“Limited Strike” or Act of War?
This week, the World holds its collective breath. A military strike is seen by many as an act of war. In our Frank Luntz age of politics in America – language is being used in an Orwellian attempt to control public outcry about a possible US military strike in Syria. For years the Republicans were holding focus groups to change votes by abusing the English language and calling things their exact opposite. Now the Democrats are doing it too. “Limited strike”, no “boots on the ground”, “no regime change” as if calling a military strike something else would take away what it really is – an act of war. We all know that throughout history it never took a very big event to get the wheels of catastrophe rolling and men killing each other – sometimes for centuries.
In NJ, the Peach Tree War began when a young Lenape girl picked a peach a wealthy Dutch farmer claimed was on “his” land. For that minor transgression, the Dutch farmer killed the girl with his rifle. The consequences were deadly for both the Lenape and the Dutch as each exacted punishment in retaliation. Regardless of what one side assumes is a small act – something as innocent as picking a peach for example, the other side views as a reason for murder. In this day and age when the act of insulting someone’s deity is cause of bloody jihad and beheadings, thoughtful alternatives to matters of war and peace are being demanded around the world. Any unilateral military action by the US in Syria would be taken as an act of war, in addition to being against International law.
We know there is a brutal civil war going on in Syria. What we don’t know is how to stop the bloodshed. But thanks to a former President, one who did not blink while allowing convicted men to die by lethal injection in Texas, we allowed ourselves to be swayed by arguments of his emissary, Colin Powell, that America had to invade Iraq. That act of crying wolf and demanding the world go along with our deadly misadventure, has made Americans weary of any new military action no matter how “limited” it may be. I remember the very moment that Colin Powell gave that no-good very-bad lecture ten years ago. I was home and had just turned on the news to see the presentation live. I know a lot of folks who felt that Powell was a man you could trust. And, well, if he was sure, then it must be true. Except it wasn’t.
Only Colin Powell will ever know just how much he lost that day. In respect, in his soul. Now, the new strident John Kerry is a John Kerry I do not recognize. For decades on C-Span he patiently, politely always made his case. Calm. Measured. Even when he seemed passionate. Not this time. As he berated Senator Rand Paul for daring to question a presentation that sounded eerily like the one given by Colin Powell ten years ago, I had a sense of déjà vu. I am not the only one - apparently. The current polls in the US suggest that 80% of the American public is opposed to military intervention. What is stunning is the incredulous way the Obama Administration is tone deaf to arguments that are almost carbon copies of the ones that led us into the fatally flawed Iraq war.
The Perils of Secrecy & Representative Democracy
If the US government had not been caught spying on the UN and our own citizens, and lying to us about the depth and breadth of the surveillance, we might be tempted to believe them now, but trust has been shattered here and it is not easily restored. They are imploring us to let them make the decisions for us because, like children, we are incapable of seeing the big picture. Even Congress, they assume, should be kept in the dark although it is incumbent on the Congress to declare war, according to our founders. We elected them they say – so that they can make those decisions for us. How can they - when most of our Senators and Congressmen are also being lied to about these issues? Representative Democracy is supposed to be less messy than the real kind. They tell us referendums and one-on-one democracy don’t work. They want us to let them worry about all this hard stuff while we enjoy living in Elysium. The problem with representative democracy is just who is being represented. These days, it could be a billionaire with a limitless war chest to finance your campaign with one check, or it could be a powerful energy company – take your pick – either a Big Coal company funding a Republican campaign or a Natural Gas company funding a Democratic one, or it could be jet aircraft maker who wants in on the military industrial complex trough and gee whiz, how can you profiteer off peace?
To not even let this go to the UN for a vote is arrogance of the highest order. In the past Russia has vetoed action against their allies, but will they now? We are showing our disrespect of other sovereign nations on an issue our President is declaring is about “International norms”. Did Frank Luntz test that phrase in a focus group too? The way we have treated our own First Nations peoples here by breaking nearly every treaty is a clue. And our stubbornness is again giving many of us horrifying flashbacks to a go-it-alone President who just had to get his war.
This talk of a red line reminds me of Back to Future where Marty McFly loses his cool whenever someone calls him a chicken. But this is no comedy. It’s life or death. Initiating an act of war simply so someone does not think you are weak is the worst kind of macho thick-headedness we witness all too often in America these days. The fist pumping, we are number one, shouters who cheer from the stands - or the couch - every Sunday get their egos all in a bunch about being thought of as a sissy. That is the very mentality that got us into trouble in the first place. And since 9/11 we have watched it get much much worse. To see it in young men is disappointing if not expected, but to see it in our President is frightening. Who are you Mr. Obama and what have you done with the guy I voted for?
Deep down I hope this is just an elaborate ruse - like a poker bluff - to bring Russia to the bargaining table to discuss the kind of obscene human rights abuses that usually get institutionalized because of a veto at the UN. But we need to remember the past so we are not doomed to repeat it. Many of us holding our breath last week, have let it out in a torrent of opinion directed at our elected Congressmen and Senators this week. There are many peace vigils set to happen this week in the US before a likely vote on Wednesday. Like the protagonist in a Final Destination film who sees the plane crash before it happens and has time to get his friends off the plane, many Americans are loudly demanding that we stop this ill fated military strike in the middle of another country’s civil war before it is too late. We have seen this movie before and we know how it ends. We must speak out now, while there is still time to get off the plane and avert utter disaster.
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