is all of us have at one time or another spoken out against some policy decision, Government sponsored research, Government purchases, like hammers that cost $100, or pay increases Congress often give themselves. The war must makes some of us feel guilty for harboring those thoughts and over compensate by being the loudest flag waver on the block. This may be called the opposite of "Me thinks you protest too much" It is now "Me thinks you support your President too much". Is it possible that as Americans, we absolve our guilt, over our previous criticism of the government, by being very pro-government and therefore pro-war citizens?
Our willing ignorance, our denial, our susceptibility to propaganda, our failure to properly assess or comprehend what is being done, allows our Administration to tell us whatever they want us to, knowing we will swallow it hook-line-and sinker.
Many of us have a vain hope that ignorance will imply innocence, that by denying the consequences of our complicity, our blind support for this war, it will be as as if it never happened.
It seems that many of us are in denial, again. If we don't see the deaths, and only focus on statues falling down, the misery caused, can't be real. It seems like, in some larger sense, we only see the Iraqi people, as rejoicing in the streets, and don't see the death and chaos we are causing.
That Iraqis problem is that they, are not English-speaking Christian Westerners, so we don't see Iraqi people as human beings, so we don't see their lives as precious, to be valued as we value our own. This helps us ignore their bodies being blown up.
As, the US of A, do we feel we are ordained, no, compelled, by God to deliver liberty to the Iraqis through the barrel of a gun? This kind of thinking, must absolve some of us, of any Christian guilt, so that, as one journalist said, we can "kill innocent people so we can liberate their surviving relatives" without batting an eye.
We have heard of blood being shed in the Mideast for years now in Palestine, So, don't wreck things now and look at the bodies, the misery, the dismembered children, folks, it may stir some guilty feelings, and that would not be good, you might show some humanity. Your Daddy Bush would not like that. Be a good boy and girl and cheer with the video of happy Iraqis in the streets, don't make waves.
Follow our leaders. The President MUST know something that he has not shared with us This rationalization is wearing thin on me.
After September 11th we wanted our leaders to make us feel safe again, but I could not have dreamed we would have allowed our President to take us where we are today. I am sure this is how many German people felt back when Hitler attacked Poland. We automatically turned off our sense of decency and embraced a subservient idea that we have to fall in line because our troops deserve our support and by extension, the Commander in Chief.
The support for the President's war, has been reluctant by many, because of the unconvincing arguments our Administration made to us. We solve the internal conflict between the blood shed, the misery being carried out in our name and our view of ourselves as a generous, decent people who do not willfully injure others by not seeing. We absolve ourselves, by finding excuses, by seeking refuge in "the mindlessness of the group mind" and by bowing to authority, yet again
We are a country full of conformists by nature. We may be somewhat cynical but not skeptical about authority figures. We respected our parents as children, so my extension we respect our elected leaders. We align ourselves to the officially sanctioned position because we don't want to stand out, and seem troublesome, or in other words, be someone who could easily be labeled as anti-american.
The funny thing is all of us have at one time or another spoken out against some policy decision, Government sponsored research, Government purchases, like hammers that cost $100, or pay increases Congress often give themselves. The war must makes some of us feel guilty for harboring those thoughts and over compensate by being the loudest flag waver on the block. This may be called the opposite of "Me thinks you protest too much" It is now "Me thinks you support your President too much". Is it possible that as Americans, we absolve our guilt, over our previous criticism of the government, by being very pro-government and therefore pro-war citizens?
Our willing ignorance, our denial, our susceptibility to propaganda, our failure to properly assess or comprehend what is being done, allows our Administration to tell us whatever they want us to, knowing we will swallow it hook-line-and sinker.
Many of us have a vain hope that ignorance will imply innocence, that by denying the consequences of our complicity, our blind support for this war, it will be as as if it never happened.
It seems that many of us are in denial, again. If we don't see the deaths, and only focus on statues falling down, the misery caused, can't be real. It seems like, in some larger sense, we only see the Iraqi people, as rejoicing in the streets, and don't see the death and chaos we are causing.
That Iraqis problem is that they, are not English-speaking Christian Westerners, so we don't see Iraqi people as human beings, so we don't see their lives as precious, to be valued as we value our own. This helps us ignore their bodies being blown up.
As, the US of A, do we feel we are ordained, no, compelled, by God to deliver liberty to the Iraqis through the barrel of a gun? This kind of thinking, must absolve some of us, of any Christian guilt, so that, as one journalist said, we can "kill innocent people so we can liberate their surviving relatives" without batting an eye.
We have heard of blood being shed in the Mideast for years now in Palestine, So, don't wreck things now and look at the bodies, the misery, the dismembered children, folks, it may stir some guilty feelings, and that would not be good, you might show some humanity. Your Daddy Bush would not like that. Be a good boy and girl and cheer with the video of happy Iraqis in the streets, don't make waves.
# posted by Thomas @ 8:33 PM 
