Unraveling

by Owen Thomas

  “But you have other ideas about the greater good, Mr. President. You and your team of cock-eyed Neocon dreamers. You have a doctrine to your name, announcing itself early and with heavy hoof beats. It comes with secret prisons. It comes with torture. It comes with extraordinary rendition. It comes without restraint. We have been to Iraq before. With your father. That was restraint. That was a great and powerful nation acting with a sense of responsibility and in full collaboration with the United Nations and the world community. But you are not your father, Mr. President, and for whatever your intentions, your doctrine – our foreign policy – is beneath this country.

  “What do I see, Mr. President?

  “I see a society, a country, this country, our country, paralyzed by fear. What fear? Fear of terrorism. Fear of Muslims. Fear of invasion by Muslims flying jetliners. Fear of Muslims poisoning our water supply and loosening the bolts on our nuclear reactors. Color coded fear. Fear of accents and skin color and difference. But as crippling as that fear has become, it is nothing compared to our fear of perception. Our fear of being un-American. Our fear that objection is the mask of weakness and that restraint is a lack of resolve. Our fear of accidentally helping the terrorists; of giving aid and comfort to the terrorists; of being on the side of the Communists.

  “Oh, did I say Communist? I meant terrorist. Yes, we have been down this road before. Once again, we have spiraled down into that cellar of suspicion and divisiveness in which we seek desperately to accuse, lest we be accused. Lest we end up on a list. A sympathizers list. A no-fly list. Lest we be seen as soft on terrorism. We are trying to out-patriot one another. We do this out of fear. That is how we make our decisions these days; fear has become the lifeblood of this country.

  “I see the United States Congress, the greatest deliberative body on the planet, guardian of our cherished democratic principles, bulwark against any erosion of our Constitutional rights, a co-equal branch of government, its members now festooning themselves with flag pins, taking counsel in fear rather than reason or principle, willing to fall into line at the snap of your fingers, abdicating responsibility without so much as a second thought. The Congress has simply handed you the keys. The Congress asks no questions, for questions are subversive and the people are afraid. And the people vote. The people do not elect those who are soft; those who question; those who help the terrorists. The people elect patriots.

  “How does our Congress prove its patriotism? By getting out of the way. By cowering in the lengthening shadow of the Executive Branch. By passing and handing up the Patriot Act, saying, Here, Mr. President, here are our civil liberties, here is our Fourth Amendment, do with them as you see fit. No need for debate. No need to read this law. For it is the Patriot Act and we act as patriots act. Do not question us, Mr. President, please, for we do not question you. We the Congress do not care that the Patriot in your Patriot Act is a contrivance; that it is an acronym merely spelling the word patriot but that means surrender by abdication.

  “How does Congress prove its patriotism? By passing and handing up the Military Commissions Act saying, Here, Mr. President, here are the Geneva Conventions, discard them. Here is our cherished writ of habeas corpus, which our founding fathers declared shall not be suspended except in cases of rebellion or invasion. Take it, Mr. President, and throw it out. We will not object. We the Congress shall insist on neither rebellion nor invasion. Thomas Jefferson is gone. We are not terrorists.

  “What do I see, Mr. President?

  “I see a corporate media wrapped around your finger, would-be journalists and hard-boiled reporters terrified of losing favor; terrified of losing access; terrified of missing the honor of one of your nicknames; terrified of losing market share to competitors that pander to panicked, patriotic news consumers who will not tolerate critical reporting. I see the Fourth Estate largely co-opted for your own ends; no longer the people’s eyes and ears, now a tool to amplify the echo chamber; to repeat your own words in a different voice so that you might be reassured and so the people, those in whose name you act, will clear out of the way. I see pretend journalists secretly on the payroll, pretending to be objective. I see pretend journalists in the White House Press Corps, conveniently unvetted, pretending to bring us the unvarnished truth. I see that you have poisoned the pens of the press, so that in the name of petty retribution you may destroy by proxy those who dare to contradict your case for war.

  “And why, Mr. President? There must be a reason. Tell me again how all of this is necessary. Tell me again, the point. Why is this happening? Why is this happening?

  “Al-Qaeda you say? Really? Al-Qaeda? Where? In Iraq? Yes, maybe now. Maybe now that we are there in the tens of thousands; now that we have invaded a Muslim nation, delivering ourselves into a ready and waiting narrative as imperial infidels in a ruthless war against Islam. If you are al-Qaeda, how do you resist that opportunity? How do you resist such an opportunity to foment unrest, to propagandize your cause, to kill American infidels and to martyr yourself all at the same time? Why resist an opportunity to become the spume on the lips of an Iraqi insurgency?

  “So, yes, like needles to a magnet, al-Qaeda has taken a sudden interest in Iraq. We have supplied the magnet. We have brought them there. Al-Qaeda was not in Iraq 100,000 casualties ago. Al-Qaeda was not in Iraq when our Congress, that august body of democratic deliberation, became a quivering knot of angry and frightened townspeople as the pied piper of patriotism led the children of this country down to the river.

  “Why is this happening?

  “Vengeance you say? Vengeance against whom? Aside from pesky former ambassadors and their CIA wives, I mean. Vengeance against Saddam Hussein? For what? Nine-Eleven you say? Really? Nine-Eleven? What has Saddam Hussein to do with Nine-Eleven? Or al-Qaeda? He has nothing to do with Nine-Eleven or al-Qaeda.

  “I offer no defense of Saddam Hussein. He is a small, petty, brutal, savage of a man without whom the world will be far better off. That is something, at least, on which everyone can agree. Saddam Hussein is a bad man. Evil. Ruthless. Tyrannical oppressor of his own people. An enemy to women. An enemy to democracy.

  “But where was this concern about Saddam Hussein when we shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder and loaded him up with money and mustard gas and rocket launchers to use against the Ayatollah? Am I the only person in this country who is old enough to remember that? When Saddam Hussein used those very same chemicals against the Kurds, against Iraqi citizens, against Iranian citizens as we looked the other way, caring only about the Ayatollah, the bad man of the day. Where was our concern then about Saddam Hussein’s character?

  “Do not tell me, Mr. President, that we have invaded Iraq out of a moral imperative. What of the Congo? What of Darfur? What of Sierre Leone?

  “Do not tell me, Mr. President, that we have invaded Iraq on behalf of democracy. What of Somalia? What of China?

  “Do not tell me, Mr. President, that we have invaded on humanitarian grounds. What of Egypt? What of Pakistan? Zimbabwe?

  “National security you say? Really? Security? Security from what? Invasion? By Iraq? Surely not. Weapons of Mass Destruction? WMD’s? What WMD’s? Have any been found? Where are they? Buried under the sand? Underground bunkers? No. We’ve looked. On your assurance we have gone back to the desert at incalculable cost and we have looked. There are no WMD’s, Mr. President. There are none. There never were. But then, you knew that, didn’t you? Was Iraq ever a threat to this country? To these shores? No. Never.

  “Saddam Hussein never posed an imminent threat to this country. A bad man? Yes. Without a doubt. But there is no shortage of very bad men in the world. Saddam Hussein was your Boogieman and he served your purposes exceedingly well. Because when we tell the sons and daughters of this country to kill, fight and die in defense of the United States of America, that, apparently, is that all it takes. A Boogieman. One Boogieman and we soon find ourselves resorting to euphemisms like collateral damage and pep rally slogans like shock and awe a
nd these colors don’t run, rah, rah, rah to help us choke down the slaughter of tens of thousands of other humans. Evil-Doers. Well who isn’t up for fighting Evil-Doers? Iraqi Freedom. Anyone here opposed to freedom? Anyone here not interested in being greeted as liberators? Anyone here an enemy of freedom? Like al-Qaeda? Like the French? Like those who eat French fries? And arugula? Like the United Nations? Like the Hollywood elite? Like the fancy-pants east coast intellectuals? Oppose this war? You may as well be Hugo Chávez. Or Fidel Castro. Or Saddam Hussein. You may as well be Osama Bin Laden himself. Because make no mistake, if you oppose this war, you oppose freedom. And that is un-American. That is unpatriotic. That is helping the terrorists. Do I have that about right, Mr. President?

  “You know us too well. You have sold us the war like some dropout selling cigarettes and stories of the street to seventh graders. Out there, far, far away in the land of Iraq, there is greatness waiting for America. Shock and awe. Victory over evil-doers. The most powerful country in history, showing the world what it means to be American.

  Two to three billion dollars every week in Iraq? Relax, you say. Who cares about the deficit? Now closing in on nine hundred billion dollars. Boring. Who cares about the hundreds of billions of dollars we will spend in Iraq that cannot be spent on feeding our hungry or housing our homeless? Thirty-seven million of us living below the poverty line in the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth. Almost twenty percent of who are younger than eighteen. Who cares? Who cares about fixing our crumbling infrastructure? Where’s the patriotism in bridges and levees? How much longer should we allow the flooded streets of New Orleans to distract us from our own greatness? Who cares about educating a generation of Americans that are rapidly sinking to the bottom of the class of industrialized nations? Twenty years ago we ranked first. Today we rank ninth. Sure we could spend our money on education, but why think like a bunch of losers? America is number 1, not number 9, right? Every day is Mission Accomplished day!

  “You have sold us this war, Mr. President, on false pretenses and misdirection. You shoved your dirty hand inside a dirty hat and pulled out a bouquet of red, white and blue flowers like some second-rate magician, hoping we have not seen in the shadows of the footlights the tens of thousands, upon tens of thousands, of dead and maimed civilians. Hoping we have not seen backstage the thousands of dead Americans – no cameras please – coming home from the desert. Hoping you can keep our focus on those flowers and that shiny, hypnotic coin swinging before our eyes – patriotic bravado on one side, terror on the other – rather than the fifteen thousand injured Americans, limbless, blind, deaf, burned, disfigured, physically broken, emotionally scarred, hobbling and wheeling themselves behind your elaborate patriotic set pieces. Hoping you can keep us occupied on the task of dividing our country between those who love freedom and hate the terrorists and those who hate freedom and seek to help the terrorists.

  “Heaven forbid that we should stop to consider all of the inhumanity forced into the backstage darkness of your shoot ‘em up, dead-or-alive western melodrama in which the world swoons at your swagger and your shiny tin badge.

  “How does this happen? How can it happen? A Boogieman is all it takes for the United States Congress to fall in line and to abdicate its Constitutional responsibility? Your Vice President, our defacto Commander in Chief, whispering in a congressman’s ear that Saddam has a suitcase-sized nuke? Is that all it takes?

  “But bigger than the question of how is the question of why. So why, then, Mr. President? Why is all of this happening?

  “Is all of this about your father? Your father who, as you know, chose not to invade Iraq after driving Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Could all of this be as prosaic as an insecure boy looking to one-up his dad? Looking to avenge his dad? Looking to prove his competence to his dad? Is this all about getting approval?

  “Or is all of this about God? Your other father. Is that what you meant when you told Mr. Woodward that your father was the wrong father to appeal to for advice on this war? That there is a higher father you appeal to? Is that what we are to take from your remarks to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: “I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.’ And I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,’ and I did.” Is that the plan, Mr. President? God’s will? Did you mean what you said to the Palestinians? “I feel God’s words coming to me: ‘Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.’ And by God, I’m gonna do it.” Is all the rest of it – weapons of mass destruction that do not exist, the conspiratorial plotting between Saddam and al-Qaeda that never existed, a nuclear Iraq that does not exist, the role Saddam never played on Nine-Eleven – is all of that just window dressing to get us to go along? To get out of God’s way? Do you believe, as so many of your evangelical Christian brethren believe, that the Bible foretells of the events you have set into motion? That there will be a regime change in Iraq? That the United Nations you hold in such disregard will carry the flag for a new satanic world order plunging us all toward the apocalypse and the Second Coming? Is that why you have sent us to the desert?

  “Or is it just about politics? Could it be that you have learned that panic and patriotism are cheap substitutes for performance? Could it be you realized you were having to struggle for a fifty percent approval rating until Nine-Eleven and then, suddenly, a ninety-two percent approval rating was as easy as adjusting the color-coded terror alert? Is that why you told your campaign biographer that one of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief? What happened to your disdain for nation building? That was one of the reasons you said we should elect you in the first place. No nation building. What happened to your “compassionate agenda”? Housing. Health insurance for low-income Americans. We’ve got five million more uninsured than when you were first elected and health care costs are higher than ever. You were going to reform Medicare. You were going to fix Social Security. You were going to put limits on carbon dioxide emissions. You were going to tackle campaign finance reform. You said you would increase education spending. Not only has No Child Left Behind left an awful lot of children behind, but your administration has failed to fully fund even that disaster of a law.

  You said, Mr. President, that you would change the tone of Washington to one of civility and respect. All I see, Mr. President, is disrespect. Disrespect for the authority of Congress; for the Constitution; for the United Nations; for the other countries and peoples of this world; and for the people of this country who dare to disagree.

  “You said you that you are a uniter not a divider. Well, you certainly have handed al-Qaida an opportunity to unite the Muslim world against us, not just by invading a Muslim nation contrary to global misgivings, but by countenancing rendition and torture and wartime practices contrary to the Geneva Conventions and what should be American ideals of conduct. Here at home you have tried mightily to unite us through fear. To unite us through suspicion. To unite us in your cheap brand of shallow patriotism. I am ashamed to say that you have been far too successful in those efforts. And yet, despite that unsavory unity, it has not lasted. We are now a country divided against itself; and a country at odds with much of the world. We shout at each other without hearing. Without listening. Without caring to listen. Without even caring to be heard. We care only to shout and to be on whatever side we are on and to not be on the other side.

  “Your campaign words – I am a uniter, not a divider – remind me of the equally empty campaign words of Richard Nixon, who as a candidate for President in 1968, said: America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontent into hatred; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading. We cannot learn from one another – until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

  “I remem
ber those words because I remember hoping they were true. I remember wanting to live in a country where the government would actually listen to the words of the people and would speak honest words back to the people. I remember thinking that trading street demonstrations, inane chanting, angry signs and inflammatory rhetoric for a reasoned and truthful dialogue would be a good trade. I remember the certitude with which candidate Nixon assured the electorate that he had a plan to end the war in Southeast Asia. I remember learning of the assurances President Nixon gave to members of Congress that the war would be over within six months. I had no idea, of course, that having marked the horizon with those words of assurance and with that ideal of democratic discourse, President Nixon had every intention of steering the ship of state in exactly the opposite direction. Escalating the war behind our backs at unspeakable human cost, not the least of which was driving the Cambodian peasantry into the arms of the Khmer Rouge.

  “And here we are. Your closest advisors, the architects of the Iraq War, have all served in the Nixon administration: your Vice President, your Secretary of Defense, your Deputy Secretary of Defense, your Secretary of State, your Deputy Secretary of State, and so on. I do not mean to make too much of historical parallels. That was a different time. And a different war. Different invasions justified with different lies. Iraq is not Cambodia.