File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2001/postcolonial.0109, message 273


Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 10:07:53 -0700
Subject: Re: TIM WISE ARTICLE
From: Matthew <matthew-AT-heydaybooks.com>


Don't know, I got it over email, I always get his stuff over email and it's
never cited. It may not have been published.
M
> Where was this published?
> 
> Mimi
> 
> At 09:15 AM 9/19/01 -0700, you wrote:
> 
>>> Enemies, Both Foreign and Domestic: The Limits of Revenge and Rhetoric
>>> By Tim Wise
>>> 
>>> September 15, 2001
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Well, it looks as if the good people of the rural U.S. should be breathing
>>> a sigh of relief right about now. After all, with the President and most
>>> Americans itching to bomb any place where terrorists might be hiding, one
>>> can only imagine the kind of wrath that would have been brought down upon
>>> the heads of folks in Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming or Mississippi had last
>>> week's hijackersbeen white boys with crew-cuts, like Tim McVeigh.
>>> 
>>> All this talk I keep hearing of "Kill the Arabs," "carpet bomb em back
>>> into the stone age," or "get the ragheads" would have to have been replaced
>>> with "Kill the Crackers," "bomb em back to the Dust Bowl," and "get the
>>> trailer trash."
>>> 
>>> But the fact is, we all know that such a scenario would never have
>>> transpired, and not because white boys arent capable of inflicting mass
>>> death. They certainly are. McVeigh proved that, if for some folks Hitler,
>>> Stalin, Andrew Jackson, Lyndon Johnson and Dick Nixon werent sufficient to
>>> make the case. But rather, because the folks who are so quick to
>>> collectivize the responsibility and the payback when the perps are
>>> dark-skinned or "foreign," are just as quick not to do so when white boys
>>> are the ones committing mass murder or engaging in terroristic activities.
>>> In the wake of Oklahoma City, none of the people who are now calling for
>>> war against Afghanistan even suggested targeting white supremacist groups
>>> and militias for destruction, let alone bombing the cornfields of "middle
>>> America" in the hopes of taking out a few anti-government types.
>>> 
>>> Bottom line: enemies who look different, speak a different language, or
>>> practice a different religion are lots easier to view as the "other." As
>>> somehow cutoff from the common humanity of which we consider ourselves a
>>> part. And so we speak now of killing Arabs indiscriminately, of not
>>> differentiating between the guilty and the innocent (ironically, the
>>> precise mentality of whomever carried out last weeks attacks), and winning
>>> a war, which we claim has been officially engaged. But we would have said
>>> none of these things had the perpetrators been internal extremists. We said
>>> none of these things about those who fit the descriptions of Tim McVeigh,
>>> or Terry Nichols. We would never have heard columnists calling for
>>> profiling of white men, the way that reactionary crank and wanna-be pin-up
>>> girl of the right, Ann Coulter, called for the same against Arabs and
>>> Muslims this week.
>>> 
>>> Actually, that wasnt all she said: she also opined that it should be the
>>> role of the United States to invade "their" countries, kill "their"
>>> leaders, and "convert them to Christianity." If these were the words of an
>>> Imam, calling for the forced conversion of Southern Baptists to Islam, we
>>> would call them the fanatical ramblings of a jihad-happy madman. But when
>>> the fashion-conscious and attractive (though clearly Snickers-deprived)
>>> Coulter says it, she finds mass support for her nuttiness, gets her call
>>> for a new round of Crusades published on the website of the National
>>> Review, and will remain a regular commentator for such paragons of
>>> journalistic virtue as Fox News.
>>> 
>>> So too Jerry Falwell, who for some unknown reason people still take
>>> seriously despite his penchant for committing random acts of serial
>>> stupidity. His latest? Laying the blame for the attacks on New York and DC
>>> at the feet of the ACLU (for "throwing God out of the schools"), "the
>>> abortionists" ("because God will not be mocked"), as well as "pagans,"
>>> "feminists," and "the gays and lesbians." After offering this truly
>>> maniacal glob of pedantic crap, Falwells partner in fundamentalist lunacy,
>>> Pat Robertson, chimed in to blame "pornography on the internet," abortion,
>>> and the removal of the ten commandments from courthouses. God, according to
>>> these twin towers of intellectual mendacity and biblically bankrupt
>>> spirituality, is "lifting his protection from us," as our comeuppance for
>>> secular humanism.
>>> 
>>> It makes me think back to what Barry Goldwater said about Falwell in 1981,
>>> when the rotund little preacher asked all "good Americans" to rise up in
>>> opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day OConnor to the Supreme Court
>>> (since, after all, the Court was no place for a lady). "All good
>>> Americans, Goldwater intoned, should rise up and give Jerry Falwell a
>>> kick in the ass." Precisely, and now two decades overdue.
>>> 
>>> Funny how all the discussion of religious fanaticism among certain
>>> followers of Islam has led us to overlook the fanaticism of certain
>>> Christians who are now calling for blood. One has to imagine that if Jesus
>>> was here today they would call him a "pussy" for all that "turn the other
>>> cheek" stuff. And while I cant answer the question thatmanyfollowers of
>>> Christ ask when they wear their "What Would Jesus Do?" armbands, I feel
>>> pretty confident that I know what he wouldnt do. He wouldnt be saying
>>> things like: "lets shove a couple dozen cruise missiles up their ass," or
>>> going out and spraypainting "Fuck Islam" on mosques, or screaming about the
>>> "sand niggers" while guzzling beer at some sports bar. And for that matter,
>>> he wouldnt be standing around chanting "U.S.A, U.S.A." at a memorial
>>> service, in an attempt to turn it into a jingoistic pep rally.
>>> 
>>> The events of the past week have brought out the best in people and the
>>> worst: on the one hand, the rescue workers, diligently seeking for any
>>> signs of life amidst perhaps a million tons of rubble; yet, on the other,
>>> the cacophony of voices calling for revenge. Oh sure, they insist it isnt
>>> about that, but rather, "justice." They insist they want more than merely
>>> the continued spilling of blood, and that striking back has more purpose
>>> than merely proving how tough we are. But ask them what that purpose is,
>>> and how they think massive military retaliation can actually make us more
>>> safe, to say nothing of the safety of others the world over, and their
>>> faces go blank, or become contorted with anger, as they shout: "well, we
>>> have to do something. We cant just sit here and let them get away with
>>> it!"
>>> 
>>> But "doing something" is not a valid pretext for unleashing war. And
>>> justice requires that we carefully consider the difference between
>>> responsible parties and innocent ones. Just as one would not think it
>>> "just" to level an entire neighborhood in search of one serial killer who
>>> might be living in the area, so too is it unjust to speak of turning much
>>> of the Arab world into a parking lot, in search of the few persons actually
>>> behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
>>> 
>>> Not only would such a disproportionate response be morally suspect, it
>>> would be irresponsible from a security perspective as well. It would leave
>>> us all less safe, as millions more in the Arab world came to see the U.S.
>>> as a bully, unconcerned about innocent lives, Muslim holy sites, or world
>>> peace. And ten years hence, or maybe less, they would understandably
>>> retaliate in kind. What is most ironic about all of this, is that such a
>>> scenario--the West and Islam locked in mortal combat--is exactly what the
>>> Osama bin Ladens of the world have always wanted. It is a trap. A trap
>>> rejected by the vast majority of Arabs, and of Muslims wherever they may
>>> be, but one in which they too will be caught up if we take the bait.
>>> 
>>> Its really quite simple: we couldnt kill all of "them" even if doing so
>>> was ethically acceptable, which of course it isnt. And those who dont
>>> die, who would look around and see their nations leveled, their houses
>>> gone, their family members incinerated, would at that point most certainly
>>> feel that they had nothing to lose by getting even. And there is no more
>>> dangerous member of any society than the one who thinks he has nothing to
>>> lose. Desperation doesnt make for very sound judgment, whether the
>>> desperation of the immiserated in the so-called third world, or that of the
>>> most powerful, and yet often least original people on the planet.
>>> 
>>> And so what does that leave us with? The fact is, I dont know. And neither
>>> do you. And why we cant just say that, admit our frailties and
>>> uncertainties and ignorance, is beyond me. That we demand quick and easy
>>> answers is indicative of our cultural attachment to instant gratification:
>>> got a headache, take an aspirin; overweight, get liposuction; upset about
>>> something, take Prozac. Dont think, dont analyze, just do it. It is Nike
>>> slogan as national mantra. And it is the prelude to international
>>> slaughter.
>>> 
>>> No wonder so much of the world looks at America with contempt and at
>>> Americans as spoiled children. First, we train terrorists the world over,
>>> including bin Laden, because we had to "get the commies" at all costs, even
>>> if it meant supporting dictators, fundamentalists, and murderers. Then we
>>> support corrupt and brutal regimes that trample the rights of their
>>> citizens. Then we fund and support an illegal occupation of Palestinian
>>> land, and contribute to the deaths of a million or more in Iraq from
>>> bombing and sanctions. Then, we exhibit our arrogance by withdrawing from
>>> international treaties and forums when the going gets tough or issues get
>>> raised that we dont want to discuss.
>>> 
>>> This is not to say that any of these things, no matter how irresponsible or
>>> even criminal warrant an act the likes of what we saw September 11th. But
>>> there is something to be said for understanding why no one likes you. If
>>> all the other kids in the sandbox think youre a thug and a bully, then
>>> after a while youd best stop trying to beat them all into submission, or
>>> thinking that they are the problem, and instead, begin to turn some of that
>>> analysis inward. Thats what you would do, anyway, if you wanted to
>>> actually get to the bottom of the conflict on the playground. If, on the
>>> other hand, your main concern were showing what a badass you were, then
>>> maybe this wouldnt matter much to you at all. And in that case, you would
>>> set out to show those other kids who was boss, who was king of the hill.
>>> You would continue to provoke them, to attack them, and then act shocked
>>> when they hit back.
>>> 
>>> That kind of behavior is unbecoming enough when children engage in it. When
>>> adults with explosives do it, the immature becomes deadly. This is no game.
>>> There is no "winner" despite the blustery rhetoric of our
>>> frat-boy-in-chief. And unless we begin to fundamentally alter the way we as
>>> a nation operate around the world, we are in for many years of violence,
>>> and counterviolence, and empty platitudes, and flag waving, and body bags.
>>> And if that happens, it wont merely be the fault of those who attack us
>>> from outside, but also the fault of those who were the enemies of justice,
>>> equality, and peace on the inside of the American empire. There will be
>>> more than enough blame to go around.
>>> 
>> 
>> 
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