Larissa
5th April 2003, 18:55
What we must not say (Onion)
This is from the Onion. It forgets to add that we must never ever
label such articles as humorous... ;-)
http://www.theonion.com/onion3912/i_should_not_be.html
By Ellen Dunst
As Americans, we have a right to question our government and its
actions. However, while there is a time to criticize, there is also a
time to follow in complacent silence. And that time is now.
It's one thing to question our leaders in the days leading up to a
war. But it is another thing entirely to do it during a war. Once the
blood of young men starts to spill, it is our duty as citizens not to
challenge those responsible for spilling that blood. We must remove
the boxing gloves and put on the kid gloves. That is why, in this
moment of crisis, I should not be allowed to say the following things
about America:
Why do we purport to be fighting in the name of liberating the Iraqi
people when we have no interest in violations of human rights-as
evidenced by our habit of looking the other way when they occur in
China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Syria, Burma, Libya, and countless
other countries? Why, of all the brutal regimes that regularly
violate human rights, do we only intervene militarily in Iraq?
Because the violation of human rights is not our true interest here.
We just say it is as a convenient means of manipulating world opinion
and making our cause seem more just.
That is exactly the sort of thing I should not say right now.
This also is not the time to ask whether diplomacy was ever given a
chance. Or why, for the last 10 years, Iraq has been our sworn
archenemy, when during the 15 years preceding it we traded freely in
armaments and military aircraft with the evil and despotic Saddam
Hussein. This is the kind of question that, while utterly valid,
should not be posed right now.
And I certainly will not point out our rapid loss of interest in the
establishment of democracy in Afghanistan once our fighting in that
country was over. We sure got out of that place in a hurry once it
became clear that the problems were too complex to solve with cruise
missiles.
That sort of remark will simply have to wait until our boys are
safely back home.
Here's another question I won't ask right now: Could this entire
situation have been avoided in the early 1990s had then-U.S.
ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie not been given sub rosa instructions
by the Bush Administration to soft-pedal a cruel dictator? Such a
question would be tantamount to sedition while our country engages in
bloody conflict. Just think how hurtful that would be to our military
morale. I know I couldn't fight a war knowing that was the talk back
home.
Is this, then, the appropriate time for me to ask if Operation Iraqi
Freedom is an elaborate double-blind, sleight-of-hand misdirection
ploy to con us out of inconvenient civil rights through Patriot Acts
I and II? Should I wonder whether this war is an elaborate means of
distracting the country while its economy bucks and lurches toward
the brink of a full-blown depression? No and no.
True patriots know that a price of freedom is periodic submission to
the will of our leaders-especially when the liberties granted us by
the Constitution are at stake. What good is our right to free speech
if our soldiers are too demoralized to defend that right, thanks to
disparaging remarks made about their commander-in-chief by the Dixie
Chicks?
When the Founding Fathers authored the Constitution that sets forth
our nation's guiding principles, they made certain to guarantee us
individual rights and freedoms. How dare we selfishly lay claim to
those liberties at the very moment when our nation is in crisis, when
it needs us to be our most selfless? We shame the memory of Thomas
Jefferson by daring to mention Bush's outright lies about satellite
photos that supposedly prove Iraq is developing nuclear weapons.
At this difficult time, President Bush needs my support. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld needs my support. General Tommy Franks
needs my support. It is not my function as a citizen in a
participatory democracy to question our leaders. And to exercise my
constitutional right-nay, duty-to do so would be un-American.
This is from the Onion. It forgets to add that we must never ever
label such articles as humorous... ;-)
http://www.theonion.com/onion3912/i_should_not_be.html
By Ellen Dunst
As Americans, we have a right to question our government and its
actions. However, while there is a time to criticize, there is also a
time to follow in complacent silence. And that time is now.
It's one thing to question our leaders in the days leading up to a
war. But it is another thing entirely to do it during a war. Once the
blood of young men starts to spill, it is our duty as citizens not to
challenge those responsible for spilling that blood. We must remove
the boxing gloves and put on the kid gloves. That is why, in this
moment of crisis, I should not be allowed to say the following things
about America:
Why do we purport to be fighting in the name of liberating the Iraqi
people when we have no interest in violations of human rights-as
evidenced by our habit of looking the other way when they occur in
China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Syria, Burma, Libya, and countless
other countries? Why, of all the brutal regimes that regularly
violate human rights, do we only intervene militarily in Iraq?
Because the violation of human rights is not our true interest here.
We just say it is as a convenient means of manipulating world opinion
and making our cause seem more just.
That is exactly the sort of thing I should not say right now.
This also is not the time to ask whether diplomacy was ever given a
chance. Or why, for the last 10 years, Iraq has been our sworn
archenemy, when during the 15 years preceding it we traded freely in
armaments and military aircraft with the evil and despotic Saddam
Hussein. This is the kind of question that, while utterly valid,
should not be posed right now.
And I certainly will not point out our rapid loss of interest in the
establishment of democracy in Afghanistan once our fighting in that
country was over. We sure got out of that place in a hurry once it
became clear that the problems were too complex to solve with cruise
missiles.
That sort of remark will simply have to wait until our boys are
safely back home.
Here's another question I won't ask right now: Could this entire
situation have been avoided in the early 1990s had then-U.S.
ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie not been given sub rosa instructions
by the Bush Administration to soft-pedal a cruel dictator? Such a
question would be tantamount to sedition while our country engages in
bloody conflict. Just think how hurtful that would be to our military
morale. I know I couldn't fight a war knowing that was the talk back
home.
Is this, then, the appropriate time for me to ask if Operation Iraqi
Freedom is an elaborate double-blind, sleight-of-hand misdirection
ploy to con us out of inconvenient civil rights through Patriot Acts
I and II? Should I wonder whether this war is an elaborate means of
distracting the country while its economy bucks and lurches toward
the brink of a full-blown depression? No and no.
True patriots know that a price of freedom is periodic submission to
the will of our leaders-especially when the liberties granted us by
the Constitution are at stake. What good is our right to free speech
if our soldiers are too demoralized to defend that right, thanks to
disparaging remarks made about their commander-in-chief by the Dixie
Chicks?
When the Founding Fathers authored the Constitution that sets forth
our nation's guiding principles, they made certain to guarantee us
individual rights and freedoms. How dare we selfishly lay claim to
those liberties at the very moment when our nation is in crisis, when
it needs us to be our most selfless? We shame the memory of Thomas
Jefferson by daring to mention Bush's outright lies about satellite
photos that supposedly prove Iraq is developing nuclear weapons.
At this difficult time, President Bush needs my support. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld needs my support. General Tommy Franks
needs my support. It is not my function as a citizen in a
participatory democracy to question our leaders. And to exercise my
constitutional right-nay, duty-to do so would be un-American.