Would real red-blooded patriotic nihilists care if the United States bombs Iran?
On Monday May 17, 2010 liberal radio personality Mike Malloy played a sound byte of reporter Seymour Hersh making the case for saying that the American military in Afghanistan is in the "take no prisoners" mode and delivering battlefield executions to captured suspects if they can’t provide proof that they are not terrorists.
If this columnist writes a column approving of such a hypothetical strategy (the soldiers must be presumed innocent until they are tried and receive a guilty verdict in a court of law) that would mean retroactively granting approval of Bush’s war crimes and so we’ll skip that idea for a column. Approval of anything Bush did is the mark of a troll.
If Hersh is not accurate in his assessment, perhaps a column should be written urging a Congressional investigation into members of the media who attack the president and his conduct of the war? Not a good idea. That would make President Obama sound like a mini-Bush. Scrap that column idea.
Could we do a column comparing the Republicans’ attitude toward a national debate about immigration as being similar to the "don’t throw me in that briar patch" request from B’rer Rabbit? Are they scared silly about touching that topic or are they thinking that the Democrats who want such a dialogue should be whistling "Please, Mr. Custer!"?
The recent student hunger strike at the University of Berkeley brings up some topic possibilities. Let’s take a closer look.
Should a person who looks like he or she is from one of the Spanish speaking countries south of El Paso be stopped and asked for their passport? Writing a column urging linguistic profiling will put the blogger on the fast track to complete oblivion. Scratch that idea.
Do swarthy men have a basic human freedom of travel giving them a right to immediate entry to the United States? That’s more absurd than a play by Becket. Such a column would earn a writer so much flame abuse he’d or she would become a blogging pariah.
Should a famous sheriff in Arizona try to prove that he isn’t a racist by setting up checkpoints (do all humans have an unchallenged right to enter the Post Office and buy stamps?) where each and every man, woman, and child is asked to show identification so that it can be determined if their paperwork is proper or not? No way, Jose. That would provide fodder for attacks on President Obama for moving the United States closer to being a fascist country. After that the conservative talk show hosts would allege and assert that the current President should be asked to make a loyalty oath before the House Unamerican Activities Committee. Setting up Soviet style check points is not a good idea and has no potential for use as a column about hypothetical solutions to immigration issues. (Calling it the "illegal immigrant problem" would be racist.)
How does the oil spill shape up as a potential topic? According to information dispensed by the aforementioned liberal talk show host, President Obama has, since the oil rig explosion occurred, approved 27 applications for rights to begin new offshore oil drilling projects. Criticism of President Obama for such a move would sound like the work of a conservative troll. Scratch that idea.
On her program Friday, May 21, 2010, Randy Rhodes sounded like she was resigning as an Obama cheerleader.
A column praising Obama for his efforts to stench the flow of oil at the spill sight, might upset and offend the folks in Key West who will have to conduct this year’s installment of the annual Hemingway Days Festival while contending with news coverage of the oil spill’s arrival in their tropical paradise. That column idea ain’t (like an oil covered bird) gonna fly.
What about a column about the protest against recent budget cuts in California, by disabled folks in Berkeley? Protesters in wheelchairs usually make an interesting story. That might make it sound like Obama is a cold-blooded compassionate conservative at heart. Toss that idea into the roundfile.
Could we do a review of Etta Shiber’s 1943 book titled Paris-Underground? A priest who is in the underground helping British and French soldiers (and one German deserter) escape into unoccupied territory says (Charles Scribner’s Sons hardback page 134): "It’s only the very young soldiers who show a different spirit. They are arrogant and full of confidence. . . . But with the older men, . . . they are tired of fighting and want to go home. He (the German deserter) was afraid that if the succession of conquests ever ended, the conquered peoples would succeed in revenging themselves against the troops left to police them." That might make it sound like an anti-American parable.
Could we write a column elaborating on the flimsy explanations for being in Afghanistan with the quote from "Rebel Without a Cause:" "Why do we do this?," as the headline? No columns critical of what is now Obama’s War. None. Zip. Nada.
Christ is supposed to have said: "Whatever you do to the least of my brethren . . . ." Compassionate Conservative Christians know that didn’t put an end to bombing the living shit out of a heathen nation full of terrorist peasants with a one-way first class ticket to New York City in their pockets.
Is the ghost of Reinhard Heydrich laughing and nodding his head in approval of the contingency plans to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities? Isn’t it obvious that the United States has passed the point of no return in the Middle East and that central issue in the 2012 Presidential election will be: "Which of the two candidates will be the best choice to continue George W. Bush’s Forever War?"
In the preface to his book "Topsy Turvy," Vernon Bartlett wrote: "Destruction is exhilarating. Few of us ever cease to revel in the ruthless mowing down of tin soldiers in the nursery, the crash with which the carefully constructed castle is razed to the linoleum-covered floor. Building may be fun, but it is not such fun as destroying. What human being would not walk, or even run, a mile to see a blazing factory or hotel?"
[Curious nihilistic note: Bartlett’s book does not carry a copyrighted notice nor is there any indication what year the Houghton Mifflin (weren’t their books printed by Haddon Craftsmen in Scranton, Pa.?) hardback edition was printed.]
Now the disk jockey will play Mussorgsky’s "Night on Bald Mountain," Wagner’s "Ride of the Valkyries," and Richard Strauss’ "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." We have to go find a copy of the book "Storm of Steel" by Ernst Junger. Have a "top of the world, ma!" type week.