Guilt-tripped by Tom Dispatch
“The longer we have been there, the worse it’s gotten. We’ve now reached the point where, with Americans “protecting” Iraqis from themselves, nearly one in five of them have nonetheless either fled their country, been forced into internal exile, or died in the mayhem. If you were projecting into the future, it would be far more logical to assume that, with us present, this situation would only worsen.”
- Tom Dispatch
I’ve been really busy lately. Other than nephew Phil’s visit and a few hours of Second Life fun over the last week (mostly slipped in between work marathons), all I’ve been doing is work, sleep, and supporting activities for the last month.
So the latest Tom Dispath article is something that felt a bit personal to me. I’m one of the millions he’s talking about, those who went to great lengths to protest the invasion of Iraq before it started (in person, in writing, in many many ways), but haven’t done much lately other than roll my eyes and sarcastically say “gee, who ever saw this coming?”
Sure, I’ve read the Blackwater book and a few others, but that just confirms what we knew many years ago: it’s not about security or safety or terrorism, this war is about other things. Hell, there is nobody alive who even claims that a suicide bombing ever happened even once in Iraq before the Americans showed up, and now that happens several times most days. There is no incident of international terrorism before this war that ever involved an Iraqi (unless you believe wild-eyed unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, and even then the most anyone claims is that an Iraqi or two may have known of something somebody else pulled off), but now Iraq is truly the world’s training ground for terrorists, and it’s only a matter of time until a bunch of American families are sobbing over something an Iraqi has done.
Well, I guess that’s happening right now, but since we don’t have a draft those families are nicely contained and hidden from our view: poor families in small towns far from big-city newspapers, and the families of “civilian contractors” who run around Iraq with automatic weapons in their hands, beating up local men and literally getting away with murder. (For those who have forgotten, those people were called “mercenaries” in Roman times.)
And now, as Tom Dispatch so clearly points out, we’ve even outsource the protesting of the war. How pathetic, and I’m as guilty as anyone.
So in the midst of a busy day on the road, I thought I’d at least post a link to Tom Dispatch. It’s truly the least I can do.
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 at 9:11 pm. You can subscribe to comments on this post through its RSS feed.
on September 15, 2008 at 2:53 pm Carolyne Gray wrote:
I just learned about Tom and his new book Sunday, 9/14/08 on C-Span, non-fiction books…….I think…….maybe he was on Democracy Now……the only news station I watch. My mind becomes saturated at times with catastrophic news each day of the year, now. For the past 71/2 years, we have had continuous war……The US has bases all over the world, now……..As McCain says, he is ready for a 100 yrs of war. O’Bama gave us HOPE at first…………Now, as I see it, he offers nothing new….He has caved to the Big 10 to 15 corporations that now control our world……..to the detriment of the worlds population……….or about 95% of the world population……..maybe more. We have world wide poverty……growing starvation……more “slaves” than we have ever had……..sex slaves, domestic slaves, “worker bee” slaves……hired to do the work at starvation wages. Our billion dollar embassy in Irag was built by slaves from third world countries…….Dubai is one of the largest importers of slaves at every level…….800.000 sex slaves (ages 10 to 14) are brought into America each year. Their life span is about 4 years………
I have never used the word “evil” in my life until now………but “evil” has taken over the world. America is the least educated country in the industrialized nations. Someone said “Americans wear their stupidity and arrogance on their sleeves as a badge of honor
America is no longer a democracy……….We are sinking into a black hole, to the point of no return……..I sincerely believe in a 100 yrs or so , humans will have disappeared from the planet……..the only species to destroy their habitat…….by greed……and stupidity……….Religion condones war……..as it always has…….and it condones torture of every kind………The “religious right” in particular. One look at the history of war, tells you , this is true…………
I am 71 yrs old. I am glad I am coming to the end of my life. To watch the death of the human species is so painful……….Our species has been on this planet for a “split second in the sceme of things. Life will continue after we are gone. Some one said that only the bedbugs and lice will miss us.
Thank you for what you have been trying to do………I will read your current book, before the end…….:) Carolyne Gray