RedCeltic
24th November 2002, 21:59
I'm an American Tired of American Lies
The Guardian
Thursday October 17, 2002
The man who drives me to and from work is named Woody too. A relief
to me, as it minimises the chance of my forgetting his name. I call
him Woodman and he calls me Wood. He has become my best friend here,
even though he's upset that I have quit drinking beer. He's smart,
funny, and there's nothing he hasn't seen in 33 years behind the
wheel of his black cab. He drove me for a while before I felt
confident he liked me; he doesn't like people easily, especially if
they have a rap for busting up black cabs.
Woodman and I agree about a lot of things, but one thing we can never
agree about is Iraq. He thinks the only language Saddam understands
is brute force. I don't believe we should be bombing cities in our
quest for one man. We've killed a million Iraqis since the start of
the Gulf war - mostly by blocking humanitarian aid. Let's stop now.
Thankfully, most of the Brits I talk to about the war are closer to
me than to Woodman. Only your prime minister doesn't seem to have
noticed.
I have been here three months doing a play in the West End. I am
having the time of my life. I love England, the people, the parks,
the theatre. The play is great and the audiences have been a dream.
Probably I should just relax, be happy and talk about the weather,
but this war is under my skin - it affects my sleep.
I remember playing basketball with an Iraqi in the late 80s while
Iran and Iraq were at war. I didn't know at the time that the US and
Britain were supplying weapons to both sides. I asked why they were
always at war with each other and he said something that stayed with
me: "If it were up to the people, there would be peace. It's the
governments that create war." And now my government is creating its
second war in less than a year. No; war requires two combatants, so I
should say "its second bombing campaign".
I went to the White House when Harvey Weinstein was showing Clinton
the movie Welcome to Sarejevo, which I was in. I got a few moments
alone with Clinton. Saddam throwing out the weapons inspectors was
all over the news and I asked what he was going to do. His answer was
very revealing. He said: "Everybody is telling me to bomb him. All
the military are saying, 'You gotta bomb him.' But if even one
innocent person died, I couldn't bear it." And I looked in his eyes
and I believed him. Little did I know he was blocking humanitarian
aid at the time, allowing the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
I am a father, and no amount of propaganda can convince me that half
a million dead children is acceptable "collateral damage". The fact
is that Saddam Hussein was our boy. The CIA helped him to power, as
they did the Shah of Iran and Noriega and Marcos and the Taliban and
countless other brutal tyrants. The fact is that George Bush Sr
continued to supply nerve gas and technology to Saddam even after he
used it on Iran and then the Kurds in Iraq. While the Amnesty
International report listing countless Saddam atrocities, including
gassing and torturing Kurds, was sitting on his desk, Bush Sr pushed
through a $2bn "agricultural" loan and Thatcher gave hundreds of
millions in export credit to Saddam. The elder Bush then had the
audacity to quote the Amnesty reports to garner support for his oil
war.
A decade later, Shrub follows the same line: "We have no quarrel with
the Iraqi people." I'm sure half a million Iraqi parents are
scratching their heads over that. I'm an American tired of lies. And
with our government, it's mostly lies.
The history taught in our schools is scandalous. We grew up believing
that Columbus actually discovered America. We still celebrate
Columbus Day. Columbus was after one thing only - gold. As the
natives were showering him with gifts and kindness, he wrote in his
diary, "They do not bear arms ... They have no iron ... With 50 men
we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
Columbus is the perfect symbol of US foreign policy to this day.
This is a racist and imperialist war. The warmongers who stole the
White House (you call them "hawks", but I would never disparage such
a fine bird) have hijacked a nation's grief and turned it into a
perpetual war on any non-white country they choose to describe as
terrorist.
To the men in Washington, the world is just a giant Monopoly board.
Oddly enough, Americans generally know how the government works. The
politicians do everything they can for the people - the people who
put them in power. The giant industries that are polluting our planet
as well as violating human rights worldwide are the ones nearest and
dearest to the hearts of American politicians.
But in wartime people lose their senses. There are flags and yellow
ribbons and posters and every media outlet is beating the war drum
and even sensible people can hear nothing else. In the US, God forbid
you should suggest the war is unjust or that dropping cluster bombs
from 30,000ft on a city is a cowardly act. When TV satirist Bill
Maher made some dissenting remarks about the bombing of Afghanistan,
Disney pulled the plug on him. In a country that lauds its freedom of
speech, a word of dissent can cost you your job.
I read in a paper here about a woman who held out the part of her
taxes that would go to the war effort. Something like 17%. I like
that idea, though in the US it would have to be more like 50%. If you
consider money as a form of energy, then we see half our taxes and
half the US government's energy focused on war and weapons of mass
destruction. Over the past 30 years, this amounts to more than ten
trillion dollars. Imagine that money going to preserving rainforest
or contributing to a sustainable economy (as opposed to the dinosaur
tit we are currently in the process of sucking dry).
I give in to Woodman, and we stop for a few beers. He asks me what
I'd do in Bush's shoes. Easy: I'd honour Kyoto. Join the world court.
I'd stop subsidising earth rapers like Monsanto, Dupont and Exxon.
I'd shut down the nuclear power plants. So I already have $200bn
saved from corporate welfare. I'd save another $100bn by stopping the
war on non-corporate drugs. And I'd cut the defence budget in half so
they'd have to get by on a measly $200bn a year. I've already saved
half a trillion bucks by saying no to polluters and warmongers.
Then I'd give $300bn back to the taxpayers. I'd take the rest and pay
the people teaching our children what they deserve. I'd put $100bn
into alternative fuels and renewable energy. I'd revive the Chemurgy
movement, which made the farmer the root of the economy, and make
paper and fuel from wheat straw, rice straw and hemp. Not only would
I attend, I'd sponsor the next Earth Summit. And, of course, I'd give
myself a fat raise.
Woodman drops me at home and I ask if he likes my ideas. He offers a
reluctant "yes". As he pulls away he yells out, "But I'd never vote
for a man who can't handle a few pints at the end of the day!".
Woody Harrelson appears in On an Average Day at the Comedy Theatre,
Panton Street, London SW1 until November 3.
Box office: 020-7369 1731.
The Guardian
Thursday October 17, 2002
The man who drives me to and from work is named Woody too. A relief
to me, as it minimises the chance of my forgetting his name. I call
him Woodman and he calls me Wood. He has become my best friend here,
even though he's upset that I have quit drinking beer. He's smart,
funny, and there's nothing he hasn't seen in 33 years behind the
wheel of his black cab. He drove me for a while before I felt
confident he liked me; he doesn't like people easily, especially if
they have a rap for busting up black cabs.
Woodman and I agree about a lot of things, but one thing we can never
agree about is Iraq. He thinks the only language Saddam understands
is brute force. I don't believe we should be bombing cities in our
quest for one man. We've killed a million Iraqis since the start of
the Gulf war - mostly by blocking humanitarian aid. Let's stop now.
Thankfully, most of the Brits I talk to about the war are closer to
me than to Woodman. Only your prime minister doesn't seem to have
noticed.
I have been here three months doing a play in the West End. I am
having the time of my life. I love England, the people, the parks,
the theatre. The play is great and the audiences have been a dream.
Probably I should just relax, be happy and talk about the weather,
but this war is under my skin - it affects my sleep.
I remember playing basketball with an Iraqi in the late 80s while
Iran and Iraq were at war. I didn't know at the time that the US and
Britain were supplying weapons to both sides. I asked why they were
always at war with each other and he said something that stayed with
me: "If it were up to the people, there would be peace. It's the
governments that create war." And now my government is creating its
second war in less than a year. No; war requires two combatants, so I
should say "its second bombing campaign".
I went to the White House when Harvey Weinstein was showing Clinton
the movie Welcome to Sarejevo, which I was in. I got a few moments
alone with Clinton. Saddam throwing out the weapons inspectors was
all over the news and I asked what he was going to do. His answer was
very revealing. He said: "Everybody is telling me to bomb him. All
the military are saying, 'You gotta bomb him.' But if even one
innocent person died, I couldn't bear it." And I looked in his eyes
and I believed him. Little did I know he was blocking humanitarian
aid at the time, allowing the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
I am a father, and no amount of propaganda can convince me that half
a million dead children is acceptable "collateral damage". The fact
is that Saddam Hussein was our boy. The CIA helped him to power, as
they did the Shah of Iran and Noriega and Marcos and the Taliban and
countless other brutal tyrants. The fact is that George Bush Sr
continued to supply nerve gas and technology to Saddam even after he
used it on Iran and then the Kurds in Iraq. While the Amnesty
International report listing countless Saddam atrocities, including
gassing and torturing Kurds, was sitting on his desk, Bush Sr pushed
through a $2bn "agricultural" loan and Thatcher gave hundreds of
millions in export credit to Saddam. The elder Bush then had the
audacity to quote the Amnesty reports to garner support for his oil
war.
A decade later, Shrub follows the same line: "We have no quarrel with
the Iraqi people." I'm sure half a million Iraqi parents are
scratching their heads over that. I'm an American tired of lies. And
with our government, it's mostly lies.
The history taught in our schools is scandalous. We grew up believing
that Columbus actually discovered America. We still celebrate
Columbus Day. Columbus was after one thing only - gold. As the
natives were showering him with gifts and kindness, he wrote in his
diary, "They do not bear arms ... They have no iron ... With 50 men
we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
Columbus is the perfect symbol of US foreign policy to this day.
This is a racist and imperialist war. The warmongers who stole the
White House (you call them "hawks", but I would never disparage such
a fine bird) have hijacked a nation's grief and turned it into a
perpetual war on any non-white country they choose to describe as
terrorist.
To the men in Washington, the world is just a giant Monopoly board.
Oddly enough, Americans generally know how the government works. The
politicians do everything they can for the people - the people who
put them in power. The giant industries that are polluting our planet
as well as violating human rights worldwide are the ones nearest and
dearest to the hearts of American politicians.
But in wartime people lose their senses. There are flags and yellow
ribbons and posters and every media outlet is beating the war drum
and even sensible people can hear nothing else. In the US, God forbid
you should suggest the war is unjust or that dropping cluster bombs
from 30,000ft on a city is a cowardly act. When TV satirist Bill
Maher made some dissenting remarks about the bombing of Afghanistan,
Disney pulled the plug on him. In a country that lauds its freedom of
speech, a word of dissent can cost you your job.
I read in a paper here about a woman who held out the part of her
taxes that would go to the war effort. Something like 17%. I like
that idea, though in the US it would have to be more like 50%. If you
consider money as a form of energy, then we see half our taxes and
half the US government's energy focused on war and weapons of mass
destruction. Over the past 30 years, this amounts to more than ten
trillion dollars. Imagine that money going to preserving rainforest
or contributing to a sustainable economy (as opposed to the dinosaur
tit we are currently in the process of sucking dry).
I give in to Woodman, and we stop for a few beers. He asks me what
I'd do in Bush's shoes. Easy: I'd honour Kyoto. Join the world court.
I'd stop subsidising earth rapers like Monsanto, Dupont and Exxon.
I'd shut down the nuclear power plants. So I already have $200bn
saved from corporate welfare. I'd save another $100bn by stopping the
war on non-corporate drugs. And I'd cut the defence budget in half so
they'd have to get by on a measly $200bn a year. I've already saved
half a trillion bucks by saying no to polluters and warmongers.
Then I'd give $300bn back to the taxpayers. I'd take the rest and pay
the people teaching our children what they deserve. I'd put $100bn
into alternative fuels and renewable energy. I'd revive the Chemurgy
movement, which made the farmer the root of the economy, and make
paper and fuel from wheat straw, rice straw and hemp. Not only would
I attend, I'd sponsor the next Earth Summit. And, of course, I'd give
myself a fat raise.
Woodman drops me at home and I ask if he likes my ideas. He offers a
reluctant "yes". As he pulls away he yells out, "But I'd never vote
for a man who can't handle a few pints at the end of the day!".
Woody Harrelson appears in On an Average Day at the Comedy Theatre,
Panton Street, London SW1 until November 3.
Box office: 020-7369 1731.