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10.02.2003
Straw Men Burning! Eject! Eject! Eject!: POWER How can people that proclaim the greatest admiration for Democracy then turn around and propose that the citizens of the world should accept american dominance? Because we're nice people? That's like saying "why shouldnt we let a governing council of nice people with our best interests at heart run America, this election stuff be damned!" History is crystal clear on one point, and that is that power – the exercise of raw military and political force – is the only effective cure for dictators and fascists, whatever flag they fly. It is not only morally justified to confront such evil; it is immoral not to do so We should note that for the rest of his essay he ignores the political component. And be warned that the "History of America" once again begins after the near total genocide of the native americans. Reading through Whittle's wanton burning of straw man after straw man I have to remind myself that we, Americans are living on occupied territory. There are treaties signed with conquered peoples that no longer have claim to their ancestral land. America was not a shiny coin that we found on the street one day. It was a bank that we claimed as our own. I have had innumerable discussions about threats, actions, responses, contingencies and capabilities, but I have never, not once in 44 years, met an American who advocated invasion and permanent conquest for national gain. Why should they? They are still feeding off the feast of past conquests. "We" conquered and stole land that "we" have yet to digest. Show me anywhere else in all the pages of history such national decency, forgiveness, and generosity. You can’t do it. It is, like so much of our history, unique. Maybe being an okie, close to the heart of Native American anguish, causes me to find this statement myopic to say the least. Or maybe its that little bit of native blood that runs through me as well. We do not enjoy sending our sons and daughters to die overseas. But when we have to fight we fight to win, and win quickly. “War is cruelty; you cannot refine it,” wrote Grant’s friend and subordinate, William T. Sherman. You cannot refine it, indeed. You can only do it and get it over with as quickly as possible. On the contrary I think we do enjoy sending our sons and daughters off to fight. After Sept. 11th there was a palpable feeling of near-glee at the prospect of yet another generation of Americans going off to fight the good fight. It was blasphemous to say that any other option was considerable. Bush knew what all the flags meant, it was a national cry for battle. He merely gave us what we craved. It was our rebirth, reliving for yet another generation our genesis bathed in blood. For those Americans that only know one side of the American legend they cannot understand that I look at the birth of this nation through the lens of my ancestry. It was birth, and it was death, and to pretend otherwise is a false picture. One that Bill Whittle is content to repaint yet again. I know that when he invokes the term "Americans" he refers not to a nation of people but to a constituency. One to which I only partially belong. | |
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