"Open Letter to the Apathetic...the American Patriots.." by Eve Ensler,

[flordehinojos]

jury member, World Tribunal on Iraq.

(Dear Moderators: this is the copy of an e-mail i received containing this letter which I have copied in full since it does not give a link as to where this letter has been published. The body of the letter also contains links to articles the writer may have used to document this letter and which she calls "Footnotes"... I have pasted these as well here. If this is not an appropriate post for the DU-General Discussion: Politics Forum, please delete. Thank you. Flordehinojos.)



Open Letter to the Apathetic, the Brain-Washed, the Prescription Drug-Dazed and Brain-Dead, the American Patriots and Pseudo Patriots

July 1, 2005


Dear America,

I am longing to reach you-crossing this river of indifference and consumption and denial. I am trying to find you, reaching out through the desperate limitations of words and descriptions, swimming through the rhetoric of terror and God.

I need you to wake up. The house is on fire and you are still sleeping, lulled by the intoxication of smoke and mirrors. I need you to wake up and I know that shaking you, scaring you will only make you cling to your sleep and sleep more.

How then do I tell you what's going on? How do I tell you about the one hundred thousand dead Iraqi people that you and I are responsible for murdering.


(1) Each one of them valued their life, longed for their morning, cherished their first cup of milk or coffee or tea. In what way shall I deliver what I learned? The substance identical to illegal napalm that melted tender five year old skin; the cluster bombs that have left their murderous and disguised offspring, throngs of bomblets set to explode, scattered on the Iraqi earth; the depleted uranium from the Bunker Busters we dropped that now lives in lungs and livers and soil.

(2) How do I tell you about the strategic planning of such atrocities in the boardrooms, the backrooms, the back seats of limos, the organized take over and looting of Iraq right out from under the terrorized, hungry, thirsty Iraqi people.

(3) How do I get you to listen to the stories of our soldiers who are trying to kill themselves now, longing to escape the madness of murdering and maiming for no reason.

(4) Please don't go back to sleep. I know how hard it is to hear of the massive black holes, called prisons we have dug to hold thousands without charging them, without trials or the torture, the meanness, the cruelty we are inflicting upon them.

(5) America, those who now control our country have changed and ended law. I do not believe you are so calloused or selfish that you do not care. Your sleep is induced. You are distracted and derailed. The corporations have concocted and perfected these sleeping potions for years, developing ingredients to make you despise every bit of yourself, to feel ugly and fat and stupid and poor and not enough. And so you spend your time and every bit of the money you do not have buying products that will make you better, skinnier, lighter, whiter, tighter. And as you consume and consume, the corporations consume you. They take your money and your time and your voice and your instincts and your outrage and your sorrow and your anger and your grief. They consume your courage and leave fear in its place. They devour your conscience and your memory and your compassion.

And how do I speak when they are sure to tie my tongue? When they will say I do not love my country or support the troops or honor the dead or believe in their God? How do I break through your sealed wrapping, your self-obsession, your TVheadphonedDVDcell pod?

America I am getting desperate and I know this will not get me published or heard. Those who control the information will say I'm extreme, that I've gone mad. But I have heard the cries of children in the exploding houses of Falluja.

(6) I have seen the agonized faces of the sleepless Iraqi women who still clutch the outline of their charred dead babies in their arms. I have watched as we as a nation grow more isolated, despised and alone.

America, there is not much time left. The fire is spreading, consuming the world. We are the arsonists. We will need each other to find our way out through the lies and haze. It will take our greatest imagination, courage and skill to subdue these flames.

Eve Ensler


This letter was written immediately after The World Tribunal on Iraq in Istanbul ! where I served with thirteen others from around the world on a jury chaired by Arundhati Roy. The Tribunal consisted of three days of hearings investigating various issues related to the war on Iraq, such as the legality of the war, the role of the United Nations, war crimes and the role of the media, as well as the destruction of the cultural sites and the environment. The session in Istanbul was the culminating session of commissions of inquiry and hearings held around the world over the past two years.

Footnotes:

1. Iraq death toll soared 'post war'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3962969.stm
100,000 Iraqis dead (Lancet survey)

2. US admits to use of napalm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030810-napalm-iraq01.htm

Irregular Weapons Used Against Iraq
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2003/0407irregular.htm

WHO studies depleted uranium in Iraq
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1506151.stm

3. Rumsfeld, Amnesty trade barbs over prisoner abuse
http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=64

4. Army probes soldier suicides
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-10-13-army-suicides-usat_x.htm

Military Families Against the war
http://www.mfso.org

5. Rumsfeld, Amnesty trade barbs over prisoner abuse
http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=64

Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by US Forces
http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=68

6. This Is Our Guernica
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1471011,00.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. kicked and nominated

[welshTerrier2]

2. a plea for deaf ears?

it's very simple really ...

the neo-con monsters are spreading global war and far too many Democrats have, thus far, gone along with it ...

too many Democrats accept the premise that the US military must achieve some objective in Iraq before we can withdraw ... too many Democrats believe that Iraq must be "stabilized" before we withdraw ... too many believe foreign terrorists must be purged from Iraq before we withdraw ... too many believe we must train an adequate number of Iraqi troops before we withdraw ...

get this through your thick skulls - we will not achieve anything with the US military in Iraq ... if you believe otherwise, the letter in the BP is addressed to you ... i don't question the good intentions of most Democrats ... but by buying into the "we're stuck there" arguments, you are condemning tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis to unimaginable devastation ...

get with the program, will ya??? it's time for the US military to get the hell out of Iraq ...

[housewolf]

3. Powerful piece - nominated

Thanks for posting.

[knowbody0]

4. another kick

and thank you for this

[IndyOp]

5. I remember telling a friend - an activist during Vietnam -

that the US was using napalm in Iraq and he was incredulous. He is hardly naive, but simply didn't understand what the use would be - Iraq doesn't have jungles. The article Ensler linked to provides a nice, concise explanation:

"The upgraded weapon, which uses kerosene rather than petrol, was used in March and April, when dozens of napalm bombs were dropped near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris river, south of Baghdad.

"We napalmed both those approaches," said Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11. "Unfortunately there were people there ... you could see them in the video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It's no great way to die. The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect."

A reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald who witnessed another napalm attack on 21 March on an Iraqi observation post at Safwan Hill, close to the Kuwaiti border, wrote the following day: "Safwan Hill went up in a huge fireball and the observation post was obliterated. 'I pity anyone who is in there,' a Marine sergeant said. 'We told them to surrender.'"

<snip>

The Pentagon said it had not tried to deceive . It drew a distinction between traditional napalm, first invented in 1942, and the weapons dropped in Iraq, which it calls Mark 77 firebombs. They weigh 510lbs, and consist of 44lbs of polystyrene-like gel and 63 gallons of jet fuel.

Mr Musil said the Pentagon's effort to draw a distinction between the weapons was outrageous. He said: "It's Orwellian. They do not want the public to know. It's a lie."

<http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030810-napalm-iraq01.htm>

How does this happen to human beings - that they come to love napalm, fireballs, torture, beheadings? They *do* love it - if they didn't really enjoy it - and some level - they would not do it.