What Does America Stand For
By the Rev. Douglas Wilson
In the last paragraph of Armies of the Night (1968), Norman Mailer offers a metaphor about our amazing country, where historic greatness and staggering flaws exist in a dynamic tension: “Brood on that country who expresses our will. She is America; once a beauty of magnificence unparalleled, now a beauty with a leprous skin. She is heavy with child – no one knows if legitimate – and languishes in a dungeon whose walls are never seen. Now the first contractions of her fearsome labor begin – it will go on: no doctor exists to tell the hour. It is only known that false labor is not likely on her now, no, she will probably give birth, and to what? – the most fearsome totalitarianism the world has ever known? or can she, poor giant, tormented, lovely girl deliver a babe of a new world, brave and tender, artful and wild?”
After World War II, the most destructive event in human history, the civilized governments of the world gathered and drew up an agreement that became known as the Geneva Accords. The international community agreed upon these rules of war that set standards for the treatment of soldiers and civilians to reduce the worst effects of war. Countries agreed to respect these accords to protect their own people from atrocities like torture, and these agreements are at the heart of what it means to be civilized.
This long-standing treaty is the law in America, but this Administration has violated these laws again and again. The United States is now asserting that if we hold a prisoner on foreign soil, our soldiers can still subject that prisoner to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment – in other words, torture. Torture is a form of terrorism. To defend ourselves against terrorism, our government is committing terrorist acts.
Torture is what our enlisted soldiers have been tried and convicted of committing at Abu Ghraib, but the responsibility for legitimizing this torture rests with Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Alberto Gonzales, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush. Torture continues to happen and it is disgraceful.
Senator John McCain was tortured for several years during his imprisonment in North Viet Nam. He is trying to get the US to say it will follow the Geneva Convention, which we adopted as law, and forbid the use of torture by American military on enemy combatants. His effort to get Congress to reaffirm our own laws is opposed by Dick Cheney, whose opposition appalls me. Are we becoming a totalitarian regime?
On October 7th the Senate voted 90-9 to attach an amendment to the defense appropriation bill that would prohibit “cruel, inhuman, or degrading” treatment of prisoners in the custody of the U.S. military. This is one of the few courageous things the senators have done in a long time. Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are lobbying to get the House of Representatives to water down what the Senate did. George W. Bush, who has not vetoed any legislation in his five years in office, is threatening to veto this bill if it contains language that limits our ability to torture people. This drama is unfolding as I write these words.
For close to 200 years the United States of America was the inspiration and the bright light of the world. We were a beacon of freedom and dignity, despite our shortcomings. Through the second half of the 20th Century the ever-expanding military system has increased its control over our country, leaving us lopsided and unbalanced. During the Cheney Bush Administration, arrogant radical right-wing neo-conservative ideologues have taken over the Executive and Legislative branches of government.
During saner times, our leaders saw what would happen if we invaded Iraq. George H. W. Bush offered this reason for not continuing to Baghdad in 1991: “Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different – and perhaps barren – outcome…. We also believed that the U.S. should not go it alone, that a multilateral approach was better.” Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed (Alfred A. Knopf, 1998, p. 489).
When the decision was made to invade Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld ignored “the Powell doctrine,” which calls for massive force and a plan for how to end the action. Rumsfeld believed that we would be welcomed into Iraq with open arms. Instead, we got chaos, first with the looting, later with the failure to restore basic services like water, electricity, and sanitation. Lacking sufficient troops, the American army was never able to establish control of the country. Instead, our army has been bottled up in enclaves like the Green Zone, formerly the seat of Saddam’s government, now the seat of the current government and the American military.
Fred Kaplan of Slate Magazine wrote on October 4, 2005: “The evidence is now overwhelming that the Pentagon conducted no planning for ‘postwar’ stabilization operations. Other government departments did, but their plans were ignored. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld & Co. persuaded themselves that their favored Iraqi exiles would quickly form a new government and that most American troops would be home by late summer 2003 – hence no need for long-term planning.”
Before 9/11, many people did not like us, often because of American foreign policies, but there was a great deal of affection for America, too. Many people have relatives who emigrated here. Now we are hated by more people than ever in our history.
The insurgency in Iraq has slowly but steadily increased its destructive power. Roadside bombs regularly take out our vehicles. Prior to 2003, there were no suicide bombings in Iraq; now there are several every week. Attacks on civilians are deplorable, but they are effective in destabilizing the country, and they appear to be succeeding in destroying Iraq as a functioning nation. As for the Iraqi army, one out of 117 battalions is ready to fight, a number that dropped from three battalions.
Apparently, our government has played directly into the hands of Al Qaeda, whose leader is Osama bin Laden. Its goal is the overthrow of pro-Western governments in Muslim countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Egypt. It is much closer to that goal than it was four years ago. The invasion and occupation of Iraq has radicalized a large segment of Iraqi society, and we have already lost the war for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. In the event of a civil war in Iraq, the whole Middle East could be pulled into a regional war.
We are faced with two very bad choices. If we continue to fight the insurgency, we will keep supplying the jihadists with more and better-trained volunteers. If we withdraw, Iraq will be left in chaos that will probably end in civil war. Either way, Al Qaeda wins.
The neo-con policies of the Bush administration do not work. We need international cooperation to combat terrorism, but the neo-cons believe only in military solutions. The neo-con idea that we can control the world through our superior military power has been shown to be false. We cannot do it. The invasion of Iraq is a disaster for Iraq and for the United States and is playing right into the hands of the terrorists we’re supposed to be fighting. The designers of this invasion should resign in disgrace for destroying America’s good will and prestige.
I believe that the neo-cons are building permanent military bases in Iraq, but the Iraqis will never accept this. Sooner or later we will have to get out, so it might as well be sooner. Announcing that we are not going to have permanent bases and that we are beginning to draw down our troops is the logical and safe way to defuse the insurgency.
On the domestic front, the radical right has put forth ideas almost as disastrous as the invasion of Iraq. “The market” cannot solve all our problems. The maintenance of the infrastructure is the responsibility of government. The failure to invest a few hundred million in improving the levees in New Orleans resulted in current plans to spend a few hundred billion. This is “penny-wise and pound-foolish,” but is just a microcosm of the disasters that could await us if we fail to address global warming.
At the Earth Summit in 1992, President George H. W. Bush said, “The American way of life is not negotiable.” This is arrogant. We are addicted to oil and it is going to take the kind of united commitment we made in WWII to become energy independent. We live in an interconnected world, and global warming is going to disrupt the world economy like Hurricane Katrina brought havoc to the Gulf Coast. Ocean levels are expected to rise from one to three feet this century.
What does America stand for? It stands for a citizenry willing and able to take back the country, restoring the vision and generosity that was, for so long, a major part of the American Dream. It is time to “deliver a babe of a new world, brave and tender, artful and wild.”
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