A Sorry Bunch:
No Apology Necessary--Off to the Hague!
As we watch the horror unfolding before our eyes like a giant time-delayed broadcast, a deeper horror should also be
setting in. The entire discussion surrounding the "revelations" of mistreatment of Iraqis by the US (does bombing water
purification plants count as mistreatment?) has taken on a sickening, surreal turn. I feel like we are watching "things
fall apart," as Chinua Achebe once wrote. The center, indeed, does not hold, and we are witnessing the spiraling out of
control of almost every element of our perception: moral compass spinning aimlessly, intellectual ground slipping, right
merging with wrong, a sort of Mad Imperial Tea Party. Up is down, day is night, and war is peace as we descend Down the
Spider Hole.
Let's be blunt here: this is nothing new--this is just some more shit hitting the fan. Let's not forget the Giant
Elephant in the Room--the albatross the Bushies have hung around the necks of the American people. Make no mistake and
keep on track: This is an illegal war, and that's where it all starts. It's not for nothing that the Nuremburg tribunal
saved special venom for the ultimate War Crime of starting an unprovoked war of aggression: the Fog of War may cloud
certain truths, but the worst crime is that which "contains the accumulated evil of the hole."
Let's not be naïve: This administration, more so than Kerry (a Lesser War Criminal who admitted to atrocities, slated to
replace the one in office come January) is using this opportunity to cleanse themselves of the atrocities that they have
imposed by "bringing Democracy to the Middle East."
In war games, or any other hostile takeover on behalf of imperial interests, the thing that is considered "the enemy" is
always demonized. From the beginning of the American experiment, remember the 'savage' Native Americans who were
slaughtered and forced off their lands to make a place for "the chosen people" to create their Utopia.
In order to rebel against their European tormentors, the colonists moved to another place and wiped out an entire
population. Other European countries are also players in the age-old game of humiliating while plundering and murdering.
The British treatment of Africans and Indians? The Dutch South Africans? The Americans in Korea and Vietnam?
There is, of course, no defense for these newly revealed, abhorrent 'findings'-though they can hardly be labeled as such
given the facts that led to this tragedy. This administration cheated its way into power and is now using this
opportunity to let themselves off the hook.
Because they are undoubtedly well aware of Bush's moral and popular decline-though his own bio clouds the claim that he
was born with any morality in the first place--this incident provides a perfect way to relieve the tension that has
built up around them and the war.
Here we see Bush on the lesser-watched Arab TV claiming that these "aberrations" had nothing to do with what America is
all about. This is just a "stain" on the country's history. He makes no apology, of course, for bombing schools,
mosques, hospitals-the entire infrastructure of a sovereign nation-nor for the mass detention of innocents while denying
them the due process of the Democracy which is our alleged gift. Democracy is messy, we are told--yeah,
right--especially for those on the shit end of the stick.
Bush has been asked to apologize, as if by doing so he could absorb the guilt of his people, be a martyr and cleanse
them of the sin of looking blindly on and supporting this evil war. Meanwhile, to cement this ironclad commitment to
"justice," Rumsfeld is being asked to resign! Well, I never! Of course, this is more a media phenomenon than an actual
one, but still--resign? It never ceases to amaze me how those with their greasy hands on the levers of power, whose
policies kill people by the hundreds of thousands--how they can meet a fate less than that of a black teenager who sells
an ounce of dope.
And don't hold your breath, by the way. After all we've learned of this administration, it's anathema (that means they
don't like it, for Seinfeld viewers) for them to take any responsibility whatsoever for their criminal behavior. Heads
up to the mainstream media: there is no way in hell Rumsfeld will resign, or be asked to do so by his close buddy. Their
time will come: my own eight ball tells me it's "Outlook Good" that they will all be moved, one by one, perhaps to one
of the 'detention facilities' of which they are so fond, after the indictments hit.
The revelations plainly show just how unplanned and unorganized Iraq's "Road Map to Democracy" was. No streets paved
with gold (or oil--take your pick) here. Feival Mouskowitz would be disappointed. The spin of the photo scandal
miraculously and inexplicably relieves them of having to explain why they attacked Iraq in the first place-at least
insofar as the "debate" has evolved on the American political scene. Unless they are forced to admit that these soldiers
were reservists who took orders from the chain of command, the Bush administration is using untrained young men and
women to do its dirty work. What else is new? We are now looking at six to ten 'rogues" who have derailed the road map.
They are going to be sacrificed in the name of the Chosen Ones. How could a twenty-year old girl be deemed to be the
single soul that has "stained" all that America represents?
As elementary school teachers, we now have to rethink the exercise we had planned with the kids: writing letters of
support--personal, not political support--for soldiers we know sent to Iraq. It took awhile to embrace this activity: as
fervent opponents of the war, and since Julia is as an African immigrant whose country was among the dozens plundered by
the soldiers of the British Empire, we had little sympathy for those on the front lines of imperial conquest. When we
talk to students about the horrors of war, we introduce them to the side most Americans never see: civilians always feel
the brunt of war. Julia would wax nostalgic (if you can call it that) about her experiences of civil war back home,
running from place to place, hiding by day and returning home at night. She talked of the disruption of daily life,
cutting off access to food and medicine and hospitals, clean water--the real killers of war. We didn't think to include
the section on torture, humiliation, and sexual assault.
But one of us is a Black woman in the US, and the pieces of this geopolitical puzzle necessarily fit together
differently. Although we may shelve the letter-writing activity for the time being, we still have to remind ourselves
that these are young people, like trained dogs meant to sniff out drugs in someone's carry-on. They are taught and
trained like the NYC cops who herded us like cattle into pens last February 15, or like prison guards (some of them
are). We bristle at first when Charlie Rangell proposes the draft, until we realize that what he is implying is that, as
soon as the war hits home for the majority population, when it is their own kids choosing the army just to avoid jail or
WalMart, or just to be able to go to college, the war will end the next day. Charles Ogletree pointed out, in the
aftermath of the Michigan decision, that a society whose army is all brown and whose law schools are all white is one
heading for serious trouble.
The fraud of a classless American society shudders beneath the weight of the truth, its facade shattered by the Navy ads
promising teenagers escape from dipshit little towns just like the one Lynndie England came from. Suicide rates are
phenomenal among soldiers in Iraq, so why not expect this? Sick products of a sick system, those who do the dirty work
for empire will be sent to bursti ng jails to be overseen by some of their former colleagues. Meanwhile, the architects
of the terror may (though probably not) lose some of their government pensions. Like the song says, "You know it's funny
when it rains it pours, they got money for wars but can't feed the poor." What we need to ask is, will the real men get
up? I know we're fed up.
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© 2004 Julia Nambalirwa-Lugudde and Daniel Patrick Welch. Reprint permission granted with credit and link to danielpwelch.com.
Welch and Nambalirwa-Lugudde live and write in Salem, Massachusetts, USA, where they run The Greenhouse School. See
danielpwelch.com.