Thumbs up or Thumbs down?
Le Cirque de Rome et d’Amerique
The spectators duly assembled at the Coliseum look to the throne as Caesar Caligula rises to speak. “Fellow Romans what say ye? Should the butcher from Baghdad be spared?”
The crowd turning ugly rises to a roar, holding their thumbs down. A chant begins, “DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, to the ultimate loser.”
Caesar summons his man servant, ceremoniously washes his hands and addresses the now standing crowd. “People of Rome, you have spoken.” The Senators, adorned in white, stand silently in witness to the will of the people.
As barbaric as that scene appears to us today, it is being repeated in the electronic circus.
“Impale him,” we demand, “parade his head in our living rooms. If one hundred thousand innocents must die, it is justified! This killing will bring an end to war as we know it. The glory of our god demands it". Is this, Senator Biden, what you had in mind? The consent of the masses?
Saddam Hussein, the evil one, the personification of Satan, the seeker of weapons such as those we possess, must be eliminated. We know he is up to no good. His story will be told in blood. Any action we undertake can be justified in the name of all that is good and holy. If you believe that, you probably also believe that Musharraf is not evil. That a nuclear weapon is a safe weapon in his hand, that the People of Pakistan would elect him tomorrow given the opportunity to vote. That he, unlike Saddam is within our sphere of influence, provided of course that he helps us fight our enemies brand of terror.
The world is a dangerous place. After Saddam is dead and gone, will it be safer? Will we feel more secure? Can we ever feel secure? Or is this but another step in the dismantling of the axis of evil, just another cog in our killing machine. Be like us or perish. The defining imperative of the American Empire. Our brand of terror.
We don’t select the leaders of world. They come from many tribes and many traditions. Surely a democratically elected Hitler is by any measure still Hitler. Evil leaders are not relegated to dictatorships. Is every Republic a good Republic? Is there a benevolent people unlikely to grant consent to a megalomaniac? Or is megalomania merely a definition of a leader with high approval ratings?
If you truly want the People of Iraq to join US in the family of man, then open a dialogue with the people of Iraq. Invite them to attend our Universities. Train their doctors in our medical schools. Educate their teachers. Buy their products. Visit their country. Set up sister cities. Contribute to their humanitarian organizations. In short, treat them as human beings. It is not any different than the Chinese equation. They occupy Tibet, and possess Nuclear Weapons. The people have no effective voice in their own government. Or Korea, divided between the have and the have nots. They also have nuclear weapons. Somehow we think that we can contain their hegemony, but not that of Iraq.
The world is not that black and white. We are the ones that built a country on ethnic cleansing and slavery, that dropped nuclear weapons on civilian populations.. Yes, we did gradually change our ways...let women vote... made reparations for slavery.......or am I getting ahead of history?
Leaders come and go. Some die and are forgotten. Some live in infamy. Alexander was great. That is unless you died at the hand of his army. In that case you might be permitted to have a different view.
Bob
p.s. Oh, by the way, Caesar Caligula was assassinated.