To the Editorial Staff:
In reading your staff editorial of 9 August 2005, "To a grieving mother," [see this diary]
I was struck by your use of several phrases, particularly those promoting the idea that "to have quaked in fear" and "to turn our back on civilization" were our unavoidable fate if we were not to have invaded Iraq.
Within a day after the London bus and train bombings of July 7, Londoners had pretty much shrugged off the attacks. They returned almost immediately to their daily routines, boarding busses and trains in the usual numbers to get to work and school. They were more cautious and vigilant than before, to be sure, but they did not cower in fear; they did not fly into a blind rage; they maintained their dignity. They would never even consider allowing the attacks they suffered to significantly interrupt their daily lives, much less "destroy their civilization." In fact, several reports in US news media on the reaction of Londoners quoted the same man asking the terrorists, "Is that the best you've got?" Meanwhile, our government ordered all our soldiers stationed in the UK to stay out of the city and hide on their own bases.
Perhaps there's a "stiff upper lip" gene in British DNA, or perhaps the citizens of the UK have simply come to understand through repeated personal experience that, in spite of buzz-bombs, IRA attacks and terrorist plane hijackings like Lockerbie, life goes on. Civilization, liberty and justice endure and prosper. Whatever the source of their dignified and defiant attitude, the news reports of Londoners' reactions made me think, "Americans used to be like that."
Yes, Americans suffered a blow on 9/11 that knocked us down. In the past, though, Americans have calmly, without fear and with our dignity intact, gotten back up, gone about our business and developed and implemented thoughtful and effective strategies for dealing with the REAL threats.
However, since 9/11, THIS administration has consistently been telling us to be afraid with rhetoric and imagery that has been cynically calculated to provoke unthinking panic and anger among us. The President continuously reminds us that we are in a war against people who "will not stop until America is destroyed." Condoleeza Rice warns us of an imminent "mushroom cloud". Vice-President Cheney constantly reminds us to be fearful of the next terrorist attack which "would certainly devastate our country and our way of life."
"Devastate our country and our way of life"?! Wha . . . ?! We are Americans, dammit! Without succumbing to fear or losing our dignity, we Americans have survived and prospered in spite of Pearl Harbor, in spite of the aggressions and invasions of the professional Axis armies and navies, in spite of living for decades under the shadow of the USSR's nuclear-tipped ICBMs. But we are to be afraid of, and overreact to, a tiny group of religious extremist amateur criminals?! Evidently, that's exactly what THIS administration wants - to make us afraid, to unremittingly warn us of how weak and vulnerable we are in the face of this "threat" and to make us so desperate about our plight that we are forced to accept bad decisions based on misrepresentations, to sacrifice our sons and daughters and the health of our military, as the only alternative to being "utterly destroyed", losing our way of life, and losing civilization itself!
Talk about aiding and abetting the enemy! We are Americans, dammit! We survive and persevere in spite of regularly losing scores of loved ones to tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes, fire, flood, pestilence, environmental health hazards of our own making and, for pity's sake, traffic accidents that claim more American lives every year than all the terrorist attacks of the last decade COMBINED have claimed! Weak and vulnerable to these "terrorists?!" Us!?
And yet, this is precisely what THIS administration repeatedly tells us - that we are weak and vulnerable, that "they" have the potential to destroy us and that we must all be deathly afraid that they will succeeded in doing so - IF we do not do whatever the administration tells us to do in order to be "safe" from this "threat" - be it giving up our civil rights in panic to awful legislation like the "Patriot Act", or to cut taxes on the wealthy to prevent our economy from being "further devastated" by 9/11, or to destroy Iraq in order to save it from a "terrorist enemy" who wasn't even there at the time.
This administration it seems, is not waging a War on Terror as much as it is waging a campaign to make sure that Americans are terrified - terrified of our neighbors who look different, who speak a different language or who may observe a different faith - terrified that our basic freedoms might provide an opening to "evildoers" who seek to destroy those freedoms - terrified of taxes that CAN be used to make our lives better in ways that the "free-market" can not or will not - terrified of Social Security "failing" - terrified of scientific knowledge - terrified of our future - terrified of the truth.
The truth is that we might well suffer another terrorist attack on American soil as bad or worse than 9/11. But the truth is also that, if we are true to ourselves as Americans, we will not allow it to "devastate us." We will NOT be prodded by fear to further curtail our own civil liberties in order to "save them"; we will NOT fly into a seething, jingoistic, self-righteous rage and direct our military to unilaterally invade or, God help us, pre-emptively nuke another country based on thin evidence of alleged complicity. We WILL calmly help each other get up, dust ourselves off and fix the damage. Then we'll say to the terrorists - "What? THAT was your best shot? You expected THAT to make us cave, to live in fear of you? You expected THAT to make us dismantle our way of life, to lash out blindly against the people you claim to represent? Then you have no idea who you're dealing with." And then, we'll cooperate with international law enforcement to hunt these criminals down and bring them to justice through a trial that is fair by the same standards that we expect for ourselves - while we go back about our business, ultimately unfazed, for THAT is our true strength as Americans. THAT would be our true victory.
However, this administration wants us to believe that the only path to "victory" for us, the only path to survival and salvation requires us to be afraid and to follow its policies blindly and unquestioningly. To question THIS administration's analysis of the situation, to question their unending message of fearfulness, to question their strategy, to question their competence in tactical execution, to question their motives and methods - to question THIS administration at all (which is the duty of every citizen in order to protect and preserve our true American core of "liberty and justice") is to be, at best, naive and misguided - as your editorial seeks to portray Cindy Sheehan. And, at worst, questioning this administration makes one a traitor - as Cindy has been portrayed by the hate- and fear-filled voices of Coulter, Malkin, O'Reilly and Limbaugh, the last of whom had the temerity to call a Marine veteran of Iraq - Paul Hackett - a "staff puke", even though Rush has never served one day in uniform.
Finally, there was this phrase in your editorial that struck me the hardest:
"Bringing our troops home now . . . would only dishonor him"
Casey Sheehan and the entire US military has already been dishonored by being misused, by being ordered into an unnecessary and ill-advised war in Iraq, undermanned, under-equipped and under knowingly false pretenses by this administration. It only further dishonors them, and all Americans, to have an American President refuse to answer questions about his mistakes, about his campaign to make us all terrified and thus to act against our best interests, against our better nature and judgment.
Cindy Sheehan is not naive, she is not misguided, she is not a traitor and, by no means is she at all terrified of anyone. Cindy is very much awake, aware, well-informed, articulate, proud to be an American and unafraid to perform her patriotic duty to question the policies, motives and methods of this administration.
The attitude conveyed in your editorial is not Patriotism - it is sickeningly patronizing and condescending toward Cindy Sheehan and all military families - indeed, toward all truly patriotic Americans. It is also pompous, arrogant, ignorant, and ultimately cynical about the true spirit, courage and nobility of Americans - just like the administration that sent Casey Sheehan into Iraq to die.