[Peace-discuss] In the streets

[C. G. Estabrook]

John W. wrote:
> This was fascinating not only for its link to Chris Floyd's blog, but for
> Chris Floyd's further link to Arthur Silber's blog.  Both are extremely
> thought-provoking.  Thanks, Carl.
> 
> On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 12:46 AM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu 
> <mailto:galliher at uiuc.edu>> wrote ...
> 
> Full article at <http://www.chris-floyd.com/>

You're quite welcome.  I'm not sure what I think about Silber's notion of 
tribalism, but his comment today seems right, despite the impolite language:

	*	*	*
	February 01, 2009
	The Sickening Arrogance and Condescension of Empire

Thus speaks the new Imperial Master:

     President Barack Obama said Sunday that the United States is in a position 
to place more responsibility in the hands of the Iraqis following provincial 
elections and a reduction in violence there.

     "In conversations that I've had with the joint chiefs, with people, the 
commanders on the ground, I think that we have a sense now that the Iraqis just 
had a very significant election, with no significant violence there, that we are 
in a position to start putting more responsibility on the Iraqis," Obama told 
NBC television.

At the time of the initial invasion, Iraq posed no threat of any significance 
whatsoever to the United States. This blindingly obvious conclusion was clear to 
millions of people throughout the world -- "ordinary" people who examined the 
publicly available evidence, and who did not rely on "secret" knowledge, which 
goes by the viciously misnamed designation "intelligence," which "intelligence" 
is almost always wrong and which is never the basis for major policy decisions 
in any event.

The U.S. ruling class also knew that Iraq represented no threat of any 
consequence. They didn't care. They had entirely different objectives and 
concerns: the expansion and consolidation of American global hegemony. The world 
is the U.S. ruling class's oyster, and they will devour it. And you, and over a 
million innocent Iraqis, and whoever else proves troublesome. As a general rule, 
it is advisable not to place yourself in the path of a dangerously delusional 
homicidal maniac.

Thus, the United States government and almost all members of the ruling class -- 
with only two or three honorable exceptions -- embarked on a lengthy series of 
brutal, horrifying, profoundly immoral war crimes, and on a world historical 
genocide. Thus, all those members of the ruling class who have voted to continue 
and fund these crimes are war criminals. Barack Obama is a war criminal. Don't 
bother to argue with me: argue with the Nuremberg Principles.

How, then, in the name of all that is decent, humane and minimally civilized, 
does the President of the United States dare to say that "we are in a position 
to start putting more responsibility on the Iraqis"? "We" -- that is to say, the 
U.S. government and the ruling class -- are "in a position" to beg for 
forgiveness, which no decent human being should ever grant. There is nothing 
these criminals can ever do to earn it. "We are in a position" to make all those 
reparations possible, in whatever forms and whenever they can be offered. From 
an essay written two and a half years ago:

     Given the immense, incalculable destruction we have caused, we are 
obligated to provide significant financial aid to Iraq for the foreseeable 
future. In light of the damage this catastrophe has already caused to our 
economy, that is a formidable prospect -- but it is markedly superior to 
continuing to pour billions of dollars down the drain of this murderous 
occupation. And we must be responsible for our actions, and especially for our 
gravely mistaken and immoral ones. To the extent amends are possible, we must 
offer them. No amount of money will ever make up for the lives that have been 
lost and those that have been irrevocably damaged, but we must do whatever is 
possible. That will still not merit forgiveness for our actions, but at least we 
will have acted with a minimal sense of honor.

Beyond this, "we" should do nothing but get out.

Get out. Every single goddamned American. Out, within months. To hell with the 
disgusting lie about "combat troops." All Americans, out.

Period, the fucking hell. Everyone out.

As I have noted in many essays, the arrogance and condescension of the U.S. 
government and our ruling class is overwhelming and unassailable. It is so 
deeply embedded in the world view of most Americans, who unthinkingly absorb it 
from almost all politicians and all major media voices, that we barely even 
notice it. Because Obama is the perfect embodiment of the 
corporatist-authoritarian-militarist system that is destroying us along with 
other parts of the world, he believes in the "unique" Goodness and Nobility of 
America as much as any leader could, or ever has. He sounds the theme of 
"American exceptionalism" with nauseating regularity. On the subject of Iraq, 
Obama said this some months ago:

     It's not change when [McCain] promises to continue a policy in Iraq that 
asks everything of our brave men and women in uniform and nothing of Iraqi 
politicians..."

Since Obama chooses to continually repeat these murderous lies of empire, I will 
repeat what I said on the earlier occasion:

     Listen up, Obama, you cheap, lying fraud: the United States government 
launched a criminal war of aggression against a nation that never threatened us. 
It continues a bloody, murdering occupation which does nothing but worsen the 
agony of the Iraqi people. We have no right to be in Iraq at all. We never did. 
The actions of the United States government have led to a genocide of world 
historical proportions.

     Genocidal murderers and those who support and enable them -- as you do, 
Obama, since you vote to fund this continuing crime -- do not get to "ask" one 
single goddamned fucking thing of their victims. Not. One. Single. Goddamned. 
Fucking. Thing.

     Get it, you pathetic little asshole?

I'll keep repeating it, until he shuts the hell up.

posted by Arthur Silber at <http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/>