ZGram - 10/11/2002 - "Words of War & Fears of Disaster"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGRAM - Where Truth is Destiny

October 11, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

A sad day, yesterday!  That the Congress and Senate voted the way 
they did when the people clearly told them that they did not wish for 
war, speaks volumes.

This coming war is going to haunt America for a very long time to come!

Below, a Vietnam Veteran searches for America and finds only the 
logic of war threatening to replay an American horror of yesterday.

[START]

Words of War and Fears of Disaster

By Kevin Bowen

For months now, the words have been like a drum roll over the 
background noise of radio and television. Mornings and evenings, we 
hear the name of a country and its leader repeated over and over 
again. Iraq and Saddam. Iraq and Saddam. We are at war we are told, 
and the enemy is almost at our doorstep so we must act, and act now. 
In the President's words, we are faced with a grave threat.

Is this true? The CIA says it is not true. Former United Nations 
Inspectors say it is not true. Generals and military analysts say it 
is not true. Then why is the country moving forward? Why are leaders 
in congress, with a few noted exceptions, falling right into step? 
Why are the voices of opposition largely drowned out? Is it a 
vestigial fear left from the events of September 11th that is letting 
us move forward? Is it the fear that is standing basic premises about 
preemptive strikes on their head?

Is it simply because we don't know where to turn in the war on 
terrorism? So far we have bombed Afghanistan and sent troops into 
several other countries (Georgia, the Philippines). The enemy has 
remained elusive, sometimes even undefined. We've heard the 
commentators on Osama bin Laden, Islamic extremism; we've heard the 
discussions of the hatred of marginalized peoples, of pipelines and 
oil, of the imminent dangers of anthrax, small pox, unknown bacilli 
that may enter our nervous system, our bloodstream, and destroy us. 
We stagger from alert to alert. The economy stumbles and the stock 
market falls, our sense of security slowly slips away.

Saddam. Iraq. Saddam. Iraq. After a time, the words and the actions 
they suggest begin to take on a sense of inevitability. Here is a 
"them," a "someone" we can point to as the embodiment of evil. Here 
is a way of simplifying the problem. A bad guy no one will miss. 
Tough talk about "taking him out," invading the country, ripping out 
the bad seed, becomes easier and easier as our enemy becomes more and 
more inhuman. We hear again and again the justifications: the 
possibility of nuclear arms, biological and chemical weapons, 
intractability, perversion, the almost sexual gloating over blood 
letting. We are reminded of Munich. The need to stop a maniac. 
Saddam's picture begins, perhaps with help, to look more and more 
like Hitler's. We hear familiar words bandied about, words that are 
both satisfying and chilling: the assurance that we are a "special 
nation"; we have a "special mission."

These phrases pass almost unnoticed, are even greeted with approval 
by those who think it's about time for us to just get out there and 
run the world for our benefit. Yes, what is good for General Motors 
and the Oil Companies is good for us, they point out. Read the 
reports from 50% to 62% foreign oil dependence by 2030, what better 
administration to help save your SUV.

Yet, there are others with other memories who are bothered by the 
words and conduct. In Europe, the words send 350,000 into the streets 
of London, 200,000 into the streets of Rome.

Still, we are a democracy and we debate. But the debate seems hollow. 
It seems almost as if this has become some other country we were 
living in. Results are announced before the vote is even taken. It is 
almost as if our country has become a fishbowl that we stand outside 
and view.

Many remain opposed and struggle to articulate what it is that so 
bothers, offends them: the banality of the logic of the war, the 
potentially disastrous consequences, and ultimately, the maddeningly 
unasked and unanswered question: why are we so anxious, so ready to 
go to war; why do we feel violence, war, is the solution, the fix for 
our situation which we know has been partially caused by our own 
earlier acts of violence?

There are no answers for questions never asked. The logic of war 
follows along its own simple narrowing track. Young men and women in 
this country, in Iraq, and who knows what other places, will pay the 
price for this hubris.

Each day the mornings grow colder now. The first frost is on the way 
and this war seems as inevitable as the coming change of season. 
Mornings now, like many, I wake to the sound of cars turning over and 
think of other engines turning over somewhere far away. I fear that 
thanks to the poverty of our politics and out imaginations, it is 
Death who sits behind the wheel and that he is hungry for a fresh 
harvest.

=====

Kevin Bowen, contributing editor, is Director of the William Joiner 
Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University 
of Massachusetts Boston. Kevin was drafted and served in the 1st Air 
Cavalry Division in Vietnam from 1968-1969.

Posted Friday, October 11, 2002

(Source: 
terventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=208 
)