By Charles Bivona
Daniel Ellsberg, the patron saint of whistle blowers, has stated it publicly: the Afghan Papers published by Wikileaks are as significant as The Pentagon Papers. And say what you will about Ellsberg—love him or despise him—you have to admit, he is an expert on these matters.
So, now the political storm will wage for weeks. The left will focus on the contents of the papers—war crimes, official lies, things of that sort. The right will bark about treason and vilify the whistle blower—but never deny the contents of the reports.
There will be political slight of hand—half the country blaming Bush—he did start this with ignorant swaggering and a deeply misinformed response to 9-11—and the other half blaming Obama, because that’s just what you do these days.
And there will be assholes, because, well, the asshole clan is running rampant. The assholes will say things about the nature of humanity—we are not warlike by nature, shut up with that shit—and they will lament the ugly reality of wars.
Ugh. War is Hell, they will snort. It is a shame we accidentally killed those civilians… Oh well! That’s War! Shit happens! [mad cackle]
Then they will repeat a few bumper sticker slogans, and switch topics abruptly when they get cornered:
Obama! Spending! Health Care! Gay Marriage! Meh!!!
Assholes can be slippery, I tell ya.
Some of these assholes will even use the Bible to argue for what they call “American Exceptionalism” – the newest euphemism for Manifest Destiny.
Someone get the small pox blankets!
God, they holler — their eyes rolled back in their empty heads — GOD has sanctioned all of this! The United States is blessed by the father, the son, and the holy whatever, so we have carte blanche to rape the world.
This is insanity. It’s embarrassing and disappointing. And I don’t care if you call me un-American.
I don’t even know what that means—to be American or Un-American. It sounds like advertising bullshit labels. It sounds like something you say when you have no argument.
But I’ll tell you one thing, if being an American means I have to support my government, silently, no matter what it does, then I guess that’s me:
Soon-To-Be-Dr. Unamerican, at your service.
Call me names. I don’t care. I have bigger problems.
You see, I’m actually disturbed by the idea of my home country being suspected of war crimes. I know: crazy, right? I mean, I’ve been hearing all this speculation about the veracity of these leaked Afghan War papers—and, I agree, this is important work; important questions need to be asked—but I think I’m still in shock. I can’t think about these questions yet. I’m too deeply disturbed by the implications of this leak.
There is a new mountain of evidence against The United States—my country—the alleged war criminal state. It’s a new 200,000 page mountain of secret history to be sorted, verified, and studied; I was still digesting the old mountain.
And my taxes fund this war machine, while my implicated leaders are protected by the absence of a viable World Court—a World Court that never got off the ground because the United States government refuses to support it.
So, I’m disappointed by reality, and my government, again. I suppose I should be used to it. I’m an idealist, and a poet, and was once a little boy who took those patriotic grade school stories very seriously: I can not tell a lie. I cut down the cherry tree.
Then one legendary story, after another, fell to my experiences — reading the Pentagon Papers, talking to Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Vietnam Vets Against the War, marching; college and graduate school forced my eyes open.
What I see now is horrifying. I wonder if I’m the only one who feels this way.
Filed under: The Afghan War Diary, The Afghan War Diary, Wikileaks
It is easy to say that war is hell and dismiss it, but unlike the concept of “hell,” this is a reality created by us, and it is precisely why we need to pay attention to what is going on over there. I don’t think people realize that war is a concept that can change and it IS preventable if we redefine what is acceptable for war and make sure these reasons are thoroughly examined PRIOR to engagement.
People supported the war in Afghanistan under the pretext that we were going in to find Bin Laden and dismantle the Taliban, but it has become abundantly clear that this war is not about retaliation, rather it has exploited American tragedy in order to benefit the profiteers.
I think it is worth it to ponder on the real reasons behind this war and decide for ourselves if this is superior to the lives of innocent people on both sides. I think most Americans would agree that they want America to represent peace and justness, and if this image is being tainted by elected officials who believe in undermining this image, then I think it should be appealing to those who claim to be patriotic to immerse themselves in the true consequences and interests of this war and fight to create that image. No one likes to be taken as a fool so why should we just sit and accept being duped?
I think war is an inhuman abomination, a side-effect of a specific brand of human thought. It’s a primitive mindset, and it’s held sway for centuries, but it is not the norm. It is not in our nature to kill one another. In fact, it runs counter to the survival of the species and the drive to diversify DNA. These things are hardwired into our cells. These instincts can be overcome–with spirit breaking training–but the trauma of killing a member of one’s own species is often too much for a soldier to handle. Hence, war trauma. If it was in our nature to be warlike, then the horror of battle would not shatter so many minds. This just seems obvious to me.
Archaeological evidence has shown that war has not always been apart of human society, meaning it cannot be hard-wired. It is a huge remark to say that anything is hardwired, one only needs to look at a cross-cultural sample to see how vastly different people are in varied responses to their environment, history, ecology, etc.
AGGRESSION is biological, just as the physiological “fight or flight response” is, however, we are constantly practicing control over our biology. To say that war is some part of human nature insinuates biology and this is just not the case. WAR as a concept, is far too complex, requires far too much cognition and deliberation, contains far too many socially-constructed concerns, takes too many interests reflecting culturally-defined value systems and such, to simply write it off as being part of human nature.
I find it ridiculous when people give this flimsy argument to support for going to war.
If anyone wants to argue war from a socio-biological standpoint, then as you said, it would seem that war violates the species concern for survival and reproduction. If war was innate, our normal societal obligations that revolve around safety, respect, and care would not be in such stark opposition to the war mindset of destruction and killing.