Last night, in New York City, Ramsey Clark, former attorney
general under the Johnson administration, was speaking to a group
of peace advocates. In opening comments to a group of four
hundred, the moderator of the event asserted that George Bush’s
war on terrorism will spread to Somalia, Sudan and very likely
Iraq. One man in the packed house started clapping – his
clapping was not an awkward miscalculation. He was letting the
crowd know he would applaud a war in Iraq. The crowd let him know
they were opposed to an expanding war. He yelled out – “Four
thousand dead Americans.” A woman in the audience retorted –
“A million and a half Iraqis dead.” The man shot back,
“Sounds good to me.” He was escorted out of the meeting but
not out of the country
The same mindset we are horrified by when it comes from an
undisclosed location in a dimly lit room in Afghanistan was in the
middle of a brightly lit room in a church in Manhattan. Ultimately
all activism needs to be directed at the mindset itself. The
belief that violence will solve the problem – the worship of the
military – the fetish attachment to weapons because they are
believed to be instruments of justice – the need to kill to
resolve a conflict or promote an agenda – that thinking is the
enemy. The parades after the Gulf War as seen in the Middle East
must have appeared to be brutal jubilation. During the Gulf War
there was the media adoration of the weapons and male
correspondents reporting the war. “Scud studs” was an actual
segment on a popular prime time quasi-news program. I wonder how
that played to citizens of the Middle East. Did it seem a bit
frivolous – callow – insensitive – unabashed - cruel?
The domestic coverage of the present war seems to say that
Afghan civilian casualties don’t need to be seen. It seems to
say that Afghan deaths are necessary and finally not all that
important. It is not too unrealistic to assume that in some
quarters the Afghan people are perceived as so much pesky protein
on a landscape begging for a pipeline. Reports of casualties in
Afghanistan may sound good to that man who applauded an expanding
war and who was a clear minority only in that church in New York
City.
I remember the 1970’s documentary “Hearts and Minds” in
which a young soldier just returning from Vietnam visited the
Catholic school that he attended as a child. He was there to
answer questions from young students. One boy asked, “What does
Vietnam look like?” The soldier responded, “It would be very
beautiful – if it weren’t for the people.”
Nothing excuses characterizing human beings in that way.
Minimizing the essential value of a human being is a pre-requisite
for an aggressive and destructive agenda. It was a pre-requisite
for September 11th and it is a pre-requisite for all wars that are
allegedly fought for peace. Groups who use violence to further a
political agenda all speak the same language. Bin Laden was caught
on tape using that language. But do any of us wonder what is said
behind the corseted presentations and reports of the war’s
success and enemy deaths? Do we imagine that someone in charge
could be saying, “Sounds good to me?”
Ramsey Clark quoted Martin Luther King, a great American
pacifist, who said, “The greatest purveyor of violence in the
world is my government.” He didn’t say my country, which is
something deeper and nobler and more diverse– he said my
government – government as business – government as military
industrial complex. Military and industry were the targets on
September 11th. The citizens and workers in those targets were
perceived as the enemy. As voters and taxpayers they were
considered legitimate targets. However it was rationalized the
sacredness of their humanity was not considered. The full destiny
of their existence was ignored. That impulse – the ability to
corrupt our divine contract with all variations of human life –
that is the enemy within and without.
Beyond the legalistic specifics and horror movie hype about
“the smoking gun”, (which was released the same day as the
Enron hearings) the most chilling thing bin Laden said in
reference to the September 11th attacks was, “Those young men
said in deeds in New York and Washington, speeches that
overshadowed all other speeches made everywhere in the world.”
In other words proponents of violence – all proponents of all
violence do not believe that the pen is mightier than the sword -
they do not believe that peace grows out of justice lived. They
believe that bombs and terror trump a complete sentence or a
dialogue. We know what happens when a leader says, “There is no
negotiation.” Or “There is nothing to negotiate.” Or when we
hear “Negotiations have broken down.” Or when they draw a line
in the sand. We know what follows when listening stops. We know
the primal sanctity of human life then becomes a secondary
consideration. The death of a human being becomes an unfortunate
necessity or an actual objective. And that – if we redeem our
ears – can never sound good.
December 14, 2001
Bill C. Davis is a playwright http://www.billcdavis.com/