‘I has seen the enemy — and they is us.”
That ungrammatical but insightful phrase may be familiar only to those old enough to rank as elders of the University faculty. They would remember its source, a long-gone syndicated comic strip, “Pogo.” It — like the best of comics — gave us a clear view of ourselves, often about character flaws we choose to ignore. It came to mind in the aftermath of the terrible human loss suffered in the terrorist bombings of New York City and Washington, D.C.
A public statement of George Bush, the man seated in the president’s chair, brought it into focus: “Freedom was attacked this morning by a faceless coward.” He was right; but he didn’t go far enough. All he, I and our sorrowing fellow Americans need do is look in the mirror, and we’ll see a clear unexpected image of that “faceless coward.”
One can’t minimize the evil of those who used four of our jet planes to kill innocent passengers and end the lives of thousands whom those planes struck. The effort to uproot and punish them is understandable and right. But translating it into all-out war would compound the tragedy by killing many other innocents as we seek out the guilty ones.
Shooting from the hip has enabled us to destroy targets around the world because we keep them faceless, denying the truth that they possess the same flesh-and-blood humanity we try to protect among our children and ourselves. It is those actions by our government that create the ominous image in our mirror. The list is long, but some recent examples make the point:
* Bombing a Sudanese pharmaceutical firm and destroying the limited source of medical help for that Third World country
* Bombing of and sanctions against Iraq that result in the deaths of thousands of that nation’s children
* The ongoing slaughter of Palestinian — some terrorists, but many more innocents– by U.S aircraft and weapons used by the Israeli military
* The traumatizing of Central America by U.S. military policy in El Salvador, Nicaragua and elsewhere, where arbitrary policies of slaughter have a hidden agenda: protecting and maximizing profits of U.S. corporations.
Tally them up. It’s a long list that helps one understand why Third World countries, seeing no other recourse for halting our corporate greed, become a breeding ground for terrorists who attack “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” As the ultimate sacrifice of so many New York firefighters and police reminds us, there is selfless bravery still within us.
But we are not free — not so long as we allow our government to serve selfish overseas interests of craven corporations instead of seeking the health of our people and of all people. As I’ve commented before, this will persist for as long as we tolerate an undemocratic elections system that allows big donors to bribe candidates.
When the man in the Oval Office describes the battle to come as a “monumental struggle of good versus evil,” he and we, who assume we are the “good,” need to take a long look at that troubling image in the mirror before we jump off the edge into needless war.