Jon Carroll has a regular column in the SF Chron. He has been unusually outspoken about the ME. Here's his latest.
Joanna ____________________________________________________________
Silence and forgetting
Jon Carroll
Friday, January 10, 2003
San Francisco Chronicle
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/01/10/DD210441.DTL
IN ANY DISCUSSION on the probable conflict in Iraq, people in favor of such a war frequently mention Neville Chamberlain at Munich. The lesson of Chamberlain's infamous meeting with Hitler is obvious: Appeasement does not work with madmen or with dictators. Rather than bringing peace, it only promotes a longer and more horrible war.
The analogy is not exact, but it is in the nature of analogies to be inexact. But the message is clear enough: Silence or cowardice in the face of tyranny is unjustified both morally and practically.
So when a nation announces that it now feels free to act with force against perceived threats rather than waiting for actual attacks, we should pay attention. We should understand that the leader of the nation is now willing to bomb cities and deploy armies whenever and wherever he feels threatened. When the leader says he would not need "absolute proof" of the perceived threats, we should pay attention. We should not pretend that things are still the same when they are not still the same. We should not forget the lesson of Munich.
When a regime says it no longer rules out first strikes with nuclear weapons, we should do whatever we can to urge our allies to work against such a regime. The more powerful a nation is, the larger its armies, the greater the need for noise rather than silence, for remembering rather than forgetting, for courage rather than cowardice.
THE LEADER WHOSE policies I have been describing is George W. Bush. The lesson of Munich is that it is necessary to speak out against tyranny, no matter how dangerous that becomes. It is hard for us to think of our own government as the villain; in today's fervid atmosphere, such talk is almost treasonous.
We have forgotten that democracy is a dangerous business. Built into the Constitution is the notion that a free people should thwart its leaders if necessary. This is our duty, the price of our freedom. Leaders hate to be thwarted; it is in the nature of power to consolidate itself.
It is clear that the Democrats, the so-called opposition party, are unwilling to accept the dangers of democracy. It is clear that the Congress of the United States, conceived as a brake on the dangers of an imperial presidency, will continue to be a rubber stamp for the Bush imperium. It is clear that the Supreme Court will be willing to suspend any civil liberty that thwarts the plans of the supreme leader of what is often referred to as "the greatest nation on earth."
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION is working hard to make us forget. It is closing down sources of information about its own workings; it is denying citizens access to data about the government they theoretically control. It is purposely muddying the waters and confusing the issues, deacquisitioning enemies when they are no longer useful bogeymen.
Terrorism is not a nation; terrorism is a tactic. The United States has used it or condoned its use. There is currently a very real Islamic fundamentalist terrorist movement. The United States has an equally real obligation to use its power to oppose this movement.
The movement is not controlled from Iraq; there is no evidence that the elimination of Saddam Hussein would do anything to hinder that movement. The Taliban still move freely along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border; their power has been diminished but not eliminated. But we are asked to forget about that, even as we are asked to forget about the still-mysterious anthrax attacks that occurred less than two years ago.
It is necessary for us to remember; it is necessary for us to speak out. It is time to pay attention to the man behind the curtain. There is no greater patriotism.