It's an ugly "joke" but it was an ugly war, too.
Big, strong kid from the Tennessee hills decides to seek his fortune in Alaska. Asks advice from old-timers in the Frontier Saloon. "Boy," he's told, "you ain't ready fer Alaska till you've screwed a Eskimo and shot a grizzly." Youngster leaves. A few weeks later he staggers into the saloon, gashed and bleeding, his clothes in tatters and a dead Eskimo over his shoulder. "Shooting the Eskimo was the easy part," he says. "The bear was somethin' else. But it was worth it."
Enter Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and the latest "it was worth it" regarding the Iraq war. “I think the price has been worth it," he said, after a one-day visit, "to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world.”
Stable? What is this guy smoking?
But even if the post-America Iraqi government were stable, would that really justify the cost not just in dollars, but in Iraqi and American lives and disability? Only if you accept the racist "dead Eskimo" mentality as the acceptable American norm: that collateral damage in dead civilians is too insignificant to bother counting.
American troops not only died there, unnecessarily; they also committed atrocities there. War crimes.
But "it was worth it."
Only to the shameless profiteers who sucked enormous fortunes out of the trillions of American dollars wasted on this war whose "end" we declared last week.
Or to the blood-lusting ignoramuses who think there is "honor" in war.
Or to the Machiavellian schemers who see endless war as America's manifest destiny to force "democracy" on nations we deem incapable of managing their own affairs.
"The price has been worth it."
Has it? The trillions of dollars? The innocent lives lost?
What about the forfeiture of our Bill of Rights at home? What about the utter demise of American democracy? What about the decimation of our economy, the distortion of our standards of justice, the loss of our dignity as a nation, of decency as a people?
"The price has been worth it."
Go fuck a grizzly bear, Leon.
"Don't tell Momma I'm a journalist; say I play the piano in a whorehouse."
It was wrong, but it was worth it…or was it? Numerous wars have been justified not through facts or truths, but by what people (choose to) hear. Secretary Panetta’s statement is merely a contributing accord to the overwhelming cacophony of corporate externalities; an appeasing statement to the public meant to absolve guilt over the countless lives lost, money spent, and liberties lost. The reward: grab the KY (if we are lucky) and grab your ankles because big daddy Uncle Sam is about to lay down some (corporate pipe).
ReplyDeleteThis morning I listened to my local news anchor lament the latest government admission of breached security and Chinese espionage. The cost a mere $250 billion in ‘lost’ revenue. What will the American government do about it? Grab its ankles and hope for a post Chinese cuddle fest. Yet again, our compromised value systems are exposed. We are continuously ‘protecting American security’, yet the only protection we offer is to corporate advancement in third world, developing countries, or war-plagued ‘emerging’ governments. These societal impacts are the transactional effects of corporate operations, yet the taxpaying citizens willingly consent to subsidize these activities in the name of self-protection. All while, our intellectual economic and security capital took a first class one-way ticket to China (among other nations). Will we allocate more money to increase our ‘homeland’ security from intellectual threats from other nations? Probably not, but we will continue to protect the oil at its base, build the roads for its delivery, and then absorb the expenses of continued deregulation for tax evading “citizens’.
We have consistently appeased the requests and needs of corporate ‘citizens’ and thus we have willingly agreed to subsidize the externalities of these ‘people’. We have provided the efficiency through which corporate profit derives, yet, was it really worth it? Depends on which ‘citizen’s’ opinion you ask.
In my opinion, the free national healthcare, low unemployment rate, equality and fairness for all natural citizens, amazing infrastructure, quality of public education and largely homogenous socio-economic culture of the United States makes it all worth it! I live in America and yes, the price was worth it!
Oh, wait…is that Uncle Sam knocking on my door just in time to alleviate my momentary hallucination. Back to reality; let me grab my ankles…