November 1
So here's the deal. We're at war fighting for the cause of
freedom justice and the American Way. Just like Superman in the comics.
While we're busy being distracted by "breaking news" and distracting
ourselves with all the war stories--they do make good news copy--the
government has the opportunity to finagle. We're not watching, because
"exciting and important stories with immediate appeal" are taking up much of
the time normally used to address the daily business of the nation.
Since September 11 we've become used to the constant drone of the media
covering the same few topics in endless detail. Not that there isn't
importance to the continuing stories of the war, there is. But just as there
are people with ill intentions for our nation outside the system, within our
very government, there are people who want to change the course of the
nation though legalistic machinations. Bills are being presented in Congress
today that could infringe upon the rights of Americans. Other bills are
being introduced that could exacerbate the very core of our own misconduct
in the world.
In times of war, there appears to be a logical rightness to those who wish
to impose limitations on our freedoms and who argue that time has come to
cast off the restrictions of our environmental protection. "We need to
defend ourselves. We need to protect our national interests. If this means
we must restrict essential freedoms in our nation, so be it. If this means
that we need to drill in Alaska to meet our oil needs, so be it." The
long-term effects of these ideas notwithstanding, the arguments come roaring
forth from the mouths of politicians.
We're fighting for oil rights. Doesn’t this sound biblical? We need oil for
our lamps. We're fighting the Philistines. Somehow in the midst of all this
I forget exactly why we were fighting the Philistines. It¹s become enough
simply to fight them. Besides weren’t we fighting them before? We have to
keep fighting them now. Don't we?
Wars are fought over territorial rights. Each side wants control of the
disputed turf. We've been fortunate over the years, because rarely have
battles ever taken place on our land. The sacrosanct borders of America were
violated in September launching us into an angry, vengeful response. We
wanted to move the war quickly from our nation and put it "back where it
belongs." But this war is not like wars of the past. They're not fighting
fair. They're not coming out where we can see them. We don't know where to
go to wage our war, so we just bomb everything we think might be important
to them. Eventually (as we're seeing) the bombs start falling more randomly,
finding targets of opportunity that may or may not include the enemy. If
we're not bombing blind, we surely have only one myopic eye.
At present, we seem to be losing the war. We're bombing the holy crap out of
Afghanistan, but we don't seem to be getting the desired results. The spin
meisters keep telling us that they're decimating the Taliban forces, but
then compared to us the Taliban never really had significant forces. They
had some old weapons, but that's not what's at the heart of their battle
strategy.
They're not going to fight us at our war. They couldn't possibly win our
war. They haven't the people, the weapons or the wealth to fight us on our
terms. They'll wage the battles in their way, while we're fighting as though
we were trying to exterminate rats by throwing hand grenades in the
basement. It just won't work. We can kill and kill and kill the rats, and
somehow they keep surviving. It's like an old cartoon where Elmer Fudd tries
everything to get rid of Bugs Bunny. Finally he's burned his own house down,
he's covered with soot, he's blown himself up, and an exhausted victory grin
creeps on his face, when suddenly from out of the ashes Bugs rises up to
ask, "What's up Doc?" We can see the evident foolishness for Elmer, what
about our own?
The caves that hide the masters of their campaign are invisible to us. If we
want to eliminate their hiding places, we'll have to level the mountains. We
can't level the mountains unless we nuke 'em. We don't want to nuke 'em
because it will contaminate the whole region. If we contaminate the region,
we'll have polluted oil reserves, which isn't in our car-driving best
interest. No, we have to stop short of shooting ourselves in the foot. On
the other hand, . . .
I can't tell where exactly we should stop. Can anyone? Well, if I were in
power, I know that I'd work to try to get all the things I want done while
everyone pays attention to the terrorist network. It was hard to pass
questionable legislation when it wasn't attached to patriotic bills. But
now, if it were me, I'd be riding my way into legal control of freedom and
democracy. "Hey, what's it to me, if you weren't paying attention? I did it
all legally."
So, the war takes on other stranger, more diabolical meanings when we start
to notice it altering the fabric of America from within. Suddenly we're
fighting the war on another, unexpected domestic front. We're waging war
within our own government, as attempts are being made to take advantage of
the situation. The rogue elements are not limited to bearded men from far
off lands. Within our own elected government, there are those who will try
to turn these times to their own selfish, power hungry, greedy advantage.
We're all staying home worrying about attacks, Anthrax and the World Series.
(I'm not sure of the order.) We don't want to come outside, because the
rumors are rampant and the Yankees are losing. The terrorists ARE winning.
Every time we hide, they win. Every time we curtail our actions, they win.
Every time we get nervous at man in a turban, they win. Every time we are
less than we were, they win.
We're worried because the war is being waged at home. We can't distract
ourselves with the war abroad. It's the one in our yard that terrifies us.
We're afraid of dying. We're afraid of contracting deadly diseases. We're
afraid of opening our mail. We're afraid to leave our houses, to go
shopping, to go to the movies and to go out to eat. We're afraid of what
might happen. Heck, the terrorists don't have to lift a finger; we're making
their job easy, just by being terrified. Yep, they're definitely winning the
war.
They're biding their time, waiting for us to exhaust our bombing runs.
They'll attack us by stealth. And attack us they will. They're bent on our
destruction. They figure, if they can just lull us into believing we're
winning, their counter attacks will catch us sleeping. It's kind of a
rope-a-dope for nations.
We have to live today, right now. We have to figure out some alternative
ways to win this war. We can't do it with our weapons of mass destruction.
We can't do it unilaterally. We can't do it by abandoning all global efforts
to negotiate and police the world i.e. the United Nations.
Our enemies struck us with our own airliners. Now, they are striking us with
letters in the mail, using our infrastructure to deliver their destruction
to our doors. We can't beat this type of enemy by bombing Afghanistan. We
may provide some short term emotional satisfaction, that we¹re doing what we
have to do, that we¹re defending America, showing our strength, and all that
rah rah. But fundamentally, we¹re weakening ourselves, because we¹re
combating an enemy we cannot find. Maybe we¹re hoping we¹ll get lucky.
No time to second guess. We've already started the bombing. We're well into
this war. We can't stop now. It's too late. We can't back down. We're
committed to win. We can't quit. The whole ugly war has to play itself out.
Or does it? With every day of our continued assault, we do damage not just
to the country of Afghanistan, but also to our reputation as world
benefactor.
Reputation aside, you and I, mere mortals on this global game board, have
destinies too. We are not to be relegated to an inconsequential status. We
have lives and dreams. We have voices with which to speak. We must find
other ways to combat the forces bent on destroying us while, at the same
time, protecting others that, like ourselves, want peace. I don’t know that
we will be able to keep from being fodder for the canons of the hawks, but
I’m not content to go down silently. This is still a democracy at some
level, and we have to participate in bringing a greater spiritual sense to
our nation’s leaders.
I know we can't right all the world's wrongs, but we do need to acknowledge
that violence begets violence. Our great power against their little power
has all the appearances of the schoolyard bully beating up on the poor
little kid--at least it does to those parts of the world who sympathize with
the grievances of Mr. OBL. There is no way that he and his cohorts will not
plan their revenge.
Perhaps we naively believe we can wage this war to prevent their revenge.
But we have no idea when or where their attack will come. The Office of
Homeland Security (more accurately Homeland Insecurity) can only add its
Federal Official stamp to the wide spread rumors of what is yet to come.
They don’t really know anything. Or at least they won’t tell us. We're
living for the future and we're scared to death of it. Soon along with
Cipro, people will start stockpiling cyanide, just in case things really get
bad.
It’s surprising to me that it took until today for the warnings to come out
for places like the Golden Gate Bridge. Considering the relative ease Tim
McVeigh had driving a rental truck into downtown Oklahoma City, how hard
would a terrorist find it to drive a truck onto one of the great bridges?
November 3. On another note, the Yankees who seem intent on creating the
sports metaphor for the re-emergence of New York City have done the
improbable two games in a row by coming from behind in the World Series. At
the brink of losing, they rose up and fought back with the spirit and
determination. It’s a happy symbolic note amidst all the fear.
Ron NaVarre just sent me a disturbing article from the London Guardian by
Arundhati Roy. It¹s an articulate and angry response to the military
response by the U.S. He says, "People rarely win wars, governments rarely
lose them. People get killed. Governments moult and regroup, hydra-headed."
This view of the differences between governments and people is often lost on
the public when the call to war is sounded. But, we’ve seen time and time
again throughout the history of the world that governments have ways of
incorporating their predecessors. Even this country took the Nazi scientists
into our secret service after the Second World War.
Roy brings in another startling revelation, one that I haven’t verified but
assume if the Guardian printed it, it stood the basic test of journalism. He
writes that for years Unocal has been negotiating with the Taliban for the
rights to pipe oil across Afghanistan. The plans were halted after protests
in the U.S. during the Clinton administration. If this is true, our interests
in battling Osama in Afghanistan take on much more troubling implications.
Also according to this latest missive from Ron NaVarre, Admiral William J.
Crowe Jr. who helped sell Anthrax to Saddam, is a 13% share holder of
BioPort Corporation in Lansing Michigan that makes the antidote to Anthrax.
Hm, who stands to profit?
These are exactly the types of concerns that are being overlooked in the
mainstream press and media. We have to look at what’s happening. They may
not please us. They may not fit our image of America. But we cannot find
peace until we’re willing to address the truth. We're being fed good reasons
that sound oh-so-reasonable for fighting this war, while other less
patriotic, more self-serving reasons are remaining concealed from us. We
have to dig to unveil them. If we don't, we may approve ourselves into a
future we haven't agreed upon.
Marc
P.S. As everyone knows by now, the Yankees come back was overshadowed by a
come back by the Diamondbacks who staged their own ninth inning victory
rally to take the World Series. New York was deadly quiet Sunday night.