afffa
04.04.03, 18:40
This war is un-American. That's an unlikely word to use, I know: it has an
unhappy provenance, associated forever with the McCarthyite hunt for reds
under the beds, purging anyone suspected of "un-American activities".
Besides, for many outside the US, the problem with this war is not that it's
un-American - but all too American.
But that does an injustice to the US and its history. It assumes that the
Bush administration represents all America, at all times, when in fact the
opposite is true. For this administration, and this war, are not typical of
the US. On the contrary, on almost every measure, they are exceptions to the
American rule.
The US was, after all, a country founded in a rebellion against imperialism.
Born in a war against a hated colonial oppressor, in the form of George III,
it still sees itself as the instinctive friend of all who struggle to kick
out a foreign occupier - and the last nation on earth to play the role of
outside ruler.
Until now. George Bush has cast off the restraint which held back America's
42 previous presidents - including his father. Now he is seeking, as an
unashamed objective, to get into the empire business, aiming to rule a post-
Saddam Iraq directly through an American governor-general, the retired
soldier Jay Garner. As the Guardian reported yesterday, Washington's plan for
Baghdad consists of 23 ministries - each one to be headed by an American.
This is a form of foreign rule so direct we have not seen its like since the
last days of the British empire. It represents a break with everything
America has long believed in.
(...)Americans who, back home, resent even the most trivial state meddling in
their own affairs are determined to run the lives of a people on the other
side of the planet. In New Hampshire car number plates bear the legend, Live
Free or Die; a state motto is Don't Tread on Me. If a "government bureaucrat"
comes near, even to perform what would be considered a routine task in
Britain, they are liable to get an earful about the tyranny of Washington,
DC. Yet Americans - whose passion for liberty is so great they talk seriously
about keeping guns in case they ever need to fight their own government -
assume Iraqis will welcome military rule by a foreign power.
Talk like this is not that comfortable in America just now; you'd be
denounced fairly swiftly as a Saddam apologist or a traitor. The limits of
acceptable discussion have narrowed sharply, just as civil liberties have
taken a hammering as part of the post-9/11 war on terror. You might fall foul
of the Patriot Act, or be denounced for insufficient love of country. There
is something McCarthyite about the atmosphere which has spawned this war,
making Democrats too fearful to be an opposition worthy of the name and
closing down national debate. And things don't get much more un-American than
that.
