if man is five then the devil is six
I don't have a great head for predicting things, but if I were a betting man - like James Bond or Cosmo Kramer - I'd say it's a solid Social Security reform, public issue numero uno in the blogosphere and on the more quality editorial pa- well, Paul Krugman's columns anyway - will be a train wreck to rival all train wrecks; indeed, we are probably staring down the barrel of an UnProgressive Era; and deservedly so, my fellow fuckwits. Values! Terra! Whatever!
Nevertheless, here's one of two things I've found myself tussling with as the November 2nd hangover wanes:
First off is the question of the culpability of the American soldier, circa Iraq, circa 2004: that is, at what point do we stopping writing off war crimes and the illegality of military actions committed by the Army to "the fog of war" and the stress of combat and the demands of rank?
We know where to start pointing fingers - the Bush Administration, the Congress - but where do we stop? Who do we hold accountable, and who don't we hold accountable? The guards at Abu Gharib and the "Marlboro Men?" The voters? The National Review? The taxpayers?
Publicly, any sort of debate about the very real responsibility - the essential humanity - of people serving in the armed forces is all fuzzed up by notables on the liberal end of the spectrum like Michael Moore and his canonization of poor kids who get sucked into the service, or Al Franken, who went out of his way to show his beloved Dems celebrate Veterans' Day too and is constantly falling all over his microphone to thank soldiers calling in "for all they do." And just what is that - what do they do, Al, exactly, that we should be thanking them for? If they're not fighting for freedom or against big bad WMDs and terrorist links, just what are they doing? Just how are the Marines' sins forgiven if we know the President's a whinging liar?
Look, bottom line, somebody in Iraq, wearing cammies and an American flag patch did this. And this. And yes, we all know who's sick fucking messianic/political science project this is. Yes. We all know. But those same monsters seem to be pretty sure someone's gonna make sure all the dirty deeds get done.
So where does this leave me? You? How bankrupt are my own criticisms if I haven't resurrected the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Weatherman Collective?
Of course, the ugly ugly truth of the modern capitalist state is that everybody and nobody's guilty - and yes, I know, not an original observation. Nietzsche or Will Rogers probably said it better, but that's me without my Ouija board. And that whole banality of evil thing should be apparent by the fact Rummy can go from running Fortune 500 companies to masterminding war crimes.
But if I may be so bold - yeah, and I think I will be, thanks - the above questions are lent much more credibility, and even more importantly, context, by a gradually emerging refusnik movement. Said movement's gotten it's best coverage by Amy Goodman and crew, and the latest piece can be found here.
If this invasion, the massacres, all of that compounds and continues, the U.S. armed forces will at some point start flirting with, then dancing with genocide, just as it did in Vietnam. That we condescend to the either the profound naivete or brutal ignorance of the men and women shooting the place up absolves no one - not us, not them, not anybody.
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