War Is Suicide
Occupied Afghanistan, an American gun barrel, and an Afghan highway, 04/04/10. (photo: John Moore/Getty Images)
Reader Supported News | Perspective
ar is suicide.
It kills in arterial spurts and oozes death in listless unhurried drops. It festers and weeps with the pus of infectious fear and chills the bone in fevered sweat. It explodes in vainglorious sparkle and whimpers in smoldering insanity long after the drums go silent. War is obscenity made sacred.
We cloak ourselves in the body armor of language as protection against the truth. Carefully marketed words meant to inoculate us against the viral indiscriminate violence and provide anesthesia to numb us to the slaughter of other human beings.
And so we die - one syllable at a time as Mike Altman and Johnny Mandel's theme from "M*A*S*H" plays in the background:
"Through early morning fog I see
visions of the things to be
the pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see ..."
They say we did not learn from Vietnam. But that's not true. The Big Green taught us exactly how to get into Iraq and Afghanistan with flags waving and Congress singing on the steps of the Capitol and the media in full battle-rattle ready to take us on a ride alongside "our brave troops."
"That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please."
I once wrote: "They say that the first casualty of war is truth but they are wrong. The first casualty of war is reality - the unreal becomes real and truth is a lie."
If you haven't read "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death" by Norman Solomon or watched the documentary - take a taste here and go get the book or movie. Perception is reality - and nothing beats a good Psy-Op on perception.
Vietnam taught three very important lessons:
1) End the draft. Get a professional all-volunteer military. Turn the troops into a fetish of freedom. They alone defend and provide our freedoms. Say "thank you" and be on your way.
2) Terminology is critical. "Friendly-fire" is color-coded to "blue-on-blue." Operation Phoenix is now the cool Tom Clancy-sounding "Black Ops" elite Rambo-like warriors striking fear in the hearts and minds of evil-doers. No atrocity here.
3) Corporatize the military, media and defense industry. Mergers are good. Prior to the Iraq invasion, Eason Jordan of CNN said, "... I went to the Pentagon myself several times before the war started and met with important people there and said, for instance, at CNN here are the generals we're thinking of retaining to advise us on the air and off about the war, and we got a big thumbs up on all of them. That was important."
"I try to find a way to make
all our little joys relate
without that ever-present hate
but now I know that it's too late, and ..."
Torture is "enhanced interrogation." Torture is acceptable when it is a police officer controlling an unruly citizen with a Taser. Digby here and here, and Glen Greenwald here show us how standard it has become. This same police state wants to make it illegal for citizens to film them on the street, while they demand more street cameras to monitor us in the name of security. Not to worry, crowd control is also coming our way after being battle-tested. And don't look up at the sky. Technology keeps you safe while watching over you. What's wrong with that?
A man recently told me that I was despicable for writing about atrocities and war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. "What would you do if every day some Hajji was shooting at you and killing your buddies," he asked. "I would go home," I said. He called me an un-American Communist. He only believes what he wants to believe and what he is told by the media like this lede from CNN: "Battlefield justice or murder?" He definitely would not like this, or this. Denial is so much more than a river in Egypt.
"Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please."
The greatest recruiting tool for terrorism is Guantanamo some say. But these people are guilty and dangerous, you say. Really? What about the story of Omar Khadr? How many others are there around the world?
And what about the views we never see? The questions we never ask? The "collateral damage?" The survivors? The people on the other end of that bombsight?
In Badakhshan, where the Kokcha River rushes out of the great Hindu Kush, the surrounding terrain reminds me of the Grand Tetons and the Snake River. Steep mountain slopes and the grassy steppe is every bit the image of Jackson Hole and the Alpine Valley prairie - so much the same and yet worlds apart.
As I walked along the river a village Elder told me, "Afghanistan has never been conquered but it has been demolished many times. We live out of sight from the rest of the world until they need a place to fight each other. Then they come here and speak promises they will never keep. Their words are loud wind that blows out of the mountains and quickly passes after much storm. And we go on with life."
The other side of this war is hardly examined in any depth or with any human face and understanding. A Hajji is a Hajji and Johnny Jihad and Tommy Taliban are brothers of the same terrorist family. End of story.
A brave man once requested me
To answer questions that are key
'Is it to be or not to be'
and I replied, 'Oh why ask me?'
It is ironic that the two great disasters of recent times can be spelled: A-I-G. One, a huge financial catastrophe and the other, is Afghanistan-Iraq-Guantanamo.
It is said and repeated that "they" hate us for our freedoms; freedoms we so willingly hand over to the militarized corporate plutocracy on a daily basis. Death by Taser is the collateral damage of law and order. Drones will keep our borders safe. Warrantless wiretaps are the price for remaining free in an internet-connected world of terrorism. Privacy is a privilege not a right. Technology keeps our troops safer than ever on the battlefield. Invest now and get in on the ground floor of the growth industry of the future - Peace through superior firepower.
Iraq and Afghanistan and everyone else? Sorry about the collateral damage to you and your families, but some day soon you will be free enough to understand that it was for your own good. Here, have a Coca-Cola. Love you, man. Bomb ya' later.
We buy the victimhood of false patriotism. We buy fear by the barrel and servitude by the gallon. We sell conformity as righteousness and plaster billboards with utopian consumerism under the red, white and blue of "American Exceptionalism."
One war is too many and a hundred is never enough.
Our addiction has turned to infection and blood poisoning. Overcome by fever and sepsis we rationalize the irrational and succumb to the hallucinations and the sweet voices in the darkest corners of our minds -
"Cause suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please.
... and you can do the same thing if you choose."
-Peace-
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Comments
What have we wrought? And who in America gives a damn as long as they get theirs...what ever that is? Gee, all that fighting and dying for our freedom. I wonder if we're worth it. Hard to say since what we do with it is so horrible. I'll let karma decide and hope that my children are not consumed in the fire to come.
Saddam was evil, he killed so many of his own people. And how many have died since we LIBERATED THEM?? Millions are displaced inside and out of Iraq. When we leave, what will happen??
daniel hickey
Maybe that is where we need to start, be kind to all people we encounter. I've been pleasantly amazed at how delightful some of my conversations have been. It is something to do while you're waiting in line at the grocery store too.
It is time to dust off the peace signs and get out in the street before it's way too late and they gun us down for being defiant.
There is to be a March on Washington in October. Will you be there? Is it OK that we are going to improve our economy by war and weapons of war? Is a military enlistment the only option for employment that our young people have? Are we to be the world's police force- whether they want us or not?
Great piece. I will share it far and wide.
War is STILL not healthy for children and other living things.
The hands of all Americans are stained with the blood of the innocent, and their blood cries out against us. I am afraid we are now cursed for our actions in Iraq (and others). We have lost the blessing of prosperity and protection that I believe this country once had.
We are longer the defender, but the aggressor--an unpleasant place to be.
WHEN wilL Americans wake up to this MADNESS ?
This acceptance of MURDER in our lives ?
Listening to an interview with Martha of the Vandelas, one of MOTOWN´S superstar singers (born circa 1943), she said she had never lived in a time when America was not at WAR. I was born in 1930, and I remember -still- the horrible announcement of Pearl Harbour that came crackling over the radio.
We, as a nation,are obsessed with WAR, GUNS, KILLING, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION MONEY......How do we wean ourselves OUT of this madness ??????
anyway, war is "what makes the world go 'round." it's the means by which the military/industrial complex...the true powers that be who really run the show...direct our focus away from the way they are robbing us blind and enslaving our souls. they encourage our divisiveness to line their pockets. governments mean nothing...master control is in the hands of the bankers and international corporations. we are the fodder that feeds the engine of the vast monied conspiracy. we fight among ourselves while they are picking our pockets. it will only change when we, citizens of the world, take to the streets and take control of our lives. real suicide is continuing to allow the corporate greed machine to reign supreme. it's time we see the true enemy and eradicate it. then and only then can we hope for any peace.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/
One of the most horrifying aspects of the whole process is the way in which the military industrial power structure, including the media, are able to influence people's thinking to the point at which people come to think that suicide and murder are moral because they are committed in the names of democracy, freedom, etc.
SO true, Kathie! If one wants to die, go ahead. But kill not others. I am a VN=era Concienscious Objector, and cannot think "we" are doing the kolling - it is power mad rich people who have bought power and wealth while we the people go hungry and poor. I would say I an not American if being one was to support the wars they are making!
Too many people buy into the coporate media's governmental war.
John Cory, while they are moving, I hope your words get to the people who really need to hear them! I am a choir member already.
The Convention has been signed by 30 states, among them Great Britain, Germany and France (the great warmongers in European history). The Convention prohibits the use of cluster bombs - one of the evil and senseless inventions of mankind. But some states have not signed the convention, among them the rogue states USA, Russia and China. Not even that the US managed to get done. What a shame.
Unnecessary drug wars, political wars in other countries, And big wars...WW1, WW11, Korea, Viet Nam, and the cold war.
We should have listened to IKE...Beware of the military's war machine....to bad for us....and our victims. Pieces not PEACE that's where we're at!
On the other hand, nothing was better in his presidency than his farewell address. It should, however, be recalled that he'd originally written "the military-industrial-congressional complex," but was persuaded to shorten it lest he harm Republican Senators and Representatives . Today, I'd recommend expanding in to the military-industrial-commercial-congressional-ideological complex to give Wall Street, the mass media and official education their due.
Humanity has not amassed an impressive record of avoiding conflict, it is true, but we have not lacked instances of cooperation either. We have also evolved a big enough brain to permit us to suppress whatever may be lurking in the darker recesses of our heritage.
If superior ability truly breeds superior ambition, I think a genuinely superior ambition might be peace itself. Now, THAT (not Mr. Obama's promise of escalation in Afghanistan and his cozy relationship with Mr. Uribe - his new best Latino friend and the foremost human rights abuser in South America - would be change I "can believe in."
once again, i have gathered my friends and family together to read your words.
this was our sermon on this Sunday morning.
thank you.
Your expressed faith in the Old Testament "Sky God" is misplaced. The oldest (to my knowledge) case of genocide is recorded in Numbers 31 when God let Moses loose on the Midianites and killed them to the last man and women (except the female children who were given to the soldiers to be raped and enslaved.)
Some God! Some hope!
AMEN, AMEN
Before WWII, the US was actively involved in genocide against the aboriginal peoples of North America, tried to occupy Canada at least twice (and failed), started a war of aggression against Mexico, threatened war to take the Oregon territory from the British and the Alaskan panhandle from Canada, waged war against Spain to capture various territories and suppressed independence movements from Haiti in the early 1800s to the Philippines in the early 1900s. The list goes on.
While the behaviour of the USA during its period of effective "world leadership" (roughly 1947-2001) and now during the crumbling of its empire has been excessive, it is not at all unique. As my old friend Phil Ochs sang: "We were born in a revolution, and we died in a wasted war; it's gone that way before."
The truth of your argument is significantly modified by knowing that we live in a world dominated by other nations also armed to the teeth, and has done so since its inception. How far back in history and how far across the globe has been that habit of resorting to warfare as a matter of preference? The motives for that have ranged across the entire human imagination of collective existences as families, tribes, clans, and every other way of organizing human life. Nor is the U.S. the most militarized nation. You'd have to make a list headed by Japan, Germany, France, and including many of the "colonized countries" or areas teeming with internal strife and merciless bloodletting by armed mobs or private armies.
Profoundly moving as your comments are, one ought not to expect that their effect will be that the human race is henceforth inclined to foreswear the use of force and all that goes with that. And that, dear Sir, is the real tragedy.
Your perspective on war as suicide rings so true. I would go a step further and agree with kathie mm who called it murder. I was so grateful to you for all of the links you included. I was chilled by much of the information contained in them. Please continue to write, John. You have such a gift. Thank you for sharing it with us.
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