February 21, 2009
One (fill in the
blank) American
I
couldn't find just one word that succinctly fit the title for this
entry. Some that came to mind were disappointed, pissed, jaded,
cynical, fed-up, expatriated. I'm definitely angry, but that's such
a futile emotion when dealing with the US government that I must let it
go. I think, no, I know my perspective of our (not so) great country
has been significantly altered (and may I say I've been enlightened) by the
views of non-Americans. They are not all Kyrgyz,
either. While most have been Central Asians, I've also talked to
Germans, Australians, Russians and a couple of Brits. They all gave
me insights into America that I had not seen.
If
you didn't take five minutes to read the article I sent you the other day, you
should. It should come as no surprise that even a money-hungry
corrupt government like this one, after so many broken promises, finally said
to our military, “Get the hell outa here!” We are so full of
bullshit when we want something and actually always have been. It started with
“all men are created equal” and went downhill from there. All our
talk about protection of human rights and the installation of democracy the
world over is unadulterated crap!!! All we really care about is what
is best for American interests, and those mostly concern
commerce. I'm not basing this rant on a single newspaper
column. Or the killing of an innocent Kyrgyz civilian. I
am also reading one of the most fascinating, compelling and utterly disturbing
books of my lifetime, “A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of
Genocide.” Many of you are probably familiar with it as it won the
Pulitzer (published 2002). Samantha Power chronicles how the United
States (and many other “democracies”) stood by and watched genocide being
committed throughout the 20th Century, beginning with the
Armenians by the Turks in 1915. This was followed by the Holocaust,
Pol Pot in Cambodia, Hussein trying to erase the Kurds in Iraq, The Serbs,
Rwanda and now Sudan. In every case our government had a political
reason (or several) for not getting
involved. Example: When Iraq was killing Kurds, the state
of Kansas was shipping like a million tons of wheat to Saddam. Yup,
we were feeding the army while they were committing
genocide. Nice. And why were we playing nice with a
maniac? Because we both hated Iran. Strategic interests
aside, how can we, as the biggest brute on the block, sit idly by and
watch groups of peoples being eradicated? History tells us that as long as it
wasn't Americans gettin' whacked, who cared? We ain't gonna lose soldiers if we don't stand to lose something really valuable. Like
access to cheap oil. Oh, so that's why we came to the aid of
Kuwait. But, never fear, we are always there after the fact to
rebuild. Of course, we are. There's money to be made in
reconstruction. Lots of it. And you can see we did squat
under both republican and democrat presidents to make lives better in those countries, so that made no difference, except to some construction companies' bottom line. Then
for some silly reason I watched “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” I
need say nothing about how we screwed the Native American. All I'm
saying is yeah, America has many positives, but “all that glitters is not
gold.”
I
can imagine some of your reactions. Michael's got too much free time
over there. Eating horse meat has made him crazy. Actually, I
prefer to think I'm becoming a better thinker and decision maker, but that
could be the horse meat talking. Now, I realize there are dozens of
countries worse than America in which to live. Like, I'd hate to
have been stuck in Zimbabwe the past 20 years, but I'm certain there are better
places, too. Places where governmental deception, duplicity and lack
of diplomacy aren't the first words people use to describe their
country. And I won't mind searching until I find one of them.
Hey,
KP, wanna buy a co-op?
No book I have read, before or since, touched me
like the accounts of the genocides. My unfiltered emotion leaped off the page.
Eight years of Bush 2 angered me immensely. I eagerly accepted the challenge of
defending US citizens to foreigners; I had no defense for the government. The
genocide book lit a fuse and there was no way to extinguish it. My feelings had
to be expressed.
Also in the book: more on why I became disillusioned and no longer want to live in the US. Ever.
