Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 4 Number 3, December 2003
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Regrets
by
I was too
young to be blamed for our blunder into Vietnam, but I own this one. Like most
Americans, I was in favor of kicking Iraq out of Kuwait and for going after
Osama Bin Laden. In the past week however, I have ended a forty-year membership
in the Republican Party, I have taken part in my first anti-war rally, and for
the first time this gray haired old man finds himself filled with dull anger,
shame, and disillusionment. This one happened on my watch; my country, my party,
my generation in power... and I don't know if I'm angrier at these institutions,
or at my silence while watching it happen.
Superior
technology is a wonderful thing, but it changes things. Ever since stone and
wood were first fashioned into spears, superior technology has translated into
superior weaponry. Boundaries change. Nations rise and fall; but the real change
happens inside. Technical superiority somehow translates into moral and
intellectual superiority and justifies the use of power for any end. "Shock
and Awe" bombing is the result of this Imperial reasoning. In Joseph
Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", Kurtz went to Africa carrying the light
of European civilization and ended up looting ivory and penciling his famous
summation "Exterminate all the brutes."
Morality
aside, the world can no longer afford this kind of thinking. Any country or
group of dissidents today can create weapons of terror. The technology and the
information are available, and none of it can be put back in the bottle. Bombing
terrorism instead of addressing the underlying reasons for hatred merely spreads
it. For every person killed, two terrorists are created, and to do this bombing
without United Nations support weakens and will possibly destroy our last best
chance of dealing with this new reality.
The world
breathed a sigh of relief when the cold war ended, and another when common
markets and free trade agreements were hammered out, but win easy, win hard, or
scramble on to rooftops and catch the last helicopter out... this planet will
soon be a meaner and more dangerous place. The proud Muslim and Arab peoples now
have split-screen humiliation pumped at them every evening... Israeli tanks in
Palestine and U.S. tanks in Iraq.
The soldiers
in the Middle East have my condolence. Bush has his crusade. Hussein may get his
martyrdom. I have my regrets... and the children of this world have my heartfelt
apology.