Pearl Harbor or Iraq?

I recently got together with an old friend whom I love and respect, but whose political views are diametrically opposed to mine. It was a great pleasure to see him, but it was also deeply disturbing because, although he occasionally follows my blog, he could not seem to see it as anything but “Bush bashing”.

The disturbing thing for me is that the exploration of facts seems not to compute for those whose political loyalties lie on the right. I cannot seem to convince people – even old and dear friends - that I would be screaming just as loudly if the things to which I object were being perpetrated by Bill Clinton or John Kennedy instead of George Bush.

When you get right down to it, I don’t even think W is the problem. He’s just a dumb bunny with a lot of money whom the real powers see as an easily manipulated front man.

The problem is that my country has been taken down a very dangerous and downright evil path by a bunch of crazies whose goal is world domination.

At this point, my right wing friends will point at me and shout “Hypocrite” because they see that line as pure hyperbole in the middle of an essay that will discuss the need to avoid hyperbole. But the bottom line fact for me is that the line is not hyperbole at all, but a pure and clear statement about the direction my country is going.

For me, the clearest example of this is that Congress has accepted BushCo’s doctrine of pre-emptive war. This is at the top of the heap of accepted policies that I think contradict long-standing American values. In my mind, there is nothing more anathematic to the American way than pre-emptive war.

Just for clarity, consider the World Book Dictionary definition of pre-empt: “1. To secure before someone else can; acquire or take possession of beforehand. 2. To take over; displace.

Step back for a minute and examine the nature of the events we, as Americans, have always held up as examples of the greatest wrongs committed in modern times – Hitler’s invasion of Poland to begin WWII, and Japan’s invasion of Pearl Harbor that drew America into that war.

Consider both of those events from the perspective of Germany and Japan. From that view, both of those events were nothing more than pre-emptive war. Germany attacked Poland from the air without warning with the purpose of destroying the Polish air defenses to avoid the possibility of a tough initial fight in their attempt to take over the world. Japan attacked America from the air with the purpose of destroying the American naval defenses to avoid the possibility of America’s entry into the war with an effective fighting force. In other words, they were pre-emptive strikes to secure dominance.

America was rightly repulsed by the aggressive nature of those strikes and struck back in anger at the affront of the invasion of territory and power under our control. Why does any American now think that we should have the right to strike other countries before they strike us? Does this not sink us to the level of Germany and Japan in the thirties and forties? Is our interest in controlling the world economy OK while theirs was evil?

Another friend, who leans a bit more to the left than the dear friend who inspired this essay, recently sent an article by Paul Craig Roberts called, There May Be Many Mushroom Clouds In Our Future. She asked if I thought it was more politically correct than an early article she had sent and to which I had objected. This article was a bit over the top in my view, too, employing some exaggerations that took it a little too far beyond factual representation for me, but it did contain a great many truths and culminated in one that I believe to the core of my being. Its last line was, “The neoconservatives represent the greatest danger ever faced by the United States and the world. Humanity has no greater enemy.”

I know that to my conservative friend that, too, will sound like hyperbole, but it is certainly not.

Paul Roberts, BTW, was an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Ronald Reagan and is known as the father of Reaganomics – not exactly known as a hot blooded left winger, but definitely aware of the risks the neocons pose to the world.

Pre-emptive warfare is just the tip the iceberg of the necons’ damage to America and the world. Their approach to surveillance of the American people, torture and abuse of prisoners, and disregard for the rule of law are more symptoms of their similarity to Fascists. No American, whether Republican or Democrat, can afford to ignore the dangers these people pose to the Republic. The stakes are far too high.

Another point Roberts made in his article was that the American public has been brainwashed to the point that they can't seem to understand how dangerous our present course is. I'm afraid that's true, too. Otherwise, how could thoughtful, intelligent and caring people like my Republican friend so glibly support our nation's decline?

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR