boundless benevolence (was [lbo-talk] Re:Krugman)

[Shane Taylor]

Dwayne Monroe wrote:
> A good friend of mine is a Vietnam vet. He was there
> during Tet. There are pictures of him in his den, 
> just a few, taken in some muddy hole with a large 
> weapon. He's fit and dangerous in these old photos. 
> 
> Now, he's an intelligent, funny, big hearted and sharp 
> witted bear of a guy. 
> 
> Even so, he believes that the US lost the Vietnam war 
> because of the media sapping America's "will to win". 
> 
> When I mention a few other important factors (granting 
> him, for the sake of argument, the media angle) - the 
> tenacious Vietnamese resistance, the techno illusions 
> of Westmoreland and Mcnamara, the ennui amongst many 
> soldiers who didn't know why they were there - he lets 
> this pass over him like wind over the aerodynamic 
> surface of a Porsche, and speeds along, beliefs 
> unaffected. 
> 
> This belief structure has helped him nicely during 
> the present crisis. War Plan Iraq was just, the 
> weapons are there, Dubya is a bold leader with vision, 
> Iran, Syria and N. Korea had better watch out, we're 
> marching to protect ourselves and the world, this is 
> the best of all possible countries. 
> 
> The list continues. 
> 
> He is not stupid, and listens to my counter arguments 
> politely and with interest (he likes to debate and all 
> his flag waving buds just agree so it's no fun talking 
> to them). But always his push back, even when he 
> concedes that US foreign policy has been destructive 
> in some way or another, is that the intentions were 
> good. 
> 
> It is this stubborn faith in American goodness that is 
> really the foundation of all other assumptions. Was 
> support for the murderous contras criminal? Well yes, 
> but we're a "young nation" and we're bound to make bad 
> mistakes like a steroid enhanced teenager with good 
> intentions but clumsy methods. 
> 
> This is the velodrome through which our debates race: 
> no matter how heinous the crime mentioned, the 
> underlying reasons were good so there's no need to 
> look too deeply at ourselves. 
> 
> Even slavery and the Indian wars - the original sins 
> of the nation - were "mistakes". 

Exactly; that's Americanism, the very thing negated in anti-Americanism. 
State actions may on occasion be misguided, their consequences perhaps
regrettable, but the intent is eternally benign.  No matter how
drastically the professed ends contradict the pursued means, it's
irrelevant.  Absolution is found in the intent.  The US makes "mistakes",
and to reproach the US for this too severely would merely be an appeal to
perfection.  To do this repeatedly is to hate America.

Americanism turns Orwell's truism that "a machine-gun is still a
machine-gun even when a 'good' man is squeezing the trigger" into heresy.

-- Shane

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