As Bush War Gets Personal, Nation Must find its Outrage

[ixion]

Published on Saturday, August 6, 2005 by the Toldeo Blade (Ohio)
As Bush War Gets Personal, Nation Must find its Outrage
by Marilou Johanek



One of the great mysteries of the Bush War in Iraq has been the incredible acquiescence of the American people to the unfolding tragedy. There is a seemingly passive acceptance of the conflict-without-end. Some have called the unquestioning silent assent obscene.

It is surely that and more. Where, in God's name, is the outrage? Where are the protests in the streets against a government that has lied to its citizens and taken them for everything they hold dear?

Some say a massive public revolt is missing in action because the country as a whole doesn't feel the pain of war yet. While many may be unsettled about the regular litany of deaths and bombings coming from Iraq, it's simply not personal yet. Certainly it's tragic when a U.S. soldier dies over there but chances are it's nobody you knew.

<snip>

No one grieving over the fresh graves would dare suggest that the young souls died for nothing. But gradually the unspoken why of it all is sure to wrap itself around the wrenching agony and rising anger of those who weep. And when it does, the outrage kept in national check until now may stir.


http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0806-23.htm


I think that the author is spot on with her observation that "Some say a massive public revolt is missing in action because the country as a whole doesn't feel the pain of war yet."

I think this is true on a number of levels. As a whole, the international repercussions of illegally invading a sovereign nation on false pretenses are only now becoming apparent. As the world continues to distance itself from the US, as our economy slides down the crapper, it will eventually (albeit too late) become clear to people that BushCo screwed ever so royally with their bogus invasion.

There will only be outrage when the effect becomes so great that it manifests itself in day to day living. Extreme social tension, rising fuel prices, a poor job market, suppressed wages with longer hours, increased pollution (clear skies), ever increasingly ignorant children (NCLB and 'Intelligent' Design), the continuing litany of casualties, the continuing litany of innocent civilian causalities -- at some point even sheep are roused from their slumber.

Usually, however, it's too late and they wind up running off a cliff together, bleating all the way.

If you had to sum up the History of Civilization in a sentence, mine would be something like this:

People are idiots, or at the very least utterly insane.

That may sound a bit cruel, but really what other explanation is there? Why do we keep repeating the same event over and over and over (the rise and fall of dominant civilizations) again as though the outcome might one day be different?

This is, of course, the definition for insanity.

"In an insane society, the sane man must appear insane."

Capt. Kirk said that on a Star Trek episode, but words more true were never spoken.

[China_cat]

1. Where is the outrage?

Where are the pictures of the coffins? Why are they being smuggled in after dark? Where are the pictures of the wounded and maimed in body and spirit?

Without those, this war is being fought behind a veil of secrecy and, unless it touches you personally, might just as well be happening in a book. Hell, even a movie screen would show you more than we are seeing.

What fueled the outrage over Vietnam? Mostly the pictures of our kids coming home in boxes. Until this country sees that out of Iraq, they have no spur for their outrage and indignation.

I used to hate the nightly body counts and the pictures that accompanied them during the Vietnam era. Now I see how necessary they were.

[NJCher]

3. coffins will now be visible

I think I read here that the DOD has given up its stance on keeping the coffins out of view. I believe they were pressured into this legally and I wish I could tell you who put them in this position because it is a most important accomplishment.

Second, I'm not so sure there isn't outrage. It is expressed in bush's handling of the war and that figure is found right on our very own front page: 38%.

A friend sent me these letters to the editor. The first three are virulently anti-bush and his war:

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/13357335p-14199066c.html

They are cutting. The writers are angry. (btw, scroll down to the fifth one, which derides bush's "fitness").

Isn't the real problem here that people are angry and anti-war but this government pays no attention whatsoever to the desires of the populace? Think of the huge protests against the war that bush dismissed as a focus group. Some of these protests have attracted millions.

No, ipso facto this is a dictatorship. We are, in effect, slaves working for interests that are against our own. Our tax dollars (and our future) have been deployed for the interests of oil companies. Meanwhile, we choke on fumes.

Yes, there are plenty of stupid people out there but in this case, even the most stupid get it. The problem is that it just doesn't make any difference.


Cher

[rodeodance]

5. But they will only release about a dozen per stories I have read--and

I have yet to see them. Has anyone? Maybe they are not actually released??

[teryang]

2. A nation struggling with declining expectations

...doesn't demonstrate and doesn't dissent.

Americans work more hours than people in any other advanced country. American incomes have been declining in real terms since about 1972. The corporate rich getting richer every day have exported virtually our entire industrial sector to cheap labor markets with little or no environmental or labor regulations.

It's pretty much common knowledge that the war in Iraq is wrong, that it sucks, and that we have no realistic prospect of success. In fact, I really don't ever hear heated discussions about Iraq. Why bother demonstrating when you have to work sixty plus hours a week just to pay your bills. If you don't you may be homeless soon. Now where is the class with enough leisure time and resources to organize resistance to and demonstrations agaisnt the war? Most working Americans don't even have time (or money) to get to the dentist or doctor, when their personal well being is in jeopardy.

Now it is the ruling elites who decide when to change national policy. The middle class has been decimated. The millions of new homes and consumerism financed with fiat currency and too easy loans masks a feeble and enervated middle class with all the soundness of a Potemkin village. They are only one notch above day labor.

Kevin Phillips is one of the few historians who understands the decline of American hegemony and the destructive social impact it has on the average American. The decline of America is a fact. The ordinary citizens live with it every day. The rich by exporting American capital are still using their accumulutions to distance themselves from the masses whose powerlessness increases on a daily basis. This is the salient feature of a imperial power in decline. According to Phillips, dominant countries eventually get "hardening of the arteries." The gap between rich and poor grows ever more unsustainable in economic terms.

Current elites confuse three phenomena about war. First is the Machiavellian notion of the dictator or prince during wartime to suppress domestic political opposition by creating an external threat. Second, is the model that an empire in decline can reverse its fortunes by going to war. To the contrary modern history shows war accelerates the decline in non productive nations. Third is the notion that war is profitable for the ruling clique of finance, defense contractors and energy companies. Such financial returns are accomplished while industry is being exported to other centers of world power and capital is being exported. Therefore, the returns are illusory in terms of national welfare and do not reach the masses. The logical conclusion is that the war will stop itself someday at some level of violence when domestic contradictions can no longer be sustained economically. A serious economic contraction will accompany this. This is a fatalistic view which is characteristic of highly stratified societies with little or no social mobility. But that is what we have become, an autocratic society with an aristocracy.

If one had surplus resources, the rational choice offered would be to move to another country versus take the risks of dissent. If one has declining resources and is working sixty hours a week, dissent is luxury one can ill afford. Unless ones life or loved one is directly threatened, no dissent will be forthcoming from ordinary people. Without leadership from leisure classes with surplus capital there will be no dissent or opposition.

IMHO, this is the significance of the Novak/Plame affair. This reflects a proxy struggle among elites for policy control and is more likely determinative of war policy than any anticipated resistance to the war by the masses.

[rodeodance]

4. yes, we do not yet have a critical mass affected by this war.

......I think that the author is spot on with her observation that "Some say a massive public revolt is missing in action because the country as a whole doesn't feel the pain of war yet."

[wli]

6. yes, the rich are just going to flee and put the US in the IMF's chains