I was listening to Mike Pintek's KDKA-AM radio show in Pittsburgh, but it could have been any city in America. While discussing the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, a caller mentioned allegations that American forces are torturing people, to which Pintek responded, "Good. They deserve to be tortured. They're terrorists." When the caller said she did not agree with a pre-emptive attack against Iraq, Pintek responded with the kind of cliche statements that one expects from the bellicose personalities that populate such programs, shouting her down with the mantra of "love it or leave it." As if it were that simple.
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| | | Justin Sane is the lead singer and guitarist of the band Anti-Flag, president of A-F Records and activist (infoafr@yahoo.com). | |
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While such drivel is predictable of conservative shock jocks, even liberals are getting into the act. Self-identified liberal Lynn Cullen on WPTT-AM was all for bombing Afghanistan, a terror campaign that any humane person could predict would have devastating consequences for the Afghani people, as indeed it has. Even as she conceded this fact, Cullen lacked the humanity to care, repeating over and over: "I don't care." If that is the "liberal perspective" in America these days, do not count me among their number.
When I hear such exchanges I wonder if these shock jocks, President Bush or the mythical "Average American" has any understanding of the values upon which our country was founded. Perhaps then they might have the humility to be ashamed for suggesting that Americans who dissent from George W. Bush's immoral war are traitors; that people deserve to be tortured, persecuted and killed because our government says they're "the enemy," all the while proudly proclaiming that they do not care, and it is their right to not care.
All Americans have the right and duty to question the government's policies and the motives underlying them; they are fulfilling their duty as a citizen in the correct expectation that their government be responsive to them. The Declaration of Independence states: "It is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government," when their government is not responsive to their needs, or infringes upon their liberty.
Osama bin Laden felt perfectly justified killing thousands of people Sept. 11, 2001, because they fit his vision of "the other": Westerners personally responsible for oppression carried out by their government. George W. Bush responded in kind, but lacking the ability to effectively target bin Laden, his vision of "the other" was first the people of Afghanistan, who have seen nothing but violence for 30 years.
Now Bush's vision of "the other" is Saddam Hussein, who just happens to control the world's second-largest oil reserves, never mind that our country backed him when he actually used chemical weapons on the Kurds, and that the suffering this war wreaks will be borne not by Hussein, but by the people of Iraq, who have already endured unbelievable suffering.
Does that make it right for outsiders to fly airplanes into our buildings? Of course not! Those with a grievance must find a more creative way of calling attention to their plight, just as the United States must find more creative solutions to deal with genuine threats to our country.
I am committed to the principle that violence is never justified as a means of ameliorating a grievance. The Bush administration is trying to justify the doctrine of pre-emptive attack, and the target has a population 50 percent of which is children under the age of 15!
When the Bush administration proceeds with its immoral, illegal plans, they will inflame and solidify anyone with the inclination to commit terrorist acts. Our country's state-sponsored terrorism against the innocent civilians of Iraq will only breed more terrorism in response.
Mindlessly regurgitating Bush's line, as our mainstream media are doing, only makes our country more vulnerable. It dumbs down and narrows discussion of the issues. It subverts and distorts the facts, leaving most Americans inadequately informed.
It is morally reprehensible to hope that our government is torturing people in our name. It is morally reprehensible for the Bush administration to pre-emptively attack another nation, undermine the United Nations by deeming it irrelevant, fracture NATO and alienate our country's historical allies.
I am writing these observations from Hamburg, Germany, where I am touring with my band, Anti-Flag. The amount of art here representing outrage at U.S. foreign policy is staggering. It's displayed on street corners, wall murals and in shop windows. It is so overwhelming that it is embarrassing to be an American in Europe. Bush has made America the laughingstock of the world.
Since arriving in Europe, Anti-Flag has done countless radio and magazine interviews. Without exception, each of our hosts is appalled by Bush, Cheney, Powell and Rumsfeld. Without fail, every interviewer asks us why the American people were willing to elect (and I quote from one interview with a publication that reaches all of Europe), "a monster such as Bush."
We try to point out that not all Americans stand united with Bush, that millions have demonstrated against his Iraq "policy" in San Francisco, Washington, New York, and countless other smaller cities and towns, but it is obvious that the bridges Bush has burned with Europe, not to mention the rest of the world, are going to take innumerable years to rebuild, if rebuilding is even possible.
Many Europeans view our public officials as being representative of most Americans. I implore you to remember this the next time you consider backing a military action that the rest of the world is overwhelmingly, and justifiably, against. It isn't that the world is out of step with our government; it's that our government is out of step with the world.
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