The President's "Surrender Talk"
Fri Apr 20, 2007 at 07:25:46 AM PDT
If a philosophical Art of War were written on anti-terrorism, it would include a chapter entitled
"FEAR IS SURRENDER."
In a War on Terror, promotion of public fear in exchange for support of policy is nothing more than defeatism. In the White House, this kind of self-serving surrender-talk only comes in one flavor - - - treason. The Neocon war plan? Surrender THIS democracy.
RECENTLY, A JANITOR AT MY WORKPLACE tried to counter my criticism of the war by saying, "All I know is, we haven’t been attacked since 9/11." Here, I thought, is a soundly and roundly defeated man. A man who, as a political being, has been reduced to "knowing" only one thing.
Nevertheless, by this word, "WE," he still held on to a thread of his dignity - like some aging oracle of a once-proud people, he had not yet stopped referring to the nation AS A WHOLE.
Each time a conservative invokes the threat of "another strike" in order to halt questions about the motive and intent of the New Warfare State, he denies that we are a free people - he treats as myth the fact that we ever were "the home of the brave."
This is why so many patriotic Americans are repulsed by the President’s constant refrain of, "If we leave Iraq, the terrorists will follow us home." Because it is "surrender talk."
THERE IS A THEORY which argues that Democracies are relatively peaceful entities if their war-making proclivities are historically compared to those of other forms of government. But wherever Athens has become Sparta, a free and democratic people will have been ruined by the argument that more and dearer liberties must be surrendered in exchange for protection against new and more fearful threats from enemies.
SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY we began to fear the loss of our liberties less than we feared the possibility that we ourselves might be put on the front lines. Our Executive party has moved us into a permanent Warfare State by avoiding a universal military draft. But we are on the front lines. The President’s global War on Terror has already turned our great cities, our public squares and markets, into a honeycomb of psychological foxholes.
IT WAS NOT 9/11 THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING. The 9/11 President changed everything.
If there were another attack, wouldn’t he - wouldn’t I? - wouldn’t we feel the same as we did on 9/11? - As if we ourselves had been attacked? By this same reasoning no one of us would stoop so low as to insist that the life or freedom of any other American be lost merely to protect himself, or simply so he could say - "Well, I myself have not been attacked since 9/11"
Thankfully it hasn’t come to that yet for some Americans. It’s still "WE have not been attacked." Outside the White House, we know we are in this thing together, and it is NOT a war against freedom, but a war against FEAR.
The President has fomented, in our name, so much misery in Iraq, and stirred up so much hatred and readiness to kill Americans wherever we are to be found! Again and again he asks the American people to surrender to fear. We might tell him we will die for his sins if necessary, but NO SURRENDER.
Let’s get down to it then. No more hiding. Will we be free or not? Bring the warriors home - and bring the war too, if need be. Who has the last watch of the night? Buck up, there, in your foxhole. It’s the only way we will ever be free.
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