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CounterPunch
March 7,
2003
Tragedy of the Ridiculous
War
Democracy By
Any Means?
By ALEX LYNCH
It was the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) that
the world learned that being right doesn't necessarily translate
into success: The modern hero can at once be justified in fighting
against fascism, and still lose. This was a theme that was echoed
previously in Kafka's The Trial; the modernist theme of absurdity
or, fighting illogic, contradiction and ridiculousness to no
avail.
Perhaps the War on Terror will teach
the postmoderns a new theme for a new Century. The dilemma of
the ridiculous person wholly swept with the impression that his/her
work is the labor of "democracy by any means" and the
spread of American Christian values unto the world when actually
these values have been perverted so thoroughly by its leadership
that the world is now unified in the idea that it is America
and its allies that pose the biggest threat to world peace.
This is the dilemma of Americans. It
is Americans George W. Bush speaks to at the United Nations how
Iraq poses a threat to international peace. For the rest of the
world, especially Iraq's neighbors, knows that it has no real
weaponry, strong unified army or outgoing plans.
It is Americans who Donald Rumsfeld is
on a mission from God to protect against the wacky Iraqis and
the sterile and flaccid Europeans.
It is John Ashcroft who is on a mission
from God to curtail the rights of Americans in order to implement
racist policing tactics to fight this war against opposition
at home.
Sept. 11 fueled these Bush Administration
ideologues' fire into actualization, and so was it the burning
of the Reichstag that set history in motion. One was blamed on
terrorists, the other on communists and formidable enemies are
born in order to unite the victims.
But no one can blame the Americans, the
world's economy depends on their inhuman-like consumption. They
have no time to look into and through news reports to find the
truth. In fact, Americans are not known for their ability to
critique, but for their willingness to be entertained and there
is absolutely no better way to be entertained by news than to
watch the American media.
It is unsure what it will take for Americans
to see their dilemma. It may possibly be the pure arrogance of
the Administration in its handling of the Middle East. Invading
Iraq, taking over the oilfields, and threatening Saudi Arabia
and Iran will put the American neo-conservatives into a position
of deep regret. Continuing on against world opinion for years
on end will undoubtedly cause the Americans a little self-reflection.
This is what the Administration opposes
first and foremost at home; self-reflection. In From Beirut to
Jerusalem Thomas Friedman outlined almost the same thing, one
of the biggest problems in Israeli society is a lack of self-reflection.
Israelis are constantly bombarded with
the idea that they are victims beyond all reasoning. No matter
that three times as many Palestinians die as do Israelis. That
the Israeli defense force has completely overpowered the Palestinians
for years on end. That Israel has a government, while the Palestinians
have a man holed up in a bullet-riddled complex. No matter how
improbable and absurd, the same idea still persistently wins
votes in Israel: the idea that Palestinians would like nothing
more than to recreate the holocaust or throw Israelis into the
sea.
And so Americans see Saddam Hussein,
the quack from Iraq, as a menace to its "homeland,"
no matter that America spends 26 times more on their military
than the next closest competitor.
Illusions will persist until the people
are forced to recognize their own ignorance.
Alex Lynch
is Founder & Editor of THE SHANACHIE and can be contacted
at shanachie51@hotmail.com
Yesterday's
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Winslow T. Wheeler
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Uri Avnery
Sharon's Sleight of Hand
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UAW Local
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Ralph Nader
How MSNBC Sabotaged Donahue
Anthony Gancarski
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The
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February 28,
2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Meet
the New Yorker's Chief Hack: Jeffrey Goldberg
Saul Landau
Now
It's Personal
Michael Neumann
A Plea for Hysteria
Karima Bennoume
The UN: Tool for Peace or War?
The Black
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The Rev. Sharpton and the Soul of the Democrats
Jennifer Loewenstein
Don't Turn Off the War
Richard Levins
Cuba's Biological Weapons: Why the World Needs More of Them
M. Shahid Alam
Is This a Clash of Civilizations?
Clay Conrad
Juries
and Judges: What's Relevant?
Ben Tripp
Speaking in Tongues: a Guide to Gibberish in the Age of Bush
Eliot Katz
To Declare Preemptive War is to Declare a Bankrupt Imagination
Kurt Nimmo
Paying Through the Nose to Kill Iraqi Kids
Matt Vidal
George W. Bonaparte
Mark Zepezauer
Why the Right Hates America
Mickey Z.
The Anti----War Talk I Never Gave
Jerry Kroth
Jung and the Space Shuttle Revisited
Shyam Oberoi
Chronicle of a War Foretold
Ron Jacobs
What If the Firebombing of Baghdad Were a Nightclub Fire?
Poets' Basement
Eliot Katz and Jim Cohn
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Tech
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
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