[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [sftalk] Howard Zinn - I will morn the dead, American and Iraqi

Mon Apr 14 09:38:45 CDT 2003

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>Subject: [sftalk] Howard Zinn  - I will morn the dead, American and Iraqi
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>Speaking the truth of history
>
>Jeff
>
>
>Published on Sunday, April 13, 2003 by the Long Island, NY 
><http://www.newsday.com/>Newsday
>A Kinder, Gentler Patriotism
>by Howard Zinn
>
>
>At some point soon the United States will declare a military victory 
>in Iraq. As a patriot, I will not celebrate. I will mourn the dead - 
>the American GIs, and also the Iraqi dead, of which there will be 
>many, many more. I will mourn the Iraqi children who may not die, 
>but who will be blinded, crippled, disfigured, or traumatized, like 
>the bombed children of Afghanistan who, as reported by American 
>visitors, lost their power of speech.
>
>We will get precise figures for the American dead, but not for the 
>Iraqis. Recall Colin Powell after the first Gulf War, when he 
>reported the "small" number of U.S. dead, and when asked about the 
>Iraqi dead, Powell replied: "That is really not a matter I am 
>terribly interested in."
>
>As a patriot, contemplating the dead GI's, should I comfort myself 
>(as, understandably, their families do) with the thought: "They died 
>for their country?" But I would be lying to myself. Those who die in 
>this war will not die for their country. They will die for their 
>government.
>
>The distinction between dying for our country and dying for your 
>government is crucial in understanding what I believe to be the 
>definition of patriotism in a democracy. According to the 
>Declaration of Independence - the fundamental document of democracy 
>- governments are artificial creations, established by the people, 
>"deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed", and 
>charged by the people to ensure the equal right of all to "life, 
>liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Furthermore, as the 
>Declaration says, "Whenever any form of government becomes 
>destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
>abolish it."
>
>When a government recklessly expends the lives of its young for 
>crass motives of profit and power (always claiming that its motives 
>are pure and moral ("Operation Just Cause" was the invasion of 
>Panama and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in the present instance) it is 
>violating its promise to the country. It is the country that is 
>primary - the people, the ideals of the sanctity of human life and 
>the promotion of liberty. War is almost always (one might find rare 
>instances of true self defense) a breaking of those promises. It 
>does not enable the pursuit of happiness but brings despair and 
>grief.
>
>Mark Twain, having been called a "traitor" for criticizing the U.S. 
>invasion of the Philippines, derided what he called "monarchical 
>patriotism." He said: "The gospel of the monarchical patriotism is: 
>'The King can do no wrong.' We have adopted it with all its 
>servility, with an unimportant change in the wording: 'Our country, 
>right or wrong!' We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had: 
>the individual's right to oppose both flag and country when he 
>believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with 
>it all that was really respectable about that grotesque and 
>laughable word, Patriotism."
>
>If patriotism in the best sense (not in the monarchical sense) is 
>loyalty to the principles of democracy, then who was the true 
>patriot, Theodore Roosevelt, who applauded a massacre by American 
>soldiers of 600 Filipino men, women and children on a remote 
>Philippine island, or Mark Twain, who denounced it?
>
>With the war in Iraq won, shall we revel in American military power 
>and - against the history of modern empires - insist that the 
>American empire will be beneficent?
>
>Our own history shows something different. It begins with what was 
>called, in our high school history classes, "westward expansion" - a 
>euphemism for the annihilation or expulsion of the Indian tribes 
>inhabiting the continent - all in the name of "progress" and 
>"civilization." It continues with the expansion of American power 
>into the Caribbean at the turn of the century, then into the 
>Philippines, and then repeated marine invasions of Central America 
>and long military occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
>
>After World War II, Henry Luce, owner of Time, Life and Fortune, 
>spoke of "the American Century", in which this country would 
>organize the world "as we see fit." Indeed, the expansion of 
>American power continued, too often supporting military 
>dictatorships in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, 
>because they were friendly to American corporations and the American 
>government.
>
>The American record does not justify confidence in its boast that it 
>will bring democracy to Iraq. It will be painful to acknowledge that 
>our GIs in Iraq were fighting not for democracy but for the 
>expansion of the American empire, for the greed of the oil cartels, 
>for the political ambitions of the president. And when they come 
>home, they will find that their veterans' benefits have been cut to 
>pay for the machines of war. They will find the military budget 
>growing at the expense of health, education and the needs of 
>children. The Bush budget even proposes cutting the number of free 
>school lunches.
>
>I suggest that patriotic Americans who care for their country might 
>act on behalf of a different vision. Do we want to be feared for our 
>military might or respected for our dedication to human rights? With 
>the war in Iraq over, if indeed it is really over, we need to ask 
>what kind of a country will we be. Is it important that we be a 
>military superpower? Is it not exactly that that makes us a target 
>for terrorism? Perhaps we could become instead a humanitarian 
>superpower.
>
>Should we not begin to redefine patriotism? We need to expand it 
>beyond that narrow nationalism which has caused so much death and 
>suffering. If national boundaries should not be obstacles to trade - 
>we call it globalization - should they also not be obstacles to 
>compassion and generosity?
>
>Should we not begin to consider all children, everywhere, as our 
>own? In that case, war, which in our time is always an assault on 
>children, would be unacceptable as a solution to the problems of the 
>world. Human ingenuity would have to search for other ways.
>
>Tom Paine used the word "patriot" to describe the rebels resisting 
>imperial rule. He also enlarged the idea of patriotism when he said: 
>"My country is the world. My countrymen are mankind."
>
>Howard Zinn is a professor emeritus at Boston University and author 
>of "The People's History of the United States."
>
>Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
>
>###
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-- 

Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
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