The Capital City Hues-September 20, 2006

     For the past two weeks the nation has witnessed a "run-up" to 9/11 with President Bush and all of his lieutenants      giving speeches and interviews all over the country. This build-up concluded on 9/11 when President Bush gave his prime time address conveniently placed in the middle of ABC's made-for-television part-documentary and part-fictional account of 9/11. As I sat through the media blitz commemorating the fifth anniversary of the tragedy of September 11,      2001 last week, I had a lot of mixed emotions.
      First and foremost, I felt sadness for the pain and suffering that all of the families of the victims have had to endure. I was greatly inspired by the fact that the American people came together across all races, social, religious and political groups to support one another in this time of tragic loss. I was also inspired by those who came to our defense worldwide in the wake of that terrible day.
      On the other hand, I also felt sadness and disappointment with the fact that, in the five years since, we as a nation      have squandered all of the good will and good feelings that bonded us as a nation and made most of the rest of the world sympathetic to our cause. As I thought about all of the important social, healthcare, educational programs that were cut or discontinued, I felt more sadness when I thought about how we squandered the national treasury for a war in Iraq that we didn't need to fight. And while the war in Afghanistan is more justified, it's sad that we didn't put forth the amount of      effort needed to capture Osama Bin Laden and to permanently defeat the Taliban. Today, Afghanistan is little more than a city-state. Most of the country is under the control of warlords and the Taliban resistance fighters. Their militias are financed in part by the largest recorded opium harvest in history; and they are given respite by the acquiescence of the    Pakistanis who allow them to move back and forth across the borders.
      As we move through the primary season setting the context for the 2006 elections this November, I am more and more frustrated as I think back to how the Democrats became what I would characterize as the "loyal opposition" in this debate. I remembered how frustrated I was that John Kerry (from my native Massachusetts!) disappointed me so much when he and almost all of the other Democrats refused to stand tall and challenge the President and the Republican leadership in Congress to resist the temptation to go to war in Iraq. They cow-towed to the attacks on them which made for a very simple and false equation: if you are not for the war, then you are for Sadam, unpatriotic, and against our troops! To this day, the Democrats still can't seem to get past their tired position which is that they should somehow be trusted to be better able to "manage" the war than the Republicans. Apparently they must believe the foolish notion that there is somehow a "right way" and "wrong way" to do the "wrong thing"! They couldn't have further missed the mark!
      President Bush's prime time speech really offered nothing new. As predicted, the President has continued to connect the war in Iraq with 9/11 and the existence of weapons of mass destruction. I saw a recent pole which indicated that 46%   of the Republicans polled still believe that there were/are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq! I guess if you say it enough, people will start to believe it! Bush has continuously tried to invoke the "axis of evil," "us vs. them," "good vs. bad" paradigm to convince the American people and the world that going to war in Iraq was justified and right. Bush's "War on Terror" mantra is an oversimplified justification where enemies are reduced to "extremists," representatives of a "perverted Islam," and "radical Islamic Empires." In his broader scheme of things those whom we are fighting represent      "totalitarianism, radical despots, terrorist states, a clash of civilizations and a struggle for civilization." Pounding his fist against the podium for emphasis, the President warned that these "dangerous enemies were bent on destroying our way of life" and were "attempting to bring us to our knees." It''s our god vs. their god. Islam is the problem, therefore the only solution, according to Bush, was for Christian Americans "to be united in prayer" and to "have faith in a loving god."
      What has deeply troubled me about all of the justifications, rationale, and hyperbole about 9/11 and the war in Iraq is the fact that nobody has done a thorough analysis of the question, why do these people hate us so much? That was my first thought when I saw the planes crashing into the TwinTowers of the World Trade Center. Why are Americans increasingly hated and despised more and more around the world such that if you are an American, you have to be VERY careful about where you are traveling internationally? Does our foreign policy have anything to do with how we are viewed by governments and people around the world? Have we been "fair and balanced" in the Middle East with our policies, military support, and foreign aid? The simplistic explanations about Muslims being jealous of our way of life or hating democracy are not enough to explain why so many are bent on destroying us. It certainly doesn' explain why we are now treated with disdain by nations and people in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America after they had bonded so much with us initially. When we start talking about despotic nations, we never fess up to the fact that we have created and supported a large number of right wing and even fascist regimes in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, South Africa, Angola, Guinea-Bissau and and despots like the Shah of Iran, Pinochet in Chile, and yes, even Saddam Hussein in the Iran/Iraq War, and even more, the Taliban when they were fighting against the Russians.
      I firmly believe that we as a nation will not regain our respect internationally until we begin to learn that we cannot force our beliefs or way of life on any and all peoples and nations of the world. Our international respect and credibility can best be earned by being more fair, balanced, and even-handed in our foreign policy; and particularly by working harder to be on the side of the truly down-trodden and dispossessed.

The Literary Divide/ Dr. Paul Barrows
It's our foreign policy, stupid!